Sample scene flavor one for marvel_universe

[cold_shoulder]

Since they had given him the assignment to train operatives, the Winter Soldier had seen quite a few go through the Red Room - the training for which happened far from only in any particular room. Most of them were fast and precise and eager to do things right. Some of them were smart and could be taught to be quick-thinking.

But nobody had been using their mind to the objective at hand until she had appeared, gun in one hand and grenade in the other. Brave, determined, beautiful. Not allowing herself to be distracted from the tasks she had, and at the same time with a hint of a sense of humor which meshed inexplicably well with him, somewhere below the level of his usual thought processes.

He's been watching, yes.

Natalia Romanova.

He'd been watching others try to emulate her, too, and had been greatly amused at girls imitating her motions without fully realizing the ideas behind them. And then feel disappointed at failing.

But mostly, he'd been watching her. He wasn't allowed access to much information about her; that was classified and not a part of his assignment. So he'd been piecing things together. Little things betrayed by her motions, but her reactions to knowledge betrayed by others.

And he'd been watching the beauty of her. The dancer training was clear in everything from her flexibility to the graceful efficiency of her motions. It stirred something in him. Something warm and unknown and strange, separate from the definite physical desire. The latter he could define and control. The former... it confused him. And drew him closer to her, until the evening when, all exercises complete, he knocked on her window.

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[natalia_romanova]

Natalia had been saved from the flames to be reborn for her country. AS a child she showed precocious intelligence, the spark of greatness that made her suited to Red Room's plans.

Her training began in dance, the physicality of it suited her. Limber and lean she moved with the grace of one born for ballet, it also made an excellent cover for the other skills being honed in her. Before she was thirteen she'd been trained hand to hand combat, by fifteen weapons and at the tender age of sixteen her conditioning truly began.

The most powerful country in the world was an ocean away, but it's threat remained the same, the war which broached the borders of her country threatened the safety of their program. Things had to be intensified. A rising hero of America fell and it was not long after that a new trainer rose within the program.

Whispers of him reached everywhere. He was dark, moody and mysterious. Too serious, too smart the other spoke out against him in what Natalia had learned to read as fear and jealousy, she couldn't wait to meet him.

They had passing acquaintance but ti be assigned to him there had to be good reason. She'd not proven herself apparently, but she felt him watching her. The weight of his notice was hard to miss, it kept her awake at night sometimes.

Awake at a night when a gentle tap sounded at her window. Puzzled she reached for the pistol she'd been conditioned to keep within arms reach. It rested in her hand against the small of her back as she peered into the darkness outside her room, the moonless night offering nothing for her to see.

[natalia_romanova]

Training had proceeded not exactly as usual, for the past three months she had been training more and more with Winter Soldier. Her training had been intensive and challenging her on levels the others were not pressed to. She had been given instruction on the infrequent and unorthodox night discussions.

During some of these visits her mentor would suffer occasional headaches and leave suddenly. He would never explain these things and as a good student she did not press. Though it did make her work even harder the following day to please him. Natalia had been doing as he instructed she had been watching herself and her reactions.

One thing she had noticed was how she reacted around him. The Winter Soldier, pride of the program. He was skilled and strong and capable. But there was more, it was the way he looked at her, the way he corrected her form or movement, unlike how he treated the others but only she would know it by the touch of his hand or tone of his words. She only noticed because he had instructed her to do so.

The more she'd learned about herself the better she'd become. She was a rising star before, but now she was a jewel. Coveted for mind, body and talents. It had not sunk into her just how revered she was among the others of her program, her attention had been solely focused on the approval her superiors and Winter Soldier.

[cold_shoulder]

The mission in Cairo was... complicated. It was a multiple-target elimination, and it took him a length of time of personal observation to make sure he could predict the presence of all of them in the same place sufficiently safely to project the kind of attack which could be accepted as accident.

And the fact that the constant warm weather, despite the season, caused problems with his mechanical arm didn't speed things up in the least. On-the-spot adjustments had to be made to prevent the infection in his shoulder which was beginning, which delayed the execution even longer.

He reported the problem with that without bringing up the discomfort that it was causing him. He wouldn't let the fever slow him down, even during the times when he had to do without the actual arm.

And though it all, the name haunted him. James. Why? Who had named him that, and why had nobody ever addressed him so since he woke up in the facility run by Comrade General Karpov. What was his life before that? Despite all the questions they had asked him about the time before that, nobody had briefed him on anything before that point, and there was enough for him to do and learn so that he hadn't asked. But now, with one single question, his pupil had... The Red Room trainee had brought something up from the darkness that lurked there. Not an illumination at all, because that was not a name that fit with Division X or with who he was.

Nonetheless, the name was there, and it fit within him. And he didn't know what to do with that.

Not with I will miss you, either. He maybe should have berated her for that. But he hadn't, and he hadn't wanted to, either. Some awareness suggested that the warmth that came up with remembering those words meant something, should mean something, but he suppressed that. Training together was not a place to form anything meaningful. They were both assets, and they would be located wherever they would be more beneficial for the improvement of the cause of the Soviet Union. Wanting anything else was not permitted, and he wasn't going to permit it to himself.

Still, when he returned to the location of training and was debriefed, he never mentioned any of it. There had been chances to report before, and there was definitely a chance to do so now. But he didn't. Not any of it. Not the additional training he was giving to Natalia, not the name. He reported in full about the mission, in as much detail as was requested of him.

The fact that he had not slept since before the final mission run, some forty hours ago, had nothing to do with the decision to say nothing. It just didn't seem to matter.

The debriefing took hours.

By the time he was released to return to his quarters, it was nearly three in the morning. The instructions were to report for training duty as normal the next day, not surprising.

He did return to his room, dropping the scant baggage he had taken and the even fewer items he had picked up on the way. And then he made sure nobody was watching... and made his way to the familiar window again.

Considering the hour, he only called her name once; there was no response. The window was closed, but not locked, even in the January weather. It was closed tight enough to keep the weather out. But not him.

He only let himself in to make sure she was there and he wasn't going to make a mess of things... somehow. But the familiar, flame-colored locks were spread on the pillow, and her face was relaxed, easy in repose. Way easier than he had seen it before, though there were times during their talks when her attention was completely captured--

He shook his head, then only made a few motion, leaving a note on a scrap of paper on the inside of the sill. Вернулся. 'I have returned.' She would understand, or not.

And he left, closing the window tight behind himself. He had a few hours left in which he could sleep, he'd better make use of them.

[natalia_romanova]

Their reaction to the encounter could not have been more different. Natalia slept, though she thought she would never be able to, just after he’d ghosted away she changed to her nightgown and drifted off as soon as she’d slipped under the covers. She dreamed, and in the logic that could only apply in dreams, they were together. Not here, the air was hot and thick with moisture, the sun beat down with a warmth she’d never felt. Vaguely, idly her mind filled in the gap that it must be Africa. But why were they there?

He was speaking about a mission, but she was distracted by creatures she’d never dreamed to see in person. Sleek predatory cats, long necked giraffes, huge wandering elephants. It was fantastical and she wasted none of it on talk of missions. Her hand grabbed his and she ran toward the sounds of surf…Surf? Suddenly they were on a coast. The cool salty ocean splashed lightly over her toes as they sunk in the sand. They were alone, together and away from the demands of Red Room. Here in a land of sun and beauty unknown, free to be together.

She woke with a smile. Her face bright, eyes shining. Natalia remembered only bits and pieces of her dream, but everything of the night before. She was more determined than ever to exceed expectations, it reflected on him after all as much as herself. Changed, dressed and bounding with energy she arrived to train only to find new orders.

Natalia blinked and looked from the paper handed to her back to the General. “Field survival exercise?” The details were simple, released to the wild, minimal provisions, extraction at a planned time, contact only by emergency. She tried to contain the trembling of her hand when she read further, her instructor.. The Winter Soldier would be conducting the exercise. Her dream had been a portent? A chance they had never dreamed to have… but no.

Trainees would be cycled through to test their abilities to work with a cooperative group as well as be evaluated alone. Two weeks, the first scheduled to share with four other training operatives, the second her solo evaluation. She would be with him day and night in close proximity for a week, without being able to so much as casually smile at him as she’d like. The second week, already she was heady with the idea of it, but the first would be torture coupled with danger.

Tomorrow morning, in the dark predawn hours she would be dropped off, required to find her way to the camp, and the team week would begin. She had one day before her life would become a mine field of emotional and physical maneuvering. “I will be ready.” She nodded to the orders, she would be packed and ready to leave in under ten minutes. But there was still today, her other order gave her a start.

“I’m sorry Comrade General, please clarify my orders?” She stared wide eyed at the bearded man, he made no effort to hide his booming laugh as he patted her on the shoulder. “You were requested to escort Red Guardian today, someone has noticed you I think. Impressive for one so young, Romonova.” Impressive as the request might be, Natalia’s expression was not humility, it was shock. She didn’t want to spend the day being carted around with Alexi, she wanted to find James. Something in the pit of her stomach twisted, something felt very, very wrong about this.