[Closed] Hot and dangerous

[cazamitad]

Who: Araña and Bucky Barnes
Where: The Starbucks by Grand Park (and various wanderings)
When: After her thread with Bucky
What: Metal-armed cyborg babies getting coffee. Also Araña giving the Russian guy a breakdown of how to stay off the grid, in return for coffee and dinner. ~*PRIORITIES*~
Warnings: None yet.

Araña was really only about 10 minutes away from Grand Park, so she hot-footed it over there so that she could hopefully get a look at the guy before he saw her, and decide if she wanted to make a run for it.

Part of her really really doesn't want to, if only because he might understand a little bit of what she's going through. Or maybe she's being stupid and naive and deluding herself, he probably lost an arm in a totally normal way and chose to have a metal prosthesis made or something, that's all. Not to mention that's not at all what she's meeting him for, she's meeting him to give him some info and show him the spots to avoid if he's trying to keep off the grid. None of that involves having heart-to-hearts with a one-armed Russian.

Still, as she stands in the shade with her left sleeve shoved up to help her stay cool, with a glove over just her right hand and no metal showing, she lets herself wonder.

Maybe if nothing else he'll be able to tell her how to take care of it, 'cause she hasn't got a fucking clue.

Comments

[cazamitad]

Araña gives a slightly stilted, aborted wave with her right hand before dropping it and waving more enthusiastically with her left.

"You're Anatoly, huh?" she says as she approaches him. "Nice to meet you."

[notreallygood]

"Yes," he replies, with a Russian accent that is primarily for show. Hey, if he's playing a new-to-the-city tourist, he might as well do it well, right?

"And you are ...Araña?" He tilts his head a bit, and gives her a curious once-over. "Thank you for the help."

[cazamitad]

"Sí," she says, letting a little of that Brooklyn Latina sneak out even as she flips back to English. "Hey, I remember getting here a few months ago, getting the lay of the land was a pain in the ass."

She shrugs a little. If he's sharp-eared, he might hear the faint whir of machinery as her right arm moves. "Figured I could help someone else out, at least."

[notreallygood]

"I never spent much time in Los Angeles until now." He does note it, but he's not going to comment. He hears much the same thing on a daily basis from his own arm, so it's of little import. "I appreciate it."

[cazamitad]

"Me either. East coast girl." She puts her hand on her hips and glances around, trying to get her thoughts in order. "So, I figure we can either start now, or grab a coffee for the road. Are we walking, or do you have a ride?"

[notreallygood]

"I took the train. So unless you wanna do that, we're walking." He shoots an uneasy glance around, too, and nods towards the Starbucks. "Did you want one?"

[cazamitad]

She hesitates, stealing a glance at Starbucks with a faint longing expression, then tears her eyes away as quick as she can. "Hey, up to you, I haven't got any money for shit like that, you know?"

[notreallygood]

He may be a big scary assassin, but he caught that glance -- and he's in a decent enough mood, so he's not about to say no to a kid. "I'll buy. Consider it a tip for the tour."

[cazamitad]

At this rate, Bucky, you'll end up with a friend for life. A kind of emotionally volatile and fucked up friend for life. Who comes complete with suspicious speedster.

"Well, I won't turn down a tip," she says, and does her best not to bounce as she starts walking towards the door to the Starbucks. ...What? It's been ages since she had a chance to lift a drink from the pickup station, much less the drink she wanted right that moment.

"So, what brings you to LA? Or is that classified or whatever?"

[notreallygood]

Well, he's rather fucked up himself. And he can't help it if he has a soft spot for tiny kids, though he couldn't quite say why. He watches her go, briefly amused, before circling in behind her to give their surroundings one more once-over. It couldn't hurt to be too careful, right?

He looks briefly baffled by the menu board at Starbucks, but hey. You can't go too wrong with just plain coffee, he would hope. So that's likely what he'll be getting, since he recognizes it.

"It's classified, sorry," he says, and shrugs.

[cazamitad]

Especially tiny kids who don't seem like they're getting enough to eat on a regular basis, amirite?

"That's okay," she says. "I'm here 'cause I needed some distance from some shit back in New York, but that's kinda classified, too." She purses her lips at the menu board, then smiles at the barista. "Hi, can I get a venti salted caramel frappuccino?"

[notreallygood]

'The fuck is that?' is what his expression says pretty clearly, and he rolls his eyes and gives the barista a bit of a shrug. Teenagers. What're you gonna do?

"I'll just have a coffee," he adds, and steps forward to put some money on the counter. "A medium, or whatever your sizes are."

[cazamitad]

It's kind of cute, honestly. It's not even a foreign thing (she's pretty sure that they have Starbucks in pretty much every country at this point), just a "totally not into fads" thing, and that's precious.

"Thanks," she tells the barista, then flashes a grateful smile up at Bucky. "You too." She jerks a thumb over to the waiting area so they can await their drinks.

"So you said 'we' in your message, but you're the only one who showed up," she points out. "You got a partner tailing us, or did they just not want to come?"

[notreallygood]

"I wouldn't be surprised if she was, but she ...does what she wants. She's probably trying to find us a job." He settles into leaning against the counter, half keeping watch on their surroundings out of the corners of his eyes.

"She's ...slightly more persuasive than I am. It works out well enough." The way he talks about her, at least, it's clear she's someone special to him; there's a lingering fondness in his voice as he finishes that thought.

"She'll behave, if she is around. Don't worry about it."

[cazamitad]

"I wasn't so much until you said that, honestly," Araña says, but it's mostly joking. "Now you've got me thinking you guys are like ex-Soviet spies or something."

Never mind that he doesn't look near old enough for that, she doesn't remember when the Soviets fell or whatever.

[notreallygood]

"Kid, you weren't even thought of when Soviet Russia still existed," he says dismissively, and gives the barista a nod of thanks when their drinks appear.

"So where are we heading?"

[cazamitad]

"Yeah, well, I watch movies." She sucks down some of her frappuccino and tries not to look like she's having a happygasm or anything, but SALTED CARAMEL FRAP AW YEAH.

"Ummm downtown first, I think. I grabbed a map on my way up here so I can show you some stuff it'll be a pain trying to walk to, but we can start down there."

[notreallygood]

"The movies don't always tell the truth." He looks old enough to have been around when Soviet Russia existed. Maybe a little young, but who knows? He might just have an extremely youthful face.

"Alright. I guess I'll just note the places we can't get to." (And probably inspect them more thoroughly at night, with Natasha. It might prove useful.)

[cazamitad]

"So how come you need to stay off the radar?" Aña asks as they head for the next location on their list. "I mean, I figure it's either crime things or vigilante things, and it'd be cool to know if I'm gonna be trying to kick your ass, or kicking ass with you, you know?"

Yes, she is helping out a guy she is well aware could be a criminal.

He bought her coffee.

(Her standards are pretty low right now.)

[notreallygood]

"If I told you, I'd have to kill you." He says it lightly enough that it might be misconstrued as a joke; but it's not. He really has no desire to murder a kid in cold blood, especially after she's been kind enough to show him around a bit. (Granted, at darker points in his life, he probably would have, but thankfully those are long past now.)

"Let's just say people are better off not knowing how to find me."

[cazamitad]

"Yeah, I won't test that one to see if you're joking," she says with a light laugh. It could very well be true. She's not gonna think too hard on it.

"Fair enough."

Okay, enough avoiding it, she's wanted to ask him since he gave the description on the Watch. "So, uh... how'd you end up with a metal hand?"

[notreallygood]

There's a shrug in answer, and he just gives her a slightly dark look. "I don't know." Sorry, Ana, he's not going to be much help here.

[cazamitad]

"Oh." She's a little disappointed, but not too much. It's not like his story would make hers any easier. "Probably not horrible not to remember, if it was anything like mine," she murmurs to herself under her breath.

[notreallygood]

"Probably worse," he replies, having caught that, and shoots her a darkly amused look. "It was ...a long time ago." Or so he assumes. He's had it for as long as he can remember, even before he met Natasha.