stars and no stripes

[advanced]

who: Bucky and OPEN
what: Various prompts
when: Throughout December
where: Around Quarantine and just outside the perimeter
warnings: None yet, any content warnings that crop up will appear in the subject line

[i: Around Quarantine; OPEN]

[Ever since Steve went home, making the decision to leave him behind, Bucky has regretted how he behaved. He should have made more of an effort to work past his fear and paranoia, be more of a part of Steve's life. Not just Steve's life, the life that's bustling around him all the time. The people that he's met here have, by and large, been good to him. He has to stop hiding.

It's not exactly stopping hiding, but it's a step in the right direction when he decides to start prowling the streets looking for crimes to stop, or people to help. Has your character been set upon by a mugger? Got hit by a car? Accidentally dropped their ice cream? Never fear, for a threatening looking man in a ratty hoodie and torn jeans is coming to the rescue!]

[ii: A series of rooftops around Quarantine; OPEN]

[Ever since receiving an old record from Ava for Thanksgiving, an unexpected present, Bucky has felt like he should be doing something with it. It feels wrong to let a present, one of his first proper ones in a long time, just languish and gather dust in his backpack. So he's taken the second hand gramophone he got his hands on up to a variety of flat rooftops over the first couple of weeks of December, and started practising dance steps.

They're rusty. Very rusty. But they're not all completely gone, as he feared they might have been, so anyone drawn by the sounds of old 1940s music might catch sight of a man in jeans and a hoodie swing dancing on his own.]

[iii: Mission report, December 16 1991; CLOSED to Tony Stark]

[The significance of the date has passed him by. He's from before when Zemo came to drag all of that out into the open, and if he marked every day that he murdered someone then he'd do nothing else all the year round.

He's just scavenging out in one of the buildings outside of town, looking for anything useful or interesting to gather up. It's an unstable building, but he's being relatively careful as he prowls through the gloom, but he has no idea that someone else is also in the building. He climbs a set of stairs and as soon as he puts his weight on the new floor it combines with the weight of the man already there, and the whole thing cracks and collapses.

Well... great. Just great. Now he's trapped under a bunch of rubble with someone he didn't even get a good look at before everything went dark and slightly painful.]

You alive?

Comments

ii.

[krasnaya_vdova]

[Ava had tested the records, to make sure they played before she gave them to him, so the song sounds familiar when she hears it. Old forties tunes, that rising cadence and the warmth of the sound. She follows it to the source of the music, and she can't help smiling softly, leaning against the edge of the fire escape she'd jumped onto like a whisper. Her chin braced in her hands, as she watches him while he dances, partnerless.

She's sure that he's noticed her, but she stays quiet, doesn't interrupt for as long as he keeps moving. It's only when he stills that she finally straightens a little, her voice just loud enough for him to hear her from across the rooftop.]

You're pretty good.

[advanced]

[He very nearly stops as soon as he knows she's there, but in a show of the small amount of trust that she's managed to accrue with him, he keeps going until the end of the song.]

Pretty sure that I used to be better.

[He pushes his hair out of his face.]

I think I remember dames lining up to dance with me.

[krasnaya_vdova]

[She smiles a little, slips off the fire escape and onto the roof, taking a few steps closer. He brushes hair out of his face, and she shakes her head with a soft hum of amusement.]

Practicing helps.

[She knows swing dance better than she should; memories that aren't hers, but she's still familiar with it. She could recognize it as she watched him. She likes dancing, even if for her own experiences it was nothing but a subtle weapon left in her memory, or following Sana someplace she didn't want to be.]

I wouldn't be surprised. You could probably still manage a partner or two once you work up to it.

[advanced]

I don't think so.

[It's not a harsh rebuttal, more thoughtful than anything else. He's enjoying this much, even as bittersweet as it is to only have an echo of what he used to have.]

I don't like people being that close, especially not people that I don't know.

[He can't trust himself to be safe.]

[krasnaya_vdova]

That's fair. I just think it's good that you're dancing.

[It had been important to him. His reasoning does make sense to her, though. She understands it, the worry of not being safe (understands that too well). She's quiet for a moment, considering. She can't help wondering if there's a way to make it work without pushing against his comfort level.]

If you're able to telegraph and read gestures across a distance... It'd be possible to give you a bit of a buffer. Sort of like dancing in a mirror, except with another person.

[The implied is, of course, that he's sharp enough there's no question that he can. She does like seeing him like this. Here, with the music. She tries to be nice to him, where she can, without pushing too hard. She tries to engage, encourage him.]

If you ever wanted to try.

[She leaves it casual; only half an offer.]

[advanced]

You can't swing dance like a mirror.

[Somehow he knows what he's talking about, even though he can't remember working or the actual dancing. He just knows deep in his bones that this whole dance is about feeling the partner in your arms.]

It's all lifts, spins, it's very contact heavy.

[Though he does understand what she was trying to offer him, so after a moment his expression softens.]

But thanks.

[krasnaya_vdova]

Well, sure, not properly- but it's not like you're doing lifts now, either. Thought it might help with some of the movements if you actually had a follow.

[There's something a little light in her tone, a slightly amused smile as she watches him. But there's that vague sense that she actually knows what she's talking about, too.]

I don't want to make you uncomfortable. But I do still know swing, if you wanted help.

[She's always a little cautious about pushing, tries to make sure it's not too much; help, not hurt, watches his reactions to try and pull back if it's too much. There's that silence after the end of the song, and she tilts her head toward the record player.]

You mind if I flip the record?

[advanced]

Ava, stop.

[He appreciates her offer, but she's pushing too hard for it now. He doesn't want a shadow for a dance that should be full contact, that would just be too much of a reminder of his failings. It feels like a hollow mockery of what he's trying to get back.]

Flip the record and quit bugging me about dance.

[He tries for a lighter tone to that, to show he's not offended and throwing her out, he just wants that particular subject dropped.]

[krasnaya_vdova]

Alright.

[There's a lightness to it for her too, a smile still on her lips as she looks back at him as she walks over to the record player. Quiet proof that there's no strain when he sets the lines. She understands, and like she said, she doesn't want to make him uncomfortable. But, she tries, and just hopes it's never too far.

She's as careful as she was back at his bolthole as she flips the record, that light touch as she sets the stylus into place.]

Will you let me watch you again?

[It's easy, a question, leaning back against the railing with a slight tap to her feet. It's one of those strange things, something she knows but doesn't, and dancing which she knows should be a happy thing but never was. A means to an end. She's decided she wants to try and take the fragments she's going to live with and make them her own, as much as she can, make them mean something to her aside from just someone she can never really be.]

[advanced]

[He doesn't know her well enough yet to know if she is the sort of person to actually drop it when she's told to, or whether she's the sort of person to try and coax him in different ways.

The request to watch him dance could be an innocent one, or it could be a sneaky way to try and-- No, he needs to not be so paranoid all the time. Nobody wants to dance with him so much that they'd use trickery to do it, he needs to get a hold of himself.

There's a silence for a moment, before he pushes back up to his feet and begins to dance in time to the music. He obviously knows the style and his steps are naturally graceful thanks to the serum and all of his training in other skills that require dexterity, but there's also a hesitancy to his movements as if second guessing what he remembers.

[krasnaya_vdova]

[She does drop it.

Not that she didn't want to dance with him, but to Ava it wouldn't be worth it if he was tricked into it. She also doesn't think that someone like him could see that sort of deception as innocent. She knows she wouldn't; tricks are a tool she uses when necessary, but they really aren't in this place. It's a fact she's rather glad for.

But he dances, and she watches quietly, balanced on the fire escape railing, one leg tucked up under her chin as her other hangs down, the slight twitch of her toes in time to the beat. Her eyes are intent, but not sharp, as she watches him, grace and dexterity, even if she can see where he hesitates.

She knows the feeling, but for her it's a different dance.]

[advanced]

[He dances until the song is over, focused solely on his steps and forgetting, after a time, that she's even there watching. He gets better as he goes on, his gaze far away as if he's not even in the present any longer.

By the time the song ends and he stops, there's a lop sided and slightly cheeky grin on his face, an echo of who he used to be.]

No bad, doll, eh?

[Wait-- He blinks, Brooklyn accent fading a bit.]

I mean, uh--

[krasnaya_vdova]

[Ava clearly enjoys watching him. He is a good dancer, with all that serum-granted natural agility and grace, and it's nice, seeing him enjoying the gift that she got for him. And also just that he's allowing himself to do something like this.

She can see it, the way he loses himself in the music, how for a moment it's another time and place. He forgets himself and he grins at her, but she can't help grinning back, a glint in her eyes.]

Not bad at all.

[She knows that he just lost himself for a minute, she's done the same thing herself more than once, but it seems like a good thing so it's easy to get caught up in it for a breath. And that Brooklyn accent reminds her of home, something nostalgic about hearing it when it feels like so long ago.]

It's fine.

[She offers him quietly, when he starts to catch himself.]

[advanced]

[He's struck again by how similar their experiences are, for her to understand and empathise so easily with him getting fleeting pieces of his past back. It's uncomfortable to be understood so much, but only because of what it means she's been through as well.]

Think that's probably enough dancing for today.

[But he offers her a small smile along with the dismissal, a mark of how grateful he is for a gift that brings joy instead of sorrow.]

Don't want to show off too much.