A Better Introduction
Natasha Romanoff could do without the parties.
She would prefer to be out in the field, cleaning the world up one HYDRA agent at a time. Or she would prefer to be training, keeping herself in top shape and pushing herself to the limit so that she wouldn't be doing so in the field. However, tonight, for whatever reason, she'd decided to humor Stark. He wanted to have "a little get-together", and had invited all the Avengers, several friends, and a significant civilian population.
Sure, it was a little get-together by his standards. By her's, however, it was a teeming mess of people, most of whom she had never seen before and whom she would likely never see again. There were a few people she knew, of course. She could see Clint standing by a window, talking up a pair of loyal SHIELD Agents. Tony and Pepper stood arm in arm at the bar, talking to the bartender about supplies or something of the like. While she couldn't see Wanda and Sam, she knew from earlier that the latter had been talking to the former all night; she'd even heard Wanda laughing for the first time since Sokovia. While she had yet to make contact with Steve, Thor, Dr. Banner, or Rhodey, but knew that all three were in attendance. Vision, she figured, wasn't, having been the only Avenger to turn down Stark's invite. [1]
For a moment, she wondered what she looked like to everyone else, standing in the corner in a black dress and seemingly assessing the threat level of every person in the room. No, parties weren't her scene at all. Any group of people larger than ten or so made her uncomfortable. Perhaps she'd better leave. It wasn't as though she would be offending Tony; even if he acted the part, she could tell that he truly cared about all of his teammates. He wouldn't begrudge her if she wanted to go.
"I don't think we've met properly," a voice said behind her, snapping her out of her thoughts and grabbing her attention.
Natasha turned around, and simply stared. The last time she'd properly seen this man, he'd been trying to kill her in Washington D.C. She'd been away when she'd heard Steve had found Bucky; even though she'd been helping him look, of course he'd been the one to find his best friend. Before she could help him much, she'd been called away on another round of missions. This was the first time she was looking at him face to face. Well, the first time when they weren't fighting, at least.
Even so, she'd heard from Steve every so often about how he was doing. He'd told her Bucky had improved a lot from when Steve had first brought him home, but she was surprised that he was here tonight. He certainly looked a lot better; there was some color in his face, he was clean shaven, his hair was washed, and he was dressed rather nicely. Even so, there was a nervous look in his eyes. Just as she'd just been doing, he kept eyeing the crowd around him as though seeing who was out to hurt him. Or maybe he was simply looking for Steve. Natasha knew well enough how hard it had been in the early days, just when she was free of her old life but not yet settled in her new one, to be without the one or two people she trusted.
Well, at last she'd found a kindred spirit at the party.
"We've met before," she replied calmly, reaching for a drink from a passing waiter and not really sure what else to say. Small talk wasn't exactly her forte, especially with relative strangers.
"I know," he replied, tone slightly uncomfortable. "I've shot you."
"Twice," she corrected him, noticing that he had flinched. "Though to be fair, I nearly choked you and electrified your arm."
"I-I remember both times," he assured her, tone giving a slight wobble.
"That's probably a better track record than you have with most people," she commented dryly. Perhaps if she played it off, made it funny even, he'd be less likely to react negatively.
"I'm sorry," he blurted. "For both times."
Well, downplaying it wasn't working, Natasha thought, and quickly re-strategized.
"I'm sorry that I-"
"Had your brain fried?" she cut in. "Was forced to be a weapon? Was cryo-frozen? You have nothing to apologize for."
He looked at her quietly now, and she realized his eyes were moist. Wordlessly, she reached back towards another passing waiter (had Stark had hired an entire army for catering?) and grabbed a napkin.
"Thank you," he said softly, dabbing at his eyes surreptitiously even as his gaze never left hers. Steve had mentioned that now that most of his brainwashing was undone, Bucky had been left as an emotional wreck. Everything set him off, and usually sent him into either a nonresponsive or very shaky state.
"Don't blame yourself," she instructed him crisply but not unkindly, finally taking a sip of her drink as set the napkin down on a side table next to the two of them.
"You're different than Steve," he commented after a moment. "He says the same things, and I know he believes them, but you-I feel like you-"
"Let's say that you and I share life experiences that Steve thankfully never has, and if I have anything to say about it never will," she cut him off again, taking another sip of her drink. She could afford to be nonchalant about her past in a way few brainwashed ex-assassins could. Perhaps she was still haunted, by day or by night, but she could endure. She could make light of things. She had survived.
Judging from Bucky's shocked gaze, it would be a long time before he was where she was. It made sense, she supposed. She'd been through hell from a young age, but she'd been out of it for some years. He'd been out of it for a few months after seventy years of an unending nightmare, after years of brainwashing and torture that made her life look like a walk in the park.
"You know, I don't remember everything, but I think I would remember meeting someone like you," Bucky said at last, regarding her thoughtfully. "And I don't even know your name."
Natasha smiled then, suddenly grateful that he wasn't asking her to elaborate just yet. Making light of her past was one thing. Confessing every gory detail was another beast entirely. At the same time, she was charmed. Steve had said his old friend had had a way with people. Perhaps she was seeing the vestiges of that now. Perhaps he was already making his recovery.
"We'll have to fix that. If you want a proper introduction, you'll get it," she declared, turning her smile into a little smirk. "Though if we're starting over, you give me one first."
"Alright. I'm James," he said, straightening and holding out his right hand. His left, she noticed, remained surreptitiously tucked at his side and gloved. "James Buchanan Barnes."
"Hello, James," she said with a smile, shifting her glass to her left hand and shaking his proffered one with her own right hand. "I'm Natalya. Natalya Romanov [2]. Though most people know me as Natasha."
His hand was warm, or perhaps her's was cool from where she'd just been holding the drink. The warmth lingered even after he let go and continued smiling softly, almost shyly at her.
The two made small talk after that, mostly observations about passing guests or the food. Thankfully, Bucky seemed to be as bad at it as she felt she was. It felt strange to Natasha to be doing so, but somehow right. She felt a kinship with the man in front of her, a strange sense that she had known him far longer than just for one night and far better than just as an assassin she'd been shot by twice. Neither one brought up their pasts again, and neither one asked the other for any elaboration. That was alright. This was a party, and though neither was fully comfortable here, it was hardly the time and place.
Before too long, Steve Rogers stepped into view, placing a gentle hand on his friend's shoulder.
"Hey, Bucky," she heard him say softly to his friend, flashing her a quick and apologetic smile before turning his full attention on the other man. "You alright?"
"Fine," agreed Bucky quickly. "I've just been talking to Natalya about some things."
Steve gave her a quick, surprised look. Whether it was at the unusual name or the fact that his best friend seemed comfortable around someone other than him, she didn't know. She just shrugged in response to him.
"I know you wanted to test yourself around other people, but we've been here nearly half an hour. Are you ready to go?" he asked now, ignoring the obvious questions about Natasha. Not that she minded; she could tell him later if he wanted to know. Bucky nodded, clearly relieved.
"I think I'll leave soon as well," Natasha spoke up. Now that her new acquaintance was leaving and the other Avengers were otherwise occupied, there was little reason for her to stay. "Wonderful to meet you, James."
He smiled at her, and once again, she could see in action the legendary charm that Steve had asserted could win over anyone. Suddenly seized with an idea, she stepped forward again, fingers fumbling through her pocket for something to write with. As soon as she found a pen, she quickly scrawled her number down on her napkin from earlier, then hurried over to where the two men out of time were walking out and tapped Bucky's shoulder.
"Here," she explained, handing him the napkin. "Steve could've given you my number, but I think this is how introductions that went well end."
She was all too aware that Steve was staring at her again as Bucky took it. The ex-assassin looked confused, but she could see no tension or fear from him.
"Give me a call sometime," she suggested, smiling again.
"I think I could do that," he agreed amicably at last, turning away and letting a completely stunned Steve lead him out. Natasha waited five minutes before she followed them.
Perhaps parties weren't so bad after all.
Author's note: Hi, friends. As you may or may not have read in my earlier fanfic There's a Time and a Place, I was at that point pretty sure that I didn't ship Bucky and Natasha. Maybe some times for the hell of it, but never seriously. Well, times have changed, my friends!
Also, there's this 100-prompt challenge floating around on FFN and Deviantart...don't know the original source. I wanted to do it for a ship of mine, and figured Bucky/Natasha was as good as any. This was written in response to the first theme, "Introduction". I don't know if I'll ever get back and write responses to more, so this'll just be posted as a completed oneshot. Any future installments will be posted as separate fics as well.
Brief note about the timeline: in this, Civil War has not happened and probably never will. Ant-Man has probably not happened in the exact same manner, but it did in some form. They recovered Bruce Banner at some point before this, as (briefly) detailed in "Team Building". They've also got Bucky here, and probably split their time between Stark Tower and their new base. While I have yet to fully work out chronology for that drabble set and a few other things in that timeline, this probably takes place somewhere in the middle.
Also, the Bruce/Natasha thing didn't happen either, more for shipping reasons than anything else.
A couple of things:
[1]: I only changed this post-writing to fit in with the timeline I'd previously established in 'Team Building', and thus had to add in all the new Avengers from Age of Ultron. Please let me know if I've forgotten anyone; the team has gotten ridiculously big.
[2]: I know she gives her last name as "Romanoff", but just for the sake of this I've gone with the Russian styling for a moment. Also, if anyone could correct me on the spelling of her first name, that'd be great.
As always, thank you very much! Please review and tell me what you thought!