While Clara and Bucky had been arguing, Steve had wandered away from them. They found him in front of the ring toss game watching a group of girls attempt to catch a milk bottle with a wooden ring. A pretty red-head flung her arm wildly and groaned loudly when the ring missed the bottles completely. Her friends immediately surrounded her, cooing consolations.
Steve jumped as Clara leaned on his shoulder, "You know, if you concentrate on her hard enough, Becky might actually notice your presence in her mind—"
"And then call on her boyfriend to beat you up," Bucky finished, as he broke in between Clara and Steve.
Steve laughed guilty and rubbed his head, "Let's just go play some games."
"Or in your case— lose some," Bucky ruffled the blonde hair of his friend, flung his arms around both of their shoulders, and pulled them both over to a booth with more milk bottles and a few red balls.
The next hour was spent with playful competition and banter. Bucky was good at any game that required brute strength, but Steve excelled in luck and strategy. Prizes were won and handed over to either Steve or Bucky, who in turn, handed them off to Clara. Two and a half hours later, they had played all of the games at least three times, eaten countless swirls of cotton candy, and every available pocket was holding toys and trinkets. Both played dirty, Clara was barely able to keep them in check, but in the end, no winner was evident.
They tried to convince her to declare a winner. Bribes came in many different forms—food, stuffed animals—currently, however, she was currently scoping out the flea market that was set up at the end of the block. While Steve and Bucky argued about who won several yards away, Clara shifted through piles of rusted necklaces and brooches that were missing their jewel. Why would anyone buy these things?
Bored, she turned to break up Steve and Bucky when someone stepped towards Clara, effectively trapping her between their large chest and the table.
He had finally caught up to her.
"Hello Daniel." Clara tried to move around him, but he moved in front of her again.
He folded his arms, "You've been avoiding me."
She laughed nervously, "Nooo, I just—" Clara hesitated, "had no way of finding you after our date!"
She backed up to the table and leaned back as Daniel moved forward. His body was now almost pressed against hers.
"I live in the building across the street, as you know perfectly well."
Clara tried her best to look surprised and when that failed to impress him, she attempted to duck under his arm. He grabbed her upper arm tightly, squeezing as Clara struggled against against his grip.
"You're hurting me!" She gasped as his fingers pinched into her skin. With her hand that wasn't trapped, Clara pulled at his wrist, trying to free herself. Daniel stopped her quickly by wrapping his other hand around her wrist. She twisted herself in a desperate attempt to break away, but only succeeded in hurting herself further. Now she was trapped.
"I believe the lady would like you to leave." Clara breathed a sigh of relief when a different voice came from behind Daniel.
"We're just having a little conversation—" Daniel looked down at Clara with a glint in his eye, "now scram before I make you regret it."
"How 'bout you scram before you regret it." Daniel rolled his eyes and smirked slightly, not letting her go as he turned to face the owner of the voice.
Steve.
To his credit, what he lacked in strength he made up in heart. Heart, however, didn't often win fist-fights. Steve didn't back down from the man in front of him though, throwing a sloppy-yet-unexpected punch that Daniel was forced to free both hands to block. He recovered quickly and sent Steve tumbling to the ground with a hard shove. Steve's face met asphalt and he curled into a ball in expectation of what was going to happen next.
As Daniel set on Steve, Clara searched desperately for something to help. The larger man began kicking the smaller and she let out a shriek, diving at Daniel. Taken aback, he lost his balance and the two of them crashed into a table, sending metal trinkets flying.
People shouted in alarm as Clara scrambled to her feet, pulling Steve along with her.
"Go!" Steve hesitated, but stumbled to his feet. She pushed him forward, but then went tumbling to the ground as Daniel wrapped his hand around her ankle.
She panicked for a moment, but Bucky appeared in the nick of time, ruthlessly kicking Daniel in the stomach again and again. Steve seemed eager to join in, but Clara yanked both of them away, knowing full well Daniel could take both of them out with a single punch once he got back up.
Clara kept a vice-like grip on the two of them as she led them through the mass of people that congregated in the area. A quick glance behind her revealed that Daniel had indeed recovered quickly and was steadily gaining on the three friends. An idea came to Clara suddenly:
"Split up!" Clara let go and gently gave her friends a shove in opposite directions. Continuing straight ahead, she slipped through tents and wove around people, eliciting several annoyed protests. However, she only stopped once she was completely sure she had lost him. Clara leaned up against a tent pole and slid to the ground, breathing heavily. A few people gave her odd looks, but she chose to ignore them: Clara was sure that they had seen weirder things on the streets.
She stayed where she was for a couple minutes and once she had caught her breath, decided to look for Bucky and Steve. Hopefully the two of them were able to lose Daniel as easily as she had. Goodness knows what would happen if the man had caught up to her friends. Trying not to dwell too much on her thoughts, she frowned and scanned the crowd of people.
Steve would be nearly impossible to locate- his small stature ensured that he wouldn't stand out in a group of people. Meanwhile, Bucky was a little taller than average, and his head would be easily spotted.
On a hunch, Clara scoped out the bandstand. A group of men played brass instruments while couples whirled around in perfect sync. Sure enough, Bucky was swaying back-and-forth with a curly-headed brunette. With an exasperated sigh, Clara approached them. Bucky had some messed up priorities.
Clara stopped just behind Bucky and waited a few seconds before saying, "Ten minutes, Barnes, it's been ten minutes."
Bucky jumped and guiltily spun to face her.
"And I see you found Jane, how nice." The brunette in question tossed her hair and laced her arm through Bucky's.
"We're in the middle of something, so why don't you run along and find some other little children to play with."
Clara folded her arms, but refrained from responding. Instead, she raised an eyebrow at Bucky—
"Steve's still running around somewhere and you know he won't back down from a fight." Many emotions flickered across Bucky's face, but eventually it settled on apologetic as he slipped his arm from Jane's.
"I'll not go far," he promised desperately as Clara tugged him away, leaving Jane fuming and shooting daggers.
"Jane Keen and I aren't a thing," Clara mimicked, he was such a liar.
"Not officially—" She cut him off by pulling him into a line.
"I'm not even going to argue this with you, we have bigger things to worry about."
"Steve." Bucky shook his head and leaned on a fence.
"Right, we have to find him before Daniel does."
"What did you even do to piss him off that much?"
She set her mouth in a firm line and it took more prodding from Bucky before Clara answered. "I went on a date with him, decided I really didn't like him, and have been avoiding him for the last week and a half."
"Is that it?" Bucky laughed, "from his reaction I thought you, I don't know, set him on fire."
"Is that still an option?"
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