I'm current in the process of moving to Australia from Denmark, which is stressing as hell so I don't have much time for writing. Which is why this hasn't even been proof-read by me. Please excuse that as best you can.

Bucky wasn't sure what he thought about Lori. Sure, he liked her, she was an alright lady and she seemed to be good for Steve, and that was all he could really ask for, but she was strange. There was something off about her, something that Bucky couldn't exactly but his finger on, but he was sure it had to do with the slightly haughty look on the young woman's face.

She was tall, extremely tall actually, which even Bucky had to admit made Steve look absolutely ridicules next to her, as he was short next to most women as it was already.

She was also slender, with long, slick, inky black hair that she had, perhaps in the occasion of the evening, twisted into a French braid that hung over one of her pale shoulders. When Steve had complimented her on it, as they picked her up at the harbor, she had laughed and told them that her landlady had been trying to teach her a few hair tricks, and this was so far the only one she had been able to pick up.

She was diffidently pretty, in an exotic sort of way – but then again, Steve had mentioned she was European – and she carried herself with an air of superiority and ice cold calm that even Bucky found himself slightly threatened by.

As it was, she didn't pay much attention to Bucky at all, aside from the initial greeting and her answering the few questions Bucky had saved up for his best friend's newest friend, Lori spent most of the night glued to Steve's side, a barely-there smile on her lips whenever he spoke to her, or looked at her as if he couldn't quite believe she was real.

Which Bucky could understand why he would, there was diffidently something unreal about her. He just had yet to decide if this was a good thing or a bad.

Steve was a perfect gentleman all night. He always strived to be so, as it was one of his strengths that he hoped would somewhat make up for other things that he was somewhat lacking in. But tonight, tonight was different, because Lori didn't seem to notice what Steve didn't match up most men, and this made her so much better than any person Steve had ever met before, because other than Bucky, Steve had never tried not being judged before.

Perhaps it was because Lori actually understood where Steve was coming from. She was extremely tall – something that Steve hadn't actually noticed in the darkness by the water, but it was very hard to ignore now that he had to crane his head back to be able to speak with the girl by his side – towering over most around her, even Bucky, who wasn't really that tall for a male but he was taller than Steve and that was enough.

Lori probably got judged for her size just as much as Steve did.

He could tell that much, from the looks she got as they walked together, close but not too close because while they were friends, he didn't have any claim over her, and this was her meeting Bucky and not a date. Men would glance at her, appreciating her cold but beautiful demeanor, but quickly turn their heads with their grins turned cruel and their fingers pointing as they whispered to their friends about the scary tall chick walking with the imp. And Steve couldn't imagine that it was his mere presence that made them slander things like that.

It didn't seem to matter much to Lori, though; she simply walked around fair, looking at the different stalls with a badly hidden curiosity as she studied the different things around her. Once in a while she wouldn't be able to keep in her thirst for having her curiosity satisfied and would point at something with the small smile on her lips and ask Steve what it was.

When she asked him what the ice cream vendor was, Steve mused – as he purchased her a vanilla ice cream because he couldn't let it be that she actually never had had any - that wherever in Europe Lori was from, must be a very different and depressing place, and it was a good thing that she'd arrived in America, so she could enjoy ice cream and cotton candy with him whenever possible. However, he didn't dwell too much on the last part of the thought.

As it turned out, Lori enjoyed ice cream, and quickly finished it before throwing the cone from her and telling Steve in a very calm voice that she wished for another.

"You're suppose to eat the cone, Lori, not throw it away, and especially not on the ground!" Steve exclaimed as he picked up the discarded cone to throw it in the trash, very pointedly ignoring the confused and slightly angry look that Bucky was sending him.

"But I had finished the iced cream."

Steve wasn't sure he ever wanted to go to the part of Europe that Lori was from.

"Yes, but the cone is edible as well," Steve sighed, running a frustrated hand through his hair before sending Lori a small smile, "listen, I'll get you one more – perhaps chocolate this time? – but then you have to eat the cone as well, I promise it's very good!"

Lori seemed to contemplate this for a moment, before her smile widened a bit – Steve wasn't sure it could actually be called a smile, but he would take what he could get – and said: "Yes, another, that would be good," walking back to the ice cream seller with strides so large that Steve had to almost-run so that his smaller legs could keep up with the black-haired female.

As it turned out, Lori did like the cone and the chocolate ice cream as well, and finished this one just as fast as she had the first, much to Bucky's amusement. This time, as she finished, she didn't ask for one more, but instead turned to Steve, a proper smile gracing her lips for the first time this evening.

"I liked that very much Steve, but I must go home now, I shall see you tomorrow eve."

She turned to walk, but Steve quickly caught her arm before she left,

"Wait here, I'll walk you home, just let me say goodbye to Bucky," she let him go with a curt nod and he quickly walked towards his best friend, who was currently speaking with a girl that Steve vaguely remembered as being one of Bucky's old flings.

"I'm going to walk Lori home," he said as soon as his friend had noticed him and turned from the conversation he was having.

"Good idea, see you tomorrow?"

Steve nodded, hesitating a bit before asking:

"Say Bucky, what do you think of her?"

His friend turned quiet for a moment, clearly thinking over in his head what he was going to say. Steve bit his lower lip in nervous anticipation.

"She.." Bucky was lulling the words over in his mind one last time before answering, "she's strange," he finally said, but continued on "a bit rude, but I don't know if that's just her culture, I think it might be."

He clasped a strong hand on Steve's thin shoulder, and like always Steve had to steady himself so he didn't crumple under the pressure,

"but I like her, she's good for you," Bucky finished with a smile before sending his friend back to the girl waiting for him with calls of good luck and a whistle that made Steve blush and Lori look slightly confused.

He offered her his arm as they walked, and after looking at him for a moment with a blank stare, she accepted it and held on until they arrived at her home.

She told him goodbye and left him with yet another almost-not-there smile and a promise to meet him by the water the next day, as they always did.

He watched her climb up the fire escape with an ease that he couldn't help but marvel at, and he left wishing that he at least could posses the strength and height to give her a boost up to her window, so she would have a use the drainpipes and get herself dirty and scraped.

He also knew that this wasn't going to happen, so he quickly put the thought of his mind again.