"You won the first round?"

"Not me, alone," Peter said to Shuri, wishing that he had the capability of putting her on the TV screen of the hotel room like he could back home in his own quarters. The phone was nice, though, and the display large and clear. "The team did. I only answered three questions, really."

"Because he doesn't know anything about genetics, Shuri," Ned added from where he was sprawled on his bed snacking on some chips and listening to Peter's call while he was text messaging three different people. "That's why we have MJ and Bonnie on the team. They carried us, this morning."

"What did you do?" the princess asked, hearing the comment, easily.

"I made them all look good," Ned told her.

Peter rolled his eyes at that, and Shuri chuckled.

"And now you are taking a break?"

"Right. We have two more rounds, today, to see who goes into the quarter finals."

"They are tomorrow?"

"Yeah." Peter had sent her an informal schedule – which she had then turned into brackets so she could keep track of all of the standings. It helped her understand the way the competition worked – and also made certain that she would be able to talk to Peter at least once a day, since he was the one updating the progress of the competition. "It's going to be a pretty busy day."

"But fun," Ned said, grinning, as he set his phone aside. "Way better than being home. Or having school."

"One wonders if that also applies when your home is the Avenger compound," she said, cheerfully.

Peter smiled at that.

"It's not better than being home," he confirmed. If he was at home she'd be on his TV, after all. "But it's still fun."

"I have seen some of the girls that are there," she said, smiling. "Do not have too much fun."

Ned chuckled.

"I'll keep him out of trouble, Shuri."

That earned him another eyeroll from his friend, but Peter was in a good mood and liked being teased – when it was in good fun like it was.

"None of them are as wonderful as you, my princess."

Which made Shuri smile, too, pleased at his attempt to be romantic.

"I must go. Have a good night."

"I'll check in with you, tomorrow," Peter promised. "After the early rounds."

"Thank you."

She ended the call and Ned shook his head.

"I like her."

"Me, too."

The boy looked at his watch, and then at Peter.

"Want to play video games?"

"Instead of practicing before the next round?" Peter asked, allowing his eyes to go wide with concern. "Yeah."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"How's it going?"

Bucky rolled his eyes, even though Steve wasn't in front of him. He wasn't even on a display or anything, since he was talking to Barnes through an ear bug. The Winter Soldier (and he kind of liked being called it, now that it didn't have the same connotation that it did when he was an unwilling assassin pawn for HYRDA) was standing at the main entrance to the convention center. One of several but the one most used by people. He wasn't guarding the door, or anything; there were plenty of other conventions and activities going on aside from the international competition and those people were allowed to come and go freely, unaware for the most part that there was even a competition going on.

He was just loitering in the area watching for anything suspicious that might be something that SHIELD needed to know about. It was better than hanging out at the compound all day – especially when most of the others were focused on this little area of the city, right now, and weren't even around to people watch.

"It's going…" he replied to his friend. "There's a little kid ballroom dance competition going on, today."

"Yeah?" Steve knew about it, of course – they had checked the convention schedule and knew more or less everything that was going on in the same building that Peter was going to be in. Especially after Syracuse. "How's that going?"

"A lot of screaming, and crying, and drama…"

He watched as a little girl skipped, cheerfully, by him, wearing a pair of shorts and a pink top, but with her hair done so artfully and her face made up, delicately, that he knew she was one of the competitors.

"The kids are driving you crazy?" Steve asked, his tone amused that his friend would have to deal with that.

"That's the parents," Bucky said, smirking. "The kids are alright."

Steve laughed.

"Fair enough."

Bucky listened as Rogers started telling him that he was going to be heading that direction, soon, but his attention was pulled from the little girl who had met up with her parents (or maybe the dance coach?) and he was now watching a man who seemed to be looking at him, speculatively. Not someone that Barnes knew but his automatic assessment of the other man told him that he was dangerous. Either the way he looked, or the way he carried himself, and despite the extremely well tailored suit, Bucky knew he was armed.

"I'll call you right back, Steve," he said, interrupting his friend in mid sentence as the man clearly made a decision and started heading his way.

"What's up?"

"I'll tell you in a minute."

He ended the call with a tap of a button on his wrist, and turned his full attention to the stranger, who stopped long enough to let a little boy dressed in a tuxedo run in front of him and then walked up to where Bucky was standing.

"Are you with SHIELD?" the man asked.

He didn't look nervous about asking, so he clearly wasn't a fan, or something, Bucky decided. He just wanted to make sure of who he was talking to, most likely.

"Something like that," Barnes said. "Can I help you with something?"

"No. I'm just trying to pass some information to Natasha Romanoff."

"Yeah?" He wasn't impressed that he knew the name; Natasha was a well known, after all. "Who are you?"

"Alex Zhihov."

Huh.

"I don't know the name."

The man smiled, and there was a little humor in it. He shrugged.

"Romanoff will know it. I was looking for her, but even though she was seen at the hotel, yesterday, none of my people have been able to locate her for me, today."

"She's busy," Barnes told him, a little more carefully, now. Not that Romanoff couldn't handle herself, but she didn't need to, all the time, did she? He was on her side of things, now, after all. "I can give her a message."

The smile widened. He was extremely relaxed for someone who had to know Bucky wasn't someone to screw around with. He knew that he was happier than he'd been in a long time, but his eyes were still haunted, at times, and he was lean and dangerous looking, despite trying to make his appearance less so.

"I'd probably better pass this on in person," Zihov replied. "Just to make sure there's no misunderstanding. Ask her to meet me in the bar at 12:30, will you?"

"She knows you?"

"She does."

"I'll pass the message on."

"Thanks."

Without another word the man walked by Bucky and nodded, politely to a woman who had yet another little kid in tow. Then he vanished out the door.

Bucky watched to make sure he didn't return, and then tapped the communicator on his fancy new Avenger watch. He wondered who the guy was – and if Romanoff really did know him.