maskormenacelogs | playing the cards you get

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playing the cards you get

WHO: BUCKY and KATE
WHERE: Some alleyway in downtown Heropa.
WHEN: 4/20 midnight.
WHAT: In jamjars you can never avoid the people you want to avoid. Never. Sooner or later they will find you accidentally.
WARNINGS: Violence and some blood.

Kate's tendency to drift into alleyways after a couple of hours at a local club sometimes brought not so troubling trouble into her life. Tonight she found herself tailed by three men: all roughly around six feet and from the way one of them walked, carrying a concealed gun in his waistband. (That's not very smart.) She goes with the assumption for now that the other two have knives. They don't know she's an imPort, not when she hides her tattoo at all times now when she's in public.

She's halfway into the alleyway, listening to their footsteps coming up fast behind her before she stops, her grip on her purse tightening. They start with the usual: "sweet" talk which quickly devolves into verbal harassment when she's unresponsive. Then she hears the knife come out and the first man, with awful sideburns, attempts to close the distance and prod her with the blade somewhere.

Many people would try to scream for help or let them take what they want, but not Kate. Never.

"Think again."

The second he's close enough, she grabs his wrist to point the blade as far as possible from her and then she's lifting him upwards and flinging him away. Incidentally, he goes a little further than she intends, which surprises her.

She needs to go over her file again and double check her acquired powers.

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However far she intended to toss the guy, Bucky might guess (when he's not busy reacting to it), that she wasn't planning to use him to decapitate another passer-by. Even if, in this instance, passer-by means someone else who has difficulty ignoring strange noises down alleyways.

Bucky raises an arm to deflect the impact, and then winces as he hears metal impact bone. The body stops flying: crumples to the ground.

"Oops."

But hey, in for a penny, in for a pound. Whoever this woman is she's got a throwing arm Steve Rogers might be jealous of, and two guys still on her tail. One's pulled a gun by now, confused over exactly which direction to point it, while the second guy still thinks Kate looks like the better option to use as a human shield.

One kick resolves the issue of the gun, at least.

"I really don't think so." And Bucky takes it, with some disdain, from where it clatters against the concrete, "A Hi-Point? What kinda amateurs are you?"

Edited 2014-04-25 00:27 (UTC)

Kate doesn't easily startle, but Bucky's voice pierces through her concentration, disrupting her thoughts and whatever action she's supposed to take next. Usually, her body practically switches to autopilot dealing with amateurs like these. They're no more trouble than purse snatchers for her.

The moonlight manages to illuminate Bucky's face at odd angles from above, just enough for Kate to confirm it really is him entering the alleyway. The face is older by a few years, not so much boyish anymore, but undoubtedly Bucky Barnes.

Her breath hitches and body freezes for a split second, long enough for the second guy to catch wind of her hesitation and strike the backside of her head hard.

Damn, that was careless of her. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

It doesn't knock the wind out of her, but she does find the ground unsteady before she dips low, foot hooking around her assailant and bringing him down just as hard. Her vision blurs, but she's close enough to know where his jaw is and she punches him hard enough he spits out a bloody tooth out.

The knock she takes is his fault, and he's acutely aware that he invited himself to this party and then knocked the host's elbow while she was pouring the wine. He checks three things, all in the space of a second.

First, that the hit she took isn't going to take her down.
Second, that the hit the guy she threw at him is keeping that dog out of the fight.

Third, that the guy with the cheap pistol really is idiot enough to come after it. Yup. Bucky uses the hilt of the guy's own weapon to remove him from the game - and maybe when he wakes up he can thank whatever lucky stars he's got that it was that side of the gun and not the business end. Bucky tucks that into the back of his belt (really, he'd rather rely on his fists than a shoddy firearm).

"Man, I hope the dental plans here are cheaper than back home."

There's this saying: never kick a man while he's down. Bucky thinks that's bull, way better to kick him then than before he gets back up again. So, if Kate's fist didn't quite finish the job, his foot should do it.

And then he's crouching next to her, looking across in the alley's dim light with one hand reaching to be a support, if it's needed.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to put you off your game."

With one arm pressed against the floor to support her, the other hand digs into the back of her head where she feels for the injury. It's nothing grave, but it stings when she applies pressure and she senses a small bump where she's been struck. Doesn't appear the skin is broken as she pulls back the hand and examines her fingertips, rubbing them together for measure.

She doesn't look at Bucky, feigning distraction to hide the fact she's uncertain for once if she can look him in the eye again.

Because honestly, how many times is she going to go through this? She had always prided herself in her ability to move forward, soldier on no matter what the case was, and here she finds herself unable to accept someone she shared laughs, stupid jokes, and rare, personal moments with has forgotten her and not by choice.

"I'm fine." She doesn't accept his hand, rising on her own. Her comment is a little cold at first, but quickly her shoulders deflate and and she looks on apologetically. "Sorry... thank you. I mean it."

Well he takes that hand back and tucks it into a pocket as though there's no issue to it, but the response leaves him looking at her more closely. People don't do that unless there's something personal about it - a particular kind of stubborn, maybe, or something a little more involved.

From the way she keeps her eyes anywhere but on his face, Bucky's gonna go with involved on this one.

"Looked to me like you could've handled all three of them with one less hand than you had, let alone me lending mine."

He keeps an eye on her quarry while he speaks, but they're spark out for the moment, there's time for a little small talk. He half smiles when she finally looks at him, voice going a little softer (as soft as it gets).

"Hey, if you want to be pissed at me for wading in, go ahead. I should've gotten the hint when you threw a guy at me."

"That..." she sucks the air between her teeth. "... Wasn't intentional."

She means it. Her file hadn't exactly clarified the extent of her new ability. Just when she was finally getting used to manipulating shadows to do her bidding, she had to start from scratch. Well, challenge accepted, then.

"Are you okay?" It's a belated question, Kate slowly realizing she's been preoccupied with other things that she forgets to ask one of the more important ones.

"I've taken harder hits than that and stayed standing." And there's amusement in his tone at that. "If you're gonna throw something at me, at least that one was easy to duck."

There's something younger about him than his age, for a second, the way he tucks both hands into his pockets and dips his shoulders (one of them less than the other).

"Good arm, by the way."

But the thing is, he knows how to read people, he's had a long lifetime's training in just that, and what she's preoccupied with right now isn't the fight, it's him. So he glances away, in case his not looking makes it easier on her.

"Want to tell me what I did to freak you out? Because you don't seem like the type to spook easy."

She would have laughed, but his question throws her off guard. It's all he's been doing so far tonight and she's not being quite subtle about any of it. She reminds herself whenever she gets back to the house to slap herself in front of a mirror for good measure. Whether working a case or patrolling, or running across someone she shares something of a history with, she's not supposed to allow herself to act like an open book.

"I thought you were someone else."

A half-truth.

He may not be the same Bucky, so she shouldn't risk the blow to her ego. After Renee, she's learned her lesson the heart wrenching difficult way. She won't allow it this time. She's had to rebuild these walls, sturdier and higher than ever.

"My mistake."

"Huh." He huffs a little, nodding like maybe he accepts that (and maybe he doesn't.) Either way, he's watching her as he reaches into his back pocket and tosses across a couple of sets of cable ties.

Because that's what the average guy takes for a night out. It pretty much marks him for sure as one of them - or a surprisingly laid back serial killer. Technically, maybe both.

"Good reminder, or bad?"

It's no good, he won't leave it alone. That part's important, back where he comes from.

Most people might have regarded Bucky with heavy suspicion, maybe fear, after discovering he's been carrying restraints on his person for some undisclosed reason. Kate's mildly surprised, but not as much as she should have been, perhaps. Bucky's supposed to be a soldier and while he didn't patrol back in the City, he had been younger and more out of touch with the world around him.

"Not bad," she says, taking one of the cable ties and crouching low to tie up one of the guys before she digs into her pocket for her phone. "He was a good friend."

It's a throwback from that mass murder phase he went through, honestly, but one he's kept up working for the good team because you need to hit a guy less hard if you're planning on incapacitating them after. And, apparently, the good team are into hitting a little less hard.

A lot less shooting, too. He's still working on that.

"Yeah?" He folds his arms, lets her do the work, she's the one in uniform. "Funny how good memories can be the ones that hit the hardest."

She finishes up tying one and then pulls the phone from her pocket to start dialing the police, but she's stopped by Bucky's comment. She's pensive for all of two seconds before she shakes her head and continues dialing.

"Are you always this chatty with strangers?"

Strangers, she says, to remind herself that's what they are now. Maybe it's best it remains that way.

"Hey. It's the ImPort community-" there's something deeply sarcastic in his tone, and the way he thinks back on one of the slogans from a swearing in day he attended just to observe. "Every stranger's a friend you haven't met yet."

Yeah, this is why he'd never get hired to do those promos they occasionally recruit 'heroes' for. This and the unsettled on his arm.

He scuffs a foot in the dirt and watches her. He used to be. Now, only when there's a purpose it might serve.

"No. But now I'm interested in hearing about this guy - didn't realise there could be two people this good looking."

It's wry, but there's a trace of the old him in that.

It's difficult to feel annoyed in that moment getting a sense of that Bucky Barnes from him. The way he joked around and then grumbled to himself when she was playing know-it-all. She hates that she can't let go of that. She's still got a foot in the past, whether it's the City or Gotham.

She cracks a tiny, genuine grin in his general direction as the dispatcher on the other end picks up and asks what her emergency is.

"Attempted mugging," she explains calmly and after giving their location and being assured police were on the way, she disconnects. "Guess he was. Wasn't my type."

"Ouch, still trying to wound me?"

It's a very easygoing level of taken - not that he's got a thing against redheads who could probably kick his ass if they tried to but, well, that's the thing. He's got a thing for them, and kind of (maybe?) has one back home.

There's also the point where he's a terrible life decision for just about every sane woman, and wouldn't want to inflict himself on someone unsuspecting.

"So, do you wait for the pickup, or want to get some late/early breakfast?"

Don't, a voice in the back of her head chides. Don't you dare, Kate Kane.

"I think I've had enough excitement for one night." Another half-lie, but Bucky won't know any better. She raises both arms in mock surrender. "I've got a friend who will worry if I'm not back soon." Not exactly a lie.

The further she attempts to distance herself from him, the deeper the hole she digs is. Kate worries this may come back to bite her in the ass when she least suspects it.

She can hear the police sirens a block away.

"And you're not my type," she adds, jokingly.

"All right, jeez, a guy could get a complex."

He holds out a hand to shake, the good one, if good means human around here.

"Still, if you're ever in the market for some pancakes, look me up. The name's Niko Constantin."

And thank you, communism, for teaching him to lie stone cold casual while he watches for any flicker on her face.

Niko Constantin.

In a world where the Cold War persists, Bucky goes with that name of all name. She doesn't allow her disbelief to pass her features, but there's a slight hesitation he may catch from her before she takes his hand. She knows it's the good one.

She also knows the other one packs a punch. Sparring once with him knocked the wind out of her temporarily.

"Kate." She doesn't feel the need to lie about her name, even though it's all over the network. "I'll keep it in mind."

Well, maybe there's a flicker there, but she's good, he'll give her that. His mouth narrows out for a second, then he nods.

"Kate. Now I know the name to yell if I get mugged down an alley one night."

He'll back out gracefully, but if she ever gets a feeling she's being watched.

Well.

She probably is.

"I'll take care not to throw anyone your way again." That elicits a soft chuckle in the back of her throat.

The sirens have enclosed in on them, blue and red lights illuminating the alleyway they stand in. There's the sound of a car door opening and slamming shut, keys jingling, and a cop begins to descend into the alleyway on the lookout for the woman who made the distress call.

Kate glances back at Bucky quickly. "You might not want to stick around."

You know, Red Scare and all that.

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playing the cards you get

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let me know if all this is okay since i forgot if he's in civvies or not!

it's great, he's in civvies and i'm so sorry for vanishing

it's np o/

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