OOM: Molly, Post-Cells

[redintheledger]

[placeholder, placeholder, placeholder post

place a hold, if you can]

[A.K.A. sometime after flopping at Clint and getting her bearings - maybe a day or so later - Natasha walks down into the bar to find MOLLY. And talk. WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.]

[(nat's fixed her hair. it's all pretty again now. this is important, clearly)]

Comments

[cute_bruiser]

When she comes into the bar today, Molly looks as though she could have stepped straight off the beach (flip-flops, denim cut-offs and a purple FIGHT LIKE A GIRL tank-top), though the smudges of engine oil on one shoulder and both hands suggest a different origin story.

Nevertheless, it's still winter here, no matter what it's like outside her door.

"Aw, hell," she says, leaving grease in her loose hair when she runs a hand through it. Dryly, "Thanks, Bar."

Winter: her least-favourite Christmas present! Especially when she's dressed for July.

[redintheledger]

Well, shit. As much she needs to talk to Molly, in that get-up, asking the woman step outside just went out the window.

Not a good start.

But Natasha pulls herself to her feet and walks over anyway. She still has to talk to the other woman, even if location is now complicated.

"Molly. Hi."

[cute_bruiser]

Frankly, in this weather, Molly wouldn't be keen to step outside the back door no matter what she was wearing. She's spent nearly her entire life in Los Angeles: snow, in her opinion, is seriously over-rated.

But she smiles when she sees Natasha, not least because she knows just how many drinks the other woman owes her, and it's hard not to smile when free alcohol is coming your way.

"Hi," she says, with just a slight pause before she adds, "Nadine."

Hey, it's been a long day (again).

Maybe she can just be, like, Copper-Top or something. Save issues.

[redintheledger]

The pause gets a wry ghost of a smile.

"Drinks on me?"

[cute_bruiser]

Lightly, "See, I knew we were friends for a reason."

But she does still need a word.

"Mine's a beer, if you meant right now."

[redintheledger]

"I'm free if you are. Any particular type of beer?"

[cute_bruiser]

"Not fussy so long as it's not crazy-strong."

Control, and keeping it, is important.

"Bar usually manages to pick something I like."

[redintheledger]

"I'll grab it. Did you want...want to find somewhere to sit?"

Here is something you don't often see: the Black Widow, slightly off-balance. Of course, given who she is, it could be a ploy... But not this time.

She knows she owes Molly an explanation. She hates doing that.

[cute_bruiser]

"Sure."

Her eyebrows rise, almost imperceptibly. Damn right, that's not something you see often. This may well be very interesting, then.

"I'll find us somewhere."

The trick is to find somewhere that's out of the way but which doesn't look as though you're hiding, since that tends to attract more attention than sitting in the open. In the end she selects a table the Security staff tend to use when they're not on duty amd would like to keep it that way, and takes a seat facing the bar.

(She's not wearing her Security badge. It would be nice if they could sort this out like adults, amd being nominally in charge has a habit of getting in the way of things like that.)

[redintheledger]

Natasha finds her a short time later, bearing two bottles - one for Molly, one for herself.

"Here you go," she says, dropping herself lightly into the chair to Molly's right. Not opposite. That'd involve having her back to too much of the bar, and she tries not to do that.

[cute_bruiser]

It's an instinct that Molly, who is more or less functionally invulnerable as long as she's conscious, doesn't possess, but she's recognised it often enough in others.

She takes the beer and raises it with a faint wry smile. "Cheers, Scary Spice."

Nope, not quite right. She'll settle on a nickname for her eventually, though.

[redintheledger]

Paaaaaaaaaaaaause.

"Scary Spice."

Really, Molly?

[cute_bruiser]

Molly only looks impishly amused.

"Well, it beats accidentally calling you the wrong name in front of someone. But no, I don't think Scary Spice is gonna stick."

She'll work on it!

[redintheledger]

She makes a face.

"It's Nadine. Usually." Then she tilts her head a little. "You know the version of me in your world, then?"

[cute_bruiser]

"Yeah, well."

They're still not entirely sure where the Black Widow is. Six feet under is a definite possibility, but no-one's ever going to be confident about that.

"Not so well as my sib - my sister does. She was on a team with her for a few years."

[redintheledger]

"Damn," Natasha says, softly. She actually brings her hand up to brush her thumb across her mouth before she catches herself, puts her hand firmly down.

"I appreciate, though. You not saying anything before."

[cute_bruiser]

"Well, I wasn't positive. I knew you weren't a civilian, but you get enough near-doppelgangers in here that it doesn't pay to assume."

Ignoring the fact that she tipped off Bruce Banner. There's plenty of variations on keeping your mouth shut, and even then she didn't use the words 'Black Widow'.

"But I know how important identities are, too."

[redintheledger]

"Yeah. They are."

Her eyes flick down to the bottles of beer and then up again.

"You knew him, too. The Winter Soldier. You called him 'Bucky'?"

[cute_bruiser]

"Eh."

Molly dips one shoulder in a so-so shrug. "Knew of is probably closer, I guess. I didn't exactly get on with his bestie, so..."

Long-standing simmering resentment is probably closer to it.

"But they're all gossipy as hell, capes. Everyone knows everyone, even if they don't know what's on their birth certificate."

[redintheledger]

"Lots of industries are gossipy," Natasha says, tone neutral and resigned all at once.

But.

"So. Other universe me. She a, uh, 'cape'?"

[cute_bruiser]

Molly smiles faintly (wryly), and sips her beer.

"Not quite so flashy as the standard. But general opinion is she counts, yeah."

[redintheledger]

Natasha just keeps looking bemused.

"'General opinion'. Well, I guess superheroes don't tend to go for clandestine, do you?"

[cute_bruiser]

"Well, you start getting into fights that'll level a couple blocks, best case scenario, the cameras are kind of inevitable. But then again, I used to work for a superhero team with an actual outreach division, so clandestine never really came into it."

Molly looks wry.

"I still haven't lived down some of those TV interviews."