Fake!MM: Clint-as-Alexei!verse, thatbarways

[redintheledger]

The bar is an incredibly useful - Natasha can make her lunch-break stretch out for hours.

Which explains why the young KGB agent is sitting in a booth reading a book on how to teach herself Mandarin (in English, unfortunately, but she suspects the Bar is irritated with her) while occasionally stabbing the potato salad in front of her.

(Of course, if anyone thinks that just because she's nose-deep in a book that she's not keeping an awareness of her surroundings, then they don't know Lieutenant Nataliya Shostakova.)

Comments

[passager]

Alexei is just out of the showers on base (dressed, again, but damp), when he pushes the door open with his shoulder. He considers risking the door not being there if he closes it to go completely dry his hair, first, but then he catches a glimpse of familiar red hair, and a book on Mandarin.

He grins and rubs the back of his head, to get the worst of the damp off.

"Nataliya Alianovna," he says, cheerful, stopping in front of her booth and rocking back slightly on his feet. "Multitasking?"

[redintheledger]

Her expression brightens even before she lifts her head up from the book. She's allowed to do that, they are married, and a long way from Moscow.

"Alexei Andreyevitch," she says, just as faux-formal, and then her smiles widens just a bit more. "I'm talented. And," she adds pointedly, "you're standing."

[passager]

Alexei's eyebrows raise in surprise, glancing down at his feet in an underplayed how did that happen?. He smiles at her as he sits, one leg still outside the booth.

"I was thinking about getting coffee," he explains. "I could pick you up soup?"

[redintheledger]

"Soup would be nice," she says with a quick smile, eying her nearly empty bowl of salad. Then she pauses, and eyes him assessingly.

"Have you eaten lunch today?"

[passager]

Alexei's (very) faint startle this time is real, not put on; as such, it's a good thing Natasha knows him. He's not used to being asked after -- not used to living with her, yet. His smiles quirks slightly.

(He could get used to it.)

"A light one. I'll get a bowl, too. It can wait till you're done." More efficient that way.

[redintheledger]

"Oh no, you'll have to keep me company until then." Her lips twitch, and she knocks her shoe against his under the table.

"Unless you wanted to finish my bowl?"

She's hungry, but it makes her uncomfortable to be eating when those around her aren't. She has to share.

And, well, it's Lyosha. You look after family.

[passager]

He shakes his head, slightly.

"I'll need the coffee to clean the taste of soap out of my mouth. No salad deserves that."

He presses his foot back against hers. "Tell me, is the book better for English or Mandarin?"

[redintheledger]

Natasha inclines her head in acknowledgment (both of his words, and his giving her a way out), and spears some more potato onto her fork.

It buys her enough time to think of an answer.

"Currently, it's...being more useful for English. Which is probably a sign I need a break." She glances at him, her small smile wry. There is a wealth of things she wants to say, snarky comments about having to use her training from both university and the Red Room on the sly, but she doesn't. It would be stupid, so all she does is smile that rueful little smile.

"But the Bar has provided other books with the actual terms I'd need, so I guess her whims are bearable," she adds lightly, with a flicker of amusement.

[passager]

He reaches across the table, at the rueful smile, and takes the hand she had lying over the book into his. He doesn't know everything behind it, but he knows enough. "I would've thought it'd be doubly interesting, for a linguist," he says, with her same lightness. "But you know I'm not one."

[redintheledger]

"Oh, well," she says, and something in her expression eases.

(She also curls her fingers around his, which probably has something to do with it.)

"From a linguistic point of view, looking at how one language describes the other is fascinating, when neither of them is mine."

[passager]

Alexei murmurs agreement, though the softness in his face is more for her than any interest in the subject. He'd normally ask her a question, and let her speak about it to her heart's content, but you shouldn't put the burden of the conversation on someone who's eating. That's just efficiency.

"And I've spent my day exercising," he says, mildly self-deprecating. "You're going to have to read enough for the both of us, Nata."

This is a blatant misrepresentation: while Natasha can -- and does -- read enough for the both of them, Alexei's work requires plenty of reading. Mostly of instrument manuals.

[redintheledger]

Natasha brightens at that, and huffs a laugh before spearing some more of her salad.

"And then I can transmit the information via psychic waves?"

That could be fun.

[passager]

Alexei narrows his eyes, putting his free hand up to his head and tapping his temple. "I'm not reading you, Shostakova. You'll have to re-calibrate your transmitter."

[redintheledger]

"Maybe, Shostakov, the problem with your receiver. I am working perfectly," she says archly.

On another woman, raised in a different culture, her small smile would be a broad beam.

[passager]

"Hm," Alexei says, amused. "I'll check on it while you eat."

[redintheledger]

Natasha makes a face at him, conveying a lot of, yes, Mother Hen in perfect silence.

Still, she does finish her bowl.

"How is the receiver?"

[passager]

"Probably going to need a specialist," he admits, standing. "Think we can get one out from Moscow?"

He takes the bowl. "Solyanka, yes? Do you want anything to drink?"

[redintheledger]

"Yes, please."

It's a chill day outside their doors, hot and spicy sounds perfect.

"And...kvass? If you'd have some with me? Or just tea."

[passager]

"Sure," he says, the skin at the corners of his eyes crinkling.

Alexei returns soon enough with two bowls, two glasses, and a pitcher of kvass. It doesn't look that difficult, but they both have a lot of experience carrying things.

He sets the kvass down, hands her her bowl of solyanka, and sits in the space she's left. He's nearly at the edge. Alexei considers her for a moment, before pressing a quick kiss to her temple.

[redintheledger]

Judging by the sudden smile his kiss produces, it was a good call on his part.

It's a decent sized booth, but she sits against him, thigh and arm brushing his. He's comfortable, and a solid warmth, and Lyosha.

"Mmm, one thing I like about this place," she says, picking up her spoon. "I can have lunch with you."

(That, and the books at her fingertips, even if she methodically returns the ones Bar gives her.)

[passager]

"Careful there," Alexei says, nudging her shoulder very lightly with his. His smile's a little goofy. "Someone might get the impression you like me."

If they didn't from the fact she agreed to marry him, or anything.

[redintheledger]

"That I like you?"

Her eyes went wide with an actor's affect, you don't say.

"And what a shocking thing that would be, Comrade Lieutenant. Quite unheard of."

[passager]

Alexei makes an amused sound, and starts to eat.

[redintheledger]

Entertained, she does the same, and doesn't say anything.

She's used to not talking - everyone she knows is. But there is a difference between not talking in case people overhear, and not talking just because there is nothing that has to be said. There is also not talking just because the silence is...Nice

Companionable.

As she eats, Natasha finds herself relaxing. Not completely (never completely in public), but enough.