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[redintheledger]

The woman walking into the bar today still has the remains of eyeliner and glitter around her eyes, but the clothes themselves are a perfectly ordinary set of shorts and fitted t-shirt.

If anyone asks, Nadine was at a party last night. And, because she can, Natasha is going to make sure that party was way, way more fun than 'Tanya's' waitressing shift.

Mostly, though, she's going to claim a couch, slip off her tennis shoes, and curl her feet up, just because she can.

Comments

[hasthehighground]

Clint catches his bounce-y ball for a moment when walking into the room, then starts it up again as he walks.

He's wearing a pair of worn-out jeans, a Henley, and plain socks with no shoes. His hearing aids are those he wears at home -- 20 hour plane rides suck, so getting comfortable afterward is his basic mission in life.

There's already someone on the sofa.

"... Hey," he says, and smiles.

[redintheledger]

The someone on the couch brightens at him.

Coming to Milliways today was clearly an excellent idea.

"Hey you. Please tell me you're going to join me."

[hasthehighground]

Clint doesn't say 'of course,' he just smiles and takes a seat next to her, pressing a kiss to her cheekbone.

Then drawing back, bemused. "You're glittery."

[redintheledger]

Solemnly, "I am. I lead a very glamorous life.

Which suggests she's glittery for distinctly unglamorous reasons.

Had they been in private, she'd have stretched her legs out across his lap. As it is, she shifts so she can lean against him.






Yeah, she's missed him.

[hasthehighground]

"And here I thought I was the glamorous one." Clint tilts a grin at her, taking a drink of his coffee.

After a moment, he puts his free arm around her. Lightly, so she can shake him off if she wants. "You want anything?"

[balancingminds]

Scotland has a way of being colder even during the summer so Charles has reluctantly come inside. He moves to the fire with his book, he found one in the library about people who have changed planets which is fascinating.

He doesn't know if it will help with getting Iris comfortable in his world but its worth a try. As he sits down a rat comes by with his tea and he nods to Nadine who looks relaxed.

[redintheledger]

She looks up at the sound of approaching footsteps, and smiles a little in greeting.

"Evening...Charles, wasn't it?"

[balancingminds]

"Yes, Nadine?" Its been a while but he remembers her face and complicated mind.

[redintheledger]

"Yes! You showed me the library."

The wonderful, amazing library she needs to spend a few months getting lost in.

(She's tired, and her mind has a weariness to it that it hadn't before - at least, not at the surface level - but even still, her awareness is still taking note of her surrounds as professionally paranoid as before.)

[balancingminds]

"Oh yes, I love the library here. How have you been?"

He hopes she's will but he wonders as she seems tired.

[cutting_edgex23]

X's gaze flicks to the glitter, noting it and moving on.

She pauses before slipping into a nearby chair, but only for a second.

"You are working?"

Sometimes it is sensible to check.

[redintheledger]

"I finished before I came here," she says.

"Too awake to sleep, so." She gestures to the bar. "Here I am. Are you working?"

[cutting_edgex23]

"It is not my shift," X says.

It's kind of like an answer.

"Sometimes that is good."

[redintheledger]

"Mmhmm," Romanoff says, watching X.

"Is it good at the moment?"

[cutting_edgex23]

"I have been practicing," X allows. Eventually. "A lot."

Beat.

"Rest is important."

Or so she has been told.

[katyafeline]

One Russian deserves another, and this one comes armed with a bottle of vodka and two glasses. Her silver bangles telegraph her progress across the bar in bright chimes.

"Dobryy vecher, tovarishch."

[redintheledger]

"Thank you, comrade," she replies in the same language with a smile, dropping the Muscovite accent and sounding like her actual self.

She really wants to rant about the new Russian upper-classes, and how much capitalism has fucked things over. But Nadine isn't in Russia, hasn't been a waitress since she was an undergrad, so Natasha says no such thing.

What she does is jerk her head sideways to the couch. It's an offer, if Katya wants.

[katyafeline]

Katya takes it, curling comfortably into the open space and pouring Natasha a glass of vodka before pouring one for herself.

"Fun night?"

[redintheledger]

"You could say that."

She hates rich people.

"You been having fun?"

[katyafeline]

"Someone challenged me to a duel here." Her grin is a little crooked - she hasn't been challenged in ages, and found it quite a lot of fun.

[luvs_yogurt]

Soon after, the other side of the sofa dips and a man sits down with a cup of blueberry yogurt in one hand and book in the other - which is mostly unremarkable save for the fact that the book appears to be in Russian.

Lifting his eyes toward her in a silent 'I hope you don't mind' he leans heavily against the arm and opens it up toward the end.

[redintheledger]

She gestures at him with a smile, a silent, feel free.

Then she regards him for a moment, squinting her eyes to read the back of the book.

"[You're Russian, or just can speak it?]" she asks in her Volga Region accented Russian, her vowels noticeably different from a Muscovites.

[luvs_yogurt]

A small smile tugs at the corners of his lips and Michael replies in a much more rusty dialect; "[I spent several years there. I am not as good as I used to be.]

Letting out a slight laugh, he switches back to English; "I didn't think there were any natives here. I haven't had a reason to speak Russian in years. Southern, I take it? I'm more familiar with the Moscow blending of dialects."

[redintheledger]

"I spent a number of formative years in Volgograd. It's my mom's hometown," she replies in English with a quiet smile. Her accent now is perfectly American, but blandly so. A journalist's accent, or maybe just that of a twenty-something who has bounced around too much to put down linguistic-roots.

"There's a couple Muscovites here, but I haven't really run into anyone else."

[luvs_yogurt]

He nods easily enough, all-too-familiar with the accent of someone who has traveled extensively.

"I couldn't sleep and dug out a book the bar gave me a few years back..." he taps the cover, a contemporary fantasy novel, and lets out another half-laugh without much humor. "About a boy that finds a secret door to another world where he becomes a bit of a hero."

The irony isn't lost on him.