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3336 Cream Puff Way

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[aigue]

... Oh.

[Her ears droop a little. She's conflicted - on the one hand it should be his choice and his choice only. On the other, she's selfish and glad he isn't going to disappear like so many others.]

Maybe when they get older they'll be able to understand.

[advanced]

[He scrubs a hand through his hair, always forgetting how short it is again now until he touches it.]

I’m sorry, it ain’t a pleasant conversation to know someone would be better dead. I came to talk to you about your stories, so how about we move back to that? Beowulf seems like... well, if I’m being honest, he seems like a goddamn idiot. A good man and an idiot.

[Just like Steve.]

[aigue]

Better than you keeping it bottled up.

[Which, if he hasn't already told John all this, is what she assumes he is doing.]

If you want to talk about Beowulf we can, but I want some coffee. Do you have any in here, or do we need to go out?

[She's just going to wander over to the kitchen.]

[advanced]

[He doesn't think of it as bottling things up, and more not bothering to discuss things that don't have relevance right then and there.]

I don't really go out to places where you can get coffee.

[He has been in the rec centre all of once, and that was just to scope it out.]

But I guess we can if you need coffee that much.

[aigue]

Good. Let's go.

Spinning around, she now heads for the door.]

Do you prefer coffee? Or tea?

[advanced]

Coffee.

[Said like that's the only correct choice.]

Didn't really have a lot of tea when I was growing up, too expensive.

[aigue]

[And off they go! She's mulling over some poetry for payment as they walk.]

Don't tell John that, I think he'd get offended. The English take their tea very seriously.

[advanced]

That's because they're all kinda dumb, it's a problem with the country.

[He's joking, but the change in inflection is very subtle for his joking voice and his normal one.]

[aigue]

Well, I'll agree they aren't up to quite the same standards as the French.

[She might be biased, though. Maybe.]

[advanced]

I was more thinking the Americans, but sure, the French are okay I guess.

[Now he's actually smiling, don't tell anyone.]

[aigue]

We're fantastic, is what you mean. [She grins back, nudging him with her elbow.] Americans have some good qualities too, though. You're very friendly right away, and very good at being rebellious. I can appreciate that.

[advanced]

You ever miss France? Seems like a lot of the people in these places speak English as their default, must make you kinda homesick, huh?

[He's just glad that he hasn't come across any native Russians yet.]

[aigue]

I do. [Especially since she uses English most of the time here, rather than French.] Back in Between we had a few of the Musketeers, so I had company. I don't think anyone else is French here.

[advanced]

[He hesitates a moment, and then slips into perfect French. The Soldier was grilled in languages on a way to make him seem like a native, so even his accent is as if he were French born.]

Maybe not, but that doesn't mean that you can't speak the language if you want to.

[aigue]

[Renart stops.

Right, okay, she should not be surprised that the guy who was brainwashed by Nazis with a crazy robotic arm knows French. She should not. But she still, and if it wasn't going to end poorly she'd probably hug or kiss him.

She just switches over to French, the modern version.]

Since when can you speak it?? You should have told me!

[advanced]

[For a moment he wonders if he's made a mistake when she stops so abruptly. Perhaps the language is a painful reminder to her, and he should have checked before just launching into it.

Thankfully, those worries are laid to rest pretty quickly by the expression on her face.]

I speak a lot of languages, it just didn't seem relevant to mention before.

[aigue]

Really? Which other ones? I speak a few, myself.

[More than just English and French, and more than a few.

She grins widely at him and resumes walking.]

[advanced]

[He shrugs, these are the skills that HYDRA drilled into him that he's probably the least ashamed of.]

If there are a decent amount of people who speak it somewhere in the world, then I probably speak it too.

[aigue]

Impressive.

[Extremely so. Even she never bothered learning quite that many.]

Do you mind if we speak in French together, from now on? [She'd ask for German too, just because she has close roots with the non-Nazi part of the country, but that wouldn't be tactful with him.] Zephyr's autotranslation is fine and all, but I enjoy speaking it with people who don't have to rely on that.

[advanced]

I don't mind, French is a nice enough language to speak.

[Nor does he have any negative connotations with it. Truthfully, he probably wouldn't mind German either, the majority of his training had been done in Russia and that's where the bad memories were.]

There was a Frenchman in the Commandos, Dernier, didn't speak a word of English.

[aigue]

Thank you.

[She means it. This is going to be weirdly fun.]

Oh? What was he like?

[advanced]

[His lips quirk up just a bit, his shoulders straighter. It's all subconscious, just a reaction to being able to do something nice for someone, instead of something that causes them pain, it's nice.]

Pretty sure he was saying rude stuff a lot of the time, only his best friend spoke any French so we couldn't tell. He was a good man, though, brave. All the Commandos were.

[aigue]

You'd all have to be brave to do what you did during that war. Sounds like someone I'd get along with, at any rate.

[Sassy, at the very least, and she likes sass.]

I might have to make a list. 'Friends of Bucky's I want to one day meet'.

[advanced]

They're all dead, so I think you'd find it hard to meet them.

[Well... not Steve, but he's in a category all of his own.]

But maybe I could meet Beowulf one day?

[aigue]

[She wouldn't be surprised if Zephyr could pull them from before they died, or even after.]

Maybe, if he's still around. Between was supposed to be what was left of every reality, so I don't know if there are any more Fairy Tales out there.