mtl008 Chapter 3690: Mercury Age ()
Chapter 3690: Mercury Age ()
Chapter 3690: The Mercury Age ()
"Long time no see, Mr. Barnes." Natasha stood straight in front of the table with her bag in both hands. She didn't look at him with her eyes. She just glanced at him, turned her head away, and turned around to take the menu from the waiter.
Bucky stood there for a few seconds, then seemed to suddenly wake up and walked around the table to pull out a chair for Natasha.
"Thank you." Natasha reached out to straighten her skirt around her hips, then sat down, put her bag on her right hand side, and opened the menu to look at it.
Bucky sat back down across from her, first putting his hands on the table, then taking a deep breath and leaning back, then turning to look at the waiter passing by, then putting his hands on the table again and leaning forward.
Natasha lowered her head and looked at the menu carefully. The dim light in the restaurant flowed over her three-dimensional facial features, which were like sculptures. Her brow bones, eyelashes, lips, and jaw seemed to be a small world with infinite mysteries. The vibration brought by her breathing was like an earthquake. The little man played by the dust fell down in panic, and a golden rain fell in the air cut by edges and lines, dancing with some rekindled dead ashes.
Bucky felt his eyes and heart crack like lava. All the mental preparations made in advance were completely useless. Natasha's beauty was like the sharpest sword in the world. In this first round of confrontation, he had already lost too much blood in the invisible battlefield of hormones.
Humans always fall in love with the same type of people over and over again. Before realizing this, everyone is confident that they will not fall in the same place twice. But in fact, what makes them fall is not a staircase or a trap, but a high wall that completely blocks the way forward. They hit it, turn back to find a new way, and after going around in circles, they come back here and hit the same wall again. It is as humorous as a black comedy, but also so painful that it makes people desperate.
All the good feelings he had about himself when he looked in the mirror before the date were almost instantly shattered. Natasha had become younger, which was a new experience of beauty for others. But for Bucky, who had actually seen Natasha when she was young, it was a disaster. Because young Natasha was not like this.
They looked the same, but their temperament and soul were completely different. This made Bucky realize that this was no longer the lover of his youth. But what made him even more desperate was that he still loved this skin, like an incurable lustful person, once again, forever.
Almost everyone gathered in the Avengers base dispersed.
"Give up, there's no hope." Wanda shook her head and said, "I know this look too well. Even if you put a knife to his neck right now, he won't leave."
"He reminds me of a young Tony," Pepper said. "Like a bee chasing honey. Men in their mate season are the craziest creatures on earth. If any of us showed up and interrupted his date, he'd throw us into the Atlantic Ocean, and that includes you, Steve."
Steve also walked to the sofa next to him and sat down, put his hands on the back of the chair and said, "I've never seen Bucky look at any member of the opposite sex with such eyes. He's screwed. I can pull him out of the river, or even the Arctic Ocean, but not a neutron star."
"I don't have anything in particular to eat." Natasha closed the menu carelessly. Only then did her eyes move slightly, scanning the environment around the restaurant, and found that there was no special movement. This meant that the group of troublemakers had not arrived yet. She could only convince herself to calm down and then devote herself to it.
She handed Bucky the menu. Bucky reached for it, and when he saw the menu items, he realized he could barely read the English. His brain was trying to make sense of the words, but it was too slow and too useless.
"If you don't remember what I like to eat, then order what you like." Natasha reached into her bag and took out a small mirror. She opened it and looked at her eye makeup, then pursed her lips, as if checking the condition of her lipstick.
This sentence was like a bucket of cold water poured on Bucky's head, making him sober up immediately. He was not feeling guilty, he was just alert. Natasha treated him with the attitude she had shown to those mission targets, pretending to not care in order to gain the right to speak, and saying that he "didn't remember" was a typical PUA, just to make him feel guilty.
Natasha was angry. This was Bucky's first feeling. After getting rid of the manipulation of hormones, he began to feel abnormal. He never imagined that Natasha would dress up for the banquet, because if she wanted to express her refusal, perfunctory and impatient would be the normal state.
She could have worn sportswear, or even slippers, and the restaurant wouldn't let her in. She could have simply not come, and no one could have forced her to, or just picked an old outfit and put on some random makeup. But she did none of these.
The dress, flowing like mercury, is too fitting. Her straight and smooth red hair further emphasizes her beautiful features. The platinum and mother-of-pearl earrings are definitely not from a Fifth Avenue store. Even the small bag is probably a survivor left behind by the waves.
She was gorgeous and radiant. When she walked into the restaurant, everyone was looking at her. No one laughed at Bucky's behavior because if they were sitting across from Natasha, they would probably be as nervous as a cowboy going to town for the first time.
This is certainly not normal. Bucky is not arrogant enough to think that his old relationship with Natasha is worth such a grand and ostentatious dress. Bucky suddenly remembered a sentence Natasha said to him when she was young, which is also a Russian proverb from Natasha's hometown - "If you find a woman more beautiful than usual, she is either in love with someone or she hates someone."
Being hated by the Black Widow is a very terrifying thing, just like being stared at by a poisonous spider in the jungle. Even if you haven't been bitten yet, it makes people feel creepy from the bottom of their hearts and sweat.
But Bucky was relieved. He knew that his reaction was not normal. He knew that he might be sick or crazy, but he really felt relaxed, and felt that the world had become beautiful at this moment, and the sound of the violin had become light.
Then countless memories came flooding back uncontrollably. There were so many images of young Natasha in his mind that he could make a movie, and every frame couldn't overlap with the Natasha in front of him, or even with herself in other images. But Bucky was still fascinated by the memories.
“I want one of these,” Bucky said, pointing at the menu. “And one of these. Oh, no black pepper on the steak, and less cheese on the baked scallops. And one more serving of foie gras…”
Bucky ordered a lot of dishes. When two glasses of aperitif were placed on the table, he took the initiative to speak: "Long time no see, Natasha. We haven't had a good chat since we met again in the United States."
"So you're here to reminisce about the past? You said you came to discuss Steve's birthday with me, that's why I came."
This is a naked provocation, Bucky thought. In a date that belongs to two people, deliberately mentioning a third man, even if he is married with children and is also his best friend and comrade-in-arms, is also a provocation.
"Yes, I was going to talk about Steve. 100 is a great day, and I think we all really want to celebrate him. But after seeing you just now, I changed my mind. I think we should talk about the things between the two of us."
Natasha lowered her head slightly and stroked the stem of the aperitif wine glass with her slender fingers. The cold blood vessels under the white skin of the hands that usually only had close contact with the trigger were clearly visible. Bucky remembered very clearly the feeling of the fingertips of these hands cutting through the wound and touching his arteries.
"I thought we had nothing to talk about." Natasha said, "I accepted the result, and you didn't object. This means everything is over. Isn't it?"
"You know that doesn't count, Natasha. I was transformed and brainwashed. They shook my will, changed my thoughts, and gave me something I had to stick to. And it was because of this that I had a disagreement with you."
"I have no disagreement with you," Natasha said. "The problem between us is essentially a problem between me and the Soviet Union. It has nothing to do with you."
"That's not the case." Bucky shook his head slightly and said, "If you must say so, then there is also a third party between you and the Soviet Union, and that is Hydra. You know who is behind this, but you just don't want to admit it."
"You're right." Natasha's tone dropped, with a coldness that she herself was not aware of. "Then don't those great leaders who were corrupted by Hydra need to be held responsible for their own weakness?"
“We have discussed these issues a long time ago,” Bucky said. “The indulgence of those who were infiltrated and corrupted led to tragic results. But if there was no Hydra, it wouldn’t have led to such a tragic ending.”
"This proves that you are just like them," Natasha sneered. "After doing something wrong, in order to find an excuse for your weakness, you invent a powerful and irresistible enemy, blame it for all the mistakes, and live a life of comfort and peace of mind. Sergeant Barnes, do you want me to remind you what you have done?"
Bucky's fingers slowly tightened. His chest rose and fell rapidly, but then calmed down. He looked at Natasha and said, "If you die, I accept your accusation that I am weak. But I must also remind you, Lieutenant Romanov, that you are still alive."
The atmosphere became tense. Neither of them spoke any more. Almost at the same time, they put their glasses to their lips and drank in silence. The atmosphere was like the Titanic sinking. They were holding the same piece of ice, but each was walking on his own snowfield.
“Let’s not talk about the past anymore,” Bucky said. “Do you think there are answers to these questions? We’re not responsible for this. Why can’t we just let it go?”
"Of course it's because you don't want to let it go." Natasha put down her glass heavily and looked at Bucky. "If you want to let everything go, then you shouldn't come to me. You know I will never give up asking questions, even if the questions themselves have sunk. But as long as we, the remnants, are still surviving, the torrent of the last era will never stop. In us, in our memories, our personal feelings will become increasingly insignificant under its wash. This is the price that survivors of the upheaval should pay, and the price of our lives. I figured this out on my last night in Minsk, instructor. Is it earlier than you thought?"