What was a shock to see when returning home, was a nice new fixed door. Bucky registered the fact that he hadn't got keys now for his own apartment and felt himself sighing heavily, while lifting his hand. He hadn't managed to get in touch with maintenance to see about fixing it, looked like Emmeline had, whether that was because she wished to be helpful, felt bad, or was fed up with both of them having to really slam and wedge it shut and hope for the best, he didn't know.

The door opened, Emmeline's smiling face seemed welcoming enough, her radiantly coloured hair tied loosely up from her neck, her green top from earlier being replaced by a black vest, her hole-ridden jeans were swapped for comfortable looking jogging bottoms. Her inky coloured and golden eyes looked him up at down, and her smile just grew cheekier looking; clearly enjoying the fact that he looked absolutely done in by this predicament.

"Can I come in?" He asked, it felt totally weird asking for permission to enter his own home. Emmeline swung the door open and gestured an arm to the side. Bucky walked past her with a frown on his face, the television was playing something in the background which looked like cartoons, on the coffee table sat a laptop. Bucky admittedly hadn't a clue what Emmeline had or hadn't bought with her, but she had made a setup on the coffee table, he was presuming that at least because of the cushions on the floor nearby.

"So, I got the door fixed." Emmeline clapped her hands together and darted off to one side, a small cabinet to the side had a little dish neatly placed on it, it was something which was just decoration but now housed keys.

Bucky put his briefcase down and shrugged his jacket off, the laptop got a wary glance as he sat down on the sofa and switched the television off. "Yeah, I saw." He had to state the obvious and looked at the keys being hesitantly held out to him between her forefinger and dumb. "You didn't have to do that," he would've got around to it eventually.

Emmeline sighed and sat cross legged on the cushions; she leaned her arms on the sofa cushions beside him. Bucky watched and waited; she rested her chin on her crossed arms and looked simply back up at him. Spiderweb thin like marks stretched down her forearms, even the backs of her hands and biceps had similar marks, remnants from a time where she was literally operated on to find if her power could be spied from between muscle and bones.

"Thank you," Bucky decided that was the reason for the bland look, Emmeline smiled and inclined her head before turning to the laptop. He wasn't used to her choosing to be quiet, Bucky leaned his arms against his thighs and nodded, not that she saw the action. "What are you doing?"

"I watched some of the trial." Emmeline explained instead, Bucky let out a thoughtful noise. Somehow, he could've guessed she would. "I'm just...looking..."

"If this is going to cause issues for the trial, stop it. I already told you to not get involved." Bucky had to reaffirm, as useful as it was to have Emmeline admit Valentina had approached her, it would be she said this versus a denial or maybe admitting it and then warping the situation.

Emmeline shook her head, narrowing her eyes she glanced over her shoulder at him. "I'm not finding anything remotely troubling for the trial, so don't worry."

"Then what are you doing?" Bucky gestured a hand to her, Emmeline got the hint and budged up, he slid from the sofa and sat on the floor with her. He took the laptop from her and looked over the information there, she was seemingly looking into any research facilities Valentina had, and what public information was around about them. Seeing as how one just got destroyed, it didn't look too great, that was for sure.

"If you are going to make a weapon, you need somewhere."

Bucky looked sidelong at her, "You saw the part about the experimentation."

"If you were going to make some hero, thing, surely you would want samples from people who are not as well known; if something goes wrong while collecting samples, then with any luck that person won't be missed."

"And you think this is what she intended for you?" Bucky frowned, something in his stomach turned at that, as awful as it was, it made sense; Emmeline was ridiculous, the sheer level of destruction she could do without even trying, in the wrong hands though it would be catastrophic.

Emmeline hesitantly placed her elbow against the coffee table, plopping her chin against her palm she looked at him almost bored. "I'm a walking reactor full of solar like energy. Fancy the many uses that could have, if utilised." She sniffed and placed a finger against the laptop to turn it back her way. There were a lot of facilities listed under Valentina, "She wanted to make a hero, because the Avengers are sort of gone, yes?"

"Something like that." Bucky admitted he wasn't sure he wanted Valentina's brand of hero, Emmeline shot him a look, she didn't either, clearly.

"Shows how much faith she has in Sam." Emmeline shut the laptop and looked at it for several quiet moments before looking uncertainly back at him. "There are many of us around, the rejects."

"We're not rejects," Bucky shot her a look at that, Emmeline raised an eyebrow and didn't look bought. "I left; you left...everyone else..."

"They're either dead, retired, or they're doing their own things."

"Exactly." Bucky nodded surely, although the way she said it so efficiently had him sighing.

"Coffee?" She just changed the subject so easily he found himself silently nodding and watching her shoot up and go towards the kitchen. She was totally choosing not to tell him about seeking out Alexei, he was perhaps better off without knowing that.

Emmeline had spent a good while being annoyed over how stubborn that man was to not listen to her. But then if she was in his shoes, would she listen to a stranger going off about danger? Maybe, maybe not. She liked to think though if that stranger was on about danger and her child, she'd listen. What did she know? Last she knew Hydra took her ability to be a parent away so...

Filling the kettle with a simplicity that had her suddenly becoming aware that she was too in her head to focus on not burning or melting anything, she almost dropped the kettle back down. Bucky stood and walked over, leaning against the kitchen counter he just watched her, Emmeline turned and held her hands up with an awkward smile, no glowing, no heat haze or raising temperature in the room so all was good.

"If she is testing on humans though...that's wrong. That is no better than what happened to us." Emmeline hated to state it, but it wasn't. Valentina could dress it up as she's trying to do a service to the nation, but really all she could end up doing, was damaging and killing someone, if she hadn't already. It made Emmeline shudder, honestly it really did make her feel cold inside, which was practically an impossibility.

Bucky's eyes hardened, "Neither of us signed up for that."

Emmeline shot him a bewildered look, "So...if someone signs up, then it is okay for them to get messed up in all sorts of ways?"

"That's not what I meant," Bucky didn't mean it in that way and she knew it. This was a subject which was always going to be touchy for her, not that it wasn't for him, but this was a slight which really dug underneath her skin and irked her. "There'd have to be documents, waivers, people would have to undergo tests to make sure they're viable candidates."

Emmeline smiled, she could hear the kettle slowly boil behind her. "Somehow I do not believe Valentina would go the same route as those that dealt with Steve." She had to admit, surely, they were a lot more on it with details? It seemed like what Valentina was doing, was potentially a grab at something which shouldn't be touched. Manmade superpowered people was surely a strange grey area, with exceptions, of course. If it was for the sake of good, then did that necessarily make it good, even if that person had to undergo procedures and pain which no person should actually ever go through?

Inhaling slowly, Bucky watched as she busied about making coffee for them both. He eyed her jerky actions before committing to grabbing a mug, she was more conscious with things which seemed delicate, he wasn't sure if she noticed but sometimes she'd pick something up, or touch it without a second thought, like she couldn't just melt the object in moments. She could let the ever-present hyper-focus slip for fractions of moments, and Bucky didn't know if she was aware that she didn't need to be so alert all the time.

=

It was simply impossible for someone like Alexei to blend seamlessly into a crowd, being as tall and broad as he was, it wasn't easy to be inconspicuous; not that he was even trying to be that right now. If anything, he just wanted to get some groceries and retreat to his apartment. Since Yelena had visited and seemed so lost, Alexei had been left with food for thought, not just because he mentally had a shopping list in his mind, but he honestly believed that the person that Emmeline was referring to was the same woman who had hired his daughter.

There had to be a reason why Yelena wanted out and why Emmeline was suspicious his daughter was in danger. Alexei, like most, when he had time, he'd tune into what televised hearings there were. He had to admit, Valentina was very good at trying to deflect, it was almost coming off as a second nature thing, to constantly deflect attention from her to something else.

Shaking his head, Alexei shoved his hands in his leather jacket pockets, he was having the day off...he had a lot of those, but he wasn't needed to drive his limo, and any other little odd jobs he did, he wasn't needed for either. Everyone else around him seemed to be happily minding their own business and not paying any mind to the ex-super soldier stewing over stagnating.

His boots scuffed along the street, he turned and paused, his blue eyes widening slowly and the fact he almost jumped on the spot had some around him looking at him strangely. It wasn't like he needed clarification from Emmeline that she was referring to Valentina, but it would be useful to get more information from the blonde. Alexei wasn't sure how he would ever find her in a city, especially one as big as this one, but he was a firm believer that fate bought people together for reasons.

Low and behold, across the street there she stood. Her head tilted curiously, headphones on, her hands were shoved into her jacket pockets, but she was clearly window shopping. From the distance he was, Alexei couldn't really see what she was eyeing up but he looked ecstatic that he had somehow found her, totally a fluke or not. So, with that, and without paying much mind to the noise around him, he shouted her name excitedly, people around him frowned and looked at him with even weirder looks then. But Alexei didn't care, he just took to crossing the road, not really minding where he was going, he may have narrowly missed being hit with a taxi as he continued onwards.

She was looking in a clothes shop, the dress on the mannequin still had her head tilted curiously. It had only been a few days since she had climbed into his limo, he wasn't expecting her to have changed drastically and she was clearly in her own little world that she only came out of it when she spotted his reflection next to hers in the shop window.

Alexei was practically beaming, she lifted a hand up and pulled her headphones down, pausing the music as she did so. "I found you!" He came out with, sounding a little breathless from his almost jog to get to her before she moved off.

"You...were trying to find me?" Emmeline sounded utterly miffed, no one had ever personally sought her out. She shook her head, why was the one time she was searched for, it was by the person she last thought she'd see anytime soon.

"Da, you came and went so quickly and left me with many thoughts." Alexei admitted, waving his hand around in the air, gesturing at nothing. Emmeline still had her dark glasses on, but he could see her eyes narrow sceptically at him.

"Right." Emmeline wasn't sure what to say, what was she meant to say to that? Pointing a finger, she smiled awkwardly, she was slowly hinting that she was either going to go or was about to enter the shop. Don't get her wrong, there was a much more reassuring space between them on the street as opposed to the limo, but even still...

Shaking his head, Alexei looked suddenly disheartened his enthusiasm to talk wasn't matched. She seemed so up for chatting last time. Without a second thought he reached out to touch her shoulder, just a gentle tap to get her from retreating from him completely. The last thing he expected from the action though was something as defensive as heat to almost whiplash against his hand and fingers. He recoiled with a pained and startled noise and Emmeline turned on her heels with a horrified look on her face, he could see that even as he cradled his hand to his chest and with her glasses on.

"You idiot!" Emmeline still looked utterly mortified as she dared to edge closer, the fact that Alexei now looked like a kicked and startled puppy didn't help. "Why would you do that?! You don't just grab people!" She exclaimed exasperated, totally and completely exasperated. "You can't do that with me, it just...I can't...I can't have contact I don't know is coming. Even then something like this can happen. Why would you do that?" Emmeline's worry over him being injured was slowly wiped and erased away by her anger and annoyance over the whole thing.

Sure, Alexei was not to know that he couldn't just halt her retreat by placing a hand on her shoulder. That wasn't totally his fault, she couldn't blame him entirely seems her defence was always to lash out, whether she truly meant to or not, there had to be severe preparation on her part for any contact with anyone, or anything; he wasn't to know that, but she still found herself partially blaming him and then feeling awful for it, she couldn't blame the victim because if she wasn't to high-strung all the time, this wouldn't have happened.

She had long since realised there was something a little broken in her, when the pieces of her became so jagged and jaded she did not know. But contact was something which short-circuited her brain and usually resulted in accidents, just like this. Raking a hand through her hair, she then hovered her hands in the air awkwardly, there was nothing she could do; she couldn't take the pain away, or heal the slight burns, he seemed to get the hint and lessoned the grasp he had on his own hand and looked down too. His palm was a definite startling shade of pink-red, raw almost and very sore and tingling, there were no signs of blisters, at least not yet.

"You burned me," Alexei just stated, now his brain had caught up with him, and he realised just what she had done and what had happened, this was all he could seemingly come out with. Emmeline's startled expression flitted so suddenly across her face as she held her hands up in defence, Alexei then found it was his turn to look miffed, why was she acting like he was going to return the favour and harm her in some way? Because that's honestly how she looked, her shoulders hunched and honestly standing there as if readying to brace herself.

The fact he suddenly laughed from nowhere had her tilting her head confusedly. Alexei waved his burned hand in the air, the action hurting but he would heal quickly, most super soldiers seemed to heal progressively quicker than most, he wasn't an exception. Emmeline looked around again, thankful no one paid mind to them, but also raised an eyebrow when people passing them did eye Alexei up weirdly, glad she wasn't the only one that found him to be some sort of anomaly, and that was coming from her.

"It isn't funny..."

"Da, it is. I have been burned before, sometimes on purpose, other times not. You are not the first woman to burn me, perhaps you are the first to look bad about it." Alexei mused, nodding his head absentmindedly, almost wistfully going down memory lane remembering anytime he had encountered being figuratively or literally burned.

"Of course, I look and feel bad about it!" Emmeline despaired, "You...whatever, there is no point. What do you want? Why were you trying to find me?" She paused and looked at his hand, which he was so trying to play off as nonchalant and not hurting, she saw him wince when he went to hook his thumb into his belt loop and casually lean against the shop window beside them. Emmeline wasn't sure the shop assistants would approve of him doing that, but she also wished anyone luck trying to tell this man to do anything, she somehow, she wasn't sure how, got the sense he was very hardheaded and would do things his way, regardless. "I am sorry about the hand." She added after a moment of silence, she was sorry, of course she was, she didn't take pleasure in hurting people.

Hurting people by accident or not just had a part of her brain signalling that Hydra really did enhance what was already there and make quite the sufficient little weapon. Shaking her head, making her bright coloured hair flail about her face, she crossed her arms, tucking her hands tightly against herself to keep them away from anything else, not that she needed her hands to do damage...

"Ah, well...when you found me, you were trying to be all cryptic and mysterious. I know who you were talking about, without naming names."

Emmeline looked up at the sky, the towering buildings around them were not providing help here. "Follow me," she turned on her heels, they were not having this conversation out in public.

Startled by the invitation, Alexei slid away from the window and easily caught up with her in two long strides. "Where are we going? Have you got some secret little base hidden away?" He whispered, sounding quite conspiring as he leaned down quite a bit to get heard over all the traffic and noise of the city around them.

Emmeline shot him a look, somehow, he didn't learn to keep clear even though his hand was evidently burned. She leaned away, "No, what? We're going to get a drink...and maybe some ice, or water, you need to treat that hand."

Alexei made a noise which to Emmeline disturbingly sounded like an aw, she shot him a look overtop her glasses. "Look at you now all worried, it'll be fine, I'm fine."

Emmeline scoffed, "Yeah, no. I think you are many things, fine isn't it." She quipped with a lopsided smirk. Would she describe Alexei as fine? No, he was something else, a whole walking talking explosion of personality and confidence that honestly, it was outstanding to her. She could have false bravado, come off brave and confident but it was hard to maintain. Pretending to be fine, could be exhausting. Alexei though? There was no pretence here, at all, which just blew her mind a little more.

"I'm fine," Alexei repeated anyway, yet even she saw him hesitantly look down at his hand.

Shaking her head, Emmeline paused and looked at the cafe they had arrived at. Almost glaring at the door handle, she contemplated for several seconds before Alexei's good hand pushed the door open. Having been stuck in her head figuring out if she could touch the metal after what just happened, she bypassed him just doing it for her, even though to do so he was practically leaning over her shoulder, again.

She shot him a blatant look but entered, finding a booth near the back and sliding on in, she watched him sit opposite. It was almost laughable, honestly, she couldn't think of a situation where things just didn't look small in comparison to him. The booth just looked like a too small of a space, for someone of Alexei's, well, Alexei, too broad and tall, though she felt him consciously keep to one side so there was distance between their legs ever coming into contact. So maybe he had caught on to keep clear.

That thought went as she narrowed her eyes from behind her glasses, Alexei leaned against the table and though he did not mean to, was over half the table and looking at her. It would've been laughable if she wasn't trying to be overly aware to keeping well away. "This feels less cool than a secret base." Alexei stated, speaking quietly as if that was meant to be some secret to utter.

Emmeline hung her head back against the booth, the red leather creaked and made a cracking noise which had her snapping back up and looking hesitantly. No singe marks or melting, just the old leather making noise. Turning back, she wasn't at all surprised to see Alexei looking at her somewhat seriously, if not cautiously, he probably would've looked worried if his attention also wasn't divided between her and the laminated menu in his hands.

"I don't have a secret base. And I am not bringing you back home, I do not think my brother would approve of that." Emmeline said seriously, here was fine, there were plenty of people around to not care that they were there. No one would be listening to them talk, plus old habits die hard and she was very good at keeping mind of those around, if anyone remotely suspicious turned up, or started acting suspiciously, she'd see them.

Alexei's mouth downturned, looking minutely upset before nodding. "I do not think we are well enough acquainted to meet each other's family." He said it so casually, with a joking lilt to his voice which made his accent come out a little more that Emmeline just stared wide eyed at him.

He still looked from the menu to her, not that it was extensive and Emmeline was silent for a few more moments before letting out a quiet chuckle. Rubbing a hand against her forehead, she had to agree, Alexei didn't need to meet Bucky, and Bucky sure as sure could be did not need to meet Alexei. Even the thought of that interaction had Emmeline laughing a little more.

"You are a funny man," Emmeline pointed a finger hesitantly at him, Alexei did eye her digit sceptically, as if she was suddenly going to shoot more heat his way. She looked a little hurt he believed she'd willingly do so and sat on her hand. With her other hand she hovered near the other menu before reaching for it a few times before looking confused when Alexei slid his over the table at her.

"Why do you do that?" He was curious, "I can almost hear gears turn in your head." He gestured a finger to his own head, waving a finger about to mimic to rotation of gears. He had watched the almost mental struggle over the door, let alone the menu; that was not even including how she seemed to want to get his hand and look it over herself but stopped herself when she thought he was going to retaliate.

"Didn't you notice? Things burn if I'm not aware." Emmeline said the sentence so dryly her own accent made her words clipped and blunt. Her attention was on the menu now in front of her, with a soft sigh, her eyes flicked over the top of her glasses. "Thanks."

"Do not mention it," he leaned back, the leather groaning a lot more than it did with her. Relaxing an arm over the back of the booth, Alexei just watched her deliberate. She seemed torn over something because her eyes would flit from one thing to another. She was definitely a contradiction to watch, calm yet evidently not. She still held tension in her shoulders and was looking like she was permanently on the verge of bolting.

When a waitress did come over to their table, Alexei watched the quit snap action of her head to get her glasses back over her eyes before smiling and ordering, sounding so polite and cheery no one would even suspect moments ago she was fretting over his hand, shouting annoyed words at him; followed by the evidently life or death decision of opening a door and picking up a menu. She was a bizarre contradiction indeed.

"How do you know we are referring to the same person?" Emmeline asked fidgeting and no longer sitting on her hands she hesitantly crossed her arms on the table, her fingers interlacing and looking at him.

Alexei's eyebrows shot up, a proud smile grew on his face and he even sighed, sounding happy even if the meeting and interaction was bittersweet; "Yelena came and visited me. A few things she said got me thinking, you two are clearly onto something." He didn't mention Yelena wanted out.

Emmeline frowned, "We're not onto something. That woman approached me one day, just like I am sure she did with your daughter. I do not trust easily, and her? I do not trust her as far as I could throw her and trust me...I could throw her very far." Flight would also aid in the throwing, imagining throwing Valentina like a shot-put had Emmeline tightly smiling.

"I did not get the sense of this danger you were speaking about." Alexei waved offhandedly, his injured hand he had kept in his lap, it was still tingling.

Emmeline's eyebrows disappeared behind her glasses; she was silent for a few moments before figuring something out in her mind and just deciding that brutal honesty was perhaps the best course of actions for this man. "She has been linked to experimenting on people, which is something very personal to me; I do not know if this is what she intended for your daughter, but considering all that has already happened in her life, I believed she'd rather avoid that again." Emmeline said simply and bluntly, watching a hard look flit onto Alexei's face, so he was following at last. Files and information about people were so easy to find and Yelena especially wasn't exactly a hard person to research into.

"Why are you doing this?" Alexei had to ask; he sounded curious even as a frown slowly pulled his eyebrows together. It seemed...selfless, weirdly selfless for a stranger to do this for someone else. He didn't get it.

Inhaling, Emmeline shut her eyes and tilted her head in thought again. Something which Alexei had quickly picked up on that it was a troubling thought, something she wasn't sure she should say or not. "I do not want to see people hurt." Emmeline opened her eyes, a bright smile appearing on her face as the same waitress from earlier appeared with a tray. "Can I also have some water?" She thanked the woman when she happily said yes. Alexei pointed a finger at the tall glass in front of her, the overly pink strawberry milkshake was surely enough? Emmeline shot him a look, "It's for your hand, Alexei." As if she was stating the absolute obvious, the glass of water arrived promptly, and he just watched as she reached for the napkin dispenser.

So her earlier words did hold merit, he knew she didn't mean to hurt him but here she was trying to somehow rectify the damage, regardless of the fact he would heal from the slight burn within a day or so. "Why did you get involved?" Alexei watched as she stilled in awkwardly making a napkin damp for his hand, his coffee was enough for him, just like the milkshake was for her, no one was going to drink the water.

Emmeline gestured her other hand, while the other dipped the napkin into the glass, Alexei pulled his hand up and from his lap and watched as she managed to not break the napkin by wringing water from it. Holding it as if it was going to break, she slowly reached forwards and rested it over his open palm. The cold was instant, it stung a little, but it was also relieving. "Because I had nothing else to do." Emmeline said honestly, her hands retreating to a safe distance, she pulled her glass nearer and sipped at the straw.

Alexei looked from his palm to her and back again before looking incredulous. "You are bored!" He laughed, Emmeline frowned, he waved his good had at her, "Now, now, I do not judge! When I am bored, do I get involved in business such as this? Nyet. But each to their own."

"I got kicked out of the Avengers, because Sam didn't think I could work well in his new team. I am old, I am tired, yes, I am bored; but I also believe if this woman is experimenting on people, then she needs to get bought down any means necessary. Do I think this impeachment trial will have results? Questionable, especially considering she is throwing some gala thing in a few days, evidently hoping to just...gloss over facts, figures and everything in between." Emmeline said almost scathingly, she wasn't sure why nearly everything with Alexei had to be made light-hearted or into almost an attempt at a joke.

Alexei blinked slowly, hearing the Avengers had him looking at her in a way which had her frowning at him again. He took onboard everything she had said before scoffing, "You are too young to be so angry," Alexei could sense she was angry, not just because he could see her practically glaring at him through her glasses, but she was definitely giving off vibes, by vibes he predominantly meant a heat haze, things were definitely warming up over here for all the wrong reasons.

"I'm 96." Emmeline despaired, to her she was plenty old enough to be angry. Alexei double took and almost spat out his coffee, the over-exaggerated coughing fit had some looking over as Emmeline just decided to look out of the nearest window, as if her dining companion wasn't almost coughing up a lung.

"You must have good skin routine." His voice was hoarse from coughing, and he got a sidelong grin sent his way, she found that amusing or him and his shock funny, Alexei didn't know. Composing himself though, he looked at her curiously, "How?"

"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place."

Cold realisation washed over Alexei then; he muttered something under his breath she couldn't catch as he shook his head. "Hydra? Nasty business, cockroaches," Alexei shook his head, although he looked hesitantly back at her.

Emmeline smiled, not a happy smile at all, "Yes, quite." She agreed, drinking slowly at her milkshake she glanced out of the window.

The way in which she answered was blunt, she was uncomfortable with the admittance she had clearly come out with. "I see why it is personal to you then."

Emmeline hummed, "You agreed to have experiments done to you, yes? Those people in her programs may have signed up too, but they do not know what is really happening to them. Either you come out relatively unscathed," at this she pointed at him, through all the things done to Alexei to make him a super soldier, Emmeline didn't know, but he seemed rather intact and in one piece. "Or you do not," at this she turned her finger on herself. "I did not sign up. I was automatically enlisted, by my father; who, when I was 9, and discovered I had this ability, took me to a laboratory and cut me open to find out how I worked. That is something no one should sign up for, being made worse than when they first stepped foot inside wherever..."

He nodded, feeling awkward, he had tried to be a good father...and it cost, a lot. Did he believe he did things for the right reasons? Of course. Even if in the long run, he did hand his daughters over to people who were no better than those who experimented on the woman before him. Shaking his head slowly, Alexei was rather adamant that whatever Yelena did for Valentina, it didn't involve experiments of any kind done on her person. He meant what he said when they first met, if anyone dared try, Yelena would probably destroy them.

"The danger you spoke about, hinted at, I don't think Yelena is some experiment." Alexei struggled to find the right words and just came out with the first thing which came to mind.

Emmeline sighed, the noise even childishly creating bubbles to be blown in her milkshake as she looked over her glasses at him. Alexei just raised an eyebrow at the action, Emmeline in return smiled from around the straw. "Perhaps. But I think I would use someone of her talents to cover my tracks, if I was a shady snake-lady." Emmeline remembered reading about a building being blown up, some facility which had Valentina's name linked to it; perhaps she was coming at this from the wrong angle, Yelena's talents were definitely more for sabotage and undercover work.

"Is she a snake-lady?" Alexei's eyes widened, okay, in times of boredom he had scoured the internet and gone down rabbit holes which didn't need going down. In this day and age, reptilian people being about would not be the oddest thing.

Emmeline shook her head, "No. She is not a literal snake...she just is slippery and sly like one." Pausing she thought for a moment before shrugging one of her shoulders. "If she turned out to be one though, I wouldn't be surprised."

Alexei threw his hands up, damp napkin and all, "I was just thinking that!"

Emmeline smiled slowly, "You are very loud." She couldn't help it, he was, his exclaiming had people looking their way and she was just rendered utterly lost, shaking her head slowly in disbelief over how ridiculous this man was. If she hadn't read up on him, honestly if someone told her this was a Cold War spy and super soldier, she wouldn't believe them, not at all.

"And you can be very quiet, see, we make a great team already." Alexei grinned, not even missing a beat to try and get involved in, well, anything. Emmeline was not the only one that was bored, he was too.

Emmeline seemed to be stunned into silence for a moment, Alexei just looked at her patiently, she was very still, statuesque even. Had she fallen asleep sitting up with her eyes open? Alexei wasn't sure, only when she finally drunk more of her milkshake did he sigh, not asleep, just thinking. She seemed to do a lot of that, getting lost in her own head. "I actually don't have a comeback for that." Bucky had said she couldn't be quiet, and she made conscious efforts to always keep her power to a low hum, even if some slipped through, vocally...she never thought whether she was a loud person or not, she did like to talk if she got going though.

Alexei seemed thrilled at that, rendering her speechless had him laughing and grinning away triumphantly. Picking his coffee up, he sipped at it only to look unhappily down at it, like it had physically offended him. It had; it had the nerve to go cold while they talked and sat here. Emmeline sighed, she pushed her glass to the side and hooked a hesitant finger around the handle when Alexei relinquished it back to the table. Pulling the mug closer, she looked around warily before holding her hands just millimetres away from the ceramic. Alexei leaned forwards, curious to see her power work when it wasn't accidentally thrown his way.

Her hands glowed a soft yellow, a very controlled and small wave of heat circulated the mug and the area around her hands. After a few moments she retreated her hands back to a safe distance and nodded, she was about to state the obvious, only to despair when he went to grasp onto the mug and recoiled when he realised the ceramic was still very hot.

Emmeline despaired, a lot. Luckily the water was still cool, so she grasped another napkin and repeated the same action as she did for his other hand. Honestly, he looked ridiculous with the damp napkins draped over and around his large hands, but if it helped the slight burns, so be it. The heat didn't affect her, so she easily pushed the steaming cup back near to him before sliding back into her seat.

Pulling her drink near, she looked at him sceptically when he was trying to figure out if it was safe to pick up yet or not. Deciding to chance it, Alexei went for it and smiled widely, a seemingly content Russian word slipped out that Emmeline did not understand before he smiled her way. She just sat there still and unsure what was happening, she wasn't used to people looking at her with such sudden contentedness. "You are like microwave, a much prettier and glowing microwave without all the confusing settings."

Emmeline was dumbstruck before shaking her head, "Did you just compare me to an appliance?" Followed secondly by the thought of microwaves and their settings, somehow being confusing to Alexei.

"Da, but one that is much better..." Alexei trailed off and just gestured his hand to her, Emmeline looked at the napkin, then at him and then just rolled her eyes.

"Unless you want food poisoning, do not ask me to defrost anything." She plopped her chin in her hand and looked sidelong when a loud laugh erupted from him. Despite herself, Emmeline found herself slowly smiling, somehow his laughter and strange moments of happiness were contagious, probably helped that he was so utterly ridiculous and unashamed to be himself it was like a breath of fresh air to be around.