Chapter 3679: The Mercury Era (Part 10)

"Long time no see, Mr. Barnes." Natasha stood straight in front of the table, holding her bag with both hands, not looking at him with her eyes, just glancing at him before turning her head away, turning around in place to take the menu from the waiter.

Bucky stood there for a few seconds, as if suddenly waking up, before walking around the table to pull out a chair for Natasha.

"Thanks." Natasha reached out to smooth the skirt on her hips, then sat down, placed her bag on her right side, opened the menu, and started looking.

Bucky sat back opposite her, first placing both hands on the table, then taking a deep breath, leaning back, then turning his head to look at the waiter passing by, then placing both hands on the table again, leaning his body forward.

Natasha lowered her head and looked at the menu seriously. The dim yellow light in the restaurant flowed over her three-dimensional facial features like a sculpture. Eyebrows, eyelashes, lips, jaw, it seemed every part was a small world with infinite mysteries. The tremor brought by breathing was like an earthquake, the little people played by dust fell in a panic, dropping a golden rain in the air cut by edges and lines, dancing with some rekindled dead ashes.

Bucky felt his eyes and heart cracking like lava. All the psychological 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 on the invisible hormonal battlefield.

Humans always repeatedly fall in love with the same type of person. Before realizing this point, everyone is confident that they won't fall in the same place twice. But actually, the thing that makes them fall is not a step or a trap, but a high wall that completely blocks the road ahead. They crash into it, turn back to find a new road, and after wandering around, return here again, crashing into the same wall again, as humorous and painful as a black comedy, making one despair.

The good feelings about himself when looking in the mirror before the date were almost instantly crushed. Natasha had become younger; for others, this was a brand-new beauty experience. But for Bucky, who had really seen Natasha when she was young, this was a disaster. Because Natasha when she was young was not like this.

Their appearances were the same, but their temperaments and souls were completely different. This made Bucky realize that this was no longer his lover when he was young. But what made him despair even more was that he still loved this skin, like a hopeless lecher, once again, forever.

The crowd gathered at the Avengers base dispersed almost instantly.

"Give up, there's no saving him." Wanda shook her head and said, "I understand this look too well. Even if you put a knife to his neck now, he won't leave."

"He reminds me of Tony when he was young." Pepper said, "Just like a bee chasing honey. A man in the courtship period is the craziest creature in this world. If any of us appeared and interrupted his date, he would definitely throw us into the Atlantic Ocean, and you are no exception, Steve."

Steve also walked to the sofa on the side and sat down, resting his hands on the back of the chair and saying: "I have never seen Bucky look at any person of the opposite sex with this look. He's done for. I can fish him out of the river, or even the Arctic Ocean, but not a neutron star."

"I don't have anything particularly wanting to eat." Natasha closed the menu casually. At this time, her eyes moved slightly, scanning the environment around the restaurant, and found no special movement. This meant that the group of people causing trouble hadn't come yet. She could only convince herself to settle down, and then throw herself into it.

She handed the menu to Bucky. Bucky reached out to take it, and then when he saw those dishes, he found that he almost couldn't understand English. His brain was trying hard to identify the words, but it was too slow, too useless.

"If you don't remember what I like to eat, then order what you like." Natasha reached into her bag, took out a small mirror, opened it, checked her eye makeup, and pursed her lips, seeming to be checking the state of her lipstick.

This sentence seemed like a basin of cold water poured on Bucky's head, making him wake up immediately. He wasn't feeling guilty; he was just feeling vigilant. Natasha was treating him with the attitude toward those mission targets, appearing completely indifferent to gain the upper hand, and saying he "didn't remember" was 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 had never imagined that Natasha would dress up grandly for the banquet, because if she wanted to express rejection, perfunctory and impatience would be the normal state.

She could completely wear sportswear, or even wear slippers, so the restaurant wouldn't let her in. She could also simply stand him up and not come; no one could force her, or just pick a random piece of clothing from before and put on casual makeup. But she did none of these.

This dress that flowed like mercury was simply too fitting. The straight, smooth red hair further highlighted the beauty of her facial features. The platinum-set mother-of-pearl earrings were definitely not store goods from Fifth Avenue. Even that small bag was probably a survivor left after the big waves washed away the sand.

She was incomparably beautiful and radiant. When she walked into the restaurant, everyone was looking at her. No one would laugh at Bucky's performance like a greenhorn, because if they were sitting opposite Natasha, perhaps they would be as nervous as a cowboy entering the city for the first time.

This was of course not normal. Bucky hadn't been arrogant enough to feel that his old relationship with Natasha was worth her dressing up so grandly. Bucky suddenly thought of a sentence Natasha said to him when she was young, which was also a Russian proverb from Natasha's hometown—"If you find a woman more beautiful than usual, either she has fallen in love with someone, or she has hated someone."

Being hated by Black Widow is a very terrifying thing, just like being targeted by a highly poisonous spider in the jungle. Even if not bitten yet, it makes people feel creepy from the bottom of their hearts, cold sweat flowing.

But Bucky breathed a sigh of relief. He knew his reaction might not be normal either. He knew he might be sick or crazy, but he truly felt relaxed, feeling that the world at this moment had become beautiful, and the sound of the violin had become brisk.

Then countless memories surged uncontrollably. The images of Natasha when she was young in his mind were so many that they could make a movie, and every frame couldn't overlap with the Natasha in front of him, and couldn't even overlap with herself in other images. But Bucky was still fascinated by the memories.

"Order one of these." Bucky pointed to the menu and said, "And another one of these. By the way, don't put black pepper on the steak, put less cheese on the baked scallops. And another portion of foie gras..."

Bucky ordered a lot of dishes in total. When two glasses of pre-meal wine were placed on the table, he took the initiative to speak: "Long time no see, Natasha. Since we two met again in the United States, we haven't had a good chat about the past."

"So you came to chat about the past? You said you were here to discuss Steve's birthday, so I came."

Naked provocation. Bucky thought in his heart. In the dating time belonging to two people, deliberately mentioning a third man, even if he is married and has children, and is still his best friend and comrade-in-arms, is also a provocation.

"Yes, I originally wanted to chat about Steve. 100 years old is a very good day, I think we both sincerely want to celebrate for him. But after seeing you just now, I changed my mind. I think we should talk more about the things between us two."

Natasha lowered her head slightly, rubbing the stem of the pre-meal wine glass with her slender fingers. The cold-colored blood vessels under the fair skin of those hands that usually only had intimate contact with triggers were clearly visible. Bucky remembered very clearly the feeling of those fingertips cutting open the muscles of the wound and touching his artery.

"I thought we had nothing to talk about." Natasha said, "I accepted that result, and you didn't oppose it. This means everything is over. Isn't it?"

"You know that can't count, Natasha. I accepted the modification and brainwashing. They shook my will, changed my thoughts, and added things I had to insist on out of thin air, and it was precisely because of this thing that I had a disagreement with you."

"I didn't have a disagreement with you." Natasha said, "The problem between us two, in essence, is the problem between me and the Soviet Union. It has nothing to do with you."

"It's not like that at all." Bucky shook his head lightly and said, "If it must be said this way, then there is a third party between you and the Soviet Union, and that is Hydra. You know who is making trouble behind the scenes, you just don't want to admit it."

"You're right." Natasha's tone sank, carrying an icy coldness she didn't realize herself, "Then don't those great leaders corrupted by Hydra need to be responsible for their weakness?"

"We discussed these problems long ago." Bucky said, "The indulgence of those who were infiltrated and corrupted caused tragic results. But if there were no Hydra, it wouldn't have caused such a tragic ending."

"This proves you are the same as them." Natasha sneered and said, "After doing something wrong, in order to find an excuse for your own weakness, you fabricate a powerful, irresistible enemy, push the mistakes to it all at once, and live on with peace of mind. Sergeant Barnes, do you want me to remind you what you did back then?"

Bucky's fingers tightened slowly. His chest heaved rapidly, but returned to calm. He looked at Natasha and said: "If you die, I accept your accusation that I am weak. But I must also remind you, Second Lieutenant Romanoff, you are also still alive."

The atmosphere became stiff. Neither of them spoke again, almost at the same moment, they pressed their wine glasses to their lips and drank silently. The atmosphere was like the sinking of the Titanic; they were holding the same piece of floating ice, but each walking on their own snowfield.

"Let's not talk about the past anymore." Bucky said, "Do you think these problems can still find answers? It's not us who should be responsible for this. Why can't we let these things pass?"

"Of course it's because you don't want to let them pass." Natasha put down the wine glass heavily, looked at Bucky, and said, "If you want everything to pass, then you shouldn't have come to find me. You know I will never give up asking, even if the problem itself has already sunk. But as long as our group of remnants is still living on, then the torrent belonging to the previous era has never stopped. In us, in our memories, our private feelings will become more and more insignificant under its scouring. This is the price that survivors in the upheaval should pay, it is the price of our living. I figured this out on the last night in Minsk, Instructor. Is this earlier than you imagined?" ===== CHAPTER 3680 =====