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[brushpass]

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[leftcold]

"Wouldn't you like to know." He flashes half of a smile, encouraging the humor. Bucky likes that tone from her. "Always check the Yelp reviews. All the real information is there."

[brushpass]

"Yeah, that's why I asked." She doesn't miss a beat, playfully bantering back at him from across the table. She takes a bite of the roll, and there's a pleasantly surprised look on her face. It's good bread - warm and flaky on the outside, soft on the inside. It bodes well for their meal.

"What's the worst Yelp review you've seen?"

[leftcold]

"Depends what we mean by worst. Like worst, the service was awful, or worst the person leaving the review was mad that the parking lot was hot in August?" Because it's an important distinction.

He reaches for the bread himself, the smell prompting him.

[brushpass]

"Oh, definitely that second one," Natasha agrees with a grin. It is an important distinction. And she enjoys a story about how odd people can be. The things they choose to fixate on or complain about. "Someone tried to give me shit once for backing my car into a spot at a to go place." She sounds amused as she reflects on it, pushing the carafe of butter closer to him so he can get some for his roll.

[leftcold]

"The sushi place I like had a long, angry review about how one of the servers was 'too cool' and too many tattoos. Apparently he was more interested in showing off his ink than he was in delivering rolls." Bucky smiles wryly as he says it, going for a very healthy amount of butter. Something has to fuel his metabolism. "I figured if the worst thing you can say about a place serving raw fish is that the wait staff has too many tattoos, it must be good."

[brushpass]

Natasha's got a similar smile as she listens to his story. "Imagine letting tattoos ruin your meal." Maybe if they were really poorly done tattoos, but she still wouldn't be that personally invested in it. "Though I do appreciate that this implies you search for restaurants with weird bad reviews and deliberately go try them."

[leftcold]

"Bad reviews tell you more than good ones. The weirder the better." Look, it's not untrue. He wouldn't have phrased it like that.

But let an old man have his methods.

"Good reviews could be friends, or bots. They're doing everything they can to get those. Can't trust them. But if the weirdest, most unpleasant person you've ever met hates something for a shit reason? Worth checking out."

[brushpass]

She can't help but chuckle a little, watching him as he explains his methods. Honestly, he's not wrong. It's a decent way to sort through the noise, and people on the whole tend to be more likely to post complaints than praise.

"You might be on to something," she admits. "Is the sushi place your best one star review find?"

[leftcold]

"One of them." He takes a bite of bread with objectively too much butter and makes a pleased sound. He munches it down before he answers the question, showing good enough manners not to talk with food in his mouth at least. "There's a diner near my place that got a screed review from an angry tourist because the owner refused to go out and chase off some couple that was making out outside the window in view of her kids. That place has the best milkshakes I've had this century."

[brushpass]

Natasha watches with muted delight as he takes a bite of bread with what she can only think of as a heap of butter on top. She takes another bite of her own roll as she listens, laughing a little at the picture he paints. "Isn't having to watch someone make out outside of a window part of the charm of a diner?" She's only a little bit kidding. "If they're open late, sounds like we might have just found a place for dessert."

[leftcold]

"I'd say the fact the owner knows how to mind her own damn business is a huge part of their charm," Bucky says fondly, both of the diner and his level of butter. He's fairly pleased with both. "They make a good blueberry pie too, if that's your kind of thing."

[brushpass]

"Can't argue that point, considering that's why I like dive bars," Natasha admits. He's clearly delighted by both his preferred diner and the butter, and she's prepared to consider that a sign that he's relaxing. "I do like pie, but I don't know that I could do a milkshake and a slice of pie at once. Although there was a thing for a while where people were blending a slice of pie into a vanilla milkshake for flavor."

[leftcold]

"I don't think that's really a thing," he says. It's not serious disbelief, but he still protests. "The crust would get weird."

He licks his lips and shrugs though, when he allows, "A blueberry or peach milkshake sounds pretty good though. Not gonna lie. If we're going to get out of the traditional milkshake flavors, I think I could learn to like that."

[brushpass]

"I think they blended it out so you just got the crust flavor but not really pieces of crust. The more we talk about it, the more I want to try it," she muses, shooting him an amused look.

Their waiter returns, rather abruptly, and sort of...rushes through his intro for the evening. It's a fixed menu, but if they have any dietary needs, they can meet them. With a faintly entertained expression on her face, Natasha says she's fine with anything. After he gets Bucky's answer, he turns to leave, then turns back and says 'drinks?' "Well, I'd love a moscow mule," she answers, eyes on the waiter.

[leftcold]

Bucky shakes his head. The idea of a super soldier with allergies or a gluten intolerance is foreign enough that he gives an incredulous look. He's good.

The order for Natasha's drink gets a little smile out of him.

"Scotch," he says. "On the rocks."

He's less cute with his order. But it suits her.

"I think he's afraid of you," he says after the server leaves.

[brushpass]

"Who, me?" Natasha makes the joke automatically, her eyes still on the waiter for a moment as he retreats. But her gaze finally shifts back to Bucky and her mouth curls in a little smirk. "I made a point of looking harmless tonight too."

She takes another bite of her bread before continuing. "Should we bet on what he does if I ask if he recognizes one of us?"

[leftcold]

"Natasha, don't take this the wrong way but you'd look dangerous no matter what you're wearing." He means it as a compliment more than anything. A beautiful woman is always dangerous, isn't she?

"And you're proving it, because I think you might give him a heart attack if you try that one."

[brushpass]

"Is it weird that I'm taking that as a compliment?" she asks, a look of mingled self deprecation and entertainment on her face. They're clearly on the same wavelength about that one.

"He won't have a heart attack. Might drop something, though," she muses, as if she's weighing the pros and cons. "Wouldn't it be better to find out before we both start worrying about whether he's going to poison our entrees?"

[leftcold]

"Hey, I'm not going to try to stop you. Just saying a little sympathy for a guy clearly in over his head." Bucky takes a drink of his water and reaches for more bread.

Natasha was right about the bread.

"Work the thing about poison into the conversation if you want. Figure that will make him turn green."

[brushpass]

"What was that about sympathy for the guy?" Natasha banters back at him easily, clearly entertained by the idea of slipping the poison mention into the conversation with their server.

Poor guy really is in over his head.

[leftcold]

"I'm on his side, but a guy's gotta admit when something's funny." And Natasha bullying someone else is, in his biased opinion, pretty funny.

"Maybe it'll get us some more rolls."

[brushpass]

"I'm pretty sure you can get more rolls if you ask nicely." There's a hint of fond amusement in her voice as she says it. But then her eyes shift and she spots the waiter clearly coming back their way, and when she looks back at Bucky for a moment there's undeniably a hint of mischief there.

The waiter comes up to their table to set down their drinks as she asks conversationally, "so which one of us did you recognize?"

It's clearly not what he's expecting to hear.

[leftcold]

Bucky leans back, putting on a grim face. Not a Winter Soldier face—that would have blank—but more of a disapproving big brother face, brows heavy and jaw tense.

He lays his arm across the back of his chair.

The waiter sputters that he doesn't know what they're talking about. Is everything okay? Can he freshen their water?

"The lady asked you a question."

[brushpass]

Bucky's grim faced posture definitely seems to have put the waiter on edge. It certainly doesn't help that when he looks over at Natasha, she offers him a smile sweet enough to be poisonous.

"Shit, I know who you both are, okay? I used to run with a gang and I got some family still in the game but I don't do that shit anymore. This is a legitimate job. I really like the food."

Well. He's clearly sincere. And just about ready to cut and run, despite that last sentence. Natasha arches a brow and looks over at Bucky, then lifts one shoulder in a shrug. As if to say eh, I'm fine with him if you are.

[leftcold]

Bucky shrugs one shoulder, not quite rolling his eyes. The idea that some kid who'd done a little street crime warranted the attention of an Avenger was a little silly. It did make him wonder if the waiter's involvement was a little more than he let on.

Or if he was just a little paranoid. Can't fault that.

"The bread is good. Bring us another basket and don't cause trouble, and I think we can all enjoy a nice night."