Red Star

Chapter 3

Spreading the pale gold mixture in a baking tin, Laurie hummed the opening chords of 'House of the Rising Sun' as she shoved it in the oven. Nibbling at the spatula for remnants of dough, she set the timer for ten minutes.

Bucky dragged himself up the stairs. His bruises were practically healed, but he had gotten acclimatized to the casual lethargy of Laurie's household in the three days he had been there. He found himself relaxing, for the first time in...in...he didn't even know.

Laurie shook flour out of the hairline of her wild brown mane. She had wiped her head while baking and it had stayed there until now, but she honestly wasn't surprised. Every time she baked, at least one of the ingredients got more on her than in the recipe. "What're you making?" Bucky yawned, cricking his neck.

"Blondies. Like brownies, but not." Laurie chirped. She, too, had gotten used to Bucky being around, but it was more how he effortlessly edged up to her without a sound that had gotten her nerves fried.

She undid the bow on her apron, which read; 'KISS THE MURDERER' with fake bloodstains all over it. Hooking it on the overhead cupboard knob, she blinked at Bucky. "You want a shower? There's one up stairs, second door on the left." Normally she would be having a shower at this time of day, but be the looks of it Bucky needed one more. "Just don't use the loofah!" She called after him as he trekked up the semi-spiral staircase.

Bucky had no idea what a loofah was. It could be anything. What if he used it accidentally? What if it was super obvious he had used it? Better play it safe and call. "Laurie!"

It wasn't very loud, but Laurie groaned a response. Thumping up after him, she leaned on the door frame. "Yeeees?" She drawled.

"How do I use the shower?"

"Oh, it's pretty simple. Just turn the end of the stick away from you, and if you want to turn on the 'rain' shower head pull on this lever thingie. Left is hot, right is cold. You can use whatever's green, but anything else is mine and mine alone. Got it?" She said mock-threateningly.

Bucky nodded. "Okay."

"When you're done, pull the end of the stick back toward you and use whatever towel you like. Now, go forth!" Laurie closed the door in his face.

Walking back down the stairs, Laurie heard the timer ping. "Oh, blondies!" She exclaimed, picking up the pace. Grabbing a tea towel, she took the hot pan from the oven and poked a skewer into it, checking for doneness. Satisfied, she turned the pan onto a cooling rack and put the now empty tin in the sink.

The sound of water running came from upstairs as Laurie started cutting the blondies into squares. Fanning them with a tea towel to try and get them to cool faster, she eventually gave up and took one, burning the roof of her mouth and spewing crumbs everywhere on the first bite. She was still hacking up the last few traitorous blondie bits when Bucky came into the kitchen, drying his hair with a towel and wearing fresh cloths. It was really quite lucky for the both of them Laurie's first boyfriend, Peter, had not only been very careless with leaving his clothing everywhere and Laurie was a sentimental fool who had kept them. "Are you okay?" He asked, a note of concern in his deep voice as he observed the very pink Laurie.

"Yeah...hm-heh, some crumbs went down the wrong pipe." She croaked.

Bucky half-smiled, though his face was so unused to it, it would probably crack if he went any wider.

"Don't laugh, it was hot!" Laurie reprimanded defensively.

Bucky reached around her to grab one himself, and after sniffing it, prodding it, and licking it with the tip of his tongue, put the entire thing in his mouth at once. He looked rather chipmunky, and Laurie couldn't help but laugh.

Gulping, he very gently hit her with his flesh hand. "Don't laugh." He mimicked.

Laurie grabbed her half-finished one and stuffed it into her cheek. "Lez go wha-ing." She suggested, pulling her coat off the back of a chair in the dining room.

"Translation?"

Laurie swallowed. "Walking. Us. Let's go!"

Bucky hesitated. "What if someone recognizes me?"

Laurie put her hands up in a 'picture frame' and closed one eye. "Ball cap, man bun, loose hoodie and you're golden. The stubble works for you."

"Man bun?"

|•v•|

A full fourteen minutes later, the pair were walking together the same route that Laurie walked every working day to the convenience store. She wasn't overly pleased to be strolling it on a Sunday, but it was the only route she could think of.

She noticed Bucky was looking at everything like it had come out of a sewer and attached itself to the sort of environment he was used to. "What's that?"

"A salon."

"Can we go in?"

"Not unless you want a mani-pedi deal, and I'm reasonably certain I can't afford it."

"Mani-pedi?"

"You don't want to know."

They walked in silence for a few more minutes, before Bucky grabbed her arm. "I thought Hitler was dead!" He hissed, pointing at a stock-still person standing in a faded white circle.

"He's a busker, Bucky. C'mon, we can just go around this way." Laurie pulled him by the metal arm into an alleyway.

Bucky looked a bit shaken. "What's up?" Laurie commented.

He shook his head, tugging a few hairs loose from the man bun at the male of his neck Laurie had forced him to sit still for. "Just remembered something."

Not knowing the whole story, Laurie tried to lighten the mood by saying, "What, you leave the oven on?"

He raised an eyebrow. "No, you did."

Laurie laughed. "Nice."

"No, you did. I swear."

Her eyes widened. "Why didn't you say so?! Jesus fuck, we have to run!"

She turned and began jogging back to her house, leaving Bucky to catch up. Shaking his head, he walked behind her. He had memorized the route out of pure habit, anyway.

However, once he was out of the alley, Laurie was gone.

And so was the busker that had looked like Hitler.