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It was no surprise that Natalia Romanova used ballet as one of her many ways to keep in shape. She's even taught it to a few of the other Avengers, like Steve and Tony. They learned the dance styled wasn't as easy as they thought it to be, but neither gave up. They wanted other ways to exercise and it was a great bonding method. By the end of the month, everyone had at least tried ballet a few times.
“Come on Barnes, it wont be all that bad,” Sam Wilson said as he dragged the other man to the gym for the weekly bonding exercise. “Tony wont bite, and even it he tries, Steve will be there to stop him.”
There was no way out of it though. No matter how much James didn't want to bond with the others, no matter how much he felt like he didn't fit in with them all, all of the Avengers tried their best to make him feel comfortable with them. Even Stark was starting to warm up to him.
The lesson began like any other. Everyone, excluding Bucky, followed the redhead's lead and commands. Steve was surprisingly light on his feet, despite the fact of never going dancing back in the 40s, but Bucky knew that the blond had practice every chance he got alone in his room. Sam also wasn't terrible, he wasn't very good either but one day he'll get there.
As for Tony Stark … the man was hopeless. When he actually did get the steps right, they were terribly out of beat with the music. The sight was hilarious, and earning a glare from the billionaire every time that their bystander laughed at him.
“Why don't you try it, Mr. Giggles! It's not as easy as you think.” The technically younger man said to the technically older one. His brown eyes then turned back to the instructor. “Does this all really count as ballet? I've never seen the male ballerinas dance like this before.”
A smirk came to the redhead's lips as her emerald eyes met the icy blue ones of the man across the room. The Avengers knew that there was more to their story now. More that what the woman had originally led out, judging by the looks they always stared in passing. By some of the comments that they would make to and/or about each other. Clint would swear up and down there the new shirt Nat wore on her lazy days belonged to Bucky, at a second look at the shirt, Steve was starting to agree with the other blond.
“What do you say, Soldat? Wanna show them what you got?” Natalia asked knowingly.
The man didn't answer verbally, just shrugged his shoulders before tying his hair up in a lazy bun. Clearly, what was about to happen was going to be something more than casual.
“You're about to get schooled, Tony. Buck used to go dancin' just about every night since he turned fifteen until being shipped off to the War,” Steve said as they all moved to the sidelines. “Still found a nurse or two to dance with when they weren't busy.”
So, it was out there. James Barnes knew how to dance. But when the music began to fill the room, and it definitely wasn't the old music from their youth, it was revealed just how well the man knew how to dance.
Natalia took the first step, right foot over left as her hands went over her head and crossed at the wrists. Her petite waist swung her hips side to side as her feet crossed the room over closer to the man, every fourth step she rose to her toes and spun around. His movements were more masculine, no wrist crossing, just foot over foot to meet her half way across the room, making his own toe spins every fourth step with her.
The woman's right hand draped down slowly, falling like a feather into the metal of the man's hand just before the tempo picked up the pace. Suddenly, their body with close to each other. Their movements matched the other's perfectly. Natalia stepped in with her right, he stepped back with his left. James then stepped in with his left, she stepped back with her right. They danced on the balls of their feet, most movement was first made from the pushing off with their toes.
After every sixth step, James' hand would dropped down to her waist just before they did a side drip. It almost looked as if the redhead was fainting. Utterly feminine, a side that wasn't often seen by the Avengers, or by anyone for that matter.
The tempo picked up a bit more, they matched their speed to the change flawlessly.
The first spin happened. Their fingers brushed against each other as she moved away from his body, just before they hooked together and he pulled her close back to his body as the tempo dropped to being slow, and rather sensual. With her back pressed against him, their hips moved in the same fluid of rolling waves.
Another spin, then they face each other again as the tempo returned to what it was before. This time, James' hands rested on her waist while her hands were on his shoulders. The repeated their actions until the tempo dropped down slower their before. More sensual their before.
Their body were a lot closer this time, their noses brushing against each other as Natalia danced on her toes. Hips pressed close together, slow steps were taken. Her leg brushing up along his own, as his metal fingers traced down that leg all while she arched her spine back into the palm of his flesh hand. It was like watching something out of Dirty Dancing, but better since this was all real.
It was never more obvious than now that their history went farther back than just Odessa, farther back than just 2009.
But it was just a tease. The tempo picked back up again, and so did their movements but the sensuality never left as they danced through out the rest of the song. Ending on that slow note, pressed close together.
The faces of their bystanders was priceless. Steve never believed such a form of dancing existed. Sam was honestly jealous, of them both, to be able dance in such a way. Meanwhile, Tony had absolutely no idea what to think. Here, he had been trying to make fun of the metal arm man only to be blown away from the skill that had been displayed. Who knew that the Winter Soldier would know how to dance, and dance like that?!
James just smirked widely as he left the room. Clearly, those three needed to take more lessons to get on his level. But he did hear one remark from Tony before he was completely out of ear shot.
“That definitely wasn't like any ballet I've ever seen before.”