Word Count: 941

This is not what I planned for this...at all. Which is why I'll write a second chapter at one point.

Translations can be found in the end notes. But please do correct me, if you speak the language.

what's in a name

He — it's actually weird to think of himself as he again, after decades and decades of being nothing more than an object even in his own mind — isn't surprised that Natalia is the one who finds him first.

She's the one that knows him best, after all, due to the long time they had spent training together before she had escaped.

(And a part of him is so incredibly bitter that she didn't take him with her.

But he knows that she couldn't have done that if either of them wanted to survive.)

Sure, Steve Rogers — Captain America — had grown up alongside him, they had spent their youth together, but both of them had changed a lot in the time that had passed since — what was it? — the Train Incident.

(They both had suffered, but the cause of their pain and the effects of it were so very, very different.

Steve is still recognizable.

He — he doesn't have a name right now — isn't.)

Natalia arrives at the doorstep of his apartment in Klaipeda, Lithuania, at around four in the morning. She doesn't make a sound while entering, but he had purposefully left everything dusty, so that only very few—mutants and such—would be able to enter without giving it away.

And for all of her numerous qualities, this is one of the small number of skills useful for her that she does not possess.

(Does she have skills now that aren't useful?

He decides that he wants some of those, but he doesn't know where to start looking.)

A few minutes before she enters, his alarm rings to wake him up for his morning run, so he's in the shower during the time.

He likes to do it early, before most of the populace is awake, let alone outside of their house.

It makes him safer. Less likely that someone finds him.

(He doesn't make it impossible after a few months. Just so that the skill-level required is very, very rare.

He wants Natalia to find him, he thinks.)

He sees the lack of dust on a windowsill a few minutes later — it is impossible for an adult to climb through without touching it, he has tried — he knows that someone had entered. And he's suddenly very glad that he decided to put on his running clothes instead of walking around in a towel.

(He did that sometimes, because it was something he had never done Before.)

"Наталия? Я знаю что ты здесь." he calls out. He chooses to speak in Russian, because that is the language the two of them had always conversed in when they were not on a mission.

A redheaded figure steps from the shadows her head angled to the side.

"Откуда ты знаешь что это была я?" she asks, her left eyebrow raised pointedly.

"ты считаете меня дураком?" he replies, chuckling ever so slightly. "Кто еще это может быть?"

"Отличная смысл." she acknowledges, before switching to English. "I missed you."

Following her lead, he changes the language as well. "I did as well," he admits. "But I won't come with you. At least not yet."

"Yasha," she begins, but he raises his hand to stop her.

"That's not my name. I don't know what is, but it's not that." He sees Natalia's shoulders sink a minuscule amount — which, for her, was a fairly extreme display of emotion — so he adds, "It's not Bucky or James either. That's not who I am anymore. I'm someone new, someone different, ergo I need a new name. I just haven't chosen it yet."

She perks up at that.

"Can I help?" she asks, giving him her seductive smile.

He shrugs. "Sure. Provided I get veto rights."

"I was hoping you'd forget about that," she shakes her head with a small smile.

Now it was his turn to raise an eyebrow.

"I may not remember everything, but I remember enough to know that you'd give me a weird name or one with a hidden meaning," he points out.

She crosses her arms and leans against the wall. "Честная оценка. What do you think about Bob?"

"No," he says without any hesitation whatsoever. "Too bland and boring."

"And what about Legolas, then?" she questions suggestively. Natalia looks like she is hiding a laugh, as if she knows something funny that he doesn't—which is quite likely. "Is that interesting enough for you?"

He shakes his head. "I did manage to see Lord of the Rings." Granted, it had only been last week, but she didn't need to know that.

The way she pouts is kind of...cute? And that is a word he never expected to associate with her and if he even thought about speaking it out loud, he would have to make a run for his knife.

(He does have around five on him when he was wearing his running clothes, but both of them know that she has more.)

"And what about Vladimir? Sherlock? Perseus? Nicolas? Quentin?"

"The last one sounds acceptable," he interrupts her. He's pretty sure that from this point onwards, there will only be crazier and crazier suggestions and he could actually sort of see himself as a Quentin.

"Alright, Quentin," she smiles at him. An actual smile. "Pack your bags, you're coming with me to Stark Tower."

"And why should I?" newly-christened Quentin asks.

Natalia lays her head to the side. "Because of the science, of course."

Five minutes later, his backs are packed.

Наталия? Я знаю что ты здесь. - Natalia? I know you're here.

Откуда ты знаешь что это была я? - How did you know it was me?
ты считаете меня дураком? - Do you think me a fool?
Кто еще это может быть? - Who else could it be?
Отличная смысл. - Excellent point.
Честная оценка. - Fair point.