James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes Short Stories & Long Imagines

Late Night Training (The Newest Avenger - Part 2)

(word count: 2,024)

It had been just over two weeks since I first arrived at the Avengers Facility. I had settled into my room and new surroundings well. I enjoyed the dorm life with the other Avengers, it was like having the college experience. Which I was grateful for. I didn't have the opportunity to go to college due to how preoccupied I stayed working with S.H.I.E.L.D.

    I hadn't had the chance to talk to Bucky much since I moved in, which was exceedingly disappointing considering we live directly across from each other. I don't think I realized just how busy I would be here. I'm training as much as I can. Tony doesn't think I should go on any missions with them until he feels like I'm 100% prepared and caught up with the team's mission tactics. He seemed all too amused when he handed me the team's "playbook" that caused my eyes to grow to the size of pumpkins. His playbook much more resembled the novel Gone with the Wind in size and thickness. On the bright side, there were a lot of pictures and diagrams!

    It's currently 11:47 in the evening, which meant I was probably in the clear. You see, I've been sneaking into the training room most nights after the team has all retired to their rooms. Like I said, I've been training as much as possible to catch up to pace of the rest of the team. The first night I journeyed down to the training room late, Steve caught me and forced me to go back to my room on account of already having trained long hours and multiple times throughout the day. Stating that I "needed my rest". I swear sometimes he just acts like a dad.

    I grabbed my towel and water bottle as I approached the door. I picked up by shoes and clutched them against my body, knowing if I wore them around the facility I might cause too much noise. I slightly peeked around the corner of the doorframe checking both directions before silently exiting the room and softly shutting the door behind me.

    As I closed in on the main room, I knew this was the most critical part and I had to be careful in case someone (cough cough- Sam) was up raiding the fridge for a midnight snack. Fortunately the room was clear. I quickly passed by the sitting area and across the dark hardwood floor. Something felt.. off, or different. Maybe I was just being paranoid, or maybe the feeling of eyes on my back wasn't just a feeling. I quickly twisted my head to look over my left shoulder back at the hallway just to see an empty dark corridor. I shook the feeling off and quickened my pace and didn't look back until I reached the bottom of the stairs and down the hallway that lead to the training room entrance. Before pushing open one of the two large metal doors, I felt that same strange feeling I had upstairs. I looked back over my left shoulder one more time being sure the coast was clear before I quickly slipped through the door and gently shut it until I heard the click of the closure.

    I took a deep breath as I flicked on the rest of the lights, illuminating the room I had spent the majority of the last two weeks in. I began warming up up with some stretching and cardio for a few minutes. After a while I moved onto the stuff I enjoyed significantly more, sparring. It looked like I was going to have to hang up a sand bag on the hangers in the corner myself tonight. Most of the team didn't bother taking them down after use, but there were those times every now and then that Steve would hit it with too much force and break the damn thing without putting up a new one.

    I drug the 100 pound bag from the storage closet over to where the hook up was and began lifting it. I am absolutely not a weak girl by any means! I've always been build strong, but my strength definitely didn't make up for my short stature in this situation. I reached the chain up as high as I could and was still a good few feet away from connecting it to the hook. I strained to reach and pushed up onto my tip toes but there was no use. I sat the bag down and let out an exasperated groan in defeat looking down.

    Suddenly I heard a voice in close proximity from behind that gave me an instant heart attack,

    "Do you need help?"