It was Nebula's turn to explain the Soul Stone. She stood at the front of the room, she stood with a certain authority, as if nothing could touch her.
"Thanos found the Soul Stone on Vormir," Nebula explained.
"And what exactly is Vormir?" I asked, never having heard of such a place. Even with some of the education on other planets that Rocket had been giving us, he had never mentioned this place.
"A dominion of death, at the very center of Celestial existence. It's where... Thanos murdered my sister," Nebula tried to explain, detached. But you could hear the feelings she had on the last sentence. It was hard for her, and I could relate to that.
"Not it," Scott said, trying to break up the silence that had befallen on the room.
"I think it's time for a break," I announced. "We need to split up for a while and re-group in a couple of hours."
"Good idea," Tony agreed.
"Meet back in the lab then, in a couple of hours?" Steve asked the room. Everyone nodded and filed out of the conference room. It had started to feel stuffy and I was feeling trapped.
"Wanna spar?" I asked Steve, feeling like I needed to move or my head would explode. The memory kept flashing in and out of my mind. I was starting to feel like I was going stir crazy within my own mind.
"I would be honored," he joked, as he offered his arm. I happily took it as he leads the way to the practice room.
We stopped by our room to change and then we were in the ring, ready to practice.
"No powers?" he asked me, knowing I would accept the terms. He knew I always had to prove I was just as powerful without them. Something I always wanted to prove, not only to others but also to myself.
"Of course," I said with a sly smile.
Before we started Steve stopped for a moment, seizing his chance while we were completely alone.
"Do you want to talk about what happened in the conference room?"
"Not really," I shrugged, not ready to talk about the memory that was still buzzing around my head.
"Well, I'll be here when you are," he replied, and I could tell he meant it.
"I know," I said.
"Then let's get started."
"Before we do," I said, I forced his shield, that was lying in the corner of the room into my hands. "I think you may be a little rusty, I think we should practice with this."
"You sure?" he asked skeptically as I passed it to him.
"Well I have the metal arm, so think of it as making us even," I replied.
He nodded, slipping the shield into his hand.
We then started to circle one another, seeing who would make the first move. Normally it was me, but I was going to wait this one out, try and throw him off.
Suddenly he struck out, and I rolled to the side, missing the shield by an inch. I whipped my foot out, trying to trip him, but he jumped to the side, dodging it. The shield came back towards me, but this time I caught with my metal arm, twisting it as I did so. I punched his chest, causing him to stagger backwards.
But, he rebound quickly, swiping my feet from under me. I face planted, hard. I got back to my feet though, not letting myself stay down long. I went for a punch, but he caught my hand, twisting my arm, but I twisted with it, wrapping my legs around his stomach flipping him as I went down. I twisted out of his grasp, landing on top, raising my fist over his head.
But, he grabbed it, pushing me off of the top of him, swinging the shield down, holding it just above my face, signaling that the fight was over. I had lost, again.
"Dammit," I muttered, as I tried to catch my breathe. "How do you always win? Even when I think I have it, it is never enough. I shouldn't need my powers to win."
"Your powers are a part of you Mo. When you don't have them it's like you're fighting with one arm tied behind your back. There's no shame in that. It just makes you more powerful when you do fight," Steve said, trying to ease the pain of losing.
"I don't want to have to use them to be helpful," I said, trying to counter his argument. "It makes me feel powerless when I don't have them because as we know they are not always super reliable."
"You fight just fine without them," he tried.
"Not fine enough to beat you," I muttered back.
"Guess you'll have to keep practicing," he said with a mischievous grin. "I know a pretty good teacher he wouldn't mind giving private lessons."
"Oh you do?" I said, a small grin now on my face. I sauntered my way up to him, and he embraced me easily. "I might need a lot of extra help, especially hand to hand. I will probably need a lot of attention."
"I think I can handle it."
Then, his hands were entangled in my hair and mine in his. I felt breathless as we collided, it was like the world wasn't there for a moment. The only thing that mattered was us in this moment. Something that hadn't happened in a while. The problems we had been facing as a couple suddenly didn't matter. We were back to being just us. The world would make sense again. Even if for only this moment.
His hands roamed my body as I was pushed again the wall, hoisted in the air, I easily wrapped my legs around his torso. Our lips never leaving each others.
"Oh my god, this is a community gym," a voice suddenly gasped in the doorway.
Steve quickly let me down, and we split apart sheepishly. I looked over at Steve whose cheeks were completely red, but I leaned easily against the wall.
"You could have knocked," I replied with an air of someone who didn't care. Althgouh, I was slightly dying inside.
Natasha, the one who walked in on us, was now smirking.
"Like a couple of teenagers I swear."
"We're in love, it's only natural," I countered.
"Well, lovebirds, while you were in here being hot and bothered with each other's presence, we came up with a solution. So you better get your asses to the lab," Natasha informed us before quickly turning on her heels and leaving but not before she sent me a brain message.
"Glad to see you two are back."
It made me smile, as I grabbed Steve's hand and I pulled him towards the lab, but before we left the gym he stopped us in the doorway.
"I love you, you know? And once we get through all of this, if we get through all of this, you and I, we'll be okay. Anything that happened before, it's over. We can move on, I want to be with you and only you."
"I couldn't have said it better myself," I said, kissing him on the cheek.
With him firmly back on my side, I felt like I could conquer the world. It felt like nothing was in our way.
How fucking stupid.