After the movie night and all the talking we did, I once again realised how happy I am to be here and to have found a family like them. Peter is really really sweet and we get along pretty well, maybe it's because we are the closest in age, I don't know but he's an amazing friend.
I had put Aly in day care early this morning, I was going to the training room, I really wanted to try and see what my powers could do, I had a feeling they could do way more than what I already knew of them. The rush of letting my powers out, was as if someone was just injecting me adrenaline in my veins, my intentions were cut short when Sam entered the training room.
"Do you mind if I join you?" he asked me, a small smirk on his face,
"No not at all, c'mon, do you want to train with me?" I asked him smiling, it was 7.30 I didn't expect anyone to be up so early,
"As long as you don't do to me what you did to Bucky." he laughed playfully, my smile dropped a bit, remembering that I had to do it because Bucky wasn't in his normal state,
"Hey I was just kidding, don't stay like that." I gave him a faint smile and he came towards me,
"So what about general fighting, no powers, imagine something happens where you're in a place where you can't use them, you will have to fight with the only thing you have left, which are those really cute fists and knuckles of yours." he laughed a bit and I looked down on my hands I had quiet petite hands and all but still, he should know better than to judge by the cover.
"Fair, but I am warning you the small girly fists and knuckles of mine can be deadly, I already trained with Nat remember?" I said waving my hands in fists in the air and laughing a bit, he laughed a bit and threw a roll of bandage to cover my knuckles and hands before fighting. I wrapped them up and looked over at him.
"By the way, if it's to, you know, train a bit, I am not supposed to punch you with my whole strength right? I mean it's just an 'exercise'." I said, my fingers air quoting the 'exercise' part.
"Well, we need to put ourselves in real situations and real kind of danger I obviously won't go full on beast mode on you but I won't be kind either, okay?" he asked trying to see if I was agreeing to his words.
"Sure, sounds good to me, if I hurt you too much just say "Quidditch" okay?" I told him, he laughed at himself probably making fun of me for thinking I could hurt him, but he nodded,
"Okay, c'mon let's do this." he said and took a fighting position, as I did the same remembering what Nat had taught me. He came onto me like I wanted him to, when your opponent comes onto you, you are more likely to understand their patterns when they fight.
It's just like a dance, a waltz one two three one two three, same goes for a fight, as he tried to punch me I dodged and I lowered myself punching him in the gut as I straightened myself up once I was behind him.
"Okay now, how did you do that this fast?" he asked smiling impressed, and I just shrugged, Nat made me learn the hard way that a compliment can be a easy way to distract you, so I am not giving him a chance to distract me even if he was just being nice.
"I see you are not a easy one to distract." he said as we were walking in circle and he made a move but retracted himself, making me flinch,
"Ah I saw you flinch." I didn't say anything and took advantage of his distraction to fake punching him in the face and actually foot swept him causing him to fall flat on his bum, my forehead already dripping in sweat,
"No way you also know about martial arts." he said getting up,
"Ju-jitsu." I said winking at him, I was proud of myself I was waiting for an opportunity like that where I could just sweep a man off his feet, get it? Anyway, he continued fighting one another, and he eventually got to punch me in my gut, which wasn't as bad as I thought but again he probably went easy on me. After what felt like hours, we decided it was time to stop and we went to sit on the really comfortable bench that sits at the entrance of the training room and I drank half of my water in seconds.
"Thank you." I said to him smiling,
"For what? Beating the hell out of you? Well you are damn welcome, I ain't gonna thank you tho, you really did hurt me a couple of times." he said seriously but still his famous smile on his face and I couldn't help but laugh,
"Hey I didn't tell you to hold back." I said raising my hands in the air as if I was surrendering,
"Well, next time I will try to have more strength." he said whispering the last part and I laughed some more, then the door swung open,
"Can we use the room?" some agents came in and asked a bit coldly, I raised my eyebrows, but still smiled,
"Sure, we were done anyway." I said smiling at them, and they whispered things between them but I chose to ignore it. Sam raised his eyebrow and was about to speak up when put my hand on his shoulder and gestured for us to go, he nodded and we left the training room.
"Now if you wouldn't have been there, I would've snapped at them for whispering." Sam said making me laugh a bit, we made our way towards the kitchen.
"Hey where were you guys?" asked Nat, she was about to hug me but I stopped her,
"If you don't want a sweaty hug then I suggest you don't hug me." I laughed she backed up,
"Nevermind I am good thanks." she laughed, I went over to the fridge and took a fresh bottle of water, I looked around I could see Steve looking at me with wide eyes and then look away quickly, I had just realised I was still in my training outfit which was a high waisted black nike yoga pant and a nike sports bra, I tried not to pay attention to him tho.
"So any plans for today?" I asked, I really didn't want anyone to talk to me about me lifting Mjöllnir up, and thankfully it felt like no-one remembered,
"Well I will try to cook again, even thought I can't taste things." Vision said a proud smile on his face, as Wanda patted his back,
"I actually have a mission with Clint and Steve, we are leaving in about 2 hours." said Nat leaning on the kitchen counter and I nodded at their plan,
"You will be careful okay?" I asked them, making my way towards Clint and siting beside him as he puts his arm around me in a reassuring way, I just faintly smiled at him,
"I have to meet my friend Ned today, we will probably build a new Lego Star Wars together." Peter said smiling a bit embarrassed,
"Uh now that's nice." I told him, and he smiled widely,
"Maybe one day you can come with us.. if you want to." he asked, like what? Was he nervous? After last night I thought we bonded and now he is nervous to ask me this, okay I really don't understand guys,
"I have to go run some errands because my oh my, we don't have anything left to eat here." said Sam, being dramatic,
"By the way you are coming with me." he said wiggling his eyebrows at Bucky and Bucky laughed rolling his eyes, I don't think he really had a choice on going.
"Well I will be staying right here and I will probably enjoy some relaxing time before going to the training room again." I said looking deep into nothing and just thinking,
"Again? Beating me up wasn't enough for you already?" Sam said but I don't really pay attention,
"Where is Thor by the way?" I asked curiously, I thought we had to go to Asgard soon together, Sam opens his mouth to probably make a diva comment about how I just ignored him but he closed his mouth not letting a peep out.
"He left he had some things to do I think, but I am sure he will be back soon." said Wanda smiling. After a while they all got up and left to do their own things, some to go on a mission, others to go and play legos, I chuckled at the thought and some to just hangout with their significant other. (Wanda and Vision I see you).
I was now alone in the Kitchen, I had gone and taken a shower, and I had changed into some comfortable clothes, a large sweater and large sweat pants. I took a cup of coffee and looked through the glass window that showed the front of the compound, I saw Steve, Nat and Clint go inside a car but not before each and everyone of them waved and smiled at me and I did the same. Being close to them now, and knowing that they would probably be in danger at some point made me scared that anything could happen to them, it made me anxious.
"Hey." I heard behind me and I turned around, and saw a very 'shy' Tony looking at me and standing there, and Tony looking shy wasn't really a thing you saw everyday.
"Hey." I replied back smiling at him as I made my way towards a couch and sat there my hot cup of coffee still in between my hands warming me up.
"Do you mind if I join you?" he asked and I just smiled and patted the empty space next to me, he gladly came towards where I was and sat down, letting out a long sigh at the same time,
"What is on your mind Stark, you have really bad bags under your eyes, what is taken your mind so much that not even sleep helps?" I asked taking a sip of my coffee, the warm liquid warming me up.
"I rarely sleep at night." He lets out a tired chuckle, and passes his hand in his hair, messing it up,
"And why is that?" I asked turning to face him completely, he looked at me in his eyes and then looked away, I couldn't help but stare, what was taking all the space in his head to make him be like that, it couldn't be still about the dramatic thing we had a couple of days ago.
"You can stop staring now, you know?" he said small laugh escaping his lips, and I was taken out of my trance,
"I was just wondering, what could trouble you this much." I said, slightly, I didn't want to invade his space I just wanted to help, know what was happening, and what I could do for him.
"Well, a lot of things." he said tilting his head back on the head rest of the couch,
"I have time." I told him a soft smile on my face, taking a cover from next to me and covering my legs with it,
"Ever since Pepper died, I feel like it was my fault, I should've been there to protect her." He says looking down at his hands,
"I know it wasn't, I knew I couldn't do anything against the cancer she had, but still I could've invented a cure, something to help her," he said starting to have tears in his eyes, so that is how she passed, I never knew,
"Guess you can't run away from everything, hoping that they'll spare you, or think that because you are filthy rich that nothing bad will happen to you."He said now a tear sliding down his cheek, it was breaking me seeing him like that, he usually is never that vulnerable,
"Tony I-" I looked for what to say but I just went closer to him and hugged him, sometimes when you don't know what to say a hug is actually the best solution, he let out a small sob and I knew he was crying he held me tight in his arms.
"Look, I know what you are going through, to lose someone you love is horrible, to watch them go and not being able to do anything is something I never experienced, I lost my mom just like that, no heads up nothing, she left one day I said I loved her and later we'll have pizza she told me she'll be back around 4 and never came back." I tell him now having tears in my eyes, as we pull away from each other, I tried to take a deep breath and calm down,
"My point is, we loved them to bits, we loved them so much, but would they want us to beat ourselves up the way we do? Would Pepper love to see you reliving the same thing every night? I never knew her but she must have been someone incredible the way you talk about her." I smiled wiping a tear away, and he smiled through his tears, probably thinking about her,
"You're right, I know you are, but it's so hard." He said looking at me in the eyes,
"No one said life would be easy, but we can try and make it more liveable ourselves, the only people trapping us in our own thoughts are ourselves, we have to break free, to cherish what we had the amazing memories we had but not reminisce the bad things and the past. I always say that living in the past will make us miss important things that are happening right now. We need to concentrate in the present, or else we will die only with the memories that we could've done more but we didn't because we got stuck in the past."
He looked at me as if he had a battle going inside him,
"How are you even 21?" He asked a small smile forming in the corner of his lips, I just felt my cheeks burn up,
"I mean I am... well older and I never had those wise thoughts or words to say to anyone. You're something else." He said and I couldn't help but blush and smile, his chocolate eyes were piercing into mines and I didn't know what to do.
"I'll always be there for you Tony, even if it's 4 a.m. or if I am on the other side of the planet," I chuckled a bit,
"I'll always be there for you too M, and you'll never be on the other side of the planet without me, not if I can help it." he said and kissed my cheek, I froze and didn't say anything, I just smiled at him,
"You're cute when you're embarrassed." he said chuckling and putting his arm around my shoulders,
"Shush you or ill freeze you and you'll be an Ironsicle" I laughed rolling my eyes at him, I rested my head on his shoulder and we watched outside as the rain was starting to fall,