2016 | AVENGERS COMPOUND — While the hot water of the shower rained down on the girl, she suddenly felt a sharp pain in the still visible wound on her side with her hand. Thanks to her healing abilities, her wounds are supposed to normally heal a lot faster than usual, but something was different this time...
With worried eyes she stared at the wound and let out a startled breath when she noticed blue-colored scales. She didn't understand, what was happening to her. The only thing she knew, was that it just felt awful. It felt wrong. Like someone else's skin ... or rather something else.
With a racing heart she tried to banish the thought from her head and instead quickly got ready. She put on some shorts, a sports bra and a training jacket over it and finally stuck a bandage on the side so that she no longer had to watch her discovery. Out of sight, out of mind, she thought.
Her legs carried her towards the training room, where the Captain was already waiting for her. He decided to help her with today's defense training. The girl had already trained with Natasha a few times before to get some basic knowledge shown, and there were just techniques that Nat could show her better. Women had a completely different fighting style compared to men.
The training room was huge. There was a fighting area in the middle of the room and several pieces of equipment and devices were placed on the walls. When she entered the training room she found Steve already training with the punching bag and unconsciously stopped. He hit it hard with his clenched fists, while his breath could be heard softly. It was hard not to stare at him, she had to admit.
He stopped for a moment and then noticed his partner slowly approaching him."Hey." she greeted him shyly and smiled at Steve. Immediately he turned his attention to her and smiled back. It was like her smile was contagious.
"Ready for your training?" He asked. Nodding, she looked up at him and stood next to him. It had already been several days, but it still hurt very much to speak. "We'll just start. I want you to show me how good you can punch." Steve explained, pointing to the boxing bag next to him.
But before she started, Steve quickly got some boxing tape to bandage Siren's hands. She stared at the tape in confusion and didn't know what it was for, which is why she curiously tilted her head to the right.
Amused Steve had to grin about this, and then he snorted. He thought it was kind of cute that there was so much she still had no idea about. It reminded him a little of himself when he got out of the ice in 2011 and had to get used to a lot of things again. But then a small smile appeared on his face, he was totally unaware of that though. "I don't want you to hurt yourself." He said and asked for her hands.
Carefully he tied the tape around her warm hands and felt a slight tingling sensation at her touch. Meanwhile she felt a little insecure, while he was holding her hands. She hated her scales, and that they were often visible after she got out of the water. But Steve didn't mind at all, it only made her even more special, he thought.
He then looked up from her hands again and suddenly met her gaze, which had already been lying on top of him the whole time. And for a moment, he could have sworn, it felt like he was once again lost in the blue of her ocean eyes...
Steve took a small breath and nervously looked away from her. Stay focused, he told himself. But something stopped him. "Well, let's go." He started nervously, clapping his hand on the boxing bag. Siren then made her way over to the heavy punching bag and started to punch it with all of her strength.
After Steve had gained an insight he tried to help her a little and swapped places with her briefly to show her a better posture. "Your posture is still a bit uncertain, that prevents you from using all your strength for a punch or kick." He explained and showed her how she had hit before. Then he got into a better fighting stance and hit the punching bag correctly.
"Like this?" Siren asked, trying to copy his stance. In fact, it now felt even more and more controlled when she punched the leather. "Almost, wait." He said, before he then stood behind her and carefully grabbed her waist and stomach and turned her a few degrees. His warm hand pressed against her stomach and suddenly she was the one who felt a tingling sensation.
Slowly she looked over her shoulder and was only a few centimeters away from the captain's face. Nervously, he took his hands off of her and instead took her arms as he stood next to her. He lifted them to the level of her face, as if blocking a punch. "Okay, try it now."
She did what he had told her and hit the punching bag with a much stronger impact. He smiled, knowing she could also feel the difference and how strong she truly was. And then his smile didn't appear, once she noticed her own. She was proud of herself and noticed that thanks to his advice it worked a lot better.
After a while they eventually took a short break and sat down together for a while. But as soon as the break was over, however, it went on again immediately. "Okay then, show me what Natasha has already taught you." Steve started and got up from the bench.
He ran to the middle of the training room, where there were several mats, followed by Siren. "Defense." she explained as briefly as possible, trying not to feel the pain in her throat. Natasha, as well as Steve, thought it was clearly more important that she should learn how to block punches, rather than punch.
She did what she was told and Steve started with weak punches, which she always blocked. Every now and then he raised his knee, but she still managed to block his attacks. "Arms up." He told her when she suddenly stepped back and seemed a bit insecure. "This way you can protect your face and head while you keep your eyes on your enemy."
Nodding, she raised her arms and did what he had told her. "Ready?" He asked, also holding his arms up in a fighting position. At her nod he started with the first punch, which she blocked as expected. Next, he raised his knee as before, which she blocked once again with her hand. However, when Steve quickly struck weakly with his other hand, it hit her shoulder.
Frustrated, Siren let out a short breath and took a step back. "Was that too hard?" He asked, looking at her worriedly. But instead she just shook her head and stared at the floor. She was a bit out of breath, but it was important to her to get good at this whole fighting thing.
The fear of HYDRA haunted her, like a ghost or a shadow and that's why she needed to defend herself. She swallowed and looked up at Steve once again. "Go on." She answered confidently.
"You sure?" Steve asked hesitantly. "Maybe we should stop for today?" She tilted her head slightly to ask why. "I don't want your stitches to get unstitched." He explained and pointed to her side. "Nat told me about it."
She shook her head once again."I can do it!" She said stubborn and then coughed after this sentence. She thought it was nice of him that he took care of her like that, but she wanted to continue. She took off her jacket and showed him the still white bandage with a proud grin. "Ready." She said and raised her arms.
He smiled at her shaking his head, but then gave in. She looked completely fine, but he wasn't quite sure if she was telling the truth. He knew she was extremely brave and strong, but he wished she knew that it was okay, to not be fine or perhaps scared. He was to shy to tell her, though.
Steve then carefully threw his hands alternately in her direction so that she could block them. This worked for a while, until Steve got the upper hand in the fight once again. She swung back and tried to hit him with her fist, but Steve dodged it and ducked in time. He quickly wrapped his arm around her stomach and pulled her close, grabbing her hand with which she had reached out.
Frustrated and out of breath, she leaned her head back against Steve's shoulder, completely exhausted. "What did you forget?" Asked Steve, still holding her close. "Arms." she replied, remembering forgetting to keep her arms up. For a moment, she then closed her blue eyes and clenched her teeth before exhaling again.
The wound stung a bit and now ached a little. "Right, but your muscles can remember it. It gets better and better with every exercise." Steve shot back and could feel her nod on his shoulder. His voice raspy, but soft at the same time, but also soothing.
They were so close that their faces were only a few centimeters apart. Unconsciously, Steve's hand slipped up from her hand to her arm, which suddenly made her feel an aching pain, where his hands met her skin, which made her wince.
A memory of Hydra shot back into her mind, sending chills down her spine. Right there, she felt something cold. Something burning, like fiery acid. "What's wrong, what is it?" Steve asked worriedly as she took his arms off of her and took a step forward. "Muscle memory..." she whispered, looking at down at her bandage.
AUTHOR NOTE — OHMYGODDDDD 44K! TYSM!!! hope you guys liked the new chapter :) Anyways I passed all of my final exams, graduated this week and now I have to look for a real job ... probably in a bookstore, cause I literally hate everything else except writing and books lol.
– Love Nini 💕✨