"Come on, I know you can do better," the dark-haired man exclaims. You laugh and jump a bit forth and back, loosening up your muscles. Bucky holds up his forearms, preparing for your punch. And then you send your arm flying, hitting him with all the force you have. He doesn't move at all. You let out a frustrated sigh.
"Why do you have to be so strong? It's not fair, if I had super soldier serum, I would beat the crap out of you."
He clicks his tongue and raises an eyebrow. "Tsk. What would Steve think if he heard you using such language?"
You roll your eyes, preparing for another attack. This time, you aim for his knees – it's no fair play since you agreed to work on your higher punches, but that's irrelevant. You just want to land at least one hit today.
He's not prepared for when you bend your knees and punch his knee with your right foot. You hear him hiss through his teeth as he jumps backward and squints his eyes.
"So we're playing this game today, yes?" he asks with a playful undertone. "Be prepared for the unfairest moves you've ever seen!"
Laughing, you dodge his fist as he tries to hit your nose. He didn't move as fast or strong as he could, so it would've been a wonder if he'd actually struck your face. Then he suddenly jumps forward and grabs your waist. It's no problem for him to lift you and you find yourself hovering in the air, being spun around by a strong, handsome man who looks up at you and smiles brightly. You return the smile and catch your breath while he lets you down again.
A stifled laugh from the door attracts your attention and as you and Bucky look up, you see Sam standing there with raised eyebrows.
"Sorry to interrupt you two lovebirds, but Steve wants to talk to you, Bucky." Your face is burning as he turns away again. Lovebirds, as if. You turn your gaze back to Bucky and see that his cheeks have reddened, too.
"I should probably get going," he says, clearing his throat. "Don't want to keep Steve waiting..."
You nod understandingly, even though you wish you'd get to spend more time with him. "Tomorrow, same time?" you ask hopefully, and to your luck, Bucky nods with a smile.
"Sure." With that, he leaves the training room.
The next day, you reach the room early. Bucky isn't yet there, so you decide to do your warming-up exercises until he gets there. But even as you try to focus on what you're doing your thoughts are drawn back to Bucky all the time. You didn't really train the last time, but it was more fun than you'd had in a very long time.
You glance at the clock hanging on the wall and realize that he should've been here half an hour ago. Frowning, you get up from the mat you were doing the warmup on.
"Friday, do you know where Bucky is?" you ask the AI.
"He's on his way, but he looks upset," the female voice tells you. You tilt your head.
"Because of what?" you ask out of curiousness. For a moment, Friday doesn't say anything.
"Since the talk with Mr. Rogers, he seems to be quite stressed out," she then explains, and your brows furrow. What could Steve have said that upset him this much?
At that moment, Bucky enters the training room. Friday was right, he's behaving rather strangely. You still greet him with a bright smile, hoping that it would cheer him up a bit.
"Hey there," you call out. "I already thought you got lost in the compound. Glad you're finally here."
He tries a weak smile but you can see something disturbing in his eyes. Is it... fear? "Let's just start with the exercises, shall we?"
"Grumpy much," you mumble to yourself. What about yesterday? Could it have meant nothing to him? Maybe you were just imagining the tension.
You set yourself up in front of him, ready to punch the grumpiness out of him. But he isn't disturbed by it, the cold feeling in his eyes doesn't disappear and you feel like you're in the wrong place for the whole hour you're training.
When it's time for a break, you walk to the door instead of sitting down, like you always do.
"I'm just going to get some fresh air," you call out, in case he was wondering. But the truth is, you don't feel safe around him anymore. Yesterday you did, you could've spent the whole day with him. What changed? What did Steve say?
You walk out of the compound to clear your head and sort your racing thoughts. Your heartbeat calms down at the sight of the quiet compound. It's going to be alright, you tell yourself. We're going to sort this out.
As you return to the training room, he stands with his back to the door, not moving a bit. His shape, standing there, making no sound, makes goosebumps crawl up your arms.
"Everything OK?" you ask him, your voice trembling slightly. At first, he doesn't move. Then he turns his head and glares at you.
The fearful look in his eyes has disappeared – but so has the warmth. Your eyes widen as he walks up to you, making heavy steps. You turn around to run out of the door, but he grabs your arm before you can do anything.
His grip is tight, and you have no chance of shaking it off. Instead, you bend your knees and ram your head in his stomach. He doesn't groan, but his hand loosens enough for you to slip out between his fingers and gain distance between you two.
He doesn't give you much time before he takes one of the weights lying around and throws it in your direction. You dodge it easily, but the next one is harder. The third one scrapes your arm, and you feel it bend too much in the wrong direction. The bone makes a slight cracking noise, and a burning pain breaks out in that place, but you can't concentrate on it right now. You catch the fourth weight with your other, stronger arm and throw it back to Bucky who doesn't even flinch.
Tears start forming in your eyes after you've processed the first moments of shock. Why is Bucky attacking you? What happened to him?
"Please," you sob as he comes closer. His body moves in a completely different way, his shoulders are tensed, and his jaw is clenched. You raise your arms to show him that you don't want to fight him. "Bucky, please, stop this!"
The closer he comes, the further you back up, until you feel the stone in your back. He stands right in front of you and tries to punch you in the face. You dodge him with one swift movement by letting yourself fall to your knees and roll out of his reach before standing up neatly. This is your only advantage; you're way faster than him. You'll have to dodge his attacks until someone else gets here.
"Friday!" you shout before jumping away from Bucky again as he comes closer. "C-can you call Steve? Or Nat? Anyone?" You shout surprisedly when Bucky runs towards you, and you only manage to avoid him at the last second.
"I will," the mechanic voice answers.
"Please, tell them" – Bucky tries to kick you in the stomach, but you step aside quickly – "to hurry up!"
In that moment, his hand spurts forward, grabbing your throat. You gasp as his grip tightens and try to break free. You have no chance, even as he lifts you and presses you back against the wall seemingly effortlessly.
His cold eyes burn into yours as you continue gasping and panting, in order to fill your lungs with air again. Nothing helps against his hand closing your throat, and stars start dancing in your sight while you feel your lips go cold. How long has he held you like this? It can't be more than a minute, but it feels like hours.
At that moment, Steve barges through the door. He sees you, pinned against the wall, and runs forward to grab his friend. Bucky loosens his grip when Steve punches him in the back and you sink to the ground, tears still burning in your eyes, and your throat hurting. Your lungs feel like they're filled with glass shatters.
You hear the punches and groans of the two men but can't concentrate on anything else but getting more and more air in your lungs until you feel the life returning to your cold fingers and lips.
Suddenly, the sounds stop. You raise your head and see Bucky bent over, pressing his hands to his head. He looks like he's in pain, and honestly, in this moment, you enjoy seeing him like this. He attacked you, after all.
A few seconds pass before he looks up again, an expression of utter confusion on his face as he sees Steve standing in front of him, with raised fists. Then he looks at you and the bewilderment is replaced by shock. You're kneeling on the ground, your hand on your throat with assumingly bright red marks from where his fingers lay.
He wants to walk up to you, but you flinch away from him as soon as he raises his hand again.
"Stay away from me," you demand, your voice trembling.
You try to stand up, but the arm he hurt gives in as you lay your weight on it, and you squeal in pain. Steve rushes over to your side, helping you up. He glares at Bucky angrily, who just looks lost now, and guides you out of the training room. You're happy about that, you wouldn't want to be with Bucky alone in a room again. What he did to you... It came so suddenly. So unexpectedly. Who says it won't happen again?
The door slams shut behind you and Steve, leaving the shocked and confused Bucky on its other side.
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