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GEMINI AGGRESSIVELY BEAT the training dummy in the training room. She hadn't woken up on the right side of the bed that morning. She'd hardly been able to sleep following a late shift at The Raven.
Bucky didn't think anyone was in the training room, until he saw his girlfriend round house kick one of the dummies into the wall. Closing the door loud enough to alert his presence, Gemini turned to him.
"What did that dummy do to you?" He asked playfully. However, he didn't receive a reply, not even a smile. "Gem, you okay?" She nodded to this question, grabbing another dummy. "Gemini!" He called louder, it echoing off the walls of large room.
She spun quickly. "What?!" She asked him angrily, fully realising who she was talking to. She felt bad when she saw Bucky's taken aback demeanour. "Shit, I am so sorry, bub. I'm just tired and in a bad mood."
"Late night in The Raven again?" She nodded, placing the dummy down. "Not been sleeping much again, huh doll?" She shook her head. "Come here, you grump." She scrunched her nose up, pulling a face but going to him anyway. He hugged her tight. "What do you wanna do, Gem? How'd you wanna get your anger out?"
She pulled from the hug. "I wanna train with you." She admitted.
Bucky instantly protested against this. "No way. I don't want you to get hurt."
Gemini wasn't gonna take that though. "I get it. You just don't wanna lose to a girl." She mocked him, knowing it would get in his head.
He narrowed his eyes to the cocky woman's behaviour. "Fine, but don't cry when you lose or get hurt." He warned before hand, dropping his stuff on the bench.
"Yeah, yeah. Come on grandpa." She eased right before he ran at her, their training beginning.
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The Avengers expected Bucky and Gemini to be the last two in the room. What they didn't expect was for them to appear from the training room. Natasha immediately lay her eyes on Gemini's cut on her cheek.
"What the hell happened to you?" She asked, concern lacing every word as she watched the young woman grab the first aid kit. Taking it from her hands. "Give me that."
"We trained together." Gemini replied as Natasha began cleaning her cut. She didn't wince at the stinging sensation in her cheek.
"Oh Jesus Christ. I'm sorry Gem." Steve apologised to her from the dining table. This earned him a confused look from the woman.
"Why are you sorry to me?" She asked him, knowing why he apologised but wanting him to admit it himself.
"No way." Pietro gasped.
"Did she?" Wanda asked straight after.
"Kick my ass and pin me to the mat? Yes, yes she did." Bucky admitted, scratching his hair awkwardly. The twins were beyond shocked at the revelation.
"So wait, you're telling me, Gemini. A none super soldier, none assassin. Just a normal spitfire girl, kicked your ass and pinned you to a mat?" Pietro asked, slightly intimidated by the woman. Bucky nodded. "And you didn't throw it?"
"Does it look like he threw it Pietro?" Natasha asked on Gemini's behalf pointing to the varying cuts from blow she had taken with the metal arm. Pietro stepped very far back away from Gemini. The fear set in his eyes. "Pietro she won't fight you unless you provoke her."
"Why did you just compare me to a guard dog?" Gemini immediately fired her query to her making Nat shrug and walk away from her. Gemini shook it off grabbing her bottle from Bucky's hand, kissing his cheek as she passed him.
Closing her door, she began removing her sports gear. The training had definitely let her diffuse some much needed steam she wanted to release. Last night at The Raven, with it being Joe's day off, she was left to cope with Candy alone. She had nearly throat punched her when she saw the Latina shoulder barge passed Taury.
Just thinking about it made Gemini's blood boil. She still couldn't understand why Nate hadn't fired her for multiple reasons. He didn't even like her, he merely tolerated her and her spoiled brat Nero.
She had just removed her shirt when she heard Bucky's little knock on the door. She hummed allowing him to come in. His eyes fell on Gemini's bare chest. The bruises on her skin from training had already begun forming. He apologised for those promising to make it up to her.
He walked up to her, kissing her neck. "Well this is a nice sight to see in the morning after a train." He whispered suggestively.
She went along with it, turning to face him fully. "I'm about to get a shower. Come join me." She ran her hand down his skin tight shirt.
Bucky became all flustered in that moment. Clearing his throat. "What?"
"Come. Join. Me." She replied, removing a piece of lower body clothing after each word. She walked over to her bathroom, stopping at the door to see Bucky removing his shirt and pants.
"I'll be there in a minute." He informed her as she disappeared into the bathroom and under the running water of the shower
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Gemini laughed at something Wanda had said as she insulted her brother. She was now sat in the living room playing Mario Kart with the twins and Rhodey.
Gemini picked up a blue shell deciding to aggravate Pietro even more by throwing it in his direction and hitting him.
"Gemini!" He yelled loudly, almost reaching the urge to rage quit. "You ass!" He cursed her.
She laughed as she over took him, laughing as she overtook him. He'd now started swearing at her Russian, glad that Natasha had taught her enough to understand the sheer anger he felt.
Wanda overtook Gemini making her laugh as Pietro seethed more. Rhodey seemed to have given up, not caring at this point if he won or lost. Wanda ultimately ended up winning, having her begin cheering loudly as Pietro kept cursing.
Gemini laughed, getting up to get herself some apple juice. Bucky walked in with a phone in hand. It was none stop buzzing in his hand.
"Gem, doll your phone keeps buzzing." He told her, holding it out to her. She didn't notice cause her back was to him though.
"Who is it?" She asked him.
He looked to the ID. "Some guy, Dave." The hint of jealousy in his voice made Gemini chuckle.
"He's my cousin, bub. What does he want?" She explained, following with the question.
Shrugging he handed the phone to her. "No clue, here."
Scrolling through the messages, she leaned against the counter right before deciding to FaceTime him. She left the room, going outside to see if he'd even answer. He was never a major fan of face-to-face communication through his screen.
Gemini sat down on one of the benches outside just before feeling someone grab her and she screamed. Flipping the body over her shoulder, she pinned the arm behind their back.
The screams of pain were familiar to her. "Ow! Gemini it's me! Get off!" He cried out. Gemini realised who it was, getting up and holding out her hand for him to get up.
"Dave, what the hell?" She asked him, dusting herself down.
"Yeah, you crazy woman, it's me." He admitted, dusting himself off and fixing his beanie on his head.
"Sorry." She apologised. "You're still a dumbass for scaring me though." She retorted.
She allowed him. "At least I didn't use a clown mask."
"I'd have beaten you to death if you'd done that." She typed through her phone, walking behind him. "What're you doing here?"
"Who's this?" Dave didn't get the chance to answer his cousin's question as Sam questioned the new face in the Compound.
"This is my cousin, Dave. Scott's friend." Gemini's phone explained.
"Who?"
"Tic-Tac, Sam." She replied through the automated voice. He realised after the nickname was reused. "Speaking of him, where is he Dave?"
"Where's who?" Dave asked oblivious.
"There is only one way you got here from San Francisco and to the Compound without actually being here." She explained to him, not breaking eye contact as the words spat at him through the device. "Don't bullshit me, Dave."
He sighed defeated, knowing he couldn't get anything passed his younger cousin. "Fine. Scott, come on out man." Scott suddenly appeared beside Dave in his Ant-Man suit.
Nervously he scratched his cheek. "Hehe...Hi Gem." She narrowed her eyes to the pair of them. "Um, have I ever told you the you have beautiful curls?" He tried changing the subject but to no avail. "Fine, Dave wanted to come visit you, I came for the forty dollars that Theo owes me. Do you know where he is?"
She revealed that he was at Braddock's right before he left on his mission. Dave kissed his little cousin's head. "I've missed you Gem. You done anything special recently?" She nodded her head smirking at her older cousin. "Hey, have you told your family about that yet?" She understood what he meant. She was thankful he didn't blurt it out, knowing how bad he could be. She shook her head at him.
Besides Joe, who Gemini would trust with her life and would genuinely die for, Dave was surprisingly the only other person to know that Gemini was a chosen mute. Dave knew and could actually understand why after what happened, she never spoke. The trauma was always fresh in the woman's mind and was the main prominent feature as to why she didn't speak.
She didn't even know if she could speak anymore after twenty-five years. She'd become so accustomed to being silent that if she tried to open her mouth an sound a word, she couldn't know if anything would come out. She was shocked - at first - that Joe had kept this secret from her family, specifically Nate his brother, but was beyond thankful that he didn't. His own words being 'It isn't my secret to tell. I'll keep that cause you've trusted me with this but when the time finally comes and you do tell them, I'll be there for you.' She couldn't be more thankful for her friend.
Dave had only found out when Gemini thought she was alone, at a house party. He'd discovered it when he had found her crying in her room at the anniversary of their grandfather. She was eight and she'd asked why, if God even existed, why he would take away someone so kind. Dave surprised her by gasping and she was at a loss for words. When asked why she kept quiet, she told him she physically couldn't talk after he passed. The pain she felt was too unbearable to make it into words.
She lost a part of her soul the day her grandfather died. The man she shared her birthday with. The man she lost the day before their shared day.
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Gemini's siblings had appeared after the news of the cousin's arrival. Sitting altogether they decided to watch something Nate had found in the boxes of VHS tapes.
"Gemini, go get your boyfriend." Nate instructed her, confusing Dave.
"Wait, hold up, back that booty up six paces." He started utterly baffled. "You're dating someone?" Gemini nodded as Dave began stuttering in betrayal that she hadn't told him. "I must meet them and kick their ass." He declared.
Gemini chuckled. "Yeah, good luck Davey Jones." She whistled a small tune that Bucky could recognise, coming out of Gemini's room. "Buck."
He walked over to the woman, kissing her head. "Yeah, doll?"
Dave looked the man up and down, not even purposely. He was extremely intimidated by his stature. His fragile masculinity being crushed in a matter of seconds. "Or I shall shake your boyfriend's hand, Gem because I like living." He revealed to his cousin, holding his hand out to Bucky to shake. "Dave."
"Your cousin?" Gemini nodded. "Bucky." He introduced himself.
"Weird name." Dave voiced his thoughts accidentally. Clearly the dumbass gene was in the boys of the Braddock family.
"Nickname, David. It's a nickname." Gemini's phone pointed out to him earning a sound of understanding.
"Why hasn't Bucky move into Gemini's room already? He spends more than half his time in there." Vision pondered aloud. Nate glared over his shoulder at the large amount of time the man spent in his baby sister's room.
"That's cause Vision, it's Gem's room. Her safe space to escape all the noise of this place. It's the same as mine. I respect her privacy by having my own room to sleep in, she deserves that." He explained to the robot man.
Gemini smirked as everyone began sitting down. "Says this after having this biggest lack of privacy by joining me in the shower." She typed into her phone and showed it to him. "I don't mind if you moved into my room, to be honest. Give me a chance to go through some shit." She typed out the finishing statement, kissing his cheek.
"I'll think about it, doll." He whispered. She nodded disappearing off to her room for a little while, deciding against watching the home movie. She already recognised it from the date. She'd seen this before.
Bucky sat beside Becky. She smiled at him, greeting him kindly. "Uncle Buck? Can I braid your hair please?" She asked innocently making him chuckle. He agreed as the little girl began to section the man's hair, climbing over the couch to be able to get a good angle.
Tony asked what they watching as he walked into the room. "We don't know, Nate's putting it in." Nat replied.
"You're gonna be shocked." He spoke up, sitting down and pressing play.
A very young girl, no older than four, waved at the camera. "Is that Gemini?" Wanda asked, recognising the bushy hair. Nate nodded in response, staying silent as she ran over to an older man.
"That's your grandpa." Taury pointed out, recognising the elderly man that was like a grandparent to her too. Gideon Braddock was a kind man with a love for music. A love that he passed onto his granddaughter right before his passing.
Everyone was shocked as they heard Gemini begin singing The Parting Glass, sitting on her grandfather's lap as he rocked to the tune.
Bucky could feel every muscle in his body freeze at the sight of his girlfriend singing. After the camping trip and what Joe had slipped - with her maybe one talking again - he realised that his girlfriend was never fully mute. She chose to be that way. He didn't bring it up as it seemed the others of her family believed it also. He only wondered, why she'd lie? To her siblings, her friends, to him. He didn't decide to dwell on it too much. It wasn't his place to accuse her of such things.
"It was so sudden." Theo muttered. Joe clapped a hand on the man's shoulder, pulling a sideways face.
"I never realised how much I missed her singing until she couldn't do it anymore." Toni spoke up, eyes not leaving the screen. Dave sat beside her watching his little sister look so happy and full of life.
Rewatching home videos like this made him realise, Gemini lost her shine the day she stopped talking.
Gemini walked back out of her room at the sound of laughter and mockery. Her eyes fell onto her boyfriend's long, and now braided, hair.
"Why is Bucky's hair braided?" The voice on her phone asked.
"He let Becky do his hair." She smiled to Becky offering her a high five.
"It's cute." She missed with the two braids in his hair from behind him.
"Thanks. Good job Becky." Bucky complimented the young girl's skill, giving her a high five also as she thanked him for letting her.
"You ever gonna cut your hair Barnes?" Sam asked him suddenly.
He shrugged his shoulders unsure. Gemini ruffled his braids. "I think you'd suit it." She wrote it out on her phone. He thanked her, kissing her cheek.
"So Gem, why'd you come out of your room?" She cleared her throat to Joe, pointing to the clock on the wall as he went white. "Shit, the bar opens in twenty minutes and we're not set up!" He announced catching the other's attention as they got ready to go.
"Love you, bye." Bucky said quickly, kissing her quickly just before Theo pulled the girl out of the room.
They all knew how busy the bar would be tonight, knowing their luck. This was gonna be one long ass evening.
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I hope you enjoyed this chapter
I hope I did well explaining the situation of Gemini not speaking
I was originally gonna just make it so she never talks by I has a change of plans for the future
Possibly won't be in this book but it will definitely be in another
I do hope that's alright with a you guys
I wanted to write a chapter with Dave in it
The only ones to know (fully) about Gemini's secret is her cousin and Joe
And thanks to Joe, partially Bucky
The next chapter will be out soon
Kayla Lou xxx