A Little Sparring Never Killed Nobody
As you took your stance you analyzed his, just like May had taught you. He was relaxed, confident, almost to the point of cockiness, but nevertheless you had just spent the last half hour flailing your arms around the bag like one of those inflatable dudes they have at car sales. Never mind, you had to focus. Assuming he thought you had never stepped foot into a gym, let alone a ring, he was probably going to take it easy on you. And you hated that thought. You were angry, you were hurt, and you needed to hit something.
You decided to make the first move, lunging forward towards him with a perfect right cross to his jaw, taking him by surprise and sending him stumbling back a few steps. He looked up in shock, clearly taken aback by your speed, he quickly returned with an equally as perfect side sweep. However, you were too smart for that. As he ducked down to kick your legs out you latched onto his upper torso and rolled him under you in a somersault.
“What’s wrong? Never seen a girl on top?” you teased him.
“Not in a long time doll.” he retorted smoothly.
You realized too late that you had made a mistake letting him talk, when you felt his calf wrap around yours and flip you under him. He inched closer to your face and you took the opportunity to prep for your next move. You craned your neck up towards his face, playing the little game he was playing, tightened your core and wedged your knee so you had a perfect angle to get to his stomach.
Once again taking him by surprise, you used your foot and your knee to propel you into his stomach making him lose his breath, and then followed it up by using your momentum to use him in a backwards somersault, landing you back on top and smirking down at him.
You got onto your feet, holding your hand out for him, and returned to the original stance. This time he knew not to hold back. You both fought with passion, a flurry of emotions the two of you shared, but didn’t acknowledge. There was anger and hate and hurt and guilt and regret all mixed into a frenzy of jabs and blocks, with the occasional flip from you, until you were both out of breath and sweaty. He finally managed to pin you down after he tripped you, but neither of you had the heart to keep fighting. Something about the rawness of the situation made you understand everything he went through.
Because you were the same. Unmade and taken apart piece by piece, rearranged just so, a tool. One way or another always ending with someone you loved getting hurt. The only difference was that he never begged for Hydra’s forgiveness, he didn’t want to go back to them, the monsters that made him, he fought it, you asked for it. You begged for Hive to take you back. You were more of a monster than Bucky. You were weak.
As if reading your deepest thoughts, he stared down at you with beautiful, big, blue eyes, trying to drink in your soul. “You’re not a monster.” he said to you.
“You don’t know me. You don’t know what I’ve done.” you whispered back, mesmerized by the the way he was staring at you.
“Yes I do. I know you because we’re the same.” and with that he closed the gap between your bodies and kissed you with as much passion as the fight had had. You returned it, needing to feel something other than pain for a minute, allowing him access to your mouth as he swept his tongue in. You moaned into his mouth as he tugged on your lips. After a short while you broke apart and looked deep into each others eyes, neither daring to say anything to the other.
He finally got up off you and offered his hand to help you stand. You took it, not trusting your own legs to get up by yourself and the two of you started to walk over to the benches but a sigh and frustrated footsteps made the two of you jump.
“Gosh Daisy! When were you ever planning on coming back up to the room? You know I worry after you lose control! What if something happens and I’m not here to-“ she stops short once she realizes you weren’t alone. “Oh, hello! It’s lovely to meet you Mr. Barnes. Is Daisy filling you in on how we plan on helping you?” she formally shakes his had vigorously and stares at him with wide eyes.
“Jemma, he isn’t here because of that. He thought I was an enemy, he came here to kill me.” you whispered to her, knowing he probably heard you but not caring because it was true.
“Oh, so I suppose you don’t know about my solution to your brainwashing problem?” she gestured back to him.
With this he immediately grabbed both of your’s and Jemma’s hands and pulled you along up to your room. “Pack, I’m taking you to see Steve and T’Challa right now. By this point, I’ll take anything.” he said. As you started packing, Jemma started protesting.
“Mr. Barnes-“ she started.
“My name is Bucky.” he stated.
“Bucky, this idea is purely just a hypothesis. I’d much rather run diagnostics and examine your symptoms for a while, maybe run some controlled experiments, before even beginning to think of testing it on you. It’s very dangerous as a scientist to jump to conclusions, and we definitely shouldn’t rush head on into an idea that has no proof it’ll even work in the first place. I mean there are so many variables, an infinite amount really, so many things could go wrong. Hypnosis itself is a risky business.” as she rambled on in her natural science language, he slowly started losing interest and began playing with the toys on he makeshift lab table. “Don’t touch that please, or that, or that, actually you know what just don’t touch anything.” quickly realizing that she stopped rambling when you started messing with her things, he kept touching more and more gadgets. Looking over at you packing, he smirked.