girlwithout | (no subject)

Entry tags:

milliways,
oom

(no subject)

Rikki really, really misses the gym at Avengers Mansion. She was super-spoiled, she'd admit, having access to state-of-the-art equipment meant for the use of actual superheroes. So of course, anything else she could possibly have access to would probably look like duct tape and baling wire in comparison.

She's pretty sure it's not bias to say that whatever she can rig up in an abandoned house and actual on-the-field practice makes for a pretty shitty gym-substitute. It's kind of a miracle when she finds out there's a gym at Milliways to use. (Is there anything it doesn't have? She's pretty sure she saw something like an obstacle course outside, too.)

Anyway, she figures she's owed a chance to work off a little steam. It's easy to fall into a rhythm so she doesn't have to think too hard, just concentrate on strength and endurance and beating the shit out of a punching bag that never did a thing to her.

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Having had the same idea, Steve is in the gym already, punching the shit out of a punching bag.

He doesn't notice he has company at first.

She's not sure, at first, if she's ready to talk to him. The past 24 hours have been kind of like being put through a spaghetti strainer, even with the help Ellen (and her dog) have been. But she finds that she does want to talk to him, even if she's not ready for it.

So Rikki approaches - at a healthy distance, of course, because no one wants to accidentally be hit in the face by a flying punching bag that gave up the ghost at a terrible moment. "Hey."

Steve gives the bag one hard punch, and then stills it and looks at Rikki, panting from exertion.

"Oh! Hi!" He pushes his sweaty hair out of his face. "Rikki. How are you doing?"

"I'm... okay." Her mouth twists into an almost-smile, like she knows how ridiculous it is to say that, especially considering what she looked like the last time she saw him.

"Good, good," says Steve, Not Awkward At All.

He pushes his hair out of his face again.

"Did... you want to go back to...?"

She gestures vaguely towards the punching bag.

"Uh, sure. I mean, if you don't need it. Want to use it, I mean."

He sighs.

"Sorry. Sorry. I'm just trying to wrap my mind around the fact that you're Bucky's family and it's--it's weird."

Rikki gives a shrug. She guesses it would be pretty weird. "I didn't... know him, exactly."

If you don't count the time she spent in his costumed identity, that is.

"No, of course you wouldn't," Steve says quietly.

"But I did. It wouldn't be so weird otherwise."

"Yeah."

Okay, maybe this wasn't as good an idea. "Should I... go?"

(And jeez, doesn't it sting to be asking Steve that.)

"No, no, no," Steve says. "Of course not. I should be getting back home, anyway."

"Okay," Rikki says, trying not to visibly deflate. "Cool."

Except... it's not. She steps aside to let him head out, but it's not okay, not really.

"It's just... I knew him. You. The Captain America where I'm from."

Steve looks at her.

"Knew?"

"Yeah."

It's hard not to cringe at the unspoken question in there - what happened? She had thought maybe she could talk to him about stuff, but this Steve... doesn't seem like he's really doing too well.

That's very astute. He's not.

He just nods.

"There seem to be a couple of me out there." He waves a hand in the vague direction of the observation window.

"Yeah," she says again, because right now she thinks she's never felt the loss of her Steve so sharply. "A few."

After a moment, she says, "You can go, you know. I just... wanted to say it."

He nods again and picks up his sweatshirt.

"Hey," he says, stopping on his way out, "if you ever want to hear about Bucky--my Bucky--I've got stories."

For the first time since they started talking, Rikki smiles. "Yeah. I'd like that, sometime."

"Okay," Steve says. "Sometime."

He nods and smiles a little too, and then leaves the gym.

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