𝐏𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 (marvel fanfic)

Chapter 18

Sarah yawned as she walked down the stairs, carelessly keeping an eye on her surrounding, her mind clouded by her fatigue. As she entered the main area reserved to the employees, she headed straight for the kitchen, using the dawn's light to navigate. It was barely four in the morning, so there was no one other than her up.

Just as she had predicted, she was barely able to sleep, the foreign environment keeping her on her guard. With that thought in mind, she decided to get up instead of trying to uselessly lay in bed for hours.

The coffee machine whistled as it brewed her saving grace. While waiting, she sat at the bar staring at the view on the night city. In the background, she could vaguely hear some rustling on the higher floors. Probably another insomniac, a kindred. Though it had been a while since she struggled to sleep, probably because she forgot her sleeping pills in her burning apartment.

She sipped on her scalding cup before sighing in delight as the hot liquid ran through her throat, waking her up fully.

"Good morning, Ms. Cano," a perfunctory voice greeted from the ceiling.

Sarah felt her heart pace quicken at the sudden voice, "who are you?"

"My name is J.A.R.V.I.S. at your service Ma'am," the voice was cordial and humane, but it was obviously an A.I. from the detached coldness of the voice.

As she finished her cup, she quickly left the room, uncomfortable with the idea of a robot surveilling her every move, "nice meeting you, Jarvis."

The corridors were empty, to her greatest delight. With the help of a map she was given, she navigated through the building to arrive in front of the gym. She wanted to release some built-up stress while no one was around.

She started by stretching, till she was a bit warmed up. After that, she put up one of the countless punching bags and started punching. Her fists made satisfying noses as they came into contact with the hard material.

At first, she went softly against the material, mindful of the cameras, and of the work she still had to do in the morning. However, the grey tissue soon transformed into a certain billionaire's face in her mind, and she couldn't help but punch harder, harder and harder till the bag was sent flying off with a hard thud.

"... fuck." Only then did she wake up from her daze, and realized she had fucked up. A normal civilian wasn't supposed to be able to do this.

She took off her jacket, feeling the heat build up in her body, before she drank from the faucet, splashing her face with cold water. Her muscles were burning a bit from not having strained in a long time, but what hurt more was the thought of evidences building up against her. And by her own fault too.

As she lamented on her fate, she barely noticed a man walking into the room. As she gazed up, a frown formed on her face, "Good morning, Captain America."

"Good morning, miss-"

She chuckled—as if they didn't know the name of their highest suspect, "Sarah."

"Steve Rogers, nice to meet you," he extended his hand in greeting, glancing at the bandage around her hands and the punching bag on the floor. "How long have you been here?"

"Half an hour at most," she replied, as she unwrapped the bandages serving to protect her knuckles.

"That's the first time anyone's ever been here earlier than me," he said in good nature, stretching before positioning himself in front of another punching bag. "May I assume you're the one who did that?" He asked while pointing to the bag laying stretched across the floor.

Sarah felt a headache incoming. "It was there when I came in," she lied smoothly, feeling awkward when he pointedly stared at her reddish hands and the bandages beside her. When he finally dropped the matter, she sighed in relief.

After he let the conversation rest, she went to the treadmill and started softly jogging and progressed into a full run. After an hour, she slowed down and stopped, feeling her legs burn and strain. With short breath, she decided to leave, becoming more and more conscious of the side-glances from the Hero.

When morning finally came, she rejoined her group and continued the exploration, teachings of the day from the engineers, and the various people working at Stark Industry. It was also a time for Sarah to relax and learn more about the leading enterprise in the world of technology.

In the evening, she ate with the employees, entertaining their rain of question and easily mingling with them. She was used to dealing with scientists—with her being one in her previous one—throw some controversial scientific subject at them and sit back and enjoy.

Afterward, she came back to her room, relaxed in her hot tub for a while, slept a few hours, more if she could, and went down to the gym, before anyone was there. And when Steve did arrive, he wasn't usually very chatty, which she internally thanked him for. She couldn't deal with people in the morning.

On the weekends, she trained Peter, walked around the city, hacked some secret documents, kept an eye on Hydra's movements and avoided any tricky situations, before coming back to her apartment.

It soon transformed into a peaceful routine without any interruption, and she grew careless. Which led to the current uncomfortable situation, where she sat in front of two agents at the gym, at an hour where only she and Steve were usually there.

"Want to spar?" the red-haired woman asked with a deceptively kind smile while her partner went ahead and stretched.

Sarah put on her best actress performance, and sheepishly replied, hands up in defense and eyes pleading, "I don't know how to fight, I'm sorry." She then continued, as she pointed to the captain training while listening-in, "but he does."

Steve was pointedly staring at her with a gaze that told her he didn't believe her bullshit—or in his more polite words, whatever lies she was uttering... Though she lied each time, the pile of unusable punching balls on the side, wasn't only his doing, he knew she was more than capable of overthrowing at least a normal citizen.

"Really, Ms. Cano?" Natasha asked, tilting her head in wonder, before clapping her hands like she found the solution, "I can teach you then!"

Sarah stared dubiously at her, refraining her fight and flight instincts in front of the highly-trained agent she was trained to beat, "and if I don't want to?"

Natasha smiled kindly, omitting an answer, but pointing with her chin to the cameras conveniently staring at them.

Sarah sighed heavily before wrapping her hands in the bandages meant to protect her knuckles. It wasn't an ideal morning and she had plenty of work to do in the morning, only she didn't know in what state she would arrive.

The neo lighting brightly shone upon the both of them standing in the boxing ring as the room became awfully silent. Sarah tied her hair up, using hair clips to push back her forehead hair. Unconsciously, she touched the red scar resting usually hidden there.

She relaxed into her fighting stance, her heel anchoring into the mat.

As Barton's signal dropped, they both started circling each other, surveilling the other for any flaw in their technique. Sarah didn't dare take it too easy, not when she saw Natasha's stance and serious face.

"Don't worry, I won't hit too hard," Natasha smilingly said before punching at full strength. She was lying, of course.