Bound To You (Bucky Barnes X OC)

Training

Monday

Jade walked into the training room to find Steve warming up at the punching bag. She set her water bottle down and began stretching. Once she was done, she looked up to see Steve watching her.

"Might wanna pick your tongue up off the floor, boy wonder." She joked.

"Shit, sorry. I didn't mean to stare, it's just...habit."

"Did you often stare at me when I wasn't looking?" Jade asked curiously.

"I plead the fifth." Steve chuckled lightly.

"Just don't let it go any farther and maybe don't let Bucky see you doing that. He's a little...protective."

"Trust me, I know." Steve's hand unconsciously rubs his jaw where Bucky had punched him during their sparring match several weeks beforehand.

Jade nervously walked onto the mats and stood waiting for Steve to start her training session. She hadn't slept well the night before. She hadn't since the night she was almost taken from the compound. Even with Bucky right beside her, she woke at every single noise.

She had begun having nightmares again. She even offered to go to the other room so Bucky could get some sleep. As soon as she suggested it, Bucky clamped his arms around her and told her that if she got up, he would physically carry her back to their bed. He held her until exhaustion overtook her, but within an hour she was jolted awake again after having a nightmare where her father put a bullet in her head.

"Jade, you look like you haven't slept at all. Are you okay?" Steve looked at her with concern.

"To be honest, I'm not okay. I haven't been sleeping much. I wake at every noise and I'm having nightmares again. Bucky tries to ease the anxiety, but nothing is helping." Jade's voice cracked and then laughter bubbled up her throat. "God, I'm a mess, Steve."

Steve wrapped his arms around her and held her close to him.

"It's okay to not be okay, sweetheart. You've been dealing with this since you were five. Twenty six years of running is a long time. Anyone else should've broken by now, but you're stronger than you think. These training sessions are going to help you become even stronger. So let's focus on the basics today and you can expand on them with Nat on Wednesday, okay?" His hand slid up and down her back, reassuring her that she was safe.

Jade nodded her head against his chest and took a step back from him.

"Okay, Obi Wan. I'm ready to start."

"Obi Wa-, actually I'm not going to ask. First step is the correct fighting stance. Without the right stance, your strikes won't be as effective."

Steve spent the next two hours showing her basic moves and how to correctly stand and deliver each blow. Some of the moves she recognized from her self defense course, but others were new.

Steve lined Jade up with the punching bag, making sure her hips and feet were in the correct place and that her body was angled forward.

"Remember, you're right handed, so the left foot faces forward and the right foot points at a forty five degree angle. Body is positioned forward, not to the side. Rotate your hips instead of swinging your arm across your body. If you do that, you'll tire yourself out and you won't have as much force behind the hit."

Jade followed Steve's instructions carefully. If she was going to do this training, she was going to do it right.

"Try throwing a couple hooks to the bag." Steve stepped back to look at her form as she began striking the bag.

Jade started slow at first making sure she got the rotation of her core down before speeding up her blows on the bag. She thought about her father and what a sorry fuck he was. She thought about her mom and grandmother who had died trying to protect her. She thought about Steve and the team and how she didn't want to lose them. As she delivered one final blow, she thought about Bucky and the fact that if she was taken by Hydra, she would never be able to have the life with him that she wanted. By the time Jade was finished, she was pouring sweat and her entire body was sore.