Phoenix

First Day Of Many

Bucky and I had stayed up for a few hours talking about everything, I found out that technically he is 94 which is insane when he looks like he is in his early 30's. He also told me that he likes to read the hobbit back in 1937 when it came out and said we should swap books. So he has my copy of Robin Hood and I have a copy of the Hobbit for us to read by the fire.

We went to bed around 1 am I think, I couldn't fall asleep easily and when I had. I saw the same bird on fire. Noting happened I just watched the bird fly around. I didn't move at all this time. It never came close, it was more like it was studying me. I couldn't explain it.

I woke up to a knock at the door followed by bucky walking into my room. "Hey kid, ready for our run?" I mumbled and he left the room I quickly threw on a pair of bottoms and a pair of trainers, and pulled a new bright red hoodie over my head and headed downstairs.

"What time is it?" I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and looked over at the clock on the oven. "4:30? Are you insane?" I asked him, which made him laugh.

"Tommy we have a lot to do today, let's go. Plus the sun is rising over the valley so it will be a nice view." He said passing me a glass of water. He drank his own placing the empty glass in the sink. I copied him, and we walked out into the back garden.

It was all grass with a large tree in the bottom corner before the lake. There was a pile of logs further along by the house, with some axes nearby. There was a small dock by the tree that reached out into the lake. We walked down the garden. As we got to the dock we had a quick look around and looked at each other.

"Race you?" I said and took off sprinting. I heard him swear as he followed quickly behind me, I was a small amount ahead of him racing around the lake, he was trying to catch up I looked behind me to see him gaining on me. "Speed up old man!" I called as I picked up my pace jumping over some tree roots sticking out the ground. "Tommy, don't get cocky," he shouted as he picked up his pace coming up behind me. I caught a glance at his hair to the left of me. I smirked at him and sped off again, creating a bigger gap between us. "What was that about being cocky? I couldn't hear you so far ahead?" I called as the gap got bigger. "Fuck sake" I heard him say as I kept running. It didn't take long until I was back at the dock. I waited a minute and he arrived next to me. "Took your time." I glanced down at my wrist, pretending a watch was there.

"Okay, this is what I meant by being cocky" he laughed and pulled out a stopwatch from his pocket. "In going to time you now. See if you can beat your time each morning." He raised his eyebrows at me.

"Easy. Let's go"

"3, 2, 1," and I took off sprinting, I felt free and alive dodging in and out of the trees as I had done before. Pushing myself to speed I didn't know I could reach, I managed to push myself around the lake in minutes. Stopping as I got to Bucky. I stopped and turned to smile at him. He looked impressed. "You went easy on me?" he laughed and took his arm around me. "You must have been going at like 20mph just then"

"Really? I went at 15 back in Sokovia on a treadmill." I said as I went inside to grab a water bottle. I came back out with one for him.

"Thanks, ready for some lessons?" he said placing the bottle on the floor. Raising his fists, into boxing ready position.

"So I just throw punches at you? You're like some super assassin? How is getting my ass handed to me a lesson?"

"I'm not going to hit you, you going to try and get me to the floor. I want to know where we are starting."

"So what you just block and dodge?"

"Exactly, arms up. Feet shoulder width. Dominant one slightly forward, and make your movement unpredictable." he explained and I copied his stance, my right foot slightly forward, knees bent a little, with my arms up. I went to throw a couple of punches which he blocked with ease. I move to throw my leg at his side which he quickly pushed away surprised. He smiles and I threw another punch, we kept going on moving to block and to kick, I hand managed to land a single hit. I was getting frustrated and annoyed. He was surprised at some of my attempts when I would kick and then instantly try and catch him off guard but it never worked. He could sense me getting frustrated, and told me to take a break.