Bucky's Diary

June 11, 2003

A Little Bit Dangerous – CRMNL
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Dear Diary,

Today is only the beginning.

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So, today is the very first day of a month long program created by Anya herself. It's something they do every few years, so this is the first time I've ever witnessed it. Though, the event will run through the second week of July, so it's bound to be something grand.

It is also something that is happening at every Black Widow Red Room Academy across the world, including the one I visited in April with Agent Dedov where I saw Yelena Belova and the others in person.

She told us trainers last night that it would be a month of one-on-one training in very specific scenarios under potentially strange, never-before-seen situations. We were told to prepare for potentially insane tasks and challenges unlike anything we've ever seen before.

Luckily for me, though, I've lived through being one of HYDRA's soldiers... it doesn't get much worse than that.

This morning, we all found ourselves in the training room which, somehow overnight, looked different than it usually did. And, by 'we all,' I mean literally every single trainer and every single potential Widow in the academy.

"Good morning, everyone, welcome," Anya announced as she walked into the room later than everyone else. "Today marks the beginning of a month-long series of training exercises that will challenge you all to your fullest potential. Trainers, this is your time to face your students one-on-one and to experience their knowledge firsthand. Widows, this is your chance to show us who's truly the best among you, and prove your ability to become a standalone Black Widow."

Everyone clapped, so I joined along.

We commenced with the youngest age classes and moved up. Each potential Widow was put in the newly constructed boxing ring type structure with their trainer, or if they had multiple trainers, the trainer of their choosing of their three.

The first age group to go up was age ten, as anyone younger than that was only trained in ballet, stretching and language arts. It all started out rather boring, too, as we all stood around waiting for the age groups sixteen and older to begin, as that's when really challenging and interesting fights would actually begin.

Soon enough, the sixteens of our current facility had already gone- then seventeen, too, had gone.

"Agent Baranov," Anya called me, loudly. I approached her just as the other trainers had done before their turns.

"Yes, Headmistress Anya," I replied only quiet enough for her to hear.

"You will begin at the top of your line up and make your way down the succession," she informed me.

I nodded at her and turned to face my line up of Widows. "Anastasiya Luda Sokolova," I announced.

She separated from the line and approached the ring, awaiting my approach as well before entering.

We fought, Anastasiya and myself. Then I fought Mischa and Katya and Doroteya - all the way down the lineup I fought - Sonya, Yalizaveta, Svetlana, Nikita, Irina...

"Natalia Alianovna Romanova," I called, finally the last name on my list.

She walked up, swaying her hips on front of everyone as if she wanted me to watch as the other male trainers looked her up and down. As if she knew it would tear a red heat full of anger across my face and force me to look at her the same way. Instead, I maintained eye contact with her and refused to treat her any less than what she was- a warrior in training.

"Agent Baranov," she shook my hand just as the rest of the Widows had done after entering into the ring with me.

"Natalia," I replied with a straight face.

We stepped back from the center and stood against our respective corner poles.

"On the sound of the airhorn, commence," Anya shouted.

I heard the horn and ran at her, pulling the knife from its holster immediately, just as I'd done with all the other Widows.

We danced back and forth with this knife between us like a barrier. It felt strange to fight her after we'd been so intimate so many times in many different ways... almost as if those acts made our current motions during battle more fluid together. Like we knew how to react to one another better now that we knew the other better.

Yet, that also meant she could see my moves coming miles away, which was far sooner than the other Widows could. This was clear to everyone watching, the fact that Natalia is incredible, they all saw her as the star pupil of the eighteen-age-class.

Soon, she knocked the knife from my hand and it fell outside of the ring where I couldn't reach it anew. She went for my face, surprising me with strange attacks I'd never really known her to do.

In the next moment, I had her in a choke hold and Anya yelled out that there was "one minute remaining!"

Just enough for Natalia to notice but no one else, I loosened my grip on her. She broke free from my hold and swung around into the air on one hand to get her legs around my head.

I fell to the ground and everyone gasped after the thud. Her legs remained around me as she pushed down on my neck, a move that would have worked well to knock out any opponent similar to my size.

I looked up at her and could tell that we were both thinking about the position we were in and everything that it implied about things we very obviously had the potential to do, only wearing far less layers of clothes.

"Time!" Anya shouted, prompting Natalia to get off me and extend a hand to me to help me up off the ground.

We shook hands and backed away from one another until Anya dismissed us from the ring.

As I approached the line of trainers, picking up my discarded knife on the way, she called the next one up to continue with the nineteen-age-group, pulling the attention away from me and Natalia for the. first time in what felt like forever.

And, as I stood there watching the next fight begin, I made sure to keep my hands in front of my crotch because, well, after Natalia pulled a move like that last one, I definitely started to feel myself getting hard and couldn't risk anyone seeing something like that in an environment like this.

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With my reactions like that after simply fighting Natalia, I can't imagine what the rest of the month is going to be like. I mean, shit, I don't know how long I'll even be able to last in conditions like this.

~ James