Of Love and Lines (MCUxReader)

Seventeen

And so it went. Days turned into weeks, and you'd actually started to get the hang of the whole training thing. Though you refused to get used to the morning runs. That shit fucking sucked monkey balls. You'd take the grueling work of lifting weights in the evenings over that any damn day. You got lost in the brutal schedule of morning, mid-morning, afternoon, and evening training sessions. You actually had abs now which almost made it all worth it. Almost.

Spending time with Steve helped. The two of you couldn't go more than a few hours without finding someplace to let some steam off.

Between training, keeping up with your classwork, and your internship with Bruce you hardly had any time left to yourself. Scratch that. You had zero fucking time. The friends you'd made in nursing school had been dropping like flies, your phone pinging less and less throughout the day.

Which was fine. Half of them were fake ass bitches anyway. You still had Webs and Livi, and you'd been getting a lot closer with Wands and Nat.

One thing that hadn't changed was your relationship with Winter. He just rubbed you in all the wrong ways and the feeling was mutual. Not a day went by that you didn't goad each other into a tiff, something Steve didn't like. But it wasn't just your fault. Winter hated you for reasons unknown.

The feeling was mutual.

You'd been walking into the gym for your afternoon training session when you passed Livi on her way out. The main team always finished up right when you and Peter started.

She stopped you in the hall, looking a little worse for wear. "Go easy on him today." She warned.

You didn't have to ask to know who she was talking about. "I promised other people that I wouldn't go easy on him."

"Who?"

"Myself."

Livi rolled her eyes. "I'm serious, Penn. He's having a rough day."

"Please. The dude literally spends his days lifting weights and eating his mass in protein. That's when he's not being an all-around asshole."

"Just- just be careful. Okay?"

"Okay." You lied before striding into the gym.

Bucky stood next to Steve, their shoulders ducked in quiet conversation, their foreheads practically touching.

Webs had beat you to the gym today and he waved you over to where he stood by the benches.

"Hey, where'd you get off to?" He asked.

"Ugh. I submitted the wrong fucking paper to the drop box. My prof emailed me asking for the right one, so I had to get that done. I swear to God Webs, this program has me so fucking exhausted I can't do basic shit anymore."

He laughed. "Yeah, believe me I get it. Yesterday, I put the cereal box in the fridge and the milk in the cupboard."

You laughed, then paused when you realized what he said. "You get to eat cereal?!"

"Oh. Yeah, my meal plan isn't as strict as yours. Super metabolism and all that."

"What the fuuuuck. I really hate you sometimes."

"Nah, you love me."

You grumbled at him before Steve called the two of you to the mats. He went over the maneuvers for today and you split off.

Livi wasn't kidding about Winter having a bad day. Dude was practically drowning in grumpiness, his negative aura sucking the air from the room.

Your sparring went as it usually did, him repeatedly beating you down until your every muscle cried out in protest and your body dripped with sweat. Only today his hits came a little harder, knocking the air from your lungs and likely giving you a number of bruises to add to your collection. When he landed a particularly hard knock to the side of your head, you'd had enough.