Bad For You

6

Steve filed out of the conference room with the others after their meeting to discuss the terms and conditions of Loki's stay at the compound to find the god in question leaning casually against the wall chatting with Pietro and Lane who were both, yes both, giggling at whatever he had just said.

Steve rolled his eyes. He had accepted, albeit begrudgingly, Thor's plea to allow Loki sanctuary on the condition that the god of mischief didn't get into any...well, mischief. However, seeing who the Asgardian was swiftly making friends with Steve doubted Loki would be here long.

Thor exited the room with an uncontrollable smile on his face. "Good news, brother, you can stay!"

"With conditions," Tony added and Thor nodded vigorously.

"Of course, of course. But we can discuss those later. For now let's get you set up with a room."

Steve's eyes stayed locked on Lane and Pietro who were having a conversation with head nods and facial expressions before Lane turned to the brothers. "He can take the empty one across from me and Piet and we can show him around while you guys all get back to your normally scheduled do-gooding."

She waved a hand at the rest of the core team as they made their way down the hall to their respective activities.

"Lanie," Steve spoke and had to bite back his irritation as he did so and he thought about Nat's word the night before. Lane glared at him with cold fury. "Thank you, for volunteering to take Loki around and keep an eye on him until the rest of us have time to go over some ground rules."

Her face morphed from anger to confusion as her head whipped between him and Pietro who widened his own eyes at her before shrugging and pulling Loki down the hall by his sleeve to start their tour. "Not, doing it for you, Captain."

He sucked in a deep breath to control the spike of anger he felt. "I know, but I appreciate it, nonetheless." He paused for a second and took her in. Brown eyes sharp and attentive, arms crossed protectively over her chest and body taught, ready for a fight. He hadn't realized it before now but unless she was working or near one of the twins she always seemed to be like that. A gun ready to go off. He took half a step back and relaxed his own posture. "I would also really appreciate it if we could start working on getting you field trained. I'd like to get started tomorrow, ideally, but if that doesn't work for you could you let me know what does?"

Lane didn't understand Steve's sudden lack of force. He was asking rather than demanding and he'd stepped back seemingly to be less intimidating when he did so. He'd never spoken to her like that before and her shoulders rounded almost reflexively at the weirdness of it. But after a beat she nodded. She'd told him to act like an adult and it seemed, for now at least, he was so she would too. "Tomorrow works," she turned to head down the hall after Pietro and Loki, eager to dish to her friend about this strange turn of events but called over her shoulder. "Just let me know when and where."

-

Steve had approached her at dinner where she sat at the island with Loki and the twins, that same strange, seemingly forced politeness in his voice and asked, yes asked, if she would meet him in the large combat room at seven. She'd said yes reluctantly because of the time but not wanting to pop his sudden bubble of nicety. As she pushed into the planned meeting space with not nearly enough coffee or sleep in her body she wished she'd tried to negotiate.

"Good morning," Steve called from the edge of one of the large mats on the ground and she grunted her response. "I know it's early for you so we are going to start slow. Stretch, take a few laps around the track and then go over some basic defense moves."

She quirked a brow at his continued lack of 'hoo-rah'. It was way too early to keep playing along with his strange shift so she blurted out "did you hit your head or something?"

She relaxed a bit at the familiarity of annoyance that flashed on his face before he gestured for her to follow his lead, beginning to stretch. "No, I did not. Why do you ask?"

"You're being very...not you," she waved a hand in his direction before mimicking him. "It's weirding me out."

He pulled up a leg behind him to stretch his quad and held in a slightly mean-spirited laugh when she initially had seemed a bit off balance doing the same. "I may have been reminded that you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar. That's all."

Her foot hit the floor with an angry thump. "Are you calling me a fly?"

"It an expression, Lane. I just meant I was told to play nice if I wanted your cooperation."

"Nat," she asked.

"Yep."

She shrugged and grabbed her leg again resumed stretching.

The two remained quiet for the rest of their warm-up and walk and Steve found it oddly pleasant. Prior to their fight the other night his interactions with her had been relegated to brief exchanges of information on missions and watching her cocky attitude as she moved about the compound with the twins. He wouldn't say he was enjoying the current bout of peace between them but he couldn't say he didn't enjoy it either.

When they finally finished their laps and moved onto the mat Steve took several minutes to run through basics, the whole time Lane listened attentively with a small smile on her lips. Using knees and elbows to avoid breaking bones in the hand, how to break out of several different types of grabs and holds and how to use her palm to break someone's nose.

"So, when their head snaps back and they are distracted with the break you take the chance to run until you're better equipped to handle yourself." Steve stepped back from his teaching position. "You think you've got it?"

Lane nodded. "Yep, I'm ready for a test run when you are."

"Confident aren't you?"

"Always, Captain." She stepped into a readied stance, feet staggered and hands poised ready to strike in front of her.

He couldn't help the smile that made its way to his lips. He figured the tentative peace they had made would soon shatter. Lane was cocky and he knew she wouldn't take kindly to failing. And he had no plans to go easy on her. Their enemies wouldn't and she needed to learn.

He darted forward without warning, attempting to grapple her below her hands raised to block but she moved in a way he hadn't anticipated. Instead of stepping back and dropping her hands he reached forward and grabbed one arm and the neck of his shirt before twisting her back to him and hauling him over her body to land on his own back, the wind knocked out of him.

When he rolled over with a groan he could see she had crossed to the other side of the mat, putting space between them, but was still ready to go again as she bounced on the balls of her feet. He pushed himself to stand and flexed the slight tenderness from his landing out.

"Where'd you learn to do that?"

"A friend." She shrugged, keeping her hands up and eyes alert, watching his every move but he just stopped in the center, hands on his hips.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Her bouncing slowed and her hands lowered a fraction as her eyes rolled in irritation. "I'm not one to offer information unprompted and you didn't ask."

"I just thought-"

She cut him off, hands resuming their protective position. "You and about a dozen or so other assholes around New York. Men's egos are their biggest weakness."

He let out a huff and bit his lip, shaking his head before sighing and crossing to her slowly. Hands raised in surrender. "Fair enough. Now in the interest of time and my ego how about you tell me what you already know and we can go from there?"