Cornelia Street - Avengers

Scorned

"Take the risk or lose the chance"

The Compound, 2017

(Problem, Ariana Grande)

...

For the past hour, Lucia had been relentlessly pounding the training room punching bag, tearing it apart as though she harboured a personal vendetta against it. Grunts escaped her lips rhythmically, mingling with beads of sweat trickling down her hairline, her arms aching with effort. 

Each punch and swing she delivered wore down the bag bit by bit, revealing glimpses of its internal fabric amidst the blaring music that filled the gym. The world outside was cloaked in darkness now, the bright gym lights keeping her wide awake. 

It wasn't a punishment, but rather her way of caring for herself. Sleep was out of the question. She adamantly refused it.

Underneath her eyes, dark bags had formed, her hands trembled from sheer exhaustion, and her mind raced with doubts. She questioned her decision to confront Steve about his behaviour towards her. 

She knew he had returned after dinner, following a day of meetings in Washington, D.C, and she had mulled over this moment all day, her need for answers, her reflection on the way his fingers had grazed her upper torso.

No.

With one final brute-forced punch, she sent the punching bag flying across the room, skimming across the training room floor before breaking into pieces right beneath the mirror.

"Still got it," she thought to herself, resting her hands on her hips and panting her way over to her drink bottle and squirting water across her flushed skin, She was afraid of making things worse, but she knew that soon enough Tony would head to Steve's office to talk to him about the allegations. 

Something which she thought would only make Steve hate her more. Her father had managed to coax an answer out of her after she had been unusually quiet and introspective during their weekly team dinner.

 She had told him, as she was doing dishes. Washing plates over and over until her skin was rubbed red and raw from the temperature, Tony had found it the perfect time to re-announce his reinstatement of his personal strict Avengers no-dating policy.

He reminded them that as a team, they were not to allow interpersonal relationships and intense emotions to get in between any of them. That included both extreme love and hate. He even went as far as to hand out flyers, and strict rules outlining what they were allowed to do and not do. 

Thor took that moment to fake-announce and proclaim his love for Banner, passionately turning and grabbing the man's face beside him at the dinner table and attempting to kiss him.

The entire team had screamed in horror, takeout abandoned as seemingly in slow-motion, Bruce's face widened in fear as his glasses went crooked, just as Odinson planted a kiss on the man's cheek, crimson flushed to Banner's skin amidst a chorus of chuckles, cheers, and confusion that circulated the table. Clint suddenly stood with a jump; fist raised in the air.

"I knew it!" The Archer had roared, eyes widened in joy. The team fell silent in a way they hadn't in years, but she was happy—happy to see the colour return to the faces of the team she adored.

Unwrapping the gauze from her hands, Lucia stretched out her knuckles, examining the freshly healed skin on both her palms. Satisfied with the result, she discarded the gauze in the bin by the door, suppressing memories of Captain Rogers' hands on her skin and the look of disgust on his face as he backed away.