gravity || p. maximoff

chapter five

***

don't forget to comment, react, and vote! thank you for reading!

***

THE 6:00 AM ALARM ON JOEY'S PHONE PAINED HER, BOTH PHYSICALLY AND EMOTIONALLY.

Her eyelids were heavy as she lazily flicked the light on with her powers, and she allowed the newfound brightness to warm her up to being awake. When she could finally muster it she sat up, and just like the past two days, she shot her mother a text.

Morning. I hope you aren't awake right now because that would literally suck so bad. Speaking from experience.

She didn't bother with a trip to the bathroom for tooth-brushing or face-washing, because if training was anything like it used to be, she'd need both plus a long shower afterward. Instead, she brushed her hair into a high ponytail and changed into a blue tank, black leggings, and some beat-up peach-colored Nikes.

With only 40 minutes to spare now, Joey made her way out of her room and into an elevator, down one floor. Through the glass back wall of the elevator, she looked down at the track to the side of the building, where an assembly of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were running laps and doing various endurance exercises. She was grateful for a moment— though she dreaded being awake this early, she was glad to have something in common with Meg, and Jane, and the other agents.

The elevator chimed and opened, and the hum of several voices was coming through the hall in the direction of the kitchen; one of which she could distinctly recognize as Natasha.

"Why would you say that?!" Peter.

As she rounded the corner and entered the kitchen, she took in the picture of Steve spreading peanut butter on a bagel, Nat flipping an egg at the stove, and Bucky and Peter sitting behind the island on stools, each with a bowl of Kellogg's.

"She's joking," Bucky told Peter, though he was laughing along with Nat and Steve.

"Morning." Joey smiled, bringing all four people's attention toward her. Their laughter fizzled out, but their smiles didn't.

"Little Stark," Steve greeted in return. "Training this morning?"

"Wouldn't miss it," Joey replied, and Nat threw a knowing look over her shoulder; one that said yeah, right. When she looked over at Peter, he was giving a similar look, having heard hers and Tony's entire squabble last night.

"You train, kid?" Bucky asked as Joey walked to the fridge.

"My dad used to make me, when I was growing up," she confirmed.

"The same may be said about her reasons for participating this time around," Nat added.

"Cut it out, Natasha," Joey suggested casually, flipping her off from around the fridge door. "Are we out of protein smoothies? Damn!" She sighed and shut the fridge, and leaned against it to finish talking. "He wouldn't let me spar when I was younger," Joey confessed. "But now that I've been out of practice from my karate and boxing that I was doing when I was younger, he won't let me not spar. I have to get back in shape and back on guard, 'cause of everything that's happened in this world since I was last here.

"I'm not tripping though," Joey decided, turning around and shuffling through the cabinets above her. She picked a protein bar, seeing as a smoothie was not an option. "I've got my powers this time around, so that will be fun."

"What a nice attitude to have," Nat commented, in her signature teasing-Joey tone.

The five of them spent the next six-and-a-half minutes scarfing down their respective breakfasts, and when the dishes were in the sink and the garbage was in the trash, Peter and Bucky were the first ones out.