True Form (Avengers x Reader)

-13-

I awoke with a start, small drops of sweat had formed on my face and I needed a moment to realize where I was. Yelena was still sleeping peacefully next to me, so I decided to get up and go to the training room or something. I knew I wouldn't be able to fall back asleep, so I searched for something to distract me from my thoughts.

I changed into a comfy sport outfit and silently walked out of the room and through the dark hallway. I saw that it was still dark outside, probably 3 or 4 in the morning, so I would finally have some alone time without someone, constantly watching me.

I walked into the elevator and JARVIS spoke up: "hello y/n. I believe you are not supposed to walk around by yourself. I will inform Mr. Stark"

"No, no. It's fine, let the others sleep. I won't run away I just want to the gym, okay. Trust me" I quickly said.

"I trust you, y/n" the AI replied and the elevator started moving.

Even though JARVIS was just an AI, I had a warm feeling inside of me. It was nice to know that he trusted me and at least he believed me when I said I wouldn't run.

I arrived in the gym and just stood there for a moment, taking everything in. I could see that the setup was specialized for the Avengers, so they could train properly.

I decided to let out some frustration by hitting some punching bags, so I quickly warmed up and stretched my limbs a little, before going to the punching bags.

I began with lazily throwing some punches at them, but I quickly remembered my nightmare and soon, anger built up inside of me.

My punches were getting harder, more forcefully. "Get up! Again!" One of the guards screamed at me in my memory.

I began kicking the bag additionally to the punches, while the memories played over and over again in my head and I closed my eyes, imagining one of the HYDRA agents in front of me.

Punch, duck, punch, kick, duck, punch, punch, kick. I carried out the sequence perfectly. I repeated it over and over again, ignoring my heavy breathing, just like HYDRA taught me. My eyes were still closed, but I knew exactly how I had to move.

"You're weak. No one will search for you, your family is dead, you belong to HYDRA now"

"No one will rescue you"

"Guess I have to do it myself then"

Punch, duck, punch, kick, duck, punch, punch, kick...

I hadn't realized how much time I'd spent here, but suddenly, I felt a firm grip on my arm, startling me, and I instinctively punched the person's nose, causing it to make a loud crunching sound. He stumbled backwards and grunted in pain as he held his nose.

"Oh my god, Steve! I'm so sorry!" I exclaimed, my eyes wide in pure shock when I saw that his nose was broken.

Fuck, fuck! I didn't mean to attack him! I backed away from him, as I saw Nat and Clint running into the gym. They had the situation evaluated as soon as they came inside, but I didn't take any risks, so I pressed my back against the wall with pleading eyes.

Oh fuck, they'll be so mad at me!

The only thing in my mind was the painful shock I got when I kicked Tony and I definitely didn't want to experience that event again, especially not, when I remembered that they put those new functions in my collar. And I had no intentions on finding out about them either.

"Please don't tase me! I didn't mean to!" I cried out when Natasha approached me. She looked a bit taken aback, but her expression quickly turned into concern and pity as she realized I was really thinking they would tase me.

"I won't. It's okay" she assured, but I was still panting, not sure if it was from the training, or the fact that I just broke Captain America's nose. Most likely both.

"It's fine, take deep breaths. We won't hurt you" she said and looked into my eyes. I didn't cry, nor were my eyes red, but I was a bit shaken up. A bit very shaken up.

I flinched terribly when she tried to put a hand on my shoulder, but instead of backing away, she pulled me towards herself and wrapped her arms around me, holding me securely in place and I immediately adjusted to her calmness.

"There you go" she cooed and I looked up as Steve approached me. He didn't look mad, but I took a step back anyway. "I'm sorry" I apologized again, but he just smiled.

"It's fine, it was my fault. I startled you" he said and I visibly relaxed. "Besides, my super soldier serum will heal it until tomorrow anyway"

Now, the others came running to us as well and Tony let out a relieved breath. "Oh good, there you are- wait, what happened? Capsicle, I don't know if you noticed, but your nose is a bit slanted. Doesn't match to the perfectly shaped face of yours"

Steve rolled his eyes. "Yeah, thanks Tony, I noticed as well"

"Y/n, are you okay? You're shaking a little" Yelena said and looked at me concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine" I replied, quickly curling my fingers into a fist to stop the shaking.

"Told you, she has fighting potential" the billionaire send me his signature smirk and I let out a nervous laugh.

"Why were you up so early?" Wanda asked me and I shrugged.

"Couldn't sleep. And I didn't want to wake anyone"

"Okay well, now that we are all up, let's eat breakfast I'm starving" Sam suddenly said, changing the topic to food.

Food is always good, especially if you're not used to the variety of foods they had here. In HYDRA I was always fed with oatmeal, bread and water. Sometimes I got an apple, so I would have just enough vitamins to be in the condition to survive the experiments and be able to show some results. But nothing more.