A Whole Lot of Love

The Audition

The elevator opens, cutting your conversation with Steve short. You file out and walk down an open hallway. T'challa slings an arm around your shoulders and you tense before relaxing. He notices and asks, "Are you alright?" 

                     "Yeah, I just don't get touched a lot." He nods and puts his arm back around you. Sam jogs in front of you and turns so he's walking backward facing you. 

                      "So, we are currently in Sublevel Three. The entire underground portion is just training facilities and stuff. There are weight rooms, a basketball court, and a very large room dedicated just to me and flying. Tony said Nick said to take you there. There's a track and a swimming pool that for some reason Tony made three feet deep at the most shallow and twenty feet at the deepest. Oh, and there's rowing machines and stuff, and a room dedicated to gymnastics for Nat and Clint. There's a superspeed treadmill for Pietro. He's the only other one here, everyone else is getting ready for the Halloween party that's tonight. You've been extended an invite, so I hope you brought a costume. Bucky and I are going as-"

                   "Don't tell, genius! It's still a surprise!" Bucky darts to clamp a hand over Sam's mouth, which causes them both to halt. T'challa steers you past them and through a threshold with no door. A huge room with a high ceiling that looks like it goes several stories up comes into view and you peer up, mouth open. There's a blue blur that's circling over the walls of the room, over and over. It stops, and you realize that there's someone in front of you, which causes you startle backward, straight into Steve's very muscled chest. You step forward quickly, trip over your own feet, and fall flat on your butt. Your insanely tall heeled boots you now regret wearing refuse to let you flatten your feet on the ground, but before you can roll to your knees and get up like that, 

your lifted up by your armpits. You're not set down, though, and just held in front of someone who you assume is Bucky, seeing as you can see everyone else, including the new guy, who you again assume, is Pietro. Your shoulders are practically touching your ears, and your headphones are starting to dig into your shoulders. You kick your feet a little before sighing. "This is getting awkward, so if you could just...." He sets you back on your feet, hands moving from your arms to your hips, making sure you weren't about to fall again. He probably left his hands on your hips longer than necessary, and when he finally let you go, you turned and gave him a smirk. "Thanks." He nods, and you turn back to the guy in blue. He's maybe three years younger than the rest of them, about your age.

"Pietro, right? I'm Y/N. If you could go a little slower next time so I don't fall on my ass, that'd be great." He grins at you, and you turn back to Sam. "I'm supposed to be doing....what, exactly?" Sam shrugs and turns to Steve.

"We were told you were really good at swordsmanship, but that we should bring you in here to let you do your thing. And then take you to the pool, for what Tony said was water manipulation."

You nod. "Basically, yeah. So, y'all are what? Evaluating me?" Sam laughs.

"Basically, yeah." You roll your eyes and look around the room. There's a table in the middle room, no chairs. You walk over, hearing the guys follow you. You set your satchel on the table, quickly followed by your coat. The gentlemen now on the opposite side of the square metal table do a double take. You're wearing a breastplate, made of what looks like bronze and iron, with leather straps just above your hips, then one going straight up your back to meet the halter style straps wrapped around from the front of the breastplate and up around your throat. Aside from your pants and boots, that's all your wearing. A pendant in the roughly hewn shape of a Greek Delta hangs just below your breasts, attached to a leather cord. You slip it over your head, and grip it, the edges of the triangle shape digging into your hand. You close your eyes for a moment until, all of a sudden, there's a black sword in your hands, the hilt strapped simply in the same color and style of leather as the cord the pendant had hung from. Instead of a jewel at the bottom of the hilt, there's the Delta shape.

"This is Typhoon. Personally, my brother's sword has a cooler name, Anaklusmos, it means Riptide, but I do like my sword's name. It sounds cooler in the language it's supposed to spoken in, but I'm not really in the mood to speak Greek. Anyway, it's made from Stygian Iron and Obsidian, but the hilt is is coral. Gotta keep some part of the sea with me." You smile fondly, and look up to see all five of them staring at, eyes wide, mouths open, and jaws slack.

"What?" Steve shakes out of his shock to point at your breastplate.

"What is that? It's armor, but it doesn't protect your back, or your shoulders, or your-"

"That's because the armor that does cover my back and shoulders and arms are in my hotel room. They're really bulky, and I couldn't get my coat on. Also, I overslept and didn't have time do all the straps." You mumble the last part and Pietro says, observantly, "That's a sword." Dang. That was a sexy accent. Anyway!

"Yeah, my friend Leo made it for me, and then my friend Lou Ellen enchanted it so that it disappears when I need it to."

Sam nods slowly, and Bucky smiles. "That's so bomb." Sam groans and slaps Bucky on the back of the head. "No! That's not right, that's from, like, ten years ago. C'mon, man, get in the game." Bucky doesn't lose his smile, and he doesn't seem to have heard Sam. "Why are in here? We could have just as easily taken you to the Common Training Room for this. It'd be easier, there's bots Tony made specifically for heavy-duty training." You walk about ten feet away from the table and they start to step forward, but you hold up your hand in a 'stop' gesture.

"I'm in here because I got water manipulation from my father. My mom, however, gave me the genetic mutation."

T'challa's evidently a little wary. "What mutation?" You smirk and sink to your knees.

"There's a reason this particular breastplate doesn't have a back." You lower your head to stop them from seeing tears, but you cry out anyway, and Steve steps toward you, only to stop in his tracks when a set of wings appears on your back, feathered and everything. 

                  "Oh my God!" Bucky beams and runs over to you and helps you up, one hand on your hip, the other on your shoulder. You wipe away the tears threatening to spill and take a shaky breath. 

                 "It hurts when I do that, so I only do that when I need to." Bucky lets go and you wobble in your heels. 

                "Do you need help?" Steve's walking toward you, and you shake your head. Sam, T'challa, and Pietro all seem to still be in shock. You bend your knees, then unceremoniously fall on your butt and start to unzip your boots. You kick them off and stand up. Bucky smirks at you and says something about you being a shorty. You barely hear him, trying to stand up. You stumble up and pick up Typhoon. You blink fast and cover your eyes with your left hand. 

                "I'm supposed to be doing something....flying or something, right?"

Sam steps forward. "yeah, but we can see you've got the....equipment....to join the team. I think we can give you the okay." You nod, eyes closed and brow furrowed, and fall back to your knees. With a scream muffled by clenched teeth, your wings disappear into your back, and you roll your shoulders. You stand and put your boots back on, then walk over to the table and grab a bra, a tank top, and a black long sleeved shirt. 

            "Could I use a bathroom?" Steve rushes to your side and picks you up, bridal style.

            "Yes, but you aren't walking there yourself." You try to protest, but its difficult when your eyes are starting to drift closed and you know you'll collapse if he put you back on your feet at the moment. 

            "There's a Red Bull in my bag, could someo-"

Pietro's already walking beside Steve, a straw stuck into the Red Bull can. He hands it to you, and you mumble a thanks before gulping it down and grimacing. You didn't particularly like the taste, but the energy was something you needed. Steve sets you on your feet and guides you into a bathroom, where he rubs your back gently and steps out.

               "She good?" Bucky asked, eyebrows raised.

             "Yeah, she's fine. Getting changed out of that armor thing. I think she'd be a great asset to the team. And Tony's already expects us to go to take her to the Halloween party."