When The Light Comes | Bucky x Reader

~7~

You were pulled from the arms of sleep by an irritatingly loud beeping sound. You pried your eyes open and blearily searched for the source of the noise - of course. Alarm clock. Sitting up, you rubbed your eyes and stretched, flopping yourself back down onto your bed. As excited as you were about learning combat skills, a part of you just wanted to sleep all day. That would be the part of you that had a hangover. Maybe one of these days you could figure out how to use your powers to remove alcohol from your blood stream. Today was not that day. So you stood up, washed your face, pulled on a pair of short spandex shorts and a sports bra, carelessly tossing your hair up into a ponytail. You would have to eat a protein bar on your way down.

You were a little bit nervous, but it was mostly excitement fluttering against your rib cage. Steve would be conducting your training which was just as exciting as it was intimidating. You had the beginnings of a good friendship starting and you hoped this would only bring you closer together. The training regiment was to be rigorous. Most days you would be training twice a day for at least an hour at a time. Wednesdays were to be a little bit lighter and there would only be one session each on Saturdays and Sundays. They wanted you out in the field as fast as they could get you out there. 

"You ready there (y/l/n)?" He was already there when you stepped into the room. 

"Ready as I'll ever be Rogers." 

"Good, lets get to it." You smiled as he handed you a pair of hand wraps, proceeding to show you how use them properly. 

The training session lasted about an hour, with a short water break in between. You weren't exactly out of shape, but you weren't used to fighting anyone, let alone a super soldier. You worked on the basics: keeping up your defence, jabs, crosses, kicks, and holds. How to break a grip and some combinations. Steve had it planned so that the morning classes would be reserved more for technical learning, and the afternoons for practice. 

By the time your second practice was over your muscles were burning. You soaked in the bath until your fingers were wrinkled before throwing on a slouchy blue track suit and heading down to see if anybody was making some spare food. If not, you'd order in. After all it was a little early for dinner. To your surprise, Bucky was the only one in the kitchen, standing over the stove sauteing chicken over an open flame. 

"Hey big guy," you smiled with your hands in your pockets and you walked over to him. "Whatcha making?"

"Oh, a stir fry." He turned to give you a smile, his beautiful eyes staring directly into yours. 

"Can I get in on this?" You rolled up your sleeves grabbing some veggies from the fridge. 

"Yeah of course." You diced and he cooked, pretty much in silence. By the time the food was done your tummy was rumbling audibly. You laughed, blushing at the sound. "First day of training..." You trailed off.

"You're training with Steve right?" He asked, as you fixed your plates, moving to sit across from each other at the table. 

"Yeah, I am. He's great. And it's been really good so far...or at least I like to think I'm doing well." He smiled, looking at you intently.

"He's a good guy, he'll be a good trainer," he paused, clearing his throat. "Maybe we could spar sometime too. It's useful to have other partners - I just mean that everybody fights differently." He glanced down at his food, a slight pink tinge creeping into his cheeks. 

"I'd like that, it's a really really good idea," you said. You couldn't put your finger on why, but you were quite looking forward to it. "You have far more experience than I do, maybe we should wait until I'm a bit more prepared." You let out a light laugh to lighten the mood. He smiled at you, weakly.

"Yeah that's a good idea." He flexed his metal arm and you caught a flicker of sadness and anger darken his perfect blue eyes.