InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I'm not scared."

WHO Bucky Barnes and Gamora, with a bit of Tony Stark at the beginning • WHAT The stages of grief • WHEN Sunday night, June 27 (backdated)• WHERE Tony's Lab / The Gym• WARNINGS Alcohol use, references to alcoholism•

Gone. Just like that. It really shouldn’t surprise any of them. The people who arrive at the portal come and go at random. But this wasn’t just a chance encounter or a woulda, coulda, shouda situation. He’d been with Natasha for longer than a few weeks. They’d survived together for months in impossible conditions. They’d all but given up. They got home and things looked brighter.

Then this.

He wasn’t sure what he felt as the realization dawned on him at first. Numb? Numb was the best way to describe it. He had questions. He figured there had to be answers, right? Tony wouldn’t just let this one drop. Tony wasn’t going to let this keep happening.

But seeking out Stark had been a bad idea. The man was half-drunk by the time Bucy found him in the lab. “Come to join the party, huh?” Stark was sitting at a table, half a bottle of scotch in front of him and glass in hand. Not working. And that’s what set Bucky off.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“What’s t look like?,” Tony smirked and took a drink. “Thought you lost your arm, not your sight.”

“What happened to figuring this out?” Barnes stood in the doorway, doing his best to suppress lashing out as he watched Tony give a small shrug.

“Working on what? There’s no pattern to who’s taken. There’s no pattern to what comes through. Even FRIDAY is having trouble-”

“Some fucking tech genius you are.”

“Watch yourself, Barnes.”

“Or what? I’ll disappear too?” Bucky stepped closer, ominously hovering over the half-drunk Avenger. Tony tensed and stood up from his stool.

“That’s funny coming from a literal assassin-”

Bucky clenched his metal jaw. “You need to fix this.”

“Yeah, get in line. She’s not the only one you know-”

That was it. Bucky sent his arm flying toward Tony and just in time, Tony activated his suit so that Bucky’s fist met metal. It was a good thing because Tony actually flew back a bit from the punch, crashing against the back counter before raising his hand to activate the blast from his palm. Bucky didn’t have time to react before he was blasted out of the lab, through the door and into the hall opposite.

He crumpled to the ground with a wince as Tony pushed himself to wobbly feet, keeping the suit on for now. “Great. Another repair. I’m going to start needing a security deposit.”

Bucky gritted his teeth and got up, going for another strike, but this time Tony caught his fist and held on.

“Do you really want this rematch, Barnes? Remember what happened last time?”

Bucky did remember. The last time he fought Stark like this, he’d lost - the fight and his arm.

Gamora was still reeling from the loss of her sister and Rocket and Groot. Especially knowing everything that she did that Nebula had told her. She had just found her sister and teammates again after they had vanished, and now, she had lost them again. Gamora was a mix of feelings, angry, heartbroken, sad, though she was trying to focus on her anger right now. That was the easiest one for her to process. She’d spent such a long time growing up being angry at her life and everything surrounding it, it was easy and comforting to fall back on it. Her and anger were like two old friends. Other emotions felt strange and foreign to her. She didn’t like this. She didn’t like what she was feeling.

Gamora stalked through the compound. She could go see Quill, have him hold her and comfort her, but even though she’d gotten better at allowing such displays, they still felt strange to her at times. Right now, she mostly wanted to hit something. Or several somethings. She definitely wanted to do more than just cry, though the tears were certainly hard to fight back right now. As she got closer to the hangar where she was headed, she heard sounds of an argument coming from one of the labs.

Normally, Gamora would just ignore it and continue on. But something about this argument sounded….intense. She paused, taking time to listen. She knew those voices. Tony and...Bucky. That was his name, right? She hadn’t spent enough time around them to know it for sure, but she’d heard them talking enough to just have a guess as to who was speaking. She listened to the argument, noticing the tension in the voices of both men. One (Tony, she thought), sounded drunk. Or at least, he’d been drinking enough alcohol to affect his speech. The other man (Bucky, she assumed), sounded angry. But in listening closer, he didn’t just sound angry. He also sounded sad.

Though she knew that she probably shouldn’t interfere, Gamora started heading in the direction of the argument. Just in case. It sounded like it could possibly get violent. And apparently, Gamora’s suspicion that the argument might get violent would get correct, as she heard a heavy thud. Gamora increased her pace, running just in time to see Bucky flying out of the lab and hit the wall.

Gamora reached the lab just in time to see Bucky flying out of the lab and hit the wall, before going back in to confront Stark. Gamora stood in the door, looking at the two men standing barely apart, ready to confront each other.

Gamora cleared her throat, so they would notice her. “I believe the phrase is, you should take a step back before you both do something you’ll regret.”

The appearance of Gamora seemed to come just in time. They were standing off, and it was unclear who would strike first but if it hadn’t been for her presence it would have gotten messy. It was Tony who lowered his arm first and Bucky just stood there, glaring.

“Get him out of here before he does anymore damage, k? I need to work.” Tony was telling this to Gamora and Bucky said nothing, biting his tongue and starting to stalk away. He didn’t need an escort.

Stark was left rubbing the side of his head before he deactivated the suit. “FRIDAY. Get uh...cleaning bot in here. And schedule the door for repairs. Again. Ugh.”

Gamora nodded, going to grab Bucky, and lead him out of the room. Did he need it? Probably not, but she put a mildly forceful hand as she steered him out, the door shutting behind them. She turned to Bucky, looking at him.

“Come on,” she said, not really giving him much of a choice, “I think we both need to hit something.”

He’d notice that in her tone of voice, it wasn’t a discussion.

“Is there some place we can spar?”

It probably wasn’t a great idea to grab the arm of a trained super-soldier assassin (at least it was a bad idea for most people), but Bucky held back his instinct and just looked at her. He didn’t want to hurt Gamora. Hell, he didn’t really want to hurt Tony (at the moment he did but he’d regret it later). She was forceful, though, guiding him a bit against his will.

“Gym.” He muttered and narrowed his eyes on her. “But I really don’t think that’s a good idea right now.”

Did she know? He doubted it. She was still knew. She didn’t even know who Natasha was. Highly trained herself, there was little that Gamora didn’t think she could handle. Plus, thanks to Thanos, she had her own enhancements. “I heard you and Stark, arguing,” she said, “You both lost someone important. I lost someone important to me, too. Three someones, actually.”

There was a pause, as she looked down at the ground, and then back up at him. If she wasn’t so angry, she would have grinned back at him in a challenge.

“You want to hit something,” she said, “I want to hit something. Besides, something tells me that we’re both more than capable of handling a punch.”

Nebula, Rocket, and Groot. Yeah. Bucky was familiar with them, even if in passing. He’d had conversations with Rocket over the weeks and he got familiar with most people who arrived through the portals.

“I’m sorry.” He was. Even if it sounded hollow.

He didn’t smile. He just nodded. Maybe she was right. “Yeah. Why not? Just um...tell me if I’m going too hard?” He paused. “I’ll do the same if you start kicking my ass too much.”

He wasn’t kidding. He knew better than to think a woman like Gamora wasn’t capable of wiping the floor with him.

Gamora managed a tiny sympathetic smile at that. “Thank you,” she said, “And I’m sorry about Natasha. I didn’t know her very well, but Nebula spoke very highly of her.”

“Of course,” she said, “Though don’t feel like you need to hold back. I am more than capable of handling myself. Besides, I think we could both use the chance to blow off some steam. Lead the way. I’m still learning my way around.”

“Thank you,” he whispered. It was still strangely hollow saying that. She wasn’t dead- but she was as good as dead. He didn't want to think about it right now. He didn’t want to think at all, actually. He just wanted her back.

Bucky nodded and followed her to the gym- it was empty, a lucky them. Bucky took off his t-shirt, not bothering with it since it was kind of pointless and got in the way of his arm. He walked to the mat, kicking off his shoes and looking at her.

“Weapons?”

“You’re welcome,” Gamora said. She could understand where he was coming from. Where Nebula, Groot, and Rocket were from, Gamora was dead. She didn’t like the idea of them going back to that world where she’d been killed at the hands of father to bring about the extinction of half of all life in the universe.

Gamora kicked off her jacket and boots, walking on to the mat. She cracked her neck, rolling back her shoulders, before cracking her knuckles. “I am fine without them or just hand-to-hand,” she said. “Whatever works best for you.”

“Works for me,” he stepped onto the mat and nodded at her, his metal arm and human arm up and ready to block whatever she had coming at him. He wouldn’t strike first. It wasn’t the gentlemanly thing to do.

Also, he wanted to see her fighting style so he knew how to counter it. This was good. This helped him not think about the loss. He could just concentrate on winning a fight- much easier for a man like Bucky.

Gamora took a moment, looking him over. His metal arm could pose a potential problem to her. She’d fought people with enchantments before, and Gamora certainly plenty of her own. Her was just an entirely new opponent to her, and even though this was just some friendly sparring, she was still going to take it seriously.

Gamora took a moment, before going in for an opening at his side. It was a little sloppy...but that was her intention. She wanted to see how he’d react.

When she struck, he easily maneuvered and blocked quickly, taking the chance of an opening to kick toward her ribs if he had the chance..

Gamora would allow the kick to connect, as she was knocked to the ground. Anyone else would have been knocked prone, and she would allow him to think that she was phased, lying on the mat.

Bucky knew better than to assume she was out for the count, but he did the gentlemanly thing and offered her an arm up. “Again?”

“How kind of you,” she said, taking the offered arm. And once she had a good grip on him, she work to pull him down to the mat.

Yup. That’s what he expected. And fell hard on hi snack for a moment, eying her before rolling back up to a defensive position. “Okay, funny.”

Gamora hopped to her feet, striking a defensive pose, before gesturing at him to come at her. There was a grin on her face now, as she was starting to enjoy herself a bit.

Bucky sighed and did just that. He came at her with his metal arm first this time, prepared to aiming straight for her chest and bending his body into it.

Gamora braced herself, anticipating that he would come at her with his enhancement this time. She’d catch the metal arm in both hands, leaning forward, using her full weight to try and push him back.

It might have worked to push him away had he not been able to shift his weight, ducking under and kicking at her legs out from under her- or at least, trying to.

Luckily for Gamora, she managed to jump just before his kicked connected, as she would attempt to get him in a headlock.

It worked for a moment, Bucky grumbling as she managed to get him stuck before he used his arm and the strength behind it to flip her back, reversing roles and standing over her with his hand on her neck, but not squeezing. He wasn’t going to actually hurt her, but he could have been aiming to kill or maim.

Either way, he was breathing hard. This was good.

It took a lot to get Gamora to break a sweat or breathe hard. That was one of the few good things about her training from Thanos. But Bucky was certainly managing to do that. She couldn’t remember the last time that she’d gotten this into a sparring match. Usually, the only other person other than her sister who could keep up with her was Drax. And even with Drax, she didn’t have to work this hard.

He had her stuck for a moment. She grinned up at him, her leg going up to connect with his stomach. As this was just sparring, she wouldn’t kick him hard enough to make him vomit or to seriously injure him, but just enough to temporarily stun him.

It worked. And Bucky realized it was a good thing they were both holding back a little, considering they probably didn’t want to seriously hurt each other. But he recovered quickly, now going for it, hitting and matching her blow for blow in a series of punches and kicks, until finally he spun to kick her, then as she blocked him, spun into a recover and managed to land a blow that might or might not have knocked her off balance.

Of course, if she blocked it just right, it would do the same to him. Either way, it felt like they’d just keep going like this forever if they wanted- or until one of them tired out.