WHAT: Carol makes a valiant attempt to sword train Emme; she does not succeed. A pirate ship is vaguely involved. WHERE: Avengers Mansion WHEN: Today WARNINGS: Nah STATUS: Complete
The Avengers Mansion never got any less impressive, no matter how many times Emme visited. She had been there a handful of times now between the Starks’ various parties, her friendship with Pepper, and Carol’s friendship with Tony. It was still hard not to be slightly intimidated by the sheer size and grandeur of it. Especially when she was dressed in a pair of black leggings, a tank top, and sneakers. She had promised Carol that she’d accept some training with physical weapons so she wouldn’t be completely defenseless in situations where her magic wouldn’t work. So here they were, dressed to work out and ready to take on Stark’s Simulation Room.
Tony had given Carol security access, so the A.I. — H.O.M.E.R. — allowed the two of them entrance without Pepper or Tony needing to let them in. Though both were aware that Carol and Emme were stopping by, Emme found herself hoping that both the Starks were otherwise engaged today, at least for the next few hours. Making a fool of herself in front of Carol was one thing, but she’d rather keep the number of superheroes she embarrassed herself in front of to a minimum.
The pair made their way to the elevators, then down to the first sub-level. The entire floor was a dedicated training zone for the Avengers to use at their leisure. Gym equipment occupied one corner, with mats and a sparring ring further down. A variety of weapons lined the walls in secure cases. The largest area was occupied by the simulation room — a closed room off in the far corner where nearly any combat/training scenario could be programmed and played out.
Emme turned to face Carol, her hands on her hips. “So where do we start, Sensei?”
“You’re giving me way too much credit if you think I qualify for ‘Sensei’,” Carol laughed, winking at her before she gave the weapons cases on the wall another quick scan. She wasn’t overly familiar with what Tony had stocked; usually, when she was here, it was solely to spar hand-to-hand and kick his ass in the ring. She didn’t need much in the way of weapons when she was a weapon all on her own.
Emme, however, needed weapons training. And Carol was versed enough to teach her — and didn’t particularly trust anyone else to do it. Emme had held her own well enough with a sword during the creepy fuckers incident, but it had made Carol very aware that, outside of magic and hand-to-hand, she needed work. She wasn’t defenseless, but she couldn’t shoot fire from her fists. If, for some godforsaken reason, there was ever a time Carol couldn’t be there to back her up, she wanted her prepared.
Maybe it was paranoia. It probably was. But she wanted to do everything in her power to make sure what happened to Emme back home wouldn’t happen to her here. This was at least a step in the right direction.
“Take me in the ring first?” she suggested, scooping a couple sets of boxing gloves out of a cubbyhole. She tossed a pair to Emme and put her own on, fastening the velcro on her left wrist with her teeth. This was a good starter — it would warm them up and loosen them up at the same time and provide Emme with an ego boost because she was good at this. Hopefully it would put a damper on the nerves Carol knew she was feeling.
“And kissing as a distraction is cheating,” she added with a playful smirk. She would probably be the one attempting to use that tactic. She had dressed similarly to Emme — black leggings, sneakers, black sports bra topped with a loose blue sleeveless tank — but she was definitely struggling with how hot her girlfriend looked in workout clothes, as usual.
Emme caught the tossed gloves with ease. She smirked at her girlfriend before she climbed into the ring. She generally used the Underground for her sparring, but she had to admit the privacy here was nice. “Is that a reminder for you or me?” She pulled on her gloves and fastened them securely.
It was true she was more than capable in the ring. The Prewett brothers had been excellent teachers on that front. They were also nearly twice her size. The first time she’d brought one of them down on her own had been a proud day. As she stretched to warm herself up, Emme couldn’t help idly wondering if they’d ever turn up here. Though that was a slippery road to go down. Emme was generally more rooted in the present. She turned back to face Carol. “Ready?”
“Definitely for me,” Carol admitted with ease, not in the slightest bit ashamed. She always wanted to kiss her hot-ass girlfriend; there was no shame in that for her. She would even freely use it to cheat, but she was going to muster up some integrity here and give it a real go with Emme. “Let’s go, gorgeous.”
She held up her arms, winked at Emme, and rocked back and forth on her feet, mentally coaching herself to ease back on the super strength. She practically bounced forward and took the first jab.
Emme grinned at the wink and responded by blowing air kisses in Carol’s direction. They were both ridiculous and they knew it.
She settled herself down into a lower, more sturdy stance. Her balance shifted to the front of her feet to allow her to move with more ease. Emmeline may have been headstrong in many areas, but when it came to fighting, she was very calculated. She had to be. She was smaller, thinner, and generally weighed less than the majority of her opponents. If she just hurled herself headlong into a fight, she’d never get anywhere.
So she let their flirtations fade to the back of her mind, and focused only on the moves. She dodged Carol’s first jab and used her other hand to push the arm away. While this would hopefully knock Carol off-balance, Emme aimed a punch at her stomach.
Carol was the exact opposite. She was taller than Emme (although not by much) and had quite a bit more muscle mass. And her default was to hurl herself at her opponents because, more often than not, there were either more of them or they were bigger than her. She usually beat them out in terms of strength, but she didn’t have time for much in the way of strategy.
Here, she had to control herself a little more because she was so much stronger than — well, nearly everyone here, but especially Emme. She had learned to control her strength a long time ago; learned to be careful and gentle so she didn’t break someone when she hugged them. But she could still put up a fight.
Strategy was the winner here, though — she was knocked off balance and took the punch to the stomach. She aimed for the shoulder next, hoping to push Emme back long enough for her to straighten up again.
The hit connected, just as Carol had planned. Her glove landed square in Emme’s shoulder, which knocked her back on her heels. Emme had to pause to regain her balance, which gave Carol the opportunity to stand up straight. She grinned and rolled her shoulder in order to loosen it back up. “Okay, not bad.” She bounced lightly from one foot to the other.
Emme feinted a blow with her right, but quickly dropped down and swung her leg out to try and sweep Carol.
Emme’s leg caught a foot and Carol briefly lost her balance yet again and ended up with one knee on the floor of the ring. Still, she made the most of her position, snagging Emme around the waist and yanking her down to the floor with her. This was the complete opposite of what they were supposed to be doing — it would hardly qualify as boxing — but she took the chance to nip at Emme’s jaw.
Okay, so maybe she couldn’t resist cheating a little bit after all. “Wanna step on me, hot stuff?”
Emme had to admit, she wasn’t at all prepared for Carol to grab her waist and pull her down alongside her. She let out a startled yelp that morphed into laughter. “You are such a cheater, Carol Danvers.”
This was what Carol was aiming for. Making Emme laugh was one of her favorite things, and it was an easy way to drain her of any tension still clinging to her. “You love it,” she retorted, leaning up to steal a kiss. “It benefits you, too.”
Emme couldn’t help but return the kiss, though she tried to keep it more chaste than usual. “You are not the weapon I’m here to handle, Danvers. Besides, I don’t think I need any additional training in that department, anyway.” She booped Carol’s nose with the tip of her finger before she wriggled back up to her feet again.
“Alright, alright,” Carol relented with a dramatic sigh. She knew better than to think she was going to have her way with Emme in a room monitored by Tony Stark’s cameras — not that she’d made much of an attempt. They’d come here to train, so they’d train.
She opened the wrist straps of her boxing gloves with her teeth, then pried them off under her arms. Once they were out of the ring, they went to stow the gloves back in their cubby. Then, she pulled a pair of wooden swords off the wall and handed one over to her girlfriend.
“Onto sword lessons, Vance. Simulation room?”
Emme couldn’t help but grin a little as Carol handed over the sword. Sure the wooden ones weren’t quite as satisfying, but handling a sword definitely helped her relive some of her childhood fantasies of battling pirates with Peter Pan and the Lost Boys.
“Aye, aye, Captain.” She replied with a quick wink before she made her way over to the simulation room. The motion sensored doors wooshed open at her approach and she made her way into the large white room. The walls and floor were lightly padded. Not enough to inhibit movement, but enough to cushion any falls or spills. The monitor for accessing and programing in the simulations was attached to the wall near the door. It beeped as they entered.
“Where do you want to start, teacher?”
“Both hands on the hilt,” Carol instructed. It might seem counterintuitive — all that was ever shown in any kind of media was one-handed swordplay — but it was technically correct and better for control. She demonstrated, her right hand wrapping around the top of the hilt while the left slipped beneath it.
“And what do you say we make your fantasies come true?” she teased. “H.O.M.E.R.? How about a sim pirate ship for Ms. Vance?”
If H.O.M.E.R. replied, Carol didn’t hear it because suddenly, they were on a pirate ship. She could hear the water lapping beneath like they were really out there on the ocean. Too bad they hadn’t dressed the part, too.
Emme was focused on her grip, so she wasn’t necessarily paying attention to what Carol was instructing the A.I. to produce for them. As the ship materialized around them, she did a bit of a double-take and spun around for the 360 view. (The technology that produced these visuals truly were stunning.) As she turned back around to face her girlfriend, her grin stretched ear to ear. She raised her sword up in the air (two hands on the hilt), and waited for Carol to make the first move.
“I’ll take that as approval,” Carol grinned back. It was pretty damn cool, she had to admit. She’d have to remember to thank Tony again for letting them come here to train. It made it a more fun, immersive experience, something more than just clacking swords together and getting sweaty in a padded room.
“Block me,” she ordered, pulling her sword back and lunging forward as she swung.
The good thing about swords, Emme supposed, was that she could translate some of her skills with a wand and adapt them to this form of fighting. Many of the maneuvers, especially the defensive ones, were quite similar.
She raised her arm up with her sword angled downward, protecting her face and chest. Carol’s sword clattered loudly against it. Processing an opportunity, Emme released her right hand from the hilt and grabbed Carol’s forearm firmly. She used it to spin her around so that Emme was now behind her. She leaned forward and planted a kiss on the back of Carol’s neck.
Carol may be invulnerable (or close to it), but that had never made her immune from being caught by surprise. She could usually overpower her opponent pretty easily, so it wasn’t a big deal. That was the case here, too, but she didn’t want to overpower Emme. In fact, she actually shivered when she felt soft, familiar lips pressing against her neck. Butterflies unfurled in the pit of her stomach, flapping around wildly.
Fuck, they couldn’t get through two minutes of sparring without other ideas sparking, could they? Maybe she did need to hire a professional to train Emme properly because, honestly, right now, all her brain could focus on was how much she wanted to kiss her girlfriend.
“You’re killing me,” she chuckled. She shifted her sword into one hand, turned around, and leaned in to kiss Emme soundly — because how could she not? She hoped Tony didn’t make it a habit of perusing the camera footage down here because she wasn’t sure she could be trusted much longer.
“You love it,” Emme echoed Carol’s earlier words back to her. Then she was promptly swept up into an epic kiss. The simulation continued around them, with the sounds of the water crashing against the ship and seagulls overhead. Emmeline couldn’t blame herself for getting lost in the moment. Wooden sword still clutched loosely in one hand, she wrapped her arms around Carol’s waist and kissed her back enthusiastically.
When she finally pulled back, breathless and with a pink tinge in her cheeks, she gave Carol a very pointed look. “I think we should try training again another day.”
Carol almost took the opportunity to tease Emme for relenting. She had insisted they were here for training, right? And Carol wasn’t the weapon she needed practice handling? But she couldn’t bring herself to do either of those things when she was on the receiving end of that particular look and feeling very hot under the collar. Training could absolutely wait. No one’s life was currently in danger, and Emme was magical! She’d be fine in more circumstances than not.
“Let’s get out of here, then,” she agreed. As much as she’d like to stay and seduce her girlfriend on this pirate ship, it would probably be rude to do so on the Starks’ property — this time.
The simulation disappeared behind them as she pulled them to the door. One quick stop to hang up their wooden swords, and she had her arms around Emme’s waist while she popped them back home.