Captain America: Professional Best Friend

Training

Over the next few weeks, Emma begins her training with the Avengers. She first starts with Natasha, working on her fighting form. The first days are a bit rough, with Emma wanting to give up multiple times. When she gets really frustrated, Natasha can tell, so when this happens one day, she stops and asks her, "You like music right?"

"Yeah, why?" Emma asks, confused.

"Well fighting is kind of like dancing in a way. Your opponent's moves are usually in a pattern, or rhythm because everyone fights in their own style, usually the same way every time. If you can figure that pattern out then it's easy to knock them off that rhythm and beat them."

"Okay, I can see that. Where are we going with this analogy?"

"Let's call it for the day while I explain." The two gather their stuff and head out of the training gym. While heading out, Natasha says, "Well for training we can program a playlist into SAM for you to practice with so we can get you into that habit of a rhythmic fight. Maybe we can get into contact with Stark and see if he can program the AI to see an opponent's patterns too. In theory, this programming could then find a song that matches their fighting pattern and you could use that to your advantage. With time you'll learn to see the patterns on your own."

Emma smiles and says, "I'd like to try that. Whatever can help me get better at this whole hand-to-hand combat thing."

"Hey it's not that you're bad, you're surprisingly good at it actually. You just aren't at the level the rest of us are. I've had years of training, Steve is...well Steve, Sam and Rhodey are military men, and Wanda and Vision have powers so they don't even have to deal with combat."

"I just hope I won't be dragging you guys down..."

"It's not like we've had too many leads on anything lately, so we have time," Natasha replies with a small smile.

Maria walks up behind them and says, "Not for long, hopefully. We've started to hear things floating around that may indicate that Rumlow of all people is up to no good. We'll need everyone with the skillset searching for him, that includes the both of you."

Natasha nods, "Give us the intel that you have and we can get on it."

"See now this is more my speed," Emma says. "Now I know I'll keep busy with training and this plus what's left of my personal life. Or lack thereof."

"I'm sure you'll be fine," Maria tells her as Natasha waves a quick farewell and heads off. When she's out of earshot, Maria says, "It's not like you're doing anything about that personal life of yours."

Emma gives her a look and asks, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Em, your so-called personal life is your weekly video chat with your therapist and occasionally taking a trip into the city with me to see a show."

"What's wrong with that? I like hanging out with you!"

"And I like hanging out with you, but you need to do something about your not so little crush on-" Maria abruptly stops her sentence as Sam and Steve round the corner.

Emma can't help the slight blush that creeps onto her cheeks as Sam greets them with a smile. Relief floods her body when neither mentions what Maria had been talking about though. Realizing this, Emma relaxes and asks casually, "Where are you two off to?"

"I'm about to prove to Steve I can beat him in a fight," Sam says confidently.

"Good luck with that, Wilson," Emma laughs. Before they head off, Maria's words echo in her head, and a wave of confidence hits Emma. She turns to Steve before he turns away and says, "Hey you got this," with a subtle wink.