VITALITY ↝ B. BARNES [1]

[21]

Each step felt as if she were walking a mile. A fire burned into Elysia's side as she kept a hand pressed against her ribcage, willing herself to keep moving, to make it across the floor to the elevator while she still had the nerve, before deciding to give up and just head back to her bedroom. By the time she finally pressed the button to take her down to the training center, she breathed a sigh of relief, the elevator doors opening as if welcoming her home.

"Good evening, Miss Sparks." the disembodied voice of F.R.I.D.A.Y. greeted Elysia as she stepped into the elevator. "Going down to the training center? The team is just getting started."

"Thank you, F.R.I.D.A.Y.," Elysia said, out of breath and nodding as she leaned back against the cool glass of the elevator, resting for a moment as the elevator began to move, lower and lower towards the underground sector.

As the elevator doors opened to reveal the training center beyond, the room was in full swing, the Avengers already having split off into partners to begin their sparring sessions. However, as the doors slid open with the ringing sound of a bell, the room came to a standstill, all eyes in the room moving to where the pink haired woman began to slowly move out of the elevator and to meet the rest of the team.

In the days since the HYDRA attack on the compound, Elysia had gotten more and more used to being up and around from her bed in the infirmary, however she hadn't dared make the trip down to the training center yet, her longest strides since that fateful night at the party. In fact, she'd hardly gone much more than just down the hall from her room without needing to turn back and take a break. As she walked into the training center, she tried her best to look around at the friends and teammates staring back at her, but instead her eyes went straight to the sparring circle in the center of the room.

"My greatest strength and my greatest weakness," Bucky's voice echoed in her head, an image of his smirk flashing through her mind and the feeling of his hands resting against her hips as he kissed her in the center of the room. "You,"

Elysia stared silently at the space ahead of her as the rest of the team watched her, full of curious expressions and worried glances. It hadn't been hard for the team to see how difficult Elysia had processed the events of the past few days, even Steve had responded in a similar fashion, but she had yet to say more than a few words about it to anyone since the first night in the infirmary, leaving them all to only guess everything happening inside the young woman's head. Instead, they'd turned their focus to rebuilding, and beginning their next steps to start tracking HYDRA's movements.

"Hey, Sparky," Tony greeted finally, stepping away from where he stood across from Natasha and standing in front of her, trying to pull her attention away from the center of the room. "Welcome back. You're a long way from the infirmary."

"H-hi," she stammered, forcing her eyes away from the circle, currently occupied by Sam and Vision as she moved her gaze back up to Tony. "Sorry, I just needed some fresh air and thought I'd go for a walk. I knew you guys were training tonight, thought I'd come watch."

"Well, go have a seat and make yourself comfortable," Tony said, gesturing to the bleachers lining the back wall, and Elysia nodded, making her way over and taking a seat on the bench. "Romanoff, you partner up with Rogers. I'm taking five," Tony announced before following after Elysia and taking a seat next to his former protege.

"You don't have to stop," Elysia assured him as he sat down next to her.

"Nonsense," Tony scoffed. "You can talk to me, you know, Sparky. About how you are. You don't have to lie, not to me."

"I'm fine," she attempted, though the look in Tony's eyes told her he knew she was anything but fine. "Helen says my ribs are healing nicely, and that I should keep moving around."