"come on, Jaeger! Hold on!"
"I can't, my hands are slipping!"
"Don't you even think about letting go!"
"My arms..."
"You drop now and it's thirty more crunches."
"NOOOO!"
The few other people who were using the gym were looking over at Rhea and Rumlow in bemused affrontedness. On the one hand it was like watching an entertaining TV show while you excercised. On the other hand, you weren't supposed to be so loud in the gym.
"Aaaaand drop."
Rhea's grip on the pull up bar released and she dropped to the floor a couple feet bellow. Collapsing like a rag doll onto her back.
"alright," said Rumlow. "Let's stretch out those arms."
"Can't." she panted. "If I move them they'll break." Rumlow rolled his eyes. She groaned as she got to her feet and began her stretches. Suddenly Rumlow kicked out at her. Startled, Rhea burst into flames. The few other people exercising jumped to their feet in alarm. The fire disappeared and the black color faded quickly from Rhea's skin. Rumlow stamped out the singed mat they stood on.
"Your reflexes still aren't anywhere what they should be." he said. "If someone comes at you to attack, I want your super powers to be your secondary response. Your first response should always be to counter. Come on, back to the sparing room."
"Ummm," Rhea looked over her shoulder at the gymn as they left. People were drawing nearer to each other in a crowd. "what about the fact that I just combusted in front of those people?"
"I have no idea," Rumlow told her. "Honestly I wasn't really expecting that to be your response."
"I was really expecting you to attack me."
"that was the point."
After a quick phone call to Coulson, Rumlow informed Rhea that someone would be down to talk to the other SHIELD members who had been in the gym. They spent the rest of the day drilling the basic strikes and blocks, and how to counter attack as she blocked. By the end of the day Rhea was dead tired. She picked up her towel and headed down the hallway to the locker room. She rinsed off in the shower and got changed. When she entered the gym lobby, Rumlow was waiting for her. He handed her a thin folder.
"Diet plan." he said.
"you're a cruel man."
"Relax," he said. "It's not that bad. When you're working out this intensely you don't wanna eat just anything. You could make yourself sick."
They checked out with the front desk and headed out into the hallway. Not many people came down to this area of the SHIELD building at eight PM and the halls were deserted. They walked in silence for a little bit. Finally Rhea broke it.
"I'm sorry about you being on suspension." she said. Rumlow didn't answer.
"Thank you, by the way," she added. "for coming after me like that."
"part of the job." he said.
"It was stupid," Rhea continued. "you're lucky your injuries weren't that severe or that you, ya know, died. But thanks."
Rumlow stopped walking and faced her. He opened his mouth to say something, but hesitated. Rhea felt an emotion she couldn't quite place. Rumlow shrugged and said "Yeah, well..." and they kept walking. This time Rumlow kept the silence at bay by talking about how today went and giving Rhea a pointer or two. They were rode the elevator up to the ground level and headed out onto the street.
"From what I hear," Rhea said. "you're a pretty bad ass fighter. One of the best, in fact."
"I can hold my own with some of the best, yeah. If you wanna see some really impressive fighting though, you need to see people like Natasha Romanov in action."
"Who's that? She sounds awesome."
"she's one of SHIELD's top agents. She doesn't have a team, she just gets assigned to what ever mission needs her. Sometimes that means she works alongside a strike team, sometimes she goes in solo."
"Wow."
"My team did a mission in Belarus with her one time. There was some classified stuff happening there but I ended up fighting this guy, had to be eight feet tall and just massive. It was like fighting a tank that was on PCP. He takes out the three other guys I got with me. I'm getting the shit beat out of me, and I'm using everything; knives, guns, tasers- nothing will bring this guy down no matter how much damage it inflicts. Then Romanov comes out of nowhere and takes on this Goliath. She's moving like a cobra, dancing all over, twirling around him. Finally she gets the perfect shot in and she sends that monster back to hell. She walks up to me, and I'm standing there covered in blood, one of my arms bending the wrong way, and she says, 'Hey. What took you so long?'" He laughed at the memory.
"Oh I was so mad. And in so much pain."
Rhea stared opened mouthed up at Rumlow. He looked over at her expression of awe and horror.
"What?" he shifted the weight of his gym bag.
"Nothing." Rhea looked forward. "I just hope SHIELD has really great health care, and a truly inspiring vacation policy."
They arrived a few minutes later at the SHIELD own apartments. Rumlow reminder her of a few tips to combat sore muscles and said goodbye. Rhea watched him go for a moment before she entered her building. Once her apartment she stripped down and took a real shower. It hadn't gone that badly, she thought. She had been red and sweaty and weak, yes, but she had been too focused on the intense work out to notice, really. The only truly terrible moment had been when she'd combusted in front of all those people. Poor Coulson. She was probably causing him so much extra work. She couldn't help but feel that Coulson had chosen Rumlow as her trainer for more than just his skill. Coulson, that sneaky robot. Well let him have his games, she decided as she got into bed. True, Agent Rumlow was rugged and sexy, and his job gave him that bad boy air, but honestly, no. How would that happen? She just had too much going on to even think about getting involved with someone. And if she did get involved with someone would she really want them to be an agent of SHIELD, always off on dangerous missions? Besides she didn't actually like him. And besides that he probably didn't even like her. She probably wasn't his type. He was probably into more of a feme fatale type of woman. The strong sexy silent type, like that Natalia Romani or whatever. As she lay in bed, trying to clear her mind for sleep, Rhea wondered how horrible her hair had looked during training.