37.

The Future

Chapter Theme Song: Be Good to Yourself - Journey

"Hey Nathan." Nathan answered the knock at his room door to find a very chipper Nina standing there, smiling widely. She was always a morning person.

"Hey Nina. How are you?"

"Good thanks! You?"

"Fine, thanks."

"I was wondering if you want to f-"

BEEP!

Both jumped at the sudden loud beeping noise, turning to see that the source of it had been Wade, who was standing a ways down the hall holding up a button that beeped when he pressed it.

She ignored the merc and tried again. "Want to f-"

BEEP!

Again, she was cut off by the beeping as Wade pressed the button once more.

"Want to-"

BEEP!

She was cut off yet again, though this time even sooner.

"Fight! I was going to say 'fight', Wade!"

"Were you?" She just knew that he was raising his eyebrows and wiggling them suggestively beneath his mask.

"Yes!"

He began repeatedly pressing the button.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

She turned back to Nathan, holding up a finger. "Give me a hot second, will you?" With that, she took off and chased Wade down the hall. "Wade Wilson!"

BEEP!

"You get back here right now!"

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

"Stop being weird! Give me that!"

Nina managed to apprehend the now laughing Wade and confiscated the button. She came back to Nathan's door, smiling. "I'm back. Sorry about that, Wade was being a little shit."

"As usual."

"Yes. Now, what I was trying to say is that I was wondering if you wanted to train together?"

Nathan agreed and Nina left him to change into his workout attire. Once dressed and ready he came and joined her in the school's training facility.

"Ready to get your ass kicked?" Nina grinned as they faced each other on the mat, both getting into a fighting stance.

"Are you ready to get yours kicked?"

"We'll see about that, Future-boy. Powers or no powers?" She smiled, holding up a hand, the black and purple energy of her reality powers dancing around her fingers as though for emphasis.

"No powers."

"Fine, you're no fun though."

He smirked. "We'll see."

"Whoa!" Minutes later, Nina hit the mat, landing hard.

Nathan chuckled, staring down at her. "Having fun yet?"

"Are you?" She jumped up, back on her feet in seconds. "I slipped!"

"Cause I knocked you down."

"Pretty sure those were not at all related." She blew the fringes of her hair out of her eyes in her signature gesture.

"Well I think you're distracted." He smirked.

"Oh yeah?" She smirked back. "Well, I could honestly say the same about you."

They regained their fighting stance and faced each other again. Then they proceeded to throw some more punches and kicks at each other.

"So, tell me," she said, ducking away from his swing. "What exactly did they teach you in future super-soldier training?"

"Always be alert and diligent. Always complete your mission, always follow it through. If they say no survivors, no survivors."

"Sounds dark."

"Trust me, you have no idea."

"So basically they rid you of any happiness? No wonder you're so grumpy all the time."

"And, most important of all: don't let anything distract you."

"Hmm, well, hate to break this to you Summers, but you've already failed that."

"Have I?" He twisted her arm around, making her fall to her knees.

"Uh huh." Energy coated her arm, setting it free and she got back to her feet, facing him.

"Hey, I thought we said no powers," he pretended to scold.

She only grinned. "Just keeping things interesting. Still having fun?" She smirked, giving a little snort of laughter. He shoved her playfully and the fight resumed.

BLAST!

She gasped when the blast of black and purple energy shot from her fist and created a flash. The energy struck him - sending him flying back to the opposite end of the training room, landing on the floor hard. That had not been what she was intending! That was only proof that she was distracted in his presence, enough so that he caused her to lose control of her powers briefly. Oops...

"Nathan! I'm so sorry! I swear I didn't do that on purpose!" She rushed across the room to his side, kneeling beside the groaning super-soldier.

His groans quickly turned into a chuckle. "We said no powers."

"That was an accident, I swear.

He continued to smile. "Sure it was."

She returned the smile. "What can I say? I was distracted. And so were you."

He didn't argue because she was exactly right - he was distracted. By her.

She helped him to his feet. "Well, thanks Nathan. This was fun. We'll have to do it again soon. Maybe next time you'll actually put up a fight."

"Oh, so that's how it is, huh?"

"Oh, that's how it is. See you later, Future-boy." With that, she gave a wink and left the room, leaving Nathan standing there in the middle of the mat, blinking after her.

Yup, there was no denying it: the immortal witch and the future super-soldier were definitely head-over-heels for each other.

And the future was looking bright for both of them.

Here we see this Nina being more confident in herself and in her powers :)

I think this chapter should have come before the last two, before Nina and Nathan got together, but I only just remembered that I wanted to include this scene, which mirrors the earlier training scene between them, the then future and the now future! And I wanted some more flirty Nina and Nate ;)

This was inspired by the fight training scene at the start of 'Captain Marvel' between Carol and Yon-Rogg, only more flirty! ;) And the 'oh that's how it is' line was inspired by the similar exchange between Steve and Sam at the start of 'The Winter Soldier' (which is still my favourite Marvel movie!)

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :) The end is near now!