p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Chapter 10/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 15px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"A golden light softly poured in through the windows and Luna was slowly brought back to awareness. She stiffened before opening her eyes, doing a quick scan of her surroundings, a habit she'd picked up at a long time ago, that she didn't feel quite comfortable shaking just yet. She knew that there were people around her, that it was the avengers and that currently, she was once again using Bucky as her pillow. This was the second time in two days, but honestly she could get used to it. It was the first time, for years she realised, that she hadn't woken up from a nightmare screaming, either from some horrific memory of what she'd done as the Black Moon, or a snapshot from her time before Hydra, something which remained a mystery to her in every sense of the word apart from the same 3 memories which would haunt her sleep in a cycle with Moon ones. But that hadn't happened. She had slept through a night, without any interruptions or panic. She felt rested. She felt happy. She felt safe. It was an unusual feeling. Luna didn't trust the team, not completely, not yet. But she did trust Bucky. And Bucky trusted these people. And maybe Wanda. She'd been nothing but kind, and after her offer last night to help Luna if she ever needed it, completely unprompted. Well, Luna assumed it probably wouldn't be the first time Wanda had helped her. Bucky had told her about what happened on the jet after they'd saved her, said that Wanda had offered to help her, despite her own exhaustion. Luna liked her. They had a shared history, sure not directly, but they were about the same age, they'd both been taken by Hydra and had been experimented on by them too. She hoped they'd be friends. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 15px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Eventually, Luna opened her eyes, and after immediately shutting them again, wincing at how bright the lights were, she tried again, and successfully managed to open her eyes for real this time. Looking up through a curtain on her own blonde hair, Luna realised that Bucky was still asleep. On the other side of her Wanda too seemed to be just waking up. "Morning Luna" she spoke quietly, an easy smile working her way onto her lips. "Morning" she whispered back in reply, unable to hold back a giggle as above her Bucky let out a snore. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""About time you two woke up," Luna heard Sam Wilson comment as she carefully removed herself from her pillow, trying her very best not to wake him up, knowing it was likely Bucky had gotten very little sleep over the last few days, in-between looking after her and his own nightmares. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Well Mr Wilson," Luna replied jokingly, "I need my beauty sleep to look this good!" Sam let out a chuckle of his own before responding, "Its just Sam kid, come on breakfasts ready." Luna made a mental note to remember to call him Sam in the future and looked up to see Wanda offering her a hand to help her get up off of the couch. Luna gratefully accepted, limbs still not having woken up properly, and was quickly stood up on her own two feet, slightly surprised at the fact she could feel no reminders of the fact that she had recently been in Hydras control. emHm,/em she thought, emmy super-healing must work better when I can actually get three meals a day. /emThe two girls slowly made their way down the corridor towards the open plan kitchen that Tony had obviously installed for the team. It was huge. Luna could count 4 different ovens, at least 3 coffee machines (she suspected that there were more hidden around the room, Tony stark after all, had a reputation) and a counter that looked as long as the table they had all been sat at the day before for dinner. There was a smaller breakfast table set on the left side of the room, with what looked like a built in reading corner and a gorgeous view of the city below and across the other side of the room was emanother/em sofa, on which currently sat Clint, who looked to be playing a video game on the TV in front of him, Bruce, who was sipping a coffee while reading what appeared to be some kind of science related magazine and Nat, who had a novel placed open on her lap, but who was currently smiling over in the direction of the two young girls who had just entered the room. "Morning girls" she called simply towards them, before directly addressing Wanda, saying "Just because Luna here is still settling in doesn't mean you get to skip training this morning маленькая ведьма" (little witch)" Wanda smiled before replying sarcastically "Like I would ever want to miss being thrown into the training mats by you"/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 15px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Could I join you?" Luna asked before she had even really processed the thought, it had just flown out of her mouth without much thought, "It's just that, with my super healing I'm already healed and honestly want to spar with someone." /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Natasha looked over her warily, considering what she was going to say carefully, before answering "Let Bruce check you over first, if he says you're okay to, then sure." Secretly ever since her encounter with the Black Moon Nat had been hoping to spar with Luna, wanting to gauge her skill level. "And," butted in Sam, "You have to come and eat some of this food first, or else Steve and Bucky will eat it between them." And so, grinning like a ball of sunshine at the prospect of being able to do something physical, Luna and Wanda moved over towards Sam, who had two plates in front of him, one, a normal sized portion evidently for Wanda, and the other piled high with pancakes bacon and syrup, which Luna learnt was evidently for her as she perched a questioning eyebrow at Sam who simply gave her a shit-eating grin in response before simply stating "Super soldier equals super metabolism, eat up kid!" Before practically throwing the food at Luna and moving to sit down with Bruce. Luna stared at the plate in front of her, sure she had a super-metabolism, but over the years Hydra hadn't exactly been generous with the amount of food they'd given her, and Luna wasn't sure she would be able to eat everything in front of her. Soon a wave of panic flooded Luna like a tsunami, but before it had the chance to do any real damage Wanda, who had evidently realised, or felt, thought Luna, what was going on used some of her magic to move some of Luna's food towards her own plate. With a kind smile she simply stated in a quiet voice "They did the same thing to me when I first got here, its one of the ways they show they care about you, by feeding you up." She finished with a small laugh. "Thanks" Luna whispered back, feeling even more hopeful at the prospect of being friends with the woman in front of her. Quickly enough the two had sat down at the small table across the room and were chatting friendly about anything and everything as they ate their breakfast. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 15px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Just as Luna was finishing her meal, feeling a lot fuller than she had for quite a while, Bruce strolled over towards the girls to make sure Luna was okay to spar. "Hey kid," he said, "how're you settling in" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Good thanks" was the quiet but appreciative reply he got from /"Im glad to hear it." He put his notebook down on the table as he crouched down in front of her, "Im just going to check how your ankle's healing, then your ribs to make sure you're okay to spar with Nat." Luna gave him a quick nod, knowing that despite the fact the man in front of her had been nothing but kind, she still hated medical exams. Wanda again picked up on this and reassuringly placed a hand on top of Luna's with a calming smile. Luna still wasn't overly happy at the situation however, and so decided to have a look at what was on Bruce's notepad, assuming it wouldn't be anything she wasn't allowed to see, as he had placed it right in front of her. Breathing in deeply as she was instructed whilst Bruce checked her ribs were healed she quickly realised that the equation on the paper was unbalanced, and in an attempt to rectify that she picked up a pencil and re-wrote it out correctly beneath the wrong one. She felt Bruce's hand move from her chest and so looked at him to see a shocked expression on the scientists face as he quickly leaned forward to grab the notepad. emFuck,/em thought Luna, she wasn't meant to have seen it after all. She had screwed up and upset one of Bucky's friends. "Im so sorry doctor Banner, I didn't mean to intrude, it was just that, it was right in front of me and I could see it was balanced wrong and I just thought that." /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Kid" another voice quickly broke in, belonging to Tony Stark, who Luna realised must have come in at some point during her medical, "He's not pissed, breathe, he was just surprised." Luna cocked her head to the side, not quite understanding, "surprised at what?" She asked. "We've been stuck on that equation for months," laughed Tony, "It's the last thing we needed to crack for our project, Brucie Bear here," Tony pointed to the still shocked scientist next to him "Is just surprised you managed to fix it so quickly when we've been stuck for months." /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Oh"/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Yeh," Bruce laughed, "Oh. Where did you learn science Luna ?" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 15px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"A tension quickly filled Luna's body at the question, as memories flooded back into her mind of her 'lessons' with Hydra. If she wasn't perfect there were always consequences, and no one could be perfect all the time. She had frozen, shocked by the question, a scary memory triggered. Unbeknownst to her Tony had whispered to Sam "go get Bucky," and the man took off towards the lounge, whilst Tony stepped forward towards Luna, slowly, clearly in her line of vision, as so to not spook the kid. Bruce speedily retreated, knowing better than to crowd someone experiencing a flashback, especially a super-soldier, whilst Wanda kept her hand on Luna's, now allowing some of her magic to spiral out in whisps towards Luna, in an attempt to calm her down. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Luna," Tony spoke very quietly, "can you hear me?" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"A slow shakes nod of the head was the response Tony got from Luna, who had clamped her eyes shut, clearly stuck in a painful memory from her physical reaction and the gasp that Wanda had let out as she attempted to calm Luna's mind. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Thats good," continued Tony in a soothing tone, "very good. Wherever your mind has taken you Luna, you're not there. Not wherever they held you. You're in the tower, with me and Wanda and Bucky is on his way. We got you out. You're in the tower. Do you think you could open your eyes for me?" He asked gently. Slowly Luna did just that, her blue eyes clouded with water as she took in the sight of the concerned looking Tony in front of her. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Im sorry," she whispered out./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Its okay kid," Tony reassured her, whilst Wanda added on "It happens to all of us, literally all of the time, we didn't know it would be a trigger for you, now we know and we don't have to talk about it again." /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""No, it's fine," replied Luna, "I just wasn't expecting the question. Hydra found me when I was young, so they were the ones to give me an education. I was always best at science, but um, they didn't like it when I would make mistakes , there were always punishments, because the science I was learning was hard, I would make mistakes sometimes, especially in my equations. and…" she trailed off. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""And there were punishments for being wrong." Bucky's voice spoke clearly from across the room, as he walked directly towards Luna, wrapping her up in his arms almost straight away, muttering into her hair a series of clicks in their long ago developed language-like way of communicating. A brief hum from Luna reassured Bucky, that yes she was fine. He released her from his hug, quickly scanning her for any tells that she wasn't okay. When he couldn't find any he chose to believe her. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Tony was stood across the room looking guilty, so Luna quickly turned to him, to say, "Thank you Tony, for bringing me back." /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""No problem kid, if you ever feel like coming down to mine and Brucies labs you'd be more than welcome, we could always do with a fresh mind, and clearly, you're more than capable." Luna smiled at him, before replying "I might just have to take you up on that offer." With that Tony smiled at her again, before presumably going off to tell Bruce that Luna was okay, and to check in with his science bro. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Next, Luna turned towards Wanda, "I don't know what you did, but thank you, it helped." /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""No problem свет луны, Im more than happy to help." (Moonlight)/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Luna smiled at the new nickname before Wanda carried on, "I'm guessing you don't have any clothes for training with nat?" Luna shook her head. "You can borrow some of mine then, im guessing we're about the same size. Ill send some down to Bucky's floor." /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Thank you Wanda," Luna replied, impulsively deciding to pull the older girl into a brief hug before Wanda said she would leave Luna and Bucky to talk, heading to the lift. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 15px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""You're gonna give me grey hairs kid," Bucky joked /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Sure you dont already have them old man ?" Luna replied in jest. Bucky slung his arm over Luna's shoulders before directing her towards the other lift, taking them both down to his floor to get ready for the day. "You're planning to spar with nat?" He asked, knowing better than to try and be a mother hen and tell Luna not to. Luna confirmed affirmative with a sharp nod of her head, heading to the guest bathroom to get ready, while Bucky called after her, "show her how its done kid!" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"-AN- /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"hi everyone ! thank you all so much for your lovely reviews they make my day ! i cant believe were on chapter 10 ! for an upload schedule im thinking about every other day, maybe twice at weekends depending on what i've got going on! i cant wait for the next chapter, Luna spars with Nat and a certain Spider-kid might be making his first appearance in the story ! Hope you're all well, reviews are as ever, more than welcome,/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"love as always /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"ERS xx 3 /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 15px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"A golden light softly poured in through the windows and Luna was slowly brought back to awareness. She stiffened before opening her eyes, doing a quick scan of her surroundings, a habit she'd picked up at a long time ago, that she didn't feel quite comfortable shaking just yet. She knew that there were people around her, that it was the avengers and that currently, she was once again using Bucky as her pillow. This was the second time in two days, but honestly she could get used to it. It was the first time, for years she realised, that she hadn't woken up from a nightmare screaming, either from some horrific memory of what she'd done as the Black Moon, or a snapshot from her time before Hydra, something which remained a mystery to her in every sense of the word apart from the same 3 memories which would haunt her sleep in a cycle with Moon ones. But that hadn't happened. She had slept through a night, without any interruptions or panic. She felt rested. She felt happy. She felt safe. It was an unusual feeling. Luna didn't trust the team, not completely, not yet. But she did trust Bucky. And Bucky trusted these people. And maybe Wanda. She'd been nothing but kind, and after her offer last night to help Luna if she ever needed it, completely unprompted. Well, Luna assumed it probably wouldn't be the first time Wanda had helped her. Bucky had told her about what happened on the jet after they'd saved her, said that Wanda had offered to help her, despite her own exhaustion. Luna liked her. They had a shared history, sure not directly, but they were about the same age, they'd both been taken by Hydra and had been experimented on by them too. She hoped they'd be friends. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 15px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Eventually, Luna opened her eyes, and after immediately shutting them again, wincing at how bright the lights were, she tried again, and successfully managed to open her eyes for real this time. Looking up through a curtain on her own blonde hair, Luna realised that Bucky was still asleep. On the other side of her Wanda too seemed to be just waking up. "Morning Luna" she spoke quietly, an easy smile working her way onto her lips. "Morning" she whispered back in reply, unable to hold back a giggle as above her Bucky let out a snore. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""About time you two woke up," Luna heard Sam Wilson comment as she carefully removed herself from her pillow, trying her very best not to wake him up, knowing it was likely Bucky had gotten very little sleep over the last few days, in-between looking after her and his own nightmares. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Well Mr Wilson," Luna replied jokingly, "I need my beauty sleep to look this good!" Sam let out a chuckle of his own before responding, "Its just Sam kid, come on breakfasts ready." Luna made a mental note to remember to call him Sam in the future and looked up to see Wanda offering her a hand to help her get up off of the couch. Luna gratefully accepted, limbs still not having woken up properly, and was quickly stood up on her own two feet, slightly surprised at the fact she could feel no reminders of the fact that she had recently been in Hydras control. emHm,/em she thought, emmy super-healing must work better when I can actually get three meals a day. /emThe two girls slowly made their way down the corridor towards the open plan kitchen that Tony had obviously installed for the team. It was huge. Luna could count 4 different ovens, at least 3 coffee machines (she suspected that there were more hidden around the room, Tony stark after all, had a reputation) and a counter that looked as long as the table they had all been sat at the day before for dinner. There was a smaller breakfast table set on the left side of the room, with what looked like a built in reading corner and a gorgeous view of the city below and across the other side of the room was emanother/em sofa, on which currently sat Clint, who looked to be playing a video game on the TV in front of him, Bruce, who was sipping a coffee while reading what appeared to be some kind of science related magazine and Nat, who had a novel placed open on her lap, but who was currently smiling over in the direction of the two young girls who had just entered the room. "Morning girls" she called simply towards them, before directly addressing Wanda, saying "Just because Luna here is still settling in doesn't mean you get to skip training this morning маленькая ведьма" (little witch)" Wanda smiled before replying sarcastically "Like I would ever want to miss being thrown into the training mats by you"/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 15px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Could I join you?" Luna asked before she had even really processed the thought, it had just flown out of her mouth without much thought, "It's just that, with my super healing I'm already healed and honestly want to spar with someone." /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Natasha looked over her warily, considering what she was going to say carefully, before answering "Let Bruce check you over first, if he says you're okay to, then sure." Secretly ever since her encounter with the Black Moon Nat had been hoping to spar with Luna, wanting to gauge her skill level. "And," butted in Sam, "You have to come and eat some of this food first, or else Steve and Bucky will eat it between them." And so, grinning like a ball of sunshine at the prospect of being able to do something physical, Luna and Wanda moved over towards Sam, who had two plates in front of him, one, a normal sized portion evidently for Wanda, and the other piled high with pancakes bacon and syrup, which Luna learnt was evidently for her as she perched a questioning eyebrow at Sam who simply gave her a shit-eating grin in response before simply stating "Super soldier equals super metabolism, eat up kid!" Before practically throwing the food at Luna and moving to sit down with Bruce. Luna stared at the plate in front of her, sure she had a super-metabolism, but over the years Hydra hadn't exactly been generous with the amount of food they'd given her, and Luna wasn't sure she would be able to eat everything in front of her. Soon a wave of panic flooded Luna like a tsunami, but before it had the chance to do any real damage Wanda, who had evidently realised, or felt, thought Luna, what was going on used some of her magic to move some of Luna's food towards her own plate. With a kind smile she simply stated in a quiet voice "They did the same thing to me when I first got here, its one of the ways they show they care about you, by feeding you up." She finished with a small laugh. "Thanks" Luna whispered back, feeling even more hopeful at the prospect of being friends with the woman in front of her. Quickly enough the two had sat down at the small table across the room and were chatting friendly about anything and everything as they ate their breakfast. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 15px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Just as Luna was finishing her meal, feeling a lot fuller than she had for quite a while, Bruce strolled over towards the girls to make sure Luna was okay to spar. "Hey kid," he said, "how're you settling in" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Good thanks" was the quiet but appreciative reply he got from /"Im glad to hear it." He put his notebook down on the table as he crouched down in front of her, "Im just going to check how your ankle's healing, then your ribs to make sure you're okay to spar with Nat." Luna gave him a quick nod, knowing that despite the fact the man in front of her had been nothing but kind, she still hated medical exams. Wanda again picked up on this and reassuringly placed a hand on top of Luna's with a calming smile. Luna still wasn't overly happy at the situation however, and so decided to have a look at what was on Bruce's notepad, assuming it wouldn't be anything she wasn't allowed to see, as he had placed it right in front of her. Breathing in deeply as she was instructed whilst Bruce checked her ribs were healed she quickly realised that the equation on the paper was unbalanced, and in an attempt to rectify that she picked up a pencil and re-wrote it out correctly beneath the wrong one. She felt Bruce's hand move from her chest and so looked at him to see a shocked expression on the scientists face as he quickly leaned forward to grab the notepad. emFuck,/em thought Luna, she wasn't meant to have seen it after all. She had screwed up and upset one of Bucky's friends. "Im so sorry doctor Banner, I didn't mean to intrude, it was just that, it was right in front of me and I could see it was balanced wrong and I just thought that." /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Kid" another voice quickly broke in, belonging to Tony Stark, who Luna realised must have come in at some point during her medical, "He's not pissed, breathe, he was just surprised." Luna cocked her head to the side, not quite understanding, "surprised at what?" She asked. "We've been stuck on that equation for months," laughed Tony, "It's the last thing we needed to crack for our project, Brucie Bear here," Tony pointed to the still shocked scientist next to him "Is just surprised you managed to fix it so quickly when we've been stuck for months." /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Oh"/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Yeh," Bruce laughed, "Oh. Where did you learn science Luna ?" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 15px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"A tension quickly filled Luna's body at the question, as memories flooded back into her mind of her 'lessons' with Hydra. If she wasn't perfect there were always consequences, and no one could be perfect all the time. She had frozen, shocked by the question, a scary memory triggered. Unbeknownst to her Tony had whispered to Sam "go get Bucky," and the man took off towards the lounge, whilst Tony stepped forward towards Luna, slowly, clearly in her line of vision, as so to not spook the kid. Bruce speedily retreated, knowing better than to crowd someone experiencing a flashback, especially a super-soldier, whilst Wanda kept her hand on Luna's, now allowing some of her magic to spiral out in whisps towards Luna, in an attempt to calm her down. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Luna," Tony spoke very quietly, "can you hear me?" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"A slow shakes nod of the head was the response Tony got from Luna, who had clamped her eyes shut, clearly stuck in a painful memory from her physical reaction and the gasp that Wanda had let out as she attempted to calm Luna's mind. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Thats good," continued Tony in a soothing tone, "very good. Wherever your mind has taken you Luna, you're not there. Not wherever they held you. You're in the tower, with me and Wanda and Bucky is on his way. We got you out. You're in the tower. Do you think you could open your eyes for me?" He asked gently. Slowly Luna did just that, her blue eyes clouded with water as she took in the sight of the concerned looking Tony in front of her. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Im sorry," she whispered out./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Its okay kid," Tony reassured her, whilst Wanda added on "It happens to all of us, literally all of the time, we didn't know it would be a trigger for you, now we know and we don't have to talk about it again." /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""No, it's fine," replied Luna, "I just wasn't expecting the question. Hydra found me when I was young, so they were the ones to give me an education. I was always best at science, but um, they didn't like it when I would make mistakes , there were always punishments, because the science I was learning was hard, I would make mistakes sometimes, especially in my equations. and…" she trailed off. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""And there were punishments for being wrong." Bucky's voice spoke clearly from across the room, as he walked directly towards Luna, wrapping her up in his arms almost straight away, muttering into her hair a series of clicks in their long ago developed language-like way of communicating. A brief hum from Luna reassured Bucky, that yes she was fine. He released her from his hug, quickly scanning her for any tells that she wasn't okay. When he couldn't find any he chose to believe her. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Tony was stood across the room looking guilty, so Luna quickly turned to him, to say, "Thank you Tony, for bringing me back." /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""No problem kid, if you ever feel like coming down to mine and Brucies labs you'd be more than welcome, we could always do with a fresh mind, and clearly, you're more than capable." Luna smiled at him, before replying "I might just have to take you up on that offer." With that Tony smiled at her again, before presumably going off to tell Bruce that Luna was okay, and to check in with his science bro. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Next, Luna turned towards Wanda, "I don't know what you did, but thank you, it helped." /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""No problem свет луны, Im more than happy to help." (Moonlight)/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Luna smiled at the new nickname before Wanda carried on, "I'm guessing you don't have any clothes for training with nat?" Luna shook her head. "You can borrow some of mine then, im guessing we're about the same size. Ill send some down to Bucky's floor." /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Thank you Wanda," Luna replied, impulsively deciding to pull the older girl into a brief hug before Wanda said she would leave Luna and Bucky to talk, heading to the lift. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 15px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""You're gonna give me grey hairs kid," Bucky joked /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Sure you dont already have them old man ?" Luna replied in jest. Bucky slung his arm over Luna's shoulders before directing her towards the other lift, taking them both down to his floor to get ready for the day. "You're planning to spar with nat?" He asked, knowing better than to try and be a mother hen and tell Luna not to. Luna confirmed affirmative with a sharp nod of her head, heading to the guest bathroom to get ready, while Bucky called after her, "show her how its done kid!" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"-AN- /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"hi everyone ! thank you all so much for your lovely reviews they make my day ! i cant believe were on chapter 10 ! for an upload schedule im thinking about every other day, maybe twice at weekends depending on what i've got going on! i cant wait for the next chapter, Luna spars with Nat and a certain Spider-kid might be making his first appearance in the story ! Hope you're all well, reviews are as ever, more than welcome,/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"love as always /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"ERS xx 3 /p
