Bucky led Wanda into the abandoned warehouse and tossed his jacket to one side.

"This should work," he said.

"What is this place?"

"Old Hydra warehouse. Obviously, out of use now." He turned to her. "You ready?"

"Yes. I want to learn how to fight."

He smiled. "Okay. Well then. You have powers. Very formidable powers. And maybe those alone are everything you need to facedown Hydra agents. But let's be honest, this world is getting crazier every day and it's not outside of the realm of possibility anymore that you could come across a threat at some point that's has powers too."

"So….I learn to fight? If they have powers, is throwing a punch really going to make a difference?"

Bucky held up his metal arm. "This, as much as I hate it and everything it represents, it's also an asset." He hesitated a minute, the word 'asset' leaving a bitter taste on his tongue. He'd heard himself called that one too many times to be able to use the word without a flicker of something deeply unpleasant in the pit of his stomach. "Well it's useful. Its punch is a lot stronger than my own arm, sends a regular enemy staggering. It can be used for traction or to grab something that, if I tried to do it with my other arm, would probably pull it out of its socket. It can literally stop bullets. It tips a fight in my favor. But to use it effectively, I need to know how to fight to begin with. I need to know how to spot weaknesses and openings. If I didn't, if I just went wailing into a fight, metal first, I'd take out some threats. But at the end of the day, someone with better science, with a better eye, someone who knew what they were doing could get under my defenses. Because I'd be sloppy. I'd open myself up. What you need, is to know how to fight, so you know how to best integrate your abilities into the battle. How to react and how to respond. You need to learn your own weaknesses so that you know how others will try to get under your defenses and you can counter that and in turn get under theirs. And how to get under theirs."

Wanda reached out and ran s forefinger over the metal. "I think you underestimate what it represents."

He met her gaze for a moment and gently taking hold of both her wrists, moved her hands into position. "Okay. Starting stance…"

"Agent Romanoff…Agent Romanoff?"

Nat reached for the alarm clock on the nightstand. It read two thirty in the morning. She let out a groan.

"Agent Romanoff?"

"Jarvis, is you're waking me up cause of some prank by Stark, I am going to kill you both. Just so you know. I will absolutely consider you an accessory."

"No, Agent Romanoff. I am sorry to wake you but there is a phone call waiting for you on your private line. You said to always put those through."

She sat up sharply. Very, very few people had that number. Most of the Avengers…well, now that Clint was off the team, none of Avengers, even had it.

"Put it through."

"Right away."

There was a pause and then a young, boy's voice came over the speaker. "Aunt Nat?"

Nat started. "Cooper?"

"Uh…hi."

In one split second Nat had time to feel all the dread and fear of all the potential reasons Cooper could be calling, of all the things that could have gone horribly wrong at the farm house. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah everything's fine. I just…really wanted to talk to you. I miss you."

She relaxed, a flicker of a smile playing on her lips. "I miss you too Cooper…" She looked at the clock again and frowned "Shouldn't you be asleep though?"

They'd teamed up on too many pranks for Cooper to have the least bit of guilt in his voice when he answered: "I'm in the barn. I snuck out here after mom went to bed. I didn't think she'd let me call you." There was a long pause. "Do you hate me, too?"

"What? No. Of course not. Cooper I- I could never hate you."

"But you hate dad."

"I don't-" She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I don't hate your father. It's just…complicated."

"Are you ever going to visit again?"

"I don't know," she said, honestly, unable to bring herself to give him false promises.

"You know," said Cooper, reluctantly, as if he were dragging the words out of him, afraid of how she'd respond, "when Lila and I fought, and I said I'd never forgive her…you said what we had was too important…we were family."

"I said that, huh?"

"And you're family, aren't you? You're Aunt Nat."

"I- Cooper. I will always be your Aunt Nat. But what you dad did-" She stopped herself. She'd seen Cooper look up at his father too many times with respect and unwaveringly love to want to shake that. She wondered what he already knew. But there was no denying that at some point he'd probably know it all. Perhaps he'd believe the lie the Avenger's had put out. She almost hoped he would. The idea of shaking that faith; she found that it broke her heart.

"I know," he said softly. She thought she heard him sniff a little. "I know what he did. And I'm really, really sorry."

"Cooper," she said, with iron firmness. "You, you sister, you mother, none of you have anything to be sorry about. You have to know that. What happened with your father is between me and him. Not you and me. Never you and me. Okay?"

There was a long pause and then. "Okay."

"Good…" She chewed her lip. "How is your father?"

"Hmm, last time he came back he seemed…pretty good."

"Came back? What do you mean came back?" She'd leaned back against the pillows but at this she sat bolt upright. "Isn't he at the farm?"

"Uh no. I thought- Mom said he was off making things right. Working. Uh, should I not have told you?"

She could hear the immediate guilt in his voice and as her own thoughts ran a mile a minute she hastened to assure him, "No that's okay. If your mom knows what's going on, it's no problem. Don't worry."

The was a solid ten seconds of silence.

"….I got a new bike."

"Really? What color?"

"Black and red…I named it the Black Widow."

She chuckled. "I bet it's really cool."

For the next ten minutes he told her about the farm, about Lila, about the new calf that had just been born. At last he sighed and said, "I'd better get back. Before mom wakes up and sees the phone line is busy."

"Yeah. Good to talk to you."

"You too. I miss you…I really hope you come back soon."

She couldn't make a promise. So instead she said, "Call any time." And he hung up.

Bucky punched and Wanda ducked, a second punch which she neatly blocked. She attempted to kick but he caught it, and threw the kick back which sent her staggering and the metal fist came towards her. A sense of being cornered suddenly overwhelmed her.

Instinctually, she shoved away, not from him but from the floor, red sparks taking her up and away several feet into the air, back, and to the ground again.

Bucky stopped, staring as Wanda herself stared at her own palms.

"You can fly?" he said, blinking in surprise.

"I-…apparently. I- I hadn't done it before. I just…reacted."

He grinned. "That's good. That's really good. You reacted. You integrated your powers, your abilities, with your skills…and learned something new while you were at it."

"I'm not sure I'd say skills," she said playfully.

"Trust me you did really, really well. And that," he gestured up and back down to where she stood, "was incredible."

"I…I'm not even sure how I did it."

"You'll learn. You'll master it. You'll control it."

Wanda stared back down at her palms. "Doesn't it scare you? Even a little?" she asked softly. "I can enter men's minds. I've entered yours. I can rip metal and concrete. And now apparently I can fly. That should scare you."

Suddenly one flesh and one metal hand were covering her palms and she looked up to see he was standing in front of her.

"You've seen in my mind," he said, "I've known monsters…you are not one of them."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because while you saw in my mind…I saw in yours. And I know."