"You still can't land a hit on me." Rumlow looks more amused by the fact than annoyed, but I can't say the same about myself. I'm frustrated. I'm pretty sure I'll be covered in bruises at this rate, but there isn't a scratch on him.
"Pretend I'm the person you're doing all this training for." He raises his fists in the defensive pose.
"I told you I'm just training to be prepared." I scowl, lunging at him with a punch. He stops my hand, wedging a foot between mine. Before I know it, he's flipped me and I hit the ground hard, the air knocked out of me.
"Maybe you should get some protective gear. You might hesitate to hurt me, but I can't promise you the same." He smirks, crouching down beside me. "You really wanna be prepared? You'll have to play hard. Because that guy—and I know it's a guy—isn't going to hesitate like you."
I frown at him in silence.
"End of the lesson." He stands again, holding a hand out to me, "Unless you want to tell me what's really going on. You're all over the place."
I ignore his hand, struggling to my feet on my own.
"It's honestly nothing, you don't need to get involved." I make my way to the punching bag, my back turned to him.
"Kinda feels like I already am if I'm training you. I'd like to know what you've gotten me mixed up in." he replies.
Fair enough.
"It's nothing you can't handle. I just didn't want to trouble you. It's my co-worker, a guy I used to work with in the Nikolav lab." I place a hand on the stationary bag. No energy left to punch it.
When Rumlow doesn't reply, I take it as my cue to elaborate.
"He told me that I'm messing with his workflow, undermining his authority, questioned me about why I was talking to you. And then he threatened to deal with me if I didn't cooperate or something, I don't know. I was scared, so I wanted to make sure I could fight if it came down to it. And I thought maybe if he knew I was training with you, he'd think twice about it. I mean, I'm not in spec ops but neither is he—"
I must not have heard his footsteps, and it startles the life out of me when he appears behind me, his arms reaching around my waist to grab my wrists.
"Sounds to me like he's just a little jealous." His breath is warm on my neck, his body pressed close against mine. A wave of self-consciousness washes over me.
"Why would he be jealous?" I feign normalcy as he turns my hands over, completely oblivious to the fact that this is kind of a scandalous position to be in, should anyone walk in.
"You know, because he's not the one you choose to spend your free time with—oh for god's sakes" His sudden exclamation startles me.
"I already showed you how to tape this correctly. Why did you do it like this again?" He presses his thumb into my palm, his grip tightening on my hand.
Oh, crap.
"I couldn't remember how you did it. You'll have to explain it to me again." I reply.
"Not today I won't. We're done." He glances up at the clock, pushing away from me. "You better have that figured out tomorrow or I'm calling this training off. I'm a busy man."
I wince at his reference to my comment from yesterday, but hey, he said there would be a tomorrow. He hasn't given up on me yet.
"You got it, boss." I smile.