Warnings: Past Chapter Healing, Violence in the form of fighting, Swearing

Translations Will Be Available At The End Of The Chapter Courtesy Of The Wonderful Wikipedia.

For words that will be translated simply look for the bold words.

wiki/Karate_stances

Stella's P.O.V

"Again!" Was called out to me in a commanding and unrelenting tone as I landed hard on my left side. I had previously been standing on one of those red, padded training mats, however my new position, as I previously stated, was on the ground. The unmarred, and in a way, sadistically perfect face of one Natasha Romanoff looked down at me as she stood up from her Heisoku-dachi stance she had taken against me. Not one of her hairs was out of place, and her make-up wasn't even smudged. Honestly it was a bit unfair as I had sweat pouring down my face, my hair was falling out of the pony-tail I had put it in this morning, and I had no doubt I was beginning to smell like my own body odor. On the bright side, it was a good thing that the bruises I had received yesterday were yellowing. Horribly however, they were leaving my skin a disgusting greenish color, all the while Nat's skin stayed a pale and delicate pink. She also didn't even have one drop of sweat dotting her forehead. I had asked for this training though so I suppose I couldn't be too upset by her perfectness, after all she was THE Black Widow.

After the day that I had had yesterday. The unnervingly long night of nightmares, and then the much needed comfort that I had received from one Tony Stark, I had woken up feeling the same as I had while falling asleep yesterday.

Rundown.

Sore.

Bruised.

While also being more than a little pissed off. I know that I shouldn't hold myself responsible for what happened yesterday and the pain that I had gone through, especially since I only know a grand total of 2 self defense moves. One that involves biting anything that you can get your mouth around in the hopes that you can break free. Whereas the other one uses the palm of my right dominant hand as I force it upwards at my assailants nose in the hopes of either breaking said nose, or in the extreme case, shoving the nasal cartilage up into the skull effectively disabling or killing my opponent. But how the hell can you use the second one when your opponents stand behind you ALL THE DAMN TIME!

So yes. All in all, I was highly pissed off. I was pissed that I was unable to defend myself. I was pissed off that 5 thugs from a top secret organization hell bent on world domination, and whom I had never even heard of before, had gotten the better of me. And last but certainly not least, I was pissed as all get out that I had turned out to be your stereotypical, run of the mill, everyday, damsel in distress. Ever since finding out who my Soul Mates were, I had made a sort of promise, I guess you could say to myself. That promise was simple, and that was simply to never be someone who got in the way of their saving the world. Yesterday only proved to me how foolish and naive that self made promise had been, especially since I had no idea how Hydra had found out about me in the first place. What yesterday had truly done, was to open my eyes to the dangers of the world that were hidden from your average citizen, as well as proving to me that I was truly defenseless against them. No matter how much I wished that wasn't the case.

Let it be said that I've never been one to sit with my metaphorical pants around my ankles for long, and I planned on rectifying at least one of the problems that I had been faced with during my attack yesterday, today. My defenselessness had to be the first thing to change, and I knew just the person to teach me. So when I woke up this morning wrapped up in 2 decidedly strong arms, I wasted no time in untangling myself from Tony's firm yet loving grip. I had things that I needed to accomplish today, and sadly, I wasn't going to be able to accomplish those things while lying in bed.

My first order of business was easy, I told Tony in no uncertain terms that I wanted to learn how to defend myself. To learn how to fight. Of course he offered to make me my own Iron Woman suit, but I felt that was going just a bit too far, after all, I had 2 Master Assassins in my phone who could teach me the "old school" form of self defense. No flying metal alloy suits. Just me, my opponent, and some good old fashion hand to hand combat. So with a quick kiss to Tony's lips, I shot off a quick text to my hopefully new teacher.

The second thing that I did was ask for some pain medication. Because let me tell you! I felt like someone had run me over with a steam roller, then an 18 wheeler, then one of those super heavy looking cranes they use for construction work, before I was chewed up and spit back out for someone to find dead in a ditch. Turns out the Avengers had something even better than ibuprofen or Tylenol. I guess you could say that it was because of OR thanks to all of the fights that they got into, that Bruce with the help of one of his colleges Dr. Cho, had created a specialized bruise ointment. This miracle in a bottle not only took away the pain from new and old bruises after a span of only 15 minutes, but also caused the skin and the cells surrounding the bruise to heal at an accelerated rate. Which was the cause for my skin being the ugly greenish color that it was now.

It was the punch that landed to the left of my head and put a temporary dent in the mat, that pulled me out of my thoughts and back into the present. "Get out of your head. The second you loose focus, you loose your life."

With a groan of pain as my muscles pulled before relaxing, I rolled out from under Natasha's lithe form and dragged myself back to my feet. We had been going at it for about 45 minutes and I am ashamed to admit that I was severely out of shape. I had always been a curvy woman, even when eating healthy. My thighs jiggled a little when I walked and I had wide hips, a medium-ish waist, and a decidedly large bust coming in at a whopping DDD. I loved my body, but no matter how much I exercised to keep myself at a healthy weight my measurements never changed. Eventually I just stopped working out since my weight never changed. I now regretted not working out anymore immensely.

"She's not wrong Baby Girl. When fighting you need to always be focused on your fight, while also being completely aware of your surroundings. The second you aren't is the second you're dead, and I'd personally not have that happen for a very very very long time." Clint's voice rang out as he walked into the private gym that normally the Avengers used to work out in. The gym was one of the floors that was only accessible through J.A.R.V.I.S as it was one of the private floors of the Tower located just one floor below the common area. However currently it was being used as my training gym. The dulcet tones of Clint's voice distracted me even further, and without thinking I ran into his arms and off of the training mat.

"Clint!" I sang happily as I hopped into his arms while I wrapped my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck. He held me in his arms like it was no skin off of his back as his eyes traveled all over my face before we locked onto each others eyes, and then we just stared at each other for a moment.

"Well look who's feeling better today?" He said as he smiled at me, while I got back down to my feet as Natasha came up to the both of us.

"Yeah that bruise paste or whatever you want to call it, worked wonders! Everywhere I was sore or had a bruise a little bit of that stuff and BAMM! Presto Change-O! Good-bye trauma of my past! Obviously I know there are still going to be some . . . Mental set backs, but for right now, I just want to feel like me again. Not having all of those bruises is definitely helping me move on from yesterday." Which was most definitely true. Looking in the mirror earlier and not having to see Hydra's handy work had put me in a considerably better mood. I hoped he understood where I was coming from, but as I looked into his eyes I realized that I never had anything to worry about in the first place. He would understand and support me no matter what my decision when it came to this. I could see it in his eyes and all the way down to the depths of his soul.

"Which starts with actually staying on the mat when we train." Natasha said to me, shocking me once again back to reality. Though from the smirk that was on her face, I could tell she wasn't mad at my distraction this time.

"Yes ma'am!" I saluted her as I walked back onto the mat and took up one of the positions she had taught me. What had she called it? Oh yeah! Musubi-dachi. This was my waiting stance that we had decided on. Since I was new to all things self-defense, she wanted to start off easy, and this was as easy as any since all we did in this position was bow to each other to signal the start to our fight.

"Mind if I stay and watch?" was called jokingly from the sidelines as Nat took her starting stance in front of me.

"If you stay, then you had better watch her stances and form. I never want to come back to see you like I did last night, and Stella?"Nat said as she grabbed my attention from off of Clint. "I'm going to make sure that you know how to defend yourself. You'll never have to feel that feeling of helplessness again if I can help it. Now lets get started shall we?"

My eyes teared up as I felt the sentiment and emotion behind every word she was saying, and I could tell that she meant it. And that meant, that to me, her training meant all the more to me for it. With a nod to her in respect and understanding we bowed to each other, and our next training session began. This time however, I had to deal with the distraction of Clint throwing out helpful bits of information to me as I attempted to duck and dodge Nat's punches and kicks, quite sloppily on my part.

"Feet shoulder width apart." Clint called out clinically as he watched me from where he had gotten comfortable leaning against a wall as he fiddled with the tip of an arrow.

"Center your body weight or a slight breeze is going to blow you over."

"You can dodge all you want but you need to go on the offensive at some point. With luck and training that will hopefully be before you tire out too much."

While I had Clint calling out these tips to me, I also had Natasha giving me advice. Her advice was given to me in between kicks and punches to my head, abdomen, and leg sweeps directed at my feet. Somehow I managed to keep dodging her hits but Clint was right, I could feel myself tiring. I was new to all of this after-all, and this amount of exercise would tire anyone not used to it.

"Keep your hands level with your face. If you don't know what to do with them at least, don't drop them. This at least gives you a quicker response time to block an incoming punch."

I did not end up blocking the punch she threw at me, but I wasn't giving up. So back to my feet I went, and I quickly got into my first position with my hands at the ready, level with my face. With a nod, we were back at it and the only sounds that filled the gym were the sounds of my heavy breathing, Clint's encouraging words, and of Nat and I's fighting.

A/N: Your Comments and Votes mean the world to me! As always you are ALL the Muses that inspire me! Stella's body type is inspired by my own, and I just want all of you too know that no matter what body type you have, YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!

Translations: Most of these are Japanese. If it isn't a Japanese word I will make sure to let you all know!

******Heisoku-dachi (閉足立, Feet together stance)(I refer to this as my 1st stance though I have no idea if that is true.)

Feet together. This is usually a transitional stance, although it is used as the ready stance in some .

******Musubi-dachi (結び立, Joining stance)

Heels together, toes open at about 45 degrees. This stance is used to perform the formal respectful bow, rei (礼).