Part 22: pool and power

The training mat was unforgiving.Emery hit the ground with a solid thud, wind knocking from her lungs like a punch. She groaned, rolling onto her back, her damp tank top sticking to her skin as she stared up at the ceiling of the Avengers' training hall.

"Again," Bucky said, stepping into her line of vision.

She narrowed her eyes. "I think that was actually my spine breaking, but sure. Let's go again."

He offered a hand. She took it, and he pulled her to her feet with zero effort - the pull far more intimate than it had any right to be. She wobbled slightly, and his other hand came to steady her waist, fingers grazing bare skin where her top had ridden up.

Too slow to let go.Too aware.Too much.

Bucky didn't move. His steel-blue eyes flickered to hers. "You're holding back."

Emery raised a brow, breathless but defiant. "Because you keep knocking me on my ass?"

"Because you're scared of hurting me," he corrected. "Don't."

She hesitated. Her fingertips glowed faintly - barely restrained. That sharp thrum beneath her skin, her power pacing like a caged animal.

"I'm not scared," she said.

"Then show me," Bucky said, voice low and rough, his thumb brushing once across her waist before he stepped back.

She lunged.

They danced across the mat - a flurry of limbs, feints, and spark-crackling energy. It wasn't elegant, but it was charged, kinetic. He blocked every strike, countered every feint, his own strength tempered with surprising grace. At one point, she swept him off his feet - literally - and he landed with a growl.

His metal hand gripped her wrist as she leaned over him, hair falling forward.

"You're enjoying this," he said, lips close to hers.

Emery smirked. "I like knocking you down a peg or two."

"I'll remember that," he rasped - but made no move to get up.

Her pulse tripped. Dangerously. And then-

"Barnes, Reed!" Tony's voice boomed over the comm system. "Stop flirting and hit the showers. Some of us don't need a live reenactment of 'The Notebook: Assassin Edition.'"

Emery barked a laugh and rolled off Bucky with a groan. "You heard the man."

Bucky sat up slowly. "You sure you don't want to reenact the lake scene too?"

She threw her towel at his face. A playful joke before getting it thrown back at her ten times harder.

They separated heading back to their own rooms and showered.

After a heavy duty morning Emery needed some time alone and too recover.

A place she hadn't explored yet..

The Tower's rooftop private pool was silent, serene - and blissfully empty.

Emery dipped beneath the surface, the water a cool balm over aching muscles. She floated on her back, hair fanning around her, eyes closed to the sun.

For an hour, there was only the rhythm of her breath and the soft lapping of water.

Until-

"Well, well. This is a vision."

Loki.

She blinked up to find him at the pool's edge, dressed in all-black leisurewear that probably cost more than her apartment. He looked maddeningly comfortable, one brow arched, his arms folded as he took her in.

"Stalking me now?" she asked, lazily swimming closer to the edge.

"I call it divine timing," he said smoothly. "And I was promised chaos. So far, it's just you in water."

She rolled her eyes. "Did you come here to be annoying, or does that just happen naturally?"

He crouched, elbows on his knees. "You do realize how distracting you are, don't you?"

The way he said it - velvet and steel, dipped in honey - sent a ripple through her. She stayed floating, but her eyes narrowed.

"You're not going to charm me into revealing my powers, Mischief."

"I don't need to. I've seen what you can do," Loki said, voice quieter. "But I think you're still hiding the most interesting parts."

Before she could reply, the elevator dinged - and Steve walked out, towel over his shoulder.

"Oh," he said, startled. "Didn't know anyone was up here."

Emery threw her head back and groaned. "It's officially a party."

Steve chuckled and stripped off his shirt, revealing a chiseled torso that made Loki scowl purely out of spite. He dove into the pool with an effortless glide, resurfacing beside her.

"This is nice," Steve said. "Training's been a beast lately."

"Tell me about it," Emery muttered. "Bucky's idea of gentle sparring involves throwing me like a javelin."

As if summoned by sheer mention, the elevator dinged again.

"Don't say it-" she started.

"Hey," Bucky said, stepping onto the deck shirtless, damp hair tied back, eyes scanning until they landed on her. His gaze flicked from Emery to Loki to Steve in the water... and narrowed just slightly.

"Oh for the love of-" Emery swam to the edge and hoisted herself out. "Is this a team memo I missed? 'Invade Emery's solo chill time?'"

"F.R.I.D.A.Y. said someone was in the pool," Steve said innocently.

"She's very talkative lately," Loki added, dabbing imaginary sweat with a smirk.

Bucky didn't say anything - just grabbed a towel, pulled off his joggers, and stepped into the water without breaking eye contact.

"Oh no," Emery muttered, backing up. "Nope. This is too many abs in one place."

As if on cue - again - Sam and Clint emerged from the stairwell, drinks in hand.

"POOL PARTY!" Sam yelled.

Tony showed up moments later with sunglasses, a mimosa, and a Bluetooth speaker already playing Earth, Wind & Fire. Thor arrived after that, booming something about "midgardian beverages" and cannonballed straight into the deep end.

Emery stood there dripping, towel in hand, stunned.

Natasha appeared beside her, passing her a drink.

"You started this," Nat said dryly.

Emery sipped. "How?"

"You exist."

She sighed. A little selfish need of silence but also the excitement and anticipation of what's to come with the chaotic family she'd found herself part off.

The chaos stormed. Games were played. One was beating Thor in a race.

The snap of water splitting beneath Emery's legs echoed off the rooftop walls as she surged ahead in her race with Thor. Her laugh rang out - breathless, bright - as she tapped the pool's edge and turned, victorious, hair slicked back like some golden sea siren.Thor whooped with boisterous delight, water cascading off him. "You are small, but swift!"

Emery grinned, flicking droplets at him with a flick of her hand. "Maybe you're just slow, your majesty."

He laughed, booming and unbothered. "I yield to your clever tongue."

But the real devastation didn't come from her winning. It came when she climbed out of the pool.

The moment Emery's foot hit the stone and she straightened to full height, water streaming down her form, the air on the deck shifted like thunder in the distance.

Her bikini was striking - a minimal but elegant black-and-gold number that gleamed in the sun. High-cut bottoms hugged her hips like they were sculpted to her. The twisted front of the top barely contained her curves, accentuating her waist and shoulders. Droplets slid down her stomach in slow rivulets, catching on the rise of her hipbones, disappearing beneath the curve of the fabric.

She ran her fingers through her hair as she walked across the deck - unaware, or perhaps pretending to be - of the spell she'd cast.

Behind her, silence rippled in her wake.

Like glass cracking.

Natasha leaned into Wanda, sunglasses sliding down the bridge of her nose as she watched the chaos unfold.

"I think Bucky just forgot how to breathe."

Wanda didn't blink. "I think Loki's combusting from the inside."

Loki sat frozen beneath a striped umbrella, his long legs stretched out, goblet in hand halfway to his mouth, forgotten. His green eyes tracked her like a hunter unsure whether to pounce or pray.

Steve's towel slipped off his shoulder without him noticing. He watched her walk - watched - the way one might watch a flame licking toward gunpowder. Slow. Fascinated. Helpless.

Clint muttered into his drink, "She's trouble."

Tony, never missing a beat, leaned back in his lounge chair and adjusted his sunglasses. "She's Emery," he corrected. "And I'm giving you all fair warning - one of you screws this up, I'm not paying for the fallout."

But Bucky...

Bucky stood closest.

His jaw was set, clenched so tight the muscle near his ear ticked. He hadn't spoken since she swam up beside him, smirking from the water, chest rising and falling with exertion.

Now, as she passed him - dripping, radiant, powerful in her own skin - her wet hair slung casually over her shoulder. The delicate black bow at the back of her bikini top brushed his arm.

"Excuse me," she said sweetly, tone dipped in something dangerous - and didn't even glance at him.

His fingers twitched at his side, as if resisting the instinct to reach for her.

Behind him, Sam's voice cut the silence.

"Welp. I'm gonna need a second round of therapy."

Emery bent down at her lounge chair, towel in hand, completely unaware of the carnage she'd left in her wake. Or maybe she knew. Maybe that was the game.

Loki took a long sip from his drink, gaze never leaving her.

"She's playing," he murmured, but there was no accusation in it. Just awe. And maybe a warning.

Steve, eyes still tracking the sway of her hips, said under his breath, "She knows exactly what she's doing."

"She's not even trying," Natasha added. "That's the scary part."

"Just wait until she does," Wanda said softly.

And Bucky?

He still hadn't moved.

Not even a blink.

The music had mellowed to something low and jazzy in the background, a perfect contrast to the aftershock of chaos still thick on the rooftop. Laughter had resumed. Conversations drifted through the warm air. Drinks refilled, bodies relaxed.But Emery?

She sat alone on a lounge chair near the pool's edge, towel draped loosely over her lap, damp hair curling against her shoulders, sunglasses perched on her nose as she stared out at the skyline.

It wasn't the sun that warmed her skin.

It was the way every set of eyes had trailed after her like shadows.

She hadn't meant to stir the whole damn tower - not really. She hadn't planned on the black-and-gold bikini being quite so... revealing. Or the race with Thor turning into a full-blown spectacle. But once she caught the reactions - the stillness, the looks, the held breaths - she didn't shrink from it.

She'd walked past them like a queen leaving a battlefield in heels and smoke.

Now, she sat in the quiet afterglow of that chaos, legs crossed at the ankle, one finger lazily tracing the condensation down her drink.

Her eyes flicked behind her sunglasses, subtle and sharp.

Loki still watched her, though he was trying to pretend he wasn't. He sat under his umbrella, the only one who hadn't moved since her exit from the pool, fingers steepled beneath his chin, gaze simmering with something between calculation and desire.

Thor had busied himself talking to Sam, but Emery had noticed the way his head tilted every few seconds, just slightly - like he couldn't help himself.

And Bucky...

Bucky was in the water still. Alone now. Floating - motionless except for the slow rise and fall of his chest. But she'd felt his eyes burn across her skin from the moment she passed him. Felt the heat coil like a second sun.

She bit her lip.

There was curiosity in her. A sharp, humming awareness of each of them - drawn for different reasons.

Loki was temptation dipped in danger. He looked at her like she was a puzzle he couldn't wait to solve. He didn't flinch when she was sharp or smart. He enjoyed it. He fed on it.

Thor was safety and strength. Earnest eyes, grounding presence. He didn't leer. He didn't stare. He watched - like she was something rare and important. Like if she let him close, he'd never let anyone hurt her again.

And Bucky...

Bucky was something else entirely. Fire and restraint. A shadow of violence wrapped in loyalty, walking a tightrope between control and collapse. She wasn't sure if he wanted to kiss her or pin her to the mat again just to feel her fight back.

All of them.

They weren't her type. Or maybe they were each her type - in dangerously different ways.

"God," she whispered to herself, leaning back in the chair, staring up at the sky. "What the hell am I doing?"

It wasn't a question she needed answered.

She let them stew in their own thoughts. Let them deal with what she had stirred.

And when her cup was empty, when the sun had begun to dip and shadows stretched long across the deck, she stood.

The motion drew eyes again - she felt it. The quiet shift. She didn't look back.

She crossed the stone path barefoot, entered the Tower again, her towel gathered loosely in one hand, hips swaying with residual adrenaline and awareness.

Her body still buzzed.

From the swim.From the stares.From the power of knowing she didn't owe any of them anything.

The locker room was empty, filled with the soft hum of vents and distant voices from upstairs. Emery turned on the water, letting it run hot before stepping under the spray.Steam rose in waves.

She closed her eyes, letting it wash away the chlorine, the heat, the tension. Her hands scrubbed through her hair, down her arms, over her ribs. She inhaled slowly - held it - exhaled.

Bucky's voice echoed somewhere in her memory.

"You're holding back."

Was she?

Or was she just not ready to let go?

Her fingers lingered against her sternum, over the faint glow beneath her skin. Magic, always humming beneath the surface, answering to her thoughts before she even knew what she wanted.

Her real secret wasn't just power.

It was desire.

The things she wanted but didn't dare admit out loud.

She turned the water off and stood in the warmth, bare and unhidden, before wrapping herself in a towel and stepping back into the dressing area.

Back in Her RoomHer room was dimly lit, calming. Emery dressed slowly - oversized sleep shirt, cotton shorts. Hair still damp, skin warm and soft. She sat at the edge of her bed, towel in her lap, staring at the floor.She didn't know what she wanted. Not fully.

But she knew this:

Each of them wanted her.

In different ways. For different reasons.

And she wasn't done figuring out what she wanted from them.

Not yet.

She lay back on the bed, arms behind her head, staring at the ceiling as the night outside deepened. The door remained closed.

She expected knocks. Maybe from Bucky. Or Loki. Or someone else.

But she let the silence stretch for now.

Power wasn't always about how loud you were.

Sometimes, it was about how long you could make the world wait.