Those would be the best memories

[actually112]

WHO| Aang and Bucky (MCU)
WHAT| Aang has powers to show off to Bucky. And games to drag him into.
WHEN| Soon after the beginning of the arena.
WHERE| Science labs.
WARNINGS| Little boys trying to make grown men act like kids.

Aang is having the time of his life.

He has his bending. There's a bunch of puzzle rooms full of things to play with and robots that he has no reason to worry about hurting. There's water, there's air, there's fire--a complete lack of nice earth, but some rocks that he can sometimes get his hands on.

All he needs is someone to have fun with, but he can enjoy himself before he finds someone to drag into it. At the moment, he's sitting on a ball of air and scooting on it from wall to wall up to the ceiling while frustrated turrets try to shoot him down, and his laughter bounces off the metal walls.

Comments

[actually112]

Aang is trying to concentrate on the race, but it's hard when there's just so much fun to be had. He had never appreciated how much fun bending is until it was taken away.

So he might be getting distracted by breaking robots.

He breaks some of them by just pulling the pieces of stone and minerals from them. Stomping the ground, drawing his arms in, and with the motion, minerals used in circuitry and infrastructure punch their way out of the robots' chassis, but it's boring to break them that way. He wants to do something creative, because bending is just as much based in creativity as it is in skill. So without looking back, he evaporates water from the pool, making a visible cloud of steam that he swirls in his hands, hardening the steam again into sharp points of ice over the tips of his fingers. With a flick of his wrist, the ice flies off his fingers, driving their way through the glass of a few turrets' 'eyes', driving into the circuitry and short-circuiting them. He does this while he runs, but he's slowed by his distractions and fun.

[tookthewheel]

Bucky pulls his arm out of the innards and starts watching Aang destroy the rest with his bending. It's fascinating to watch and the assassin couldn't even begin to try and understand how it worked. It made Aang, a young, skinny child into a potentially formidable opponent.

If he can do that to robots then Bucky can't help but wonder what he could do to people.

But before he goes down too far with that train of thought another interrupts it, another which points out that there is a race still on and while Aang is busy focusing on destroying the robots the lead in that race is waiting to be taken. It's an impulsive, mischievous thought entirely unlike the Soldier, only felt once before at the Crowning when he chased Steve with the paint gun. He could win this.

He still lingers until he's certain that Aang will not be harmed before bolting onwards ahead of him.

[actually112]

If Aang were so inclined, he could obliterate a human with very little effort. There are a lot of ways to do it--bend a stalagmite out of the ground beneath a person and impale them, bend the sweat on a person's skin to rip through their flesh, bend flames on a person's clothes, force enough air into their mouth that their lungs exploded... He has the skill and the creativity, but he is far too gentle to even imagine it.

"Hey!" He notices when Bucky races ahead. He hadn't expected it, since the man seemed to only humor him with games, so he can't help a laugh escaping into his voice when he calls, "Cheater!"

Of course, it's not at all cheating to take advantage of him not paying attention, but details. He's still laughing when he starts running properly again, the wind pushing him along just as it had before, but Bucky's got a head start.

[tookthewheel]

Aang failed to specify any rules against such action so Bucky's going to take full advantage of that. He can tell, he thinks, that Aang isn't actually displeased with his choice to take advantage of his distraction.

It's a race and he's going to win if he can. There's a competitive streak that belongs to Bucky Barnes somewhere in there.

He needs to make it to the next room as with his powers Aang is quicker than Bucky is, his head start has bought him a few seconds only. Making a beeline for the door he sams his hand against the access panel and waits impatiently for it to open, reaching with metal fingers to try and help it along.

[actually112]

Aang's laughter quiets as he concentrates, bolting so quickly that wind and dust pick up and make a cloud behind him, but with the headstart and the metal arm forcing the door open, Bucky gets in just a fraction of a second before Aang soars past.

He skids to a stop a little way's in the room (actually skids--a cloud of kicked up dust swirls up from his feet all the way to his waist), and he starts to laugh. It's the same bright and happy laugh that he has normally, but there's this strange sense of the air and ground pulsing without anything actually moving at all, like he's infused the elements with his joy and the world's laughing with him. Even when he isn't bending, there's a tangible difference between him with and without powers.

"Man, that was fun! Okay, you got that one. You're pretty fast." For all his competitiveness, he can admit when he's bested.

The turrets in the room all began to make the mechanical noises that came with turning towards them, recognizing organic lifeforms and aiming for them. Aang spared them a glance, still bouncing on the balls of his feet before he shoots Bucky a sly smile.

"Buuuuuut I bet I could break more of those things than you can."

[tookthewheel]

Bucky can feel the triumph coursing though him, a sense of accomplishment he'd usually solely attributed to the successful completion of a mission, target down and no complications. This feels better because no one got hurt, it's just him and Aang in a friendly challenge.

Any doubts he might have had about that are swept away when his young friend doesn't get angry at Bucky winning (not that he'd ever think it of Aang but there's a subconscious expectation...) but instead smiles and moves on to a new game. In return Bucky gives him a shadow of a smile and nods, "We'll see."

Then he's flinging himself to the side to avoid the laser fire and using the cover of lab table to skirt the room and get closer to the turrets.