BANG.POW.CRACK.Leah rained holy hell down on an adamantium-lined punching bag, indifferent to the world around her thanks to the thunderous roll of her
playlist. Things have been a load of shit lately, between Arcade, April and fucking Vicky going to a psych ward, and her “mother” bending over backwards to get blood from a stone. For the last few days, She Hulk had been trying to get along with Leah and demanded to know every little thing about her.
So how did you get into boxing? How’d you and Sabine get together? Who taught you Spanish? So many little tests of boundaries that a woman as intelligent as her should have known were present. It didn’t even make Leah
angry, just uncomfortable. Unlike her dad, Leah actually gave more than a microscopic fuck about her mother, before she died.
And she just wanted to unwind, let her problems stop bothering her, and blow off some steam.
But today was not the day she’d get to.
“You have a nice right hook.”
She-Hulk stepped into view, sporting her natural green appearance, her hair tied back into a ponytail. She had on her hero suit, and in her hand was a gym bag, containing her change of clothes for when she’d need to head into court later that day. This, however, was more important. She knew that Leah didn’t have to like her - that she didn’t have to care - but she wanted to do her best by this kid. “Wanna spar?” she offered.
”You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”Leah would’ve been lying if she said this surprised her. She
had been ignoring She Hulk. A lot. And she hadn’t even considered using that access card to the fancy ass mansion, either.
”What are you doing here?” she asked.
”Shouldn’t you be in a courthouse or something?”“Can’t a gal want to get some exercise in without an inquisition?” She-Hulk asked, laughing slightly. “I don’t have any cases until this afternoon - and even then, odds are it’ll be postponed again. I thought it would be nice to get to know you more. You can tell me to fuck off and leave, that’s fine, but if not… I imagine it’s not often you can spar with someone who can take one of your punches.”
That was true. Vicky was in crazy jail and Teddy was off doing who-knows-what.
”Whatever. Fine. Let’s go.” She reached into her bag at her feet and swiftly wrapped them up. She didn’t
need to, since her fists were pretty tough, but it prevented her from dislocating a finger just like anyone else.
She mostly went along with this so She Hulk would piss off for a while.
She-Hulk grinned, wrapping her own hands as well - in purple, of course, to match her fit. “Alright, kid. Show me what you got!”
”Fine.”Leah stepped forward, falling into a stance. She Hulk had enough reach that she couldn’t lean on that too much, so Leah started circling her and pondering how this woman was going to fight. Fast, slow, maybe both, she
was more experienced in terms of years.
Then she snapped forward like a bat out of hell, swinging one fist at She Hulk’s side to test the waters while keeping the other up.
She-Hulk snapped her left arm to the side, knocking Leah’s punch aside in a block. “Is that all you’ve got?” she teased. She-Hulk knew there was more in Leah’s character sheet than just a cautious punch. “C’mon, kid. Put those stats to good use!”
Leah didn’t react. She was a tactician, she didn’t fight mindlessly. She brought her hand back around and swung it low, bringing it up high in an uppercut that meant she had to step close enough that She Hulk could elbow her.
This one, Leah got in - She-Hulk took the uppercut like a champ, stumbling backwards for only a moment. “Good, you hit… slightly harder than Spidey does, I’d say,” she assessed. “How are your reflexes?” she then asked, before bringing her hands together for a thunderous clap, the shockwave of which would hit Leah dead on.
Leah dropped all her weight onto her back foot, not answering the woman’s question. She got the feeling that She Hulk wasn’t taking this seriously. Which was weird since Leah was. Her back foot became her front foot, as she steadied herself.
She swung downwards, aiming a shot at She Hulk’s kidney, or wherever the hell seven foot tall lettuce-skinned women had under their ribcage.
She-Hulk rotated her arm, blocking low this time and knocking Leah down to the ground from the sheer force. “You’re not much of a conversationalist, are you? You should try it. Throws your opponent off their game - and encourages healthy breath work.”
Leah flung her arms upwards, and tumbled feet-over-head to control her fall. She landed on one knee, hands up and ready to fend something off. Like a damn animal that rolled over on its back as part of its defense mechanism.
”We’re fighting. Not having a conversation, She Hulk, fighting. What’s the point?” “Fighting
is a conversation,” She-Hulk argued. “Maybe you aren’t speaking with words, but you are communicating with actions. Just like how when you chat with a friend, it’s very different than when you’re arguing with an enemy. Your energy and intentions are different, and it shows up in every move that you decide to make.”
She stepped forward, holding out a hand to Leah. “Like this, right now? I’m trying to get to know you - I’m not trying to hurt you.”
”Then you’re doing something wrong.”Seeing a moment where the woman might’ve let her guard down, Leah planted a hand on the ground, and swung her other leg across the ground to strike at She Hulk’s legs in a wide arc.
She-Hulk was forced to jump back, ceding ground to avoid Leah’s attack. She laughed, seeing Leah’s comment as humorous rather than a threat. There was something to this kid, something special. But she wasn’t going to press Leah, it would all be in her own time. “Oh yeah?”
She rushed forward to close the distance between them again, feinting with her left before swinging with her right.
Leah blocked the punch by grabbing it out of the air with her right fist, and pulled She Hulk closer to drive her elbow straight into the woman’s face with as much force as she could manage. She Hulk’s definition of a spar didn’t involve actually hurting someone, and Leah did
not understand that. If people weren’t getting hurt, it wasn’t a real fight.
”Yeah. That’s not how a fight fucking works.”“This isn’t a fight, Leah - we’re sparring,” She-Hulk clarified, even as she stumbled back, her face stinging from Leah’s elbow.
”There’s no difference, where the hell’d you learn to fight if you don’t know how that works?” She asked, as if she wasn’t literally seventeen and attacking a grown ass woman who was probably pushing forty.
Hearing that broke She-Hulk’s heart. Who had hurt this child? “Leah, Leah, let’s stop for a moment, okay? I want you to listen to me. Sparring and fighting are different. When you spar, your goal isn’t to hurt the other person - it’s to learn and improve together. You pull your punches a bit, you don’t go for the kill. When you fight, you need to know why you’re fighting - what you’re fighting for - and sometimes that
is a fight to kill… But not every fight can be that.”
Leah lowered her fists, not completely but only somewhat.
”Who said anything about killing anybody?” Asked the child who once did, in fact, try to kill a guy.
”If you can’t hurt someone when you get into a fight with them, you’ve got a pretty bad chance of walking away yourself. If you’re used to pulling your punches, you’re not used to taking it seriously. I don’t understand what the problem is, here.”She-Hulk bit her lip. She knew there was a lot of trauma in Leah’s character sheet, yes, but that didn’t make this any easier. “Leah… Who taught you that?” she ventured, hoping that maybe this would be an easier angle.
Oh. Shit.
Leah leaned back, wondering for a second if She Hulk was going to swipe at her the same way she’d just tried a moment ago. And when she didn’t, Leah just scrunched up her face.
”My dad. And before you even think about asking where he is or how to find him, dont.” Leah didn’t technically lie to her that night when Arcade went villain on them, about how she was alone. It just wasn’t the whole truth.
”Just don’t.”She-Hulk paused for a moment, taking this information in. There was a lot of trauma here. And she didn’t want to press, she didn’t want to push too hard. Leah could tell her when she was ready, in her own time. And when she was ready… Jen would be there for her. She-Hulk raised her hands up in front of her, trying to make it clear that she was letting it go. “I won’t. But when - if you’re ready… But Leah… Did he hurt you?”
”Pretty damn hard to hurt somebody like me,” she noted. It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the truth, either. Of course he did.
”...He’s a supervillain. Use your imagination, why would you ask me that?”“I have a pretty vivid imagination,” She-Hulk admitted. “But… I would rather hear it from you. Leah… I’m so sorry no one was there to help you then. But I want you to know, I will always be there for you. Whatever happened, you don’t have to face it alone.”
Some part of that got under Leah’s skin. And it got under her skin
badly.”I don’t fucking want you to be sorry for me…”She was getting tired of this.
”You’re not my mom, She Hulk. You think you are, but you’re just a lawyer who signed papers that don’t mean anything to me. It- Letting me stay at your place was nice, but that was a temporary thing. I don’t understand why you keep this up.”The Avenger sighed, running a hand through her hair. She didn’t know how to get through to Leah - how to help her begin to help herself. And she wanted to, she really did. The world was cruel and harsh, especially for a young girl with the power to break a bus with her bare hands. There hadn’t been anyone there for her, no real examples to look up to - and she wanted to be there now for Leah.
“I know I’m not your mother, Leah. And I’m not trying to be,” She-Hulk sighed. “All I want to do is help you, because you deserve to be safe, to be happy.”
”But those things aren’t your responsibility,” Leah argued.
”They’re mine. They’ve been mine, and they’re going to stay mine. I’m not asking you to do this.”“A friend of mine once told me - with great power comes great responsibility,” She-Hulk quoted with a grin. “You don’t have to ask me to do this, Leah. Just like no one has to ask to be saved from a burning building, or a car crash, or an alien invasion. I’m doing it because I can - and because I want to.”
It didn’t feel right. Hearing that didn’t feel close to right.
Leah didn’t trust She Hulk. She was just another Avenger to her. An Avenger that went out of her way to do something the rest didn’t, sure, but that’s all she was to Leah. And in some roundabout way that really only made sense to her, but nobody else, that meant She Hulk would make things worse.
But, still, today and the days before were awful. Leah was at the end of her rope with this woman. She didn’t have the patience to keep pushing back right now.
”...Okay. Sure. I guess. Is that what I’m supposed to say here?” She asked.
Jenn chuckled slightly. “There’s no right or wrong response, kid,” she then leaned back into a fighting stance, before adding with a wink, “besides, I’m sure I’ll get to say it to you at least a few more times before it sinks in.”
Even hearing that, She Hulk just accepting what amounted to indifference, it didn’t make a lot of sense. It just didn’t sit right with Leah, it made her throat close up.
But she bent down into a rather unusual stance for a boxer to use, and got ready to go again.
”I’ll… I’ll try not to hurt you too badly.” It sounded like she was being cocky. She wasn’t.
She-Hulk nodded, her smile shifting into a playful smirk. “Same.”