"You mean like when you decide you want to spoon me, but you can't lift your leg up over my hip and just end up smacking your foot into my ass? That the kind of ass-kicking you're talking about?"

Really though, Rumlow doesn't think for a second she isn't capable of fighting. The way things are here, he's coming to realize -- nothing is what it seems. This life at the gym, this marriage. It's a cover. A damn good one too, must have put him through some paces to get him to believe this story. He remembers more than he did at the start, little by little. Snippets of memory of training, fighting in SHIELD operations. It feels far more real than coaching at a gym, their faces are so much crisper than the vague notions he sometimes gets from this place.

He thinks Kenzi's coming to terms with the same. She talks and Rumlow's brows furrow deeper. Not from anger, but this sort of empathy like he knows better than he ought to how she feels. It stirs within him and he pulls her closer, tipping his head down to kiss the top of hers. He notes her glance too, knows it's not just some strange bird she's listening and looking for.

"It's simpler. But there is something real here."