A/N: I really don't know what to say, because I'm buzzing with excitement. Hello! Hi! Aloha! Bonjour! I don't really know many more languages after that, so hey! Welcome to this little story that I've been so so so excited to finally present you with; it's honestly one of my favorites and fun fact: this is the first sequel I've ever written for any one of my stories, ever, so this is an event to be commemorated. For those of you who are just now seeing this, I'm Emily, I'm blonde and I really like Taylor Swift and the pink hair that I used to have (RIP, baby, RIP). This story is a sequel to one that I just finished called 'Lights Out', which, if you haven't read it, I strongly suggest that you do so you're not confused the entire time. You should also go watch the trailer I made for this on my YouTube, just because I worked so hard on it. I'm really excited to give this to you; the first chapter's name is incredibly punny, if you know what song it comes from. Go Google it afterwards, maybe you'll get a good laugh at my horrible attempts to make you laugh.
Chapter One: Dust Off Your Highest Hopes
Sun poured into the thirteenth floor of the Avengers Tower, the sound of a painfully annoying beeping reverberating through the master suite. A low groan came from the tiny space in between the mountains of feather pillows and fluffy comforter, hardly a space between the two and making it look as though the king sized bed was uninhabited. That wasn't true, otherwise the alarm wouldn't have been set in the first place, and the person underneath the covers wouldn't be growing more and more agitated with each beep. By some miracle, it ceased, only to be replaced with the clear tone of Tony Stark's AI. "Miss Romanoff-Barton, I believe that this was the time you requested to be awoken," said JARVIS mechanically, his voice echoing out through the room.
"What time did I make that decision, JARVIS?" came the muffled grumble, hardly perceptible due to the fact that the sound was cut off by a feather pillow blocking the way.
"Around eight o'clock yesterday evening; you said that you wanted to be up early enough to squeeze in time in the gym this morning before lunch."
"JARVIS, never take anything that I say before ten-thirty seriously. I'm not thinking clearly."
"Duly noted, Miss Romanoff-Barton," the AI said.
The white comforter went hurtling forward, pillows being pushed out of the way as feet met the floor. Sunlight steadily poured in; as she made her way over to the window, she could see the city down below. One thing that she'd learned was that the city never really slept; it was always moving and alive in some way or another. Life never stopped or stilled in the heart of New York City, it was simply a matter of learning to find the mute button in whatever special way worked best. Rubbing her eyes with one hand and brushing the dark mop of wavy hair out of her face, she took a longing glance at all of the other buildings that met the Avengers Tower in height or stood below it. People and cars looked like toys even from the thirteenth floor, and even though it was only ten o'clock, people were moving like it was rush hour already.
"Miss Romanoff-Barton, Mr. Stark is requesting your presence in his lab," JARVIS' voice rang out once more.
"Already?"
"I'm afraid so. He claims that it's urgent."
The elevators in Avengers Tower were supposed to go at lightning speed—Tony's choice of description, not her own—but it still felt like an eternity on the way down to Tony's lab. The thing about Tony was that he never slept. He was an insomniac; the theory was that the more of a creative mastermind you are, the less time there is for you and therefore you have to sacrifice any and all precious free time you have. Occasionally, he'd come bursting in the room at three, four am, still wide awake and insisting that if he didn't have her accuracy statistics, the world would cease to exist. It wasn't that weird anymore, all of Tony's weird antics. It was just another thing to grow accustomed to; just like living thirteen stories up with a lovely view of the city below, being surrounded by such groundbreaking technological advances on a daily basis and knowing that you'd saved the world from an extraterrestrial apocalyptic catastrophe.
As the doors slid open smoothly, a faint ding sounded overhead. She padded along the floor, pulling the cardigan that she had bought with Pepper that had turned out to be two sizes too big, but proved to be a fantastic asset when strolling around the tower that constantly stayed cold tighter across her chest. Tony was standing in front of something—she assumed his latest and greatest—with his back to her, the sound of him making a dent in what was probably another energy drink. "Your tolerance is probably already shot for the day, and it's not even noon yet," she declared matter-of-factly, and the can hit the floor almost instantly.
Tony whipped around, his eyes wide. He seemed a hell of a lot more relieved once he took in the sight of her staring at him quizzically, one eyebrow raised. One of his hands resting over his chest, he slouched his body and let out a long sigh of relief. "Jesus, Katniss, I thought you were Pepper," he said, his voice full of air as he tried to catch his breath.
"Even after you called for me?"
Tony stooped down to pick up the energy drink can, tossing it over in the direction of the trash. Whether or not it made it was a mystery to her. "You always say it yourself, baby bird," he grunted. "I'm getting to be an old man."
"You're forty-four."
"I'm over the hill and I'm not slowing down."
Katniss crossed her arms, eyes flitting around the lab. It was a mess and that was an understatement. Along with his insomnia, Tony had also become something like a slob. It was completely understandable; when one lived in the lab and didn't care about anything but creating and inventing, there was little time for small luxuries such as mopping. There were empty energy drink cans and water bottles strewn all over the tables, various parts and tools lying around in the most random places. "What does Bruce say about this mess?" she found herself asking. No wonder Bruce was always in the lab closer to the penthouse; Tony's was a pigsty.
"Bruce hardly ever comes down here and bothers me, baby bird. I'm along the lines of engineer, he's more or less scientist," Tony explained, waving his hands around madly in an attempt to get his point across. "You've been with us for two years; I thought you would have figured that much out by now."
Knowing that arguing with Tony was a moot point, and telling him that the real reason Bruce probably wasn't working in his lab was because Tony went crazy wouldn't do any extra good. Instead, she just gave him a look. "You're the one who called me in here, remember?" she reminded him, the tone in her voice growing sharper and colder by the second. A lot of things had changed, but Tony Stark's capabilities of annoying her in two-point-five seconds had not.
Tony snapped his fingers, nodding. "Oh, yeah, that. Clint called me, said he and Natasha were in town. They could get here at any given moment; your mother's all for being punctual, you know." Katniss blinked a few times, trying to let that sink in. Tony caught the blank-look on her face, his own expression falling. "I didn't mean to scare you, I just thought I'd let you know before they stroll in and you're still in your pajamas."
Katniss cleared her throat. "You might want to take your own advice on that one," she pointed out, gesturing at Tony's ratty Black Sabbath t-shirt and sweatpants that he'd worn for five days straight. His cheeks flushed a little, but he did his best to play it off by dismissing her with the wave of his hand.
"Go, go. I'll be ready; you just make sure you are. God forbid Natasha deems me an unsuitable caretaker," he grumbled bitterly under his breath. Katniss chuckled to herself, turning around and making her way back to the elevator.
"Doesn't she already?" she called over her shoulder, smirking as she made her way through the doors of the elevator. She pressed the thirteenth floor button, the metal doors sliding together and giving her only a quick glance at the dead-set expression on Tony's face, lips drawn into a line and eyes giving her a knowing look. That was typical Tony.
The ride back up to her room went a lot faster than her initial descent. Katniss combed back through her memory, trying to recall the last time that she'd seen her mother and father face to face. Most of the time, it was letters, phone calls or the ever-so-handy Skype call that Tony had tried to explain to her, growing frustrated with every question she raised about the program—she'd had a lot, too. Fury and SHIELD had been doing their best to keep the two of them busy, and Katniss could understand that. Natasha's disappearance and then her revival had thrown them for a bit of a loop, but it had given them the upper hand with all of their rivals since the general consensus was that the Black Widow was dead. It had certainly kept Strike Team Delta busy, that was for sure. Clint and Natasha were always jetting off to some new country for some new mission; the cycle was get back from one mission just to return to another.
Katniss would have been lying if she said she didn't miss her parents. They didn't live in Avengers Tower like she and Bruce did; there was the occasional visit, like today would be, or they'd stop in for a few weeks and room while they were on a break—probably one that Natasha had threatened Fury into giving them, but other than that, they were always on the go. The past two years hadn't been boring without them, though. Living with Tony was anything but.
The perks of being his goddaughter meant that in a way, he treated her like she was his own child or some sort of national treasure since she was Natasha's, and he seemed to value his life enough to care for her in such a way. There was always something new going on; whether it was testing out the new bows that he'd made with their various features that stunned and scared her all at the same time, going out in the city and exploring all of the things that it had to offer, going out with Tony to any of his various appearances—Clint was never happy about hearing that facet of news but she didn't care, she had a blast—or just sticking to lying in the king sized bed in her room and flipping channels. Life never got boring. She liked to think that she went from one extreme to the other and Tony was making that adjustment as comfortable and extravagant as he possibly could. Then there was Pepper, who, true to Natasha's word, had stuck onto her like glue. She was everything that Katniss wasn't: beautiful, successful, intelligent and nicer than Bruce at his mellow point. But she had proved to be a good friend, and Katniss had warmed up to her almost instantly. Being around Pepper had brought out a side in her that she hadn't realized lay dormant inside of her.
Once the elevator doors peeled back once more, Katniss was strolling through her suite with her beeline's destination the walk-in closet. Humming the whole way, she internally tried to decide what she'd have time for and what she wouldn't. Going to the gym was a necessity; she hadn't lifted a finger, much less rolled out of bed in over two days and her muscles were aching for her to use them again. "JARVIS," she called out to the AI system. "What time did Clint and Natasha say they were going to get here?"
JARVIS replied, "According to the call your father made Mr. Stark earlier, they claimed they would arrive sometime around lunch."
Katniss pondered that thought before diving back through the drawers inside the closet. "They know where the gym is if they want to find me," she muttered to herself, pulling out a pair of compression shorts. She threw her cardigan somewhere in the closet, the sound of clothes on hangers swinging back and forth as the cardigan collided with them before dropping to the floor. Shimmying into her compression shorts and her typical workout tank top, she tossed her hair into a ponytail and started looking for her favorite pair of sneakers, a great invention that Tony and Pepper had introduced her to. It was a lot less of a hassle than the boots had been.
Of course, they were misplaced. Quickly running into her bathroom and searching for them, she returned with her mouth full of toothpaste. Her toothbrush was hanging out of her mouth as she attempted to multitask, searching for the shoes up underneath everything and brush her teeth at the same time. She spotted the toes of her sneakers peeking out from underneath the bed skirt, smiling victoriously. "JARVIS, can you make sure that the gym downstairs is empty?" she asked, her words garbled as she sat down on the edge of her bed and slid her shoes on as best as she could without using her hands.
"The gym is clear, Miss Romanoff-Barton," he confirmed. "Shall I unlock it for you?"
"That would be perfect."
Katniss threw the toothbrush down in the bathroom, spitting out the excess toothpaste and letting the water splash over it only for a split second before striding over to the elevator and mashing down on the button a lot more forcefully than she'd intended. It took a moment, but once the elevator doors opened, she was treated to the sight of Bruce, who already looked five times more composed than she did.
Her cheeks turned red as she stepped in, the awkwardness already swallowing up the confined space. Instead of acting on that discomfort that she knew he had to be feeling, he slid over and allowed her some room, choosing to stare straight ahead while she pressed her floor's button. "You're going to work out, I take it?" Bruce asked, cutting the silence clean in half. Katniss' head rose, eyebrows knitting together in confusion. He gestured towards her outfit with his eyes, a knowing look. "You're not going to do paperwork or be Tony's lab rat in that kind of outfit, Kat."
"Right," she said, rocking back on her heels as the lurch of the elevator took her slightly off guard. After a moment of silence, she decided to ask a question of her own. "And you? Where are you off to?" His head turned in her direction, and she shrugged. "You're not going to do tuck and rolls and fire arrows at things in a button down and Bermuda shorts, Bruce."
"Touché," he admitted in resignation. "I'm stopping by Natasha and Clint's floor, just to make sure it's straightened up, seeing as how the last time it was used Tony had silly string and built blanket forts and I doubt they want to come home to that. I'm almost positive Pepper's got it handled, but I figured I'd give her a little help."
"That's sweet," Katniss said, before immediately jumping to correct herself. "I mean, that's, you know, nice that you'd offer to do that. I'm sure she appreciates that." She could feel the heat once again rising in her cheeks, staring down at her feet.
Being with Bruce had never been a problem. She and Bruce were still something like best friends and it was incredibly easy for the two of them to get along, joking and laughing about the little things. He'd been something like a sanity reassurance; whenever Tony went crazy on a kick or Pepper was agitating her about going shopping, she'd go to Bruce and have a drink with him, laughing at bad reality TV or going out for pizza. It was only when it was just the two of them alone, specifically in close spaces that it got awkward for her. Now was one of those moments, especially because there was a lack of words for the two of them to exchange.
To Katniss' relief, the elevator came to a smooth stop and a small ping signaled the doors' opening. She was quick to rush out, not bothering to turn around and acknowledge his call of "Shoot straight!" Rude as it might have been, she knew that she had to get going. She wasn't going to get in any alone time in the gym once Clint and Natasha showed up and there was only one gym with archery simulations—the one everyone loved to use. JARVIS, being the ever-so-helpful-AI that he was, had already unlocked the gym for her and she slipped through the heavy doors with ease.
Being back in the gym felt like slipping on an old pair of shoes, and picking up her bow was like lying on Tony's memory-foam mattress. She smiled to herself as she slung a quiver of arrows resting up against the equipment wall over her shoulder, making her way into the sim room as Tony so proudly called it, even though he'd stolen the idea from the one that they had on the Helicarrier. Walking in, the glass doors slid shut behind her and the small panel popped up, displaying the options for simulations. Archery was already under favorites, since she'd been the only inhabitant in the gym for months, and she set it to her usual settings. "Hey JARVIS, you mind playing my workout playlist?" she called out as she walked to the center of the room.
"As you wish, Miss Romanoff-Barton." The simulation lights rose, scanning over the room as JARVIS began to play her workout playlist. Tony and Bruce had heavily affected her music tastes, most of it coming straight off of Tony's favorites. Something about classic rock or heavy metal really got her adrenaline pumping.
Shooting at the simulation targets was a lot more fun than firing at the stationary ones in Katniss' opinion. It was more realistic; it got her blood pumping and really pushed her to do more. It was harder aiming at a moving target, and if there was one thing that she knew very well, moving targets were the only kind of targets there were. Tony had programmed for some of them to fire simulation bullets or other weapons at her—some of them had hammers, others had bows and arrows of their own, there were shields and beams of false energy, only capable of knocking her backwards at most. Drawing arrow after arrow, Katniss fired to the tempo of the ACDC song that was blasting out through the room, doing her best to shoot straight through the chest or through the eyes. Most of the time, shooting with the simulations running involved a lot of floor work—getting down on her knees and the occasional tuck and roll that she had mastered and often did just because she found it fun—and since the room was a lot larger than the one she'd messed around with a few years back on the Helicarrier, there was also a good bit of running.
Ducking past one of the simulation bows that came whizzing at her head, she followed the running simulation that was on a platform over her head. The ones that had height on her were the trickiest, since they were capable of ducking behind the pillars and vanishing. Biting down on her lip, she followed his pace with the arrow. Right when she thought she had him, she let the arrow fly and watched it embed itself in one of the pillars. "Dammit," she mumbled to herself, pulling another arrow from the quiver and stringing it up as she looked around for her next target.
She felt a slight tap on her shoulder, and was stunned that Tony had had the audacity to program these things to come up and be able to actually touch her. Whipping around, ready to shoot, she almost released the arrow before she realized that it wasn't a simulation hologram behind her. Instead, it was just Steve Rogers, a terrified look in his eyes as he looked at the arrowhead that was pointed directly at his chest.
"Oh my god," she stammered out, immediately lowering the bow and letting it and the arrow fall from her hand in shock. "JARVIS, kill the music!" The music stopped as she stepped away from Steve, brushing the flyaway hairs out of her face. "I am so—"
"Sorry?" he finished, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Probably shouldn't have snuck up on you."
"Yeah, no kidding," she mumbled, kneeling down to collect the fallen arrow and her bow. "You got lucky that I didn't fire, I was in the zone."
"I saw." The tone in Steve's voice was dry, condescending, and truthfully, irritating. She raised up from the floor slowly, her eyes narrowed into slits as she made eye contact with him.
"Who invited you here?"
"No one, I live here."
"I live here," she corrected him. "You just drop in whenever you feel like and spend the night. You're…you're like the drunk uncle or something." She pushed past him, her shoulder bumping into his purposefully.
She didn't want to see Steve. Had she known that he was going to walk in out of the blue; she would have made JARVIS put her entire floor on lockdown and holed up until he left. She would have taken the awkward elevator ride with Bruce all the way down to hell before she spent time with Steve, expected or not. He, of course, was hot on her heels like a lost puppy as she hung up the arrow quiver and bow on the equipment wall, doing her best to avoid him. "You know, you used to be better at avoiding people," he pointed out as she stormed out of the gym, right behind her.
Not stopping, she tossed her head over her shoulder and shot him a glare. "How would you know?" she hissed. "I've been avoiding you."
Right about the time that she had turned back around, she found herself colliding with another figure. She knew every inch of the lobby outside the gym; hell, she knew every inch of the Avengers Tower period, and there wasn't any sort of column or object as tall as she was right in that spot. Looking up as she brushed her hands over the top of her head, she was treated to the sight of a slightly confused Clint Barton. She expelled all of the built up stress from seeing Steve out of her in a sigh, smiling. "Clint," she said, leaning over to hug him.
Clint returned it briefly, giving her a thin lipped smile. "Hey kiddo," he responded.
"Don't really think you can call her that much anymore, Barton," teased another voice, one that Katniss had hardly heard in forever. It took only seconds for her to project herself into her mother's embrace, even if Natasha wasn't that big on hugging. She peeled off of her faster than she had Clint, taking into account the fact that she was pouring sweat.
"Good to see you, Rogers," Katniss overheard Clint say, and couldn't fight the eye roll and scoff that rose up in her throat. Natasha just gave her a look, one of her eyebrows lifted out of curiosity. Katniss shook her head as subtly as she could without Steve or Clint picking up on it.
Natasha, being the good human she had the capabilities of being, cleared her throat and spoke up. "Bruce sent us to get you on our way up," she explained. "Where's Tony?"
Katniss shrugged, resting one of her hands on her hips. "Upstairs, probably holing up in his lab like he always does. Why?"
"We need to talk to you two," Clint cut in, looking over at Steve. "Actually, we need to talk to all of you. In private."
"About what?" Katniss asked, her eyebrows furrowing together once more.
"Clint, not—"
"It's about Fury."
A/N: Really, I waste no time. I honestly don't know where to take this author's note, so I guess I'll just start here: what did you guys think? I tried to make this not-so-exposition-y, but it's been two years since we've hung out with these guys and it had to be done. Tony's…crazy, as per usual, that's probably the one thing that didn't change (again, another reference to the song that inspired the title as a joke—hint, it's by Taylor Swift). But yeah, be sure to let me know what you thought of this incredibly long first chapter back into the wonderful world! Katniss got her name changed, what? Bruce and Katniss awkwardness? Steve and Katniss at each other's throats essentially, what happened there? (If you're new here, you'll know that I refer to these as Bruceniss and Steveniss.) And what's Fury got to do with anything? Let me know your thoughts on all of this and if you liked it in that pretty little review. Otherwise, Katniss is not-so-accidentally going to let that arrow fly.