Something in the air

Fandoms: The Avengers / Marvel Movie Verse, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, NCIS; Los Angeles, Robin Hood: Prince of thieves, Robin Hood (BBC), Bourne Legacy

From the Start

It all started in detention. By that time, none of them was aware of what had started, or even that it in fact had started, but nonetheless, it started that day in detention.

It was a strange group of people who filtered in through the door, when vise Principal Phil Coulson open the door, and started taking names.

First off you had Clint Barton, and his brother William Brandt. They weren't really brothers, but they looked like it, and they both lived with the Mr. and Mrs. Watson, who was the foster parents of a total of four boys in addition to their own son. Now, Clint was one the youngest together with Kenneth Gibson and Will. James was two years older, as was John, their real son. Clint was a known face to every teacher, partly because he had a tendency to get detention at least once a week, and partly because he was part of group of student that called them self "the Avengers" after they, in their freshman year, had scared all the bullies from even thinking about touching Kenneth, who could be somewhat slow and naïve, but one of the most loyal friend you could ever have. Given that the group consisted of both Tony Stark, too smart for his own good, Natasha Romanoff, grown up in a studio for martial arts, Steve Rogers, Captain on the football team, Thor, also on the football team, and Bruce Banner, who could create an explosion even Einstein would be proud off, it really wasn't hard to make out how they managed to keep the bullies away, and create trouble enough for all the teachers to know their faces.

Will on the other hand wasn't one to create much trouble, even though he preferred to hang out with Ethan hunt and his crowd, who couldn't be said to always play it safe. But, as Phil collected his not, he hid his smile, seeing as the detention was because of a book Will had refused to give back to the library, seeing as nobody was waiting on it, and he wasn't finish reading it yet. Miss Hill was a strict librarian and one who followed the rules, no matter what.

Next in was Kew Warden, kind of an outsider, adopted son of G. Callen, best friend with Rocket and Tia. He also had a close relationship with a Marty Deeks and Kensi Blye, both of which was off to college. Again, it was a complicated family history which involved a father no one knew anything about, a sister / best friend who had died just last year while they both were in child protective service, and a somewhat bewildering friendship with the school's history teacher, Miss Hetty Lang. His best friend, Rocket, was part owner of a flower shop a few blocks over. Tia had graduated last year and was now one a soccer scholarship on the university in town, and Deeks and Kensi both studied law and injustice a few towns over, but could often be seen with Kew in the weekends. Kew himself was studying literature, with history in the side, and even though it was just his second year, and he didn't really have to worry about money, universities was already looking at him, to give him full support. Which was why Phil was surprised to see him in detention. But he guessed even the best had a bad day, god know he had it, and just wrote down his name and reason for being there. (Claimed the dog had eaten his homework, even though they had no dog. Phil suspected he might have done them, but didn't bring them with him for some reason.)

Nate was soon to follow, with Will Scarlett right behind him. You couldn't get one without the other. Will lived with his uncle, Robin Hood, and was almost as bad as Stark and Barton when talking about pranks. Nate usually was on for the ride, but didn't seem to mind that much. He was living with Max, who originally was from a rich family in England, and Max's best friend, Allan A Dale. Max was dating Robin's daughter, Marian, or so the rumors said, while Allan was trying to befriend the new girl on the school, Much. Nate was of the quiet kind, usually kept his mouth shut it he could manage, and seemed to speak more through his eyes than his mouth, while Allan was the opposite. Both Scarlett and Nate were written up for being late, again, but neither one of them seemed to mind much, again.

Last in was Steffen, who was the youngest of them. Phil tried to keep up with which students hang out with whom, but when it came to Steffen, all he really knew was that Steve Rogers had tried for months to get him into their gang, but Steffen seemed to prefer a girl named Kim, even though it clearly was nothing romantic between them. Kim, he knew, was fighting cancer, and was constantly in and out of hospital. The records said that her mom was stewardess and her father, living in another part of the state. The records also said that Steffen was living on Hammer property, but whether that was because they was doing him a favor, not likely, or because he had a closer relationship with one of them, Phil didn't know. What he knew though, was that Steffen was quite much like Nate, in the fact that he didn't talk much, even though he kept to himself more that Nate, and didn't seem to have the same confidence that Nate possessed.

When all the boys were finally in the room, and seated, he closed the door, and held walked over the desk in from of the room. He picked up a plastic bucket, and started making his round collecting cellphones, since none of them would have any use for them anyway for the next hour or so. There was no fuss about this, at least not from Clint or Will, who both gave up theirs easily, too familiar with the action to care that much, they just kept talking about an upcoming tournament. What the tournament was about, Phil didn't catch.

He skipped over Nate, knowing he didn't have a cellphone of his own, at least not yet, while Will Scarlett and Kew both gave up their own, old, second (third?) hand phones to him when he passed by. He came to Steffen and held out the bucket, actually not knowing if he had a phone or not. When the boy just shook his head, and mumbled something that sounded like "sorry, Sir, don't have one" Phil moved quickly to the front again, and clapped two times to get theirs attention.

The room went silence, and they all turned to look at him. They might be in detention, but Phil had a reputation to be strict and not give in to bullshit, which, one way or another seemed to get him at least some respect from the main population of the students.

Detention usually was a time when student were given time to work on school stuff (with the exception of Start and Banner) or given duties to help out some of the genitors. Today though, was no such day. It was a lovely autumn day, the last warmth of the summer still hanging on, and the sun was shining. It was almost a cliché to say so, but the weather was too good to be spent in a classroom. Instead, Phil and Fury had talked with some of the workers that was painting one of the new buildings, and repainting some of the old, giving the student in detention the opportunity to be outside, while still doing something reasonable.

And that was how it all started. Nothing big in itself, nothing that would save thousands of life, at least not yet, and nothing too much out of the ordinary.

** Shift in story **

Kew didn't mind spending some time outside. He appreciated the time in the sun, in a way he hadn't known was possible just about a year ago. The brush in his hand, full of green (ugh) painting was brushed up and down the wall, and no one was bothering him. Not even Deeks, and he still wonder how he managed to get away from detention, and Kew not. He didn't allow himself to think it was unfair. There were a lot of things in one's life that was unfair, lots of people who had much more on their shoulders that he did at the moment, and didn't complain.

Just about a year ago, he had been one of them. Silent, talking to absolutely no one, keeping to himself, never spending time outside the four walls of his foster home. He had used to think of it as a prison, with the exception that prisoners at least got three meals a day. It wasn't fair, he knew that. Knew that there were worse home to end up in. He had been on the brink of giving up, when it all had changed.

And now he had Deeks and Kensi to one extent. He had Rocket and Tia, even though he had had the last to last year as well, things were better. He had a home, a real home, with everything that was meant to mean to a kid, and life was looking up. It could have been worse. It was his life mantra. It could have been worse, and this time, he actually knew that it could have been.

It was hard to keep telling yourself that when the only worse it could be was if you were dead. And then, when that started sounding like a solution, rather than something scary, it really spoke of how much worse he had had it.

So, yeah, Kew was content with where he was. It was high school so it was supposed to suck sometimes, but all in all; it could have been worse.

He brushed the brush against the walls a couple of more times before putting it in the bucket again to get some more paint. That's when it happened.

It shouldn't be something he worried about anymore, it really shouldn't. But he had lived, grown up really in his last foster home, and bad habits die hard. A few drops of the paint landed on his jeans instead of on the wall, and it was like the world stopped.

He had ruined the jeans, there were stains on them, and he had ruined them. Patch work was okay, as was normal dirt that could be brushed off before he got home, but not paint. Paint wouldn't go away, and Mike was gonna be furious when he found out. The stain couldn't simply be washed away, this was not that kind of painting, and then Mike would find out.

He caught in the corner of his eye that the person standing next to him had stopped moving and was staring at. He couldn't concentrate on that now, 'cause Mike was going to kill him for sure this time, like had threatened to do so many times before, but this time, it was gonna happen for sure. Maybe by the bed, maybe the basement? He couldn't run off, had nowhere to go, and Mike was gonna kill him, just like he had done to Ha-

"Y-y-you o-okay?" The person next to him, Steven, Steffen, something like that, laid a gentle hand on Kew's shoulder, and suddenly Kew was back at the present time. A time where Mike Finn couldn't hurt him, couldn't do anything to him anymore, and he could go home to G and they could talk about it. With words.

"Yeah," he whispered as last, not even trying to shake off the hand on his shoulder ( his therapist said he lacked human contact when he was little. He could zip it) before he took a lung full of fresh autumn air, and turned his head just slightly to give the boy beside him a reassuring smile. A smile that was well practiced.

The boy, Steffen he remembered now, smiled back at him, before going back to his own piece of wall, humming lightly in a tune Kew didn't quite catch. (His therapist also said he needed to make new friends, and he wasn't sure he could argue.)