A/N: Why hello my beautifuls! I'm sort of on time this week (everybody say yeahhhh) and your reviews continue to stun me. They just make me smile a whole whole lot, okay? Don't stop. This chapter is literally my favorite so far and I hope it does things to you too. I'm doing my best to keep you on your toes, and what happens in this chapter really starts to set the stage for the story, so please keep your eyes open! Also, this was asked a little while ago by my lovely vulnera-sapientia but this story is going to follow bits and pieces of the Iron Man 3 and Winter Soldier events as well as take on a life of its own. Also, I just love this chapter's title (still has nothing on Hell Hath No Fury Like Nick Fury but when will anything ever) because it's got such a powerful meaning later on. You'll see why, just keep on reading. ;)
Chapter Three: Walking Into the Lion's Mouth
Twirling one of the diamond earrings she had on absentmindedly, Katniss blinked a few times, her reflection following suit. Pepper was behind her, straightening out the edges at the bottom of her dress. Every time one of Tony's business banquets or galas rolled around, it was typically seen as an excuse to go all out and glam it up a little. Pepper, who was the dictionary definition of feminine, found a thorough amusement in using Katniss as her own personal Barbie. Katniss didn't entirely mind; Pepper never failed in making her struggle to guess who she was whenever she was directed towards a mirror and let loose.
Tonight was no exception. Pepper had pulled out all the stops and gotten her a dress that was much more exquisite than this party was bound to be. It was long and black, a layered skirt with tiers of lace and the same lace trailing over her chest. Judging by the way Pepper had carefully slipped her into it gave the indication it was designer, nothing short of Tony's desires. Katniss had given her hand at a more intricate braid her mother back in Twelve had taught her years ago, finding a sense of solace in putting her hair in some form of a braid. It had been awhile since she had worn it like that. They usually had a negative connotation nowadays and she had a newfound appreciation for her natural hair. With the braids resting over and across the crown of her head, she had the rest falling down the back in curls, Pepper's touch. Makeup was also Pepper's forte; Katniss would have thought her crazy if she allowed her at the many products all alone. Once Pepper's handiwork was done, Katniss looked like a work of art. She could hardly recognize herself, and that was how she liked it.
"Did you ever find out if Fury was coming?" Katniss asked, gnawing down on her lower lip that had already been painted with one of the thousands of tubes of lipstick Pepper owned, a darker, blood-red color. Pepper hummed in response.
"Honestly, I'm not sure. You'd have to ask Tony if you wanted a definite answer." Pepper fluffed the skirt of the dress out one more time for good measure, rising up from her knelt position slowly. Her hands rested on Katniss' bare shoulders, beaming. "You look absolutely stunning," she sighed happily behind her in the mirror.
"Clint's gonna be pissed, then," Katniss concluded.
"So pissed."
Pepper gave one of Katniss' shoulders an encouraging squeeze, turning away from her and the sound of her heels clicking in the direction of the elevator. Katniss followed behind her aimlessly, like a lost little puppy dog. Pepper's composure and confidence seemed to ooze right out of her, whereas Katniss felt as though she was completely out of place in her dress. "Let me guess, Tony's probably acting up and if we don't hurry up the Tower just might burn down?" Katniss asked as they stepped into the elevator.
Taking a glance down at her watch, Pepper gave her a knowing sort of glance when her eyes came back up. "Really, you're just now catching on with that one?" she replied.
As the elevator lurched to life and begin to shoot upwards, Katniss watched her reflection in the glass. She looked like a doll, almost unrecognizable. There was a certain danger about her, and she knew that would undoubtedly come to life if Steve did his best to approach her. Katniss could feel her lip curl up in disgust as she thought about Steve being there tonight; Clint, Natasha and Steve all had cleared any schedules for the evening and agreed to tag along. Katniss had wanted nothing more than to stomp her foot down and whine, just like a child might. Tony's business parties were for her, Pepper and Tony. It was something she did without the rest of the team and frankly, she wanted to keep them that way. She didn't need her parents or Steve breathing down her neck at every moment of the evening.
With a faint ding, the elevator came to a smooth stop and the doors rolled back. The long hallway that extended down to the ballroom, where most important affairs took place whenever Tony wanted them to happen there in the vicinity of Avengers tower was littered with people here and there, most of them holding wine glasses and chatting adamantly. They certainly weren't paying any attention to either Pepper or herself. Pepper gave her a reassuring smile as they stepped out of the elevator.
No sooner had that happened did Pepper catch the sight of someone approaching them, her face lighting up like a string of Christmas lights. "Natasha! Clint!" she cried happily, the smile on her face a thousand watts.
Katniss turned her head ever so slightly to see her parents walking in her direction, the both of them dressed to impress. It had been ages, if ever, that Katniss had seen them dressed up to the nines. Clint was wearing a dress shirt, deep purple tie and dress pants, a stern look settled on his face—probably due to the sight of seeing her. The dark berry colored dress that Natasha had worn settled over her figure perfectly, like a second skin. Her red hair was twisted into loose curls, bouncing as she walked in time with Clint, heels clicking. The two of them could have been a pair of models. She moved her eyes back down at her fingernails as an awkward silence fell over her, trying to iron out all of her thoughts and figure out what her game plan would be. Avoid Steve, bat her eyelashes at any bartender she saw, and blend in with the wallpaper; that was how most Tony-related things went. Katniss was able to enjoy herself once the alcohol settled in her system. This was mainly because she had a tough time remembering what she did the next day, but she knew it was something that had made the night a little more exciting than before.
"Haven't seen your hair in a braid in a while," said a calm voice over her shoulder, Katniss jumping nearly ten feet in the air. She whipped around, eyes wide as she took in the sight of who had been so foolish as to startle her like that. Sure enough, it was the person she last wanted to see. Steve had his hands deep in the pockets of his dress pants, hardly any sort of emotion on his face.
Her glare was made of steel as she opened her mouth moments later. "Because I don't wear it in a braid anymore," she said, her voice sharp enough to cut glass. He started to reply to that, but something in her sent her moving forward, stalking down the hallways with an expression of murder colored on her face. She supposed that if someone wanted to find her, then they'd have to go on a manhunt.
As she pushed through the doors, she found herself stop short in her tracks. Like all things Tony did, it was opulence at its finest. Endless wine glasses keeping their guests' hands occupied, music playing off somewhere in the back of the ballroom, and an abundance of people surrounding her. Even in the near darkness, she could see heads turn over their shoulders, eyes locking in on her like she was some fascinating sight.
She was quick to dart off into the crowd, trying not to think about the hands and other body parts that were accidentally—or purposefully, she was never sure as to which it was—brushing over her shoulders as she tried to find somewhere solitary. "You running away or something?" yelled a voice over the music and the chatter that sucked away the silence. Katniss turned around, only to see Clint staring at her.
"I guess," she shrugged. "I just…need to get away from everyone that I know and relish in the fact that I'm surrounded by strangers." Clint nodded understandingly.
"Well, if one of those strangers happens to look like Fury, you find me or Natasha, okay? This needs to be a group discussion with him, and that means the whole group is present."
"Yeah, sure thing." Katniss started to walk off again, before Clint grabbed her wrist and tugged it gently to get her to turn back around. "What?" she asked.
Clint smiled softly. "I hate you being at these parties, you know that. But you look beautiful." Katniss returned the smile as he dropped her wrist, disappearing somewhere into the mass of people.
. . .
Katniss' head was buzzing slightly, sitting down the just-emptied glass in front of her. Of course, the night had been exactly what her expectations had been; boring, lifeless and counting down the seconds until she could sneak back down to the thirteenth floor and put it on lockdown. Being the youngest person at the party, she was shoved to the side more often than not and the loneliness got to her rather quickly in social situations like these. She hoped and prayed that things would begin to turn around—maybe Tony would get some more alcohol in his system too, or some nameless guy would approach her and intrigue her with senseless conversation. She was craving it at this point.
Sighing and resting her chin down on top of her balled up fist, she craned her head around to the side. Katniss focused on a specific point in the room, rather empty, to watch absentmindedly. That was until she saw a few men dressed in entirely black, squinting her eyes to get a better look. Her initial assumption was that it was a few of Tony's guys, but after a moment, she couldn't match any of the names she knew to those faces. She was familiar with all of Tony's crew, and none of them looked like that. She then saw a flash of a grey suit, straightening up at the sight.
Letting her curiosity gain the better of her, she rose up from her seat and began moving through the throngs of people, trying to keep up with the grey suit or any of the men in black surrounding him. Most people were standing around, drunk or halfway there and would hardly budge, causing her to have to shove and push her way through. It was frustrating; all of the people Tony knew or rather, seemed to know him had no courtesy installed inside whatsoever.
"Katniss!" Hearing her name being yelled out over the collective murmur of voices wasn't a rare thing to happen, and she was quick to dismiss it. After that the hint was received on any typical standard. Unlike usual though, this one kept trying. "Katniss, wait up!"
Huffing irritably, she swiveled around on her heel to shoot her glare at none other than Steve Rogers. "Christ, what do you want?" she hissed.
"Where are you going?" he asked.
"It's none of your business."
"Not likely."
Rolling her eyes, she took a quick glance over her shoulder to make sure that she still had some sort of view of the people she was trying to chase down. They were already on the other end of the room, moving quickly. In the back of her mind, Katniss knew she had to lose Steve and fast. "Look," she finally said, leaning in towards him so he could hear her without having to scream. "I'm trying to follow those guys. They weren't invited, I know everyone on the guest lists," she explained.
Leaning back, she could see the changed expression on Steve's face. Raising one of her eyebrows as a follow up, she pointed over her shoulder in the opposite way. "Go," he said, head nodding in their direction. "I'll tell the others you got sick off of the coconut shrimp. If it's trouble, send for us."
As much as he did annoy her, Katniss couldn't deny the fact that Steve was fabulous at coming up with cover stories and never wavering in his capabilities of having her back. She was back on the prowl, weaving through people and trying to avoid wearing red wine for the rest of the evening as she did her best not to knock them out of her way. Her footsteps were increasing in their pace, eyes locked in on the furthest man in the small posse that seemed to be standing guard around the grey suit.
He stopped in his tracks, a small rush of success running through her. The closer she got to him, the harder her heart throbbed inside of her chest. She was only a few feet away from the tight knit circle when they all peeled away, revealing who was standing in between. Her original assumption had been spot on: whoever this was, they certainly weren't invited.
Katniss' pace slowed, freezing only a few steps away as she tried to figure out who it was she'd just fought the crowd to catch up with. The grey suit was a vest, a white dress shirt underneath. The man was rather small, nowhere near the physical presence that seemed to call for that number of people on his security detail. She'd had the small inkling it may have been Fury traipsing about, but the blonde hair was enough to throw her entirely off that trail. He seemed as though he belonged there, standing amidst his pack of men. Maybe she didn't know everyone Tony slapped on the guest lists.
Right as she turned to escape and melt back into the crowd, the man spotted her. "Miss Everdeen?" he called out, loud enough to where she could hear the use of her old last name and cringe at it. Internally damning anything she could pin the blame onto, she slowly turned back on her heel and forced the smile onto her face. The man was standing only a few feet away from her, close enough to where she could touch.
"It's…um, Romanoff-Barton now," she said softly, the heat rushing into her cheeks.
"My apologies," he smiled. "I haven't kept up with you like I ought to, I'm afraid."
"It's okay," Katniss was quick to insist. "My name change was never publicly announced."
The man clicked his tongue with the sound of disapproval, the smile still on his face. "What a shame." Katniss forced out a nervous chuckle, wishing that something would happen and she would melt into the floor. Or perhaps, Steve would return and begin bothering her once again. She actually welcomed the thought of that idea at this point.
It was like something snapped inside of the man, shaking his head as he extended one of his hands. "Where are my manners?" he apologized, flashing quite the sickening grin. "I'm Alexander Pierce."
The blood ran cold inside of Katniss' veins as she lifted her dead-weight hand, numbly shaking his hand. Inside her head, alarm bells were ringing at the loudest volume possible. She would be accepting of any distraction, regardless of what form it came in. She just knew that she had to get away from him. All of Natasha and Clint's words were bouncing around in her head, echoing. Pierce is stringing them along like puppets. You don't trust people like him. On the outside, she did her best to keep her composure sewn together. "Nice to meet you," she said, trying to hide the strangled tone. "You work for SHIELD, right?"
"Senior official," he confirmed. "Director Fury received an invitation, but he found himself preoccupied with other matters. I willingly came in his place; he sends his best regards and apologies."
"That's okay," Katniss replied, unsure of what sort of response he was expecting to that. An awkward silence fell over them, her conscious screaming in the back of her head to take advantage of it and make her great getaway. The longer she stayed in Pierce's vicinity, the more she could feel her skin crawling. There was something about him that came off wrong, and it wasn't thinking back on her prior knowledge of him either. Looking over her shoulder, she smiled apologetically. "I'd love to stay and chat, but—"
"Actually, I was hoping that I would be able to talk to you," Pierce interrupted smoothly, Katniss' mouth left hanging open with the word flow cut off short. "In private. Do you think…?"
His trailing off was some sort of cue for her to pick back up. Shaking her head, she straightened back her shoulders. "Oh! Um, I really don't know if I should, Tony will be looking for me."
"Nonsense, Tony has hundreds of guests here tonight," Pierce said, dismissing that thought with the wave of his hand, as if that was dispelling it from the very air around them. Another smile. "I'm sure he won't miss us for a few moments, right?"
Katniss swallowed hard, realizing that she wasn't going to be able to wiggle out of this one as easily. "Yeah, sure," she admitted in defeat, disheartened. Inside her chest, her heart was threatening to jump out of her ribcage. This was a horrible, horrible idea and she knew it. But there was no getting out of it. She got the feeling that Pierce would make sure of that.
Silently and submissively, Katniss followed Pierce and a few of his men out the back door of the ballroom and down the back hallway. She kept her distance behind Pierce, feeling the heat rising and the walls closing in on her. She knew what this was a sign of. Katniss started naming off American presidents in her head to keep her calm. It was a new calming tactic that she'd learned, since counting her breaths didn't help much anymore. Natasha had helped her with it, drilling them into her head until she could spit them out in her sleep. It did little to keep her mind off the fact that she was following after a man that was shadier than an oak tree and that Clint would kill her for willingly doing so, but it did enough. Pierce walked fast, slipping his way into an unlocked, empty office on the end of the back hall. Two of the three men that had accompanied them rooted their feet into the ground on either side of the doors, watching her as she followed him inside.
Pierce had been a few steps ahead of her and was already looking at the contents on the bookshelf resting against the wall, Katniss' eyes trained on him cautiously. The doors startled her slightly as they came to a loud close behind her. It was deadly quiet in the room, Katniss daring to take a few steps closer to where he was. "You know, Miss Romanoff-Barton, I've heard lots of things about you," Pierce finally said, breaking the silence without ever looking in her direction.
"Really?"
"Captain Rogers seems to be quite fond of you, as do your parents and Director Fury. It's almost as if you're the crowd favorite among the Avengers," he mused. "The rest of the world certainly seems to think the same."
Katniss laughed nervously. "I…I doubt that."
"You do?" Pierce asked, throwing a glance at her over his shoulder. "I wouldn't, but, do tell me, why is that?"
Pierce seemed to enjoy asking questions that she didn't have any sort of answer to around at her. "Well," she started. "I mean…I did what I had to do in New York, and then I took my step back." Katniss' eyes averted downwards, towards the floor as she shrugged. "I've seen the commercials, the action figures, but I don't think…that doesn't mean people are looking to me. There's six other Avengers who fought that war with me."
"You fought very hard, Miss Romanoff-Barton," Pierce said coolly, his hands moving to brush over the top of the desk and his eyes following. "That day in New York couldn't have been easy, knowing it was up to you to save the world. I hear people talk all the time, in the Triskelion, even out and about. They say that New York was the war against aliens, the war against the great unknown. A war that only the Avengers could have fought for us. Hear me when I say that I am every bit grateful for that." He paused, his steely blue eyes rising to lock onto hers. "But that was no war."
"I don't—" Katniss stammered.
"You were simply doing what you needed to do. SHIELD gave you a nudge, and the Avengers did everything from there on their own accord to keep our world safe. New York was no war. Tell me, would you like to be in a real war?"
"No." The word flew off of her tongue so fast that she hardly had time to process a legitimate answer, one that didn't sound like she was utterly terrified. Pierce nodded.
"Good. The world is already a scary enough place." He then gestured for her to sit down in the lone chair in front of the desk. She did so, hands sweating profusely as she ran her palms along the sides of the arms on the chair. "Agreed?" he asked, after his pause.
"Agreed."
"Which is why I think you will be more than happy to assist me," Pierce said. "For some, the battle of New York is still a fresh reminder of the danger that lurks in this world, threats that lie out of the population's control. Before then, SHIELD was able to suppress these threats, do damage control and keep these incidents under wraps, but with New York…the whole world was watching. The veil was torn away. Are you familiar with the reasons SHIELD was founded, Miss Romanoff-Barton?"
"To...keep people safe?" Katniss stammered.
"To keep people safe. To save people. And the best way to do that is to keep them in the dark. What they do not know does not hurt them. People today need only a simple blanket statement of security, and they feel safe, they do not go looking. And if an Avenger is the one telling them things are safe, who are they to question it? They feel safe when they see you, Katniss. You are a symbol of protection to them, a symbol of hope."
Katniss could feel her mouth drying out, tongue failing to work. "I…I can't help them," she mumbled.
"Yes you can," Pierce corrected her. "And you will. Let's use what hope we have, and give the public more. You're more than just an Avenger, being Tony Stark's goddaughter: you are a public figure. People listen when you speak, they stop to look at you when you appear. While SHIELD rebuilds that torn veil, you give the people a reason to rest. We show them that Katniss Romanoff-Barton has moved on and is thriving, because she trusts that the threats are gone, and if any should show up, she knows they will be taken care of accordingly."
Shaking her head, the frustration began to rise up in the back of her throat. "I don't think you understand. I'm not a SHIELD agent, I don't work under them. I'm an Avenger and an Avenger only; I'm only allowed to be used at SHIELD's disposal when it requires the talents of the entire team," she quoted from memory, thinking back on how Tony had explained it to her. "I'm a consultant at any other time, and I can't be touched." The growing edge of defiance in her voice was growing stronger.
Pierce's calm façade was beginning to crack as his eyes narrowed at her. "Miss Romanoff-Barton, you may be untouchable, but the rest of your team is not. Your parents, Captain Rogers. Surely you wouldn't like to see them fall into danger that could be prevented, would you?" Katniss could taste the bile in her mouth as he continued on. "Agent Barton and Agent Romanoff are at my disposal. And judging by the footage from New York that I've seen, you aren't one to easily let those that you love walk out on the line when you get a say."
Blinking rapidly, Katniss stared at the edges of the desk and studying the detailing on it, trying to distract herself from the words that Pierce was feeding her. "Just tell me what you want me to do," she muttered.
"You are their symbol of hope, so continue to give them hope. Let them see you, let them hear you. Let them know there is no reason to be afraid. Convince them."
"And if I can't?" Katniss whispered, too horrified to think of what his answer could be.
Instead of responding, Pierce just smiled. "Don't doubt yourself, Miss Romanoff-Barton; I think you are much more capable of this than you seem to believe," he replied. He then nodded in her direction, walking around the side of the desk. She blinked again, a tear slipping down her face as he gave one of her shoulders a squeeze. Instinctively, her head lowered even more. She kept a close watch on his feet as well as his other security guard's, watching as the doors opened just to close once again. Their heavy footsteps grew farther and farther away in distance, a shaky sigh of relief escaping her.
Pierce was messing with her, trying to get inside of her head. Katniss could understand why Natasha and Clint didn't trust him as far as they could have thrown him; he was like a serpent and there was no way to know for sure what he truly had up his sleeve. She started rattling off presidents in her mind to calm herself down, shaky and choppy breaths falling out of her mouth as she gripped the arms on the chair tightly. About the time she reached JFK, the door busted wide open.
"Oh my god, Katniss, there you are!" Pepper sighed in relief, hand resting over her chest as her companions flooded in the room. "We've been looking everywhere for you; Tony refuses to get up and make a speech until he knows you're in the room."
Natasha had her hands on her hips, standing in the corner—chances are, it had been her to kick the door in, judging by the way she was standing. "Why are you in here in the first place?" she asked, brushing a few of her scarlet curls behind her ear.
Katniss was silent, her mouth open but no words coming out. Clint's eyes narrowed. "Katniss," he said dangerously. "Who was in here with you?"
It took her a moment to realize he was waiting on an answer. "Oh!" she exclaimed, jumping up out of her seat and swiping underneath her eyes to wipe away any of the wetness. "No one, just me. I…thought I saw Fury, but I guess I just had a little too much to drink. Needed to take a minute, that's all." Her eyes landed on Steve, who was standing by the door and looking rather concerned. "I told Steve where I was going. Right, Steve?"
Every eye was on him in a second, Katniss' pleading for him to go along with it. "Oh, um, yeah," Steve said, rubbing the back of his neck.
"So you haven't seen Fury?" Natasha asked. Katniss shook her head in disagreement.
Pepper looked back and forth between them. "Alright, well, if that's all, Tony's probably being pushed towards the microphone at the moment, and we had better get back in there before he heinously derails. He's definitely got alcohol in his system."
The walk back down the hallway to the ballroom wasn't as scary as it had been, now that she was no longer alone and with Pierce. It didn't seem as dark, either. Something about Pierce brought that on. Katniss wondered if Pierce was back in the ballroom or if he had disappeared like a shadow into the night. The thought of bumping into him again didn't appeal to her; in fact, it terrified her. "Your hands are shaking," Natasha commented dryly, shaking her out of her thoughts.
"What?" Katniss lifted one of her hands, noticing that sure enough, it was trembling. "Oh," she laughed falsely. "Just a little chilly, that's all."
She could tell that her mother didn't buy that whatsoever, but it wasn't like there was any time to question it. The minute they'd stepped back into the ballroom, Tony had begun speaking animatedly, Pepper darting up to the front to make sure he was on track. Katniss and the other three moved a little closer towards the front to where he was, trying to get a better look at the crowd as a whole. Apparently, the hunt for Fury was still on. Katniss could hear Natasha and Clint's exchanged whispers as they tried to locate him, internally chiding them for even trying. He's not even here. It's Pierce that came.
Looking over her shoulder for only a moment, her blood ran cold as she caught sight of Pierce in the throngs of people listening to Tony drone on and on about sales and business accomplishments. He was listening closely to Tony, his eyes drifting over and picking up on her stares. Pierce smiled at her briefly before going back to giving Tony his full attention.
Katniss turned back around, swallowing hard. It was going to take a lot more than naming presidents backwards to calm her down this time.
A/N: God, could this have been any longer? This chapter minus author's notes was almost 5,000 words. That's insanity. But there was a lot going on, so I figured we should probably talk about it. Holy. Shit. It's Alexander Pierce. I did my best to sort of combine the scenes that Steve has with Pierce in CAWS and Katniss with President Snow in Catching Fire. And frankly, it scared even me. Pierce's plan to use Katniss as a public distraction off of SHIELD's rebuild of their security, what do you think? Why is he using her? And how do you feel about her reaction to it all? Do you think she should have lied about the whole ordeal to Natasha and Clint? Also, a little bit of Steveniss tolerating each other…it's progress my friends. I'm really really interested in hearing what you have to say about how Katniss is pretty much dealing with everything: her drinking, the more frequent anxiety, her irritability, how she's adjusting to living in a spotlight with people ravaging over her like she's an object, all of the changes in her quirks and stuff…what do you think? Do you think New York had this effect on her or something else? Be sure to drop your fabulous review in the box below and let me know how you felt and what you're excited for next. If you don't review, Alexander Pierce is going to find you and lead you down a dark, scary hallway. Just saying.