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"Are we even going to talk about it?" Luke whispered to me as the group gathered in the kitchen.
"Not now." I said, between my teeth.
"But-"
"Hey!" Clint shouted over in our direction. "You think you're well enough for sparring?" he asked Lucus.
"Sure." he replied and mum, dad, Luke and I went over to the elevator to the sparring floor.
"So...how we going to do this?" Natasha started. "Me vs. Luke and Clint vs. Nadia. Whoever wins battles in the final."
"Bring it." Clint said with a gangster style that Nat just smiled and rolled her eyes at. The elevator doors opened and revealed the gym area. It looked less modified, but of course that was only because of the time difference. We got changed in the female and male changing areas and then went to the sparring section of the room.
"Nat vs. Luke first." I insisted. "I want to see how this turns out."
"Come on. You know I beat her every time." Luke said, walking over to the mats.
"Oh really? I'd like to see that for myself thanks." Nat said and they into a ready position. "Scared?"
"Not in the slightest." he replied and then the fight began.
Nat was threw the first punch. I think Luke was a bit worried about hurting her, but he didn't want to show it. He ducked immediately away from her and I could see the frustration she got from not hitting him the first time. She threw multiple punches aiming for the face, chest and stomach. None of them hit. She charged towards him and tried to rugby tackle him, but he didn't move. He just picked her up by her waist and pushed her back. She punched and punched, each time him dodging, until he surprisingly caught her fist and flipped her over, causing her to land on her back. Thank goodness there were pads to catch her fall.
"Told you." he said, smugly, and walked away, leaving a stunned Nat on the floor.
"Nice moves Rogers. Super soldier serum helped you." Nat said, getting up off the mat.
"You have part of another one too you know Nat." Clint reminded her. She scowled at him, but then smiled and got a water.
Me and Clint were up next. We got onto the mat and began circling each other, almost like vultures. We were both very into archery and birds as a matter of fact. He drives a mini helicarrier as do I. We bond with stuff like that. As well as this.
Clint smirked at me and then threw a quick punch, which I easily aoided by doing a backflip. We walked round each other again. Hawkeye. Always patient. I was often called Hawkgirl, but I never did have the same patience as him.
I have the advantage because I know the nervous twitch he does when he loses focus after a certain amount of time. Wait for it...THERE. Suddenly I sprinted towards him and tackled his waist, so quickly that he didn't have time to react before he was down on the ground groaning.
"Ow." He complained and I pulled away from him. I stood up, brushed myself down and offered my hand for him to take.
"Don't be such a wuss dad." I said smiling and he smiled back, taking the hand I offered, pulling him up to a standing position. I heard Nat and Luke snickering about my comment as well as we made our way over to them.
"How did you do that?" Natasha asked.
"He does a nervous twitch." I explained.
"Which is...?" She asked.
"I'll leave you to find out." I replied, which she scowled at.
"I let her win." Clint argued to Natasha.
"Of course you did Barton." She said, smiling. I turned to face Luke.
"Ready to have your ass kicked?" I asked.
He furrowed his eyebrows, looked, as a joke, sternly at me and said "Language." as if to imitate his father. I giggled and the others looked puzzled.
"Just...wait a while and you'll see what we're laughing at." Luke explained and then we went over to the mats.
We got into our positions and put up our fists. "Ready?" He asked smirking.
"Do you even need to ask that?" I said and punched him in the face. I heard my parents take a sharp breath in and I could've sworn I heard Clint laughing slightly.
Luke's hand went up to his cheek and I tried to tackle him the same as I had done for Clint, but it didn't work. Luke grabbed me by my waist and threw me off him. I rolled back into a standing position and scowled.
I sprinted up to him and jumped up, wrapping my legs around his neck, in an attempt to spin him round. My attempt was successful and we went towards the ground, but he turned us round so he was on top at the last minute. I stopped moving completely and stared into his eyes to distract him. What is this feeling in my chest? My heart was beating so fast even though I knew this was a plan.
His tight grip was warm against my cool skin and his lips were parted slightly. I could see his shoulders moving up and down faster than before, showing his increased breathing rate. I could almost see his pupils dilate, but I think I imagined it. His grip on me loosened and I took advantage of it, pushing us round and securely pinning his hands to the floor.
He groaned and I smiled at my victory. I heard clapping from across the gym and looked up to see my parents, who I forgot were there. Do you think they noticed our...moment? Can I even call that a moment? What just happepened?
"That's my girl." Clint said as they walked over to us. I got off of Luke and offered him a hand up. His hand wrapped round mine, so warm, and I heaved him up. He continually stared in my eyes and I cleared my throat trying to look away from him.
"Miss Potts requests your presence in the kitchen." JARVIS' voice came over the speaker. We still had JARVIS in the modern day. This olden stuff is still weird though.
"Tell her we will be right up." Natasha replied and my parents grabbed their waters.
"That was sneaky." Luke said, the corner of his lips pulling into a smile.
"I had to win against you some way." I argued, taking a sip of my water.
"You trying to tug at my heart strings or something?" He asked jokingly, but I could see the seriously in his facial expression.
I smiled slightly and replied "Maybe." before walking over to the lift with a bit extra swing in my hips than usual. I am the Black Widows daughter after all. Also, a maybe is neither a yes or a no. Nothing has been admitted.
We rode up to the living room floor and went into the kitchen where Pepper was serving the lasagne she had been preparing. The others were sitting at the table, their plates filling with food distributed by Pepper. "Just in time." She said happily as she finished serving the rest of the plates.
We sat down in some of the free seats and began eating. "So..." Pepper started. "What's the future like?" She asked, however I could tell she had another question to ask.
"Future is good. But it sounds like you want to discuss something more specific or something else entirely."
"How do you know?" She questioned.
"I'm good at reading people aunty. Anyway, your question?"
She sighed and defeatedly said "Are you guys the only children or do we have any?"
Tony started choking on the piece of mash potato that he had just shovelled into his mouth. He was violently coughing and Natasha came over to pat him on the back. Pepper looked a little upset by Tony's reaction but I continued once he had recovered and drunk some alcohol.
"Yes, there are other children apart from us."
"Who are these others?" Bruce asked, drinking some water.
"Are you sure you want to know?"
"What?" Bruce asked confused and looked round at the others before focussing back on me. "Me specifically?"
"Yes."
"O...okay..." he said, nervously.
"Well..you know Betty?"
He looked at the others and then back at me. "Yes. What...what about her?"
"You have a child together."
His eyes went wild and he looked confused. "What? How does that even...work?"
"You find a way to control your heart rate."
"Really?" he asked, with the slightest smile on his face.
"Yes. Rachel Elisabeth Banner. She was 13 when we left." I explained. His smile grew slightly and I continued.
"There is also another child in the tower apart from Thor and Jane."
"They have a child."
"Amalya. She's like a goddess. Well she is actually." I said smiling.
"Who's the other child?" Clint asked, shovelling another piece of lasagne into his mouth. Always so messy.
I looked up at Tony and he looked at me confused. "She's called Maria Caitlin Stark." Pepper and Tony looked at me, shocked. "She's five years old and so beautiful."
"Oh my goodness. We have a child?" Pepper asked me excitedly.
"What?" Tony deadpanned, sounding more annoyed that I think he was. "That's not right."
Pepper looked at Tony. She was disappointed and looked like she was going to cry. Tony looked at Pepper who was shocked by his reaction.
"Yeah and you guys-" I began, but Pepper began to walk away so I stopped.
"Pepper! NO! Wait, I didn't mean it like...oh shit." Tony said, hitting his head on the table.
"Tony..." Luke began.
"No, how is this right? I can't be a father. I mean look at me...I am not father material!" he explained like he was freaking out. No...he WAS freaking out.
"Go and talk to Pepper. Now." Natasha ordered and he sighed, getting up from his chair and rushing to the door.
"God, he needs a reality check." Maria said, tucking into more of her lasagne.
"Are they safe?" Banner asked, concerned.
"Who?" I asked.
"Our children. Are they all safe?"
"They were in safe houses, because they are younger than me and Luke."
"Good." he said, smiling. I'm happy that Ama and Maria are safe. At least some of us were.
"The thing is...if you change what happens now...those children might not be born." Clint said. "No matter how much you want us back, you can't go changing things around here. It might result in all of us dying."
I knew his words spoke truth, but I didn't really want to listen. I knew that I would eventually have to accept the fact that they were still going to die. After we had tea, we said goodnight to the others and made our way to our room. We went inside and the room was mainly all glass. An overlook of the city, a beautiful glass coffee table and thankfully the bathroom doors and walls were all solid stone. It was like a hotel.
"You want the bed by the window?" he asked and I replied "You really know me well don't you." I always hated having to sleep away from the window. I make me feel so in the dark and I am quite the optimist.
I got changed for bed in the bathroom and he got changed in the bedroom. I came out and he was in the middle of changing into a top. Thankfully, he was in his boxers instead of nothing. I stared at his bare back for a second before saying "Sorry". He turned round and noticed that I was lingering the bathroom doorway, my eyes strain-fully averted from his strong body.
"No, it's fine. You can come in." he said, making his way over to his bed. He got into bed and I got into mine. There was only a coffee table between us, but it still felt like miles.
"Lights off, JARVIS." I said out loud and the room went dark apart from the light, shining down from the outside. The moon was full and the city was still buzzing with life.
"Goodnight Nad." I heard Luke's voice say, pulling me away from my observation of the city. I lay down on the bed, my head sinking into the pillows, which were still surprising soft for 2013, not like the ones in the future, and replied "Night Luke. Sleep well."
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