So as some of you know, this isn't the first time I have posted a chapter seven. In fact, if you had seen my original post, you would recognize that this chapter looks nothing like the previous one. Well this was actually going to be chapter six before I decided that the chapter six I posted would be chapter six and this may or may not be used. But after the disappointment I felt with writing it, I decided to instead greatly edit this chapter and post it as the new chapter seven. I hope you all enjoy.
Despite learning that his daddy wasn't his birth daddy, summer went by slowly for Ron as his family kept being called on missions and he had no school to distract him from the hours they were away. His dad would work hard to make missions short, but there were times he was gone for two whole weeks.
Ron wished that instead of the weird teleporting thing he did once, he could speed up time so he could see everyone sooner. As it was, he was spending a lot of time with his Uncle Nicky. He never seemed to leave the ship for more than a day so he spent a lot of time with him. Ron wasn't quite sure why, since his Uncle Nicky was just as scary as his Auntie Tasha sometimes and loads more scary than Uncle Phil. But it was just how it was.
It was during one of these times that Nick had his first odd occurrence around Ron happen. It started out as a normal day when his daddy wasn't around. Ron received a message from his daddy saying how much he missed him and that he'd be home as soon as he could. His Uncle Nick had come in to his daddy's kitchen just when Ron was climbing on the refrigerator trying to grab a box of cereal. Uncle Nick had pulled him off the refrigerator and told him he needed to stop crawling on top of the furniture, followed by grabbing a box of Cheerios instead of Ron's favored sugary cereal Cocoa Puffs. Ron grumbled about him being a kill joy as Nick made coffee using Clint's stash of Turkish coffee.
After enjoying coffee at Clint's expense, he grabbed a puzzle from Clint's closet for Ron to work on while he did his paper work. A thousand pieces to make an archery range. And as frustrating as it was for the young red head, he wanted to finish the picture to show his daddy. It was about four hours later when he took Ron off the ship to grab lunch out. They grabbed sandwiches at a small stand, BLT for Nick Fury, and a grilled cheese for Ron. That was things went weird.
They had sat in a park on a wooden bench. A few birds had appeared and Ron had taken to feeding them small pieces of his sandwich. He was clearly amused with the birds that had gathered. Fury didn't think anything about it at first, but about a dozen birds later, he spoke up, "You're not going to have any lunch if you keep feeding those birds."
"No I'm not," Ron said defiantly showing his grilled cheese. Fury didn't say anything as he saw the sandwich had not gotten smaller since he last had seen Ron eat it. About half the sandwich remained, just as warm as before, and had been picked apart feeding countless birds. Teleporting, pillows and now grilled sandwiches.
Somehow it was bizarrely underwhelming. That was until he noticed they were being watched.
Men in various forms of clothing were watching Ron with serious, grim and curious expressions on their faces. They all kept glancing back at him and the young Barton. Normally he would brush it off as a black man being with a pale red haired boy odd, but each person held too similar expressions to be coincidence. Two in particular seemed to have a quick debate before returning their attention to them. Fury placed an arm over Ron's shoulder in a familiar fluid motion. Ron looked up at him only to notice his eyes darting over various individuals at the park. Fury stood from the bench confidently, pulling Ron into his arms. Ron wrapped his legs around Fury's waist in a familiar manner, still holding onto what remained of his lunch and taking a bite.
Fury began to walk with the same level intimidation he used when going to interigate criminals. The people moved quickly their bodies tensing, each one keeping Fury in sight. One man in particular walked up rather casually his face appeared warm and friendly, but Fury had seen the man's exact face on Phil. One that he only used when he had to play nice with someone he didn't like.
"Hello sir. Fine day for an outing isn't it?" he asked innocently.
"I would say so," Nick stated, his eye focusing on the man in front of him while trying also to track the others in his sight. The man continued smiling as his gaze fell to Ron.
"He really enjoys that grilled cheese huh?"
"I would hope so. It's what he wanted for lunch," Fury replied somewhat humoring the man with small talk.
"Step son?"
"I don't see how it concerns you," Fury stated. The man stared into Fury's good eye. Fury felt an odd head ache grow in his head as the man continued to stare.
"So not your son... Then I truly am sorry," he said reaching into his coat for something. Fury's eye widened when he saw something thin and narrow start to appear from his coat. He used his left hand and hit a nerve on the back of his neck. The man, unprepared crumpled to the ground. The others moved quickly, their faces stony and their bodies set to fight. Nick Fury tightened his grip. Ron hid his face in Fury's shoulder. Ron's arms tightened feeling the tenseness in the air. Nick shot forward, using his years of training, he used his left arm and pulled his gun. Most of the men stopped approaching but reached into their own pockets that had a narrow bulge that sent odd alarms in Fury's mind. With the accuracy rivaling a professional marksman, he shot three consecutive bullets hitting three of their hands.
Ron whimpered as Fury pressed on. As much as he wanted to bring them in to interigate, he didn't need Ron to see the darker side of government work yet. He didn't need to tell his dad about it either. Though he was sure that SHIELD agents would be in the park to take the men into custody.
He heard the men cursing. One of them had muttered something about a muggle? No he heard right. Clearly said muggle. He'd have to look it up later when he wasn't being threatened with one of his top agent's child.
"Locomotor Mortis!" One of the men cried out. Fury glanced back to see a fast moving steam of light traveling uncomfortably similar to a bullet. Reflexsively, he jumped to the right narrowly avoiding the odd energy. Another voice cried out, Petrificus Totalus. Light shot past him as he continued running, gaining distance between their attackers. Nonsense words blurred together until he grew close to unaware civilians. Glancing back, the men had disappeared.
Ron was kept under ship arrest until Clint returned from his mission. And two weeks after that. Though it only frustrated SHIELD agents as nothing could be found. There were no video cameras in the area of the park Fury and Ron had their lunch, nor had any street cameras outside the park had footage of the men leaving. Almost like they had vanished into thin air. Just like Ron's little teleporting trick.
SHIELD kept an open file for each time something similar happened as time passed.
While time did pass, strange occurrences from grand to forgettable seemed to happen. Each member of Ron's make shift family all had their stories. Like when Ron learned how bitter coffee was and thought it needed to be sweeter, all the coffee aboard the Helicarrier turned to hot chocolate when he was eight, or when Fitz and Simmons were literally stuck at the hip for ten hours after they had an arguement when Ron about two months later.
But the people kept appearing when the oddities happened on the ground. And only then.
"When are we going to find these bastards," Clint growled.
"Clint, calm down. We don't want to scare Ron," Natasha stated with an icy undertone.
"It's been years. I don't want him to get hurt by those psychos."
"Clint. We don't know if they are even connected to the two you saved him from years ago."
"What else could it be? They show up every time something odd happens, doesn't matter who's with him."
"Clint-"
"We've had to pull him out of school! These people showed up at his school! They did something to his teacher's memories remember!? They could have hurt him," he ended quietly.
Natasha didn't say anything. Out of all the sides of Clint she had been able to see over the years, his "Daddy" side. The deadly assassin with only one goal in mind, protect his son. This was side that anyone who knew Ron, knew to avoid. It could be cute when he was being paternal. But the other half, was absolutely terrifying.
Clint punched a wall in rage, "I just don't know what to do anymore."
Ron lay across his bed mildly irritated. Most children would be thrilled to be out of school. Ron hated it. He didn't have many friends before the odd things started happening. And with every odd incident, and the odd people who showed up, he was being smothered. Being eight going nine, he felt he was a big boy. Well, big enough to not be watched by a hawk.
He wanted to be able to go outside. And not just in some government sanctioned facility roped off with spies watching him. And not in Xavier's school where some of the students had tried to scare a power out of him after hearing about his teleportation and transformation incidents. He wanted to go somewhere where he wouldn't be watched like he had since he was a tot.
He wanted it more than anything at that moment. A funny feeling twinges in his stomach. His eyes widened as he recalled the last time he had felt it. His stomach gave a violent twist as he felt his body compress. With a sudden lurch, he wasn't in the bed room anymore. Rather, had been sent to a sidewalk, next to a building that was going to be torn down for a Starbucks.
So this is the what I've posted. Please review, and if you reviewed before, feel free to PM me with your thoughts of this change.
