The whole ride was a pleasant thrill, a thousand times better than one of Pietro's "rides". To him it probably wasn't that exciting, but I did see him smile when we rounded the corners and I waved my hands in the sky like everybody else.
'See,' I said proudly as we got off the ride, 'I didn't throw up.'
'I noticed,' Pietro answered dryly. 'Perhaps I should carry you a bit further…' He bent his knees, pretending to scoop me up again.
I laughed a bit shrilly and moved quickly out of the way. 'Better not - Oh.'
'What?' Pietro followed my gaze towards the giant teddy bear I had spotted. 'That is a big bear.'
I nodded very slowly, a wide grin spreading on my face. 'Yes, yes it is.'

We moved over to the stall where a middle-aged guy was checking one of the riffles used for his game.
'Hello, doll,' he greeted me with a little bit cringy smile. 'Is your boyfriend here gonna win you something?'
In return I gave him my sweetest smile. 'No, I'm gonne win him something.'
I could see the man's eyes light up. The dollar signs were almost visible, along with the thought, "There comes the money". Poor guy.
He handed me the weapon, unnecessarily explaining how to hold, aim and fire it. I casually asked him what I would have to hit to win the teddy bear.
His grin widened, and he pointed to a small target in the far back which he could put in motion just like the rest of the brightly coloured spots. With one push on the button everything started to dance in every possible direction. The furthest target moved fastest of all.
I held the gun steady, focussed on the moving object, felt the soft breeze of the wind.
My finger moved very slowly, until the trigger was drawn back.

After everything I had read, heard, and seen of the Avengers, I hadn't thought I would ever be bored while living with them. However, I hadn't taken into account that they had actual stuff to do - like, all the time. There seemed to be a lot more threats in the world than we, the civilians were aware of.
The quiet times granted me many hours of concentrated reading and watching. But no matter how much I loved those things, I had also always very much enjoyed exercising. So, during one of my by boredom induced half-comas (I just lay back on my bed staring to the ceiling), I gathered my courage, and decided to find the exercise room, which obviously had to be here somewhere.
It turned out to be nice and spacious. Like everything else in the compound, it was illuminated by sunlight streaming through the immense windows and it contained many different ways to improve various skills, from treadmills and other sorts of gym equipment, to a long shooting range and places to train in hand-to-hand combat. Or gymnastics, I thought, snickering to myself as I imagined the Avengers in tight gym suits making somersaults and swinging from rings. For some reason, there was a cabinet titled "punch balls", as in a whole cabinet stocked. I didn't think you needed that much of those.

My eyes weren't enough when I stepped into the display room for all the different kind of weapons the Avengers used, many of which were personalised. I decided it would be wisest to stay away from the guns, but I couldn't help taking a simple bow and a quiver, weighing the weapon in my hands. It felt good, a bit too wide at the handle, but almost perfect. Never before had I shot an arrow from a bow, if you didn't include one of those crappy plastic ones with rubber suction pads so they stuck to the windows.
I took a movable target with many red and white circles within each other, and put it against the wall outside the protective shooting range. It was unlikely that I would damage anything, and if I did… no, I just wasn't going to do it. (I was wondering if anyone would get mad at me, or if they all felt too bad for me and would just ignore it.)
There were no instructions about how to use any of the gadgets, so I just had to dig deep into my memory, and retrieve the images of Clint shooting this thing. With this in mind, I readied the arrow on the string, and pulled it backwards. As I let go of it, it flew wobbly through the sky, and dug itself into the outer ring, which gleamed red.
'Okay,' I muttered to myself, 'could be worse, could be better.' With my head slightly tilted, I studied the arrow, trying to figure out how it had flown. I calculated how far it had deviated from the course I had anticipated and then tried to see how I could improve it.
Again, I loaded an arrow onto the string, aimed at the bull's-eye, and released. This time, it landed a bit closer to the centre. A tiny bit.
It wasn't much yet, but I'd get better at it, I told myself. I liked doing that, teaching myself. Whenever I wanted to try drying new, I would just find a good spot to watch from, and see how others did something, and recreated it myself.

'Natasha was right.'
I looked back, the string of my bow still vibrating. It was Clint who had spoken, standing awkwardly in the doorway.
'Oh, hey.' I lowered the bow, curled my fingers tightly around it. 'Right about what?'
Clint gestured to the target, where the arrows were all within the middle half, instead of scattered on the outside. One even managed to impale itself into the middle dot, though not in the centre. 'You're good. Have you had training before?'
'Training?' I repeated, a bit lost. 'No, not really…'
'A natural then?'
I shrugged. 'I've just had a lot of time on my hands.'
My dad nodded, finally fully entering the room. 'I could train you if you want.'
My cheeks flushed immediately, turning a bright red colour. Training with Hawkeye? Spending more time with my dad? Finally experiencing advantage from my weird skills?
'Yeah, that would be cool.' I cringed at my fake chill voice.
Clint smiled relieved. 'Yeah, cool.'

A shot ran out, and a perfect hole could be seen in the exact middle of the most difficult to hit target. The man's cowboy hat seemed to drop in astonishment. After a while he regained the ability to move, whereupon he turned the movement off and grudgingly handed me the bear.
'Your father's in the army or something?' He asked me as I wanted to leave.
I grinned. 'Something like that.'

The plush bear was the softest thing I had ever felt, and its smile was kind and forgiving. So, I stared into its eyes for a moment, before holding it out to Pietro. 'Here'
Pietro looked frowning at the stuffed animal. 'What?'
'Here,' I repeated. 'I won it for you.'
'Oh…' he took the bear and ran his fingers through its fur. A gentle smile appeared on his face. 'I thought you were just saying that to contradict that man.'
'O, no. I thought your room could use a big teddy bear. Otherwise it's so empty.'
'Thanks.' A slight blush creeped up on his cheeks. I laughed at its endearingness
'You're welcome.'

We spend the rest of the evening eating corndogs, cotton candy, popcorn and visiting booths and stalls. Pietro convinced me to let someone paint a butterfly on my face, so I forced him to do the same.
Finally, we stepped into the Ferris wheel, and let ourselves be carried up to the stars. The view was amazing, especially with all the lights, turning the night on the ground into a second sky full of stars
'I love high places,' I sighed, peering into the distance, where traffic still razed on the busy roads.
'I think they're okay. As long as they are safe.'
Pietro looked tired. His eyes were slowly closing, and he clasped the teddy bear tight.
'Don't worry. You'll always have Danny to break your fall.' (Danny was the name we had decided together best fitted the toy.)
'Thank God.' He took one of the chubby arms of the bear and pointed it at me. 'Danny doesn't want to be a safety pillow,' he said in a squeaky voice 'Danny's feelings are hurt'
'Sorry Danny,' I laughed, 'I will never refer to you like that again.' I sat back in the small bench, looking at the world of puppets below us, and I was grateful for the slowness of the wheel. This was something even Pietro didn't mind spending a lot of time on.