"Pass 'em."

Clint wordlessly tossed the bag of Doritos into my lap, licking nacho cheese off his fingers as he did. I grimaced at the now half empty bag, but then realized I didn't really need the extra calories.

Today was my two week anniversary at S.H.I.E.L.D. As expected, my days were crammed. Basic exercises had now turned into life or death situations. I traded in my ace bandages for a handgun. Although I tried driving it into Fury's head that I was not going to shoot ANYTHING, much less anyone, shooting practice was now a daily routine. I was as good as I could get in such a limited time. And I wasn't sure how much of it I had left.

Two days ago, I met with Bruce and Tony so that they could finally start to actually track down the Tesseract. OK, maybe I shouldn't be so hard on them. Granted, two weeks is a long time, but I could use it for practice. In that time, they had worked together to create a device that could actually locate the Cube. Bruce ran a few basic tests, but the one that really mattered was analyzing my blood. Bruce and Tony hoped that they could find and isolate the Tesseract's diminutive energy in my bloodstream. With that, they would hopefully be able to scan the globe for the same kind of specific radioactive energy. That is, hoping the Cube was still on Earth. I didn't even want to think of what would happen if the Cube was up in space. I had a big enough heights problem as it is.

I nervously glanced down at my feet as the dangled along the building's edge. Clint had a thing for high places, and I let him talk me in to joining him up here. Damn birdbrain. He looked so relaxed, head tilted up at the sky, the sun reflecting off his sunglasses. He stretched his arms and leaned back, a small grin fixated on his face. I pulled at my shorts, noticing that my usual fair skin could now pass as bronzed. I sighed. I kind of liked looking pale and porcelain. But the New Mexico sun will do that to you.

Yup. That's where I was. Santa Fe, New Mexico, in one of the many hidden locations of S.H.I.E.L.D. This was one of the newest ones, and wasn't built until Thor had dropped by. From what I hear, he caused quite a bit of trouble. Enough trouble for headquarters to decide it would be a permanent meeting place for S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.

"You know," I said, breaking the silence once more, "this is my first time out of New York. I never thought I'd want to be anywhere else, but the change of scenery is kind of nice."

Clint reached and took the Doritos bag from my lap. No manners, as usual. He shoved a few in his mouth before responding.

"There's a whole big world out there kid. If you're lucky enough, you might get to see all of it." He peered over his sunglasses and gave me a look. I turned away, but not before grabbing a few chips. Clint and I had had these conversations before. It would start off the same; I'd talk about my future, or something else just as vague, and he'd manage to find a way to turn it in to talking about S.H.I.E.L.D. Clint was slowly but surely leading the crusade for career opportunities at the agency. More than once he had tried to persuade me to think about becoming a permanent member of S.H.I.E.L.D. And every time, I would turn him down.

"We've already talked about this Clint."

"I know, I know." He retracted momentarily. "But with the training you've already received, not to mention your abilities, you'd make a great candidate."

I gave a deadpan stare through my sunglasses. Despite the shades, it did the job. Clint turned away. "I'm just saying. But suit yourself, you'll have to get fitted for the uniform anyway."

I didn't want to admit it, but I actually had given the situation more thought. Not that it was actually ever going to happen. Fury would be dead before he saw me in a S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform. But sometimes, I couldn't help but wonder what it would be like if I could be. But I knew I wouldn't be. The life of a spy does sound enticing, but I wasn't about to give up my life and education for a far-fetched dream. No, I was going to start college in the fall, and that was final. I'll trade my guns for books, my spandex for pajama pants, and a life of danger for a life of cramming and socializing. I don't care how awful that sounds.

I just want to be normal.

With what had been happening the past few weeks, I had felt anything but that. I sighed as I remembered my last encounter with Loki. This uneasy feeling sank in my stomach, and I didn't like it one bit. I had seemed to be getting that way whenever I thought about him.

"Hey, Clint." I called softly. "Can I ask you something?"

Clint crumpled up the now empty bag and tossed it to the side. He licked his fingers once again. "Sure, kid." I swung my legs around and turned my body so that I was facing him.

"Well, it's more like advice."

He took off his sunglasses and raised an eyebrow. "About what?" He asked cautiously.

I shrugged, glancing around and looking anywhere but at him. "Oh, I don't know. Nothing really. Just….

….there's this guy."

In my perfect world, Clint would have whipped around and given me his full attention, begging for me to tell him more. But sadly, this was not my perfect world, and Clint was very attentive on checking out his now orange stained fingers.

I waited in silence. Clint looked up at me.

"And..?" he asked.

Come on Evie. It doesn't matter he's your friend. This isn't another teenage girl you're talking to. This was a grown man who had just eaten your entire bag of Doritos. Make it a little more interesting for him.

"Well…things haven't going so great. He's a friend of mine, or at least, he used to be. We got into a fight and it messed everything up."

Clint wiped his hand on his pants leg and removed his sunglasses. "What were you two fighting about?" His interest had now entered the building once he realized I wasn't just doting on some random guy.

I stopped myself from saying what I was thinking. If Clint, or anyone else on the team knew I had feelings for Loki, I would be in big trouble. Natasha got hostile when even she was the one who brought it up. I didn't want to think of what would happen if anyone knew. I shrugged, feigning indifference. "Nothing really. It's just I want to be more than friends, and he doesn't want to be.

And you know, the crazy thing is, we fight all the time. I guess it's because we're similar in a lot of ways. But it's mainly because he's a hot-headed jerk and doesn't seem to care about anyone other than himself. But this time, the fight seemed pretty serious. I don't know what he thinks of me."

Clint scratched his head before asking me another question. "Has he said why he just wants to be your friend?"

"He doesn't have to." I responded plainly. "It's obvious why, and there are so many reasons. Age for one. He's much older than I am. And we come from two totally different planets." My eyes shot to my right to see if Clint made any reaction to the expression, but he continued to sit in silence. I internally sighed.

"But I mainly think it's because he just doesn't have those kinds of feelings. And it just sucks." I looked down at my shoes.

Clint sighed, and I saw him run a hand through his hair. "Listen Ev, I'm not the best person when it comes to this stuff."

I raised my head a little. "Oh?"

"Why's that?" I asked nonchalantly. But Clint saw right through me.

"We are not talking about me and Nat." he responded with authority. I crossed my arms like a five year old with a temper tantrum. I was never going to get to the bottom of this. "But what I can tell you," he continued, "is that you can't force these feelings."

"If, your friend doesn't feel the same way you do, then there isn't much you can do to change it. I know it's hard to hear, but its reality. Life doesn't always end happy. You just can't force someone to love you. "

Who said anything about love? I snorted at the idea of Loki saying it, with flowers and chocolate in hand. Clint put his sunglasses back on and looked out toward the barren scenery. I wonder if the reason he was giving me this advice was because he had to follow it once as well.

Why was talking about him and Natasha so off limits? Was it because S.H.I.E.L.D forbade it? Or maybe it was for each other's protection.

Or maybe there was nothing there.

"And we all know Stark can be a bit much, but you have to…"

"What."

In that moment, I think the world stopped turning. All thoughts of Loki with flowers or Natasha and Clint on a date vanished instantly.

I stared at Clint wide-eyed.

"What, did you just say?" I asked slowly.

Clint's mouth fumbled for words before any noise came out. He started moving his arms like he was trying to pick the words out from the air. "You…Stark….I…"

My obnoxious laughter filled the air before he could have continued further. It was the kind of laughter that made you cry and feel like you ran miles from the stich in your side. Clint yelled over my broken fits. "What?! That's who it sounded like! He's can be a jerk sometimes." I wiped a tear from my eye, "I'm sorry, that's just too funny," I apologized. "But I'm not talking about Tony. And I'm not going to tell you who I am talking about, as if you even know him." I added quickly before Clint could even hope to ask then who it was.

Clint got up and stretched his limbs, but I stayed seated. "It hurts for a bit kid, it always does. But you have to deal with it. Learn to live without it, and hopefully one day you'll just forget it."

I pulled my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around them, glumly looking out to the landscape. "That's easier said than done."

Clint bent down beside me and placed a hand on my shoulder. "It always is."