Hi everyone!
I know I should really be focusing on prompts right about now, but I celebrated Father's Day last Sunday and I thought it would be nice to add a chapter about that since the story follows the regular summer timeline and holidays for the United States.
Thank you for all the reviews, follows, and favorites!
Disclaimer: See Chapter 1
Enjoy!
"Okay guys, listen up." Laura plopped a wall calendar down in the center of the kitchen table and circled a date in red pen. "Father's Day is in just a few days and we need to decide what we're doing for Clint." Clint just 'happened' to be out of the house on a coffee run because he had felt a strange and sudden urge to have an actual Starbucks latte with extra shots of caffeine and whipped cream.
"What's Father's Day?" Pietro asked.
"You've never celebrated it before?" Lila asked disbelievingly.
"No. It wasn't celebrated in Sokovia."
"It's where we do something nice for Daddy. Like we make him a card or something like that. I'm going to make him a pop up card."
"I was thinking we could go to the state park up north and have a picnic." Laura continued. "How does that sound?"
Cooper and Lila both nodded excitedly. "Can we go swimming at the lake?" Cooper asked.
"Sure." Laura hung the calendar back up in its usual place next to the phone, to make scheduling easy. "Sounds like we have a plan."
~IT~
"Would you stop squirming around so much? You're making me nervous."
"Sorry." Pietro tried to stay still and read a magazine like a normal person. There was a wide variety to choose from; the table outside the doctor's office seemed to have every kind of magazine known to man. Eventually, he settled on an entertainment rag; it wouldn't have to entertain him long, in any case. At least he'd be getting his cast off. That was something, at least. For the past three weeks he'd been completely off balance not being able to use his arm. It was strange and altogether unpleasant.
Wanda had actually thought ahead; she was reading a book she'd brought along. There was a movie coming out that the twins had been wanting to see; they were going to make an afternoon out of it and go to see it after Pietro's appointment. "So, what do you think about this 'Father's Day'?" she asked.
"It sounds interesting. Its premise sounds nice enough."
"Do you think we should make an appreciation card as well? I mean, Clint has done a lot for us over the past few months."
"I think we probably should. It takes a lot of patience to deal with you for a few hours-never mind for an entire month."
"I wouldn't say that's very fair…"
"I'm just kidding. But yes, I think a card is a very good idea. How exactly do Americans celebrate Father's Day?"
Pietro took out his iPhone and started to google it. "Already on it…there's a lot of talk about things to buy-ties and stuff like that."
"I'm sure we can find somewhere in town that sells ties. Maybe we can pick something up after the movie."
He was still scrolling through page after page of text. "There are really a lot of ideas on here…" The amount of sheer merchandising on the Internet was almost overwhelming. There was so much to consider buying.
Just then, his name was called and he had to go in for his appointment. He showed Wanda the website he'd been looking at so she could continue the search and went to get his cast taken off.
Pietro wasn't sure exactly what they would buy, but he knew it had to be perfect-or as close to perfect as it could possibly be.
~IT~
Over the next couple of day, the twins looked at and rejected one gift idea after another. Although all of them were very nice, none of them seemed right.
"What are you looking at?" Cooper asked, taking a seat next to them. It was a lazy summer afternoon; hot but not terribly so. They'd spent most of the afternoon at the 'pool'-a pond at the edge of the property that Clint and Mr. Hammond had made a few summers past. It was cool and shaded even on the hottest day and the water was cold but not freezing. Simply put, it was the best place in the world to be on a hot summer day. Pietro relished in the fact that he could actually get in the water now and they had played water games for hours on end. Of course, they would have to go home at some point and Laura didn't appreciate water on her nice wooden floors. To keep her happy, Pietro and Wanda had insisted everyone get out of the water about an hour before they would have to go back to the farm. Now they were letting themselves dry off in the summer sun. Lila was reading a book nearby-and so had Cooper, up until a few moments ago.
"Oh, nothing." Pietro quickly closed the web browser and brought up Fruit Ninja instead. "Just playing a game."
"Can I watch?"
Pietro had to keep from groaning, but he started a new round. However, he was very distracted even as he slashed through fruit after fruit thinking about more gift ideas and then rejecting them just as fast.
"You missed one." Cooper pointed to a strawberry that was falling down the edge of the screen, too far down for Pietro to catch it.
"Whoops." Pietro didn't really care.
Finally, as it started to get dark they packed up their towels and headed for home. It was a beautiful night, full of fireflies. Sometimes Cooper and Lila liked to take little glass jars and fill them with the flying bugs-they would let them go again once they'd taken significant delight in watching the way the fireflies lit up like tiny little stars. On this occasion, they were already late so they just focused on getting home as quickly they could. The twins still had no gift ideas and only two days left until the holiday.
Things could be going better.
~IT~
Later that night, once Cooper and Lila were (probably) asleep, the twins reconvened outside to make a final decision. If they wanted to buy something in town, they had one last day to make the trip.
"What are you guys doing out here this late?" Clint was heading towards the barn with his bow in hand, probably for target practice.
"Stargazing." Pietro answered automatically. Never mind that he'd looked through a telescope once and could only spot the Big Dipper-and that was only if the constellation was incredibly obvious.
"You didn't strike me as the type."
"You learn something new every day, old man."
"Fine, fine. I just know from experience that the cover of darkness can be an ideal time for plotting."
"We are certainly not plotting." Pietro fumbled to turn off his phone. That would just be inviting questions.
"Want to watch me shoot some stuff?"
The twins exchanged a glance. It had been a long day and they were both ready to stop looking at picture after picture of ties and sunglasses. "Sure."
The barn was warm and smelled heavily of hay as Pietro and Wanda found seats on a couple convenient bales near the back door. Clint pulled out three large targets, well-worn from years of use and pockmarked with tiny arrow holes. Then he turned to a small closet that Pietro had always thought held more farm equipment. Instead, it was filled with every kind of arrow known to man. "This is probably not the place to use the exploding arrows, but I still have a lot of regular ones." He notched a long black arrow fletched with white feathers. He drew back the bow, aimed directly at the center of the first target, and let the arrow go with a soft swish. It landed dead center with a soft thump and hung there, quivering. Clint loosed a couple more, hitting as near to the center as he possibly could, given the arrow still hanging loosely. He had incredible aim.
"How long did it take you to become that good?" Wanda asked.
"Years and years of daily practice. And even now there's still room for improvement."
"Do you ever run out of arrows in battle?"
"Occasionally-and then it's really interesting having to look through the corpses of aliens or robots or whatever it is looking for some more arrows. Having really great aim isn't always the most helpful power to have if you don't have life hacks that give you unlimited arrows. But I try." He moved onto the next target. "Ten arrows a night. It would amaze you how quickly it clears my head, just focusing up like that. When you're doing archery, the little things can't matter. They can't distract you-otherwise your aim will be way off." He purposefully misaimed, sending an arrow three inches to the right of the target. "Like that."
Just then Pietro noticed something propped against the side of the barn, next to the door. "What's that?"
"My quiver. I've had it ever since I joined up." He held it up to the single light bulb situated high up in the barn rafters. The quiver itself seemed to be falling apart; it was clear that the Battle of Sokovia had been its last big show. It looked like there was a hole in the bottom of it-probably from some wayward bullet or something. "It's not much. I've been meaning to get a new one, but I guess I never seem to have the time what with saving the world and all of that. But I don't think I'll be able to bring myself to give this one away. Of course, who's going to buy it? It's not exactly in mint condition-but it also has special significance. It reminds me of who I used to be when I joined up-little more than a kid looking for redemption. And I've found it. I've come this far-way farther than I thought I'd come when I first signed up. First I used to be a field agent, doing routine surveillance-next thing I know, they're telling me I'm an Avenger and one of Earth's Mightiest Heroes." He shot off a few more arrows. "Seven…eight…nine…" His last arrow thudded to a halt in the exact middle of the third target. "Not too bad. Well, I'm calling it a night. You two coming with?"
"Yeah." Pietro said absentmindedly. He was still looking at that quiver; he could practically feel the gears in his brain turning and forming an idea. One glance at Wanda told him that she was thinking the same thing. Glad to know we're both on the same page.
He finally knew what they were going to do about the gift.
~IT~
The next day was a whirlwind of activity. The twins probably got around four or five hours of sleep before they left for town early in the morning. They had a destination in mind; they were there and back again in less than two hours with their gift in hand. Then they locked themselves in Wanda's room for the rest of the day; it was a lot more private than Pietro's. They had a lot to do and not a lot of time.
"Are they still up there?" Clint asked as Laura made grilled cheese sandwiches for Cooper and Lila.
"Yes. They're hard at work on something."
"They've been up there all day. Do you think we should be worried?"
"I don't think so. They're probably just working on a project of some sort." She went to the foot of the stairs and called up "Do you guys want some lunch? I'm making grilled cheese."
There was a moment of silence before the door opened and Pietro walked to the edge of the staircase. "Not just yet. We'll be down a little bit and get something then. Thank you for asking, though." He went back inside and closed the door behind him.
"Pietro turned down food-and a grilled cheese to boot. That's a first."
"I wonder what they're working on." Clint said.
"Who knows? If they want us to know what it is, they'll probably tell us. Until then, let's give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they're not doing anything illegal."
~IT~
Father's Day dawned bright and sunny. The twins were up early once again to help Cooper and Lila make breakfast in bed for Clint as they were the only ones who knew how to use the coffee maker.
"What flavor do you think we should use?" Pietro asked, examining the seven shelves in the pantry now solely devoted to the family's coffee collection.
"Plain coffee with vanilla creamer." Lila answered automatically. "Once he let me try a sip. It tasted really, really disgusting. Why does he like that stuff?"
"It keeps him awake." While Pietro made the coffee, Wanda tried to figure out how to scramble eggs per Cooper's request.
"Do you know how to scramble eggs?" Cooper asked her. Wanda was looking at the stove top as if she had no idea what she was supposed to do with it.
"No. Check my phone. When in doubt, google it."
Within a minute, they'd found a very uncomplicated recipe and the kitchen was filled with the smell of eggs. Lila poured a glass of orange juice, picked a bouquet of wildflowers from the back garden, and arranged everything neatly on a tray. Pietro added the coffee and Cooper added the eggs and it was decided they were ready.
"Do you want to come with us to give it to him?" Cooper asked, taking the tray carefully so it wouldn't fall.
"No. We need to check on something." Pietro said, grabbing a roll of wrapping paper as he mounted the stairs to Wanda's bedroom at the top of the house. "We'll be ready when it's time to go to the state park."
~IT~
It was a perfect day for a picnic. The sun was shining but a wind blew through the trees so it wasn't stiflingly hot. There were quite a few other families there that had had the same idea but everyone was significantly spread out it so it didn't feel crowded. Pietro, Cooper, Lila, and Clint played with a Frisbee for most of the morning-at least until the plastic disc almost hit a small child. The picnic was delicious, as always. Once all the lunch ware had been thrown away or put back in the picnic basket, Cooper and Lila started clamoring to go swimming. Of course, Pietro wanted to with them-as did Wanda, after a little bit of coaxing. The water was a little on the cold side, but they still had fun splashing each other.
By the time they left, it was almost full on dark-but the celebration was by no means over. Back at the house, they watched The Empire Strikes Back and cut up an ice cream cake that Laura had successfully hidden from everyone in order to keep it a surprise.
Finally, it was time for Clint to open his Father's Day gifts.
Lila and Cooper had each made cards and had presents to give their father (although Pietro suspected that the gifts had been bought by a third party; aka Laura): a new tie, a coffee mug, and a new set of arrows with red fletching.
Laura gave Clint a new ring made out of wood polished so highly it shone and a set of books-'just in case'. Once it looked like all the gifts had been opened, the twins went back upstairs to add their own gift to the pile.
Quite simply, it looked like Pietro had found a particularly large rock in Laura's vegetable garden and wrapped it up.
"Why did you use Christmas wrapping paper?" Wanda asked.
"It was the only paper I could find. I'm sorry it doesn't meet your high standards."
"Christmas is always in December, correct?"
"…Yes. You should have wrapped it yourself, if it matters that much to you."
"I was trying to scramble eggs. I thought you would be able to handle it."
"Well, it wasn't the easiest thing to wrap…"
"As long as you did the best you could, we should be fine."
They brought the present downstairs, bulky and awkwardly wrapped as it was, and added it to the gift pile. "This is just a little something we've been working on. We did most of the embellishing." Pietro explained.
Clint opened the package to reveal a brand new quiver, patterned in a dark maroon and embroidered with black thread. The top and bottom of the quiver had been carefully adorned with pictures of arrows and tiny Avengers symbols. At the very bottom somebody had carefully stitched To Clint from Pietro and Wanda. Thank you for all your help as we make our transition into full-fledged Avengers. It has been an incredible journey, but you have made it so much easier with your endless giving of time and talents. Thank you for reminding us how it feels to be part of a family. We'd almost forgotten. You are an amazing archer, a valued member of SHIELD and the Avengers, and an inspiration to everyone whether they are heroes, villains, gods, genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropists, or orphans still trying to separate the truth from the lies. Happy Father's Day. May you celebrate many others.
The embroidery was very, very small. Wanda had accidentally stabbed her hand with the needle more times than she could count. But it had all fit on there, regardless.
Clint examined it carefully, looking it over appraisingly and reading the message. "Is this why you were so busy yesterday?"
"Yes. It…took quite a bit of time to get it just right, but I think it turned out all right. Do you…like it?"
"I love it. I can't believe you did all of this. It looks professional. Thank you. You guys didn't have to do anything to-"
"But we wanted to. Happy Father's Day." Wanda replied.
I think that went well.
IT~
By that time, it was beginning to get very late and Cooper and Lila were almost asleep. It was decided that the celebration had probably gone on long enough. While Clint persuaded them to get ready for bed, Laura took care of Nathaniel and the twins went to Pietro's room to read their separate books and watch fireflies.
Wanda was just about to go back to her room when there was a knock on the door and Clint came in. "Not interrupting anything important, right?"
"No. Just reading." Pietro slid his bookmark into place feeling like his head was about to explode. 300 pages down. 400 to go.
"I just wanted to thank both of you for the quiver. It's really nice. Thanks. If you two ever want to learn archery, just come to the barn. I shoot ten arrows a night."
"We might take you up on that."
"Was that the best idea?" Wanda asked once Clint had left to get Lila a glass of water. "I mean, you with a bow and arrow…"
"Exactly. What could go wrong?"
As a side note, I'm going to be out of town for the next few days so I don't think I'll be able to update as frequently if at all. I think I'm going to be publishing a kind of 'short' story instead, just a few chapters long with (hopefully) daily updates-kind of like Twelve Days. But yeah, if you don't see an update for a long time, that's why.
Review, follow, and favorite! Thanks for reading! :)