NOTES: Hello, lovely readers! I hope you all had a lovely three-day weekend. I managed to inspire my friend to write his own SHIELD drabble (which awesome-both the fact that it happened and the story itself), and I managed to get my family hooked on Sherlock. My little nerd heart is overflowing with pride.
Here's today's set. Little bit of Tony, Thor, Natasha, and Clint. Enjoy!
Decode
It's a constant competition between Tony and SHIELD's security system with the network. There's a whole department of tech wizards and former hacking convicts occupying SHIELD computers in effort to keep everything locked down. Tony tries to infiltrate the system as a way to wind down and fall asleep. He laughs to himself and admires the cuteness of their attempted techniques. Sometimes he waits a bit to break the latest update; he remembers what it's like to be young and feel constantly defeated (knows what it's like when you're older, too), so he gives them reprieves every now and then.
Disfigures
There are marks all over Natasha's body, some visible and some not. Scars from various wounds litter her petite form; she can easily recite the incident causing each one. There are four spots on her skin that will never have sensation again. It would be much worse if not for her bio-enhancements. There's a constant ache in her spine from being thrown around too often. And she always knows when it is about to rain by a dull throbbing in right hip.
And those are just the physical ailments and scars. Let's not even get started on the mental ones.
Snowier
Thor awoke, took a look out the window, and bellowed, "Assemble!" It took an hour for them, half-suited up before they realized what was actually happening, to explain to the Asgardian prince that they were not in any danger. Thor saw the piles of snow rapidly accumulating and covering the New York City sidewalks and had wrongly assumed the Frost Giants had found a way to attack his beloved Midgard. He learned a new word that day: "blizzard". He also learned about snow angels and men of snow—far less dangerous and certainly more festive than frosty inhabitants of Jotunheim.
Several
It takes a minimum of three hefty injuries for Clint to be willing to report to medical on his own, or even go easily when Natasha begins threatening him. He doesn't like to go because the doctors are idiots, and he's been hurt enough times on missions to know how to administer most types of care himself. It drives Coulson nuts. The handler does all he can to make sure there are no supplies around to set bones, or else he's pretty sure Barton would have tried to tend to his own compound leg fracture on that mission to Thailand.
Asymptotes
On bad nights he very nearly smothers her. Pepper does her best to breathe and soothe him, but he's restless in his nightmare-filled sleep. He pulls her closer to him, nuzzling his body fully against hers. He curves around her in a desperate attempt to make their two bodies one, but he's never successful. He can never eliminate all the distance between them. Pepper finally wakes him from muttering Obie's name in his sleep. Tony shakes his head at old memories and loosens his arms around her. He whispers apologies, and she plays with his hair until he's asleep again.