Branding | Heat Exhaustion | Fire
Probably not one of my better ones, so please forgive me. It's 2 AM and I'm half asleep, but I wanted to get this done and posted.
You Jeremy Renner fans should recognize the song Clint sings.
The night started innocently enough. It was Sunday after Mikayla's birthday. Since her birthday was on Halloween, she never celebrated it on the actual date, so she and Clint would go out the following evening, just the two of them. This birthday Clint finally gave in and took her to an art museum. "They're having an exhibit of Egyptian art, and since Fury won't give either of us enough time off to go to Cairo, this will be the closest I'll get to a mummy." They were about halfway through the tour when masked gunmen shot their way into the exhibit hall taking everyone hostage. Once they found out who Clint and Mikayla were, they released all the hostages except for the two of them, knowing either Tony or SHIELD would pay a hefty ransom for members of the Avengers. The two had been tied up to separate pillars. They'd been searched and the bad guys found the weapons each of them had been carrying. Clint was impressed as to how many weapons Mikayla had stashed under her little blue dress. He figured she'd learned that from Nat.
"Babe, that kind of turns me on, knowing you had all those weapons hidden. I was looking forward to playing hide and seek. You know, you hide the weapons and I seek them."
"Clint, only you could think of sex at a time like this." She was struggling to get her head near her hands. The goons had failed to check her hair, which was holding a couple of pins. "Do you smell smoke?"
"I just thought it was you because you're so hot, you know, like that song we've heard."
"She's a fire
So, don't get close
She's a fire
She'll kill you slow
She's a fire
So hot there's smoke
She's a fire
Stop, drop, and roll"
"Nope, that's smoke." Suddenly, a whoosh could be heard as a wall of flames came toward them. "Clint, fire!" She slammed her ear against the pillar, turning on her comm, which she put in because nothing normal ever happened to them.
"Maid Marian, how nice to hear from you. How are the mummies?"
"Being set on fire at the moment, thanks for asking."
"How did you two manage that?"
"Wasn't us, Tony. Some guys broke in and took hostages. Let everyone else go but us because, well, it's us and this is par for the course. Now they've set the museum on fire and we're tied to a couple of pillars.
"How's Robin Hood?"
"He was singing earlier. I'm expecting him to start belting out Blue Oyster Cult or The Doors in a minute." She looked over at her fiancée. "Clint, Clint! Tony, he's passed out!" She started coughing, "I swear, Barton, can we NOT have a normal date? I'm getting tired of waking up being handcuffed, tied up, or bound."
"I thought you were into that kinky stuff, Fitzgerald."
"Enough from the peanut gallery, Stark. Now, can you figure out how to get us the hell out of here?"
After several minutes, Tony could no longer hear coughing. "Mikayla! Clint!" There was no response from either of them. "Damn it, how do you two always find yourselves in the wrong place at the wrong time?"
Clint woke up and found himself in the middle of a room, tied to a central pole. His chest was hurting from smoke inhalation, and he was so damn tired. It took every bit of energy he had to look around for Mikayla. She was nowhere in sight. In fact, there was no one around. "Welcome back to the conscious world, Hawkeye." He looked up and saw a speaker hanging in the corner where the voice was coming from. "I'm so glad you could join us for the festivities."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"In front of you are 3 doors. If you guess correctly, you will see your Lady Hawkeye. If not, you will hear her as you both experience the same pain. It will be a contest who can handle the most pain without begging."
"How about you just let me go, I beat the crap out of you, get my girlfriend, then we'll be on our way."
"That's going to have to be a no. Shall we begin? Which door, Hawkeye? 1, 2, or 3?"
"Fine, 1."
The door labeled 1 opened to show nothing behind it. "Oh, I'm sorry, you chose poorly. You and your lovely girlfriend must now suffer the consequences of your choice." A door on the opposite wall slid open and a man wearing a welder's helmet and thick gloves entered. He was carrying a glowing hot poker.
"Noooo!" He heard Mikayla screaming from somewhere in the building and knew what was happening.
"Stay away from her, you son of a bitch! Torture me all you want but leave her alone!"
"I'm afraid that's not in the plans, Hawkeye," the voice said through the speaker. The man approached him, pulled up his shirt, and placed the poker on the right side of his abdomen.
'Damn it,' he thought to himself, 'I can smell the burning flesh. Please let Mikayla be okay, let her be holding up okay.' He refused to give them the satisfaction of hearing him scream. "Please, I got burned more by my asswipe of a dad and his cigarettes. That's nothing." He could hear Mikayla whimpering.
"Time to choose your next door, Hawkeye."
"2."
The door with a 2 on it opened, nothing behind it. "I'm sorry, another poor choice." He heard the door on the other wall open and another man walked in carrying a larger glowing poker. He heard Mikayla screaming even louder than before. The man in his room ripped Clint's left pant leg away and touched the poker to the inside of his thigh, causing Clint to tense up. He clenched his jaw and fists to keep from crying out. From what he could hear, Mikayla was not having as much luck keeping quiet. He continued to struggle to get out of the bonds, but he wasn't having any luck.
"This means she must be behind door number 3. Let's open it, shall we?"
Clint was not prepared for what was there when the door opened. There was no one there. "That is correct, Hawkeye. She is not even in this building. You've been hearing her through a speaker. We knew we would have to keep the two of you apart to get you to cooperate, so thank you for playing along. I'm afraid, though, the game is now over, and you both have lost." The door opened and a third guy came in but didn't have a poker. What he did have was a gasoline can. He came over to Clint, poured the gasoline in a circle around Clint, then all over Clint, which was what finally broke him. When the gasoline hit the fresh burns, he began screaming. The man flicked open a lighter, and as he went to drop the lighter, an arrow came through door 3, struck the lighter, and knocked it away from the liquid.
Clint looked up to see Tony and Mikayla coming through the door, and taking out the goons. Tony came over and was able to get him loose from his bonds. Mikayla came running through the doorway and knelt next to Clint. "Mikayla? I thought you – "
"Shhh," she kissed him, not caring he tasted like gasoline. "I'm fine, I'm fine. They made me record the screams, threatened to kill you if I didn't." Mikayla looked down and saw his burns. "Oh, God, Clint! Tony, he needs to go to the hospital and get these burns treated!" Clint had passed out from exhaustion.
"On it, Maid Marian," Tony picked Clint up and carried him out to the car and they left to go to the hospital, leaving Mikayla behind.
"Great." She used her comm to call Steve to come and get her. She explained to him on the way to the hospital what happened. "Thankfully, when I was able to reach Tony, he was able to track where we were. I think it was a fluke the goons took hostages the same night we were there. I just want to have a normal night out, though I'm not sure what that is anymore."
When they got to the hospital, Clint was still in the ER. They were in the process of treating his burns. Once they got him to a room, he'd get a bath to get the gasoline off of him. They didn't want to do that until the burns had been covered.
A couple of hours later, Clint had made it to a room. his burns had been treated, and Mikayla was giving him a sponge bath. "Do you think we'll ever be able to have a normal date, Clint?"
"Probably not, but it makes life interesting."
"True." Mikayla cleaned up his face. "Things with you are never dull."
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, Clint. It's you I worry about."
"I'm on pain meds, I'm great." He grabbed her arm and pulled her to him. "I didn't think I was going to see you again, Mikayla. When that third door opened and you weren't there, I didn't know what to do."
"I'm right here, Clint. I'm not going anywhere."
"Good, now come here and kiss me. Make me forget about my burns. You're the only one I want setting me on fire."
"You're not going to sing again, are you?"
"Nope, saving my strength for this." He kissed her so fervently, she dropped the sponge. She began running her fingers through his hair and his free hand snaked under her shirt.
"OK, so we know they're doing something, maybe we should start betting on what stage before you send me in there. And how did I get this duty anyway?" Steve asked.
"It's become a tradition, so why knock a good thing?" Nat said, gently pushing Steve into the room.
He stuck his head out into the hall. "Kissing and groping."
"I win again," Nat said. "Pay up, boys. At this point, I'll be able to comfortably retire with the money I make off of all of you."