Can y'tell it's finals week yet? ;)
I should be studying! I should be, I can't become Tony Stark without this degree! But my stories are way more important cause. lets face it, I love you guys more than Fluid Mechanics!
REVIEWERS!
Niom Lamboise; I do love your reviews my friend! I dunno, I like Kate, and you'll see in some chapter soon why she asks things so much. I usually see it more as a way of her trying to annoy Clint more than anything, but that's just me! :P But thank you for the praise, hopefully you like the rest!
Thanks for reading lads, I do apologise for always having these AN's, but like, it's the only way to communicate with y'all!
Review please! Let me know what to do next!
DISCLAIMER; So, lads, I think y'all know by now I don't own Marvel. Seriously like, nothing to do with it. Not even a little bit. I own some tattoos, and some posters, and the cutest little Hawkeye Pop figure! But that's about it! I OWN NO RIGHTS TO THIS STUFF, JUST WANNA MESS WITH THEIR CHARACTERS!
"Usual plan?"
"Hasn't failed us yet." She replied to his question with a shrug, he noticed she was a little too busy cleaning her gun to look at him right now.
They got to the hotel in Chicago a little after 5pm. It was getting more and more difficult to find a hotel that they hadn't already wrecked! This was a fancy one, the room was huge. They were acting couply, avoid suspicion, so they got a room together. One with a large double bed. The usual stuff then, a fairly alright en suite, a desk, a tv on the wall, and a table which she was currently sitting at.
Clint had gone out to grab them some food and he came back to find her cleaning all their weapons. A habit, he knew, she had when she was restless. He was surprised she wasn't tired actually!
He set the food down infront of her, the usual mission food for her, a nice healthy chicken salad and some water.
He was never quite as good an agent, he happily sat down opposite his partner and grinned as he took out the nice giant burger, instantly taking a bite of it with a happy sound.
"Well we can scout out the place later then." She said with an amused smile, setting her weapon carefully aside to eat her own food. "Not even sure how many Hydra idiots the kids saw around. Can never trust new agents."
"Don't have to remind me of that. Still have the scars on my legs from the shrapnel they caused!" He laughed, taking apart his burger a little so he could pile some chips ontop of the meat.
"You're an animal, Barton. I swear." Natasha laughed, shaking her head as she ate.
He just grinned and shrugged, eating away without taking any notice of her.
"Why'd you take the mission if you don't know there is one?" He asked after swalling his burger pretty much hole, nibbling away on chips now. He knew better than to talk to the Widow with a full mouth. He couldn't feel his balls for a week the last time he did that.
"I dunno." She shrugged, a slight smile on her face as she went through the mission file that may not be a mission file. "Incase it is something, I guess. We'd regret it if it turned out he was here and we didn't check it out."
He nodded with a little sound of understanding, standing then to go change out of his traveling clothes. They were pretty horrible after twelve hours in a car!
"You gonna come out with me?" He asked with a grin, finding a shirt and some jeans. If he was going out for a while, he should dress smart for the time!
"I think I'll stick to scouting the hotel." She replied with a smile, going back to cleaning the weapons like before.
He nodded a little, facing away from her then so he could strip down and change. He was hoping she'd say yes and come out for a while! It had been a pretty long time since they just went out and had a few for fun! But he knew their usual plan. She scoped inside, he scoped out.
"Trying to find escape routes?" He asked with an amused smile, busy buttoning up his shirt.
"Always helpful for when you come back with a bullet in you." She laughed, and he pouted a little at the joke.
"I amn't THAT bad." He frowned, turning to look at her then.
She was giving him that 'Oh, that's bullshit and you know it!' look.
He thought about it for a moment and found that he couldn't disagree with her. So she had a little bit of a laughing fit when he just turned to get his shoes with a "Smart arse.." comment.
"Get another room if you bring someone home." She said with a smirk as he leaned over to get his room key, and he just shot her a grin.
"You know you're the only woman I need in my bed." He whispered before giving her cheek a little kiss.
He was gone without another word, out the door and off to explore the little area of Chicago they were staying in.
Chicago.
In November.
Not their smartest choice really! But hey, it's still kind of warmer than some places they had missions.
When he stepped outside, he pulled his jacket up a little tighter around him. It was still only early evening, but it was nearly dark already. Their hotel was on a main street, so he could hear the hustle and bustle of restaurants and bars.
He paused in his little walking adventure when he spotted a bar across the street. It looked nice, a sign saying Karaoke.. He has to go in!
He shook his head of the thought and continued walking, his hands going into his coat pockets to try keep in some heat. He had to scope out the place first. Mission always comes first.
Then fun!
To a civilian observer, he probably looked pretty damn suspicious. Some random alone guy, walking up and down the street four times, then dipping in and out of each alley way on the fifth time round.
But, it was routine. One of the pair would analyse the place they were staying in for all escape routes, hiding places, and, well, hiding-body places. The same would be done by the other person outside, about a mile radius around so they can get the best possible mind map of where they were.
Being the gentleman, and whipped partner, that he is; he was always given the outside job instead of the nice indoor one.
More than once, he's been stopped by cops when trying to complete tasks like this. More than anything; THAT'S the reason why he took the outdoor duty. He was used to dealing with cops, and in all fairness, they do have to check why someone is suspiciously wandering the streets. More often than not, he just made the excuse 'I'm just visiting and can't find such and such a place.' and it worked 99% of the time. So, he does this, because if Natasha was to be stopped by cops while surveying, she'd be in the jailhouse for the night and the courthouse in the morning for assault of an officer with a deadly weapon.
After the street search, came his favourite part of any scope mission; getting to know the locals!
Especially now-a-days when all he wanted was to relax with a drink!
For the last few streets, he was basically dead on his feet. He just travelled all streets and alleys around their hotel, so nearly three hours of walking had him shattered.
As soon as he saw that pub come into view though, man-oh-man he started to run!
It wasn't like his little local one. His was, what he called, an old man bar. He could sit in peace in a corner, only being disturbed by the odd old man who'd stop to tell war stories or talk about their grand kids while buying him some drinks. Kate always teased that he was right at home, amoung his own age group.
Here, though, it was some kind of karaoke-club-bar-thing-a-ma-bob. A teenage place, with the odd older person out to have a night they could never have during their youth.
Music was loud, REALLY loud, though it was coming up to 9pm so the party around this place would be starting.
All the girls seemed young enough to be his kids. He felt way out of place until he spotted some older people at the bar. Must be where the stiff adults sit while the kids run around the club with eachother.
So, he found a stool at the bar, gave a slight nod and a polite 'hello' to the man sitting next to him, then ordered himself a nice tall whiskey.
One of many for the night!
That way, when he went back to the hotel room, maybe he could have a bit of dreamless, nightmareless sleep before the real mission starts tomorrow.
"Right, left, right, left.." He whispered to himself as he walked into the hotel reception, a stupid grin plastered on his face as he tried concentrate on putting one foot infront of the other.
The teenagers got to him! While he was sitting there, happily enjoying his whiskey and occasional pint, some lads came over and started buying him shots for what reason he couldn't tell!
Then their dates came over, young ladies, trying their best to get him to drink with them aswell.
So he did! He was just going to have maybe three drinks and head home before midnight. But now, it was 5am, and he was trying to operate the elevator in reception. Much to the amusement of the young lady behind the desk.
"She'll kill me.. So Shh*hic*shh.." He said to the laughing woman, who just made a zip gesture across her lips before throwing away the key.
He gave her a thumbs up with a grin. "I like you, Sandra!"
He didn't know if her name was Sandra. But she looked like a Sandra to him! He could just hear her laugh a little more as he stumbled into the elevator.
"Ohhhhhhhh floor number~" He sang to himself, trying his best to focus on the blurry buttons infront of him.
It was November.. So floor 10, month minus 1.. So he pressed floor number 10! Knowing it would be the last room at the end of the hall, hopefully the one next to the fire escape, but usually mainly the easterly facing room so they could tell the time of day incase something happened and they didn't have a watch.
They were way too predictable! But it's how they always knew where each other would be staying incase of emergencies.
"Natasha's gonna kill you, Barton.." He chuckled quietly to himself, glad it was a key card rather than a normal key. The less effort required right now, the better!
He shushed the door as it opened, a soft creak sounding through the room. He shushed it once again when it clicked closed behind him. She'd murder him if the door woke her! Bold door!
He stood by the offending door for a moment to survey the room. No one in the bed, but that's where Natasha should be. Another hiccup rattled through his body as he stood there, then he managed to faintly hear the shower.
Ah! Early morning trainging session! He forgot she was a damn early riser!
He wobbled his way over to beside the bed, grabbing one of the pillows off of it and placing it on the floor. He quite happily fell down then to lie next to the bed, giving the pillow a little nuzzle when he realised it smelled like her.
Sleeping on a floor, classic mission style.
As he drifted into a dreamless sleep, he realised one thing, he seriously missed being a spy!
"Clint.."
The voice was quiet, which was perfect, since his head was currently thumping away at not a nice beat at all. He gave a slight groan and rolled over onto his side, reaching a lazy hand up to his ear to try take out his aids. Though a gentle grip stopped him.
"C'mon, you little idiot. Get some food into you before you throw up again."
Again?
He peeked his eyes open and looked up at the owner of the voice, a fairly concerned Natasha Romanoff sitting on the edge of the bed next to him with a glass of water in her hand.
"Hey there.." He rasped out, his throat feeling like sandpaper. Maybe he went a little too hard last night..
"Hey yourself.." She smiled, putting the glass down on the bedside cabinet to help her partner sit up.
He groaned once more as a nauseous feeling overtook him, though he managed to get it under control when he closed his eyes for a few moments.
"How much do you remember?" She laughed out when she handed him the water, his throat damn thankful for the little sips he was taking.
He closed his eyes once more to try think, shrugging then. "Honestly don't remember after the third shot.."
"Oh, shots never agree with you, you know that." She laughed once more, ruffling his hair a little as she stood up.
"Hey, I can handle them!" He growled, using the bed to help him stand up. A thin blanket was over him that he never knew existed. She must have put it over him.
"Put your aids on full volume then tell me that." She smirked, watching him as she cut up an apple. Fruit always helped his hangovers, it was odd how she knew that so well.
He rasied an eyebrow at her words, glancing down at the control bracelet on his wrist to see that the hearing aids he relied on were actually only at about 40%. He hummed in thought when he saw it.
"Damn.. Even this is killing me.."
"Light weight." He heard her mutter in Russian as he left the room to go to the bathroom, letting the cold water of the sink run for a moment.
He needed to get his stomach under control before talking to her about anything!
He took out his aids and set them on the sink before letting his head fall under the cold water flow, allowing the stream of water to soak the back of his head. No better way to wake himself up!
He took a quick glance at his watch a moment before he dipped his head and it was already past 4pm. How she let him sleep so long, he'd never know.
Then again, she did kind of hint that he got sick. So maybe he was up already..
Damn alcohol ruining his memory!
He gave a slight sigh and grabbed the hand towel from the side of the sink, ruffling the water from his hair before heading back out to his partner.
"Your scope go ok?" He asked softly, pointing to his ears to let her know the aids weren't back in yet, so she had to sign for a few minutes.
'Not as fun as yours, it seems.' She signed in reply, the smile letting him know she wasn't mad about it though. She nodded to the cut up apple on the table, her way of saying eat it now or I'll kick you in the shins.
He gave a little chuckle and nodded, grabbing an apple slice from the table before sitting down.
"Hey, I got my local news!" He cheered with a smile, rubbing at his eyes a little though to try get the sleep out of them. She raised an eyebrow to let him go on. He just shook his head. "They've noticed nothing unusual. No missing people, no out of the ordinary attacks, just the normal muggings. No strange figures or anything. I'm sure that the strangest thing they probably noticed is some strange man coming into a bar and asking them all these weird questions."
'So, no leads?' She signed with a slight frown, and he nodded.
"No leads. Think your little newbies were just over reacting to something."
'Well, get dressed. We're going snooping some warehouses once darkness hits.' She signed quickly, a little smile on her face.
He grinned and nodded, stuffing down another piece of apple before skipping to the bathroom to get ready.
It had been way too long since he's done a mission with her, alone!
So he couldn't wait to get back into the game!
Hangover and all!
Hangovers could never stop STRIKE Team: Delta!