Shout outs to: , johncorn, Satisfactory Revenge, Funus Nex, Miss Emeralds, nats10823! Thank you to all of you who favorited and followed this story. I really appreciate the support, guys! Also, I do apologize for the inconsistent updates guys. You can count on the guarantee that there will always be at least one update per week but sometimes I really get into it and can pump out chapters two and sometimes even three days in a row. I hope that doesn't frustrate you guys too much. More shout outs at the bottom of the story…
Disclaimer: I don't own.
jack
Jack sighed. They were fighting again. He could hear them yelling at each other downstairs and he hated it. They fought all the time. He wasn't sure what they were always arguing about but he had had enough arguing in his life and it grated on his nerves to listen to more of it. It wasn't like he could just leave the room either: you could hear them throughout the whole cabin.
Jack sat up from his bed and looked across the room to his leather jacket. He could leave. He left often during the night, actually. He would stay out on the town performing magic or hanging out in the clubs. Every once in a while he would get in just a little deeper than he meant too – drinking despite being underage, playing escort to a few ladies who paid for the time – but he always got home before everyone else was up to hide back in his room and lock the door for the rest of the day saying he was feeling a little sick. He only ever stayed out for the night, of course: the Horsemen weren't allowed to leave this tiny town's limits, but he was sure he could raise some excitement somewhere tonight.
A particularly loud screech, most likely from an exasperated Henley, pierced through the walls and Jack picked up his jacket and walked out the room.
Halfway down the stairs Jack thought better of walking past the kitchen, where Henley and Daniel were fighting, and instead hopped out the window on the landing of the stairs. He would be back sooner or later.
coulson
It had been another long day at work for Coulson and all he wanted to do was get some Earl Grey Tea and relax in his SHIELD issued bed in his SHIELD provided room aboard the helicarrier. Usually Coulson worked from SHIELD's headquarters in Washington D.C. and lived in his apartment there but there had recently been some disturbances in the atmosphere that hadn't been explained and as such Fury had requested Coulson to board the vessel to be nearer to himself and Thor who had also recently come back from Asgard.
Just as Phil was walking down towards the bunks and separate rooms for higher ranking agents such as himself he felt his phone buzz in his pocket and flipped it open to see a call from Fury. Whenever Fury called Coulson and immediately hung up it meant that he wanted Coulson in his office ASAP. Coulson sighed but turned smartly on his heel anyway and headed towards Fury's office.
"What's going on?" Clint's voice sounded out from above Coulson.
"I don't know yet," Coulson replied calmly and without missing a beat as Clint swung down from the ceiling to fall in step beside Coulson.
"Where're you going?" he asked.
"Fury's office."
"It's about the magicians, isn't it?" Clint said. Coulson could tell, after years of being Clint's mentor, friend, coworker, and handler that Clint wasn't convinced that this was a good, let alone sane, endeavor.
Coulson just tilted his head and gave a noncommittal hum as he continued on his way. He really should have known Clint hadn't just dropped in to ask him where he was going – there was an ulterior motive. Whenever Clint wanted to know something without really asking the question directly he would start messing with his clothes and watch and bow. Natasha was much better at hiding ulterior motives.
Sure enough, not seconds later, Clint shrugged his shoulders and fidgeted with the hem of the black t-shirt he was wearing and said, "It's not a good idea," the same time that Coulson said, "It will be fine."
"How can you know that?" Clint asked as he adjusted his sunglasses which were hooked to the front of his shirt.
"Clint, do you trust me?" Clint nodded, "Even if I gave you a seemingly impossible mission, would you still do it – because I told you to?"
"Of course I would," Clint confirmed.
"I hold that same trust in Fury, Clint, and if Fury thinks this is a good idea then I'm just going to have to trust him as you would trust me," Coulson answered.
Clint shook his head a bit as if to say, 'I'm still not convinced,' but instead said, "That was pretty deep."
Coulson smirked and continued towards Fury's office.
…
Riiiiiiing
Riiiiiiiiing
Riiiiiiiiiiing
Coulson looked up at Fury at the third ring of the phone with an eyebrow cocked in an expression that said, 'This won't work.'
Fury returned the look as the fourth ring sounded through the room on the speaker of the phone.
Riiiiiiiiii–
"What?!" a voice rang out from the speaker in what sounded like exasperation or maybe even frustration.
"Hello," Coulson replied calmly, "This is Phil Coulson from SHIELD. I'm just making a follow up call to see if and when we should reschedule our meeting."
In the background a voice could faintly be heard saying, "Henley, we are not going."
A short bang and a yelp followed the statement and then the speaker, Henley apparently, replied, "We'd love to," there was a pause as another muffled grunt came from the background and she said, "Where and when?"
Coulson looked up as Fury wrote down a date for him to repeat and said, "Does the tenth work?" He listened for the confirmation on the other end of the line and then said, "We can send someone to pick you up, if that would make it easier."
"Henley – Henley, no!" could be heard and then the voice in the foreground said, "That sounds perfect."
"We look forward to meeting you," Coulson said, wrapping it up.
Henley&Daniel
"We look forward to meeting you," The man who had identified himself as Coulson said, ending the call.
Henley put down the phone and whipped around to face Daniel. She was already beyond angry before the agent had called. Daniel had picked another fight with her – or did she pick the fight with him? – and she was ready to pull her hair out. She didn't even remember what they had been fighting about but she did know that they were so good, too good, at getting on each other's nerves and things were getting tenser lately. Jack had been spending more time alone in his room and Merritt was even beginning to get a little snippy with Henley and Daniel with all their arguing.
"No," Daniel said before she could get a word out.
"You know what? You don't have to come," Henley shot back, knowing it would set him off. He was too much of a control freak to let his so-called 'team' go off to meet with a government agency without him but he was also too proud to go back on his previous declaration that they wouldn't go to see SHIELD.
Daniel narrowed his eyes, "Well I can't very well let you go by yourselves."
"I'm sure we could handle ourselves," Henley spat, turning on her heel to find Merritt and Jack to tell them they would be leaving in a few days.
Daniel scoffed and folded his arms, arguing with himself over his need to be with his team or to hold fast to his word, and followed Henley up the stairs. On the one hand he really wanted to make sure that they were all taken care of and not in any trouble – it was his responsibility as self-appointed head of the Horsemen – and on the other hand he didn't want to contradict himself. He had already thought of all the pros and cons of this situation and decided it would be better to just ignore the government agency and stay on the good side of Dylan Rhodes and the Eye. "What will Dylan say if we just disappear, Henley? What then?" He asked.
"We won't tell Dylan," Henley stated matter-of-factly as she continued up the stairs. She knocked on the door to Merritts room and stuck her head in, "Merritt," she said, making sure he acknowledged her before continuing, "We're going to see that SHIELD agency in a few days."
"Sweet," Merritt replied, sending her a sly grin from across the room. He saw Daniel leaned against the wall outside his room with his arms crossed and sent him a sarcastic wave, "You comin', dickhead?"
Daniel made a face and said, "Well I can't just let you go by yourself. You'd probably, you'd probably, I don't know…" he trailed off as Henley skipped down the hall towards Jack's room.
"Jack!" Henley called, "Jaaaaack!" she called again. She knocked on the door as she had with Merritt but when it swung open on her first knock she walked in, assuming he was on his bed reading or practicing magic. "Jack?" she asked when she didn't see him. "Guys, where's Jack?"
"What do you mean, 'Where's Jack?'" Daniel asked.
"I mean he's not here so is he downstairs or something?" Henley clarified, her eyes widening a little worriedly.
"Well, he was here just a few seconds ago," Daniel reasoned as he walked back down the stairs, Merritt and Henley in tow.
"Did you open this window, Daniel?" Henley asked as they walked down the stairs.
"What? No, of course not," Daniel said, flapping his hand in her general direction. "Jack?" he called.
"I don't think he's here," Merritt said walking through the arch into the living room.
"Well he barely ever leaves this house, I mean he doesn't even like to go get the groceries," Henley said.
"Ok, where is the kid?" Daniel finally asked.
Lol I totally exposed Jack. You're in trouble boy!
MEEVA E: I can probably get some Daniel whump in there somewhere, definitely! And thank you for reading this story! Spread the word and thanks for the review!
Meow: Ok Meow, I'm just going to say that it's really awesome that someone from Israel was all like, "Yeah, let's read some American's fanfiction and then comment on it like a total boss!" Thanks for the reviews! There probably won't be any Jack/Daniel solely because I want Daniel and Henley to make up at some point and I also don't know how to write smut because my version of flirting is basically me saying, "Dude you are one fine piece of man," and then running a safe distance. Also, I haven't seen House of Anubis but that can easily be fixed so I'll see what I can do!
Yello: Thank you so much for your review, my man! And your wish is my command: here is the next chapter!
Adios