HI everyone! :) thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter! hope you enjoy this chapter!
~Chapter 7
"Thor, I'm pretty sure the pancake batter isn't poured in a muffin tin and put in the dishwasher to be cooked."
"I believed it to be the fire-in-a-box." says the blonde man, donning a pink apron so as not to get food on his armor.
"The oven is this one, Thor." Becky says, pointing to the correct appliance. "And you can't put donuts, bacon, and five poptarts still in the wrapper in the toaster all at the same time."
Becky can faintly hear Tony wailing about something in the other room, but ignores it.
"Okay, forget the pancakes. We'll just make some omelets." Becky sighs and raids the fridge, pulling out the egg carton and holding it out.
The Asgardian accepts the eggs, but seems unsure what to do with them. Becky notices this and tells him to crack the eggs in a bowl and beat them.
Thor laughs manically, and adopts what one might consider fighting stance, looking ridiculous in his pink frilly apron. "I shall beat these eggs like you will not believe!" He roars.
Rebecca Beckett laughs nervously as Thor throws the eggs (shell and all) into the glass bowl and starts punching them with bare fists.
Maybe she should have asked Bruce to help.
"What are you doing to my poor kitchen?" Tony yells, sounding destroyed—as if he had given up on dinner and the survival of his kitchen altogether.
"…remodeling?" Becky offers.
Clint takes in a deep breath and smirks at the smokey smell. "Ah, a bonfire." He turns to Natasha. "What a great way for them to welcome us home. Thor must be cooking."
She ignores his humor, like usual. "We should have Bruce take a look at your shoulder before you go brooding on the roof."
"I wasn't gonna go brood on the roof!" He protests as they walk into living room of the top floor. "It's going to rain soon. Did you see how dark the clouds were?"
"Where is everyone?" Natasha mutters, noting the absence of the normal noise. No one lounges in the living room like usual.
"In here!" A female voice calls. "In the kitchen!" Hawkeye freezes, his eyes wide.
"What is it?" Natasha asks, noticing how Clint had tensed.
He doesn't reply as they warily walk in the kitchen.
It's a bit of a wreck with black burn marks on the wall next to charred mass that had once been a toaster, dishwasher soap spilled all over the floor, and the oven being cleaned by Tony Stark while Banner tried to shove him in and close it.
"Welcome home!" The girl says, her hair tied back as she cleaned, and Thor grumbled as he poked at the remains of his favorite appliance. "I'm Becky Beckett."
"You must be Natasha, and…" She beams at the Hawk. "Good to see you again, Clint!"
"Beckett." He grumbles. The two had more history as partners than he would care to admit. "Don't tell me you're…"
"Your new handler." Becky confirms as she wipes her hands off on a dish towel.
They walk back into the living room to talk, leaving the other Avengers to do the cleaning.
"You know each other?" Nat says, genuinely surprised.
"Yeah," Clint says brushing her off. "Long story." He was focused on the new girl.
Natasha doesn't like her already. She looks away from the woman and out toward the large glass wall, watching as a heavy rain starts to pelt the glass and slides down.
"Fury sent you?" He questions, eyes hard.
"Pepper requested me. You boys are killing that poor woman with your antics." She tells them seriously. "You need to stop acting like five year olds, so Fury sent me over to handle things—literally."
"So you're Phil's replacement."
Slap.
Natasha takes in a quick breath. Beckett had slapped her partner.
No one can hit Clint except for Tasha.
"No one can replace him." Becky says shakily. "If you even think…" Her voice wavers and she lowers her hand, turning away from the stricken Hawkeye back toward the door to the kitchen.
"I brought my cello. I'll play for everyone later, if you'd like." She says softly, through the crack in the door. "I know that you like that one piece…the suite."
Clint just turns on his heel and stalks away, not saying a word to Natasha prior to going outside to brood on the roof in the rain.
*(*)*
The Hawk can't honestly say he didn't deserve to be slapped like that.
He was out of line when he said Beckett was a replacement for Phil—both were very good friends with Coulson and considered him irreplaceable, but Clint didn't want another handler.
Especially not Rebecca Lynn Beckett.
Stark hadn't been exactly right when he said that Phil had left a cellist behind —he had, but Beckett wasn't his girlfriend. They were best friends, and had worked on more than a few ops together.
But she reminded him too much of Phil, and Phil was one thing Clint didn't want to think about right now. He still feels far too responsible for all the heartache the entire section went through.
He doesn't hate Becky.
He just can't face her knowing he's the reason her best friend is dead.
"You're going get sick if you stay out here all night."
Clint turns his head to see Pepper standing next to him. She takes a seat on the edge of the roof, something that would scare most people half to death. Yet she was comfortable with letting her legs dangle over the edge of a most definitely deadly height if one were to fall.
"I'm fine." He says simply, twiddling his thumbs. The cold feels nice. It's like a wake up call.
He really needs a wake up call too.
"You may have the others fooled, but you really have Natasha and I worried." Pepper tells him, her eyes telling him she wasn't kidding.
He still raises an eyebrow when she adds Natasha in the worry equation though.
Pepper rolls her eyes and snorts when he does this. "She might not openly show it, but she really is worried."
Clint just sighs, shaking his head in frustration. "I'm fine." He says, exasperated. He really doesn't want a pep talk from Pepper right now—he would jump off the building if he had a grappling arrow with him.
But Natasha had taken it, like she always does when he hurts his shoulder.
Clint glances down, looking all the way to the street below.
"Jump and I'll kill you." Pepper says coldly.
He lets out a nervous chuckle. "Okay, I'm not that stupid."
Now it's Pepper's turn to be exasperated. "Clint, I know something is weighing on you… I can't ask about any of your missions because they're confidential…but I get the feeling this isn't about a mission."
He knows he can trust Pepper. He knows she's not a bad guy, and he knows she won't tell Stark a word no matter what.
He feels like a hypocrite; wishing that Natasha could trust the team more, when he can't even tell Pepper what's on his mind.
Or maybe he just doesn't know whats bothering him at all.
"You don't have to tell me anything…" She sounds a little disappointed, but continues on. "But I'll be here if you do want to talk."
Pepper gets up to go back inside—she's soaked too now.
"Hey…"
She turns around to face the Hawkeye.
"Thanks." Clint says simply.
Pepper just smiles. "You're welcome… so will you come inside now?"
He nods and gets to his feet, rolling his aching shoulder with a wince. The rain didn't help the injury much. Just made it painful to move.
"I didn't know you were hurt." Pepper says, her smile dissolving into that same worried frown she had on moments before. "You should have Bruce look at it."
"Natasha will drag me there as soon as she sees me. She's probably mad." Clint sighs as the walk in, soaked to the bone and dripping water.
"Not mad." Pepper corrects. "Worried."
"Clint." Speak of the devil and she shall appear.
He can't help it—he jumps.
Natasha is damn scary when she's mad—or rather —worried.
"Hey." He says, unable to cover just how badly she had surprised him. He was tired damn it. Can't be alert every single minute like Tasha somehow is. "What's up?"
Natasha grabs him by the left arm—the one that still hurt like hell and starts dragging him.
"Ow,ow, ow, Tasha." He grinds out. "Easy tiger. That still hurts."
Tasha huffs and lets go of his left arm, instead dragging him by the right. "Sorry," She mutters, honestly seeming sorry.
Clint's eyes go wide and he looks back toward Pepper.
Was she right?
Was Tasha actually, honest gods worried about him?
So, what'd ya think?
oh i nearly forgot! I started a little side fanfiction that i'll work on when i'm not busy with this one (which i won't be for a while because i'm very ahead on it)
Anyways, it's called Collecting Memories, and it's very interactive (you'll see what i mean if you go read it), so go check it out if you'd like! No obligations of course!
love,
gilraenstar :)