It's chapter time! I have to take some artistic liberties with this one as we don't actually get everything that happens at the safehouse on the movie, so some things are obviously things I've created.
Hope you enjoy!
Sadly, I don't actually own Marvel, which would be awesome if I did. *sighs*
Safehouse? Safehouse
The Quinjet is set down in an open field, grass fanning out in the downdraft from the jet. Clint shuts the machine off and activates the door to open up. Bruce pulls on a grey jumper as they all clamber out, feet dragging from tiredness and weariness. Clint actually seems to light up in Astraea's eyes, his whole body relaxes and he actually smiles for the first time since everyone boarded the jet after the disastrous battle at the salvage yard.
The promised safe house is a large farmhouse, complete with porch and rocking chair. There's a slightly battered barn sitting close to the house and a large pile of firewood for chopping just in front of the house. Self-carved fences enclose various fields. Clint leads them in, with Natasha stepping over the threshold with uncharacteristic eagerness. Astraea frowns slightly, not sure of what to make of all the information here. Both Clint and Natasha seem very relaxed here, and the farmhouse looks way too big to be a simple safe house. There's some other secret here that Astraea just can't put her finger on.
As Clint aids Natasha through the door, Astraea takes one last look around the exterior of the building. Its wooden exterior is painted white and trimmed with green. There are a few potted plants by the door and dark green shutters for the windows. It looks more like a home than a safe house. The kind that would be filled with a happy family to make wonderful memories in. Though the house looks nothing like the one Astraea grew up in (a three-storey modern build with full-length glass windows and local stone walls), it feels familiar. A busy house that's loved by those who live there. A home.
The Avengers slowly clamber through the door, passing through the hallway and by the stairs to enter a generous kitchen-dinner with a lounge area. There's toys scattered all over the floor, coffee mugs on the table, and herbs on the window sill. This is definitely not the kind of place you only stay in occasionally. It's chaotic but quaint, large but cosy. Astraea spins on the spot, taking everything in. When she spies a plate of chocolate cookies on the counter-top her stomach grumbles loudly. This house is so lovely that Astraea is ready to collapse on the sofa and munch on snacks until she falls asleep. It's the perfect family home.
That begs the question, whose house is it?
oOo
Everyone is still looking at the room, shifting awkwardly in the strange building, waiting for some sort of cue from Clint. He and Natasha look ten times more relaxed than before – they must know who lives here. If the spies are relaxed, then Astraea ought to be too; they wouldn't let their guards down for anything they weren't certain of. She's already learnt that much about them for the couple of months they've spent together.
Then Clint murmurs, "Honey, I'm home." The whole thing is getting even crazy, and Astraea's head is spinning.
Honey?!
A woman with long, dark brown hair steps around the corner. She immediately steps up to Clint, wrapping her arms around him and kissing him tenderly.
"Gentlemen," Clint glances over at Astraea and the rest of them, "and Astraea, this is Laura."
"Hi." The woman – Laura – waves at them awkwardly and gives them a nervous flash of teeth. "I know all your names."
Tony mumbles something about her being an agent to Thor. Everyone, excluding Natasha, is staring in shock, trying to process everything that's going on.
This is gonna sink all those Clintasha ships now, Astraea thinks absently as she watches the scene play out, apparently Clint has a significant other that isn't Natasha like so many internet people love to believe.
There's a pitter-patter sound of footsteps that gets rapidly louder coming from just under the corner. Two children dash through the open doorway, running straight into Clint's arms. The smile on that latter's face is the biggest Astraea's ever seen it. This is clearly where Clint truly belongs; Astraea can't even begin to imagine the amount of strength and courage you need to face horrific dangers all the time whilst being separate from your family. Then again, the Avengers certainly seem to have become Clint's second family – the other group of people he'll feel completely at home with, even if it forces him away from his first.
When the smallest of the pair – a girl about 6 or 7 years old – clambers out of the hug, wearing a huge smile, she has only one question:
"Did you bring Auntie Nat?" Everyone turns to stare at Natasha as the little girl searches for her 'Auntie'.
"Why don't you hug her and find out?" Natasha has a smile on her face despite the haggardness of her earlier appearance. She takes the girl into a hug, picking her up tightly.
The rest of them are still standing around awkwardly, looking on the reunion plays out in front of them. Likely for most of the group, they never had anything like this really, Astraea ponders slightly, nibbling on her bottom lip.
Steve shuffles on her feet slightly, othering Laura an apologetic look. "Sorry for barging in on you."
"Yeah, we would have called ahead, but we were busy having no idea that you existed." Tony gives Clint a pointed look; Clint just shrugs in response.
"Yeah, well Fury helped me set this up when I joined. He kept it off SHIELD's files, I'd like to keep it that way. I figure it's a good place to lay low." Clint keeps his one arm wrapped around Laura and the other around the older sibling, a boy who appears about 10 years old.
Astraea's ears pick-up on a crunching noise as Thor steps on a small Lego house. Steve glances at the former as he tries to hide the mess underneath a sofa. Astraea stifles a laugh, barely, raising an eyebrow at the god.
Meanwhile, Natasha has stepped forwards to Laura, touching her bump. "How's little Natasha, huh?"
A pained look crosses Laura's face. "She is … Nathaniel."
Natasha leaned is closer and murmured against Laura's pregnant stomach. "Traitor."
Floorboards creak gently as Thor leaves the room, heading out on the porch followed by Steve. Bruce steps slightly closer into the room. Everyone stands in awkward silence for a few moments before Laura starts throwing out suggestions with a nervous smile.
"So, how about everyone gets a shower and changes into something a little more comfortable?"
oOo
They've only been at the farm a few hours and already Astraea wants to stay here forever. There's something comforting about the wide-open spaces of the fields and the cosiness inside the house that really draws a person in. It's the perfect place to raise a family and she can really see why Clint and Laura choose this place. It really is a wonderful home.
Tony and Steve are outside, chopping up a mountain of logs for the wood-burning fireplace in the living room. The latter has a noticeably larger pile, but Astraea's ears manage to pick up on the murmurs of an argument that has nothing to do with chopping up wood. It seems to be about Ultron, and how it would affect the team. Astraea shivers and walks away from the window. She'd rather not think about Ultron any more than she has to. That dream of hers keeps popping up and she can't get it out of her head. If Sabrina the teenage witch had hit Astraea with her powers that dream would definitely be the fear vision she saw.
She steps further into the house, sinking onto the sofa cushions in exhaustion. Astraea had changed into more casual clothes stored on the jet – dark blue jeans, a Hogwarts crest t-shirt, and a dark blue hoodie with Cap's shield on it. The hoodie was a gift from Tony, who'd gotten them all a set of Avengers-themed clothing in appropriate sizes and other various merchandise. Now Astraea had Black Widow underwear, a Hawkeye Nerf bow, a Thor necklace, and Iron Man socks as just a few things in her collection along with the hoodie. There are also a few Nemesis things out there, with the symbol of copper scales on a black background, but Nemesis hadn't even looked at those.
It's too weird, looking at stuff that people buy just because it's got your superhero symbol on. Then again, it's exactly what the others go through, expect that Tony probably enjoys it a lot more than the others.
A few minutes later, Clint's daughter sits down next to her, holding a collection of pens and a huge wad of plain paper.
"My name's Lila. Wanna draw with me?" Lila gives Astraea a big, toothy smile that just melts the older girl's heart. "And then we can play Hide 'n' Seek, cause it's not very fun with just two but now we can have three people so it'll be more awesome. What's your name?" She says it all very rapidly and just spreads her supplies out on the table.
"I'm Astraea, and sure thing, Lila, I'd love to draw with you." She smiles softly. "Anything, in particular, you want to draw?"
"Daddy being a superhero," Lila declares loudly, "cause he's my favouritist hero."
"Awesome." Astraea grabs a black pen and starts drawing out an outline of Clint as Hawkeye. Madison has dragged Astraea along to an art class, against the latter's protest that she didn't need to learn how to draw. It had been very interesting though, and Astraea had added a bunch more skills to her list. Astraea wasn't anything special, but Art had been something her mother loved, so she had taught Astraea since she was a little girl, until she had passed away … Astraea shook her head, pushing herself out of those thoughts. She isn't going to go down that road at the moment.
Lila babbles on about her favourite foods and whether or not she can convince her daddy to buy her a pony. "And I really want it to be cute and fluffy and have a unicorn horn. Then we can have adventures together and I can learn archery like Cooper is. And then I can be a superhero like daddy." She turns to look at Astraea's work. "That's good. Are you a superhero too?"
Astraea drops the pen in surprise, looking over to see Lila giving her big puppy dog eyes. "Uh … I guess? I'm, um, not really sure."
"You had a costume and you were with the 'Vengers. That means you gotta be a superhero."
"Alright then, munchkin, I'm a superhero." Astraea chuckles and ruffles Lila's hair. "Let's see these pictures of yours, then."
Lila lifts it up proudly, showing them to Astraea. There's a purple figure in one, shooting a green alien with black arrows. Another shows all the Avengers – Hulk is massive and green, Iron Man in red and yellow, Black Widow as a black figure with red curls, etc… A third one is a large pink and purple butterfly.
"That one's for Auntie Nat. I'm gonna show it to her at dinner," the little girl says, pointing to it with one finger.
"Well, they're all beautiful. You'll be an artist in no time at all." That gets another toothy grin from Lila. "You'll have to invite me to all your art exhibitions."
She nods solemnly. "First we gotta find Copper and play Hide 'n' Seek."
"Alrightly then. Lead the way, Princess Lila the artist." She stands up with a flourish, bowing to the little girl in a way that makes her giggle.
oOo
Some time whilst Steve and Tony were chopping up wood and Astraea was playing with Lila; the supposedly dead ex-Director of SHIELD turns up in a barn. When Astraea heads into the kitchen after playtime, Laura is cooking up a storm. There's pots and pans everywhere as she tries to cook a meal for 10 people when she was only expecting to feed her and the two kids. Heavenly smells are drifting through the house, but Laura seems on the verge of panic. The sounds of running water seem to indicate that Natasha or Bruce has just gotten out of the shower.
Still, the sound of Laura cussing softly under her breath is what Astraea is really focusing on. She could hear it halfway across the field she was playing with the Barton duo in and decides to turn up before with a simple objective: to help. Astraea has always loved cooking, so she quietly offers her services to a stressed Laura.
"Um, I'm happy to … uh, help?" Astraea steps into the kitchen, offering the Barton matriarch a small smile. "You kinda look a little … " She trailed off, uncertain on how to talk to this wonderful woman who had welcomed them all into her home.
"Oh. Thank you." Laura gave her a large, somewhat flustered smile, looking around the kitchen with a slightly lost expression. "Yes, that would be lovely. It's just so … just so mess cooking for so many with only two hands, y'know."
Astraea just nods and fidgets with the hem of her jumper.
A loud ding! sends Laura into action. "Right – chopping vegetables would be very, very useful if you could. Please." Laura turns to the pile of carrots and potatoes by the sink and sighs. "And peeling them apparently, if it's not too much trouble."
After Astraea assures her that no, it was fine, Laura busies on with her work leaving Astraea with a massive mound of vegetables. Locating a peeler is easier said than done though, and Astraea has to ask Laura to point the right drawer out for her. Still, she picks up the pace quickly and soon a pile of peelings is becoming an ever-growing mountain beside the sink. The freshly peeled vegetables are in bowls of water, ready to be chopped. It's simple work, but great for taking your mind off things, you would rather not think off. That is, of course, until your fellow kitchen worker strikes up a conversation.
"How did you end up here, Astraea?" Laura asks softly, not looking over from her place at the stove. "And I don't how you ended up in my house, I mean being an Avenger. You should be going to college, going out on nights-out, and stressing about exams, not maniacal robots." There's no judgement in her voice, just questioning curiosity.
"Uh … that is a good question which has a long and complicated answer," Astraea replies, trying to avoid the subject. "I am, however, taking online university courses and I still go out, sometimes. I was never really a 'going out' person. Not at night, anyways. Books, Netflix, and ice-cream for me."
At that Laura actually turns to look at her and there's an exasperated look on Mrs Barton's face. "Honey, I know when someone's talking around a question. God knows my husband does it far too often." Her lips pursed slightly at that, but her gaze softens into something like compassion. "I'm very good at telling when people are lying – I have two children after all. If there's anything you want to talk about, I have time. I'm a mother, sweetie, I know how to listen to people who need a little comfort. Dinner can wait a while."
Laura guides Astraea to a chair at the large, wooden, family table and they sit and talk. Astraea talks and talks about everything that lead to her sitting in that wooden chair, next to a woman who is so brave and caring and simply kind. Laura takes the younger girl's hand, holding it tight across the table and squeezing it occasionally. When Astraea gets to her dream, Laura murmurs words of comfort and doesn't stop being a warm presence beside her.
She finishes in half-an-hour, and by then the two chickens and the roast beef joint have just about cooked. The beep of a timer pulls both women out of their little bubble; as one they start working, unaware that a certain archer is watching when across the room with a smile on his face. Laura and Astraea finish the wonderful dinner that Laura had started, and call everyone in. And when Astraea takes a seat on one side of Laura and opposite Lila, both Barton parents smile at the teenager relaxing in their home.
Here it's safe and warm, far away from robots and dreams and monsters. Here the Avengers can be people for a while. Here they can share a dinner and fight off the bad thoughts through the night.
There you go then; some mother-'daughter' type bonding between Astraea and Laura, and some cuteness with Lila. No Madison this time, but I understand from several reviews that she's your favourite. She is definitely an OC I love writing - so feisty.
Well, that's that for now. See you next time.
Hope you enjoyed reading it, and thank you to everyone who reads, favourites, follows, or reviews. You really make my day!
Look-for-the-miracles