Dead silence . . .
No comment. No laugh. Just me, blushing up a storm and completely embarrassed, as for the second time that day my verbal diarrhea made me look like an idiot (in my opinion anyway).
The man on the floor who made my purple mark tingle and grow warm was looking at me with wide eyes and a sense of wonder. Kind of like I had done something wrong, but I wasn't the one that had just fallen out of the ceiling! His dark blonde hair was tussled from his memorable entrance and he was the kind of handsome that said "dangerous," but I knew I would be safe with him.
He was very striking though, in a vest top and. . . were those leather pants? His tactical boots barely made a sound as he stood up from the floor smoothly and silently, and I would have felt like his prey as he stalked towards me if it hadn't of been for the smile on his face, and the laugh lines around his eyes. A serious man he may be, but I knew in my heart he wasn't that person all the time.
"Well hello there." He said in a velvety smooth voice and I instantly felt my cheeks turn bright red.
"Hello batman." I quipped to him cheekily to cover my embarrassment and he laughed.
"Yeah I'll admit that wasn't my smoothest moment." He said as he rubbed the back of his neck with one of his hands. "But I like being able to get around, and I like the vantage point and the tactical advantage of being higher than everyone else. Plus I see better from a distance. Usually the vents hold up though." He told me with a grin. " I'm Clint Barton, codename Hawkeye but everyone calls me Clint. You however can call me anything you want baby girl." He flirted.
With a laugh I couldn't help but goad him. "They may call you Hawkeye, but if you hang around in the vents you seem more like a bat to me. We haven't even been properly introduced yet mister hawk." I smiled up at him, and somehow throughout our conversation we ended up getting closer and closer together.
"Your names Stella. And we were introduced. Tony introduced you to everyone remember?" Reaching out he gently grabbed ahold of a piece of my hair and carefully tucked it behind my ear without touching any of my skin. I could tell he wanted to initiate the first step just as much as I did, he didn't touch me to start it without me agreeing to it first, which I greatly appreciated. However I had just met and done the first bonding step with Tony! Surely you couldn't bond with more than one person a day!
I turned around quickly, only now noticing the lack of warmth on my back where his hand previously was, only to see him sitting at the bar next to the man drinking tea. He must have felt my gaze, because he turned to shoot me a quick reassuring smile, before turning back towards the other man and starting up their quiet conversation again.
"He knows." Clint said from behind me, and I whirled around to see him looking down at me softly with understanding written all over his facial features.
"I'm sorry what are you talking about?" I asked him.
"He knows about us. Well about your other two Soul Mark's."
"But how? We just met!" I was baffled and also worried. What kind of man or men would feel ok sharing their soulmate. I didn't want to loose Tony, he was wonderful from what little I knew of him. I also didn't want to loose Clint, just from our conversation I knew that our personalities were a perfect match, and I couldn't wait to see what else we would have in common.
"He found out early on. We all did. Soul Mark's are unique as I'm sure you know. So after a mission when he saw my Mark and another teammates he threw a fit. We all did." He said to me quietly while looking ashamed. "I'm not going to lie. I never pictured myself ever meeting my mate, let alone having to share him or her. So when I realized that I would have to share you should you ever be found, I threw a little fit before I realized it was a good thing."
"I'm sorry what now?" I asked. I'm a 23 year old woman, and I wasn't proud to admit I had no idea where this train of thought was going.
"It'll be a good thing for you to have us. Lord knows I like Tony but he can be draining at times, and he loses himself in his work down in the lab so sometimes we don't see him for days. Your other soulmate and I have to go out on missions for SHIELD, so we can be gone at times for a day to a couple of weeks at a time. Not to mention, we are the Avengers and with that comes enemies. Its nothing you need to worry about, but this way you'll never be alone unless you want to be. You'll always have someone around to remind you that you're loved by all of us, and I hope you like cuddling because you can have as much of that as you want too." He finished seriously.
"You guys thought everything out." I was stunned. Here I had been worrying for most of my life, ok all of my life, about how I would deal with having three Soulmates, but they had basically made it so I wouldn't have to worry about much of anything except where the Hell I was going to live now that I had found my mates.
"We didn't want you to worry." Tony piped in from behind me. "Its kind of my thing. I pay for things, make people look good, and then when needed I help make decisions. But I'm not the team leader. You'll meet him later." He said as he went and stood next to the red head.
"I know we just met, but I'm dying to start the first bonding with you." Clint said as he moved closer to me. With a nod of my head and before I could verbally respond, I was pulled into a firm chest and was being hugged as a head rested on top of mine.
Unlike the fireworks that I experienced with Tony, I felt and experienced something completely different with Clint. Earlier he had mentioned vantage points and heights, and that was what I was feeling here only it was much more than that. I was flying. I was on the back of a red tailed hawk and we were soaring. Up and over the clouds, above mountains and treetops, and it was the happiest feeling in the world. I never wanted to come down. If this was why he was called Hawkeye and liked vantage points that were high up, then I could see myself standing right next to him all day every day.
A burning heat in my purple rose mark brought me back to reality, and I hissed through my teeth at the pain I was experiencing before a sudden cooling sensation washed over it. I could now feel the same steady thumping that was going through my red rose, was now going through my purple one as well. I was now connected to Clint and could feel his heart rate as he could now feel mine. When I looked up into his eyes I saw masked happiness and he wrapped his arms around my front and swung me around so I was facing the room as a whole with him at my back.
"Everyone!" Clint shouted to get the rooms attention. "Pay up!" And with those words money started changing hands and I had to look over my shoulder at him confused as I waited and hoped for an explanation.
Surprisingly it was Tony that gave it to me. "We had a pool going on if you would touch bond with more than one of us on the same day. Clint was the only one that said you would and he is now up $50."
"What I don't get paid enough." He said defensively and I laughed at him.
The redhead came over to us and handed Clint the money before looking at me. "My names Natasha but my friends call me Nat. Let me know if you need help keeping this guy in line, he's been my partner at SHIELD for years and I have some great blackmail on him." She said and then walked away before I could respond, and I felt a bit dejected that I couldn't talk with the only other woman present.
"Don't worry about her," Tony told me. "She takes some getting used to."
"Her heart is in the right place though, she just has a hard time trusting people." Clint added.
I could understand that. The way I was acting now with the Avengers, Pepper, heck even with Happy, was not normal for me. This was the real me. The me who can't stand Reese's peanut butter cups because I ate too many of them as a child. The me who is overly dramatic and makes jokes that can sometimes be borderline dark but I never mean them in a bad way. This is the real me. The one who I could only be around my mom growing up because of the bullying I experienced, and let me say it was freeing. Not having to sensor my words because I know that I won't be kicked out because of something I say. Not having to force myself to eat that damn peanut butter cookie so I don't offend anyone even though I hate peanut butter after the "Reese's incident." So if I had to earn Natasha's trust and wait for her then I would, because I had been waiting all my life for this moment to be comfortable enough to be myself, and once she trusted me, I knew she would be comfortable enough to be herself with me too.
The man in the purple shirt was behind Natasha when she came up and was still in a quiet conversation with Tony when I looked over at them. Quiet seemed to be his preferred talking mode, and I wondered if he was shy?
"Dr. Bruce Banner this is my darling mate Stella. Darling this is Dr. Banner. Sometimes he turns into a huge green rage monster." Tony said nonchalantly.
"Tony!" Bruce and I yelled at the same time. I yelled because that wasn't nice of him to say about what was clearly one of his friends at all, though I don't know why Bruce yelled. He looked like he was afraid I would be scared of him maybe? I don't know. Either way I gave Dr. Banner a big smile and held out my hand for him to shake.
"Its nice to meet you Dr. Banner."
"Bruce please. I only enforce the doctor part when I'm lecturing at a college, or at SHIELD." he chuckled.
"Bruce it is then." I smiled. I was about to ask him what kind of doctor he was, but I was picked up into a huge, tight hug and spun around in a circle.
"Lady Stella! Tis' a pleasure to meet the mate of the Man of Iron and the Eye of Hawk! I am Thor, Son of Odin, and God of Thunder." The huge Blonde man boomed as he sat me down.
I wobbled dizzily on my feet momentarily and I felt two sets of hands steady me as I looked up and up and up at the gigantor before me.
"Its nice to meet you Thor. I am Stella daughter of Janelle, Goddess of nothing." I said cheekily and with a smile.
Thor and everyone's laughter filled the room, but it didn't cover up the sound of the elevator door opening and the sound of someone walking into the room and joining us.
"What did I miss?"