Clint Barton looked down at his foster daughter, Trinity. She was fuming about something or the other, and his daughter was up in her room fuming. She'd been with his family for a stormy four weeks.
"Ok, Trin. What's this about?" He sighed. He knew she was having nightmares about the New York battle. Who wasn't? Then again, she was young, and shouldn't have even been there.
"Everyone at school hates me," she mumbled morosely, kicking the dirt. She hated being in this podunk little rural area. She was a New Yorker. She'd never been off the Island of Manhattan before this and was experiencing culture shock. Her strange accent grew thicker by the moment. He never could get a bead on exactly what the accent was, but he realized that she wasn't speaking English.
"English, please," he said, furrowing his brow as he concentrated on her speech.
"Oh, this again? English 'tis a difficult language indeed," she said formally. "Why speak it when I can make everyone understand me?"
"Why, you're speaking Allspeak! But how is that possible?" Clint was floored. "I thought only Asgardian could speak it."
"And half Asgardians," she said proudly. "But if it's important to you, I will better my English." Clint shook his head in amazement. What sort of a line was she trying to give him?
Clint finally brought out his compound bow and arrow. It was practice time, and he figured she could tag along. "Come on and we can talk more."
"I can't help it if I'm the smartest person in the room," she said earnestly, trotting beside him. "All the kids are mad at me for blowing the curve."
"Do they still grade on a curve?" Clint asked, amused by her egotism. Wow, he'd heard crap like this come from Tony Stark before. He could really believe she was Tony's daughter. I
"Yes, and it's totally ignorant, if you ask me. It just sets someone up for failure." She sounded indignant. "Why?"
"I wish I could tell you, kid. I really do. I need you to tell me why you quit track, though." He leveled her with his laser beam stare, and she felt very uncomfortable. She shifted her weight, then sighed.
"Ok. I felt like I was taking unfair advantage of the competition. I'm stronger and faster than they are. I always have been. It's how I managed to pick up and fire one of those Chitauri weapons in New York after those assholes blew up that car and it landed on my mom."
"You mean to tell me you were fighting with us?" Clint was amazed. She was barely twelve, and those guns weighed at least forty-five pounds.
"Yep. I kept screaming you killed my mother, you filthy sons of bitches! Die! Die! Die!"
He stopped and stared at her, thinking back to the fight. It had been a vicious battle, but he didn't remember seeing anyone around.
"I don't remember seeing you," he admitted as he put his arrow into his bow and fired. He was still looking at her, yet managed to dead aim the target. "Hey! Where'd you go?"
She blinked back into sight. "I didn't go anywhere. I just bent the light around myself. Remember, I'm half Asgardian. Thor is my uncle. That's why it's not fair if I participate in track. I can win every single time. That gets boring after a while."
"Then who is your dad?" Clint had a sinking feeling in his gut. Somehow, he knew the answer. She just reminded him too much of…
"Tony Stark." There was more than a hint of bitterness in her voice.
There it was, the elephant in the room. And more than likely she was the smartest person in the room. Poor kid. "He doesn't want me. He's ashamed of me. He hates me."
Clint stopped, put his bow down and enveloped her in a hug. "Oh, sweetie. It's not that at all. I know Tony. I'm sure he's afraid he'll scar you for life, or something like that."
She burst into laughter and tears. "Like I'm not already? I saw my mother get squashed, couldn't find my brother, watched my dad fly into a wormhole and plummet to earth like he was dead. Oh, I'm scarred, for sure." By this time, Lila had come from her room and was listening to the conversation.
"Dad, it's practice time," Lila said to change the subject. She didn't like how serious it was getting and she could tell Trinity was upset. Yes, Trinity was irritating and egotistical, but she still felt sorry for her. She'd been through a lot.
That night, Lila and Trinity were allowed to sleep outside since it was the last day of school. They lay in their sleeping bags, hands tucked behind their heads, staring at the Milky Way.
"I've never seen the stars so bright before," Trinity said in awe. "It's too bright in Manhattan. Too much light pollution."
"It's really cool during a meteor storm," Lila said eagerly. "We'll have to pop popcorn and watch during the next one."
"I've been thinking about career day," Trinity said after a pause. "What do you want to do when you grow up?"
Lila giggled. "I want to be a Hawkeye, like my dad. How about you?"
"I want to be an Avenger someday," Trinity said with finality. "I saw how fragile those people in New York were. I want to protect them."
Clint walked up on their conversation just then. "You want to be an Avenger? Then you'll have to train like an Avenger. Any skills you have will be sharpened and utilized. You will eat, sleep, and breathe archery. And self defense. I'll train you, and you will listen to me."
Trinity decided that she needed something different to do that neither Clint nor Tony did, so she elected to take up drumming in the school band. She spent as much time with her drums as she trained with Clint and tinkered with her tech toys. She knew all sorts of fancy tricks with her drumsticks; it made up for and masked the fact that she couldn't sleep. She drove Lila to distraction listening to Rush nonstop.
She went to bed in a huff one evening still holding her phone, listening to her music, earbuds in, and rolled over when Lila came in.