Didn't see that coming?
NOTES: As said previewsly: AU for A:AoU -Clint's not married. Sorrynotsorry.
Before being riddled with bullets, Clint Barton was already having a bad day.
Well, actually, that was an understatement. He wished it had been just a day. The last moment of rest he had experienced was when they had spent the night at the bar, three days before that madness had begun, when the Captain had known that girl he kept thinking about.
While they all had been on the run, going after Ultron, they had made a break at the house of his sister, Laura, and his nephews on the farm that had belonged to their grandparents back in the day, in the middle of nowhere. That made him think of having a family, about Natasha and their strange relationship as partners... And that in turn had only served to lower further his mood, as if going after a killer robot was not enough.
Then Natasha had been abducted because he hadn't been where he should've at the right time.
Steve had arrived followed by the Maximoffs... and he'd wanted to scream.
They had worked for HYDRA, then for Ultron, and they had hurt not only Nat, but the rest of the Avengers, AND STEVE 'I-HAVE-ALWAYS-TO-TURN-THE-OTHER-CHEEK' ROGERS BROUGHT THEM ON BOARD? Sometimes he wanted to punch his teeth out.
And the best: after rescuing Nat, he had been asked to take care of the twins, Weird Kid I and Weird Kid II (also known as Speedy Gonzales), and everything got even worse. Something he didn't think it was possible.
Yeah, both of the twins had joined them at the final battle along with Vision. That would be good, if it wasn't for the fact that the Avengers were now increased in three members and, still, they were losing.
So there he was, hugging that little boy who couldn't be more than 10, just like Cooper, his oldest nephew, trying to protect him. When Clint had seen the child's mother crying, he hadn't doubted: he had to go back the city and take him back to her.
And now he was going to die.
He closed his eyes, protecting the child with his body... and then he heard the shots.
Ever since he was little, Pietro Maximoff had loved running. He could never sit still, and the feeling of going that fast his feet barely touched the ground, as if flying, was indescribable.
After their parents died, hatred had accumulated inside of him. And when years later he had presented with his sister before HYDRA, so Strucker experimented on them, he hadn't really been surprised to discover what powers he had been granted with. He was fast.
The difference between the moment they had been able to go out of the experiment's room (only about two weeks ago) and now, was that he knew what he had to use them for. He was with the good guys. Because he wasn't the villain... He didn't want to either.
He wanted to be a hero.
And so, when he saw that the first Avenger he had met in person, Hawkeye, had come down from SHIELD's Helicarrier to save that child and was about to get killed by Ultron, he knew he couldn't allow it. He had to save them, he could not let them die.
Pietro could not let him die, for the sister he had heard the others talk about. Just the way Clint wouldn't let him die, for Wanda.
And he wouldn't.
He heard the bullets and ran faster than he had ever done before, feeling the friction against his skin, the wind in his face. He used the potential energy generated for his fast movements and transformed it into mechanical, applying it to send a car in front of Clint and that little kid. Then he was aware that he wouldn't have enough time for getting out of the bullets' way; Pietro felt a hollow dull pain in the heart. He didn't want to die, not so young and not so... soon. But there was nothing he could do about it. Giving up, he embraced his destiny and closed his eyes.
'Forgive me, Wanda' Pietro thought, clenching his jaw and waiting for the pain.
But it never came.
'Am I dead?'
After a minute, he opened his eyes and saw Clint looking from the car to him a couple of times, slowly releasing the child from his embrace.
As they took in their surroundings, a dark skinned, strong build S.H.I.E.L.D. agent with brown eyes came running toward them. He was shaved and had a little beard; he was 100% in alert, and his eyes were suspicious, looking around nervously. The kind of look that Clint, Nat and Steve had for some time after the fall of SHIELD, after discovering that for years they had worked with traitors, people who were loyal to HYDRA. The difference was that, in them, little by little, it had gone missing; in that man, still remained.
He looked at Clint and showed him his badge: Agent Mackenzie. It was a new kind of badge, it hadn't the level the agent belonged to and Hawkeye wondered when that had changed. How S.H.I.E.L.D. had had time to make new IDs? The organization, for all the Avengers knew, had pretty much sank like the Titanic because of HYDRA, and they hadn't regrouped till now... Right?
After a moment, Clint handed the child to Mackenzie, knowing he had to find the others but the boy needed to be safe.
"Take him to the Helicarrier, please."
The agent nodded, putting the child in his arms.
"That's done."
Mackenzie gave Hawkeye one last look that made the hairs on Pietro's neck put on edge. He hadn't liked it. And Clint hadn't either.
He wanted to ask who was the head of his team, but before the archer could open his mouth, the piece of Earth they were standing shook and the agent had left off. How many time had passed while everything happened, a minute?
Shaking his head, Clint came from behind the car and looked at Pietro.
"You shouldn't have done that, Speedy." Hawkeye frowned. "Don't get me wrong but... why aren't you dead?"
In other circumstances, Pietro would've been offended, but the fact is that he was wondering the same question.
"I don't know."
"I think I do." Natasha's voice echoed among the collapsed buildings of the city. They turned around to see good part of the Avengers: the Black Widow, who had managed to get there that fast being carried by the Hulk (which made Clint frown a little), Captain America, Falcon and War Machine. They all had come from different places and in different ways, but all with the same incredulous face when they saw the scene.
After hearing Wanda's agonized cry, they thought Pietro was dead. To make matters worse, Clint was nowhere to be seen. But even if that was the case, if they two were dead, they had to find their bodies.
Wanda had gone after Ultron, followed after a few moments by Vision; and Tony and Thor were trying to keep the city a few minutes more up in the sky while their friends were rescued and the Helicarriers took in the civilians.
"I think it's because of her," Natasha nodded forward and both Pietro and Clint turned their heads at once as they realized they weren't the reasons of the looks in their peers' faces.
Steve was barely aware of what Natasha said. He was too focused on the vision before him.
A few hundred meters away, on the rubble of one of the buildings, there was a female figure. She still had outstretched hands when they saw her for the first time, with some sparks coming off the fingertips of her small, delicate hands.
When she lowered them, Steve could get a better view of her.
She was wearing black high combat boots, ripped jeans with a gun at her waist hanging on a belt of studs and a dark jacket with two blood red arrows on the shoulders, pointing down. At the front of the jacket, at heart level, there were the letters CS, the same color as the arrows on the shoulders. Despite its appearance almost normal, Steve was certain that the jacket was as strong as a bulletproof vest.
Her face was covered till her nose with a mask, similar to which Bucky had worn as the Winter Soldier; her head was covered by a hood that only left out a few strands of hair. However, being so far he couldn't discern the color.
Steve found himself admiring the way that clothes fit every curve of her body, and, when he realized of it, felt ashamed for thinking that way about a woman, especially with (y/n)'s image in his mind, a blush rising fast to his cheeks.
"VWho are you?" Pietro asked, his accent becoming more prominent in his state of confusion. The girl looked at him. Didn't bother to reply his question, and turned around.
But Steve knew that Pietro wouldn't let her go. Oh, no. She had saved his life, he would want at least to know why.
In the blink of an eye, Pietro was in front of the young woman. He picked her up and headed back to the Avengers, stopping to less than twenty meters from them, all in seconds. He gave her a lopsided grin without releasing her yet, and Steve felt some kind of rage inside, wanting to wipe the smile in Pietro's face.
Another earthquake, even stronger, shook the ground, but the Maximoff boy ignored it.
"I bet you didn't see t-"
Before he could finish his sentence or say anything else, there was a sound similar to when there is a short circuit and Pietro had flown about 100 meters, slamming against a wall. The jaws of everyone present could've scratched the floor, and it was a miracle that some eyes didn't change their role in life for rolling on the ground like golf balls, because they were bulging.
After that last quake, Wanda had passed over them in the arms of Vision, both of them going to a safe place. The young heroine was there in time to see how his brother was beaten and felt a murderous rage rising inside of her chest.
"PIETRO!" she shouted, trying to leave the arms of her companion; Vision stopped his flying, but didn't come down. This was not time for another fight.
"I fear that Tony and Thor will not hold much, my friends. We must leave while we still have time-"
"TIME? THAT GIRL HAS ATTACKED MY VBROTHER" Wanda shouted, her hands glowing red.
"Actually, she saved his and Clint's lives," Sam intervened, pulling down the glasses of his suit and bowing his head to one side as he studied her, still incredulous, trying to decipher how she had done... everything.
Wanda frowned then, the red in her hands fading away as she remembered that after reading his brother's thoughts and see what he saw, she had thought he would die.
"Really? And vwhy...?"
"He lifted her off her feet," Rhodey replied.
"And then he flirted with her." Clint shook his head, but with a half smile on his face. That girl, whoever she was, had saved their lives and knocked out Pietro. She'd earned his respect, and very nearly his eternal love. "She didn't like it much, it seems."
Wanda rolled her eyes and glared at his brother, who was getting up from the ground, his eyes still blurred and confused.
"You're an idiot, Pietro."
"I JUST VWANTED TO THANK HER!" Pietro complained, rubbing his neck and grimacing. "That vwas hard."
"GUYS, SORRY FOR BEING A KILLJOY, BUT YOU'VE GOTTA REACH THE HELICARRIERS. NOW." Tony shouted through the intercoms.
The Captain took a hand to his earpiece and nodded.
"We are carrying someone else with us, Stark".
"WHATEVER, BUT NOW."
They all set off to the Helicarrier, a couple of hundreds of metres away, just a quick run, except Natasha and Pietro, still on ground, and Wanda and Vision, who weren't in several danger since Vision was flying. They were waiting for Steve as he approached the girl.
Pietro stayed because of the girl, who had pretty much fascinated him; Wanda, because of her brother, and that added Vision too. And the Black Widow... Natasha knew she was in danger for not going back with the Hulk, but that girl had saved his partner's life, and she paid her debts. She wouldn't leave her there to die. She had made sure Clint left to the Helicarrier with the others, tho. She didn't want him to be away of anyone's sight until she knew he wasn't hurt.
When Steve was beside the young woman, he raised his hands to show he did not want to hurt her, but the girl seemed more than relaxed, studying the situation as it wasn't the first time she dealt with something like that.
"Thank you for saving my mates. You've got great skills there." She just stared at him, not saying a word. Steve hesitated. "You're in danger here, ma'am. I shall ask you to come with us."
Still, there was no response.
"Do you speak my language, ma'am?"
There was a huge explosion before them, and Wanda and Vision started to move to the Helicarriers.
"WE CAN'T WAIT ANYMORE, CAPTAIN. TONY GAVE US BARELY FIVE MINUTES, WE HAVE 30 SECONDS LEFT."
Pietro hesitated, his hands almost on Black Widow's waist, just in case he had to take her to the Helicarrier.
"Steve?" Nat asked him in an apparently indifferent tone.
But he was frozen, paralyzed. After the explosion right before them, the girl had stumbled down towards him. He had grabbed her by the arms (not missing the gunshot wound at her elbow's lower crease), avoiding her fall, and he had seen her eyes, taking his breath away.
Beautiful, big, deep, bright, (e/c) eyes.
He knew that eyes from somewhere, but couldn't exactly remember from where. She put a hand almost in his chest, there was a spark and then he was flying through the air, reaching the place where his friends stood. Pietro's and Nat's arms caught him.
The girl said something in another language, to which surprisingly Nat burst out laughing, and then had disappeared running.
Once they all were back at the Helicarrier, the four of them explained to the rest of the team what had happened.
Thor had no ever heard of that kind of powers, so there went the option of her being an Asgardian.
Tony, meanwhile, was delighted with the idea of a young girl kicking Sonic and Capsicle's asses.
Wanda just felt enormously grateful.
"She has savved my brother, I don't care about anything else," she stated, giving a look around, making sure Fury wasn't listening. The last she wanted was to get that girl in trouble.
Then an idea struck the Captain's mind and he turned to face at the group from the window where he was.
"Nat, what did she say that make you laugh that much? I mean, before we headed to the Helicarrier."
Bruce, back on himself, raised an eyebrow looking at the cup of tea in his hands.
"You mean after she made you fly through the air like a rag doll?"
Pietro chuckled at Bruce's audacity.
"Oh, shut your mouth Pietro," Wanda snapped with a wave of her hand. "She almost left you unconscious."
Steve sighed, holding the bridge of his nose.
"Let's go back to the topic," Tony intervened, raising his hands. "I have a question, why the rest didn't understand her?"
"They didn't understand her because she spoke in Latin," Natasha said with a huge smile. At that, Tony snorted. He had almost forgotten that Latin was within the languages spoken by Natasha, at least according to her false curriculum when she started to work for him as 'Natalie'.
'I don't care the language she spoke in,' Steve frowned. 'I want to know what she said.'
Natasha gave him a grin.
'She said: You didn't see that coming?'