Veiled
You pull your shirt off over your head.
Your suit is laid on your bed, waiting to be put on.
You don't know if you can bear changing the bandages, seeing the scars and feeling the hurt.
You don't.
You put on your suit without changing the gauze. It's dirty and infectious but the could-be pain outweighs it. You needed a clear mind right now anyway.
You grab your gear and head out to your car, the destination being the Compound.
----
You pull up to the Compound and head inside, navigating the halls, looking specifically for the missions room.
When you get there, you see Nat, Clint, and Steve. A bit of an odd bunch for a mission.
Nat smiles at you. You return it politely, taking a seat on one of the rolly chairs.
"Alright, team," Steve addresses, rolling out a map onto the table.
This was a nice distraction.
"Isn't this --" Clint starts but gets cut off by Steve.
"An odd team? Yes. The candidates I would chose for this specific mission are on others, and since this is a priority right now, I've called you all up here."
You rolled your eyes. So you really were just a last pick, last choice if there was nobody else.
You stare at the map -- that wasn't really visible from here. Everything starts to feel automatic from now, maybe it's because you're just used to running on autopilot when it comes to missions. Or it's because everything started to feel far away again.
Steve drones on about something like gathering intel on a certain group because of... dealings? You weren't entirely sure, your brain kept spacing out.
"Y/l/n," Steve says, and it snaps you out of it for a moment.
You look at him. "Yeah?"
"Are you listening?"
You nod.
"So, these guys are dealing gimmicks that have something to do with enhancement?" Clint says, and Steve's attention is averted to him.
You fan your eyes over the scene, seeing how much marking had been done on the map. You caught Natasha's eye for a moment and looked away. She gave you an odd look.
"Yeah. These serums, we suspect, have something to do with the enhancement of the human body," Steve explains.
Clint nods, assessing the markings you had no idea the meaning of. You were so lost on this.
"Alright, we good on this?"
They rest of the team nodded and you found yourself nodding along despite the lack of information you had on this. You didn't want to tell anybody you didn't know what was going on -- they'd get mad, having to reexplain it all, and you're probably in a time crunch anyway.
You all grab some gear.
"We don't have time for the usual assessment," Steve said when you all were standing by the exit, ready to be deployed. "So I just have to trust you all are okay, right?"
You weren't quite sure what he meant by that.
"Clint, your wrist is fine now, right?" Steve went on, and Clint nodded.
Oh. Physicals.
You nodded tightly even though you hadn't been addressed.
You all got a move on, and you silently thanked god for this.