Practice Makes...Something
Clint,
Sounds like it’s crazy over there. Meanwhile, Loki’s heart seems to have grown three sizes. That probably has something to do with the fact that they just started dating my cousin. Loki had an idea for a present for you and ran it by me. It’s super weird. Loki does what they want and what they want usually involves live reptiles.
The silly thing is that I know that Loki’s a good person, on account of having to listen to Sig talk about them all the time, because I have the patience of ten men. Just kidding, I’m very impatient, I just really care about my cousin and I listen to whatever she wants to talk about.
Your present was technically Loki and Sig’s idea. It’s the flash drive that Heimdall said Fury would give to you with my letter. I’m not totally used to the idea that Loki is dating my cousin. I mean, they gave her a frog once. I was there, and it’s not as cute as Sig makes it out to be.
I’m glad that Natasha and her family are taking care of you. And I hope people are acting normal around you. People started acting differently around Sig and her mom after my uncle left. Not me, though. And, surprising no one, not Loki.
Speaking of Natasha, not to sound like a broken record, but you should tell her you like her. I mean, Sig never listened to me, but she never listens to me about anything ever. In case you were wondering, unlike this letter, the flash drive we sent is SFN, or “safe for Natasha.”
- Ty
Clint put the flash drive in his pocket, then quickly folded up the letter. Rhodey raised an eyebrow at him.
“What? Ty’s still bugging me about Natasha,” whispered Clint.
Rhodey smirked for about half a second, then rolled his eyes. Clint understood. Given how long Rhodey had been friends with Tony and Pepper, the guy probably had a very low bullshit threshold.
“Ty tell you about Loki and Sig?” asked Rhodey.
“‘Course. Surprised Natasha hasn’t started screaming about it yet.”
“YES! FINALLY!” cried Natasha, jumping up on top of her chair.
“Get down, Romanoff,” said Fury.
Natasha sat back down. Clint smiled. He asked her about why she was so excited at lunch that day.
“Clint, in my last letter, I told Loki that they were being an idiot about Sig. And they listened, and did something about it.”
Pepper happened to walk by their table in that moment, and wordlessly high fived Natasha.
“Should’ve known you were the one who gave them a push,” said Steve.
“Ridley said she and Bryn have been pushing Loki for ages,” said Bucky.
Natasha shrugged.
“I guess if you liked someone you would just tell them,” said Clint.
Bucky choked on his sandwich. Steve half-heartedly patted his back.
“Not necessarily,” said Natasha, “sometimes there’s a good reason not to say something.”
“Yeah,” wheezed Bucky, “and sometimes there’s not.”
Clint looked over at Natasha quizzically. She only smiled. Clint waited until he got back to her house to open the flashdrive. He borrowed Bucky’s computer. Bucky sat there as he watched the video on the flashdrive, which was entitled forclint. He stood up to leave, but Clint had stopped him.
Bucky didn’t ask for an explanation, he never did. It was Bucky’s room. Besides, Clint didn’t want to watch the video all by himself. Clint hated being by himself most of the time.
The first person to appear in the video was a girl with brown hair and freckles. She had a soft and caring smile.
“Hi Clint,” she said, “my name’s Signey, but you should call me Sig. My friends do. Anyway, we all heard about what’s happening with your parents, so we wanted to do something nice. Please don’t be mad, we only know because all your friends care about you a whole lot.”
The next person was a boy with short blond hair who had freckles like Sig’s. His nose had clearly been broken a few times.
“Hey, it’s Ty. What’s going on sucks, and you can write me about it. Not like I can stop you anyway.”
Sig ran into frame and stood next to Ty.
“What Ty means is that he’s willing to listen, and since you guys are friends, he hopes you’re doing okay.”
Ty blushed and shrugged.
“Sure,” he said.
The video cut to two girls sitting side by side. They looked like they might have been holding hands below the frame.
“I’m Ridley,” said the blonde girl.
“I’m Bryn. I’m Steve’s pen pal.”
“And I’m Bucky’s.”
It took all of Clint’s strength not to roll his eyes. Because of course those two would be pen pals with Steve and Bucky.
“We just wanted to say that we’re all here for you,” continued Ridley.
“And we know everyone over there is too,” said Bryn.
The next person in the video was a guy who looked like he had cut his own hair while sleep walking.
“Loki, get in there,” someone scolded from behind the camera.
Loki walked into frame.
“I’m Thor. We were...um...twelve, was it?”
Loki nodded, then hung their head.
“Right. Twelve, when our father fell ill. He passed away. Four years seem like...ages and
still like yesterday.”
Loki looked up, then looked as though they’d seen something meaningful beyond the camera lens.
“Hold on to the...people that make you feel...like things are gonna be alright.”
“Eloquent as always, Loki,” said Thor with a smile.
Loki turned to Thor to respond when the video cut to two people: one remarkably short, and one remarkably...not.
“I’m Sif, and this is Al.”
Al, whose head was almost out of frame, nodded.
“We’re there for all the shit that goes down around here,” added Al.
“It’s important to be there for our friends. So we’re there, even though we’re here.”
#
Tony,
I’m sure Clint knows that you’re all there for him. Sig and Loki organized a present for him. Ty’s sending it along with his next letter. Ty seemed more surprised than any of us that it was Loki’s idea, but I’m sure it’s all an act. Ty likes to yank Loki’s chain.
Speaking of yanking Loki’s chain, I’m very very concerned. Next weekend, Hela is coming home for a few days. She’s Thor and Loki’s older sister. She’s away at university and rarely visits when she’s not on holiday. I will say something about Hela that I’ve only said about the Trunchbull and my fencing coach: that woman terrifies me.
I’m mostly worried for Sig. We don’t hang out much, but Bryn and Ridley absolutely adore her. Sig and Loki have just started dating and Hela has historically been very harsh. Thor dated an exchange student sophomore year who I heard describe the eldest Odinson as being able to “inspire neurological regression with one scowl.” Sig is in a two-person book club and her mom calls her Sunshine.
I’m not saying Hela is gonna tear her a new one, but it’s a definite possibility.
- Sif
Tony wasn’t worried. He knew from Bruce that Hela was objectively terrifying, but he also knew from Pepper that Sig was a really extraordinary person. Pepper cared about Sig a lot. After all, Sig had gotten Pepper to talk to Natasha and Steve.
Pepper was even drawing in public since she’d started hanging out with Steve, not that she let any living breathing human see it. She’d probably be willing to show Sig, but Tony made a conscious decision not to be jealous of that.
So maybe Tony was a little jealous. Just a little envious of someone who Pepper was so close with, even though they hadn’t technically met. But just a little bit, because Pepper really liked Sig and Tony should be happy that Pepper made more friends because he was her friend and he was supposed to be happy if she was happy about something.
She and Rhodey were all he had really, but the stupid pen pal project meant that everybody was branching out. Except for Tony, because he didn’t really want to. And that dark little spot in his mind that whispered bitter nothings didn’t want Pepper to, either. Or Rhodey. Because they were his friends, and Tony hated how possessive he was of them.
Pepper even ate lunch with Natasha and Clint sometimes. Also Rhodey. Bruce had taken notice of how upset Tony got whenever Pepper sat with someone who wasn’t him. Also Rhodey.
“Tony, what is going on with you?” asked Bruce.
Tony shrugged and continued to play with his food.
“You’re not upset because Pepper’s hanging out with Nat today?”
“That obvious? I feel like a dick.”
“It’s totally natural. You can’t make a decision not to feel stuff. Trust me, even the ugly emotions have their uses.”
“Like you have ugly emotions,” groaned Tony.
The truth was, Tony was friends with Bruce, but didn’t know him all that well. No one had ever gotten close enough to the kid for him to tell them anything about where he’d lived before he moved. And yeah, Tony had been trying to goad Bruce into letting something slip.
Tony regretted pushing Bruce when he brought him to a cemetery after school. It was one of the weirder things Tony had done. Bruce led him to a grave for a woman named Rebecca Banner.
“Bruce, is this your mom?” asked Tony.
Bruce nodded.
“We were trying to run, but he got home early. He didn’t want me, but he wanted her, so he wouldn’t let her take me away. If killing her hadn’t broken him down, he would’ve killed me too. My aunt Susan took me in after that. She’s his sister, but she never defends him. She was raised the same way he was but she’s always been good to me.”
“But you’re so normal,” said Tony.
Tony winced. He hadn’t meant to say that, after Bruce had opened up to him. But Tony’s filter was practically nonexistent, and it had mortified him on more than one occasion. Bruce snickered.
“If you’re trying to put me off, Tony, you’re going to have to try a lot harder than that.”
“Nah. I never try to put anyone off, it just happens,” said Tony.
Bruce smiled.
“How do you do that, with what you’ve seen, and where we’re standing?”
Bruce shrugged.
“Practice,” he said, “and a lot of therapy.”