Double-Edged Sword ─ age of ultron ✓

nine

This is trash, but I felt bad not updating for, like, two weeks, so have fun, kids.

★★★

THE Avengers had never been more quiet. Wanda's powers had Bruce, Natasha, Steve, and Thor shaken. Bruce really got the worst of it. The Hulk did an obscene amount of damage after Wanda unleashed him, and as if that wasn't bad enough, footage was on every news channel in the world. Alex was a little rattled too, but it didn't hit her like it hit everyone else. She and her vision were already well acquainted.

Having been sleep-deprived even before her all-nighter, Sasha crashed hard once her adrenaline from the fight faded. Eventually, she couldn't keep her eyes open anymore. She passed out, and instead of resting her on the ground, Nat kept Sasha in her arms. After the Wanda debacle, she didn't really want to let go. She was embarrassed as hell about it, but that vision fucked her up big time.

Somehow, Natasha managed to fall asleep as well. In her defense, she'd only slept a couple hours in the past couple days, and getting from Africa to Nowheresville, USA was a long ride, even in the quinjet. Sasha still in her arms, she slumped backwards and slipped into slumber.

"Nat."

Natasha jerked awake, finding Sasha's hand on her shoulder.

"We're here," Sasha said, standing up. "Sorry about passing out on you."

"It's okay. Sorry about falling asleep on you." Natasha grabbed Sasha's hand and let Sasha pull her to her feet.

"You were really out. I'm surprised you didn't wake up when I did."

"Nightmares."

Sasha snorted. "Tell me about it."

Everybody shuffled out of the quinjet, still in a haze. Alex looked around. In front of her stood a decent sized house with a barn. The only things around it were trees and some of the biggest expanses of grass she'd ever seen.

"Where the hell are we?" she whispered to Sasha. Sasha shrugged her left shoulder, her right arm wrapped around Nat.

"A safe house."

"Yes, but where?"

"Literally nowhere. There's nothing for a couple miles."

"Ah." As a city girl who'd spent a good portion of the past several years living in a cold cell, that unsettled the hell out of Alex. She followed Clint's lead, keeping a hand on the knife in her pocket in case somebody was about to jump out of this house and attack them.

Clint unlocked the door and led everyone inside. Everyone besides Nat and Sasha was confused as hell, wondering where they were and if it was safe. The place certainly looked lived in, not like it was some random abandoned hideout Clint happened to know about.

"Honey!" Clint called, stepping into the living room. "I'm home!"

A pregnant brunette woman around Clint's age emerged from the kitchen carrying markers and some paper. Alex was extremely confused. It seemed like the woman was too.

"Hi." Clint gestured to the whole sick crew. "Company. Sorry I didn't call ahead."

The woman kissed him.

"This is an agent of some kind," Tony said.

"Gentleman. And Alex. This is Laura," Clint introduced the woman.

"I know all your names. Except..." Laura laughed awkwardly and gestured to Alex.

"I'm Alex." She pointed to Steve. "His kid. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you." Laura's face sobered quickly. "Oh my God, Sasha, what happened?"

Sasha looked down at her bloody clothes. "Uh...it's just a scratch. I'll be fine."

"That looks like a little more than a scratch."

"Okay, yes, it is possible that it was more of a light stabbing. By glass, not a person. Don't worry, I haven't gone soft." She looked around. "Where are—"

"Incoming!" Clint knelt down, catching a little girl in his arms. A boy a bit older was hot on her trail. "Hi, sweetheart! Hey, buddy! How're you guys doing?"

"These are smaller agents," Tony insisted. Sasha rolled her eyes.

"Did you bring Auntie Nat and Sasha?" Lila asked. Nat slipped out of Sasha's arm.

"Why don't you hug her and find out?"

"How about you give me a hug after I shower, okay?" Sasha said as she watched Lila leap into Natasha's arms and look at her expectantly.

"Did you get hurt?" Lila asked, noticing the blood.

"Eh, just a little bit. You should see the other guy."

"The other guy was a piece of glass," Alex remarked. Sasha rolled her eyes again.

"Oh, f—" Sasha caught herself before she told Alex to fuck off in front of two young kids. "Thank you for that."

"Sorry for barging in," Steve apologized. He felt guilty just waltzing into this family's home. Tony, on the other hand, was much sharper.

"We would have called ahead, but we were busy having no idea that you existed."

"Yeah, Fury helped me set this up when I joined," Clint explained, one arm around Cooper, the other around Laura. "Kept it off  S.H.I.E.L.D.'s files, like to keep it that way. Figure it's a good place to lay low."

"Sasha!" Lila tugged Sasha's hand. "Can you come color with me?"

"Yeah, sure, dude." Sasha tapped Lila's head. "But just for a little while, because I really need to shower." She turned to Alex. "Want to come with? You're an artist. And you could use a distraction."

Alex shook her head.

"Nah, I'm going to walk around outside or something. Clear my head."

"Sasha, do you want to kick the soccer ball around with me later?" Cooper nearly slammed into his sister on his way to Sasha. Now that Sasha was busy being flanked, and the rest of the Avengers were busy being weird, Alex slipped back out the front door. She broke into a sprint, bolting across the field and into the woods.