Heartless

22

"How you doing?" Clint asked me, we were the only ones in the kitchen, in the middle of the night.

"I'm doing good, just couldn't sleep." I said.

"Well that's unfortunate." He said in a sarcastic voice, I turned to him with my brows furrowed, weird interaction. "What?" He asked.

"Well, just sounded pretty sarcastic to me." I said angrily, sitting down at the table.

"Why do you get so mad easily?" He asked me, I just shrugged and crossed my arms. "What's your deal, it's the middle of the night. Give me a break." He said.

"Well I actually haven't talked to you in like a week, so I think that's a pretty good break." I told him.

"Ok, I don't get you Ivy. Kate has told me everything about you." He said scoffing. "You use anger as a defense mechanism, and it doesn't work Ivy."

"Why are you getting so worked up about this? Like you said, it's the middle of the night, give me a break!" I said, raising my voice.

"It's great to see that you really haven't made any progress on your dad. You've been angry about it for the past fifteen years, and you killed his murderer basically as soon as you set eyes on him!" My eyes watered at the mention of this. "You're so angry all the time just fucking let go of it." I scoffed.

"You don't get it." He narrowed his eyes at me menacingly. "Seeing that when I was eight was pretty traumatic, no one just forgets that." I said. "Anger will help you survive, yes, but only for a while. Then it'll eat you alive. And I guess I figured that out the hard way." I said.

"But you let it take over you!" He exclaimed.

"Ok, well you're one to talk, Ronin. And where is this coming from I've lived here for four months. Why haven't you mentioned it earlier?" I asked him.

"Kate talks about you." Was all he said.

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" I asked.

"I'm smart."

"I know that."

"And I hear what she's saying and you seem like a pretty shitty person. You never let anyone care about you and you were blinded by anger for fifteen years. You've caused her so many problems, Ivy!" My nose scrunched up a little bit in anger.

"Don't try to get inside my head." I said in a low voice. "It's too dark for you."

"I've met people like you, and I think Tony made a huge mistake inviting you onto the team. One little thing happens and you do something completely reckless."

"Ok, that's not fair I might've killed a few...hundred people. But it was all for good reason. That may not be true." I whispered, he clenched his jaw tightly and looked away. "Look I know what you're scared about, I'm completely reckless. I could set my world on fire and call it rain, I've been in a dark place and I could a hundred percent go there again. But with the Avengers, their the only thing keeping me sane."

"I don't care." He spat. "You've done terrible things."

"Like what?" I asked.

"You've killed an entire bloodline." I almost laughed but stopped myself.

"Yeah yeah, that's true, what else?"

"This is my point Ivy! You don't care how much harm you do because you just think it's a good story to tell." He yelled.

"Huh, well, I could kill you right here, right now. And I think that would be a pretty cool story to tell." I said. "But seriously, tell me what else I've done." I crossed my arms again and waited for him to respond.

"You blew up a nightclub bathroom because an unattractive guy was trying to have sex with you."

"Yeah, that was actually quite fun. I told the people who were asking me about it that he liked to beg for sex." I said, laughing. His nostrils flared.

"You really don't care what you do, do you?" He asked. "You're a monster."

"You've been in the Avengers for at least ten years and you haven't learned a thing." I scoffed. "You think I don't have a heart but you haven't learned a thing unless you learn that monsters have nightmares too." I said in a cold voice before storming away.

"Well you might wanna look into the connections you have to the people you kill, before you get your sister killed."

"What did you just say to me?"