Project 43: Healing

Winter Soldiers

There was a weird noise in the hallway. Elias slowly put down his book and got up, careful not to make a sound as he neared the door. Someone was carefully moving around outside his door, trying to go unnoticed.

Elias was practically holding his breath as he grabbed his gun and two knives and walked over to the door. Whoever was in the hallway made the mistake of letting their shadow briefly cast over the door. Elias knew exactly where the figure was and opened the door in a flash.

Elias lifted the gun to shoot but his hand was quickly blocked. Elias was however prepared for it and kicked the man's legs out from under him, leaving Clint laying on the floor.

"God damn, my back's getting worse," the brunette groaned as Elias took a step back and calmed himself down.

Elias looked at the man, still not letting his guard drop. He hadn't seen Clint in over a year when he retired to be with his family. After that, all he knew was that the man had a third child who he named after Wanda's brother who had saved him.

Clint had a couple more wrinkles on his face but other than that, he looked about the same. He had the same battle gear on as he had in Sokovia, a quiver on his back and a bow in hand.

"What do you want?" Elias asked quietly, realizing there must have been a reason the man was sneaking around.

"Steve needs our help," Clint simply answered and finally Elias stretched his hand out to help the man stand back up. Even tho he could have easily jumped up, Clint was waiting for a sign that Elias was okay with his doing so.

Elias knew what had happened with Bucky. He knew his brother had done something stupid, but he also knew people wanted Bucky dead, and for whatever reason, Elias felt like he needed to protect the former soldier. Maybe it was because he was the only person in the world who could truly understand what Elias had gone through. Maybe it was just him being human for a moment.

"We need to get Wanda," Clint said to which Elias nodded.

"Vision will try to stop her," Elias pointed out.

"Yeah, I know," Clint huffed.

There was an explosion in the woods. Big enough to light the nightly scenery for a few moments.

Elias and Clint stood in the hallway, just outside the living room, waiting for Vision to go and investigate the distraction. Elias held the straps of his backpack tightly, remembering the countless times before when he ran away with nothing but that same black bag. Surely enough, the red man fazed through the wall almost instantly leaving Wanda alone.

Elias and Clint walked out but didn't get far before Wanda quickly turned around and sent a kitchen knife hurdling towards the two with red mist covering the silver blade. Clint just stood still, knowing the knife would stop before it hit his face, while Elias stepped aside and reached for his own knife.

"Oh, my God! What are you doing here?" Wanda asked walking over to the two men standing in the middle of the living room.

"Disappointing my kids," Clint said, walking straight past Wanda and shooting two arrows to opposite sides of the room. Elias thought it was a bit too much to plant explosives, but he wasn't judging the archer's methods.

"I'm supposed to go waterskiing," Clint continued, more to himself than anything.

"Cap needs our help. Come on," he then said grabbing Wanda by her arm, but even tho Wanda started running as well, Elias knew it wouldn't work. Mainly because of Vision's figure slowly floating through the wall back into the room.