Beauty is a Beast

Chapter 23: The Hulk Isn't the Only Green One Around

It had been a few days since the meeting where I told everyone everything I knew. Thor had promised to go to Asgard and do his best to arrange transport for Loki and I to follow him. We still hadn't heard much from Thor. Loki had stayed behind because he was technically still on probation on Earth. Loki had told me that time passes slower on Asgard than it did on Earth.

Speaking of Loki, he had been giving me the cold shoulder since the meeting. Leaving a room when I entered, keeping his responses short and to the point. He never read with me in the living room anymore.

What did you do?

The Beast had been angry with me as well.

I didn't do anything to him. He just drifted away suddenly.

People don't do that for no reason.

Maybe he's just grumpy thinking about Asgard and his family.

You'll never know if you don't ask.

Fine. I'll try to corner him later.

The Beast left me alone, happy with the agreement. I was currently sitting at the dining table, eating bacon and eggs with a mug of coffee in my hand. Tony, Steve, and I were currently the only ones there when Clint had walked in, looking around the room.

"Morning." Steve greeted him from where he sat across from me.

Clint didn't reply as he kept scanning the room. Furrowing my eyebrows, I sat my mug on the table and waved my hands in the air. When Clint turned to face me I noticed that his ears were missing something. His hearing aids.

My hands made a gesture, "Problem?"

Clint looked surprised when I signed the word at him. He recovered then started signing back. He explained that his hearing aids had broke out of the blue and he was looking for Natasha to translate to Bruce to fix them.

"I can do it." I signed back.

"You sure?"

"Yeah." I smiled as I made the motions.

"WHAT IS GOING ON?" Tony finally yelled after watching the exchange between the archer and I.

"Clint's hearing aids broke. I'm gonna fix them for him." I spoke, carrying my dish and mug out of the dining room to put in the sink.

When we got to the lab I immediately sat on one of the stools with a small set of tools and a magnifying glass. Clint gave me the broken hearing aids and I began taking the first one apart to see what the problem was.

"It looks like the microphone is just knock out of place." I signed to Clint so he knew what was wrong with them.

"Can you fix it?"

"It's a simple process. Give me two minutes."

I adjusted the magnifying glass and used the set of tweezers to connect the wiring for the microphone to it original placing. Upon hearing the lab door open and close, I looked up to see Natasha.

"Good morning. Clint's been looking for you." I said before looking back down.

Natasha tried calling his name before putting her hand on his shoulder. He turned to her and began signing while I moved onto the second hearing aid. I could hear Clint's breath quicken, like he was trying to sign and not talk at the same time.

"You can sign?" Natasha asked me as I began closing the hearing aid in my hand.

"Yeah. There was a deaf mutant at the X Mansion when I was younger and he taught me." I explained before handing the hearing aids to Clint.