Coming Down ➢ Steve Rogers

eighteen

Chapter Eighteen;

"You're holding the bow wrong."

Delaney gave her bow a withering look, as though it was the bow's fault she just couldn't get the hang of archery. "Again?"

"Again," Clint confirmed ruefully. He adjusted her hold on the bow. "Archery really does not come easily to you."

"It never has. I guess it's just proof that it's not for me."

"There's nothing you can't do without practice." Clint clapped her on the shoulder. "I believe in you."

Delaney laughed. "That means a lot, coming from the Hawkeye."

"Shut up."

Delaney grinned. Falling back into her friendship with Clint had been so easy; she may as well have never been away. If there was one thing that hadn't changed, it was their sibling-like bond, which Delaney had been anxious to catch up on ever since her return two months ago.

Two months since she'd told Tony and Bruce of the formula that would allow the Avengers to form a barrier around their minds, one that she would be unable to penetrate. Nicola had known only the basics about it, and there was still so much that they didn't understand that it required hours of investigation.

Those hours were spent in the lab, with Tony and Bruce as they analysed how her power worked, and meddled with chemicals to try and replicate the shield that had been present around Nicola and Richard's minds. So far, they had been left with frustration and unsuccess, though in the past two weeks her two friends believed they had made a breakthrough. Even Delaney noticed that with each formula they tried, it was becoming harder and harder for her power to work. It was an encouraging sign for all of them.

When Delaney wasn't in the lab, she was making up for lost time with the others. She and Bruce talked for hours, she rolled her eyes at Tony's sarcastic comments, and went out for coffee at Starbucks with Clint and Natasha. Everything, for the first time in years, felt normal. And Delaney was loving it.

Or, most things were normal. Only one thing had changed in the equation: Steve Rogers.

In the past two months, Delaney had noticed that she acted differently whenever Steve Rogers entered the room. She became flustered, would lose her train of thought. It was absent, hardly noticed, but Delaney felt the heat rush to her cheeks whenever Steve smiled at her or complimented her. She was definitely glad for her tanned skin, which was able to conceal the worst of the blush.

She hadn't realised that she had been spending more and more time with Steve. She was busy with the Avengers generally. She trained with all of her friends, sharpening her skills once again, and worked out with them. Clint reintroduced their archery lessons, which were more for fun than anything, for Delaney's archery skills had not improved over the two years she was away. She'd never quite gotten the hang of using the bow and arrow, and two years without sight of the weapon had done nothing for her.

But she ran into Steve in the corridors, or would stop to see how he was going – how he was coping after Washington, if he had made any leads in his search for Bucky. Those meetings became more and more frequent until their conversations would turn to any little event that had occurred that day, or a memory from the past. Then they were going out into the world on their own, Delaney delightedly acting as a tour guide for the parts of New York Steve had still yet to discover – hidden second-hand bookstores, game arcades, video game stores. And it was over their many cups of coffee in parks that Delaney realised just how sweet Steve could be, how selfless, how brave, and how utterly gentlemanly and good. Her heart would skip a beat, her breath would catch in her throat, she would choke on her coffee.