Nomad | Hawkeye FF ✓

OH, DON'T TEASE NOW

Sophie observes like a hawk—clever little thing for her age.
-Evaluation Notes, Owner, Unknown.

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THE sky looked smooth with morning pinks, oranges, and white embers floating in the distance, dancing over the hills and toppling its illumination over into the trees. No rain had come that night, nor a thunderstorm crackle over the house as the weather had shown signs of the day before.

A quick but slow yawn escaped from Sophie's lips. She arched her back, stretching out the muscles and everything else awake. Quietly, she began to lean back on the railing of the old rickety porch, continuing to observe the sunrise in the east. A flood of moody gray clouds in the west had some disagreement with the east's sunrise. Sophie scrunched her nose and turned her head the other way, back to dawn's gorgeous morning sun.

"It's the same as yesterday," A groggy voice said.

Uninterested, Sophie swivels her head in the direction of the person, only to lay eyes upon Clint walking down the length of the porch to her. The screen door lightly flapped shut from behind him. "What?" She asked, a slice of annoyance stuffed in her tone a little too much.

"The sky." He concludes with his index finger pointing directly to the big blue abyss above them. "It was the same as yesterday, what's to look at it?"

Sophie scoffed and raised her chin to the sunrise as her eyes drew the pinkish hues blending in with the oranges and whites. "Not true." She finally spoke. "The sky, yes, but in every sunrise and sunset, it's different each time. And why not watch it settle or watch it rise? They're both beautiful in their own mystery." She told, accidentally elaborating.

Also leaning both elbows on the ledge of the railing like Sophie, Clint faced the sky in silence. They both refrained from talking after that, only watching as the sun rose and the clouds parted. After the silence followed, creeping in the far corners of their bones, came the awkwardness. Sophie couldn't detect him, but felt that sense of insecurity about someone. The unease that you're with a stranger, when, in fact, Clint was not a stranger to her, but only a distant old memory.

To Sophie, he was like that Guardian Angel you thought you never had, until that day, something pulled you out of the way of an oncoming vehicle.

It was so long ago, she thought, so long ago that we stumbled into each other.

"Is it just me," started Clint, "or do you remember it too?" Sophie stiffened then relaxed her shoulders and nodded without looking at him. "Why did you run?" He asked, hurt entwined the unanswered questions that have been clinging to his mind all these years. "Why did you run from me, from SHIELD that day? We were only trying to help Sophie. You knew that, right?"

Then why did she run? If she knew, why would someone sane, run off in a moment help was there to rescue her? A crack of thunder tore through the air, momentarily catching their heightened attentions.

Still stubbornly not staring at him, she tore her eyes away from the beautiful sky, to ogle them down at her hands which were mingled together. The more anxiety that ran through her blood, the more she tightened the grip on her fingers. "Sophie?" Clint had called out, uncertain if she heard him the first time.

"I heard you. It's just..." She paused. "I don't know." It was the truth. She didn't know why she ran that day, or why she ran from the people she should have stayed with. "I really don't know, Clint." This time, she had the courage to look at him. The blue in his eyes, had flecks of gold from the morning sunrise shooting down on them. The sun had dribbled a path atop the crown of his head, causing the brown in his hair to turn a lighter color.