Artemis : The Seventh Avenger ➳ Steve Rogers [1]

02 [ 06 ]

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The atmosphere in the jet was colder than usual. But still, somewhere along the ride, I had managed to fall asleep in the midst of my conversation with Clint.

I squinted my eyes, shielding it from the sunlight as we came to a jerking halt.

"Come on." Clint gestures for me to follow them as he helped Nat to her feet.

I do, shrugging off a blanket which was draped over my shoulders-one that I'm almost positive wasn't there before I had fallen asleep.

I silently followed behind the group towards the Farmhouse, one that I have been to plenty of times before, but not in a long while.

"What is this place?" Thor asks as we neared the house.

"A safe house?" Tony answers with uncertainty, but with enough trust in Clint to follow him to a foreign location.

"Let's hope." Clint says, pushing the door open. "Honey, I'm home!" He yells.

Clint's Wife, Laura emerges from the kitchen, her belly looking as if it's really to explode. But I guess that's what happens when you're so almost nine months pregnant.

Clint had mentioned that she was close to her due date, but this looked like she was going to go into labour any second.

"Hi," Clint greets her with a kiss on the cheek, "Company. Sorry I didn't call ahead."

"Hey." Laura turns to address the team.

"This must be an agent of some sort." Tony whispers to Thor.

"Gentlemen, this is Laura." Clint introduces.

Laura offers them an awkward wave, "I know all of your names."

Her eyes widen as they land on me, "Cami? Oh my goodness, look at you!" She says, rushing over to envelop me in a tight embrace, "I can't believe you're back."

"It's good to see you too, Laura." I return the hug, taking solace in the sight of a familiar face.

Footsteps thumped loudly from above, and immediately I knew who they'd belonged to.

"Oh, incoming." Clint mutters as his kids came running down the stairs.

"Dad!" Clint's Daughter, Lila exclaims as she pounces on him.

"I see her!" He says, swinging her up into his arms and planting a kiss on the crown of his Son, Cooper's head. "Hey, buddy. How are you guys doing? Oh, look at that face of yours!"

"And these are smaller agents." Tony says, "You knew about this and didn't tell us?"  Tony leans into me, scolding in a hushed voice.

"Auntie Cami!" The two kids yell as they notice me, abandoning their dad and running over and throwing themselves at me for a hug.

"Hey, guys!" I greeted as enthusiastically as I could despite being completely exhausted.

Cooper's head fell above my hips. Whereas, Lila, being the younger and therefore, shorter one, fell around my thigh area. They were still so tiny, although they had grown quite a bit since I had last seen them.

"Right, who needs their Father when you've got Auntie Cam." Clint says sarcastically.

"Don't get too jealous, Clint." I tease.

Lila looks up at me, with her big puppy dog eyes, "Did you bring Auntie Nat?" She asks.

Nat finally breaks her silent streak and emerges from the corner.

"Why don't you hug her and find out." She says with a huge grin, a polar opposite from bow she was just a few seconds prior.

"Go get her!" I urged, making Lila rush forward and into Nat's arms.

"Sorry for barging in on you." Steve apologises, ever so politely.

"Yeah, we would've called ahead, but we were busy having no idea you existed." He pauses thoughtfully before shooting me a glare, "Well, most of us at least."

"Yeah, well Fury helped me set this up when I joined. He kept it off S.H.I.E.L.D's files, I'd like to keep it that way." Clint explained, "I figured it's a good place to lay low."

"Honey. Ah, I missed you." Laura finally gets the opportunity to greet Nat.

"How's little Natasha, huh?" Nat asks, touching Laura's baby bump.

"She's-" She pauses, looking slightly guilty, "Nathaniel." Laura grins.

Nat bends down in front of Laura's belly, "Traitor."

"Nat!" I nudge, shooting her a pointed look, drawing laughter from Laura.

"Fun fact, Camille is actually a unisex name. Or Camden is a nice name too." I shrug, "Just putting it out there."

"You picked Copper and Lila's middle names." Clint chimes in, "Now, you're just being greedy, Cam."

I watched as Thor stomps out of the room in a sudden.

"Thor." Steve calls after him, following him out the house.

"Excuse me." I say to Laura before, following behind the two.

"I saw something in that dream. I need answers, I won't find them here." Thor states, before swinging Mjolnir and lifting himself into the sky.

With a sigh, Steve turns to return to the house but stops in his tracks. His eyes were dark, with a sense of heaviness to them. I've never seen him like that before. He was obviously deep in thought since he'd failed to notice that I was standing right by the door.

"Steve?" I called just as he turns to leave.

He physically shakes whatever it was he was thinking of, out of his head, spinning around till his eyes met mine.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just followed Thor out here. He said he needed to leave." He informs.

"I heard." I replied, "Going somewhere, yourself?"

"I was just going to clear my head." He answers after a moment of thought.

"Yeah, These woods are great for that." I say, "Would you mind if I joined you?"

He looks slightly taken aback at the request, his eyes uncertain.

"Or not." I quickly add, "It's fine."

"No, no. I-uh." He stutters, "Of course I wouldn't mind."

Even though he says that, I still catch on in the hesitation in his eyes.

"Actually, on second thought, I think some alone time would be good for you." I stated, "I should leave you to it."

"Camille." Steve calls as I turn to return into the house, "Please. I'd really like the company."