Unwilling Weapon

Where You Need To Be

The four of them landed in Cairo a few hours later in civilian clothes, with Kurt wearing his inducer, so as not to tip of Masque or any of her cronies that they were coming.

On the way out, Kate had been sure to remind Kurt of the last time she'd seen Masque — and all the crazy that had happened in LA — on the flight, but once she'd given Kurt the basic overview, she was more interested in the fact that Natasha was openly keeping an eye on Clint. She wasn't even pretending that wasn't what she was doing — which meant she'd been doing it for long enough that he'd stopped trying to fight her on it.

She was... honestly kind of glad it was Natasha and not her. She wasn't all that good at dealing with Clint when he was down and out, and — well. Kate had been by Clint's place when she heard about the breakup with Jess, but... he had basically tried to act like it hadn't happened and then pouted, and Kate didn't have the patience for Clint pouting.

It wasn't that she wasn't sympathetic — it was just ... he didn't come out of it, no matter what Kate did. But Natasha — she was doing okay, getting responses. Getting him to smile, to be engaged. Maybe Kate would ask her what the secret was.

"Keep your heads down until we get closer to the tomb," Natasha advised as she slipped her arm through Clint's when they got off the plane. The two of them were already dressed as tourists, and Kate and Kurt looked convincing as a similarly touristy couple. "Masque isn't the only one interested in the alien tech they've unearthed."

Kurt gave the bamfs a few words in German, and they all seemed to nod in agreement before they made themselves scarce. They would follow — close enough to hear the little group if they were needed, but well-hidden enough that no one would spot them.

Sure enough, as the four heroes wove their way through the streets, they spotted the telltale green of a Hydra uniform in the crowd, as well as a few other suited men who had to be bodyguards of some kind to other big fish. There were definitely plenty of interested parties.

"How'd the leak even happen?" Clint muttered, shaking his head when he spotted another Hydra guy. "Don't those archeologists know better than to broadcast a find like this?"

"This is the age of the internet, old man," Kate pointed out with a smirk. "Try and keep up. Everyone with a selfie stick and a cell phone can find out half the world's secrets."

"And the other half of those secrets are — you know — stupid," Clint shot back with a smirk to match. "Like how many eyepatches Fury has in reserve."

"Betcha Logan knows," Kate laughed.

"I'm sure your new mentor knows all the secrets," Clint grumbled, and Natasha elbowed him in the side.

Kate looked back at Clint for a second and then slipped away from Kurt to just give her fellow Hawkeye a kiss on the side of his temple. "Aww, I still love ya big guy."

He just smirked softly at her for a second and pushed her back over to Kurt, who kissed her cheek and pulled her arm through his to cover her hand with his own. "It sounds like you have been neglecting the other Hawkeye," he teased.

"We'll just have to start bothering him more often," Kate said. "Make a concerted effort — seeing as the X-Men and Avengers run in weirdly different circles. For no reason." She just grinned at him and leaned into his shoulder.

"You know we can bother him any time. I don't mind popping by," Kurt teased, and she just smirked at him.

"Yeah, I'll have to visit Lucky more often," Kate agreed. "He misses me."

They were nearly to the excavation site when Clint gave a little start of surprise — not because of any bad guys, but because he'd spotted someone he just hadn't expected.