Reborn From The Void

Chapter 7 - Reading Books and Shooting Arrows

(Your POV):
The next few days followed similarly to the first. An avenger came to fetch me in the morning and informed me what I was going to be doing. Then around noontime, my morning babysitter was swapped out by my afternoon one. They were the ones who chose what the activity would be, although the majority just brought me down to the training room.

Today was different, however. Loki was my babysitter and he had no interest in the training room, especially since I had managed to beat him during our sparring. However, if he was allowed to use his powers and I mine, I wasn't sure I would be able to keep up with this master of magic.

Instead of the training room, he led me to the library, which I had to say I was quite impressed by. I never imagined a building owned by Tony Stark would ever have so many books.

"Do me a favor and just read quietly and don't cause trouble, I don't need to be blamed for your actions nor do I particularly want to babysit you," he spoke as he used his magic to summon a book from the shelf.

I rolled my eyes, but did not give a verbal response, instead beginning to scour the shelves for anything that jumped out at me. I finally found a book that seemed interesting, settling down with it in one of the seats that I knew was within Loki's line of sight so that he could check up on me every now and then with ease.

We spent hours in the library, the two of us neither speaking nor moving, unless it was to get another book. Clint came in a little before noon, with a slightly exasperated look on his face.

"Really? You just forced her to sit up here and read all morning?" He asked Loki, gesturing over to me.

Loki gently placed the book he was reading down on the table next to him and looked up at Clint, "I see nothing wrong with that, it is a nice reprieve from having been dragged down to the training room everyday for nearly the entire day. Besides, she enjoys reading."

"Yeah, but you could have just kept her in her cell for that, we're supposed to be giving her more freedoms."

"Clint, it's fine, really. I did actually enjoy this, it's not like in my cell since I actually have the choice of books and don't get just one a day. I must say I'm quite impressed by this collection," I spoke up, rising from my seat so that I could return the book I was reading to its shelf. "I assume that you have me for the afternoon?"

He nodded, "I'm a little early, but we just got back and we were a little concerned about leaving Loki with you so I wanted to check up on you."

Loki rolled his eyes at the comment, while I asked, "you just got back? From where?"

"We started the raids on the locations that you gave us. Just infiltrating, planting bugs, stuff like that. Broke up into small teams and each got a handful of locations, so it didn't take too long."

My face fell slightly as I realized that I had really betrayed H.A.M.M.E.R., there was no way that I could turn back now. I turned back to the shelves so that I could find the book's spot, which also allowed me to hide my emotions until I got them under control.

"So, um, do you want lunch?" Clint asked, noticing the tension that had filled the room and carefully navigating it.

I slipped the book onto the shelf and placed a smile on my face, "sounds good. What are you're plans for me after that?"

"Have you ever shot a bow and arrow?"

"A few times, just to get the hang of it. It wasn't one of the weapons that I focused on, due to its impracticality. Not only is the bow cumbersome, but a quiver tends to hold less ammunition than can be stored for a gun. Still, on the off chance I needed to use one, my parents did have me learn how," I explained, noticing Loki's amused look as I discussed the flaws in Hawkeye's weapon of choice.

But Clint seemed unfazed, "wait until you see the types of arrows that Stark has designed, they might even be able to convert you to an archer."

"I doubt it, I am rather fond of my blades. But you can certainly try."

After eating something for lunch, Clint led me down to the place I was growing quite familiar with: the training room. He led me over to the edge of the room where the wall was lined with targets. On the floor in front, there sat a few baskets of arrows and a rack of bows.

"You know, it's probably a dangerous thing to have all of these weapons just laying out in the open when you have a H.A.M.M.E.R. agent wandering the tower with only one Avenger guarding her at a time. Avengers that she has proven she can take down in hand to hand combat, I might add," I noted as Clint tossed me a bow and grabbed on of the baskets of arrows.

He shrugged, "you probably wouldn't be able to make it to the lobby without getting caught."

"Who said I would escape through the lobby?" I inquired as I picked up and arrow and notched it.

"Fair point, I'll keep that in mind," he replied, watching me pull back the arrow with a scrutinizing gaze. I let the arrow go and it landed slightly left of the bullseye. Still, I was quite proud of how close it was considering how rarely I sharpened my archery skills compared to other forms of weaponry.

Clint nodded, "not too bad, but also not perfect. Your stance is a little off and you're dropping your elbow too much."

I grabbed another arrow and took a deep breath as I made the proper adjustments. Before firing, I glanced over at Clint to see if I was doing it correctly. He adjusted my arm slightly than gave me nod. I let go of the arrow and it sent flying into the target, still missing the bullseye slightly, but it was much closer than the first arrow.

Clint and I worked a little more on my aim before he pulled a different basket of arrows and began to carefully choose which one to give me. There was an assortment of upgraded arrows, most of which were created by Stark, but others originated from S.H.I.E.L.D. specifically for Clint. I was rather impressed by the range of their abilities and uses, but I had to admit that I was perfectly happy sticking with my daggers and gun.

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(A/N): Y'all I really want to talk about agents of shield but I'm also really tired so I'll probably just leave it on mentioning that it was a terrific episode (as always) and the relationship between Coulson and the other one (who I will not name because spoilers) was really entertaining. Also next episode is going to wild and looks like so much fun so Marvel please don't break my heart! Anyway, enjoy the chapter!