Percy Jackson Avenger and S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent

2012

Christmas and New Year came and went without much ceremony in our house. So Gabe beat me up Christmas day. It's just another day, really.

So the new year began, exactly the same as the old, except for one not-overly small thing.

I just about had a friend that wasn't a 'jock' or a complete idiot. Maybe someone that I could even trust. Although, as Clint flicked a considerable amount of cream pudding my way in the cafeteria, I doubted myself on that.

"Dude!" I spluttered. "First day of the new year and you're already trying to humiliate me!"

He smirked, but didn't offer any words.

Jeez, this guy was a nightmare. One step forward, two backwards to the extreme.

Then his smirk fell off of his face quickly as he spotted something, or someone, across the cafeteria. "Is that Nat? Oh God, she's gonna kill me."

I craned my neck in the general direction that he was looking in. "Where?"

He pointed in the direction of a very pretty and grumpy redhead that was sitting by herself in another corner of the cafeteria. Her resting death glare was even more terrifying than Clint's.

So, naturally, Clint jumped up and shouted "Nat!" across the cafeteria.

I wanted to melt into my seat with second-hand embarrassment.

'Nat' glanced up at Clint, eyes widening ever so slightly in recognition. She made a gesture and mouthed some words. Fast. I couldn't see what she was saying.

Clint clearly did, because he sat back down quite quickly. "Oh, she's really going to kill me."

Sure enough, as soon as the girl had finished her lunch (at a leisurely pace, mind you), she stood up fluidly and left with a pointed look at Clint.

He followed her with the air of a man headed for the gallows.

I went after him, ready to step in if he did get absolutely pummelled, or laugh at him, depending on the circumstance.

Clint turned a corner and practically walked straight into the red-haired girl, who had stopped quite suddenly just out of his line of sight before he turned.

"Hi, Nat," he said awkwardly, lowering his gaze. "Well, this is awkward. What happened to that Russian school-thing?"

"Clint," she stated simply, no hint of any foreign accent in her voice. "And I left because I didn't like it. What happened to the circus?"

He glanced up, clearly about to give an honest answer, but the iron barriers snapped back down behind his eyes. "None of your business," he snapped, folding his arms defensively.

Nat sighed. "What's life done to you, Hawk?" she asked, sounding a little incredulous. "You were so full of it." I wasn't sure if she was talking about life or arrogance; I didn't want to ask. "And now you're weak and sagging." She made a small gesture and pulled a comically sad-looking face.

Clint seemed to take full offence to that, standing up straighter than he had in the past four months. He strode completely over to her and muttered something to her in - was that Russian?

Nat's eyebrows raised before she said something back in the same language. Then, before Clint could stop her, she stomped over to me and tugged on my arm, waving a finger threateningly in my face. "You better not be hurting my Hawk."

Clint facepalmed.

First of all, what was with the Hawk thing? Second of all, her Hawk?

I gulped. "I'm not hurting him," I squeaked in rather an unmanly fashion, heart beginning to flutter at the sight of the same cold fury in her eyes that I'd so often seen in Gabe's.