-9-

The last thing that Riley could remember was having to be helped to get back to the quinjet. Clint was the one to find them, backed up against a wall, their eyes glowing red like how the other's in team were.

Now Riley had tucked themself close up against the back of a chair, legs crossed with their eyes directed towards their hands in their lap.

Everyone in the team was exhausted. Be it because of the things they saw due to the power-possessing girl, or because of the battle they all had to endure.

"The news is loving you guys." Maria told them via the radio. "Nobody else is. There's been no official call for Banner's arrest, but it's in the air."

"The Stark Relief Foundation?" Tony asked.

"Already on the scene. How's the team?"

"Everyone's..." he started, "We took a hit. We'll shake it off."

"Well, for now, I'd stay in stealth mode and stay away from here."

"So, run and hide?"

"Until we can find Ultron, I don't have a lot else to offer." Maria explained, causing Tony to sigh.

"Neither do we." He finished talking to Maria, ending the call and walking over to Clint who was flying the jet. "Hey, you wanna switch out?"

"No, I'm good." He politely brushed away the offer. "If you wanna get some kip, now's a good time because we're still a few hours out."

"A few hours from where?" Tony asked, not knowing that he had a destination in mind already.

"A safe house." He simply stated. Tony didn't question any further, predicting that his friend wouldn't give him anymore details. As Tony walked back to his seat, he saw his other friends' distressed faces.

Steve had his eyes closed as he sat in one of the seats; Natasha's face was cold and numb, looking down at the floor as she zoned out; Thor paced back and forth on the opposite side to where the other two were seated, cracking his knuckles now-and-again.

Riley was now up out of their seat, walking over to where they had left their bag from when they first boarded the jet back at the Tower. They were going through each section, taking some objects out of it to get a better look.

Bruce was handling it the worse out of everyone. Whilst everyone seemed to be staying still, he kept tossing and turning on the floor where he sat, wrapping and rewrapping the think blanket he had around himself multiple times, before becoming uncomfortable and depressing the process all over again.

Tony sadly sighed at the sight of his team in distress, aware of what one of the twins had done to them, but not aware of what they saw; they've all be silent since getting onto the jet.

"Barton said we have a few more hours until we get to our destination." Tony told them all, "Get some sleep if you'd like." Riley sat down in their seat once again, now with the ring (that they got from their bag) they took of before the mission on their finger once again. Thinking about what Tony said, they decided it would be best to get some rest after what happened; they just had their first mission and had to go through that. As uncomfortable as it was to attempt to sleep on the jet's seat, they tried their best to, massaging their strained neck a few times as they finally managed to fall asleep.

-

The sun was rising when Riley was awakened by Thor shaking their shoulder gently. They stretched their arms up, a few cracks from their bones as they did that. Standing up and stretching, they looked at the faces of their teammates to try and see if they had gotten over what they saw, but none of them seemed to have.

When the quinjet landed and the doors opened, they were all greeted to a view of a vibrant, green field with a path leading up to a house, fenced off by shaved wood and a metal gate. Everyone stepped out of the jet and followed Clint up the path in single file (Clint still helping Natasha, however.) The earthy smell filled the air as birds called and bugs chirped loudly from the tall grass.

"What is this place?" Thor asked Tony as he caught up to him, walking up the stairs of the porch.

"A safe house." He replied, repeating what Clint had told him.

Opening the door, Clint looked back at the group to join in the conversation. "Let's hope." He said, walking inside the house, his arm around Natasha's shoulder. "Honey?" He called out, taking a right turn into a living room area. "I'm home."

A lady walked into the room, pens and paper in her hand. "Hi." Clint greeted her, a smile on his face. "Company. Sorry, didn't call ahead." She put down what she had in her hand to greet Clint, holding his face to kiss him.

"This is an agent of some kind." Tony quickly said, telling everyone his theory.

"Everyone, this is Laura." Clint introduced her to everyone in the room, his arm around her waist.

"I know all of your names." She chuckled slightly, gesturing with her arm.  Tony raised his hand to wave, only moving it a bit before dropping it again.

All of a sudden, footsteps started approaching the room. Clint looked over to the direction that they were coming from. "Ooh. Incoming." He moved away from where Laura stood, crouching down slightly as two children excitedly ran into the room. A young girl with a yellow cardigan called 'dad' before jumping into Clint's arms, her brother not too far behind her. "Hi, sweetheart!" He moved his daughter to the side of him to give his son a side hug. "Hi, buddy! How are you guys doing? He kissed the crown of the boy's head as he asked them the question.

"These are smaller agents." Tony continued his theory whilst Clint continued to hug his kids. Riley smiled at the sight of Clint with his children, never expediting him to be a family man.

"Did you bring Auntie Nat?" The young girl asked her farther. He playfully gasped at her question as Natasha moved her attention to where her name came from, a smile finally on her face.

"Why don't you hug her and find out?"  She moved away from where she was standing to meet the young girl half way, crouching down to pick her up.

"Sorry for barging in on you." Steve apologised, his voice sounding professional.

Tony added: "Yeah; we would have called ahead, but we were busy having no idea that you existed."

"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 was a good place to lay low."

A crunching sound came from where Thor stood, making him, Steve, and Riley all look down to see what made the sound. They saw a small creation, similar to Lego's, now in pieces under Thor's boot. He slyly moved it under the chair next to him, locking eyes with Riley and Steve as a way of saying 'You saw nothing.'

Riley looked down to see Clint's daughter looking up at Thor, curiosity in her eyes. They smiled at this, looking up to see Thor's reaction, only for him to storm towards the door. Confused, Riley followed him, wanting to understand what was happening. Steve followed in pursuit.

"Thor, where are you going?" Riley asked, reaching the porch as they tried to keep him with his long strides.

"I saw something in that dream." He began. "I need answers. I won't find them here." Riley went to speak, stepping down off of the last step, but I was interrupted by Thor swinging his hammer in rapid circles, shooting himself into the air. A dust cloud formed from the speed at which he took off, covering Riley's boots in a think coat of dust.

Steve turned right, Walking away from the front door to a different entrance. Riley stood there, contemplating what Thor could have seen to make him leave the 'safe house.' From the corner of their eye, they could see Steve retreat from the doorway and walk down another set of stairs that the porch has. Deciding against following him to see what made him do that, they rubbed their eyes as their tiredness finally hit them again.

Turning on their heel, they trod back up the stairs to enter the house. They caught Laura before she headed out of the room. "Hey, Laura, do you have any clothes I could borrow? I don't want to spend any longer in this outfit."

"Oh, of course, follow me." She said, motioning them to follow her. They looked at the way the house was decorated as the two of them made their, what they assumed to be, Laura and Clint's shared room. Picture frames of the loving the family littered the wall as they neared the doorway.

Laura went into her wardrobe, grabbing a white tank top and some jean shorts. "See if these fit. It's okay if they don't, I can find some more." Laura turned around, letting them get changed. Riley put on the tank top befor checking the size of the Jean shorts, realising they're too small.

"The top fits, but these shorts won't. They're a sizes too small." They told Laura, making her turn around. Laura frowned for a split second, taking the shorts out of their hands, looking for some trousers that fit them.

"Im glad I could finally meet everyone." Laura started up a conversation. "When I first heard Clint talk about you, I saw like: 'There's no way Clint is friends with someone like her!'"

"Oh, my pronouns are they/them." Riley corrected Laura.

"Oh, god. I'm sorry." Laura quickly apologised, her brows turning to form a look of regret as she walked out of the wardrobe with the jeans in her hands.

"No need to worry at all." Riley put their hands up to calm down Laura's nerves. "It's a common mistake. Thank you for apologising, though." They took the jeans from Laura and began putting them on after she turned around.

"How'd they fit?" Laura turned around, hearing the zipper. "Looking good!" Riley posed, laughing slightly as they finished posing. The two chatted a bit more, learning about one another through small stories and jokes.

"Can we swap places, Riley?" Clint appeared in the doorway on the bedroom, presumably coming from downstairs after hanging out with his kids.

"No. I've formed a bond with Laura." Riley shook their head, not facing Clint. "We're soulmates."

"Yeah, yeah. Get out of my room and get yourself something to eat." Clint patted their back twice. Riley pouted as they waved goodbye to Laura. She waved back to them, smiling at the two teammates joking around together. Riley walked out of them room, feeling better than they were this morning.