HOME | DD

Description
body div#devskin0 hr { }

         ‘Why did I have to bump into Barton?’

         Your duffle bag hit the elevator’s floor with a metal clang. It was something that drew Barton’s attention to you.

         “(Name)?” he asked, surprised by your outfit.

         You usually wore loose clothes that were covering your figure, male t-shirts and military pants or baggy jeans. Now your outfit was very different. You wore a tight female t-shirt with skintight pants, all black in color. You have black boots on your feet, perfect both for hiking and for climbing. A black leather jacket and fingerless gloves completed your badass look. Your long (h/c) hair was French braided.

         “Hey, Clint,” you said, giving him a nod and trying not to blush, though you failed miserably.

         You tried to act nonchalantly to avoid any questions from him, however it wasn’t working the way you wanted to.

         “Fury gave you a field task?”

         “Nope, he didn’t. I have some days off and I was going out of the city, but apparently our boss can’t live without some files that are in my room right now,” you said, telling yourself to stop babbling like a fangirl or something worse. It wasn’t Clint’s fault that you had a crush on him. A huge giant crush to be honest.

         “You look like Tash before she goes to kick someone’s ass,” he spoke, pushing the buttons of his and your floors and setting the elevator in motion.

         You flinched internally hearing him compare you to Romanoff. Yes, you were jealous about their friendship. For most of the people it looked like they are in a deep romantic relationship, but you knew that they weren’t, not yet at least. Unfortunately, you didn’t know how to let Barton know about your feelings towards him. He’s treated you in a very friendly manner and you were almost sure that he friend-zoned you, but you were still holding on to this little ray of hope that he might see you in a different light.

         “You’re off duty too?” you asked, ignoring his remark.

         “Yeah, apparently the bad guys took a vacation. So what are you going to do outside the city?”

         “There’s a huge LARP event and I signed myself up a few days ago.”

         “What’s LARP?” Clint asked, looking at you confused.

         “Live Action Role Play,” you explained. “People choose their favorite characters from movies, books, or comics and they pretend to be them. Organizers come up with some storylines, but the major parts of the events depend on the players.” You prayed for Clint not to ask you for your choice of character. You would die from embarrassment if you had to tell him that.

         Somebody listened to your prayers because the elevator decided to stop. You almost fell on the floor; however, you managed to keep your balance.

         “JARVIS, what’s going on?” you asked, but the only answer was a dead silence and sudden darkness. “Great, now I’m stuck here,” you spoke, taking out your phone to have some light from the screen.

         You knelt by your bag, opening it to find a flashlight. You totally forgot that your brand new compound bow is on the very top. Of course, Hawkeye wouldn’t be himself if he didn’t notice that immediately.

         “Looks like one of mine,” he said, sitting on the floor on the other side of your bag.

         “I didn’t borrow any of your bows. This one belongs to me.”

         You finally found the flashlight and turned it on, so you could see the inside of the elevator and Barton’s actions, then you placed it on the floor. He took your bow out of your bag and he was looking inside of it, trying to snatch some more things until you slapped his hand.

         “It’s not yours so please keep your hands off.”

         “Are you going to climb too?” he asked with curiosity in his voice, his hands touching every part of your bow as if it was the body of his lover.

         “Why are you so interested?”

         You took out your phone only to notice that there’s no reception.

         ‘Great!’

         “I was just curious,” Clint answered.

         “Okay Mr. Curious. Can you stop touching my bow? It looks like sexual harassment to me,” you said, trying to be as serious as you can manage.

         “Touchy are we, huh?”

         “I don’t share my stuff with other people. You wanna finger a bow then take one of yours,” you said, taking the weapon from Clint’s hands. “I have no reception on my phone and I can bet that yours is not working too. Without power we can just sit here and wait till morning.”

         “Or we can get out of here.”

         “How?” you frowned, trying to figure out what’s on his mind.

         Clint just raised his hand, his index finger pointed at the elevator’s ceiling. You took the flashlight and directed the it up to see that there’s a hatch. You did some math in your mind and then you looked at Barton, giving him ‘you-gotta-be-fucking-kidding-me’ gaze.

         “It’s ten stories to my floor. You’re out of your mind, Hawkeye.”

         It was nine stories to Bruce’s floor but you didn’t want to invade Banner’s personal space. You were friends, but you were well aware of what might happen if he would get angry, and you weren’t suicidal.

         “It’s the first time you used my codename,” he said, grinning like it was Christmas.

         “Don’t tempt me to change it to Tweety Bird in SHIELD’s system.”

         “You wouldn’t dare,” he said, leaning towards you.

         “If that’s a challenge, I accept it.”

         You laughed seeing the terrified expression on his face. Well, it was fake but you still enjoyed it.

         “Think of that as a challenge,” he said pointing to the hatch. “I bet you will be too scared to even go on the elevator’s roof.”

         You shot him a deadly glare. Because you were a computer geek didn’t mean you were physically weak. Quite the opposite since you were sent by Fury to go through the training meant for the top SHIELD’s agents and you survived it.

         “What if the power comes back and we will be up there? It’s not my dream to be crushed with an elevator,” you said, looking up while Clint was opening the hatch.

         “You have climbing equipment in your bag. We will be safe.”

         “And why not reach the nearest door and then just use the stairs?” you asked.

         Clint looked at you dumbfounded. It took him a full twenty-five seconds to regain his usual composure.

         “There’s no power, you won’t be able to open the doors to the staircase,” he answered.

         “We can wait there until the power will be back,” you said, giving him the easiest solution.

         Clint looked at you as if you were out of your mind.

         “I can’t wait,” he finally said.

         “Why?” you asked, confused.

         “I left my computer on and I didn’t save some things so if I don’t get there on time I will lose a lot of the data.”

         “That was really dumb,” you said without a hint of compassion in your voice, earning a glare from the archer.

         “You don’t have to remind me of that,” he grunted.

         “I hope you are not jinxed,” you said a bit amused. “It’s thirteen stories to your floor.”

         “Very funny,” he muttered, giving you another glare when you laughed at him.

         Before you could come up with a smart remark, Clint jumped up and he lifted himself onto the elevator’s roof. The only thing you could do was to pack your bag and give it to him along with the flashlight. You rejected his offer to help you getting on the roof.

         The elevator’s shaft didn’t look that bad, actually it was better than you suspected. It seemed that there were many places for hands and feet as if someone predicted that the two of you would be climbing here.

         It didn’t take you long to unpack your climbing equipment from your bag. Luckily, you had a spare harness and two head flashlights. The rope was long and strong enough to keep the weight of both of you. You divided quickdraws between you both and you gave Clint a few spare carabiners, just in case.

         After a short argument including who was going to go first and that you were taking your bag by yourself, you started to climb up.

         “What’s so important on your laptop that you are risking our lives to get there? Not that I’m complaining, I always wanted to die in an elevator’s shaft,” you spoke after passing the fourth floor on your way up.

         “Personal things,” he answered. “Focus on climbing, (Name).”

         “I thought you can multitask, Clint.”

         He stopped for a moment and looked down at you.

         “Talking usually drains your energy,” he spoke and started to climb up again.

         “I’m not feeling tired if that’s what you meant, but if you are, we can make a stop.”

         You didn’t know what had happened that you started to behave so boldly towards him. Maybe it was the darkness of the shaft, maybe an adrenaline kick, and maybe the view you had a few feet above you when you were looking up. You knew that you would probably regret it later but you didn’t care. Dark gave you the courage to talk to Barton more openly, but not too openly. You would rather die first than tell him about your feelings. You had never crossed the line of friendship. Barton treated you almost like a sister. It always hurt you, but you kept this for yourself. You were pretty sure that the archer had a crush on Natasha, she was everything you weren’t, and you would never be. She was amazingly beautiful, her skin and body were flawless, and she was a very skilled fighter. However, the most important thing you envied about her was her confidence. Romanoff was very good in socializing with others. It came naturally for her, where you felt insecure around other people.

         You had to close your eyes when he looked down at you and his flashlight beamed directly into your face.

         “Are you implying that I’m in bad shape?” he asked trying to sound serious but you heard a teasing tone in his voice.

         “Maybe,” you said with as much innocence as you could muster at the moment. “You can prove otherwise if you start to talk with me while climbing.”

         “You spend too much time with Stark.”

         “Thanks.”

         “That wasn’t a compliment,” he said.

         “Can you move you archer’s butt up? Unless you got roots and you’re stuck to the wall.”

         You didn’t feel too comfortable being so high above the elevator’s roof, being aware that if something went wrong, you would die.

         “Archer’s butt?”

         Clint was evidently curious about this part of your question and you wanted to disappear, mentally cursing yourself for the bad choice of words.

         “I’m not going to feed your ego, Barton,” you muttered and heard him laughing. “Move up or your laptop will shut down before we’ll get on your floor.”

         His laughter died out immediately and he started to climb up again. You sighed and followed him. You were getting tired so you didn’t talk much through the next six stories, occasionally taking short breaks.

         You were after another break to have some rest when Clint suddenly stopped.

         “What’s going on?” you asked him.

         “We have to move to the other side,” he simply said.

         You looked up and then you scanned the other walls of the shaft. Barton was right, if you wanted to go up, you had to go to the other side.

         “I’ll go first,” he told you and slowly started to move onto the other wall.

         You were belaying him, making sure he would get on the other side safely. When he did, you sighed with relief. You didn’t notice that you were holding your breath through all the time it took Clint to get there. Though you would never admit to that, you were terribly scared that something bad would happen to him.

         “Now you!” he called from the other side. “Just do it slowly.”

         You took a deep breath and gradually you started to move along the wall. It was difficult to find a place for your hands and feet, not to mention that your combat boots were no fit for climbing like this.

         When you were switching your weight from one foot to another, a piece of metal you were holding came off. You lost your balance and while you were trying to regain it, your foot slipped off the very narrow shelf you were standing on. Barton heard your yell, surprised and full of fear, when you started to fall down into the shaft’s darkness. Time seemed to stop and your mind froze, fixed on the thought that you would hit the roof of the elevator in a matter of seconds.

Description
body div#devskin0 hr { }

         ‘Why did I have to bump into Barton?’

         Your duffle bag hit the elevator’s floor with a metal clang. It was something that drew Barton’s attention to you.

         “(Name)?” he asked, surprised by your outfit.

         You usually wore loose clothes that were covering your figure, male t-shirts and military pants or baggy jeans. Now your outfit was very different. You wore a tight female t-shirt with skintight pants, all black in color. You have black boots on your feet, perfect both for hiking and for climbing. A black leather jacket and fingerless gloves completed your badass look. Your long (h/c) hair was French braided.

         “Hey, Clint,” you said, giving him a nod and trying not to blush, though you failed miserably.

         You tried to act nonchalantly to avoid any questions from him, however it wasn’t working the way you wanted to.

         “Fury gave you a field task?”

         “Nope, he didn’t. I have some days off and I was going out of the city, but apparently our boss can’t live without some files that are in my room right now,” you said, telling yourself to stop babbling like a fangirl or something worse. It wasn’t Clint’s fault that you had a crush on him. A huge giant crush to be honest.

         “You look like Tash before she goes to kick someone’s ass,” he spoke, pushing the buttons of his and your floors and setting the elevator in motion.

         You flinched internally hearing him compare you to Romanoff. Yes, you were jealous about their friendship. For most of the people it looked like they are in a deep romantic relationship, but you knew that they weren’t, not yet at least. Unfortunately, you didn’t know how to let Barton know about your feelings towards him. He’s treated you in a very friendly manner and you were almost sure that he friend-zoned you, but you were still holding on to this little ray of hope that he might see you in a different light.

         “You’re off duty too?” you asked, ignoring his remark.

         “Yeah, apparently the bad guys took a vacation. So what are you going to do outside the city?”

         “There’s a huge LARP event and I signed myself up a few days ago.”

         “What’s LARP?” Clint asked, looking at you confused.

         “Live Action Role Play,” you explained. “People choose their favorite characters from movies, books, or comics and they pretend to be them. Organizers come up with some storylines, but the major parts of the events depend on the players.” You prayed for Clint not to ask you for your choice of character. You would die from embarrassment if you had to tell him that.

         Somebody listened to your prayers because the elevator decided to stop. You almost fell on the floor; however, you managed to keep your balance.

         “JARVIS, what’s going on?” you asked, but the only answer was a dead silence and sudden darkness. “Great, now I’m stuck here,” you spoke, taking out your phone to have some light from the screen.

         You knelt by your bag, opening it to find a flashlight. You totally forgot that your brand new compound bow is on the very top. Of course, Hawkeye wouldn’t be himself if he didn’t notice that immediately.

         “Looks like one of mine,” he said, sitting on the floor on the other side of your bag.

         “I didn’t borrow any of your bows. This one belongs to me.”

         You finally found the flashlight and turned it on, so you could see the inside of the elevator and Barton’s actions, then you placed it on the floor. He took your bow out of your bag and he was looking inside of it, trying to snatch some more things until you slapped his hand.

         “It’s not yours so please keep your hands off.”

         “Are you going to climb too?” he asked with curiosity in his voice, his hands touching every part of your bow as if it was the body of his lover.

         “Why are you so interested?”

         You took out your phone only to notice that there’s no reception.

         ‘Great!’

         “I was just curious,” Clint answered.

         “Okay Mr. Curious. Can you stop touching my bow? It looks like sexual harassment to me,” you said, trying to be as serious as you can manage.

         “Touchy are we, huh?”

         “I don’t share my stuff with other people. You wanna finger a bow then take one of yours,” you said, taking the weapon from Clint’s hands. “I have no reception on my phone and I can bet that yours is not working too. Without power we can just sit here and wait till morning.”

         “Or we can get out of here.”

         “How?” you frowned, trying to figure out what’s on his mind.

         Clint just raised his hand, his index finger pointed at the elevator’s ceiling. You took the flashlight and directed the it up to see that there’s a hatch. You did some math in your mind and then you looked at Barton, giving him ‘you-gotta-be-fucking-kidding-me’ gaze.

         “It’s ten stories to my floor. You’re out of your mind, Hawkeye.”

         It was nine stories to Bruce’s floor but you didn’t want to invade Banner’s personal space. You were friends, but you were well aware of what might happen if he would get angry, and you weren’t suicidal.

         “It’s the first time you used my codename,” he said, grinning like it was Christmas.

         “Don’t tempt me to change it to Tweety Bird in SHIELD’s system.”

         “You wouldn’t dare,” he said, leaning towards you.

         “If that’s a challenge, I accept it.”

         You laughed seeing the terrified expression on his face. Well, it was fake but you still enjoyed it.

         “Think of that as a challenge,” he said pointing to the hatch. “I bet you will be too scared to even go on the elevator’s roof.”

         You shot him a deadly glare. Because you were a computer geek didn’t mean you were physically weak. Quite the opposite since you were sent by Fury to go through the training meant for the top SHIELD’s agents and you survived it.

         “What if the power comes back and we will be up there? It’s not my dream to be crushed with an elevator,” you said, looking up while Clint was opening the hatch.

         “You have climbing equipment in your bag. We will be safe.”

         “And why not reach the nearest door and then just use the stairs?” you asked.

         Clint looked at you dumbfounded. It took him a full twenty-five seconds to regain his usual composure.

         “There’s no power, you won’t be able to open the doors to the staircase,” he answered.

         “We can wait there until the power will be back,” you said, giving him the easiest solution.

         Clint looked at you as if you were out of your mind.

         “I can’t wait,” he finally said.

         “Why?” you asked, confused.

         “I left my computer on and I didn’t save some things so if I don’t get there on time I will lose a lot of the data.”

         “That was really dumb,” you said without a hint of compassion in your voice, earning a glare from the archer.

         “You don’t have to remind me of that,” he grunted.

         “I hope you are not jinxed,” you said a bit amused. “It’s thirteen stories to your floor.”

         “Very funny,” he muttered, giving you another glare when you laughed at him.

         Before you could come up with a smart remark, Clint jumped up and he lifted himself onto the elevator’s roof. The only thing you could do was to pack your bag and give it to him along with the flashlight. You rejected his offer to help you getting on the roof.

         The elevator’s shaft didn’t look that bad, actually it was better than you suspected. It seemed that there were many places for hands and feet as if someone predicted that the two of you would be climbing here.

         It didn’t take you long to unpack your climbing equipment from your bag. Luckily, you had a spare harness and two head flashlights. The rope was long and strong enough to keep the weight of both of you. You divided quickdraws between you both and you gave Clint a few spare carabiners, just in case.

         After a short argument including who was going to go first and that you were taking your bag by yourself, you started to climb up.

         “What’s so important on your laptop that you are risking our lives to get there? Not that I’m complaining, I always wanted to die in an elevator’s shaft,” you spoke after passing the fourth floor on your way up.

         “Personal things,” he answered. “Focus on climbing, (Name).”

         “I thought you can multitask, Clint.”

         He stopped for a moment and looked down at you.

         “Talking usually drains your energy,” he spoke and started to climb up again.

         “I’m not feeling tired if that’s what you meant, but if you are, we can make a stop.”

         You didn’t know what had happened that you started to behave so boldly towards him. Maybe it was the darkness of the shaft, maybe an adrenaline kick, and maybe the view you had a few feet above you when you were looking up. You knew that you would probably regret it later but you didn’t care. Dark gave you the courage to talk to Barton more openly, but not too openly. You would rather die first than tell him about your feelings. You had never crossed the line of friendship. Barton treated you almost like a sister. It always hurt you, but you kept this for yourself. You were pretty sure that the archer had a crush on Natasha, she was everything you weren’t, and you would never be. She was amazingly beautiful, her skin and body were flawless, and she was a very skilled fighter. However, the most important thing you envied about her was her confidence. Romanoff was very good in socializing with others. It came naturally for her, where you felt insecure around other people.

         You had to close your eyes when he looked down at you and his flashlight beamed directly into your face.

         “Are you implying that I’m in bad shape?” he asked trying to sound serious but you heard a teasing tone in his voice.

         “Maybe,” you said with as much innocence as you could muster at the moment. “You can prove otherwise if you start to talk with me while climbing.”

         “You spend too much time with Stark.”

         “Thanks.”

         “That wasn’t a compliment,” he said.

         “Can you move you archer’s butt up? Unless you got roots and you’re stuck to the wall.”

         You didn’t feel too comfortable being so high above the elevator’s roof, being aware that if something went wrong, you would die.

         “Archer’s butt?”

         Clint was evidently curious about this part of your question and you wanted to disappear, mentally cursing yourself for the bad choice of words.

         “I’m not going to feed your ego, Barton,” you muttered and heard him laughing. “Move up or your laptop will shut down before we’ll get on your floor.”

         His laughter died out immediately and he started to climb up again. You sighed and followed him. You were getting tired so you didn’t talk much through the next six stories, occasionally taking short breaks.

         You were after another break to have some rest when Clint suddenly stopped.

         “What’s going on?” you asked him.

         “We have to move to the other side,” he simply said.

         You looked up and then you scanned the other walls of the shaft. Barton was right, if you wanted to go up, you had to go to the other side.

         “I’ll go first,” he told you and slowly started to move onto the other wall.

         You were belaying him, making sure he would get on the other side safely. When he did, you sighed with relief. You didn’t notice that you were holding your breath through all the time it took Clint to get there. Though you would never admit to that, you were terribly scared that something bad would happen to him.

         “Now you!” he called from the other side. “Just do it slowly.”

         You took a deep breath and gradually you started to move along the wall. It was difficult to find a place for your hands and feet, not to mention that your combat boots were no fit for climbing like this.

         When you were switching your weight from one foot to another, a piece of metal you were holding came off. You lost your balance and while you were trying to regain it, your foot slipped off the very narrow shelf you were standing on. Barton heard your yell, surprised and full of fear, when you started to fall down into the shaft’s darkness. Time seemed to stop and your mind froze, fixed on the thought that you would hit the roof of the elevator in a matter of seconds.