The suns close to setting and everyone's sort of lounging around Clint's land just doing whatever, except Tony, but I don't know where he is.
Feeling bored, I walk closer to the kitchen where Laura's making dinner. I lean against the wall, knocking on it a few times. She looks over at me, a little startled. She places a hand on her chest.
"Sorry. You surprised me there for a minute." She laughed. I smile.
"I, uh, was wondering if I could help." I motion to all the work she had to do. I mean cooking for four people is hard enough but for all of us who just popped up in her house... least I could do. Laura looks around, coming to a similar conclusion that she needs help and nods.
"Think you're brave enough to cut up the onions?" She asks with a grin. I smile widely and walk over to the cutting board, grabbing the onion and knife and I start expertly cutting the onion.
"You're pretty good with a knife." Laura compliments. I stop cutting and look over at her with a look. "Oh. Right." She smiles sheepishly, probably knowing I fight with a dagger along with my hands.
My eyes start to sting and pulse from cutting the onions. I groan, shutting and opening my eyes quickly, releasing a tear.
"Did you know the reason onions make us cry is because they produce the chemical irritant known as syn-propanethial-S-oxide. It stimulates the eyes' lachrymal glands so they release tears." I inform her with a nod. I stop cutting again to wipe my eyes with my shirt-covered-shoulder. I look over at her, feeling her gaze on me to see she looked quite puzzled.
"So you actually know everything?" She asks. I nod. "I thought Clint was just being over dramatic." She laughs. I continue cutting before I start talking.
"Well, I can see beyond the normal mind. I know all, or most. I can heal people or control people or really do anything I want by touching points in their body that the brain reacts to, causing them to do whatever I order." I explain with a shrug.
"Is that how you can dice those onions so... perfectly?" She asks causing me to laugh.
"I guess. Some things come more naturally than others. I'm still human. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. The only difference is that it doesn't take me very long to overcome my weaknesses. Like I learned how to bartend in under twenty minutes. But, learning how to play rugby took about an hour and half." I explain, thinking deeply on it. I see Laura nod out of the corner of my eye.
The two of us are silent for a long time as we move around the kitchen, cooking, cutting, and spicing different things.
"Thank you." Laura says suddenly. My head jerks up before turning to look at her.
"For what?" I ask with a smile.
"For saving my husband in those woods." She explains when I activated Clint's rapid healing. I nod, looking out the window to see Clint playing around the yard with Cooper as Lila runs after them.
"It was nothing... Clint's been like an annoying big brother to me," I look down at the mixture I'm concocting before I speak. "I don't know if Clint told you anything about me. But, um, I don't remember anything from my past fifteen years of life. I woke up on the side-walk two years ago remembering nothing about my old life- - my family. I was just lucky that Tony's building just happened to be the one I walked into... So, the avengers have been like my family, ya know, taking care of me, caring about me. All that." I laugh a little awkwardly.
I jump as Laura's hand is placed on my back.
"Well now that you know about us; this place with always be a home you can come back to." I looked over at Laura and her motherly smile. She brought me into her arms and hugged me.
Tears form in my eyes as I can't ever remember receiving a hug like this. I can't remember who my mother was or if she was ever a part of my life. Laura eventually steps back, placing her hands on my shoulders.
"Let's finish this dinner, huh?" She asks. I nod, laughing a little as I wipe the tears from my eyes.
We quickly finish dinner since there wasn't much to do. We call everyone in the house and my face turns into one of shock of Nick Fury walks through the door.
"Why doesn't anyone tell me anything?" I question loudly. I faintly hear Clint laugh.
"Had to have a conversation with Frankenstein over here." Nick says, jerking a thumb over at Tony. A large smirk grows on my face.
"Nicky..." I trail off excitedly, walking towards him.
"I told you not to call me that." He spits out quickly as I knock into him, hugging the daylights out of him. He pats my back.
"Nice to see you too." He says. I step away from him, chuckling as I start serving the food.
We all eat dinner with nice and normal conversations. Not wanting to get into the nitty gritty yet. Everyone complimented Laura and I on our cooking, the kids made us laugh. I had never been apart of a real family dinner before... but it was nice.
Nick offered to clean up and everyone graciously accepted the offer. We all sat or stood around him as he did so. The kids and Laura were in the living room as they didn't have much part in this.
"Ok. Come on, Fury. Let's just get to it." I deadpan. Nick looks over his shoulder to look at me as he chuckles.
"Blunt, as always," he says. He picks up a glass and begins to wipe it down. "Ultron took you folks out of play to buy himself time. My contacts all say he's building something," Nick starts. I smile as Lila comes up to Nat and I, handing each of us a picture she drew. "The amount of vibranium he made off with, I don't think it's just one thing." Nick explains. I quietly thank the little girl sincerely.
"What about Ultron himself?" Steve asks.
"Oh, he's easy to track. He's everywhere. The guy is multiplying faster than a catholic rabbit." Nick says, bringing a glass of ice tea to the table for himself.
"It still doesn't help us get an angle on any of his plans, though." Nick adds.
"Is he still going after launch codes?" Tony asks as he throws darts on the board.
"Yes, He is. But he's not making any headway." Nick said.
"I cracked the pentagons firewall in high school on a dare." Stark boasted.
"Yeah, well, I contacted out friends at the nexus about that." Nick started.
"Nexus?" Steve asked.
"It's the world internet hub in Oslo. Every byte of data flows through there. It's pretty frickin awesome." I say.
"Fastest access on earth." Bruce nods.
"So what did they say?" Clint asks.
"He's fixated on the missiles. But the codes are constantly being changed." Nick explains.
"By whom?" Tony asks as he ducks his head away to keep from Clint's dart hitting him. I see Clint shrug from the area he's in.
"Do we have an ally?" Natasha asks.
"That isn't in this room." I add. Nick points at me for a second.
"Ultrons got an enemy. That's not the same thing. Still, id pay folding money to know who it is." Nick says.
"I might need to visit Oslo. Find our unknown." Tony says.
"I'll help." I say softly.
"Well, this is good times, boss, but I was kinda hoping when I saw you, you'd have more than that." Natasha says in her usual calm voice with a side of casual bitterness from the disappointment of Nick.
"I do," I perk up. "I have you," And I deflate. "Back in the day I had eyes everywhere. Ears, everywhere else. You kids had all the tech you could dream up," Nick starts saying as he walks to the table. "Here we all are, back on earth, with nothing but our wit and our will to save the world. Ultron says the avengers are the only thing between him and his mission. And whether or not he admits it, his mission is global destruction. All this, laid in a grave. So stand. Outwit the platinum bastard." Nick finishes his pep-talk.
"Steve doesn't like that kind of talk." Nat says in a pouty voice.
"You know what romanoff?" Steve says in an empty threat.
"So, What does he want?" Nick asks, referring to Ultron.
"To become better. Better than us. He keeps building bodies." Steve says.
"Person bodies. The human form is inefficient. Biologically speaking we're outnumbered. But he keeps coming back to it." Tony says.
"When you three programmed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed." Natasha commented. I place a hand on my chest.
"I've never failed before." I notice Bruce looking down at the butterflies Lila drew us.
"They don't need to be protected. They need to evolve. Ultrons going to evolve." Bruce suddenly says.
"How?" Nick asks. Bruce looks down at me and realization dawns.
"Has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho?" I ask.
AN/ ok like, it's pretty clear now. Like I've suddenly seen this on Instagram since marvel blew up. But even when AOU came out, I knew Clints wife was Velma from the live action scooby-doo movies. I freaked out. It was so weird to see but so amazing at the same time.
I have also always dreamed of someone calling Nick Fury, "Nicky". Like he's so formal. It's always Fury, it's rarely even Nick, I think. So like, the fact that Casey has the nerve to call him Nicky. I just love that for her :')