Chapter 15 ━━ Never Meet Your Heroes, Bro

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Heather let out a loud snore, pretending to be fast asleep as Clint silently moves around the room in the dark.

The former Avenger occasionally bumps into things then and there with the lack of his eyesight, but he doesn't bother to turn on the lights.

"Snoopers gonna snoop." Heather whispers and the hero jumps in surprise.

Clint places a hand over his heart, striving to steady his heart beating. "You almost gave me a heart attack, you dipshit!"

"Where are you going?" Heather asks, getting off the bed, trying his best not to wake the kids.

"Uh, I was gonna go get some food to eat." Clint says, keeping his tone at the lowest level.

"We ate like a half of that restaurant."

Clint shrugs. "Still hungry."

"Oh, cool. I'll come with you." The raven headed says, looking down at his hoodie and pants. "You're lucky I didn't bring my SpongeBob pyjamas."

"Nah, dude, it's okay. I can eat alone." Clint shakes his head.

Heather raises an eyebrow. "What are you getting?"

"Uh, Chinese."

"Dude, I love Chinese..." Heather trails off, putting on his shoes.

"Barney. I can eat alone, it's okay."

"You're not going alone. Come on." Heather insists, getting up and leading the Avenger to the door, without stumbling into anything in the process with the help of his super soldier vision.

They exit the hotel and walk down the street in the moonlight. There aren't many people out, but the city is bright with lights with the colours of Christmas. Red and green.

"You're after the ninja. Am I right or am I right?" Heather queries, his hands buried deep in his hoodie pockets. The hood is shielding his face. "My question is, why are you after him?"

"That ninja is pretending to be someone else." Clint explains.

"Someone's not Someone, and when we find out who that someone really is, Someone's in big trouble. Got it."

"We're just gonna talk to him. That's it, all right?" Clint states and the younger brother nods. "No more questions?"

Heather shrugs. "Nope. Not at all."

Not satisfied with his answer, Clint asks. "So you risk your life on this just like that?"

Heather briefly takes his gaze from the street to look at his brother. "I trust you?"

"What if I break your trust someday?" Clint questions.

Heather sighs. "Trusting you is my decision, proving me wrong is your choice. K? What's with all that dumb questions?"

"Nothing." Clint replies even though it looks like there's a lot going on in his head.

"I'm actually kind of hungry now." Heather blurts out.

Clint chuckles with amusement. "When are you not?"

"I'm a freakin Super soldier. I need more food than an average man-" Heather is cut off half when a sudden loud crash from the alleyway grabs their attention. They rush to the origin of the sound to find the ninja locked in a car as a group of gangsters attack him.

"Get the ninja. I got the guys." Heather says before running to the men, taking them one by one. Dodging the punches skillfully, Heather wraps up his job in minutes, taking down the whole group of gangsters, who aren't obviously trained to combat. Dusting off his clothes, he looks around to find them all knocked out cold. "That was quick."

Clint pushes open the car and grabs the ninja by his suit before dragging him away from the scene and to a dark corner. He shoves the ninja to the wall and pulls out the mask to reveal a girl in her early twenties. "Oh, come on!"

"Well, looks like that someone is a giddy teenager." Heather remarks, crossing his arms over his chest.

"You're... You're Hawkeye!" The girl exclaims.

"And who the hell are you?" Clint asks the girl.

"I'm Kate Bishop." She replies.

"You're a kid." Clint sighs, releasing the girl from his grip. "My God. How did you get this suit?"

The sound of sirens wailing fills in the air and Clint lets out another sigh. "Look it. We gotta get you out of here. Okay? It's not safe for you to be in this. Do you live near here?"

"Yeah. I live just..." She trails off, taking off her Ronin suit and handing it over to Clint. Even though she's wearing a black suit underneath, she shivers as the cold night breeze hits her.

Heather takes off his Hoodie and hands it to the girl, leaving him on his plain black t-shirt. "Here, take this. Are you okay?"

"I'm really fine." Kate replies, putting on the hoodie. "Who are you?"

"Heather Bernard Barton. In other words, I'm Clint's one and only little brother." Heather grins.

Kate smiles and nods towards her left. "This way."

"Come on. Let's go." Clint demands and they begin to walk off.

"I saw a dead body." Kate states and points in a direction. "This way. It was a first."

"We'll talk there." Clint tells as they continue to walk. "Where'd you learn to fight?"

"I, uh, started talking martial arts when I was five." Kate replies.

"Wow. So, like, a year ago?" Clint asks and Heather chuckles.

"Are... Are you assessing threats? Is that what you're doing?" Kate questions with a raised eyebrow.

Clint scoffs. "Something like that."

"That's how you operate?" Kate questions. "You're just constantly looking for things that are suspicious or weird?"

"Uh-huh."

"Look, just so you know, I'm not some total noob, right? Um... I was a little overwhelmed, but I held my own with those douchebags." Kate rambles as she leads the Barton brothers to her apartment. "We're right here. Um, some people have called me the world's greatest archer."

"Yeah? Are you one of those people?" Clint asks.

Heather rolls his eyes at his brother. "Don't be mean, Clinty. That's not nice."

"Well, one of them is. Yes." Kate confirms.

"That's wonderful." Heather murmurs, glances around to catch if anyone's following them. He finds none.

"Yeah. Open the door." Clint sighs and Kate opens the door with a thud. A dog runs to them happily. "Some guard dog you got there."

"Oh, he's, uh, not my dog." Kate says, walking in.

Heather scratches behind the dog's ears and it greedily leans into him. The action makes him smile and he continues to pet it. "I like him."

"Nice place for a kid." Clint states, taking a look at the apartment.

"Yeah, I inherited it."

"What are you, 18?"

"I'm 22."

"Yeah, same thing."

Kate huffs and takes off the hoodie before handing it back to Heather. "Thanks."

"No worries, Katy Perry." Heather winks before putting back on his hoodie.

"It's Kate Bishop actually." Kate corrects him.

"Same thing." He shrugs in return.

"I'll... I'll be right there." Kate says and goes upstairs, whispering to herself. "Totally cool. Just stay cool. The Hawkeye in my place with his hot brother."

Heather, who is presently looking through Kate's trophy case, grins smugly, clearly hearing her whispering with his supersoldier earshot. "You got a lot of stuff stocked here, Katy Perry."

Kate peeks her head from upstairs and corrects him. "It's Kate Bishop."

"Where'd you get the suit?" Clint asks this time.

"Black market auction." Kate replies.

"And you bought it." Heather adds.

"No. Not exactly." Kate says, jogging downstairs, wearing a purple tracksuit. Her black wavy hair is tied into a ponytail.

Heather takes in her appearance with approval. She does look somewhat attractive. Actually, she's beautiful in his eyes even though she's not his type. "Uh-huh."

"So, what all did you do in this suit?" Clint asks, noticing his brother gawking at the girl. He rolls his eyes at his inappropriate behaviour.

"I beat some guys up. Saved the dog. Some light B and E." Kate replies, completely obvious.

"Jesus. A 22-year-old vigilante. Shouldn't you be in school?" Clint asks and Kate scoffs.

"Funny you should ask. So, uh, now that I've answered all your questions, I have so many for you. Uh, starting with..." Kate trails off, picking up her bow. "Can you sign this?"

"I'm not done yet." Clint says.

"But when you are, can you sign my bow?" Kate presses. "You're kind of my favourite Avenger."

"Someone got a fangirl!" Heather mutters, sarcastically, leaning his back to the table.

"Are you okay? By the way?" Clint asks, glancing at the small cuts on her face.

"I'm good. Oh, yeah, no, I'm fine. You should see the other guys." Kate says, confidently.

"I did. Tracksuit Mafia." Clint states.

"That's their name?" Kate asks with a raised eyebrow. "Are they the ones that killed my mom's fiancé's uncle?"

"Your mom's fiancé's uncle?" Heather asks.

"Armand III."

"Ah."

"Of at least seven."

"I... I do not know. But what I need to know is if anybody saw your face?" Clint questions her.

"No. Kept the mask on like a pro." Kate replies.

"Okay, 'cause the person that wore this suit made a whole lot of enemies. All right? And the Tracksuits are just one of them." Clint explains.

"That doesn't sound good." Kate says.

"You told nobody about this suit?"

"No."

"There's no way you're connected to this suit?"

"Right."

"I need you to be sure."

"I am."

"Certain?"

"Yes."

"100% sure?" Heather queries, this time.

"Yup." Kate confirms with a nod.

"You've seen a lot of confusing things tonight, and more confusing things are going to happen because of the confusing things happened tonight." Heather says to her with a serious face. "Do you understand?"

"Not really." Kate says, confusedly.

"Good, that's good."

"I don't understand either." Clint mutters, equally confused just as the girl. "The Tracksuits followed you from the auction to where I found you. Did you stop anywhere before that?"

"I just dropped off the dog."

While the two try and sort everything out, there's suddenly a commotion from outside and then a man yells.

"Hey, Kate Bishop!"

"And my name's on the buzzer." Kate confesses in anguish.

The three storm to the window to discover Tracksuit Mafia men outside waiting for them.

"Hey! We got little surprise for you, bro! Show yourself!" One of them yells, and throws a flaming Molotov cocktail through her window, setting the place ablaze. The men cheer and begin to laugh.

"My home! All my stuff!" Kate squeals as the smoke fills the apartment.

"Just grab the dog and go." Clint demands.

"Wait. What about the suit?" Heather asks, glancing at the suit surrounded by the fire.

"Leave it. We'll come back for it." Clint says before the three flee with the dog in tow and escape out back, leaving the Ronin suit in behind in the chaos, meaning that after Kate is safe and secure, again.

"So where are we going?" Kate asks as they walk out in the street, away from the apartment.

"Duh. Getting further away from those people trying to kill you." Heather states.

"Right. And after that?" Kate asks and Heather shrugs before turning to his brother for an answer.

"We'll need some supplies." Clint replies.

"Hell yeah. Avenger supplies?" Kate asks with excitement.

"Yeah. Avenger supplies." Heather clicks his tongue smugly. "Right, big bro?"

Clint makes a grim face in return, without giving an answer.

"Your accent. It's completely different. It doesn't sound American." Kate asks, referring to Heather's thick Russian accent.

Heather smirks. "I thought girls like guys with accents."

"It's not what I meant."

Heather shrugs. "I used to live in Russia for years for some mission. Might have picked it up there. I don't really remember."

"What do you mean?"

"I got my head injured badly in my last mission and went through a surgery. Now my memory is kind of messy. It sucks." Heather says as they arrive at a store.

"Feel free to grab your Avenger supplies, Katy Perry." Heather says, sarcastically, gesturing at the medical supplies section.

Kate sighs. "Not gonna lie to you. This is a bit of a letdown."

"Sorry to disappoint you." Clint tells. "Wanna grab some of that rubbing alcohol over there? Lower shelf."

"So what's the plan now?" Kate asks, grabbing the medical supplies and handing them to Clint.

"Let me guess. We're going to your safe house?" Clint states.

"Is it in Avengers Tower?"

"No. Tony sold that. A few years ago."

"That is so sad on so many levels."

"Come on." Clint leads them to the cashier and stands in line to pay for the medical stuff he's buying.

"Look, I gotta find a place to stash you. Safe. So I can recover the suit with Heather and clean your mess." Clint explains to the girl.

"Stash me? I'm not a bag of money."

"No, you're not. A bag of money'd be useful to me."

"I actually do know a place about 10 blocks away. Would a bag of money know a place?" Kate asks, tilting her head to prove a point.