Behind the front desk, Tori offered up a welcoming smile to Taylor as she entered the gym. Nowhere in Tori's countenance did it suggest that the previous night she had taunted and taken on a small army of men twice her size. She was as she seemed, a cheery receptionist ready to help to make a new you. With a nod in greeting, Taylor crossed to the locker room.

After she changed, she slipped into the training room. The door swung shut behind her, muffling the pulse of the gym as she kicked off her shoes. With a sigh, she sank to the ground, leaning back against the mirror. She crossed her legs and rested her hands on her ankles. Opposite her was the hole in the plaques, the gap in Clint's history she had yet to find the answer to.

As she closed her eyes, she dropped her head back and waited. Somehow not knowing the exact questions Clint had for her was more unsettling than that morning and the anxiety over facing him. Calm was a more complicated emotion to see through.

When she heard the sound of the door opening, she didn't open her eyes. Clint stepped out of his shoes and Taylor felt the faint thump as he walked across the mats to her. His bicep brushed her shoulder as he settled down beside her, draping arms over his bent knees.

When an immediate tsunami of questions didn't crash into her, she decided to fill the silence.

"So your sister likes to get drunk and beat up guys twice her size," she said.

"Yup." A beat. "So you can teleport."

"Yup."

Another slice of silence.

"So you really can fight," she said.

"Yup." A single heartbeat. "So you can teleport."

"Yup."

"Cool. Cool, cool, cool."

Finally, Taylor opened her eyes. Clint stared off into the distance, nodding his head, muttering the same word over and over. She squinted at him, his outward calm mystifying.

"You're taking this a lot better than I imagined," she said.

Clint shrugged, not meeting her gaze. Taylor opened to mouth to go on, but like a bomb, he exploded.

"Holy shit! You can teleport!"

Taylor nodded once with the inevitable. "Yeah, that was more like what I was expecting."

In a blink, Clint launched himself to his feet and began to pace, all illusions of calm obliterated.

"This is insane! I mean you have powers! Legitimate powers! How did this even happen? When did it happen? Is it permanent?"

He dragged a hand through his hair turning it as wild as he looked at the moment, his eyes never leaving her.

"Is that the only thing you can do? How did you get your power? Was it some genetic anomaly? Where you part of a science project gone wrong? A science project gone right? How has your body changed along with the power? Have you noticed any signs that it's compensating for what must be a serious altercation to your genetic makeup?"

Taylor cocked her head, amused by and a little surprised at his line of questioning. He kept talking, not at all seeming to even want the answer to the questions that he was hurling at her as if he couldn't fathom what those responses would be. Taylor was fine with this since she wasn't sure her replies would be half as in-depth as his inquiries were.

When Clint eventually ran the course of his questions, he stopped pacing, facing her. She raised her eyebrows waiting for what was to come next but having an 83% idea of what it was. Clint let out a breath as if gearing up for his request.

"Can you show me?" he asked.

Taylor crossed her arms, eyes darting to the camera in the corner. Clint waved away her unspoken concern.

"Don't worry, I turned it off before I came in for this reason."

"Fine, but you first."

At this Clint, stared at her utterly confused.

"What?"

"You want me to perform for you like a show pony, so you have to do the same." She wiggled her hand at him. "Do a cool kick or a flip or something." When he only blinked at her, she flicked her fingers. "Go on, Black Beauty let's see what you got."

Shaking his head in bemusement, he looked around the room as if searching for an idea. He stopped as he faced the wall with the door in it. Breathing out, he took four quick steps forward and raced up the wall and flipped backward. When he landed, he held out his arms, silently asking her if she was happy. Taylor pushed out her bottom lip, mildly satisfied.

Then with a single thought, she vanished and reappeared a foot to the right in the exact same position. Clint waited, the anticipation dimming in his eyes.

"That's it?" he asked.

Taylor threw her hands up. "I just shifted a foot over without moving at all!"

"Yeah, but I was expecting something...I don't know more impressive."

Scowling with irritation, Taylor pushed herself to her feet and took hold of Clint's arm. He looked at her startled. Before he could speak, the room disappeared and they popped back on a rooftop, a cruel gust of wind surged around them.

Before Clint could even glance about, Taylor swept them off to another rooftop. Again they barely landed before they disappeared. She repeated the action three more times before stopping.

Clint spun away from her and vomited onto the pebble surface. She crossed her arms, tilted her head as she looked at him.

"Impressed now?"

Still bent over, Clint glared at her, lifting an accusing finger.

"You did that on purpose," he said.

"You wanted something more."

The wind picked up, stinging Taylor's bare arms with needles of cold. She reached out and touched Clint's shoulder. He jerked back as if scared. She rolled her eyes, though thoroughly amused.

"Calm down, I'm cold and I'm taking us back," she said. "You should be fine this next time."

Eying her warily, he spat once then straightened. She raised her hand, testing his resolve. When he didn't shy away, she took hold of his bicep. He tensed and she was made aware of the strong muscle in his arm. One that she could hardly get her fingers around half of it.

Without letting onto this new piece of knowledge, she returned them to the training room. She watched as Clint waited, staving off the lingering nauseous feeling.

When certain he wasn't going to make a foul-smelling mess, he looked at her. There was a new glint of wonder in his eyes. Along with it was a storm of questions that he planned to get answers to. Before he could start on the interrogation, she raised her hand, stalling him.

"We're not going to do any training today, are we?"

Clint stared at her like he didn't even know the meaning of the word. She sighed.

"Fine, but we're going to get a smoothie or juice next door while you badger me with whatever you're thinking." She grabbed her shoes and tugged them on. "Also you're paying."

"Why?"

"'Cause I'm sharing with you a secret that only two other people know about."

Clint shrugged as if this made sense and picked up his own sneakers. As they passed by Tori, she frowned at them.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

Clint twisted around, walking backward. "To get juice."

"Oh, then bring me back something fruity," she said.

"It's all fruit."

"Then you won't be able to fail."

Rolling his eyes, Clint pivoted back around and pushed the door open for Taylor. She folded her arms, bunching up her shoulders against the icy air. The interior of the juice place smelled like a tropical island, fresh and infused with a citrus tang. Though catering to customers looking for something chilled, it was still warm inside. The brunette wiping down the counter grinned at Clint.

"Hey, Clint," she said. "What can I get for you?"

In answer, he looked to Taylor who studied the board of flavors and items. Eventually, she settled on the most appetizing alliteration smoothie of a pineapple paradise while Clint went with the mango tango. Drinks in hand, they took the most secluded table in the corner.

After Taylor took a long sip and managed to completely freeze her frontal lobe, she eyed Clint. He didn't meet her gaze, focused on the world outside, though his thoughts clearly were revolving around her. She sank back in her chair, waiting. He nodded to himself, having found the correct order of questions.

"Alright," he said. "How did you get your power?"

She held up a finger. "First, it's an ability. Power sounds too weighty. Second, a car accident."

She broke down the story she had shared with Dominic a few days prior. A wrinkle formed in Clint's brow as he pulled out his phone. Taylor watched as he jotted down notes and then focused on her again.

"When was the first time you realized you had an ability?"

Taylor took a sip of her drink, retrieving the cemented memory.

"It was about a week after I had gotten out of the hospital," she said, staring at the yellow contents of her cup. "I don't even remember what startled me...might have been a loud car door, or even someone dropping something, but one second I'm on my bed and the next I'm by the door. In the exact same position just not the same spot."

"Did you freak out?"

Taylor regarded him with a condescending expression.

"I was able to suddenly transport myself from one end of my room to the next, so no I stayed completely calm and rational. Yes! Of course, I freaked out. I thought I was dying but I didn't even know why I thought that cause it didn't make sense."

Clint leaned forward, nudging aside his smoothie.

"What did you do?"

"Like any natural human being I went to Google, I looked up weird side effects from car accident followed by strange effects from kinda dying for a full minute."

"And?"

Taylor waved her hand out to the side. "So technically I might be a ghost, part angel, or I've been returned to the earth by aliens."

Laughing, Clint eased back. The sound was vibrant, like a clear summer day.

"Okay, so there wasn't a lot to learn. What happened afterward?"

"The only thing anyone else would do, I tried to make it happen again. After five days of thinking I was still possibly dying."

She recounted all her failed attempts and the ones that were embarrassing. It had taken her a full month to find the scope of what she could do. In that time she discovered the changes that took place in her brain, the landmarks that stuck with her without her trying to remember them. The test of looking at a picture and seeing if she could get there.

Along with it came The Pull, the unknown pain in her stomach that had made her drop fifteen pounds in a span of three weeks until she figured out what it meant.

Clint looked up from where he was furiously taking notes.

"Can you describe what The Pull is like or how it works?" he asked.

Gazing off, Taylor gnawed on her lips trying to put into words that seemed to be indescribable. Frowning at her lack of results, she leaned forward, arms resting on the tabletop.

"Okay, you know how if you had your eyes closed and someone walked into the room you could sense them even if you're not completely aware of where they are? Not even hearing, but a feeling that there is another presence in the room?"

Clint nodded. "Like a sixth sense."

"Exactly, that's what it's like. I might not know the exact location of where the person in need is, but I get close."

Clint twisted his lips to the side in thought, running a hand through his hair.

"But how do you know they are in trouble?"

Taylor breathed out. "This took me forever to understand. But it has to do with adrenaline levels. You know when you're in a situation and your adrenaline spikes to help you compensate for what you have to do? Fight or flight response type thing?

"Well, that's how I know who needs help and who doesn't. The stronger The Pull the more in danger a person is. You can have a burst of adrenaline while being in a heated argument, but it doesn't last. Figured that one out through trial and error. A lot of error."

Nodding, Clint continued to type away, adding to the already growing note. Taylor raised herself out of her seat, trying to peer at what he was writing.

"What are you putting down?" she asked.

He shrugged, not looking at her. "Anything I want to remember. This is crazy fascinating. Your body has changed so you are now wired to sense danger, wired to remember locations so you can return to them. It's like when you lose a sense all the others grow stronger, but in this instinct, you gained one and others grew to help strengthen it. It's beyond interesting."

Taylor rested her chin on her fist, noticing the excited gleam in Clint's eyes, the way his mouth curled upward at the corner with anticipation.

Outside the sky was dimming, the hours gone without either of their awareness. The shop had filled and emptied, gym-goers refueling before they dashed off to the rest of their lives. Clint set down the phone.

"Okay, a couple of final questions."

Taylor stretched her arms over the top of her head, feeling her back crack with the motion, telling her she had been sitting for far too long.

"Alright," she said.

Clint cast a quick glance around them.

"Did you 'jump' with me before?"

"Yeah, when I flipped you over my back. We accidentally jumped to the alleyway and I jumped us back before you could notice. It's the reason you threw up."

He took this in with another nod. "Were you ever going to tell me about this?"

Taylor shrugged, predicting the future was not an ability she had.

"Is this how you got your bruise?" he asked.

Taylor smiled, finally getting to the one question he seemed to always have wanted the answer to.

"Yeah, I got punched by an arsonist. Surprisingly it was the first time. I didn't want it to happen again."

She remembered saying that the time she told him how she acquired the bruise would be the same time that he told her why he stopped competing, but she had a feeling that wasn't going to be the case. Still, she decided to ask anyway.

"Why did you quit competing?"

Clint tensed and Taylor knew that no matter how much as she had shared with him this was going to be a truth he couldn't return in kind. She didn't blame him if he hadn't seen her teleport the night before the chances that she would've given away something so guarded was slim. Saving him from having to come up with a way to back out of the question, she stood.

"I should get home," she said.

Clint relaxed, though he didn't meet her gaze aware that she had a right to know after all she had told him. They walked out and back to the gym. Tori eyed them with blatant amusement.

"You two were gone for a while," she said. The amusement dropped away, replaced by dismay. "And you forget to bring me something. You suck."

Leaving Clint to argue with his sister, Taylor went to the locker room, collecting her stuff. When she came back out, Clint backed away from the desk.

"I'll walk you out," he said, keeping pace with her.

"While you're out there go get me my smoothie," Tori called out.

"Fine."

Taylor led the way to the dim citrus soaked alley. When she faced Clint, he dug his hands into his pockets, waiting.

"This will not be as cool as you think it will be."

He smiled, the sight filled with unabashed excitement.

"Yeah, it will."

She shook her head and vanished. Her closet formed around her and she pushed aside the door, flopping onto her bed, staring up at the ceiling. There was a lightness about her, her secret once again shared and accepted. The door to her room opened and she lifted her head as her mother bustled in holding a laundry basket.

"Oh sweetheart, you're home," she said. "When did you get back?"

Taylor dropped her head back to the mattress, bringing out an answer that was a truth that still hid a lie.

"Just a second ago."

For the first time, she wondered if she could receive the same acceptance from her parents as she had with Clint.

**********************************************************************

"Language."

(Haha which totally works cause Clint used the S word. You know me, I don't like profanity but saying 'shoot dang son' didn't have the same punch for the situation, though I wish it did)

Alright heroes! Send in your super duper reports! Let's hear what you have to say! 🦹🏻🦸🏼‍♀️🦸🏾‍♂️

Sunshine Girl has this to say, she's 100% in love with Clint! He's a nonexistent combo of hot and nerdy, so need she say more? She don't think so!

Now, I have to share my excitement with you because well I need to share with someone and I've already shared it with my family.

I have an amazing brother, which I might have already told you about but I'm telling you again!! (Kevin_Is_Tristan) If you didn't know, I'm currently working on self publishing A Secret Service. That means that I need a kick-butt cover that looks professional. But that costs money.

For my birthday, Kevin told me that he's paying for my book cover!!! A cover that will cost a few hundred dollars! Just like that! He's like here you go!

Naturally, I started crying and hugged him because he's about the most generous, amazing brother a girl could ask for.

I had to tell you because it's making me so giddy and excited to get this book to you!! AHHHHH!!! It's happening!! *does a happy hoppy dance around the room*

Are you excited to own a copy? (and I do mean you'll be able to own a physical copy!)

Le saviez-vous (French): Due to the fact that the cast of Infinity War was so big, the entire cast on set — they would bring in a small group of actors to shoot one scene, those people would leave, and then a new group would be brought to set.

Vote, comment, follow but only if you stand for brothers that blow you away because they are so wonderful!!