Chapter 16: French Accents

"Alright darling, what are we doing today?" My German hair stylist, Heidi, asks as she plays with my hair.

"Uh, I don't know; something different. Maybe a little dye?" I say looking at her in the mirror.

"Length?"

"Not too short, but it's getting kinda long, so maybe right at my shoulders."

"Okay, now what I'm thinking is add layers, side bangs and do the underneath black. What do you think?"

"Can we add more black? Feather some in here and there?"

"Of course!" She says in her squeaky voice as she quickly claps her hands and walks off to prepare the dye.

After my hair is done Heidi stands behind the chair I', in and plays with my hair again.

"You like?" she asks.

"I like." I say eagerly as I play with my hair as well.

"Wunderbar!" (Wonderful!) She says throwing her hands in the air. I stand and she says, "By the way, your new piercings are beautiful. Very chic darling."

"Uhhh... Thanks?" I say, unsure as to what 'chic' means. I mean I did spend 9 years of my life isolated from the world. Do you expect me to know every trendy thing out there? I didn't even know what the term 'swag' meant until last year, not to mention 'yolo'. What has the world come to? Heidi interrupts my thoughts and disappointment at the modern world's choices by saying,

"Yes! Chic is good darling, good!" Oh... I answer her.

"Awesome! Thanks Heidi!" I give her a hug, pay, and leave. As I exit, I notice a familiar blond and red head walking down the street. I turn and keep my head down as I walk back to my apartment. Then I remember, I just got a new haircut and the back of my head looks different. They're looking for a girl with long blonde hair and I have short blonde and black hair. I straighten and then pull out my phone and earbuds. I put my earbuds in, but don't play any music, this way no one stops me, but I can still hear what's going on. I keep on walking and when I look back to see if Barton and Romanoff are still behind me someone runs into me.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" He shouts as he continues walking. I resist the urge to shout something back, because it would just draw attention and continue walking. I only get a few more yards before I hear someone shouting.

"Excuse me! Miss!" I recognize the voice as a certain bird and continue walking. I hear him getting through the crowd to catch up with me, so I quicken my pave. I turn down an ally and run across the street to my building. Someone else who lives in the building is sitting on the steps reading. The elevator's out, so I have to go up 16 flights of stairs to get to my floor. I run up the stairs skipping one at a time, and end up at the top.

"Hello Jade." I hear from behind me.

"Hey Collin." I say as I get my keys out of my bag. Collin is the playboy and the other resident of the 16th floor. The third room is vacant.

"Nice hair. Is that a new tattoo as well?" He asks stepping up to me and pointing at my left forearm.

"Thank you, and yes it is." I answer him. Still looking for my keys, I see I don't have my leather jacket that was hanging over my bag. "Damn." I mutter as I realize I must have dropped it when that guy bumped into me. I pull out my keys and unlock the door.

"What?" Collin asks.

"Nothing, I just lost my jacket."

"Oh, well I have one back at my place that you can borrow. It might be a little big, but-"

"Collin, I'm not going to sleep with you." Ever since I've moved in, he's been trying things like that. He's joking most of the time, but still, he's a playboy with a different slut coming out of his apartment almost every day.

"Who says I want to sleep with you? I mean," he says gesturing to my body, "But what if I'm just trying to be neighborly?" I give him a 'really' glare and he looks down at me. He's about to say something, but is interrupted by the door down stairs opening.

"Hey, have you seen a girl with short blonde and black hair?" I hear a male voice ask.

"16B" the girl on the stairs who was reading says. Ugh, really?!

"Uh, bye Collin." I say as I push him towards his open door.

"But-"

"Nope, bye. Talk to you later." I say as I close his door. I run to my apartment, close the door and throw my bag down. Not really knowing what to do, I run to the bathroom and look in the mirror. I do look different, but Colling recognized me... He's known me for a year though, and Barton and Romanoff knew me for 2 days. Plus, who else would be going into 16B? I then look down at my outfit. I'm wearing ripped jeans, brown booties, and a tan tank top with black arrows on it. Okay, this is good, last time Barton saw me I was in more of a skater attire so now that it's different, it will be harder to recognize me. Right? I hear a knock on the door. Taking a deep breathe, I walk to the door and open it.

"Bonjour." I say as I look at the 2 assassins dressed normally. What? Why did I speak French? Maybe my mind just tried to cover more.

"Parlez-vous anglais?" (Do you speak English?) Romanoff asks.

"Oui, may I help you?" I answer them, still in my real accent.

"We saw you drop your jacket and wanted to return it to you." Barton says handing me my jacket.

"Oh, merci, I was wondering where I had put that." I say taking it. He keeps staring at me. Like he did on the jet, when he was trying to remember me.

"Clint?" Romanoff asks.

"Oh, I'm sorry, it's just... do I know you?"

"Em... no I do not think so. I would have remembered people who were so kind. Especially in New York City." I answer them.

"Are you new to the city?" Red asks. Lying I say,

"Yes, I moved here only a few months ago. The people here are very... rural."

"Ha, you can say that again." Barton says. I give him a smile and Romanoff asks,

"How are you accustomed to the city?"

"Quite well, but I did live in a fairly large town back in France." Now she's starring. Seeing the discomfort on my face, she says,

"Pardon my starring, but you do look familiar." I smile and say,

"Oh well unless you hang around people covered in tattoos and metal, then I think you're mistaken."

"Metal, sure." I hear Baton say under his breathe. I stifle a laugh as Romanoff elbows him and says,

"Right, well I'm glad we could get your jacket back to you."

"Yes, thank you very much." I say as they walk back down the stairs. I close the door and slide down it so I'm sitting on the floor. I breather out and say, still in my French accent, "That was close." Then I slightly gag at my niceness towards them. I'm disgusted with myself. I mean sure, they're kinda funny, but again, they think they're better than me. I mean I just talked to them like a normal human and they didn't even notice. I wasn't really acting; I was just treating them as I would anyone else, but no if Viper was talking to them slandering and bad words would be thrown around. I hear the soft bang of the lobby door closing and lean my head back against my door in relief. They bought the accent and the look. What am I thinking? Of course they bought the accent! It's not even an accent, that's my actual voice. I was born in France and was there until I was 19, then moved here. I decided to use an American accent to be more discrete. And that came in handy today. Thank God.

*Clint Barton's POV*

"I'm telling you Nat, I know her."

"I agree with you that she looked familiar, but the last person who we talked to that had that much metal and ink was in Budapest. And we both know what happened there." My partner, Natasha, says as we make our way through the streets of New York back to Avengers Tower.

"Fair point, but still I feel like I know her."

"And I feel like you getting bit too tense about Viper escaping so you trying to distract yourself with delusions."

"Viper!" I shout, "That's who she reminds me of! Do you think-"

"Oh please, Leiton isn't stupid. She wouldn't risk giving herself up by showing something distinctive like a tattoo, and piercings. Oh, and that hair."

"Yeah, but what if-" I try again, but am cut off... again.

"Plus, there would be more significance to the tattoos. She escaped 3 days ago, tattoos would still be red and sore after such a short time." Natasha shoots down my theory before I can even say it. Knowing I can't win this argument, no one can win against Natasha Romanoff, I continue walking with her.

We reach the tower, walk in the elevator and I push the button that sends us to the 80th floor.

"There you are; what took so long?" I hear Tony say as we step out of the elevator.

"Relax, don't get your panties in a bunch." I say as I toss him some tech crap he sent me and Nat out to get.

"Yeah we got your little hard ware thing, no need to cause a fuss, douchepantiemcbuttface." Nat says as she sits down on the couch next to Thor who's holding a book. (A/N: So I didn't come up with this, and to those of you who get it ;) I don't own the term douchepantiemcbuttface so credit to that @pokefreak16, I think.)

"It's software and hard drive; not hard ware, first of all, and second, I am not whatever you just called me." Stark says as he inspects the device. I smile and sit down next to Tasha with a soda in my hands.

"I do not understand." Thor says looking to us for ecplination.

"Understand what?" Bruce says as he walks in with Steve behind him.

"Natasha called Stark a... douchepantiemcbuttface?"

"It's a name, we're mocking him Thor." I say and then take a sip of my drink.

"Douchepantiemcbuttface?" Steve asks as he walks passed us. Nat smirks and leans back on the couch.

"Ah, well in that case, I agree. The Metal Man is a douchepantiemcbuttface!" Thor says pleased with himself. I laugh to myself as Thor give Tony one of his cheeky grins.

"I am not, now if you excuse me, I'll be going back to tracking down Leiton." Tony says irritated.

"You do that... Douchepantiemcbuttface." Steve says as he walks back in with a mug of coffee.

"Call me that again and I'll have all of you out on the streets." Tony says turning towards us.

"Hey! Bruce and I haven't said a thing!" I shout, throwing my hands in the air, careful not to spill.

"Yeah, but you were thinking it." Tony says wiggling a finger towards me and Bruce who stands behind the couch with Steve.

"Well, would you look at that? Tony, the one who sits around, is doing the work while we sit. Uh, who could have predicted that?" Bruce says, mocking him more. I reach my hand back to Bruce and he returns the gesture by completing out high five. Sighing, Tony continues.

"Have any of you seen Peter? He'd make this searching go a lot quicker."

"Not since he went swinging last night, no." I say.

"Great. I get that he was friends with this chick, but you'd think he'd have a bit more initiative at finding her."

"He's going through a tough time right now. Give the kid some space." Steve says.

"Whatever, just send his down to the lab when he's back." Tony says walking away.

"Alright douchepantiemcbuttface." I say leaning back. Tony slams the door in frustration as we all laugh at his torment. I put my arm over the couch where Nat sits and she leans back. We continue talking about nothing although the thought of Viper is eating at the back of my mind. We should be finding her, but we've done all we can so Tony working in his lab is going to have to do it for now.

A/N: Okay, sorry this took a while, life was a little crazy. But I won't bore you with the details. Instead I'll ask, what do you think? I had fun writing from Clint's POV. I hope I did him justice... Anyway, what do you think of her cover? Do you like the fact that she changed her look and fooled the famous Black Widow and Hawkeye?

Alright, so I need to talk to yall for a sec. I just watched Marvel's 75th Anniversary documentary and feel so... educated... greatful... and just all around proud. I mean Marvel had so many snafu's (Spell check?) to overcome and they did! It is so cool to be a part of this fandom and now that I know how it all stared and where it's going, I am so excited for it all!! They also showed footage of abc's Agent Carter and I just, I don't know what to do with myself. Really, it was so amazing and I can't wait for next year. Speaking of next year, tell me about what Marvel movie you guys are most excited for. Also, talk to me about what you love about Marvel, and if you read comics, your favorite factor about comic books. Mine is that it combines, writing, reading and art.

Attached is the picture of Jade's haircut. I wanted to give her something different, so tell me your opinion about it!

Okay, here is where I promote myself by saying vote and comment. So, do that, please. I really do enjoy talking to you all.

Oh and I just looked up Ant-Man and actually really like the character. Go ahead and check him out, he's pretty unique. I can't wait for Paul Rudd's interpetation of him!

Okay, I'm done. Talk to you next time!!

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