Games of Deception (Hawkeye/Avengers)

Chapter 11 - Weakness?

-Clint's P.O.V-

Is this really happenning? This is a sick joke, right?

Maybe I was dreaming, I was finally losing it after all of these years getting hit in the head. I glanced over to my left and groaned inwardly when I saw the woman sitting next to me was in fact Jacqueline Adams, with her head leaned back into the seat of the car, her car that I just happened to be driving, and was tapping her fingers to the beat of some song I didn't recognize and scanning the street ahead of us.

Nope, Barton. This is real. Have fun getting yourself out of this one.

I sped the car up a bit without realizing, causing Jacqueline to glance over in my direction this time. There wasn't much said after we'd kissed, we had gone on and continued to shoot almost as if nothing had happened. Almost.

I kissed her. What kind of agent was I? This wasn't supposed to have happened, I was just testing her, it wasn't supposed to be a damn date. Fury would have my ass.

Not that he had to know. He wouldn't know, and as much as I refused to admit it, there was something about her that...

No. I was being an idiot. The mission was far too important to get distracted like I had that day, and I couldn't blame the car for it. What was I thinking? That's probably what she does, manipulates unsuspecting agents and then kills them a couple days later. Yet she didn't seem like the type that would even pretend to trust a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent if she knew.

"Uh, you just passed up the turn." her voice, surprisingly enough, was what snapped me out of my thoughts. I mumbled a few choice words to myself and I could feel the smile that had spread across her face.

"Just take the next right, I'll tell you where to go from there. You weren't lying when you said you weren't used to cities like this, were you?"

"Definitely not." I'd said, feeling relieved that I could actually respond to some things honestly. Why did I even want to be honest with her?

After she'd given me the directions to get onto the correct street, there was silence for the remainder of the ride back to, well, my apartment. For now, at least.

I turned off the car and looked around the inside one last time before getting out. I was pretty sure S.H.I.E.L.D. probably had something against buying vehicles, no matter how insanely beautiful, from assassins. Otherwise, I would have handed over all of the money I had for it.

It was a damn nice car, okay.

"So, do I hear an offer?" Jacqueline asked, noticing me as we'd gotten out of the car. I gently closed the door and tossed the keys over the shining red roof to her.

"As much as I'd like to, I'm afraid you're still stuck with it. Although I don't really know what your complaints are about," I replied, walking around the back of the car and next to where she stood as she grabbed her bag out of the seat. I glanced up into the now darkening sky, noticing that you couldn't see the stars here; they were masked by the billions of lights in the city. It was a bit disappointing, as the night skies I'd grown accustomed to seeing were actually quite spectacular.

A small look of disappointment crossed her face, then quickly vanished, as if it really wasn't all that big of an issue to her. "Eh, alright. I guess it's still you and me then," she said, patting the hood of the car. She turned to face me, and I for some reason found a bit of humor in the fact that she had to look up at me to meet my eyes. "If you change your mind, you know where I live. And where I work, and probably everything else about me too."