I'll wait for you (Clintasha)✔️

❤︎✧17✧❤︎ The new girl

The school holidays were over. It was back to school for Natasha's friends. Clint was reluctant to leave at first, but he had utility bills and school fees to pay so he had to go back to work. The exams were also round the corner.

The boys were sitting at the lunch table that Wednesday.

"Where are the girls?" Tony asked casually.

The rest shrugged. And as if on cue, a stream of giggles and laughter approached.

The boys turned back to be greeted by Pepper, Jane, Darcy, Maria and a stranger.

The girl had long, wavy chocolate-brown hair and had dimples when she smiled. She was wearing a lace top paired with a yellow skirt and a coral coloured cardigan.

The boys looked on suspiciously.

"Hey guys, this is Laura. She's a new student that just transferred here and Jane's her buddy for the week to show her around school." Darcy introduced.

Laura waved and smiled sweetly. "Hi everyone, nice to meet you all. Jane told me about you guys."

"She'll be sitting with us, if you don't mind." Maria said, her 'if you don't mind' wasn't an option but rather a firm 'you have no say in this' statement.

Darcy pushed Clint down the bench towards Bucky and offered Laura the seat.

Clint and Bucky both didn't quite like the idea of someone taking away Natasha's place in the group, even if she weren't here in person. But they weren't about to be mean to the new student, so they kept quiet.

"Here, have some of these cookies. I baked them myself and thought I'd share them with my new friends." Laura held out a container of chocolate chip cookies that looked delicious, and offered them to everyone at the table.

Everyone politely took one and bit into the buttery, crumbly delicacy. They instantly fell in love with the cookies and praised Laura for her excellent baking skills.

Laura smiled shyly and humbly turned down the compliments, placing the credit on the recipe book.

Being such a kind and lovable girl, everyone took a liking to her almost immediately, and she easily became a part of the group.

---------------------------------------------

One hot and sultry Friday afternoon, Clint was taking advantage of the air conditioning in the library to study for the upcoming exams. He planned to stay there till about 4.30, before he headed off to work.

He was busy highlighting his textbook when a mild vanilla scent wafted by.

He looked up to find Laura holding the backrest of the chair opposite him with one hand and carrying a pile of books and stationary on the other.

"Mind if I sit?"

Clint smiled and gestured to the seat, to which Laura happily sat down and plonked her books onto the laminated oak table.

Feeling a little awkward, Clint went back to reading his textbook.

There was a lingering silence before Laura started to talk.

"Erm, I've only just transferred here and I have to sit for the exams in a month, do you mind if I trouble you with a few topics that I'm unsure of?"

It wasn't like Clint to turn down a genuine offer for help so he agreed, "Sure, where do we start?"

A grateful smile formed on Laura's face, and she flipped to one of the few pages she had tagged in her textbook and moved on to ask Clint questions.

An hour and a half had passed and they decided to take a break.

Laura decided to gain a deeper understanding of her group of friends.

"So, is Tony really the son of Howard Stark?"

"Yeah, he's really rich. He once helped me pay for an air ticket that I didn't need to pay back."

"Wow, you guys must have been able to enjoy lots of expensive stuff with him around. What about Thor? He speaks with an interesting slang, like he calls me Lady Laura."

"He's from England, and you could say his parents kind of brought him up Shakespearean. That's why he speaks like that, it's kind of cool actually."

"Yeah it is. About that space between you and Bucky at the lunch table before I came...Do you both dislike each other or something? Sorry just curious."

"Nah, we're good. Our friend used to sit there..." Clint paused and seemed to be caught in a flashback.

"Well, where has he or she gone to?"

"Erm she migrated to New Zealand." Clint recounted a little sadly.

"Oh she must have been a very close friend. I'm sorry she left."

"Yeah... She was...closer than ever." Clint shifted in his seat and continued in almost a whisper, "to me."

Laura remained silent this time.

The next hour was spent on independent studying, with occasional clarifications by Laura.

Then it was off to work for Clint. They bade goodbye at the school gate and Clint rushed off to catch the bus.

The bus sped off downtown as the sky turned a purple hue.

The same purple hue painted the sky in Auckland, but it was morning of the next day.

The hand with the IV lay unmoving beside the delicate body of Natasha, only protected by a silk blanket.

Her protector, her hero, was working back at the coffee house in New York.

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