Tripp Maximoff // Avengers //

Hawkeye - So This Is Christmas?

NIKITA MAXIMOFF WILL RETURN IN MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS

3rd Person POV

"In the spirit of the holidays, I'm gonna give you a minute to think about what you're starting right now." Kingpin growls at Eleanor as Kate, Clint, and Nikita watch the video on Kate's phone

"I don't need a minute." Eleanor tells him

"Who sent this?" Clint asks

"Yelena." Kate responds. "Apparently my mom is the one who hired her to kill you."

"Oh, wow." Clint whispers. Nikita sits silently

"It doesn't make any sense." Kate stammers. "My mom doesn't even, she doesn't even jaywalk. And now she's working with the mob? She killed Armand?" She whispers. "My God, I need to talk to her." She stammers, standing up quickly

"Kate, wait!" Clint tells her as she begins calling her mom, standing up. "You gotta calm down, okay? Let's talk this out." Kate turns her phone off, the call going to voicemail. "Just take a breath, okay? But your mom needs our help. That video, Kate, it's not good. The Kingpin will not take this lightly. He is going to react, and he's gonna do it in a big way."

"Clint, this is my mess to clean up." Kate says shakily. "You should go home, you should be with your family. You can still make it in time for Christmas. Nikki, maybe you can...maybe–"

"Kate, you're my partner." Clint cuts her off. He gestures between himself and Nikita. "You're our partner." He tells her. "Your mess is our mess."

"He's right." Nikita says, standing up from her seat. "We're not going anywhere until this is finished."

***

"Kate, I'm really sorry how this has all turned out for you." Clint tells Kate, sitting across from her and Nikita on the subway

"Well... Can't think about it right now. We've gotta focus on tonight." Kate tells him

"You're right." Clint says. "We need a ton of gear. Like a whole batch of way-too-dangerous trick arrows."

"You can make more?" Kate asks

...moments later, Kate, Clint, and Nikita are making more trick arrows...

"What is this one?" Kate asks, grabbing one of the ones that Clint had constructed

"Way too dangerous." Clint tells her

Kate puts the arrow down. "Too dangerous." She repeats, typing the two words out on a label maker for the arrow

Nikita was following Clint's directions on the construction of the arrow. However, because of her situation with her hands, she had never perfected her fine motor skills. "Damn it." She whispers through her teeth as she fails to screw on a piece of the arrow

"Hey, it's okay." Clint tells Nikita, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You're still relearning, it's gonna take some time to perfect those motor skills of yours." He tells her, putting his hand out for the arrow

"Yeah, I know." Nikita sighs, giving up on the arrow and passing it to Clint

"Why are your motor skills so bad?" Kate questions. She looks up from her label maker upon hearing the silence. "I'm...I'm just asking." She stammers. "When we ate at the diner the other day, I noticed that your grip on your utensils when cutting food wasn't good...and...I'm sorry if I hit a nerve..." She trails off in a whisper

"It's okay." Nikita tells Kate. "I had an unfortunate run in with a bomb when I was younger that cut all functioning to my hands and arms below my elbows. A few years – well, I guess not a few years ago since the blip..." She says, glancing over at Clint. "...Tony Stark and Bruce Banner made me an electromagnetic chip that was inserted into my nervous system to bring back the functioning of my hands. Um...uh, Natasha was working with me..." She whispers the name carefully, glancing at Clint again who was working on the arrow in front of him