Hawkeye's daughter

1. Visitors

„Leila, come here!" my mum shouted from downstairs. "Your father's home... and he brought guests," she added a little bit uncertainly.

Guests? We never had guests... Except for occasional visits of Aunt Natasha and Uncle Fury. (They might be super-spies, but I didn't know that... At least not at the time when I was a little girl and drew them pictures of butterflies.)

I immediately closed the book I was reading and jumped out of bed, realising that I was still wearing pyjamas. It didn't took me long to change into black jeans, grey t-shirt and navy sweatshirt.

My curiosity grew larger as I walked down the stairs and was thinking who could've come to visit us. If it had been aunt Nat, she would have come straight into my room. And my mum would have called uncle's Furry name if it had been him.

All of my thoughts disappeared when I entered the living room and saw the four strangers. Well, there was also my mum, brother, father and aunt Nat, but the four men standing next to each other had my full attention.

"This is my daughter, Leila..." my dad introduced me to them and then pointed at the first men: "...Leila, this is..." but I interrupted him.

"Bruce Banner, Tony Stark, Thor..." I looked at each of them and my eyes stopped at the last one: "...and Steve Rogers, the Captain America. You're the Avengers," I said maybe a little too keenly.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Barton," said Steve Rogers politely. He was exactly how I expected him to be – a good looking gentleman.

"Leila..." I blurted out. "...Please call me Leila," I added with a shy smile on my face. Steve Rogers nodded and smiled at me.

"Look at her, she's grown up so fast!" Natasha came to me and hugged me tightly. "You're beautiful," she smiled when she let go of me.

"I've missed you, Nat," I smiled back.

*****

After the dinner, I had to put to sleep my little brother and then go to my room. The Avengers gathered in the kitchen to discuss something important. I was not invited, obviously.

However, I was wondering what'd happened, because they all looked quite shaken and there was also weird tension between them. Thor disappeared right after they'd arrived and Steve had several arguments with Tony during the day. Everything'd became even more suspicious when Uncle Fury appeared. I thought he was no longer working for SHIELD.

I sneaked out of my room and without noticing hid myself in the living room, from where I could listen to their conversation.

They talked about someone called Ultron. I gasped when Fury mentioned that Ultron's mission was global destruction. Well, I shouldn't have done that, because Tony seemed to hear it and looked straight at my hiding place.

Fury kept talking and fortunately for me, Tony had turned back to listening to Fury and playing darts with my father.

"So what Ultron wants?" asked Fury.

"To become better than us..." said Steve and thought about it: "...He keeps building bodies."

"Person bodies," Tony added.

"When you two programmed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed," Natasha noted sarcastically.

"They don't need to be protected..." said Dr. Banner pensively. "...They need to evolve."

"How?" asked Fury.

"I could bet that he will use the knowledge of Helen Cho... I've lost contact with her some time ago," responded Dr. Banner.

"We have to go to Seoul, immediately," commanded Steve with worries in his face and everyone started preparing to leave.

"Please say goodbye to Leila," father said to my mum, but Tony answered instead of her.

"I don't think that would be necessary..." he pointed at my hiding place: "...You can say goodbye to her yourself."

I groaned as I stepped out of my hiding place.

"Leila, have you been listening to our conversation?" my dad was surprised, that nobody noticed me.

"Well, she's after all the daughter of a spy..." Natasha said in amusement.

"I'm sorry, dad..." I came closer to them. "...But I thought that I could help you."

"You can't help us, we've talked about this," said my father strictly.

"I've trained myself... You know that I'm as good with a bow as you," I reminded him. "I can do that."

"No, you can't..."

"Why?"

"Because you're a child!" he raised his voice.

"I'm not a child!" now I've raised my voice too.

"Only children say such things," he replied immediately.

"This is not about whether or not I am a child... You just don't trust me that I can handle myself!" I shouted at him, then quickly ran up the stairs and slammed the door of my room. I didn't want anyone to see me cry.

*****

Clint Barton sighted as his wife put her hand on his shoulder. He didn't want to argue with his daughter in front of everyone, but also he couldn't allowed her to come with them, it was too dangerous for her. He knew very well that she was a good archer and she could handle herself, but she was his daughter and he couldn't lose her.

"I'll talk to her..." said Natasha quietly and Clint just nodded.

*****

*Knock knock*

"Go away!" I shouted at whoever was behind the door. The person, however, ignored me.

"It's me, Natasha..." she walked into my room. "...And unfortunately, I can't go away without saying goodbye to my favourite almost-niece," she smiled and sat on the corner of my bed.

"You came to convince me that my father is right..." I frowned, but not with anger.

"Well, your father is right that you're young..." she started convincing me, but then she added: "...But he was also young on his first mission," she had a mysterious expression on her face.

"So you think that I should go with you?" I raised my eyebrow.

"I didn't say that... It is dangerous..." she put her hand on my shoulder. "...I can't tell you whether or not you should go with us..." she said seriously. "...Your father would have killed me..." her serious face suddenly turned as she chuckled. "...Or more like that he would tried to kill me," she corrected herself and made me laugh.

"I know that my father is worried about me... But he's not realising that he made me a prisoner in this house..." I sighted. "...I don't want to live a normal life. I want to protect the people like you do..."

"Well, I could try to talk to him when this is all over..." she smiled at me and stood up. "...You know, I just realised some funny thing... There's this space in every Quinjet, under the floor... It's usually for the supplies, so it's not small... I'd say that one person could fit in, but I guess that's not important thing to know," she went to the door and just before she left, she turned around: "We're leaving in 15 minutes," and with a wink disappeared.

I knew exactly what she just advised me and I couldn't be happier. As quickly as I could I packed necessary things, took my bow, quiver with many arrows. Then I wrote an apology letter to my mum and climbed out of the window.

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