conquer • wanda maximoff

「 THREE 」

There was a moment of silence as Clint looked between the pair, an odd look on his face.

"Uh - does anyone want a drink? I need a drink," he spoke up, saving the lapse in conversation as he held up his empty beer bottle to prove his point.

"I'm good, thanks," Maria told him.

"Ayana?" Clint gave her a pointed look.

"What? I'm too young to drink in this stupid country," the blonde replied stubbornly.

"Like that's ever stopped you from doing anything before," he scoffed. "C'mon."

"I'll catch up with you guys later," Maria smiled politely, then turned and walked away.

As soon as she was gone, Clint let out a deep sigh, turning to gaze down at the younger girl with a stern look on his face.

"What?" Ayana asked, taken aback.

"Can't you at least try to make friends?"

"I've never been very good at friends."

"I can't imagine why," said the archer sarcastically as the two walked across the room, his hand on her shoulder to guide her through the crowd.

"I didn't do anything wrong," Ayana muttered.

"Sure you didn't. Listen, I know you're dying to get away from us and this place forever, but you could at least try to pretend that you wanna be here," Clint told her as they reached the bar.

"What's the point of pretending if you're just gonna see right through it?"

Ayana spent much of the night following him around, mostly keeping her mouth shut and only offering awkward handshakes to people he introduced her to. After an hour of her being blunt and unintentionally offensive, she was absolutely certain that she was annoying Clint, judging by his sighs and death stares he occasionally sent her.

"Hey, Austin, get over here! I was just talking about you," Tony yelled halfway through the evening. He was surrounded by a group of party goers, who all turned to face her.

Ayana turned to Clint for help, but he simply shook his head with a smirk. It seemed he thought that pushing Ayana to talk to Tony was his way of getting back at her for her attitude that night.

"No, Clint. Please, no, no - "

"You're on your own, kid," Clint told her, and with that he turned and disappeared into the crowd.

"Arsehole," she muttered. Begrudgingly she turned to face Tony, who was looking towards her eagerly. She did her best to force a smile as she walked over to him.

"Everyone, this is Ayana Austin. She's our work in progress," Tony chuckled, casually throwing an arm around Ayana's shoulders as a few guests laughed in response.

"Work in progress?" she muttered through gritted teeth, feeling her cheeks heat up as she blushed.

"You heard me," he murmured back, the faint smell of alcohol lingering on his breath.