Bed of Roses [N. Romanoff]

Chapter 17

"I don't know what to say," she whispered, giving the man a grateful look as she tightened her hold on the goggles in both hand, smiling at him with love.

"You know you wanna," he wriggled his eyebrows and held his arms open.

Bax chuckled at the man, and wrapped her own arms around his torso. The ruff hands of Tony Stark grabbed on to her back, and one held the back of her head where he pulled her forward to just give her a kiss on the forehead.

"Just don't go out there and get hurt, I'll carry that on me," he warned her, which she swore to obey.

"You're not half as bad as the team makes you out to be," she teased him.

"Yeah, well, the Team only see the better half of me," he grinned back, and flicked his glasses out of his pocket, opening them and resting it on the crook of his nose.

Bailey snorted, "As if there's a good side."

"I can still take those back."

After their three minutes were up, Tony and Bax met up with whoever was left at the quinjet. Clint sat near the front, loading his quiver up with some spare arrows. He looked to them and smiled to Bailey, then turned his focus back to his weapon of choice.

Steve turned to face them, hand holding at the roof, ready for Tony to start flying the jet back to Sokovia.

Stark knew his position, and walked over to the steering panel.

Bax slipped over to where the twins stood close to one another, standing between them and slightly resting her hands on their shoulders in comfort. They both looked to her hands, and then to one another, and simultaneously rested their own palms on top of hers, stroking the back of her hand with their thumbs in sync. While it might've been creepy at first, Bailey allowed herself to smile at the trust they were confiding in her. She felt like a mama bear- actually more of an Older Sister Bear.

How old were these kids? How early were they brought into war?

Steve looked to her, and down to where the hands rested holding one another, then back to meet her eyes that shone a little brighter than before.

"Ultron knows we're coming," he stated when they lifted into the air, preparing his speech to rile them up before they reach Sokovia.

"Odds are we'll be riding into heavy fire. And that's what we signed up for, the people of Sokovia? They didn't. So our priority is getting them out. All they want is to live their lives in peace, and that's not gonna happen today, but we can do our best to protect them. And we can get the job done. We find out what Ultron's been building," he directed this to Thor, looking at the god with the orders and giving him his own mission.

"We find Romanoff," he now looked to Bailey, she had her mission too, "And we clear the field. Keep the fight between us," each word was spoken in in intense tone.

"Ultron thinks we're monsters, and we're what's wrong with the world. This isn't just about beating him, it's about whether he's right." Those words caught everyone's attention, the word monster had been thrown around a lot lately, used out of consideration way too often than the Avengers would have liked.

Bailey hated the fact that they all associated themselves with the word.

She let out a slow clap, in which Clint sarcastically followed suit.

"When do we start?" she smirked.

The jet touched down in a green forest, hiding amongst the trees and blending in to the melting snow. It was slippery now, Pietro couldn't start running until half a mile out, otherwise he would end up falling flat on his face. As much as Bailey would pay to see that happen to someone, she didn't feel this was the right moment of time.