Holly and the Archer

FOUR

Annie stirred as the window next to her bed clunked as it slid open. Her eyes squinted against the moonlight filtering into the room but soon woke up when the shadow of a figure climbing into her room fractured the light. She pulled the LED torch out from under her pillow and shined it at the window.

When the intruder yelled out and fell into the room, Annie screamed and ran from the room.

She pressed her back against the door and breathed heavily, turning the torch off and listening to the groaning from inside the room.

"Annie!" The groggy voice sounded vaguely familiar yet that had yet to calm her heart. A thump against the door pulled another short-lived scream from her. "Annie, it's Holly."

Pulling the door open, she reveals her roommate standing in the darkness and scratching the back of her neck. Turning the torch back on, Annie watched stoically as Holly squinted and fought to adjust against the onslaught of light. Her hands flailed in front of her face in an attempt to hide from the bright light and the unamused expression on her friend's face. She shrugged and offered a bashful smile.

"Sorry, I forgot my key and your window is always open." Annie didn't speak, she continued to stare at her. "I, uh, went somewhere with Clint and now I need to go somewhere else with Clint but I can't tell you where. I'm just here for a bag..." She had begun to move, but Annie had turned the torch off and flicked the landing light on. "That's better," Holly mumbled.

"Somewhere... like a mission?" She let her move past but followed quick on her heels. "Has Fury authorised it? I thought you didn't get missions, nevermind the sort that Barton does." Holly was picking out mission gear she had only used once or twice before and was throwing them into a duffel bag along with her favourite pair of soft cotton pyjamas.

"It's a personal mission. Family business."

"And he's taking you?" Annie crosses her arms as she watches her friend flit around the room. Holly shrugged, pulling her favourite bomber jacket around her shoulders and pocketing her trusted Swiss army knife.

"He trusts me." She pulls her trusted nun-chucks out of the bottom of her underwear draw and extends them.

"And you're taking your Winnie the Pooh shorts?" Holly pauses, looks down and the ground and retracts the nun-chucks. She drops them into the duffel and meets Annie's eyes.

"I'd like to be comfy when we're not fighting evil."

"Hol, the shorts are short- you told me that's why you never wear them around the flat when anyone's here." She raised an eyebrow as Holly zips up her bag and ignores her. "So that's how it is. A secret mission, just the two of you and miss 'give me a promotion' is aiming to get Hawkeye in her pan-" Holly muffled her sentence by putting her hand against her mouth.

"He's waiting outside!" She wipes her hand against her trousers when Annie licks her hand and picks up the bag. "Let a girl dream, will you?" Annie smirks.

"What type of dream?"

"Bye!" Holly manages to the kitchen door before Annie yells after her again.

"Wait! What do I tell Fury when he asks where you are?"

"Tell him there's a family emergency." Picking her keys out of the fruit bowl on her way out of the room, she waves back to Annie and calls, "try not to figure out world peace while I'm away," over her shoulder.