Quick Author's Note- I have proof read through this story more times than I can count at this point, yet still seem to find new mistakes, so if you ever find a mistake in my writing feel free to point it out, nicely of course. Now on with the story:
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'Avengers unite 'cause we've got to here you say; I could do this all day!'' I sighed to myself thinking about all the things I'd rather be doing than watching this low budget show. Like I understand that people like Steve Rogers and stuff but honestly, he'd be embarrassed if he saw this, like voluntarily go back into the ice embarrassed. The fake Natasha flips onto the stage and does a kick thingy and I feel my heart ache a little. It's been a year since she died but it doesn't make it any easier. She was my favorite aunt; well, she was my only aunt but I digress.
I notice my dad seemingly blank out watching the fake Natasha dance across the stage and I was going to say something but Lila beat me to it. They have a small conversation before both turning back to awkwardly watch the show and I'd honestly laugh at their expressions if I wasn't sporting the exact same one. A few seconds pass by and I notice his attention get caught by something a couple rows in front of me and I look to see a little girl dressed up as Natasha. He looks back to the stage to wear fake Natasha was dancing and singing and I watch him shift in his seat, knowing exactly what was going on in his mind. He leaned over to say something to Lila before getting up and leaving.
I lean over to Lila and whisper, "Watch the boys, I'm going to go check on Dad." She nods so I get up to follow him. He walks into the bathroom, so I just wait outside until he comes out and then follow him outside to wear he squatted down in the sidewalk trying to calm himself down. "Dad," I say quietly as to not startle him, "Are you okay?"
He looks up at me and says, "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, Alex. Just needed some air that's all." He puts on a fake smile but I can see right through it.
"None of those people in there know what she meant to you; how important she was. It's hard for me too," I tell him, "You don't have to go back in there, we can tell the kids that you got sick or something and had to leave early."
This time he gets a genuine smile on his face, "Why do you always call them the kids?" he asks chuckling, "Those 'kids' are your siblings."
"Because they're so young compared to me," I say like it's obvious.
"That doesn't mean you have to make it sound like they're your children," he chuckles.
There's no time to retort because Lila comes out and says, "Hey, are you okay?"
"Oh, hey, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I, uh, just wanted to come out for some, uh some fresh air, is all," he responds.
"You know it's fine if you don't wanna watch the show. I mean, I know everyone misses her, but she was your best friend. It's..." she trails off looking at him.
"Come here, baby," Dad says pulling her into a hug. "You know," he whispers to Lila, "You said almost the exact same thing as Alex over here."
"You're just not original," I tease, punching her shoulder lightly.
"This whole thing is pretty ridiculous, isn't it?" Dad asks us.
"A lot ridiculous," Lila says.
"Like a shit ton ridiculous," I agree.
"Watch your language," Dad tells me, mostly joking.
"What?" I complain, "I'm 23. And Nate's not even out here. And I could've said a fu-"
He puts his hand over my mouth and tells me, "If Nat were here, I'd kick her ass for teaching you how to curse." Lila and I both look at him with amused faces because he just said 'ass'. He seems to get why we're looking at him and says, "I'm the parent here. I can say what I want."
Lila makes a face at me and I wink back before sticking my tongue out and licking my dad's hand which was still covering my mouth. He quickly pulls his hand away wiping it off on my shoulder. "You're such a child," he says laughing.
I give him a cheeky smile and watch as Nate and Cooper walk out of the building to join us. "Hey Dad. Hey Alex. Hey Lila." Nate and Dad have small conversation before we all head off to find something better to do.
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"You look like a maniac," Dad says laughing at Nate who's currently moving his eyes all around, "You're a total crazy person." We all laugh at Nate and then Dad asks, "Is anybody else hungry? For some more, like, some more crabs, or maybe get like four more crabs? What do you think?"
We ended up at a Chinese restaurant after ditching the show. "Yes. I could eat three," Nate says excitedly.
"Or," I interject, "We could not do that because I don't feel like having to explain to the kind workers here why Nate's insides are trying to come outside, thank you very much."
"Yeah," Cooper says, "You ordered food for like 30 people."
Lila looks at Nate who was holding a piece of food up to his mouth to give himself a mustache and says, "You're going to puke if you have anymore." She points to Dad and Cooper and says, "And if he pukes, you two are cleaning it up."
"I'm not cleaning it up," Cooper says.
"Hey, you know what? You know what's right down the street? The Christmas tree. The biggest one you'll see in your life. It's enormous! You want to see that after this?" Dad asks, changing the topic from Nate's hypothetical puke.
"Yeah!" Nate says excitedly.
"Sure," I shrug, I mean, I've seen it before, Nat took me to see it one year for Christmas. She would take me on a lot of little trips like that, just the two of us, way before the blip even happened.
"Yeah! Let's go- " he's interrupted by his phone ringing. "Oh, wait, wait, wait. Momma callin'. Momma's calling, Say "Hi!"
"Hi, Mom!" we all say.
"Hey, guys! How are ya? I miss you so much!" Mom says.
"We miss you, too," Dad tells her.
"How was the show?"
"It was, uh—it's over. It was big."
"We left halfway through." Nate tells her.
"It was honestly about the same level as a high school production," I tell her, "I'm not quite sure how it managed to land on Broadway."
"Oh, no!" Mom says laughing. "You guys all good?"
"Uh, yeah, it'd be easier if you were here. I'd be less likely to strangle these kids," Dad says.
"Oh please," I say, "You couldn't kill me if you tried."
"Yeah huh."
"Nuh uh."
"Yeah huh."
"Why don't you both stop arguing about if he could kill you," Mom suggests.
"Fine," I huff.
She laughs before saying, "The whole point of this trip was for you to spend time with the kids."
"No, I'm kidding. We're having a really good time," he says as we're throwing napkins at each other. "We miss you."
"I miss you. I can't wait to see you guys tomorrow."
"Bye, Mom," I say. There's a whole chorus of 'bye, mom' and 'love you', but eventually she hangs up.
"Well, look, it's six days until Christmas, okay? And we're gonna fill it with a lot of activities. What's your favorite one?" he asks pointing at Nate.
"Um, gingerbread house."
"We're doing that! What do you got?" he asks me.
"Cookies and hot chocolate."
"That's on the list! You?" he asks Lila.
"Um, Christmas movie marathon."
"Movie marathon, awesome!" He points to Cooper.
"Uh, ugly sweaters."
"Ugly Christmas sweaters!" he slams he hand on the table, "We have to decorate the tree. There's a thousand things to do. It's gonna be fun, it's going to be amazing, but the most important thing, is that we're going to do it all together." He put his hands out for us to take. So I take Nate's hand and hold my other one out for Lila.
"No. I'm not holding their hands."
"Oh come on," I say, "You don't want to hold hands with your favorite person in the world."
"No, I don't really want to hold hands with Coop right now," she laughs.
"Okay, ouch," I say laughing, "Just take my hand dummy."
She does and Dad says, "I love you guys."
"Love you, too," we all say back."
"it's going to be the best Barton Christmas ever! Alright?"
Just then, the waiter walks over with a bowl, "Please. Dinner is on us," he tells us, "Thank you."
"Oh, that's, that's not necessary," Dad tells him.
"It's necessary. You saved our city."
"Oh. Thank you," Dad told him.
He turned to look at us and we all said, "Thank you." I could tell Dad was uncomfortable with the whole thing because he wasn't really a fan of that type of thing, but he let it slide.
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"You were right about the tree, Dad. It was amazing," Lila said as we walked back into our hotel room.
"I want one that big," Nate says from behind me as I was currently giving him a piggy back ride.
"It wouldn't fit in our house, dummy," Cooper says.
"Please, please, please?" Nate begs.
"It's a little late for tv, guys," Dad says to Lila and Cooper who had just turned on the tv, "We've gotta pack." I let Nate fall back onto the couch before standing up and walking behind the couch to lean on it because why would a person use a couch for its actual purpose of sitting?
"We are following a breaking news story." The news reporter announces, "A high society gala rocked by an explosion when it went off at Park Avenue and 68th Street tonight. The cause of the explosion is still under investigation. But witnesses captured cell phone footage of a masked assailant fleeing the scene." That part seemed to catch my dad's attention but I was already too focused on what the suit the assailant was wearing looked like.
It was almost identical to the suit my dad wore during the years of the blip when he became the Ronin. Dad seemed to be thinking the same thing I was because we looked at each other quickly, concern flashing in both of our eyes.
"Check it out," Lila said, "A ninja saved a dog."
That was all I heard because I was pulled back to about a week after when my dad just left one morning. I had woken up, expecting to find him in the kitchen making himself a coffee like usual, but he wasn't there. I checked the whole house and he was nowhere to be seen so I began to panic thinking that he dusted away too. I called Nat and she flew out to come get me. For the next five years I lived with her at Avengers Compound, the only thing I ever heard about him was how many people he had killed and where until one day me and Nat went to find him. Watching him kill that man that day in the rain was something that I would never forget.
"This is the first potential sighing of the Ronin in years," reporter said bring my attention back to the present.
Dad has us all pack quickly, saying that it's because we need the rest for tomorrow, bullshit, but we're all packed and they're all in bed when he tells me to watch them before leaving the room. I quickly go into Lila's room and tell her to keep an eye on Cooper and Nate because me and Dad have to handle something. She nods before going back on her phone so I quickly leave, following my dad.
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I stay a couple steps behind him knowing that he'll send me back to the hotel if he sees me and then suddenly I see the person dressed as Ronin jump in a car as a bunch of people in tracksuits try to attack them. Dad jumps into the fight, fighting away the tracksuit people, so I join him.
I slam my fist into one of their stomachs taking them by surprise before kneeing them in the face, making sure they stay down. The sound of his body hitting the floor catches my dad's attention and he looks at me, frustrated, muttering, "Alexandra," before focusing on trying to fight the rest of the people. We quickly take everyone down and I see Dad grab the Ronin imposter from the car and drag them into an alley, the imposter trying to get out of his grasp.
Dad throws the imposter against the wall and rips of their mask, well her, mask. I have to admit, I expected a lot of people to wear that suit, a girl looking about my age was not one of them.
"Come on!" Dad says annoyed.
"You're... you're Hawkeye!" she says.
"And who the hell are you?"