The World We Live In

"You will be my queen and with your power and my magic, we shall rule the puny mortals."

Matilda didn't know, where she was. All she knew was that she was standing on ice and it was cold.

"You've answered my call my queen."

There was a voice, but no body. There wasn't anything but ice.

"Who are you?"

"That my dear is un-"

"I am not your dear, nor am I queen and if you refer to me as such again I will be highly upset."

There was a chuckle echoing around her. "That may be what you think now, but in due time you will see it my way."

"I find that hard to believe. Now who are you?" Matilda persisted.

"I am your-"

"If you don't give me an answer, I will wake up and do not think that I can't."

"Just know that I am your king."



Matilda opened her eyes and stared up at the ceiling for a few seconds. Her nightmare had certainly been unsettling.

"Go to sleep," Clint said.

"I barely opened my eyes," she said.

"I learned young, how to be hyper aware, even when I'm asleep."

Matilda stored that for later use. He pulled her closer to him. "What is it?" he asked.

"A voice. He keeps saying that I will be his queen and that together he and I shall rule. It's stupid shit. Fucking 202 and still afraid of the damn boogey man."

"What were you two under the bed or hiding in the closet?"

"Some weird ice thing."

Clint was about to make a retort, when he remembered what Thor said about Loki being a frost giant. He tried to maintain the same level of clam and light heartedness as before, but he didn't get a word out, before Matilda questioned him. "What is it?"

"Not-"

"I can feel your heart rate quicken. Lying isn't going to work."

"We need to talk to Thor."

Matilda looked at the clock, and then sensed everything in the tower. "He's asleep."

"Time for a wake-up call," Clint said. He got up and dragged Matilda with him to Thor's room.

"How do you wake up the god of thunder?" Matilda asked.

"Just watch," he said. He began to bang on the door to Thor's room unceremoniously.

Matilda just crossed her arms over her chest and sighed. "JARVIS, could you please get Thor?"

"Yes, Ms. Knight."

A few moments later, Thor pulled open his door. He glared at the two. "Can Loki enter people's dreams?" Clint asked.

"Yes, my brother does have that ability. Has he entered yours?"

"No," Clint answered.

Thor looked at Matilda.

"Matilda has my brother been entering your thoughts at night?"

"I don't know for sure, because I don't know a damn thing about Loki, other than he's your brother, he wants to rule this world, and you kicked his ass."

Thor went into his room grabbed a shirt and returned. They walked upstairs. Clint had JARVIS show clips of Loki, but there was no audio.

"I haven't seen him. I've only heard him," she said.

"JARVIS do we have an audio clip of Loki?"

"Yes, Mr. Barton. Shall I play it?"

"Yeah."

"What have I to fear?" the voice in my dreams said.

"The Avengers. It's what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. 'Earth's Mighiest Heroes' type thing."

Matilda shook her head at Tony's casual tone.

"Yes, I've met them."

"Yeah, takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one. But let's do a head count here: your brother the demi-god; a super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend; a man with breath-taking anger management issues; a couple of master assassins, and YOU, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them."

"That was the plan," Loki said.

Matilda's brow furrowed in confusion. How did Loki expect to win, when he pissed everyone off. Had he never herd of 'the enemy of my enemy is friend.'

"Not a great plan. When they come, and they WILL, they'll come for you."

"I have an army."

"We have a Hulk."

"I thought the beast had wandered off..."

"You're missing the point! There's no throne, there is no version of this where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us but it's all on you. Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damned well sure we'll avenge it!"

"Yeah, one of my better speeches. Way better than the drunken birthday one. So why are we having a secret late night meeting regarding the diva overlord?"

"He's been entering Matilda's dreams," Thor answered.

"Well at least we knows he's tired, since he's been running through her dreams all night."

Clint smacked Tony upside the head.

"Cool your jets Hawky. We're not going to let Madonna here's brother do anything to your hen," Tony said.

I rolled my eyes.

"What do we do?" Thor asked.

"I mean I have to sleep, and he's not just going to stop. Do you know of a way to block him?"

"No. I am not sure of my brother's power any more. It seems that although he's using the same tricks he's gotten stronger. Unless…" he trailed off.

"Unless what Blondie?" Tony asked.

"Unless he's closer than we thought. Unless he's broken out of his prison."

Clint slammed his fists on the table. "I thought you said he'd stay locked up on Asgard forever."

"Mom is not going to like this," Tony said.

"Fury is the least of our problems right now," Clint said.

"We tell the others in the morning. For now we rest. We shall need it in the upcoming days."

"I agree with Goldilocks, especially since we'll have to face Spidey's wrath."

"Oh joy," Maatilda said standing up. The last thing she wanted to deal with was Natasha.

Clint got up and followed her to her room. Clint sat down on the edge of Matilda's bed.

Honestly Matilda wasn't sure what to make of Clint's actions. Sure she knew he cared for her somewhat, but nothing had ever been discussed. There were still the secrets they told each other, the whole sharing a bed bit and the occasional kiss or two, but nothing else had really changed. She liked it though. The more she was with Clint the more her feelings for him started to develop and grow. She knew she should stop it. That she should save them both the pain.

Matilda didn't age and Clint did. He would wither away and die, while she merely stayed the same. Even if she did start aging again, it would be at a much slower rate and she would still out like Clint by a couple hundred years. She was selfish though. She knew it. She felt bad about it, but she enjoyed being around him too much. It had happened once before. She started to feel for someone. She had left before things could get too serious though. She was trying to avoid the inevitable.

She rested her hands on his back and began to slowly message it. He melted into her touch. "You need to relax," she said.

"Relax, when Loki plans on taking over the world again?"

"Yes. You're Hawkeye. You're cool calm and collected. You're not this."

"What is this?"

"Emotional. You're letting what you feel get the best of you, which will not bode well, when it comes to a point, where you have to face Loki."

He sighed. She was right. He didn't like it, but she was right. He needed to keep a level head. He was more affective that way.

"Besides, I can take care of myself," she said.

"I'm sure you can, but it still helps to have someone watch your back."

"I know trust me I know." In that moment the one person whose back she was always supposed to have popped into her mind. Matilda instantly felt guilty. She'd been trying to protect her, when she left. Matilda wanted all of the people after her to leave Samantha alone.

Who knew what Loki would do, whether he would go after her or not?

"Clint?"

"Hm?"

"I have a daughter," she said, "Samantha Lynn Knight. Born January 13th 1969. Did Fury have that in your file?"

"No. Not at all."

"Good."

"Where is she?"

"Albany," Matilda answered.

"What car are we taking?" he asked.

She smirked.

"I say the range."

He got up and went to his room. She changed and took the elevator down to the garage. She grabbed the keys to the range rover and hopped in the driver's seat. She wasn't surprised, when she noticed that Clint had his bow. She didn't want to know what else he had on him.

She noticed her outfit and gave him a look. She was in yoga pants, a tank, a hoodie and nikes. "Who are you getting all dressed up for?"

He gave her a questioning gaze before eyeing her attire.

"She's my kid. She gets dressed up to see me, not the other way around." With that they left the garage and were off to Albany.