The World We Live In
Chapter 7
Matilda was sitting in the training center. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail and she was wearing a pair of black yoga shorts, a red sports bra, black socks that went up to her knee with red stripes at the top, and red Nike trainers. She currently had a pleasant smile on her face. She was listening to Journey humming along to her personal favorite, "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)."
Her eyes were closed and she was only ignoring the sense of anything around her. She was almost normal in that moment. Almost.
Natasha had seen Matilda in the training room and decided it was time to test the much older woman's fighting abilities. She crept over to Matilda, before sending a well-placed kick towards her. Matilda grabbed the Widow's leg and twisted it knocking her down. Natasha, went to kick with her other leg, but Matilda had let go of the first leg and rolled out of the way, then stood up, before walking over to Natasha and extending a hand.
Natasha eyed it warily.
"I don't fight, if I can avoid it. I fight enough with reason that and prefer not to do so without one," Matilda said.
Natasha ignored the out stretched hand and got up before walking off to the shooting range.
Matilda heard a low whistle come from the door way. She looked over and saw Clint standing there. "Not often she gets a match, and it's even less often she doesn't keep fighting."
There had been a few more late night meetings between the two insomniacs, since their first. They had in those meetings begun to develop a friendship. They began to confide some of the things that they regretted and things that scared them. It was new and weird to both of them, opening up to someone. Matilda managed to talk Clint into it and that usually involved her admitting something about herself. There were also the little things. Clint knew that Matilda's favorite color was blue, and she knew that his was purple. They also talked more when hanging around the tower with the others. He at one point had stopped in and helped with one of her lessons.
"She probably thinks that I'm cheating," Matilda said settling down onto the floor again. This time she laid down on her back and stared up. She clamped down on her extra sense and let out a breath. It was difficult for her. Ignoring it was simple. All she had to do was let her mind wander. It took the back burner automatically. It was still there though and could flare at any moment. To block it out, that was something completely different. She could only compare it to trying to hold back a door with a room full of water on the other side. The pressure was incredible and there were always things slipping through the crack, but she was trying her hardest to seal them.
It took all of her focus, which wasn't much to begin with. Her goal was to be able to turn it off at will and continue to function. She couldn't even turn it off completely.
She felt like her mind was being attacked from all sides. Everyone she fended off, there was another somewhere else. By the time the dam in her head had broken and her extra sense flooded her with every single object with in her range, which was much more than usual since New York was so crowded, she was dripping sweat. Her pupils narrowed to slits and her naturally silver irises formed a dark silver band around them. The rest of her eyes were white. Her roots turned white as did patches of her skin. She became so over whelmed that she did something she hadn't done in years. She passed out.
Tony was doing his routine stalking of the security cams, when he noticed Matilda collapse to the ground. "JARVIS, get Bruce on the intercom."
"Yes sir."
"What Tony?" Bruce asked sounding irritated. "I'm busy."
Tony had seen Bruce sleeping in his chair just a few moments prior. "Sure looked , but anyways, you might want to check on our resident soul sucker."
"Why? And can't you just once call her Matilda?"
"Because I think she's passed out in the training center and no."
"What do you mean passed out?"
"I mean I'm watching the security feeds and she started to change colors, her eyes changed before rolling back in her head and then she hit the ground. She better not have gotten blood on my floors. "
Bruce rolled his eyes at Tony. "JARVIS bring up a video feed of Matilda." When he saw that Tony wasn't ling like he had expected, he instantly shot up and ran to the training room.
When Matilda woke up she was met with blinding light. She instantly raised a hand and used it hit the switch turning it off. "Fuck!" she swore a little too loudly for her own ears. She opened her eyes again. She was in the part of Bruce's lab that was treated as a medical center. She was hooked up to an IV and had electrodes hooked up to her head. She moved them off and pulled out the IV before pulling over a piece of gauze. Once it was close she pressed it to the spot, where she'd pulled the IV from.
Clint had been sitting in the room the entire time. He quietly made his way over and nudged her hand out of the way, holding the gauze. She glanced up at him.
"I now remember why I never try that shit by myself," she said. As soon as her arm stopped bleeding, Clint lifted the now bloody material. By the Matilda had already found a Band-Aid and stuck it over the tiny dot of blood that remained.
"What the hell did you do?" Clint asked her.
Clint had carried her down to the medical corner of Bruce's lab and stayed. Once Bruce had determined that Matilda wasn't seriously injured, just unconscious, Clint had left, showered gotten dressed and returned with a book, a water bottle and a sandwich. He hadn't left since.
"I tried to block out my other sense, when it came crashing back it over loaded my mind and I passed out. I'm a terribly stupid arse really. How long have I been out?"
Clint raised an eyebrow at the sudden change in her words. She had gone from sounding as American as apple pie to British in a second. He was used to Natasha slipping into Russian. He expected it from her. Matilda not so much.
Matilda hadn't realized her change. "What?"
"From American to a Brit?"
"Oh. Well I am British. I moved here in about 1860 something."
"You've been out for about fifteen hours," he answered her question now remembering from her file that she was born in London.
"Not bad," she said.
The last time she'd knocked herself out, she was out cold for three days.
The lab was cold and Matilda was freezing. Matilda was a mammal and the forth warm blooded, but her body had issues maintaining homeostasis. One she got hot, it took forever to cool down and vice versa. She pulled the blanket closer around her. "What'd I miss?" she asked Clint.
"Tony started talking about you and sunlight. Natasha smacked him. Thor left to see Jane. I guess she and Darcy are coming back here with him. Cap's been in the gym, destroying punching bags. Bruce was monitoring you're brain functions as I he were watching the best movie ever until I kicked him out to go eat. Pepper's been in her office working."
Matilda nodded. "What are you reading?" she asked noting the book near his chair.
She lifted it up not waiting for a response looked at the cover and smiled. To Kill a Mocking Bird. 'I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do,'" she quoted.
"I see you're a fan."
"Yeah. My one true literary love is Shakespeare." She went through Juliet's monologue with no issue.
"Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself"
Clint was mesmerized. He'd read Romeo & Juliet, and he'd seen it multiple times, but never once has it sounded so real to him as it did coming from her mouth. "You're very good," he said.
"Hidden talent," she said, curling up into a tighter ball in an attempt to get warm.
"Are you okay?" he asked her.
"Fucking freezing," came her response.
Clint walked over to the edge of the bed. "Move over," he said. She scooted over and he laid down beside her. He put an arm around her shoulders, and she curled into his side, basking in his warmth.
"So what's one of your hidden talents?" Matilda asked. She rested her head on his chest and closed her eyes. Despite being knocked out for hours, she was still tired.
"I sing," he answered, "not too many people know that."
His voice rumbled in his chest under her ear.
"Really? Can I hear?" she asked.
He remained quiet. The only sound she heard was his breathing.
"Oh come on! I did a monologue."
Nothing.
"Just a few lines?"
Still silence.
"You may be a sniper and you may think you know patience, but I am 202 years old. I can out wait you. I also know many methods of torture and pissing even the most patient people the hell off."
He sighed. "You're not gonna let this go are you?"
"Not at all," she said.
"Fine. You win," he said.'
"[]iJust a small town girl
Living in a lonely world
She took the midnight train going anywhere"
Matilda smiled at his singing voice and song choice.
"Just a city boy
Born and raised in south Detroit
He took the midnight train going anywhere"
He stopped. "That's all you're getting."
"But your voice is amazing," she argued.
"Are you warm yet?" he asked.
"No," she answered. She slid her cold hands up his shirt onto his bare stomach to prove her point. "What time is it?" she asked.
"12:30," he answered, "Go to sleep."
She moved her left hand and started running it through his hair. After a minute he melted into it. "All guys fall for the head scratches."
He hummed in response. His eyes fluttering shut. He began to sing again, just loud enough that Matilda could hear him.
"A singer in a smoky room
A smell of wine and cheap perfume
For a smile they can share the night
It goes on and on and on and on
"Strangers waiting
Up and down the boulevard
Their shadows searching
In the night
Streetlights, people
Livin' just to find emotion
Hidin', somewhere in the night
"Workin' hard to get my fill
Everybody wants a thrill
Payin' anything to roll the dice
Just one more time
Some will win
Some will lose
Some were born to sing the blues
Oh, the movie never ends
It goes on and on and on and on
"Strangers waiting
Up and down the boulevard
Their shadows searching
In the night
Streetlights, people
Livin' just to find emotion
Hidin', somewhere in the night
"iDon't stop believin'
Hold on to the feelin'
Streetlights, people
Don't stop believin'
Hold on
Streetlights, people"
He soon fell asleep. Not too long after, so did Matilda.
Her eyes were closed and she was only ignoring the sense of anything around her. She was almost normal in that moment. Almost.
Natasha had seen Matilda in the training room and decided it was time to test the much older woman's fighting abilities. She crept over to Matilda, before sending a well-placed kick towards her. Matilda grabbed the Widow's leg and twisted it knocking her down. Natasha, went to kick with her other leg, but Matilda had let go of the first leg and rolled out of the way, then stood up, before walking over to Natasha and extending a hand.
Natasha eyed it warily.
"I don't fight, if I can avoid it. I fight enough with reason that and prefer not to do so without one," Matilda said.
Natasha ignored the out stretched hand and got up before walking off to the shooting range.
Matilda heard a low whistle come from the door way. She looked over and saw Clint standing there. "Not often she gets a match, and it's even less often she doesn't keep fighting."
There had been a few more late night meetings between the two insomniacs, since their first. They had in those meetings begun to develop a friendship. They began to confide some of the things that they regretted and things that scared them. It was new and weird to both of them, opening up to someone. Matilda managed to talk Clint into it and that usually involved her admitting something about herself. There were also the little things. Clint knew that Matilda's favorite color was blue, and she knew that his was purple. They also talked more when hanging around the tower with the others. He at one point had stopped in and helped with one of her lessons.
"She probably thinks that I'm cheating," Matilda said settling down onto the floor again. This time she laid down on her back and stared up. She clamped down on her extra sense and let out a breath. It was difficult for her. Ignoring it was simple. All she had to do was let her mind wander. It took the back burner automatically. It was still there though and could flare at any moment. To block it out, that was something completely different. She could only compare it to trying to hold back a door with a room full of water on the other side. The pressure was incredible and there were always things slipping through the crack, but she was trying her hardest to seal them.
It took all of her focus, which wasn't much to begin with. Her goal was to be able to turn it off at will and continue to function. She couldn't even turn it off completely.
She felt like her mind was being attacked from all sides. Everyone she fended off, there was another somewhere else. By the time the dam in her head had broken and her extra sense flooded her with every single object with in her range, which was much more than usual since New York was so crowded, she was dripping sweat. Her pupils narrowed to slits and her naturally silver irises formed a dark silver band around them. The rest of her eyes were white. Her roots turned white as did patches of her skin. She became so over whelmed that she did something she hadn't done in years. She passed out.
Tony was doing his routine stalking of the security cams, when he noticed Matilda collapse to the ground. "JARVIS, get Bruce on the intercom."
"Yes sir."
"What Tony?" Bruce asked sounding irritated. "I'm busy."
Tony had seen Bruce sleeping in his chair just a few moments prior. "Sure looked , but anyways, you might want to check on our resident soul sucker."
"Why? And can't you just once call her Matilda?"
"Because I think she's passed out in the training center and no."
"What do you mean passed out?"
"I mean I'm watching the security feeds and she started to change colors, her eyes changed before rolling back in her head and then she hit the ground. She better not have gotten blood on my floors. "
Bruce rolled his eyes at Tony. "JARVIS bring up a video feed of Matilda." When he saw that Tony wasn't ling like he had expected, he instantly shot up and ran to the training room.
•••
When Matilda woke up she was met with blinding light. She instantly raised a hand and used it hit the switch turning it off. "Fuck!" she swore a little too loudly for her own ears. She opened her eyes again. She was in the part of Bruce's lab that was treated as a medical center. She was hooked up to an IV and had electrodes hooked up to her head. She moved them off and pulled out the IV before pulling over a piece of gauze. Once it was close she pressed it to the spot, where she'd pulled the IV from.
Clint had been sitting in the room the entire time. He quietly made his way over and nudged her hand out of the way, holding the gauze. She glanced up at him.
"I now remember why I never try that shit by myself," she said. As soon as her arm stopped bleeding, Clint lifted the now bloody material. By the Matilda had already found a Band-Aid and stuck it over the tiny dot of blood that remained.
"What the hell did you do?" Clint asked her.
Clint had carried her down to the medical corner of Bruce's lab and stayed. Once Bruce had determined that Matilda wasn't seriously injured, just unconscious, Clint had left, showered gotten dressed and returned with a book, a water bottle and a sandwich. He hadn't left since.
"I tried to block out my other sense, when it came crashing back it over loaded my mind and I passed out. I'm a terribly stupid arse really. How long have I been out?"
Clint raised an eyebrow at the sudden change in her words. She had gone from sounding as American as apple pie to British in a second. He was used to Natasha slipping into Russian. He expected it from her. Matilda not so much.
Matilda hadn't realized her change. "What?"
"From American to a Brit?"
"Oh. Well I am British. I moved here in about 1860 something."
"You've been out for about fifteen hours," he answered her question now remembering from her file that she was born in London.
"Not bad," she said.
The last time she'd knocked herself out, she was out cold for three days.
The lab was cold and Matilda was freezing. Matilda was a mammal and the forth warm blooded, but her body had issues maintaining homeostasis. One she got hot, it took forever to cool down and vice versa. She pulled the blanket closer around her. "What'd I miss?" she asked Clint.
"Tony started talking about you and sunlight. Natasha smacked him. Thor left to see Jane. I guess she and Darcy are coming back here with him. Cap's been in the gym, destroying punching bags. Bruce was monitoring you're brain functions as I he were watching the best movie ever until I kicked him out to go eat. Pepper's been in her office working."
Matilda nodded. "What are you reading?" she asked noting the book near his chair.
She lifted it up not waiting for a response looked at the cover and smiled. To Kill a Mocking Bird. 'I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do,'" she quoted.
"I see you're a fan."
"Yeah. My one true literary love is Shakespeare." She went through Juliet's monologue with no issue.
"Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself"
Clint was mesmerized. He'd read Romeo & Juliet, and he'd seen it multiple times, but never once has it sounded so real to him as it did coming from her mouth. "You're very good," he said.
"Hidden talent," she said, curling up into a tighter ball in an attempt to get warm.
"Are you okay?" he asked her.
"Fucking freezing," came her response.
Clint walked over to the edge of the bed. "Move over," he said. She scooted over and he laid down beside her. He put an arm around her shoulders, and she curled into his side, basking in his warmth.
"So what's one of your hidden talents?" Matilda asked. She rested her head on his chest and closed her eyes. Despite being knocked out for hours, she was still tired.
"I sing," he answered, "not too many people know that."
His voice rumbled in his chest under her ear.
"Really? Can I hear?" she asked.
He remained quiet. The only sound she heard was his breathing.
"Oh come on! I did a monologue."
Nothing.
"Just a few lines?"
Still silence.
"You may be a sniper and you may think you know patience, but I am 202 years old. I can out wait you. I also know many methods of torture and pissing even the most patient people the hell off."
He sighed. "You're not gonna let this go are you?"
"Not at all," she said.
"Fine. You win," he said.'
"[]iJust a small town girl
Living in a lonely world
She took the midnight train going anywhere"
Matilda smiled at his singing voice and song choice.
"Just a city boy
Born and raised in south Detroit
He took the midnight train going anywhere"
He stopped. "That's all you're getting."
"But your voice is amazing," she argued.
"Are you warm yet?" he asked.
"No," she answered. She slid her cold hands up his shirt onto his bare stomach to prove her point. "What time is it?" she asked.
"12:30," he answered, "Go to sleep."
She moved her left hand and started running it through his hair. After a minute he melted into it. "All guys fall for the head scratches."
He hummed in response. His eyes fluttering shut. He began to sing again, just loud enough that Matilda could hear him.
"A singer in a smoky room
A smell of wine and cheap perfume
For a smile they can share the night
It goes on and on and on and on
"Strangers waiting
Up and down the boulevard
Their shadows searching
In the night
Streetlights, people
Livin' just to find emotion
Hidin', somewhere in the night
"Workin' hard to get my fill
Everybody wants a thrill
Payin' anything to roll the dice
Just one more time
Some will win
Some will lose
Some were born to sing the blues
Oh, the movie never ends
It goes on and on and on and on
"Strangers waiting
Up and down the boulevard
Their shadows searching
In the night
Streetlights, people
Livin' just to find emotion
Hidin', somewhere in the night
"iDon't stop believin'
Hold on to the feelin'
Streetlights, people
Don't stop believin'
Hold on
Streetlights, people"
He soon fell asleep. Not too long after, so did Matilda.