One of the easiest things just became one of the most difficult.

Whole wheat, white, flat, rolls, or...? I fixated my eyes on the list that I held in my hand. Nowhere on it did it say what type of bread they wanted. I cried out in frustration, grabbed the first thing I saw on the shelf, and added it to the cart. After countless times of stopping to think of a brand, the food type, or whatever, I was growing tired of being at the supermarket. It was a small place with isles close together and only so few workers at the cash registers. The white tiled floors were smeared with black marks from the scratches the shelving units left behind and the yellow walls faded into a sickly white.

I met Clint in isle eight where he was choosing breakfast cereals. He stood out wearing his light brown leather jacket, red shirt, and black pants. Other than the boxes, he was the only color to the isle. His face was blank and his sky blue eyes glazed over. It seemed like the choices were dulling the whole 'bonding' experience Natasha wanted us to have. Clint and I thought it was a dumb idea, but here we were. He appeared dumbfounded when he glimpsed down at his list and asked me with a chuckle, "Tony says get cereal. Steve wants something healthy. Thor wants pop-tarts. God, these guys aren't specific with anything, are they?"

"Right? They can't leave choices like this to us." I replied. We had crossed out most of our list, which consisted of the big dinner for tonight and some minor meals for the rest of the week.

He looked up and down the isle before grabbing a box of Fruity Pebbles and threw it into the cart. "Nat likes these. Let's go."

"Barton, you can't just get wha-" My eyes landed on the contents within his hands and stopped mid-sentence. Mostly everything was just for him and Tasha alone to eat. "Really?"

Barton shrugged like he wasn't guilty of anything. "Hey, you try shopping for them."

"I just did." I pointed at the items I chose as I listed who they were for. "Tony wanted peanuts to snack on; Steve likes his Neapolitan ice-cream and candy for his sweet tooth; Bruce has yogurt, crackers, berries, and sugar-coated snacks; Tasha asked nicely for chips and some salsa; I have cookies; oh, and how could I forget, here's your mini donuts." I felt completely accomplished for such a simple task. I couldn't decide if that was a good thing or the exact opposite.

Telling from his face, he seemed pretty impressed. Clint rolled his eyes and dumped everything into the cart. "I got everything Nat and I would ever need."

I scoffed, "Of course. I'm not surprised." I followed him to the check out line and put everything on the small conveyer belt.

The cashier rang it all up while checking her freshly done pink polished nails. The woman was plump and her dark skin appeared smooth against the makeup she had on. Her curly black hair was tied into a big bun on the back of her head and her honey shaded eyes focused on the screen in front of her. "That will be $246.37. Will you be using cash or credit?"

Clint's eyes widened upon hearing the total and looked into his wallet. He only had a few bucks in there, and even then, he didn't have a card to charge everything to. "That's a bummer..." he trailed off quietly. His blue eyes glanced back up at the cashier and smiled handsomely. "Could I get an Avengers discount? I saved the world, you know."

The woman looked him in the eye and her lips formed a tight line before stating, "No."

Barton's face fell and crossed his arms over his chest. He leaned up against the small wall between the cashiers' booths. "Well, this is...Hawkward."

I began to laugh quite loudly. That was a first, especially coming from him. He was in the phase to crack a joke on a pun on his name or the first thing he sees on the internet everyday. Usually, people would find that annoying, but I did quite enjoy his attempts of thinking about saying something that's actually hilarious. "That was actually funny, Clint." I took Natasha's debit card out of my wallet. Tasha knew Clint wouldn't have any money, or at least enough to pay for everything.

"You know, I'm actually hilarious all of the time. You just came to terms with it now," he remarked and put on his sunglasses. He pushed the cart out of the store and lead the way to the his car.

He stopped at the 2015 Volkswagen GTI and popped the trunk. It was one of Tony's newest purchases, but he gave it to Clint as a present for almost shooting his eye out once in the lab. All mishaps put aside, he quite liked the car, from what I heard. We were putting the grocery bags in the trunk when some teenagers passed by us.

They collectively yelled, "You rock, Hawkeye!"

Clint turned around and bowed. "Thank you, thank you." It all went well until the groceries in his hand fell out of the bag and crashed onto the pavement. "Aw, groceries..." He pouted as he picked them up and tossed them into the car.

I giggled to myself and finished loading the car. Going out shopping was a silly idea, but it turned out alright. We didn't fight the whole time, and it gave us some space from the tower. Things were getting tense in there. No one really left the tower to do anything other than check on leads with Loki. We were constantly on the alert and only had rare occurrences where we would wind down for a bit and do something fun.

I pushed the cart back into the cart return and walked up to the passenger side door, only to find Clint in the seat already. I cocked my head a bit and looked at him curiously. "You're not driving?"

He rested his head against the seat and groaned, "I literally just sat down."

"Fine. I didn't think you'd actually let me drive your car."

Clint handed me the keys. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Get in the car."

We joked around here and there and made snarky remarks, but other than that, we didn't have anything to talk about. After five minutes of us sitting in utter silence, he spoke up, "I am actually starting to enjoy your company."

"That's something I never thought I'd hear from you, Barton," I responded in a low tone. "Finally warming up to me and my awesomeness?"

He chuckled and put his elbow against the car door. He ran his fingers over his lips and chin as he thought for a moment. His eyes focused on the road, but he kept side-glancing at me. "Nat seems to like you a lot. So I guess I have to like you too."

I rolled my eyes. Mental Note: I seem to be rolling my eyes more frequently than I should. "You can have a different opinion than her."

"I know." He rubbed his hands on his thighs and sighed. "I just like agreeing with her on things. Having different opinions than Natasha gets pretty nasty if we get into a fight."

I choked on a laugh. I couldn't tell if this was an inappropriate time to laugh, so I caught it just in case. I was finally getting along with Clint. Didn't want to wreck it now. "I don't doubt it."

Clint quickly changed the subject to something other than his relationship. "How are you getting along with Steve?"

"Pretty well, actually. I'm still surprised we can get along more now." I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel to the beat of the song inside of my head. The wind blew my curly brown hair out of my face and I felt like I was in front of a big fan on a filming set. My hazel eyes glimpsed at Clint from time to time to try to analyze him. See what he was thinking. Feeling. Most of it was just a big dead end.

Something was on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn't figure it out for a few minutes. He sat there stretched back and relaxed and contemplated on something. He snapped his fingers and drummed his hands against his legs for some reason. Distractions never helped in his case. "I see the way he looks at you sometimes."

"Oh yeah? How?" I lifted the corners of my mouth a bit. I pushed my glasses up farther on my nose to make sure I could see the road better. I wanted to be prepared for the shock. This information was something new from the old drama drab Peter and I would gossip about. Something fresh to create new thoughts. Spring new memories to be made. New inside jokes. New...emotions?

His blue eyes gazed directly at me and his voice sounded like a soft velvet. He was remembering something. "I used to look at Natasha like that when I first developed feelings for her."

I stayed completely calm. Don't blush. "Must be nice to see him that way." On the inside, though, I was choking on butterflies. It had been a long time since I liked someone, especially someone with mutant abilities.

"Yeah. Just don't ruin it, Parker."

I gripped the steering wheel a bit more. I would never want to ruin any potential happiness for myself. I was long overdue for quite a bit of it. "I'm not. But we also have bigger things at hand. I guess it just depends on him and if we have time to...see where this could take us before shit hits the fan."

Clint nodded and turned away. He watched the trees and the other cars as we passed by, trying to find something else to take up his attention. A thought popped into his mind. "Can we stop for some coffee?"

"That's going to be your fifth cup today, and it's not even noon!"

"I know. Didn't sleep well last night is all," he answered and scratched his chin.

I furrowed my brow. I truly had thought he slept more than most of us in a twenty-four hour period. Guess I was wrong. "Why?"

"I just didn't. For a while now, I'll sleep for an hour and wake up. I'll stay awake for two hours and repeat the process until dawn. I'm used to being on my toes or on a mission. And with Loki and Red Skull loose, I don't know if I have the capability to not sleep with one eye open."

Most of us are the same way. You're not alone, Barton. Thoughts swam through my mind and for a second, I got lost in them. The endgame is clear: world domination. What's not clear is when they're going to strike, and how they'll go about executing it. I bit my lip. If it comes down to the point where I have to give up my life, I will. Everyone will vote against it, but it'll be my choice. Going out in a blaze of glory was always the plan if it meant I would save thousands of lives. I came back to reality and made a U-turn at the next stoplight. I nodded in an understanding way. "I get it. It happens. Let's get you some coffee, Hawkeye."