"We're all clear here."

"We are not clear," you heard Steve grunt, "we are very not clear!"

Clint looked around one last time, making sure that the two of you hadn't missed any of Ultron's army. He turned to you and gave a slight nod, which you returned in kind. "Alright, coming to ya."

"Keep up, old man!" A bright silver flash stopped in front of you, with Pietro smiling brightly as he wrapped one arm around your waist and swung the other behind your legs to lift you off the ground. Seconds later, the two of you were gone with Clint left behind, standing in the midst of destruction with a look of annoyance on his face.

He slowly pulled back on his bow, aiming the arrow at where Pietro had just been, mimicking his enjoyment at a chance to shoot the Sokovian. "Nobody would know. Nobody." He slipped the arrow back into the quiver and ran to catch up to you, determined to find out what Maximoff was doing hauling his little sister around like that when you were strangers only a few hours ago.

"The last I saw him, Ultron was sitting on him," he said to himself, "yeah, he'll be missed. That quick little bastard, I miss him already..."

~~~

You were shooting before your feet ever hit the ground. Pietro had set you down next to Steve and ran to join Wanda in the center of the city, while Clint joined the two of you moments later and fully engaged in the fight.

"What the hell was that all about, (Y/N)?" Clint yelled between shots and over the roaring noises of battle.

"What do you mean?"

He glanced back over his shoulder at you for just a second, but you could see that he was angry. "I didn't know that you had a private ride to this party!"

"I didn't ask for that!" you pushed your back up against Steve's as you each took out targets as they approached. "He was just being nice!"

"Men aren't nice, (Y/N)," Clint said as he shook his head, doing his best to focus on both you and the job in front of him. "He wants something!"

"You're an idiot!"

"Cap, back me up here! I'm right!"

Steve swung his shield around to block a shot that was aimed at you, groaning at your ability to fight each other while fighting an army of robots from every direction. "Barton, you realize that we're men, right? You're sabotaging all of us good ones!" When he turned back, one of the robots grabbed him by the throat, but you quickly spun to shoot it down.

"Thank you, Steve! See? There are good ones!"

"I know I'm right, (Y/N)!"

"If you two could focus, please! Is this really important right now?"

"Yes!" you both yelled at the Captain. He threw up his hands and continued the fight but refused to speak to either of you until you were back home, and maybe not even then if you couldn't get it together.

~~~

A few days after the battle was over and the team was moving between the tower and the new training facility, you finally found a free minute to talk to Pietro about what had happened that day in Sokovia. Clint was back home at his farm, and would be for at least the next month, so you knew you had the freedom to talk without worrying about your overprotective big brother interfering.

He was with Wanda when you finally found time to look for him, and you did your best to cover the nerves that you were feeling once you approached. You took a moment to look at him differently; more than your teammate, and more than someone you were just getting to know. He was definitely attractive, and he had been nothing but polite and respectful to you so far. Clint had to be wrong.

"Hey guys," you said, a bit sheepishly, "Pietro, could we talk for a minute?"

"Certainly, (Y/N)," he leaned over to give Wanda a small kiss on her cheek and turned to take your arm. You looked down at his hand, but didn't say anything or try to pull away. "Let's go outside."

He led you around the grounds of the building, neither of you saying anything for several minutes, but feeling the tension hanging over you. When it was finally on the verge of becoming uncomfortable, you decided to just get it out in the open. "Pietro, I need you to clear something up for me...from the battle."

"Ah, yes," he nodded, "I know what this is."

"Since you carried me that day, Clint keeps going on and on about how men aren't nice, they just want something from women, and that you are doing that now." You could feel your nerves hitting their peak and you pulled your arm away before you began to shake too much, even though you still had no idea why you felt that way. "So, I just need to know what that was about. You had no reason for it."

He stopped and looked at his feet, a small smile crossing his lips, followed by a quiet chuckle. Pietro's gaze moved up and met yours, and you realized that you had never really just looked at him. Since he became a part of the team, it was so busy at any given moment that you had never stopped to take the opportunity. He was captivating and you hadn't noticed it before.

"I see now that I wasn't being clear enough," he said, taking a step closer to you, "I thought I was one of the only people who could really do it."

"Do what?"

"Sweep you off your feet," he chuckled and ran his hand through his wild, silver hair. "It's a little stupid, right? I think I was trying too hard, but it sounded good at the time. Wanda said..."

"No," you sighed in a voice that was barely loud enough to hear, "it's not stupid. It's...perfect."

Pietro's posture straightened and his smile grew wider. "Really?" He moved even closer to you, holding your arms and looking into your eyes, somehow mesmerizing you so that you were unable to move, barely able to speak, and not sure about how you were able to breathe.

"Really."

~~~

In the weeks that followed, you and Pietro were inseparable, and Wanda had quickly become your best friend. Without Clint there, it was easy to blend yourself into their family and you were the happiest that you had been in a long time; even Steve had mentioned to you that he noticed the change.

Steve and Tony had taken the rest of the team to the new facility to put together training programs for new recruits, leaving you and Pietro alone back at the tower. You decided to have a relaxing night in before leaving tomorrow for the facility yourselves, knowing that Steve never went easy on your training. It was also the last time you would have alone before Clint returned tomorrow and joined you there.

"Babe, go ahead and start the movie, I'll be out in a few minutes," you called to Pietro, gathering your dinner to share curled up on the couch until you were too full to move. With a bit of balance and creative stacking, you had everything together for one trip from the kitchen to living room. You turned to exit and gasped, dropping your entire dinner on the floor, spilling everywhere with glass shattering around your feet.

"Clint," you gasped.

"(Y/N)." His expression was flat, but you could see his anger building behind his eyes, and noticed the slight twitches in his left hand.

The sound of the crashing dishes had Pietro at your side in a second, lifting you off the floor and setting you on the table so you wouldn't cut your feet on the glass. Before you realized what he had done, it was over and you couldn't protest or guard him from the inevitable wrath of your brother.

When he saw him, Pietro cleared his throat and clasped his hands behind his back, doing his best to behave and control his nerves, "we were just about to have dinner, and would have shared, but..." he waved his hand over the mess, looking very disappointed.

"We talked about this," Clint said to you, completely ignoring Pietro.

"No, you talked about this," you snapped, "there was no we in that conversation."

"Okay, let's not get angry," Pietro tried to interject, failing to catch the attention of either of you.

"Maybe it's slipped your mind, Clint, but I am an adult now. Those days of telling me what to do are long gone." You pushed yourself down from the table and began to clear the mess from the floor. "The team is already upstate if you want to..." your voice trailed away when you noticed that he had left the room. Your heart began to race when you realized where he had gone.

"Run," you said to Pietro, "run anywhere, just leave here now."

"He wouldn't." His head perked up at the sound of an arrow being pulled and strung, and he was gone. "He would," you whispered to yourself.

You reached down and grabbed one of the take out boxes that hadn't broken open, took a fork, and moved to the couch to await the results of the dangerous game of tag being played out behind you. Your food was almost lost again when suddenly you were pushed against the back of the couch, Pietro's lips firmly against yours for only a moment before he was gone again.

"He is a quick little bastard."