∆ {3⁴} {CAVIAR AND CIGARETTES} ∆ 

A FEW HOURS later, Roxi was completely ready to get off the jet. Tony hadn't given up on trying to guess her first name and the swirling emotions still in her head had made a team effort to give her another headache. It had worked pretty well, and as soon as she could, Roxi planned to separate from the group to go and get changed and to take a moment for her brain to catch up with her thoughts.

Clint was wheeled off first, a Korean woman in a doctor's clothes ushering instructions to the rest of the team, who then walked off, Natasha and Bruce following closely behind. Dr. Cho, Roxi concluded as Maria Hill walked towards them. After the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D last year, she'd taken up a job for Tony, no doubt partly to keep an eye on him for Fury. Roxi didn't feel comfortable going with them, because although she and Clint had been going on missions together for years, and she was friends with the man, he and Natasha were far closer, and Bruce was only going with them for scientific reasons. Thor walked out soon after, carrying th a sceptre under one arm as Roxi slowly stood up and looked around the back of the jet in case she'd missed something. She picked up her quarterstaff, which was on one of the seats, and slowly left, not particularly keen to be confined in a small space with Tony for much longer. She wandered through the corridors for a short while, and a few corners and a lift ride later, she arrived back in her room. It was simple, and she didn't use it too much, except straight after missions like she was now. The walls were painted a pastel red and a huge window showed her a view of New York City. She sat down on the bed that was in the middle of the room and slipped off the jacket - that at this point she really should've just started calling hers - making sure that the key chain didn't fall out.

Roxi always took a shower after coming back from missions; it helped her feel clean, no matter how scalding hot the water was. Normally, the ones that almost burned her skin worked the best. It didn't hurt anymore, instead the water seemed to pound the details of the mission out of her head so she was left with a vague, but still accurate, memory of whatever it was she had had to do. It didn't help that the huge burn on her back from the explosion of the bunker had scarred over, and that she felt it every time she washed her back or her hair (which, admittedly was getting quite long; she needed to get it cut), and it stirred up a whole new pot of memories about HYDRA that she'd quite like to forget overall. She got out once her skin was numb from the force of the water, and the smell of her lemon and peppermint shampoo filled the small room. The smell had always comforted her, maybe because it was the only recollection of her birth parents that she had, other than the image of fireflies dancing before her in the dusk. 

She put on more casual clothes, slipping on one of her own leather jackets from her wardrobe this time. She did need to wash the other one sometimes. She grabbed the wolf keychain out from the pocket and left the other jacket on the bed, knowing Tony would probably have staff for this sort of thing. She would've done it herself, but she wanted to check up on Clint. 

Roxi made her way back through the halls, a gun inside her jacket even though this was one of the most secure buildings in the world, and entered the medical bay without knocking. Clint was lying down on a bed strapped up to a machine that seemed to be rebuilding him. She frowned slightly at the sight of it. It was unnatural, and in her opinion, a little disturbing. Dr. Cho was explaining the process, but Roxi only caught on to what a few words meant before Bruce dumbed it down a bit for her and Natasha.

"She's creating tissue," he said in complete awe. Natasha looked around at Roxi and sent her a look that told the blue-eyed Avenger that she hadn't forgotten about the talk the redhead wanted to have. Roxi wasn't really looking forward to that.

"If you brought him to my lab, the regeneration cradle could do this in 20 minutes," Dr, Cho told them proudly, not caring at all that her lab was in Seoul, the opposite side of the world. Sure, they had the quinjet, but it was currently being refuelled. 

"Oh, he's flatlining, call it. Time?" Tony announced as he walked in, holding a tray of smoothies in his hands. The joke made Roxi's lips turn up at the corners (for once). She was more inclined to deal with him now that she'd had some time to refocus her head. 

"No, no, no," Clint protested, slurring his words slightly as he spoke, "I'm gonna live forever. I'm gonna be made of plastic." He chuckled at his own joke, taking a smoothie from Tony afterwards. 

"Well ,as long as you don't end up in the ocean," Roxi jokingly speculated, acting as if she was considering the idea. Clint started slightly at her voice; he hadn't see her behind him.

"Ryder! When'd you show up?" He asked, making her smile slightly. 

"You'll be made of you, Mr. Barton. Even your own girlfriend won't be able to tell the difference," Dr. Cho reassured him, a soft smile on her face. Roxi took a smoothie as Tony walked past, ignoring the look he sent her in favour of trying the drink. To her surprise, it wasn't that bad.

"Well, I don't have a girlfriend," Clint offered, leaning up slightly so that he could drink his own smoothie. Roxi smirked slightly into her straw. No, he didn't. But he did have a wife, kids and a huge house in the countryside that only a few people knew about. 

"Well, that I can't fix," Dr, Cho told him, before continuing, "This is the next thing, Tony. Your clunky metal suits are gonna be left in the dust."

"Well, that is, exactly the plan," Tony admitted, without a smoothie, seen as Roxi had nicked it. She hadn't known that he was planning to stop using his suits. Maybe he meant that he wouldn't have to use it again soon. She hoped he meant that; that would be nice.

"And Helen, I expect to see you at the party on Saturday," Tony added as Natasha took her drink and put the straw in her mouth in a slightly flirtatious way, looking directly at Roxi as she did so. Roxi's hands grew slightly sweaty, so she had another drink of her own smoothie as the conversation continued around them.

"Unlike you, I don't have a lot of time for parties," Dr. Cho reprimanded after a moment, before adding on a sentence, "Will.. Thor be there?" Roxi's choked on her smoothie, coughing for a few seconds before she regained her composure at set the drink down. 

"I'm going to train for a bit," she excused herself, leaving the room quite quickly. She didn't head to the training room though, going straight back to her room and sitting down on her bed as she waited for Natasha to appear. The other jacket had been removed from her bed, as she'd expected. The redhead walked in a few minutes later, and sat down beside her on the bed. Natasha didn't say anything, but just sat there, waiting for Roxi to explain. It took Roxi a few minutes to figure out how to phrase it.

"About two years before you joined S.H.I.E.L.D," she began eventually, causing Natasha's green eyes to flick up to the side of Roxi's face as she watched the other woman explain, "I was with a S.H.I.E.L.D agent. She didn't work in the field, though, she was in statistics." Her voice trailed off a little near the end, and Roxi found herself swimming in memories from past times as she spoke.

"She, uh, was great." It was the first time in a while that Roxi had been nervous about telling someone something.

"We were living together, and it was going well." Roxi remembered the smell of wood smoke fires.

"We were gonna get married in that September." She remembered gentle, brown eyes and blonde hair.

"And then one day, I got a call from the hospital, telling me that she had been in a serious car crash." She remembered the intense worry and fear she'd felt as she'd driven to the hospital.

"And she didn't make it," Roxi said, her voice having grown slightly quieter with every sentence, so now it was barely above a whisper. 

"Her grave is near Fury's. I was there when you called me, and I guess I never got over it," Roxi finished, her voice cracking slightly. She flinched a little when a hand slid into her own, before she relaxed again and wrapped her own hand around Natasha's. The redhead's fingers and palms were calloused, quite like her own, but it didn't stop the butterflies in Roxi's stomach from erupting in a flurry. Roxi had grown used to the feeling and had decided she liked it. She didn't know, though, that Natasha had felt sparks race up her arm as soon as she took the other woman's hand. The redhead didn't say anything; she didn't have to, instead leaning her head on Roxi's shoulder and letting out a long breath. The action made Roxi smile, and she felt safer and more comfortable than she had in years. Maybe Natasha would be able to help her forget.

{~}

ROXI DIDN'T REALLY want to go to this party, but it could be the last time she'd see the rest of the Avengers in a while. Natasha and Maria had persuaded her to wear a dress, so she was wearing a silver one that wrapped her torso relatively tightly but cascaded to her ankles, which were supported by 2-inch heels. Again, not her first choice. The looser part of the dress hid the gun she had strapped to her thigh, as well as her quarterstaff and a knife. You can never be too prepared, right?

There were a lot more people present than she had expected, so for once, she decided to go and mingle - with people she knew. She headed over to Sam and Steve by the pool table first. She hadn't played in a while, but that didn't mean she couldn't show them up.

"Ha-hey, Scary Lady!" Sam greeted happily, lifting his hand with the cue in it as a greeting.

"Hey birdbrain," she replied, smirking slightly as she scanned the table with her eyes. Roxi held out her hand to Steve for his cue, which he gave her after a sharing a look with Sam. She carefully lined it up and hit one of the balls into the nearest pocket, before standing up and waiting for Sam to make his move. He did a moment later, saying hopefully

"Come back, come back, come back." It didn't, and a few careful moves later, Roxi won. She joined them as they walked up a set of stairs onto a balcony with a glass barrier as Steve explained the fight.

"He broke another bike," Roxi supplied when she had a moment, smirking when Steve shot her a look and Sam turned to the supersoldier incredulously.

"Another one? That's three this month," he complained. 

"Anyway, sounds like a hell of a fight. I'm sorry I missed it," Sam continued casually.

"If I had known it was gonna be a firefight, I absolutely would've called," Steve told him, grinning.

"It's HYDRA, there's always a firefight," Roxi reasoned, getting a nod from Sam and and acknowledging look from Steve.

"No, no, I'm not actually sorry, I'm just trying to sound tough. I'm very happy chasing cold leads on our missing persons case," Sam pointed out, Roxi freezing momentarily as she realised what he meant. They were still looking for the Winter Soldier? It'd been a year and they didn't have any good leads at all. She needed a drink. She bid her goodbyes and head down to the bar. No-one was behind it, so Roxi slipped in and poured herself some champagne. While she'd had bad experiences with alcoholics in the past, she didn't mind drinking it, sometimes it was quite nice like at the moment, but if the wrong people had too much of it, it could make for some rash decisions. She downed a shot of vodka first, before she took a sip of the champagne, trying rid her mouth of the bitter taste. 

She was very good with her control levels with alcohol because of her experiences with it, and whenever she would want more, she would just remind herself of what could happen and she could stop quickly. She stood with her back to the room, leaning against the bar with the drink in her hand for a while, just listening to the sounds of the party around her. Voices, laughter, the occasional shattering sound of a dropped glass. She wasn't good in these situations.

"You're missing out on the party," Natasha's sultry voice sounded from behind her, and she turned around quickly, coming face to face with the shorter redhead, who was leaning on the bar and smiling up at her in a white dress that wasn't particularly concealing. 

"Not really my scene though, is it?" Roxi reasoned as she met Natasha's eyes, green meeting blue as she took a sip of champagne. The redhead seemed to consider the sentence for a second before she answered.

"It could be, though." Roxi gave her a 'not really' look as she scanned the party.

"Nah. The three things I don't like about parties. People, noise, and in this case, people who are Tony's friends," she stated simply.

"Can I get you a drink?" She followed up, looking straight back at Natasha, a slight smirk on her lips as her her hung down past her shoulders and spilled onto the bar slightly.

"A shot of vodka wouldn't be missed," Natasha admitted, feeling unable to take her eyes off the other woman as she poured the redhead's drink. The flirting continued throughout the evening, attracting a few glances from the rest of the Avengers, accompanied by a proud smile from Clint as he watched the two drink and smile genuine smiles, breaking into soft laughter every now and then. Both of them needed each other more then they knew, and it was nice for him to see them finally start to open up. He saw them connect hands and turned around with a knowing smirk, eager to get back to the party.

{A/N:} So, I was gonna make this chapter longer but I didn't have enough time so here we are. Some lil cute moments in this chapter :). If any of you recognise the song the title's from, let me know please.

Please remember to vote and comment if you like this so that I know. Also feel free to comment throughout the chapter, not just at the end :). Happy Halloween.

JabberJay_011

2590 Words

Written: 31 / 10 / 2020

Published: 31 / 10 / 2020