➖ CHAPTER TWELVE

➖ IT HAD BEEN A WEEK SINCE HER DATE with Zander and the two teenagers seemed to be getting along just fine as a couple, despite the fact that they weren't official. Katherine was currently in her room getting ready for the football game that Happy was going to drive her to, after which Zander and her would be going out to celebrate their impending win.

It was the school's second away game, and Katherine was anxiously awaiting their first home game of the season next month where they would finally have their homecoming dance. She wondered if Zander would ask her to it.

Katherine hadn't planned on going to the game that day but Logan has insisted that she liked the way Kat's pictures from the last game turned out. And Zander May have also had a hand in persuading her with the promise of another date.

The teen had been blissfully happy that afternoon, even when the men she lived with all protested her date that evening after she told them. She hadn't even been listening to what was going on outside of her room as she focused on putting her outfit together with one of her duplicates and finding the camera that Logan had let her borrow with another one as she brushed her teeth.

Currently Clint, Tony, Sam and Bruce were gathered in the hallway just outside of her door, arguing with each other about their plan.

"Wait, why do I have to be good cop?" Bruce asks, wondering why he was even there. He was fond of the girl, and didn't quite fancy the idea of her dating anybody but didn't see the harm in the teenaged boy.

"And why do I have to be the bad cop?" Sam asks, sharing a look with Bruce. "I'm the cool uncle here, I'm supposed to let her have fun when you two won't."

Clint and Tony both Shake their heads. "Just follow our leads, Okay?" Clint asks before leading the charge into her bedroom.

"Stretch Armstrong!" Tony calls, looking around for her as their small troupe of superhero's storms the large room.

Katherine peeked out of the bathroom, her hair wrapped in a towel and her body wrapped in a robe with a tooth brush hanging from her mouth.

"Okay one," She says, mouth full of minty toothpaste. "knock first. I could've been naked." She disappeared for a moment to spit the substance out of her mouth before reappearing in her room. "And two, why are you all even in here? Is this some weird cult thing you guys want me to join? Or did you decide to do my homework again?" She rose an eyebrow at Bruce as he seemed to look around in awe at her two duplicates roaming freely about. She realized that he was one of the few that hadn't seen her duplicate yet.

Tony looks to Clint, who clears his throat and tells Katherine to sit down on her bed. She does so without question, knowing better than to complain and whine. She crossed her arms over her chest and swung her legs back and forth as the four men assembled in front of her, all with stern and serious looks on her face.

She wondered what was going on and why Sam was involved in it, he was usually the cool one out of her strange group of parents.

"We're here to talk about boys." Tony says, also crossing his arms over his chest as he suddenly realizes that they were really just flying by the seat of their pants right then.

"Yes, boys." Clint says. "We're going to inform you of all the reasons why you shouldn't date- or even be friends with one for that matter!- boys."

Katherine couldn't help but me amused. "Do continue then, but make it short. Logan will be here in twenty."

"Tony, would you like to start?" Clint asks, stepping back to allow the man the center of the room.

"Well, for starters boy are assholes, the whole lot of them." Clint, Bruce and Sam all nod in agreement behind him, although from the looks of things Bruce was only here because they forced him to. "They'll try to be your friend, let you fall in love with them and BAM- they'll get what they want and never even think twice about you."

"We aren't all that bad!" Bruce says, trying to play off his roll as the good cop, although he had to agree with Tony.

"And if they aren't assholes, they're hiding something." Sam jumps in, feeling bad for dragging the whole male species. "And it's usually something bad- like a temper or maybe they've got an addiction they can't control.."

Katherine's eyes rolled over to Clint as she listened in amusement, somewhat excited to hear what the fatherly man would say. "And do you agree with them, Clint?" She asks.

Clint looks her hard in the eyes. "They're only sugar coating it sweetheart," He says in a tone that Katherine had never heard before. It was as if something came over him, some protective instinct to keep her away from any boy that dared glance at her. Like a father being protective of his teenaged daughter. "I bet you right now that I could go find dirt on him, his family and everyone he associates with. The French family has some dirty secrets and I'm sure he's buried in them."

Clint didn't let anyone continue, speaking up once more about men. "And you barely even know this boy, you've been friends for what, three months now? Four maybe?" He asks. "You're only seventeen Katherine, and you've never been in a situation where you're around boys that like you.. for all you know he could be a rapist or.. or he could be a man that will hit you for no fucking reason other than because he just wanted to."

Katherine stared at him, slightly startled. "Katherine, for all you know Zander could be using you as a ploy to use your powers." He goes on, continuing to rant without even realizing as he starts pacing up and down in front of her bed. The other men watched on, not wanting to interrupt as they noticed the vein popping in his neck that meant he was already trying to control himself. "That's another thing about men, Kat, we only want one thing from girls when we're your age, and we know how to get it."

"He could be playing you right now," He continues, feeling everyone's eyes on him. Katherine stared at him, slightly scared as she had never seen him act this way. She honestly would prefer it if he yelled at her for a straight hour like he had when Logan found out about her. That Clint was scary, but not like this. "He could be running game on you right now and you don't even notice because you've got your blinders on! You're a sheltered little girl that thinks she's in love with the first boy that was nice to her!"

"Clint!" Bruce and Sam both shout, thinking that the man had just taken it too far. Tony says nothing, too busy staring in awe at Clint. He never realized how protective over her he was and it was kind of amazing. It was almost as if the assassin thought of Katherine as one of his own.

"Shut up!" Clint yells, pointing a finger at the two. The look on his face was enough to make the two men back away.

Bruce gave Katherine a comforting look, noticing how scared she was becoming as Clint continued pacing, as the vein in his neck seemed to bulge even farther.

"What the hell is going on in here?" Steve asks, stepping into her room with Thor not far behind him. The god was chewing on a green apple and looked around at them oddly.

"I'm trying to protect Katherine from getting her heart broken!" Clint says, pointing to the now angry teenager. She didn't want to be protected. She just wanted to be normal. "And if she's smart, she'll stay home tonight instead of going to that football game!" He looked to Thor, as Steve narrowed his eyes at the whole group. "Back me up on this Thor, tell her how horrible guys are!"

Thor stopped mid chew, now a little terrified as Clint stared him down. He cleared his throat before speaking, forgetting to chew the rest of his apple. "He is right, Lady Katherine." He says, giving her a small look as Clint makes an "aha!" Sound. "Men are all animals that shan't be trusted with a lady's heart, especially a lady as pure as you."

"Thank you!" The Avenger exclaims, turning back around to face Katherine with his hands on his hips. "See, Katherine?"

The teenager stood up defiantly, eyes narrowed as her duplicates began to shimmer in and out of sight. "I'm going to that game, and I'm going on my date." She says lowly, trying not to show she was terrified as the mans face turned completely red.

Katherine expected him to yell at her, to start screaming, but instead he turns on his heel and marches out of her room with his fists clenched by his sides.

He stops at the door though, and with everyone staring at him he points a finger at the teenager. "You're not as smart as I thought, then." He says. "And don't come crying to me if this boy hurts you, you hear me?"

And with his final words, Clint disappears from her room entirely, although he didn't go far judging by the slam of his bedroom door as he closed it behind him.

The atmosphere in the room is tense for a few moments after he leaves before Steve speaks up, breaking the new found ice in the room. "You five do realize that you just dragged the entire male race, right?" He asks, leaning against the wall as he stared at his team mates.

Katherine gathers herself and pulls the towel off of her hair as she glances at the clock, adding another duplicate to help her get ready. "Logan's going to be here any minuet!" She says, rushing to her closet.

"That was.. intense." Tony says finally, leading the group of men out of her room as JARVIS alerts them to Logan's arrival. "Someone remind me to turn the AI system back on to FRIDAY, Vision should be back tomorrow and it's just weird with him sounding like JARVIS."

"Is no one going to talk about how Clint just went all Hulk on her?" Bruce asks, following them out. "I mean he totally lost it, right? That had to have crossed some kind of line.."

"I think we should just leave it be." Steve says. "Clint got himself into that mess, and Clint can get himself out."

"Someone should probably chaperone, right?" Sam asks, looking at the men as they walk into the living room. The elevator door slides open as they do and Logan comes bouncing off.

"Hi all!" Logan says, waving around their school's red and black colors as she bounds past them. "Katherine!" Logan hollers as she runs for the hall, leaving the men to stare after her. "You better be in your Rebels colors!!"

"Thor, you want to take the football game and date?" Steve asks, turning to the God.

"I suppose I don't have a choice." Thor sighs before going to his room to put a hoodie on. He figured it wouldn't look weird since it was chilly out and it would hide his face so people wouldn't flock to him.

➖ The football game lasted until well after eight with both teams having to go into over time with a tied score. In the end the Rebels won and the bit of the school that came out to support them celebrated on the field after the cheerleaders gave a final cheer.

Thor clapped and congratulated the team as they pass by him on the way to the locker room, Logan and Katherine chased after the boys after snapping a few photos of the cheer team.

"Coach, can I get a picture of them in the locker room with the game ball?" He hears Logan yells and groans when he has to follow them.

Thor decided that the boys locker room was where souls must've gone to die, or at least that's what it smelled like when he walked into it. He wondered how the girls could stand it as they arranged the tired and sweaty boys for their shot.

The god noticed that number forty-four couldn't seem to keep his eyes off of Katherine and assumed that he must be Zander when she kissed his cheek and told him she'd meet him at the restaurant before Logan pulled her back so they could snap the pictures.

"Good game, boys!" Logan calls over her shoulder as she files out of the locker room with Katherine in front of her and Thor behind her.

"So, this sporting event is over?" Thor asks as the girls walk on either side of him. He kept a watch on their surroundings, just in case.

"Yes, Thor." Katherine says, a grin on her face as she walks. "Here's the camera, Logan!"

"Give it back to me later!" Logan says with a laugh. "I'm staying at yours tonight, remember?"  Katherine shook her head and laughed, unable to believe that she had forgotten their preset plans of a sleep over.

They had made an arrangement with Mr. Killian that Logan would spend the night at the tower with every away game they went to and Katherine would stay at Logan's house with every Home game they had.

It seemed to already be working out great for both girls.

"And now we go to your date?" Thor asks, feeling as if he were imposing.

"Yep!" Katherine says, beginning to get a little giddy as Logan's father's car comes into view. Logan has driven to the game herself and would be driving them to the small ice cream shop by their school before driving them back to the tower for the night.

➖ By one in the morning Katherine found herself unable to sleep, thoughts of her date with Zander running through her mind as well as Clint yelling at her replaying in her head.

Her date had gone well, and she's had so much fun throughout the whole evening that she had forgotten that Clint was now mad at her.

She and Zander has gotten their own spot at the counter of the ice cream shop that was old fashioned and ordered the craziest ice cream combination they could think of before falling into fits of laughter each time they hit nasty spots or each time someone told some kind of funny story.

Logan has shown Thor how to use the old juke box that rested in the far corner of the shop and found her own amusement in watching the god dance around the half empty parlor to the songs that nobody bothered listening to anymore.

By the time the three of them got back to the tower it was nearly midnight. Clint had gotten nervous and had waited up by the elevator for them, just so he could see that she was okay. Of course he didn't let her know that and pretended that he was just passing by on his way to the kitchen when they stepped off of the lift.

Now she sat in her darkened bedroom with only the light from her tv illuminating the space, try desperately not to wake up her sleeping best friend as she slid off of her bed.

Katherine figured that maybe walking around would help, and that was what she did. She thought as she walked, thinking that she should probably apologize to Clint in the morning, he was only trying to keep her safe, much like Director Fury.

And that lead her to thinking about the older man who had for so long been the only sort of father figure that she had. She realized that he hadn't tried to contact her in the nearly three months that she'd lived at the Avengers Tower and that hurt her more than she thought it would.

She thought that he would at least are enough for a phone call or a visit to see how she was adjusting to her new life.

Katherine found herself by Tony's lab that was for once empty of both him and Bruce and made her way inside. She wasn't sure why though, as she rarely even came in when both men were there.

Something called to her though as she stepped in and she made her way past Bruce's desk, where everything seemed to be normal. Messy, but normal.

She then moved to Tony's area of the lab, eyeing his always cluttered desk as she passed before moving to his work station. As she passed by it, something caught her eye. Something she knew wouldn't normally be sitting on the work bench.

There was a large Manila folder sitting in the middle of the red bench, surrounded by tools and dirty rags. As she moved closer to it she realized it was a SHIELD file and out of curiosity, she picked it up and read the name on the tag.

Katherine Nicole

Why did Tony have a file on her? And why was it so thick? The last time she'd asked Fury about her SHIELD files he'd been told that what little they had on her wasn't even enough to fill half a page of a report.

So had he lied to her? Or had Tony found information on her that SHIELD couldn't?

A part of her brain told her to put it back where she found it, that she shouldn't pry. If Tony hadn't told her about it then she probably wasn't supposed to know anything.

But the other part of her brain, the more curious part told her to take it, told her that these were probably answers to questions that she'd been asking for years. She could finally learn where she came from, and who her parents were.

Katherine took a deep breath, hesitating as her hand moves to put the file back on the table when suddenly she's tucked it under her pajama shirt and starts running from the lab before Tony could come back and catch her with it.

She wanted to know.. no, she needed to know. It was her right to know who she truly was, to know where she came from.

Katherine takes to sitting at her desk when she closes her bedroom door behind her, using the light of her cell phone to read so as not to wake Logan.

Katherine stared at the file nervously, her hands shaking a little in excitement before she takes a deep breath to calm herself, hovering her right hand over the bottom corner to flip it open.

"What have you been up to, Anthony Stark?"

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TWO CHAPTERS IN ONE DAY YA GIRL IS ON A ROLL HERE LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!
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