Heroes of New York

SEVEN - LOOK

Chapter Seven

~Clint Barton~

I had been looking for my hearing aids frantically for the past hour, finally pushing my search into the ventilation shafts - where I was unlikely to have lost my aids - the last place I could look.

Then I'd crashed through the ceiling and into the arms of some kid that couldn't have been much older than that spider-child that keeps hanging around (though this kid that caught me had barely budged when I landed in his arms, a huge contrast to Spidey, who - despite his strength - would tip backwards trying to catch even the smallest of objects). And then he'd started signing at me - albeit in broken ASL - without me even mentioning the... difficulty. Suddenly, he was acting like we were best buds and started helping me look for my hearing aids.

And - after all of that - I couldn't even remember his name from when he signed it to me, because I'd been trying to remember if I'd recognised him. From lip-reading, I could guess it was something like 'Bursi', or 'Pursy' or 'Mercy', but none of those sounded quite right and, y'know, I figured the opportunity where I could ask again had passed since I was - by then - standing on his shoulders in order to reach the vents in my room to look for my aids a second time.

There didn't seem to be anything there but dust and a couple of foam darts from yesterday's impromptu Nerf battle. I tapped the side of the vent twice to let the kid know to let me down (he had signed to me earlier that I wasn't allowed into the vents again until either my hearing aids were found, or the vents were reinforced so I could safely crawl around up there).

Once I had both feet on the ground, I looked at the kid and forcefully shrugged, making sure that he knew I hadn't found anything. He nodded, and did another quick survey of the room.

There wasn't a whole lot in there, as I personally preferred my own apartment, with my dog and my pizza and my weird tracksuit-dracula gangsters (okay, maybe I didn't necessarily like them, but I much preferred their idiotic fights in comparison to the absolute bullshit that the Avengers had to fight on a regular basis). The bed sheets were purple, as were many of the things in the room, and there were empty coffee cups littered across various surfaces in the room. There was an arrow in the dartboard on the door, directly in the centre, split by a second arrow from the time Nat and I had gone to see Brave.

I had spaced out.

I looked back at the kid. He was frowning pretty deeply, and squinting like he needed glasses.

"What is that?" he said (or at least, that's what I guessed he said, since there aren't many other things that looked like that and still made sense). I looked toward where he was pointing, and became just as confused as he clearly seemed.

As soon as I focused on it, it was like I was seeing two things at once. My brain was telling me there was nothing there, but I could clearly tell that there was something on my nightstand. The air was wiggly there, like asphalt in the hot sun, or gas fumes over a barbecue, or what I imagine sound waves to look like.

Within the wiggle I could see (with my hawk-like vision) the vague outline of a pair of small objects, just about the size of -

"My hearing aids!" I exclaimed (or, more likely, screamed - I couldn't hear myself very well, even with the little function I had left in my ears) and rushed forward.

The kid (gotta learn his name) held an arm out to stop me, but I was already across the room, grabbing the little pieces of tech off of the table, turning them on and putting them in.

"How could I have missed them? They were right in front of me when I woke up," I said to myself, now at a more regular volume, as I could now hear.

Actually, how did I miss them? I searched my memories and - now that I think about it - can clearly remember them sitting on the nightstand when I got up...

The kid made a noise behind me, and I turned to see him making a face - scrunching his features and pursing his lips like he was thinking hard.

"Sorry for all that, man. I'm usually not this disorganized - well," I conceded, "actually, sometimes I can be a little disorganized - or maybe pretty often - okay, so actually I'm kind of a huge mess like ninety-five percent of the time, but there's a good five percent in there where I'm not and that matters, right?"

I was rambling, and though he seemed to be listening, I could tell he wasn't focused.

"Hey, buddy, you okay?" I questioned, a little concerned now, because the kid wouldn't stop signing to me earlier and now he was still and quiet. It made me feel uneasy. I barely knew anything about him, but he came off as the sort of person that never stopped moving, who always had something to say and now...

His phone went off in his pocket and his fingers twitched. He shook his head a bit, like clearing his thoughts, before pulling out his cell (which wasn't any model I recognized, with a funky triangle engraved onto the back, and some questionable plates and ports along the side - maybe Stark was experimenting again?).

"Yeah, sorry, I'm fine," he replied, finally. He had a slight accent - Greek, maybe - and his voice was deep, but gentle - like he was consciously controlling his volume and tone.

He glanced at me from his phone screen, then back down, typing something out (assumedly a reply to a text).

"I have to go," he said, putting his phone back in his pocket. "Glad you've got your aids now, but maybe you should have a tracker put on them or something. Save you the hassle next time. See you around."

The kid (damn, I forgot to ask his name again!) walked off out of my room, down the hall and into the emergency stairwell.

Weird kid.

Did I ever ask him what he was doing in the Tower in the first place?

I shrugged, figuring Stark just adopted another one of those random super-powered children or something, and decided to head out to the kitchens for some coffee.

Hey guys,  sorry for the delay on this chapter, but it's honestly been a rough week. Every time I feel prepared to write more, I have something else to do, like work or chores or some such, so sorry if the quality is a little 'meh'.

I also apologise for the shortness (I'm pretty certain it has a similar word count to all of my other chapters, but it just feels so much shorter, I guess), but again, writer's block, work, other excuse, blah blah, whatever. 

Next chapter should be better, and also out on time (hopefully). So, until then, lovelies ~

P.S. - has anyone else read/watched Good Omens? because you absolutely should, as its the best thing life has ever given us

<3