13Hellooooo! So, thank you to all the people who reviewed, I love y'all! Also, sorry for the delay, I thought that I already posted this chapter but then I was going through my profile and realized I hadn't. So here you go!
I don't know if actually is a human studies class at Foxfire, but I have decided there is in this story at least. (It was an elective)
And I know ASL isn't as, comprehensive (?) wordy (?), as I made it, but Clint knows sign really well, and can tell what Keefe is trying to say, so he's kind of filling in the blanks. At least, that's my excuse.
Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel and I'm not Shannon Messenger. Obviously. This story is nowhere near their level.
Here's a review:
Natasha gave Key a small half-smile. "No, you were right. Clint should not have been wandering around New York alleys, particularly while armed. And yes, It seems like I'm the only one made at him right now. However, when our boss finds out, I'm sure he'll be plenty mad."
At the mention of Fury, Clint groaned. "Come on Nat, don't tell Fury!"
Nat grinned deviously. "I won't have to. I'm sure there were plenty of New Yorkers who were glad to get a picture of the famous Hawkeye just waltzing around the city."
Clint let out another groan. "I'm so dead."
"Yeah, you are," Sam agreed. "Now if you wouldn't mind, the rest of us would like to be introduced to your new friend."
Remember Key is the fake name that Keefe gave the Avengers.
Chapter 3
Keefe's POV
"My name is Sam, by the way," said the man who had brought up introductions.
"I'm Natalie," said the red-haired woman who Clint had called Nat. Keefe felt something… different coming from her. He would have thought she was lying, but it wasn't the emotions that normally went with that. It was more… mild curiosity, but also a sense of boredness. And maybe a touch of arrogance, but that was a pretty complex emotion. He might be wrong. If it had been his dad, there would be no mistaking the arrogance, but the emotion was somewhat different for each person.
Of course, he couldn't let her know that he knew any of this.
"I'm Steve, Steve Rogers." That was from the muscular blond man sitting on the couch, the same one that had reprimanded the dark-haired man named Tony for his "did you bring home a stray" comment.
"My name is Wanda," said a brown-haired young woman reading a book. She had a faint accent that Keefe couldn't place.
"Bucky." That was the dark-haired man sitting next to Steve, and… was that a metal arm?!
"I'm Bruce," said the man in the kitchen who had dark-curly hair. His emotions felt… weird, but in a different way than "Natalie's". Everything seemed normal at first, but as the man walked closer to take a seat on the couch, Keefe felt almost another entire set of emotions layered under what he had first felt. It was like there was another person besides Bruce inside of Bruce's body. And that other person was feeling angry. Very angry. But the anger felt… controlled almost. Or maybe restrained was a better word.
"And I'm Tony Stark, although I'm sure you already knew that," smirked Tony. This time there was no mistaking the arrogance for what it was. It practically oozed from the man, and it vaguely (okay, maybe not so vaguely) reminded Keefe of his dad. Keefe tried not to shudder. And Tony was right, Keefe did know who he was. Well, kind of. His Human Studies mentor had shown a picture of him briefly when talking about "important" humans of recent times.
"And that's everyone," announced Clint. "What's for dinner?"
"Bruce made some sort of vegetarian curry," said Steve. "It's almost ready."
"Is okay with you? Do you have any allergies?" Clint asked Keefe.
Keefe almost shook his head no before remembering that a lot of humans ate meat. "I'm vegetarian," he signed quickly. "I can't eat meat." Hopefully no one would try to make him eat any animals if they thought he would react to it the same way Foster reacted to limbium. That had not been pretty.
Clint looked somewhat surprised but translated Keefe's words.
Sam laughed. "It's a good thing it was Bruce's turn to cook, then."
ΔΔΔΔΔΔΔ τιΜε ζκΙΡ ΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔ
"Wow, that was really good," Clint said, both sounding and feeling surprised.
"You don't have to sound so surprised," Bruce said, pretending to be offended, though Keefe could tell he didn't really mean it.
"Did you like it?" Bruce asked Keefe, and he nodded. "It was great, thanks."
Thankfully, no one seemed to notice that he had barely managed to eat half of his bowl. His appetite was still kind of messed up after the whole 'unconscious for four days' thing. It was getting better though.
"So kid, where ya from?" Tony said suddenly, his eyes fixed on Keefe.
Keefe froze. What could he possibly say?
"Tony!" That was Pepper. She had joined the group as they started eating. Keefe could tell that Tony liked her (romantically), and that Pepper felt the same way. They didn't seem to be married, though. Maybe they were dating?
"If you don't want to tell us, you don't have to," said Pepper calmly, which Keefe appreciated, especially since he could feel the curiosity coming off of her. Everyone, really. But what was he going to say? Oh hey, I'm from an entire hidden world full of elves! And I ran away so that my mom, who's leading an evil rebellion terrorist group, can't use me as a weapon! Yeah… no.
"…kind of far, I guess?" Keefe signed, hoping that would stop any more questions.
It didn't.
"So not New York, then," Tony surmised. "Are you from the US?"
Keefe didn't know how to answer that one, so he just nodded.
Then he felt something really, really, weird. It almost felt like…
Keefe slammed a mental wall down around his mind as his eyes snapped to Wanda, who jumped and gave a small yelp as Keefe felt her mind run into his wall. Boy was he glad Forkle taught him that trick. It couldn't hold off a full attempt, but it could block a telepathic sneak attempt from just about anyone as long as Keefe did it fast enough. Well, mostly anyone. Not Foster. But of course it could block a hu- WAIT A HUMAN COULDN'T BE A TELEPATH WHAT JUST HAPPENED THIS COULDN'T BE POSSIBLE
Steve POV (a new one!)
The entire team stared at Key, who was looking at Wanda with narrowed eyes. Wanda was staring back at the kid, looking completely stunned.
"Did you try to-" Natasha started, and Wanda nodded.
"What was that?" Key signed, and Clint translated. "How did you do that?"
"I… can read minds," Wanda explained cautiously, and the kid's eyes became the size of dinner plates. Key looked at a couple other people, as if wondering if this whole thing was a joke.
"Are you serious?" Key asked.
Everyone nodded. Steve could understand the kid's disbelief. Mind-reading was pretty out-there in terms of explanations.
"How did you block me?" Wanda asked, and startling Steve. Key had blocked Wanda's powers? How was that possible?
The kid looked even more uncomfortable than he had when Tony had asked where he was from. "I just… thought up a wall, I guess? I felt something weird, and just… blocked it."
Key had felt Wanda's powers? Who was this kid?
"How-" Clint started to translate Key's statement, then stopped, looking over at Wanda. "Umm…"
Key signed something else, and Clint nodded, then said: "I just have to ask her first, is all."
Then Clint turned to Wanda and asked her something in Russian. Which, of course, Steve couldn't understand.
Tony looked as annoyed as Steve was starting to feel. "Hey super spies, mind including the rest of us in your conversation?" The billionaire said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"It's not my fault you don't speak Russian or ASL," Clint shot back. "But for your information, Key wanted to know how Wanda could read minds, and so I asked her how much she would be comfortable sharing."
"In short, I was experimented on by an organization that… did not have the best of intentions," Wanda explained.
Steve watched Key for his reaction. Oddly, the only emotion that flickered across the kid's previously curious face was something that looked like… understanding?
The room was quiet for a moment until Key started signing again and Clint glanced at Wanda again. "Umm.." Clint started for the second time. "The question is 'was it against your will', but he also said that you don't have to answer if you don't want to."
Steve wondered why the kid wanted to know that particular piece of information. Was it just random curiosity, or was it something else?
"I volunteered," Wanda said, and Key looked a little surprised. "I agreed with the organization's intentions at first, for a few reasons. But… I changed. I want to help people, and so does everyone here, which I eventually realized." She finished this with a glance at Tony, who nodded back to her.
Key seemed comfortable with this explanation, which Steve was relieved about. He didn't want the kid to be scared around Wanda, for both Key and Wanda's sakes.
Suddenly, there was a loud BOOM of thunder, causing Key (and a few team members) to jump.
Key signed something to Clint, and Clint gave the kid a smile. "You're welcome, I know what it's like to be a runaway and get caught in a storm."
Key froze and stared at Clint, then signed something else.
Keefe's POV (again)
"How did you know?" Keefe signed, internally panicking.
Clint looked at him, faint surprise and maybe a little amusement wafting off him. "You really thought I didn't know? Like I said, I was a runaway too. Besides, a teenage kid with a backpack, in an alley, with no where to go? Dead giveaway."
Keefe felt almost embarrassed. What other explanation was there? Nothing else really made sense besides the runaway explanation. And... there the curiosity grew again. Dang it, that probably meant more questions.
"You know, I just realized this," Tony said in an overly casual tone, which definitely meant... "You never mentioned how old you are." Yep. More questions. At least this was one he could actually answer. He was- wait. Didn't Foster say humans had a bunch of rules about peoples' ages and what they were allowed to do? He thought for a minute than figured it was probably best to just tell the truth.
"I'm sixteen," he signed when he decided. "Natalie" gave him a sideways look.
"You took your time answering that question. Any reason why?" The redhead asked suspiciously.
"Nat-" Clint started, but Keefe cut him off by starting to sign again.
"I was deciding whether to tell the truth or not," Keefe said, and "Natalie" opened her mouth to say something, but Keefe continued before she could protest. "I did tell the truth, but even if I didn't, you can't exactly complain when you're not being honest either." Keefe froze when he realized what he had just given away.
Clint's voice trailed off as he translated Keefe's last few words, and he stared at Keefe, which was honestly kind uncomfortable.
"What do you mean, I'm not being honest?" Asked "Natalie", watching Keefe carefully. How was he going to get out of this one?