Mordred stopped, placing his vambrace down on the bench, his heart sinking. For a moment he concentrates completely on his armour, how could he answer such a question? Telling her would mean her life and the lives of those whom called Camelot home. An impossible predicament.
The young knight turns to face her, his fingers brushing lightly against the metal of his armour. “I’m not hiding anything” he tells her simply.
“I got lost,” she cries back, “just runni—”
— just running from fighting with you.
“I can’t go back to Camelot, because I don’t know how to get there from here,” Summer forces herself to say calmly. “And I won’t go until you tell me why you left.” She slumps on the ground, lack of sleep, lack of food, and use of magic all combining to exhaust her. “I don’t think I could make it more than a few steps right now, anyway.”
He holds his hand out to her. “I’ll help you,” he tells her, “but what you request is something I cannot repeat, I am sorry.”
Sulkily, childishly, she turns her head away from his hand. “I won’t go unless you stay with me.”
“Wha — Oh!” Summer blundered to a stop in the middle of the chorus, laughing at herself and turning round. One hand punched the power button on the speakers hastily, so they could hear themselves talk. “Well, thank you. It’s been a long time since I had any training; I just like to sing.” She stood up, offering a hand. “I’m Summer. I guess since you’re here, I must be disturbing everyone on the floor?”
Tony’s slight smile turned into a full-on grin when the girl finally noticed him and he took a step forward, letting himself into her apartment as if he had any right to be in there. “I can see that,” he offered, surprising himself when he found that he genuinely meant it. “Tony,” he said then and shook the proffered hand, “Not exactly a disturbance when you’re not half-bad, yeah? More like a free concert, really. And I was just bored, so I figured I should check where that was coming from.”
“Ooh, flattery will get you everywhere.” Summer winked. “It’s a good thing I’m in here alone, my ego will need the space if you keep that up.” She gestured to the loveseat. “You’re welcome to hang around, I wasn’t doing anything important. Do you sing?”
“Oh yeah? Were there specifics? Did you leave him with plenty of caffeine?” Summer glances up from her laptop, grinning. “Or is this him doing that thing where he’s afraid he’ll screw it up if he tries to … make his friends be friends?”
“Thank you.” Clint sits down and leans back on the cushions. “Well, he’s familiar. I was very close with Tony,” he responds. “So, what’s the other me been doing, do you know?” Is he still working with SHIELD. Should I be hiding again. Those are few what he wants to ask but he does not want to reveal too much yet. “Is there a problem with me getting close to him? Has he spoken of me?” he inquires instead.
Summer shakes her head. “I honestly couldn’t tell you what Agent Barton is doing. Not only is he higher level than I am, but the stuff he does and the stuff I do doesn’t remotely overlap. The last rumour I heard put him with Agent Romanoff and the Captain, though.”
She studies him, chin in her hands. “Tony talks about everything,” she says, deliberately evasive. “He’s talked about you before, but so much has happened … I don’t mind you getting close to him, but,” she hesitates. “You do know who the other member of our little trio is, don’t you?”
Clint listens to her attentively and is only little disappointed at not finding out more, as he wasn’t really expecting much to start with. The hawk lets out a small sigh, running his fingers through his hair, pondering on his choices. “It’s okay, I wasn’t sure you’d know. We are not in the easiest job to be found out much of,” he answers, ignoring her mention of the Black Widow and Captain completely. The way she avoids telling him of Tony stings a lot but he knows she has no reason to offer trust or information for him, especially when he’s practically a stranger to her.
Clint doesn’t like admitting his lack of knowledge but can do little else currently in his situation. “I don’t know who your third is or that you even had one but I have nothing against triads. I was happily part of one myself. Our triad was not well received mostly due to the third person being who he was. We had our troubles but stayed together through them all until..” His voice trails off and he turn his head away to hide the tears threatening to fall from his eyes.
“Hey, hey,” she says softly, and puts a hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay. Maybe you can find them again. I’m sure Tony can help with that.” She squeezes, mildly bemused at the muscle under her hand.
“You might not want to stay here, after all. You see … Loki lives here.”
She nodded, sharply, and went back into the room, letting the door close. She leaned back against it for a brief moment before all but crawling into the bed. The knowledge that she was completely safe, that she had made it to Camelot and survived, slowly sank in, and she curled up into a ball and just shook with relief for a long time.
Sleep overtook her at some point, and in her dream she relived the attack. Half a dozen men, ill-kempt but well-armed, bursting out of the underbrush and surrounding her. Her horse rearing, frightened, as someone waved a torch under its nose. Unable to draw her daggers, with hands full of reins, and unable to fix her mind on more than one attacker at a time. One, only one, going up in flames, and then someone grabbing her leg and dragging, and the fire spun out of control, sparks spitting everywhere but to no avail.
Summer woke up screaming.
Mordred took a step back as the door was closed, and he stood there for a moment with a slightly strangled looking expression on his face. He didn’t feel comfortable with allowing her to come with them; he, after all, would have preferred to head out with the knights and take out the threat before letting her near the forest at all. With a light sigh, Mordred then turned his back upon the room and headed to his own chambers. If they were going to be busy tomorrow, an early night was always the best bet.
He fell asleep quite early, yet because of the fact he slept only lightly, the scream caused him to wake. It was a sudden thing that snapped him out of whatever dream he was having. He was disorientated, and unsure that he had heard it or imagined it; so for the moment, he stayed put.
Disoriented, both by the nightmare and the unfamiliar room, she stumbled out of the room, arms wrapped tight about her shoulders and shivering. One of the torches she passed flared up, and she shrieked again, flinching back and huddling against the wall.
She flushes again. “I’m not really doing anything special,” she mumbles, “but you’re welcome all the same.” His gratitude is so powerful, she puts up another shield just to keep her thoughts from drowning in it; it’s like seeing the world through a haze for a second. She keeps hold of his hand, uncaring of how her arm is awkwardly bent. “You never answered my question,” she says, quietly.
“Hmmm?” He hums, turning to look over at her. “About where we’re going? I already told you it’s a surprise,” Toni chuckles, making another turn as they draw closer to the restaurant. It’s a relatively small place and off the grid unless you’re in the know and can actually afford the place. Toni used to come here with Ty when they were trying to stay out of the paparazzi’s eye. He figures that Summer will enjoy the privacy.
“Not that question. About when this started.” Resolutely, she doesn’t look at him, but she also doesn’t pull her hand away from his. It’s important to know, though she’s not sure why.
He was bustling around his office, trying to straighten up after an avalanche of papers on his desk had buried his computer. The knock at the door took him by surprise, and he overbalanced, scattering his papers again. “Just a minute!” he carefully extracted himself from his office and closed the door behind him before going to answer the door.
The person who, finally, opened the door matched the descriptions she’d been given — dusty blond, glasses, and a vague air of preoccupation. She hadn’t quite expected academic cute, but that was okay too. “Doctor Daniel Jackson?” she asked. “I need your help.”
Summer took a slow sip, though she could smell the coffee as soon as he offered it. She didn’t really like coffee, although this one was okay. She smoothed a hand over one hip, removing a non-existent wrinkle. “I’m glad you like it.”
Looking out over the floor, she remembered why she hadn’t been to a party in ages. It was crowded, everyone talking over one another, bumping into one another; the music was nearly inaudible despite being loud as hell. Her ears buzzed with the volume, and her head buzzed with the emotions. Gently she pushed the latte away after that one sip. “No alcohol for me tonight, I’m going to be higher than a kite anyway.”
Vex was a little disappointed that she didn’t enjoy the alcohol enough to share it with him, but he let the situation go. It wasn’t that big of a deal, really. At the mention of her being higher than a kite, he couldn’t help but be tempted to go find his pipe, or break out those old pill bottles. Neither was a good idea when he was around so many people, especially not with Summer with him. “Fair enough,” was all he said to her, a smile being granted to her as he leaned against the counter of the bar. He took a long sip of his alcohol, not sure what else to say.
“So,” she said after a minute, “rules? People I shouldn’t talk to, things I shouldn’t say?”
Summer pressed herself close to Tony, mouth opening under his expert tongue. She purred softly for a moment before drawing back. “Do they feed us here? I thought I was being taken out for dinner, not drinks and publicity.”
Tony pulled away, briefly stunned by the kiss. “Of course they feed us here. But they’re been watching us,” he nodded over to the couple of waitresses that shied away when Tony looked at them, “figuring we weren’t ready to order yet. What would you like?” He turned his attention back to the menu before him.
“Just a burger, I think.” Idly she flipped through the pages listing the specials. “Yeah, a plain burger with fries.”
“It’s not polite to smoke in a stranger’s house, either,” she shot back, eyes flashing. “It’s not magic, anyway.” Summer held up a hand, fingers spread and palm up, and a flame curled up from the center of it. “/That’s/ magic.” She closed her fingers, and the fire vanished. “I’ll tell you what I am if you tell me why you could resist my empathy.”
Vex raised an eyebrow at her as he commented, “Maybe it wasn’t s’pposed to be polite, love.” He shook his head at the woman as he watched the fire appear above her palm; it was careless to use your abilities like that, so blatantly and without reservation, but he figured that he really couldn’t talk. He could be bad for doing such things himself, but he had yet to do it around Summer. “I’m a Mesmer,” he said simply, looking at her with level eyes. If she didn’t understand the term, then she had no business flashing her powers at him.
She blinked at him, puzzled. “A Mesmer. Dare I ask, or are you enjoying confusing /me/ now? And what does that have to do with your resistance?”
He made sure to wrap his free arm as far around her as possible whilst he held her hand in a gentle grip. They swayed to the sound of the music, and he found that he couldn’t keep the grin off of his face. He enjoyed the women’s company who didn’t take his bullshit more than the others. They were always funnier.
“How am I doing so far?” he asked casually as he twirled her around slowly.
“Oh, much better.” Summer would have succumbed to him far more quickly if he had begun by asking her to dance. He was a good dancer. “Are you always this warm?” Oooh, that smile was dangerous. And contagious. She smiled back up at him, wondering what made him smile so.
“Glad to know I’m improving,” he said sardonically, “And yeah. You know being the Human Torch and all. I do run a little hotter than everybody else.”
Even though he knew he had a biased opinion, he thought she looked far prettier when she wasn’t refusing his advances. It could be just him.
“Now don’t be like that. You’re getting what you want, remember?” She tapped her fingertips against his back sharply, admonishing. “I like heat. I like fire, too.”
