Choses the pumpkin: Maria: “Maria, please let me help!” “No, no! I got it!” She said while trying to juggle three pumpkins in her arms. Just as she said that a pumpkin fell from her arms, before it crashed to the ground Steve had caught it and then proceeded to take another pumpkin from her hands while giving her a knowing smile.
Carves the pumpkin: Steve: Maria had tried many times to carve pumpkins but hers always ended up looking strange so she left the carving to Steve while she stood beside him, giving him ideas about what to carve.
Gets scared and clings the other in a haunted house: Maria: Maria was’t really scared by the haunted house, but the jump scares did startle her quite a bit. A few times she has actually punched the skeletons thats came from the wall, causing them to break. Steve would try to fix them but when he failed he would grab Maria’s hand and pull her away from the broken decoration.
Matching costume idea: Steve: Maria wasn’t really one for costumes but she couldn’t tell Steve no when he found matching 40s costumes.
Makes a cozy bed-fort to cuddle in: Steve: It took a lot to get Maria to stop thinking about work. While she sat at her desk in the other room Steve was making a huge pillow fort on her bed. It took a little persuading but he finally was able to pry her from her work and have her join him in the fort and watch a few movies.
Steal’s the other’s candy: Maria: You’d never guess it but Maria loved Halloween candy. Everytime Steve bought candy for the kids on Halloween, Maria would sneakily take it to her office and devour almost the entire bowl.
Accidentally gets lost in a corn maze: Steve: Despite being a super soldier, Steve still was not good at telling directions. He spent an hour trying to find his way out of the maze before Maria had to go find him and lead him out.
Tells spooky stories to scare the other: Maria: Steve acted tough but he was actually very easily frightened. When Maria would tell him scary stories he would hide his face behind a pillow causing Maria to laugh and then comfort him.
Collects cool-looking leaves: Maria: Maria loved fall. She had a special appreciation for all the colors of the leaves. She began to collect them and Steve would draw them for her so that even after they wilted, she would still have them.
It’s not my best but I really hope you like it! -nikki
shout out to captainhillshipper because the next chapter for Happiness Is... totally made me grin from ear to ear and just asdfgjhjjsdlds because of how perf it is. also, this is awkward but um, what should i call you? it feels weird that u know my name but i still call u captainhillshipper in my head (and sometimes aloud).
an: basically, it has unimaginably became some sort part of a collab writing with captainhillshipper without any idea where this plot is going to take whatsoever. it's not a challenge, therefore tumblr user captainhillshipper has no obligation to continue this if she has no desire to.
also: Heavily-influenced Barton/Hill [platonic] relationship.
☆ first part || second part.
"You know," Clint said, pushing some of the files in as the printer shook with a shrill screech, pausing, and then stopping altogether, indirectly making Maria's head swirled in ultimate discomfort. "I'm usually all in for these things, but what you're having here with Cap--"
"We're just friends," she repeated was has become a usual mantra, stacked another paper and refrained the groan threatening to fall from the edge of her tongue, thinking, not for the first time, what is the damn guy even doing here?
"Okay." The archer naturally replied without as much as guilt or hesitation in his manner, resuming his work on the shelves. Not that he should be doing it, but -- better having him do something rather than just stand there, you know?
Maria sighed.
This time, she didn't bother trying to ignore him, knowing full well she wouldn't succeed if she did, and dropped the paper she was analysing down, pressing it flat across her desk. She tapped her finger -- one, two -- licked her lips and arched an irritated eyebrow, sighing, "Tell who what."
"Steve. Rogers. Or whatever it is you're calling him nowadays," there wasn't a tone of mockery when he said it, unlike Tony who never seemed to just shake the topic off and let it be, but Clint wasn't exactly looking like he's ultimately comfortable with the subject either. Maria could have just easily categorised it as worry, maybe (if she hadn't known him better) even jealousy, but that wasn't the case. Unfortunately, she'd stuck with him for too long for her to consider it to be the case.
He flicked a file, brushed his dirtied hands on the top of his jeans, across his thighs and shrugged. "He doesn't know you're flying to Chicago?"
Maria paused. Actually paused, and hesitated.
She didn't-- she stopped herself, blinked. Inhaling, her hand reached mindlessly over a stapler coolly and she hummed, acknowledging the archer's statement. "On the contrary to Tony's belief, Rogers and I don't actually spend our time together spilling all of our tragic backstory and discussing the right date to elope. So, no. Some things I do tend to keep to myself."
Barton laughed. As in, actually laughter with head tilting back, and Maria indignantly frowned at the act, narrowing her silver eyes sharply. The corner of his eyes crinkled, but his amusement wasn't entirely out of entertainment. This time, she did detect a tinge of mockery shimmering in his movements somewhere. "You guys have been going out for like, what, a few weeks now? A month? Maybe more? You don't think Cap deserves to know that--"
"Barton."
"--you're going back home to arrange your dad's..." He trailed off, just like Maria half suspected he would, worn eyes looking back at hers worriedly, like he knew she was going to jump into a puddle of mistakes, and his words were the last efforts on convincing her otherwise. Except, of course, this wasn't some mistakes. This was simply her father. Dead. And rotten. And ready to be buried.
Something in Maria twitched.
"He has. Steve's--" She sighed, giving up, and settled her vision elsewhere as she pictured kind blue eyes and polite smiles brightening up at the sight of her. Something squeezed hard from within her chest and Maria swallowed, dropping her chin a degree downwards, "He has nothing to do with this."
"But. Okay." Clint sighed, picking himself up on his feet and appearing nearly as frustrated (or confused) as she was, choosing to land his gaze on the scenery outside of her window. The silence lingered for a while, and Maria suddenly fumbled on the matters that she should have been doing. "Don't you. I mean. Dammit, Hill. Don't you think Steve-- Cap-- like, I don't know, deserves to know this. I mean, at the very least."
Her silver eyes flicked over to his sharply, and Maria was momentarily confused between identifying the low rumble in her stomach as anger or guilt, until she settled with the former. Guilt had always been nastier to deal with, anyway.
"He'll know when he knows."
"Maria."
"I don't." She stopped herself again, thudding the stapler against the table harshly and forced herself to re-focus. She was better than this. She was always better than this. So why was she-- she sucked in breaths, curling her fingers into her palm. "You've heard, haven't you."
It took him a moment, before: "Yeah. Of course. Tony haven't actually been keeping it a secret, and well, Natasha, God knows where she is, knows how to keep tabs. So."
Maria blinked once at the mention of the Widow and decided that any off-topic questions could be directed later when her eyes landed back on the same words that she's been trying to read for the last five minutes. Jesus, something hissed at the back of her mind: control, Maria.
"So, Sharon huh?"
She barely nodded. "He finally did it." She said what she'd imagined Tony would've put as a joke. "I meant," she paused, "She finally said yes."
Maria knew, of course, of the story when Carter had rejected Rogers' offer while being undercover. Something like a lame smile carved across her lips at the remembrance of that, of the time when Rogers had finally decided to share her the (according to him) embarrassing details. It was a good morning, she decided, when he did.
Barton moved. "So, tonight right? Their date?"
Maria didn't nod this time. Instead, "Tell me something, Barton." She started, eyes straight to his, and jaw sharp as ever; the pen felt steady under her fingers, and she paused, pondered. "After what we've seen, what we've gone through-- what... makes people like us happy."
"Well," he blinked, moving one hand to scratch the back of his neck and passed on a shrug. "Pizza's good," he began, "And musics that actually plays an instrument and has lyrics. That's good, too."
Maria couldn't help but to smile helplessly at that, knowing somehow she'd expected something like that to come out from his mouth. These questions, she realised, were not something you asked a fellow like her, or him. Not after what they've gone through, all the secrets and bloods and manipulations they have to suffer.
Barton's chuckles died down, but the tired smile on his lips didn't vanish when he continued, sliding one thumb inside of his jean's pocket. "I don't know, Hill," he exhaled heavily, wetting his mouth. "Maybe it's the little things, you know?"
She looked at him mutely, blinking.
"We... we're such an abomination that... that I seriously think it must be some kind of miracle we're still standing here. So, I just. I don't know. It's the little stuff. It's the dog that yips at you at six when you went out jogging. It's the scent of coffee when it's ready once you're out of the shower. It's... night when you look outside of the window and something not tragic is happening. I mean. Don't you feel happy at that? Content, at least?"
She considered it, if only for a moment, before sweeping a cool hand across her cheek; Barton, however, snorted, as though pulling himself out of a trance. "Where did the question come from, anyway?"
"It's just a question," she deflected, monotone, and crossed a signature on a paper.
"You're not depressed or anything, are you?" There's a joke, she thought, inquiring in his sentence, but Maria took no notice, mouth falling horizontally into a straight, unimpressed line.
She looked up. "No," only because it's the truth, or at least she thought it was, and wondered aimlessly, if only briefly. She imagined blue eyes again, smiling in her presence, and ignored the strange flutters clawing across her ribs; Maria slanted her eyes to her awaiting phone, finally settling with, "I just hope he's happy with his choices."
Barton was silent for a second, before: "And people like us?"
"We'll live." She answered almost automatically, and didn't missed the humourless curl of his lips when she did. She knew she was right. She mostly always was. "Don't we always do?"
Barton didn't disagree.
end note: basically, maria has this inner complex mindset that her happiness is always secondary, and that, yeah, she might still be having a couple of problems coming to term with how exactly she's feeling about cap whilst dealing with her father's burial (her father was found dead and was only now recently identified) & that sharon carter and steve are going out. so that's that.
"You can tell a lot about a person from what they listen to. Hit shuffle on your iPod and list the first 10 songs then tag 10 people"
I was tagged by captainhillshipper.
1. Mad Season by Matchbox Twenty
2. Cherub Rock by The Smashing Pumpkins
3. Thriller by Michael Jackson
4. I knew you were trouble (cover) by Walk Off The Earth and KRNFX
5. Breakfast at Tiffany's by Deep Blue Something
6. Killing in the Name by Rage Against the Machine
7. Bulletproof by La Roux
8. The Lumberjack Song by Monty Python
9. Honeybee by Steam Powered Giraffe
10. Mercedes Benz by Janis Joplin
I'm not gonna tag people because I'm too shy. :P But if you want to do it, go ahead, be my guest!
;)
At the beginning of your story chapters you cite a song. Is this a song you were listening to when you got the idea for that chapter or a song that the chapter made you think of or are you just trying to expand your readers taste in music? :)
A little of all of those, I reckon. Sometimes I had a specific song in mind for a chapter, like the one where Alice meets the Hulk for the first time. I chose ‘Monster’ by Imagine Dragons. Ever since I first heard it, I thought of it as a Bruce/Hulk song. Others, were just songs I liked at the time, so I was listening to them when I wrote certain chapters. ’Step’ by Vampire Weekend is an example. Also, any of the OK Go songs, or the American Authors’ songs. I listen to lots of different music, my tastes span genres. I’m not so conceited as to think I’m the first person to hear something, but if I introduce someone to a band or a song, that’s awesome too. :)
