Heart of Ice

The week went by quickly in Gwen’s opinion, and she was honestly sad to be leaving. She was going to miss her two favorite spies; Natasha and Clint. They had helped her so much and taught her more than she thought possible. To test what she had learned, they let her spar with about ten different people. Four of them were women, and six of them were men. She only had difficulties with two of the men; she couldn’t remember the first one’s name but he was very large and had no trouble with holding her to the mat with one hand, and the other was Clint. The only woman she had trouble with was Natasha, which came as no surprise to her.

After getting dressed in some skinny jeans, a black silk button up shirt, and a red blazer, Gwen pulled her blond hair up into a ponytail and then walked over to Clint and Natasha. “We’ll be dropping you off at the mansion since we’re heading that way,” Clint explained, watching the blond as she hefted her packed back onto her shoulder.

“Mission?” She asked.

“Something like that,” Natasha said, managing to evade the question, yet answer it at the same time. The three of them walked towards one of the jets and were met by Fury and Hill.

“You did well this week,” Fury praised lightly. “It will be interesting to see you in action.”

“We will be testing your powers next time,” Hill added before the two of them wished a safe flight and walked off.

“That was interesting,” Gwen muttered, walking onto the jet after Clint and Natasha. They both sat in the pilot and co-pilot seats, and Gwen sat in one of the seats along the sides behind them.

When the jet took off, all she could think about was returning home. She missed her family so much; it surprised her. She usually didn’t care if people left her or if she left someone since her parents got rid of her. “Whatcha thinking so loudly about back there?” Clint called back to her. Gwen jumped, startled by the interruption of the silence.

“Nothing,” she called back up to him.

“Do you think I was born yesterday?”

“With the amount of grey hair I see from back here, obviously not.” He turned around, shooting her a look of what Gwen could only describe as fear.

“I am not going grey,” he practically yelled. Natasha gave him a look.

“You aren’t going grey, Clint. She’s just messing with you,” she said in her usual unemotional tone.

“You’re a bitch,” he shot at Gwen before turning back around with a full blown pout. The blond chuckled, before leaning her head back in the seat and fell asleep.










What felt like a couple minutes later, Gwen felt a hand on her shoulder and then someone was shaking her lightly. Her eyes opened quickly, scanning for a threat. Her ice blue eyes met Natasha’s just as icy blue-green ones. “We’re here.” The hand fell from her shoulder, and Gwen groaned, stretching out her back.

“Thanks for the ride,” she said, shaking Clint and Natasha’s hands. Natasha gave her a small smile and Clint knocked her hand away, pulling her in for a hug.

“See you next time,” he said brightly and shoved her lightly off the jet. She walked to the front of the mansion, turned around, and watched the jet take off. When it was out of her sight, Gwen opened the door and peeked her head inside.

“Hello?” She called out loudly.

“Gwen?!” She heard Scott shout out. A couple seconds later, he, Ororo, and Jean all ran down the stairs, crashing into her legs.

“Nice to see you little monsters, too,” Gwen laughed, bending down and pulling the three of them into a hug. When she let them go, arms wrapped around her, pulling her into a muscular chest. She breathed in Alex’s cologne and wrapped her arms tightly around his waist. “Hey, bro.”

“Hey, sis,” he mumbled into her hair. They pulled back, and Alex cupped her cheek, looking at the splotchy bruise adorning Gwen’s right cheekbone. “Who-”

“Don’t worry about it. He got worse, I promise you,” she laughed. “Where are Erik and Charles?”

“Getting another kid. I swear, it’s like they’re collecting them,” he joked. The pale blond rolled her eyes and playfully punched his shoulder.

“Do you know anything about the kid?” She asked.

“He’s a little bit younger than us. Wickedly good with swords; like scary good,” Alex explained.

“Hmm,” Gwen mused. She opened her mouth to say something, but she heard Sean use his “banshee scream” and then something shatter. “Oh Jesus,” she mumbled.

“It’s good to be home, huh?” Alex laughed in his deep voice. Gwen grinned.

“Wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”

A couple hours later, Gwen was unpacked, changed into some grey sweats with a long-sleeved black shirt, and was reading a book. She had just gotten out of the shower so her hair was pulled into a wet bun on the top of her head.

The hot shower felt good on her aching muscles. She was used to fighting, so she knew what came with it. What she wasn’t used to was fighting against spies and assassins for a week. She was tired and sore and just wanted to go to bed. She put down the book she was reading, [i]Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows[/i], and climbed into bed after turning off her light.

The lost thought she remembered having was wondering if she was going to bruise too badly.













Erik and Charles walked through the mansion doors late that same night, fifteen year old Wade Wilson trudging behind them, his dark brown eyes taking in every inch of the place he would now call home. “Are you hungry?” Charles asked in his normal warm voice. Wade nodded timidly, still trying to digest all of the information handed to him when the two men found him. He was so sure that he was the only person out there that was like him; the only mutant in existence. To find out he was completely wrong was so nerve-wracking and so relieving at the same time.

The three quietly made their way into the kitchen, but they were not alone. Sitting there in the dark, drinking black coffee, and with a brooding expression on his normally stoic face was Alex. “Alex? What’s wrong?” Charles asked, moving past Erik to get to the young blond. The teen blinked, shaking his head.

“Nothing, I’m okay,” he said, looking up at the two men he considered his fathers.

“Yeah, sure, kid.” Erik made his way over to the two of them and sat down across from Alex. Charles, go show Wade were he can stay. I’ll talk to Alex, he thought. Charles nodded, just a slight incline of his head. He turned, facing Wade with a bright smile.

“Follow me, I’ll show you where you will be staying. You can go to sleep in a few minutes,” he added, seeing the tiredness seep into Wade’s eyes. The blondish-brown haired teen nodded slowly, following Charles up the steps.

Erik turned towards Alex again. “Now, tell me what’s wrong, kid,” he said softly. Alex took a deep breath.

“Gwen’s back,” he said. Erik’s eyebrows shot up and his eyes lit up. He then took Alex’s mood into consideration, and his mood instantly darkened.

“She’s back? Is she alright?” He demanded.

“She’ll say she’s alright, but she’s hurt. I could tell by the way she moved and held herself. She also has a large bruise on the side of her face. I don’t think those fuckers took her lack of spy training into consideration during this entire fucking week,” he growled out, slamming his fist down onto the wood table. Erik sat there, silent, processing it all.

He didn’t expect them to take it easy on her, but he hoped. “Get some sleep, Alex. Charles and I will check on her,” he said soothingly. Alex nodded slowly, and stood up. He walked out of the room, seemingly moving on auto-pilot to his room. Erik stood, quickly moving up the steps and towards Gwen’s room. Charles met him halfway and Erik quickly played through the conversation in his head, noting the way Charles’ bright blue eyes darkened to a stormy blue.

“I… I want to make sure she’s really here,” Charles said. Erik completely agreed. They both opened her door as quietly as possible. They could easily spot her pale hair strewn across the pillows, looking silver in the moonlight seeping through the mesh like curtains hanging in front of her window. The two men let out simultaneous sighs of relief, and then looked at each other.

“Come on, Charles. Let’s go to bed,” Erik said softly, taking Charles’ hand in his own and leading them their room.

“But-”

“We’ll make sure she’s really okay in the morning,” Erik said, cutting Charles off. The smaller man nodded, eyes still clouded with worry. The two went to their bedroom and fell asleep.















The next morning, Gwen woke to a sharp pain her side making itself known. She groaned, moved slightly, and then groaned some more. She was in pain. A lot of pain. She sat up slowly, wincing, and tossed her legs off the side of bed. She stood slowly, every ache and pain blossoming. Her first night of training wasn’t even this bad. She walked into her bathroom, stripping off her clothes and climbing into the shower. She set the knob to as hot as she could stand it, and sighed. The heat was helping a little bit.

She got out, dried off, and towel dried her hair slightly before throwing it up in a ponytail. Before walking out of the bathroom, Gwen looked at the mirror. She had a large, beautiful looking bluish, purplish, blackish bruise adorning her left side over her ribs. She had some other bruises over her entire body, but those were more on the yellowish purple scale. The one under her right eye was worse than it was the night before and she silently cursed Natasha for having such a wicked punch.

She walked back into her room and put on a purple bra with matching purple underwear, slipped on some black sweats, a purple t-shirt, and one purple sock and one black one. She walked out of her room, and walked down the steps, freezing her right hand. She looked down to see it covered in ice and then pressed against her bruised cheekbone.

Gwen sighed contently and entered the kitchen. No one was in there yet, so she sat down at the island in the middle of the spacious kitchen, and kept her hand pressed firmly to her face. She leaned her head against the counter and closed her eyes. She was still so tired.

She didn’t really sleep well at the SHIELD airbase and her battered body didn’t let her sleep well that night. Her eyes opened and she glanced at her hand. It really wasn’t helping. “Fuck this,” she muttered, turning her entire body to ice. The instantaneous cooling of her body, made the aches reduce slightly and she sighed in relief.

“Gwen?” She turned her head seeing Charles standing there in baggy pants, a loose fitting shirt, and bare foot.

“Hey, Charles,” she said, smiling slightly.

“Why are you covered in ice?” He asked softly. She shrugged.

“I was hot.”

“Mhm.” He gave her a disbelieving look and walked towards her. “Let me see what they did to you.”

“It’s really not that big of a deal,” she said, defending some of the people she fought with. It wasn’t their fault. She was able to give as well as she got, and with most of them she kicked ass. “The bruises remind me of the major ass kicking I gave everyone,” she explained.

“Gwen,” Erik warned, walking into the kitchen and going straight for the coffee.

“You know, I expected a warmer welcome than this,” she joked lightly.

“Yes, well, I expected to not have any grey hairs yet, but you’re seriously pushing my luck,” Charles joked back.

“Funny,” Gwen deadpanned before sighing in defeat and dropping the ice.

“Your eye looks worse than what Alex described,” Erik mused, eyes darkening.

“One of the people who trained me has a very good right hook. I didn’t dodge quick enough and my face unfortunately took the hit.” She told them about her week, and she was grinning by the end. “Out of the ten people I fought, only three beat me. I beat seven spies and assassins!” She said excitedly.

“We’re very proud of you, Gwen,” Charles said warmly after he and Erik shared a quick look.

The three sat there and talked about what would happen when Fury called Gwen back in. “I hope it’s not for a while. I want to actually heal before I have to go back into the ring with Natasha.”


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http://lookbook.nu/look/2590853-Call-Me-Spike - Gwen's outfit

Notes

Okay, pretty fillerish. The next chapter will be jumping into the beginning of the Avengers. I'm excited. Comment? Message? Subscribe? Thanks.