bakerstreet | that awkward meme;

that awkward meme;

THAT AWKWARD MEME WHEN
Congratulations, your character's shame is now a spectator sport.

RULES:
o1. Post your character ( name | series | any preferences ).
o2. Characters tagging in: ~~Pick~~ roll for a prompt.
o3. The character setting up the scene can be either the cause, or the unfortunate witness to the awkward situation. Have fun!

That awkward moment when...

o1. You're trying to slink away with your partner’s valuables after a one night stand only to wake them up in the process.
o2. You send a message with your confession, raaage, embarrassing questions or compromising pictures to the wrong person.
o3. You forgot about a birthday or anniversary and now have to pitch a cheap gift bought in five minutes off the nearest 7/11 as a symbolic expression of your feelings.
o4. You lost your wallet and have to charm a perfect stranger into paying your tab.
o5. You spill your wine on the event special guest half an hour before they're due giving their speech.
o6. You need to get rid of your date/groupie/coworker to assume your superhero identity and go save the day in the nearby building.
o7. You can’t stop hiccuping during someone's heartfelt confession of undying affection.
o8. You kidnapped the wrong person.
o9. You have to get your very drunk friend out of a public place fast, and they're not exactly cooperating.
10. You blame grave illness to cancel on meeting someone, only to run into them an hour later.
11. You slip ~~on a banana peel~~ in the middle of your amazing performance or even more amazing shounen attack.
12. You get matched on a blind date with someone who dumped you. Twice.
13. You call out the wrong name when things get hot and heavy.
14. You have to prod this person whether they like-like your friend without outright saying it, because said friend is apparently ~~five~~ too shy to ask on their own.
15. You run into someone after choosing your clothing or doing your make up during a blackout.
16. You have to ask a favour of someone you publicly lambasted twenty minutes ago.
17. You wake up to find someone's been watching you sleep.
18. You answer the door in your lingerie to surprise your special other, only to find it’s not them calling.
19. You try the polite greeting your friends taught you in a different language, only to find out it’s actually a grave insult or a hilarious proposal.
20. You accidentally walk into someone showering, singing aloud, enjoying their personal time or anything else you feel like putting together.

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Everything the man said contradicted something he had said previously, but the more afraid he got the more inclined Natasha was to believe him. Still, it was a pretty incredible idea.

Looking up when Clint approached, her brows furrowed in thought.

“I’m not sure. If something like that exists, I find it hard to believe we wouldn’t already know about it,” she said, though her tone was still unsure. “But it would explain why the Ten Rings would want anything to do with someone like that.”

She thought about it a moment, running over different scenarios in her head.

“If we let him go he’ll run, but I can go in with him, to meet these buyers. They will likely take the code and leave hired guns to finish him. I’ll get him out a alive, you follow the buyers. Call in backup. We’ll get the box and the codes.” She met Clint’s eyes again, reading his reaction to the proposed plan.

Clint nodded slightly as she set into the plan, listening carefully and thinking the information over. He glanced over his shoulder at the man he'd left behind.

He didn't trust the guy, but if this thing was real there wasn't really any other way to do this. He shifted on his feet, meeting her eyes.

"Big money means big protection," he said evenly. It was about as close as actually saying Be careful. as they got.

"What about the first guy?" Their actual mark. "We going to grab him if we get the chance, or stick to this plan?"

Natasha nodded in understanding. “And lots of it,” she agreed, her own version of the same sentiment. She wasn’t sure she liked this plan, cobbled together in haste, but she didn’t see a lot of other options, they had to work quick of risk losing everything.

“He doesn’t know anyone is after him yet so I think it’s best we leave that one for now and focus on this plan. We can go back for him another time, or someone else can take him out,” she said. This was becoming dangerous enough as it is, and trying to run both plans simultaneously was like to end up with both failing, or worse.

Clint wasn't sure he liked it either, but they didn't really have much of a choice. Besides, they had pulled off successful plans based on a whole hell of a lot less.

He nodded. "I'm gonna give our guy the good news," he said, flashing her a small smile. "If it turns out he's playing us, it really will be your turn."

"I'll head you guys off at the meet-up spot and get somewhere high. Wherever this is going down, it's got to be nearby."

Natasha nodded at Clint’s assessment of the meeting point and his tactics. If anyone could watch them and follow undetected it was Hawkeye. “Remember, the second the buyers leave you’re on them, don’t wait for me. I will take care of whoever they leave behind.”

Without waiting for acquiescence, she moved to push the door open. “Now let’s not keep him waiting.”

Striding back out into the main room, slipping flawlessly back into character, she stopped a few feet from the man and crossed her arms, one hip jutting out to the side as she glared at him, obviously unhappy to find him still alive. “My partner says you may be of some use to us yet. Pity.”

"Please, just don't kill me," the man said, his eyes on Natasha. "I'll give you the formula to the box. I don't care what you do with it, just don't kill me."

"I liked you better when you were the strong silent type," Clint said, moving to the chair they had him tied to.

He cut the cords, gripping the man's wounded shoulder tightly and causing him to yell in pain.

"Here's the plan, you're going to go with my associate here to the meet-up. She'll make sure you don't die and you'll make sure the highest bidder gets the box."

He man looked wildly between them. "You want me to go back?"

Clint paused and let out a deep breath. "What part of make sure you don't die, did you have a problem with?"

Well, Clint had definitely done enough damage to the man to make him compliant, at least when it came to giving them information. He did not seem all that keen on following through with the meeting he was supposed to have tonight.

“Well, we could let you go, but how far would you get before they track you down and kill you anyway?” Natasha said, waving one hand elegantly in the air. “As my partner said, if I accompany you I can guarantee you won’t die.”

There were no guarantees in life, but he sure stood a better chance with her watching his back than any other option he had right now.

The man, whose name turned out to be Stevenson, didn't really have any other choices and reluctantly agreed to going to the meeting with Natasha. Once he had the address of the meeting place, Clint had made sure to get there as early as possible. He'd been right in guessing that big players meant big protection, but he managed to slip through the security points fairly easily.

By the time that Natasha showed up with Stevenson he had a good vantage point from the rafters of the warehouse. He had backup on standby to help him take down the highest bidder, but actually seeing the number of people trying to get their hands on this thing made him wonder if he didn't need to stay and back up Natasha.

He turned his head, talking into the comm he shared with her.

"We've got five major players, all with SHIELD files a foot thick. I'm almost tempted to call more back up and make this a real party."

Natasha had considered changing before going into this deal, but in her current state of attire she certainly looked less threatening and more ‘eye candy’ so she figured that would work to her advantage. The only problem that presented was where to hide her weapon. She did carry a gun strapped to her thigh beneath the dress and another in her small handbag, though they were inferior to the glocks she preferred to carry.

Stevenson was nervous as hell and it only served to piss her off and put her severely on edge. For this to work he had to play his part and not let on that she was a danger to this deal, and seeing the sweat beading on his brow as they reached the meeting point, she had the distinct feeling he was going to fail.

“You really want to share all the fun?” Natasha replied quietly to Clint. Soon she would have to go silent, but his voice would remain a comfort in her ear. Ultimately she knew what he was really saying, she knew he was worried about this whole deal, and she appreciated it for sure, and her statement was as just as much of a code as his own. She was leaving the call up to him so long as it didn’t interfere with her business.

Clint hesitated. It was something he wasn't prone to doing. As a general principle Clint followed his gut instincts on missions. It'd gotten him into a few hairy situations before, but more often than not it was also the thing that had made him the agent he was today.

He knew Tasha could take down a dozen men in a matter of minutes, but she was also having to look out for Stevenson, who was somehow managing to look shady even from Clint's hiding place. It was only a few minutes before he did something that compromised the mission and if that was done before the auction even got underway, things were going to go bad and go bad fast.

"I'm calling it in," Clint said before switching comms and notifying Hill of the situation.

Part of Natasha was annoyed when Clint made his call, but another part of her knew it was the right one. There were too many variables, too many things out of their control, and if this whole thing blew up then they were going to need the help. Even if the meeting went well and they were able to follow the plan, Stevenson was a wild card whose actions they couldn’t predict. Chances were that Natasha was going to need Clint to have her back when this all went down.

“Can’t you even pretend to relax?” she whispered harshly to Stevenson. He was sweating, he was jumpy, and while this might have been his default way of acting in such a situation it didn’t make her feel any better about it. All someone had to do was ask him the wrong question and she was sure he’d give her up in a heartbeat if he thought it would earn him mercy.

Clint watched the bidders as they began to get restless as Hill verified their location and gave him an ETA of ten minutes. His eyes were trained on Natasha and Stevenson as they made their way through the crowd.

The Ten Rings didn't seem entirely pleased that Stevenson had gone missing without his handlers reporting it and they clearly eyed Natasha with suspicion, but they seemed intent on going on with the bidding.

"Thank you friends," a man said, getting on a small platform with a microphone. "I apologize for the delay in the auction. Our encryption specialist has finally arrived with a date on his arm." The man waved towards Natasha and Stevenson and Clint felt a feeling of unease settle in his stomach. He reached for his bow.

"Let us begin the auction at 25 million."

Clint whistled under his breath. Below him Stevenson was shifting on his feet nervously when a body guard brushed past him he cried out in pain and gripped the arm that Clint had impaled. The guard stopped and stared at him.

Clint aimed his arrow. He could hear the conversation clearly through Natasha's comm beside the scene.

"Let me see your arm," the guard said, reaching for Stevenson's jacket. Stevenson moved out of reach.

"It is nothing."

Natasha could feel their eyes on her but she ignored them, keeping her face a mask of cool indifference. There was always the risk that someone here might recognise her from her pre-SHIELD days, but she had been younger than and most men who had met her had never lived to tell the tale. It was a chance she had to take. More attention was drawn to her once they had taken their place, but soon the auction began and they were no longer of much interest to most.

Listening to the bids, she looked as interested as any brainless eye candy would with such hefty prices flying around, but her whole body stiffened momentarily when Stevenson suddenly cried out at her side and grabbed his arm. Sizing up the guard, she wrapped one arm possessively around Stevenson’s chest, inconspicuously yet effectively shielding his wounded arm with her body.

“Excuse me,” she said, glaring at the guard. “He’s mine. Find your own date.”

Stevenson was holding his hand up, looking clearly terrified of the guard and the attention he was getting. Clint knew in the pit of his stomach that things were going bad before the shit actually hit the fan.

His fingers tightened around his bow as the security guard put a hand on Nat. "Come with me," he said, not impressed.

Clint let the arrow fly, hitting the corner of the stage before it exploded outwards, giving Nat a distraction to slip through and him time to get down from his perch.

The guard clearly wasn’t buying her act, and considering how utterly terrified Stevenson looked Natasha really couldn’t blame the man. When he put a hand on her shoulder she had a split second to consider whether to try to keep up the act or blow her cover and take the guard down, but the choice was taken out of her hands by the sudden explosion. With all eyes on the stage where it had taken place, she grabbed the guard’s wrist and twisted his arm behind his back, moving swiftly behind him as she did so, almost simultaneously hooking one leg around his and pulling them out from underneath him. Sending him crashing to the floor, she went down with him to slam his head into the floor, effectively knocking him unconscious. The entire altercation took about two seconds.

“Hawkeye, what’s the ETA on backup?” she asked quickly into her comm piece. Grabbing Stevenson, who had been scared frozen, she pushed him into the commotion, hoping to hide in the masses and slip out with them. Even so, she had one of her small guns in her hand, ready to go. She really didn’t count on making it out of here without a fight, especially if she truly intended to keep her charge alive as well. “Stay with me and stop whimpering. If anyone gets close just drop to the floor and I will handle them.”

"Eight minutes," Clint said, already moving towards the floor, his eyes tracking Natasha's every move in the crowd. Chaos had broken out over the small gathering and despite the fact that no one was to have any weapons present, there was plenty of gun power flashing through the crowd.

"Get to the North exit, I've got you covered," he said as he ran down a steel beam, watching the crowd for threats. Suddenly Stevenson went down, the crowd seeming to close in around him. "Tasha, is he hit?"

Not that he really gave a damn about Stevenson. The guy had been nothing but a pain in Clint's ass. He just needed to know if this mission had just lost it's objective and was an all out free for all.

The North exit. Natasha was looking around to plan their escape route when Stevenson suddenly dropped to the ground, cowering with his arms over his head. Turning quickly, she three her handbag at the approaching guard, already running at him before the object struck. Using the crouching Stevenson as a springboard, she launched herself at the guard before he could recover from the purse to the face, and wrapped her legs around his neck, twisting in the air and taking the man down to the floor with her signature move. It wasn’t nearly as easy in the long dress, but the generous slit up the leg helped.

“He’s fine, he just-” she started to reply to Clint when someone grabbed her from behind, wrapping a cord around her neck and pulling it taut.

Clint cursed as he saw Nat launch into action. Any chance of them slipping out unnoticed just went out the window. Not that she'd had a choice with Stevenson crouching like that.

He slid to the ground, momentarily losing sight of Nat, when she did resurface over the crowd she was in trouble. He shoved his way through the crowd, hitting the man from behind at the right angle to snap his collar bone. The man cried out and loosened his grip on Nat, just as another guy tackled Clint.

Out of the corner of his eye, Clint could see Stevenson make a run for it. That son of a bitch. Clint wrestled his guy into the wall, trying to shake him with repeated punches, but the guy was tenacious. If he had to judge by the fighting, he'd say ex-green beret.

He glanced over at Nat to see how she was doing.

Natasha could have kept going and hoped to slip out quietly, but she suspected the guard probably had guns with silencers and would have taken Stevenson out if he wasn’t careful. Now everything had gone to hell. She had so little room to move in the pressing crowd that she couldn’t get the leverage to free herself from the death grip that was slowly cutting off her air supply. Luckily Clint had finally joined on the floor and took out her attacker, though she regretted the loss of him up high where he could do the most damage and be her eyes above all the mayhem.

Taking little time to catch her breath, Natasha was already weaving through the crowd again in pursuit of Stevenson. The man was either going to get free or get killed if she didn’t catch him, neither of which she particularly wanted if they were going to salvage this disaster. At least backup would be here in about five minutes.

Moving among the masses, she looked to the outskirts of the crowd and caught Clint’s eye, silently asking if he needed help while already changing her trajectory slightly to head toward him. If it was a choice between keeping Clint or Stevenson alive then it was no choice at all, no matter the consequences.

The guy wrapped an arm around Clint's neck just as he met Natasha's eyes. They'd always had a special connection, one that had only gotten stronger over the last couple of months. The slightest look was loaded with information and Clint's said that he was fine.

He seemed to gesture over the crowd with his eyes before he sent an elbow slamming back into his attacker's solar plexus and then bent down low to flip him over. He reached for his gun first, slipping it out of his hand before reaching down and knocking the guy's skull against the floor.

Some chains a few feet away rattled with the ping of a ricochet shot and he started moving towards the north exit. It would be harder to hit a moving target, at least.

He switched on his comm to SHIELD's frequency. "Any time now, guys."

Natasha caught Clint’s look and even though his situation wasn’t looking good at that moment she knew he had it covered. Altering her path again, she shot one last glance back at her partner just as he was taking down his opponent. After that, her eyes were only on her target.

She caught sight of Stevenson just as he broke free of the crowd at one cover of the room. He made it about three feet before someone had a gun trained on him. Natasha’s own gun had been lost in the mayhem, but that didn’t leave her weaponless. To a master assassin everything was a weapon, and when left with nothing then their body was the weapon. At this time, though, she wasn’t left with nothing. Barely slowing down she whipped off one of her high heels and threw it with perfect accuracy at the gunman. It struck his hand causing the gun to fire harmlessly into the wall behind his intended target. Kicking off the other shoe she ran at the man. Grabbing the gun with one hand and his neck with the other, she brought her head forward to deliver a hard headbutt while bringing her knee up into his groin. The man crumpled, the gun still in his hand so she turned it toward him, pushing his own finger on the trigger to fire a round off into his chest. Securing the gun for herself, she finally turned back to an utterly terrified Stevenson. Her games before had been one thing, but seeing her in action was something else entirely.

“Now if you want to live you better stay close to me this time.” Grabbing his arm she pulled him toward the north exit. He didn’t protest.

People were swarming to the exits and Clint was missing his bird's eye view of the floor from up above. As it was he was shoving and pushing to get towards the agreed exit.

He thought he heard SHIELD's choppers outside, which meant that things were about to get really interesting, but at the moment the only thing he wanted was to get out of this in one piece.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw a security guard take aim, lining up Stevenson and Natasha in his sights. He lined up his own shot, planning on taking the guy out before he got anything off, but someone shoved into him from behind and his aim went wild.

Cursing, Clint pushed onward, even though it was clear that the guard was already firing. This time, he jumped up on a table to get a clear, undisturbed shot. The guard went down and Clint moved toward the exit. When he slipped through it he was immediately looking for Tasha, even as SHEILD agents pushed past him to start arresting the bigger players.

Finally, he spotted Stevenson and moved towards him. He stopped short when he saw the state of Nat beside him.

Everything was chaotic, everything was moving fast, but Natasha was a professional. She saw the gunman taking aim and turned to do the same, but even a professional makes mistakes, especially with a wildcard like Stevenson in the picture. As she raised her gun Stevenson too saw the guard and tried to maneuver himself behind Natasha, grabbing her arm and getting in her way in the process. A few seconds later all she felt was pain.

By the time Clint made his way through the crowd Stevenson was in panic mode.

“I was shot! He shot me!” he exclaimed, holding his arm where a bullet had left a deep cut as it passed through. Natasha hadn’t been so lucky as the bullet that had passed through him had found purchase in her, and it wasn’t alone. She leaned heavily against the blathering man, one hand held tightly to her chest, and when Clint approached them she looked up, her eyes glazed and unfocused. She tried to say his name, not his code name as she normally did on assignment, but his name; but when she tried to speak it came out as a wet cough, and blood burst forth from her mouth. Horrified, Stevenson jumped back and without him to lean on for support she crumpled.

Stevenson would pay for that. Later, when Clint could afford to think about anything but the fact that Natasha was hurt. He moved forward quickly, his heart pounding in his chest as he scooped Natasha up in his arms and held her there.

"Nat," he said, his voice low and urgent. "Look at me, you're going to be all right. You hear me?" The words caught in his throat as he moved with one hand to apply pressure to the wound and tried to support her neck with his other hand.

"Agent down," he called into the comm. "North entrance."

Stevenson kneeled beside him, opened his mouth and Clint grabbed him by the tie and slammed his head down into a railing. Stevenson slumped sideways against it.

He looked back down at Natasha, his face falling with worry. "Nat, stay with me." He held her a little closer, feeling her blood trickle through his fingers. "It's going to be all right."

Natasha winced when Clint moved her, the press of his hand against her wound making her whimper. She tried to focus on him, on his face, his touch, his voice, but it was a chore even keeping her eyes open... hell, it was a feat just trying to breathe. She was no doctor but she suspected one of her lungs had been pierced. Coughing up blood certainly wasn’t a good sign.

Groping weakly at Clint’s arm when he knocked Stevenson out, she shook her head minutely, the movement barely perceptible.

“Don’t... kill him,” she choked out, wheezing. Her entire chest ached, inside and out. “If anyone does... should be... me.” She tried to smile, but another wave of pain washed over her and she grimaced instead, closing her eyes tightly.

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