"We're doing more good here," Wanda said, sitting down next to her twin. "It's better for us here."

"It is," Pietro agreed. "This place is better." Much more relaxed, and relaxing, and better mentally for them. He finally had enough distance to see that.

Wanda nodded. Then she grinned at her brother.

"So how was your rather impromptu vacation?" she asked, nudging him.

Pietro snorted quietly. "Rather relaxing, actually," he said quietly. "Autumn is much easier to deal with than most people."

"On a first-name basis with her, now?" Wanda teased. "My, my, Pietro, what did you do on that vacation?"

Pietro laughed a little and shook his head. He could tell teasing when he heard it, after all.

"Oh, you know, some of this, some of that, some of her..." He trailed off, grinning.

Wanda laughed.

"I'm sure," she said grinning. "Be careful with that one, Pietro, you don't want to upset an Agent. I hear they get creative."

"I'm quite certain I would regret it, for a time anyway," Pietro allowed.

"I'm sure," Wanda replied. She grinned. "I'm not helping you out if you get in over your head with her."

"I expected nothing else from you," Pietro said with a brief grin.

Wanda gave him a cheeky grin and a brief kiss on the cheek before heading back inside. It was almost time for her turn at corralling the kids after classes.

Pietro stood and stretched, going to go keep an eye on the kids as well. He might as well help, after all.

A few months later, Clint found himself being sent on something of a solo mission. It wasn't a big one--hell, it was barely enough to count as a mission--but it was enough that he needed a handler sent with him. That's how he found himself on a stakeout with a comm unit in his ear, the other end of the connection belonging to Alexis.

Alexis was fine with being sent off with Clint. She didn't even mind that they were sent to the middle of nowhere somewhere in China. But she did mind leaving the rest of the team with a temporary handler, so she wanted to get back ASAP before Tony or Natasha killed anyone.

"How many people in the room?" she asked Clint from her own perch, close enough to provide back up if necessary.

"Four," Clint responded, looking through the scope of his rifle. "I hate this thing, I hope you know that." He could use a sniper rifle when he had to, and this particular mission had him in a small space where he didn't have enough room to draw his bow.

"I know," Alexis responded with a bit of a grin. "You can go hug your bow when we get back to the jet." She glanced down at her information, perusing it again briefly. Four people seemed about right. "Can you tell what they're working on?" Because that was the one thing about the mission she didn't know: what they were working on. It had to be some kind of tech that SHIELD didn't want getting out, but no one knew exactly what, just that it had pinged their alarms.

"They've all got their backs to me," Clint replied. "No, correction, one of them is turning around. It looks like some kind of... thing. Closest thing I can compare it to is an EMP or a concussion bomb. It's glowing a bit around the middle. Doesn't look all that good, Lex."

"If it was good we wouldn't be here," Alexis said, amused by the nickname. "Don't shoot anyone yet. You said it's glowing around the middle? What color?"

"...Blue," Clint said after a moment. His voice was a little too low, a little too even. "Like... Tesseract blue."

"Alright. That explains a few things." Alexis was quiet for a moment. "Keep watching. I doubt you need me to tell you not to shoot at anything. You've got a possible newcomer heading in from your six, just entering the building."

"I see him," Clint said, watching. He watched the newcomer go over to the other four, gesturing to the device. "He looks interested in the thing."

"There are idiots who think science and tech tampering is the answer to everything," Alexis muttered. "Can you get a bug close enough to them without being noticed? Or is your rifle too restricting for that?"

"I... might be able to," Clint said, glancing around and studying the area. "Moving position." Carefully, he squirmed out of his sniper spot and made his way slowly to a new spot a few yards away. It put him at a better angle, and he just as carefully took aim and shot a listening device through the tiny vent he had found. "Bug in place."

"Good. Now stay out of sight." Alexis tuned in to the listening device, knowing it was already recording for later reference.

And then everything screeched to a halt on her end when the scientist-people handed over the science bomb to the well-dressed man who had just come in with warnings that test results may be varied, and he'd want to stay half a mile from the detonation point.

"And things just got a little more complicated."

"How complicated is complicated?" Clint asked as he slowly worked his way back to his sniper position, making sure not to be seen.