𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐯𝐢 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫

❝ 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐬 ❞































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The next morning was better.

Faith had woken up with the obnoxious headache from yesterday's events, completely gone. Beside her, Natasha was sleeping, mouth open the littlest bit, soft snores escaping.

Trying not to make a sound, she slipped out of bed and into the bathroom to freshen up. As she looked at herself in the mirror, she could see that the eye bags she saw as Natasha helped her take a bath had sort of disappeared, but her eyes were still sunken in.

Wiping her mouth with a towel, she slowly opened the door of the bathroom, and tip-toed her way to the kitchen to get breakfast.

Right outside the bedroom door, Hulk waited patiently for his Mom, looking up at her in patience. Also, he was pretty hungry.

He meows softly at Faith's presence, putting his front paws up, as if he wanted her to pick him up. And she did. She picked him up with a growing smile on her face, snuggling him under her neck, keeping him close, as she closed her eyes to enjoy the moment.

Something from the kitchen sounded, like scraping against a.. pan. Faith was not aware that she had asked anyone else to help her yesterday. She saw how Hulk's ears perked up at the smile, as he gently nipped at her thumb, telling her to put him down.

Faith lets Hulk down gently, and moves into the storage closet at her right, grabbing a baseball bat, just in case.

She slowly makes her way across the room, looking to her left and right in caution. She enters the kitchen, baseball bat ready to engage.

"What are you doing with a baseball bat, Arch?" Bradley asks from behind her, holding a plate of bacon, eggs, and toast.

"Oh my god!" Faith swings the bat at him, not noticing who it was.

Bradley quickly ducks towards the ground, to avoid a brutal hit from the baseball bat.

"What are you doing here, Bradshaw? And, how did you even get in?" Faith asks, resting the baseball bat on the ground, one hand on her heart to keep it steady, other on her hip.

"I- I wanted to see- I wanted to see you after yesterday's events." He says, setting the plate of food down on the kitchen table.

"Oh. I'm, I'm better." She asks him, nodding her head up at him, tilting her head to the side, eyes gazing up at him.

An awkward silence sets between the two, making it's presence known as their ears ring.

Faith looks down at the little kitten brushing against her leg, picking him up. Bradley watches as she snuggles close to him, and walks on over to the pantry to grab his food. Placing Hulk down, she tells him to stay where he was put down, and the kitten sat on his legs, taking the time to give himself a wash.

Faith walked towards Hulk with his kibble-filled bowl in her hands, looking down at him with an expectance of him doing his little trick, eyebrow raising. The kitten looks up at her for two seconds with a somehow visible, bored expression on his little face.

He turns his head to the side as he was rolling his eyes at his embarrassing mother, but does the expected anyway. He stomps his little right paw on the ground, and looks up at Faith, with an irritated expression of, 'you happy now, mom?'.

Faith smiles down at the kitten, and happily places his bowl on the ground. Hulk takes a moment to brush against her feet again, his own way of saying thank you, before he walks over to his fresh bowl to fill his stomach.

Bradley looks at their interaction with a dazed gaze in his eyes, and soft smile on his lips. He rubs the back of his neck, following Faith to the kitchen and sitting at the kitchen table, the plate from before still sat on it. He waits for her to prepare the coffee and reheat the food he prepared for the three of them in the house.

Faith returns to the kitchen table, sitting right in front of him, as she places the two coffee cups on it, pushing his towards him, smiling when she hears him thank her for the coffee.

"Uh, Nat let me in, I'm guessing she went back to sleep without telling you." He looks back up, finding her gazing back at him.

The flush on his face returns, as he looks back down at the kitten who had finished his breakfast and was looking up at him, with what seemed to be anger in his blue eyes. Bradley slowly looks away from him, putting his hand up in surrender.

Faith is reminded about what happened just two minutes ago.

She almost hit Bradley with a baseball bat. She chuckles at the mental screenshot of his face, expression full of fear and concern. Her chuckles get louder and louder, and Bradley notices her laughing to herself, asking in curiosity, "What are you laughing at?" He smiles to himself, hearing her soft giggles.

"I can't believe I almost hit you with a baseball bat. Also, there's this image of your frightened expression, right before I swung the bat and you ducked out of the way." Faith is now crying due to her high dosage of laughter, stomach paining. She leans forward, grabbing her stomach as she leans against the frame of her chair, hearing Bradley let out a few chuckles of his own, pointing towards her, as he grabbed at his chest, leaning backwards.

Hulk looks between the two adults like he was watching a tennis tournament, and moves towards the bedroom door, returning to cuddle with the only sane person in his home.

"Hey, you wanna do something today?" Bradley asks once their laughter died down, elbow leaning the table top. Faith looked up at him from her almost empty plate, swallowing down, "Sure, what do you have in mind?"

"There's a carnival, just a half hour away from base. You wanna go?" Bradley raises his eyebrows, hoping Faith agrees with him.

Faith's face lightens up at the thought of enjoying some company other than Natasha's. She loved the Nat, but she was pretty sure the woman was not going to get out of bed anytime soon.

"Sure, seems like a good way to distract from things." Faith accepts his plan, smile replacing the blunt expression on her face.

"I'll ask Nat." Faith gets up of the chair, carrying her empty plate to the kitchen sink to wash, hearing Bradley follow her.

She hands him the other sponge to clean his plate, and the man says nothing, washing his own plate, and putting it back into the drawer he found it in.

Wow. He cleaned up after himself, and returns the dishes back to where it was.

"I'll pick you guys up at, uh, two?" Bradley looks down at his watch, before looking up at her, waiting for her to confirm.

"Yeah, alright." Faith puts a hand on her waist, nodding her confirmation to him. Bradley smiles, catching the towel she threw to him to dry off his hands.

He gives her another smile, putting his hand out for Faith to shake. She looks down at his hand extended towards her, and smacks it away, making him falter.

She moves closer, pulling him into a hug, wrapping her hands around his waist, as she closes her eyes in his comfort. He puts his arm around her waist, breathing in her lavender scent, closing his eyes in the gist of the moment, head resting onto hers.

"Thanks for punching the shit out of him, Bradley." Faith feels him press a kiss on her head, as he whispers back, "I'll punch him anytime, Fae. Anytime, for you." He pulls away, their hands still around each other's waists, as they gaze into each other's eyes, slowly pulling away.

She still holds onto his hand as he turns away from her, back facing her. She slowly lets him go as he proceeds to go out of her reach. He looks back at her over his shoulder, giving her a sweet smile, "Bye, Fae."

"Bye, Hulk!" Bradley stops in his tracks to look at the kitten, who just hisses at him, making him smile and let out a chuckle.

Faith smiles at the interaction between her two boys, shaking her head as she hears Bradley's car start up and go.

Natasha had gotten up a very long time ago, but had heard Bradley and Faith have the conversation. She saw Faith pulling him into a hug, and she saw how Bradley closed his eyes and breathe in her sweet scent.

Oblivious idiots. Natasha shakes her head at the pair, making her awakening from a great slumber present to Faith. A plan hatches into her head, as she hears Faith ask her to accompany her and Bradley to the carnival in the afternoon.

Natasha puts on a fake tired facade on her face, "Sorry, babe, but I think shark week just began for me." She smirks to herself when she hears Faith groan and mutter, "Oh god, you know how I am around him, I'm all goofy and idiotic, I need you to be there to keep me in check." Faith looks to her with a pleading look in her eyes, making a puppy face to convince Natasha, who looks up at her with 'tired' eyes and a shrug, "I'm really sorry, babe, but I don't feel like going outside and dealing with people. I'll just stay here and sit and snuggle with Hulk, probably watch Brooklyn Nine Nine again."

Natasha watches as Faith sets a coffee cup for her down, blubbering to herself.

It was so obvious to anyone and everyone in the group, that Faith and Bradley clearly have something for each other. Hell, even Jake was shipping the two of them. The pair just needed a shove in the right direction, and they'll be with each other in no time.

Natasha would notice the two always finding each other's eyes. She would look at the two just go back to staring and listening to the other's words with such heavy attention. In the past two weeks, they had grown immensely close to each other. They'd be at each other's side as if the force of gravity pulled them closer, or like an, invisible string was pulling them near to each other.





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author's note :

Hello Loves! Here's another chapter, I just can't find a way to stay away from Bradley and Faith, they're just so cute.

Everyone's starting to notice the way they are around each other, except for the two of them obviously.

This was just a filler chapter, and the next one will be a bigger one. Soon after that, we will return to the Academy, where many events will take place, and it will change the growing bond between Rooster and Archer.

Thank you so much for choosing to read THE ARCHER, and please do tell me how we feel about everything so far!

destiny <3.