Hi, my name is

by bouncingcrow

After watching Avengers for the third time, I couldn't focus on any one character for too long anymore. Thus this was born. A series of one-shots on each character of the Avengers, a character sketch or overview if you will. Disclaimer is here: I don't own these characters or plot lines laid out in the movie.

1. Hi, my name is Clint Barton

Hi, my name is... Clint Barton

Aim. Draw. Release. The mantra of a man who never misses and feels most at ease with a bow and arrow in his hands. Calloused hands and focused eyes.

People didn't really know his history. It worked. He was, after all, an Agent of SHIELD. He had to be a spy, assassin, soldier, whatever hat they gave him for the day. And no one asked, usually, so he didn't offer. But he had grown up in a circus – literally, not a metaphor – grown up on high wires above three rings. It's where he had learned how to shoot a bow. If you can throw a knife, you can aim a bow. Easy. Easy as one, two, three rings.

Family drama and a little bit of heartache, just like every lost puppy and kitten in SHIELD's ranks. He figured he could count on one hand the number of agents who had grown up with two parents, a sibling, a dog, and a picket fence or any combination of those things. And that was just fine. It meant he fit in; it meant people didn't ask, and it meant he didn't have to talk or think about it.

He had fulfilled his patriotic duty, though he did not consider himself a patriot. And somewhere between one hit or another, he had joined the ranks here. They paid well, and he was good at taking orders; if nothing else, it was a lot like being back in the circus, what with the seriously crazy schemes of some of the people that SHIELD dealt with. He hadn't been on the ground with that green Hulk situation, but he heard stories.

Aside from his aim, Clint was most well known for bringing the infamous Black Widow in to join their ranks. Like so many Russians that he had had the pleasure of meeting, she was a problem that needed to be eliminated. He'd like to say that there was some noble reason he had spared her life and recruited her instead; the truth was that, like so many other men, she had wooed him, and it became clear that she was not really loyal to Russia, anyway. So he brought her in, introduced to her to Fury, and now she was the main attraction (no pun intended) of the organization.

Their skill sets were different, though, so it wasn't like he felt threatened. Sure he made a good assassin, since a bow and arrow kind of lend themselves to being silent, distance killers. But he was a soldier at heart, not a spy. The only way he knew how to get information was to demand it, forcefully, sometimes lethally. Besides, he hated asking for directions. For all that, they made a good team, when they worked together.

Like most soldiers, he saw his fellow fighters as siblings, almost. He wasn't especially close to most of them, Natasha and Phil (to an extent) being the exceptions, but the sense of family that came with going into battle with someone was comforting to him. Despite the widely held belief that he was inhuman or completely secretive, he felt strongly for his fellow agents, and he was really a friendly guy once you got to know him outside of work. It wasn't necessarily his fault that his line of work kind of never had an end.

Fury had approached him about the Avenger's initiative early in its development, along with Romanoff. He was confused, "What good would I be? I mean, what would I be doing in the company of super humans, demi-gods, a genius in a suit, and the Black Widow?"

"Agent Barton, it's simple. Aim, draw, release."