Note: Characters do not belong to me no matter how much I wish they did. Title comes from hypothetical loss of coolant accident in a nuclear reactor where the core melts to the other side of the earth, sure sign of good things to come. For all intents and purposes, this is movie-verse. Not beta'd, read at your own risk.
"How'd this happen, you idiot?"
"Fell through a glass window. Be nice would ya?"
"Should have gone to medical if you want nice. Too late now." Despite what she said, Natasha had no intention of making this any worse than it already had to be. Clint's back was a mess with what a probably hundreds of pieces of shattered glass embedded in the already scarred skin. Each piece was small, she couldn't see anything larger than the size of a pinky nail, but picking it all out with a pair of drugstore tweezers was going to hurt like a bitch.
They were in a bedroom on the 85th floor of Stark tower having excused themselves after seeing Loki dispatched bound and gagged to SHIELD custody. The others were also presumably off to clean themselves up after what has been by far not a good day, all of their bodies having seen far better days. She was admittedly exhausted herself and covered in her share of cuts and bruises, but it wasn't until she drew a circle with her hand on his back when it was all finally over that she realized he was fucked up much worse. He'd discretely pulled away her blood covered hand, wiped it on his uniform, and said, 'Stark, you gotta a place where we can clean up and crash? I'm ready to sleep until next week.' The others quickly nodded their silent agreement. The slight slurred tilt to his words told her his hearing must be shot as well.
Clint was laying face first on some garbage bags they'd spread over the sheets. They'd both stripped off their uniforms and she sat straddled over his back. Reaching forward, she cupped both hands over his ears and pulled out the two tiny pieces of plastic.
"It's fine. I doubt you can hear much right now anyway, not after all that crash and bang. And I know your head's about to explode any minute now." He simply blinked his assent, having never liked to speak when he couldn't hear himself, even in front of her. His head was twisted off to his side and it looked like he was looking intently at something at the foot of the bed, but she knew that he could still see her out of that scary peripheral vision of his, could still read her lips, so you kept on speaking.
"Phil's dead you know?"
"Yeah." Verbal response, not sure if that's good or bad.
"There are worse ways to go, went out like a badass. What we do. We're all overdue." The words just spilled out of her mouth like they always do with him.
"Yeah."
"I know you guys were close. I'm sorry Clint."
"Saved my life...was my first real friend...first to actually care. You know how that feels?" Despite the silence that permeated the room. She had to strain to catch his whispered words.
"Yeah. When they called me in last week, for a moment, I thought you were dead." She hadn't realized that she was crying until the tear plopped itself ceremoniously onto the black plastic.
"'Tasha? It's fine. We're gonna be alright." She looked at his weary smile, and did what she could to return her own and soundlessly returned to her bloody work.
"Good job not diving through that window face first carnie, cause this ain't a pretty picture."
It'd taken her the better part of two hours to get all the glass out. For a lack of supplies, they were now surrounded by mounds of wadded up bloody toilet paper, for a few of the deeper cuts, she'd had to close them with crazy glue.
You think I'm pretty? He signed with a teasing smile. I'm not as pretty as you.
"Get back down, you big tease. I'm not down with this cut on your arm." Using one hand to push down on his back and another to pinch the back of his neck, she shoved him back down onto the bed and chuckled as he landed face first into a mound of toilet paper, arms spread out into a position of surrender.
As she worked to spread the glue on the cut on his right bicep, he twisted his left awkwardly to sign with one hand.
You're evil. Hurry up Stalin, my ass is falling asleep.
"You know, before stitches and glue, there was always the cauterization of wounds."
Point made. Though now this is really beginning to sound like Budapest.
She had just slapped him on the ass when she hear Pepper's scream from the door.
"Oh my god. I'm so sorry, I thought you would be sleeping, not... My god, are you guys alright? Is that blood? Did you glue? Oh!" Definitely Pepper.
"Pepper, it's fine." She tapped Clint on the shoulder and signed turn around, company. Pepper looked to still be in a state of shock, not that she was surprised given the time that they spent together while she worked undercover as Natalie Rushman. The woman had a penchant for getting overly worked up.
"Tony! Guys!"
Zip.
"Pepper, listen! Pepper! It's no big deal, he's fine." Looking to her right, she could see Clint nodding enthusiastically in agreement.
"Yeah, Ms. Potts, we're fine." The embarrassment of the situation of evident on his face, and was reflected in the fact that he was speaking just a touch too loud. "I really need to take a shower," he said randomly, stretching has arms back into a yawn, leapt off the bed, and darted into the bathroom, leaving her crouched on the garbage bag surrounded by bloody tissue paper and with a horror stricken Pepper.
"What the fuck happened here? Were you torturing Agent Barton?" Something about seeing Pepper's expression mirrored on Stark's face threatened to make her burst out laughing. In fact, that very expression was reflected on the rest of the team's faces.
"No. But I am going to take a picture of all your faces, cause this is just too good to miss."
"Seriously, Agent Romanoff, what happened here?" She could tell that the Cap was genuinely concerned.
"Carnie threw himself through a window. I was doing clean-up. I don't see what you wusses are so concerned about. I'm going to go see if he's drowned himself in the tub."
Feedback is much appreciated. Do try to be nice even though I'm not. Next chapter is a wip and may be posted tomorrow if I get a good response.