A/N: Yes, I have started yet another Avengers story that stars Clint. Is this really a surprise to anyone? No? I didn't think so. Anyway, I'm going to use this moment to tell everyone out there to check out The Avengers Challenge Forum - because while this isn't written for a challenge on there, you can find some pretty cool ideas on it. *is not ashamed to advertise*
I also want to mention that this story is completely inspired by the song You Can't Take My by Bryan Adams. Yes, the one that they play during Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimmaron.
'Sometimes, you say something you didn't mean. Sometimes, you're forgiven for it. Eventually, you're not.'
"Why the hell would you say that to him?"
Tony jumped, dropping the pen that he'd been rolling around on his desk, and snapped his head over to the doorway. "What?"
"I said, why the hell would you say that to him?" Pepper hissed again. She let the door swing close on its own and stalked over to stand in front of Tony's desk, staring down at him with narrowed eyes.
Tony blinked, not sure exactly what his assitant was mad at him over this time. He had said a lot of things, most of them not very nice, to a lot of people over the course of the day. "Say what to who?"
"Clint." Pepper didn't shout but, if the way that Tony flinched was anything to go by, her message was still coming across loud and clear. Still letting Tony know that, by no means, was she happy over the arguement that had taken place almost three hours prior.
She would have been up here sooner, if she had known. Actually, it might never have even happened if she had known that the fight was going on. But Pepper had been on a different floor of the manor entirely, on the phone with one of the many share-holders of Stark Industries, and had only just been told.
Steve was barely able to finish telling her about what had happened, in a voice far too upset for someone like him to have to use, before Pepper was out the door and on the elevator. The whole ride up had been spent fuming, turning words around in her head, working out exactly what she was going to say to her boss.
And the moment she opened the door, saw Tony behind his desk looking completely bored, it all just flew from her head. With it, the composure that she normally maintained no matter what idiotic stunt the Stark heir pulled.
"Tony," Pepper closed her eyes for a moment, drawing in a deep breath. "what the hell were you thinking?"
Wisely, Tony kept his sarcastic answer to himself. Instead he gave a half-hearted shrug. "That he had been an idiot."
"Tony." Did he even understand what had happened? That he'd just lost a member of the Avengers for what could very well have been for real? Pepper had almost nothing to do with the band of heroes and she still knew better than to say what Tony had! "Why would you say that?"
"Because it's true!" Tony snapped at her. He slapped one hand down on top of his desk and frowned right back at Pepper. "It's true, Pepper, and last week proved it."
Last week...When the Avengers had been fighting Whirlwind and Clint had gotten very intimate with a solid brick wall. The doctors had informed Pepper, who was always in charge of dealing with them, that it had almost broken the archer's back. That Clint was lucky it had just been thrown. That he shouldn't be up and on it for the next two months unless he wanted to risk permant damage.
That, as Steve had explained to her, was the basis of the fight.
Clint had shown up at Stark Manor, fully dressed in the pink and purple suit he wore when they went on a mission, right on time for a patrol to check out some disturbances down at the dock. A patrol that Tony had given to Hank instead.
Clint had demanded to know why.
Because you're still hurt, damnit!
Tony had been less then leniant when it came to giving it back to him.
What do you think will happen if you go out there now and fight? You'll lose and they'll all get away.
And words that should never have been spoken had been said.
You're just a human, Clint! You have to take it easy!
Steve had said that he'd never seen Clint punch so hard, and the large bruise on the side of Tony's face was proof that he hadn't been exaggerating. The Avengers Comm Card that Pepper was clutching, also given to her by the throughly ruffled Captain, was proof enough to the red-haired assitant that Clint didn't plan on coming back this time. At least not for a good while.
"You know what else is true?" Pepper asked, mouth set in a thin line and eyes looking far more dissaproving then they had in a long time. "You're just a human too, Tony. Suit or not, you aren't a God or a mutant or whatever you want to call Steve. You're human and you're just as breakable as Clint is."
Tony opened his mouth to say something, to defend himself from the accusation, but found that he couldn't think of anything to say. Because, even if he didn't want to admit it, Pepper was right.
She was always right.
"Exactly." Pepper said. She laid the Comm Card down on Tony's desk, pushed her glasses back onto her nose, and gave her boss a weary look. "You need to apologize to him, Tony. He needs to be on this team, Tony, whether you like it or not."
With that, Pepper turned on her heel and left the room.
Tony let out a sigh and slumped back down into his chair. Pepper was right, of course, but that didn't mean that he liked what she had to say. It didn't make admiting he was just a regular human, just like Clint was, any easier. And it certainly didn't make the thought of having to apologize to someone, especally not to someone that he got along with so completely horribly, sit well in his mind.
It wasn't like he'd been trying to upset Clint. Tony was just naturally blunt, even more so when he thought that the person he was talking to should already know what he was saying. And Clint, obviously, should have known that trying to go on patrol when he was still hurt was ridiculous. The rest...Tony hadn't meant to say the rest. He hadn't wanted to hurt the other man, let alone make him quit the team. And he certianly wasn't trying to make Clint punch him.
Apologizing to Clint was the only thing he could do.
But it would have to wait, because work at his company came second only to work as an Avenger.