"Okay, this makes no sense. You have to explain this to me again, Coulson." Clint was pacing back and forth in the small office; he couldn't believe what his handler had just told him.

Coulson sighed and rubbed his face with his hand. "For the fourth and last time, Agent Barton. Your mission is to drive with Tony from New York to California. He is carrying special cargo that cannot be entrusted to anyone but members of the Avengers. Seeing as you're the only current Avenger and SHIELD agent available, you have to accompany Stark."

Clint groaned and let himself drop on Coulson's couch. "Why can't we just fly the thing?"

"Because if it becomes unstable while on the air it'll be harder to control than if it's on the ground. You're also driving a SHIELD issued car; we don't trust Stark alone with one of those. Now, Fury has given the order, you leave in two hours."

Irritated, Clint left the office; he made a show of how angry he was by slamming the door and stomping down the hallway. He could act like a child when he really wanted to, since they were making him spend close to two days with Tony. At least they weren't asking him to also drive back with him, he really didn't like Tony all that much. He would have suggested following Tony on his Ducati, but Coulson didn't want Tony driving the car, great. He pulled out his phone and texted Tony. I'll be by to pick you up at the tower in an hour. Be ready.

Tony glanced at his phone as it vibrated. A text from Clint, so he was the one Coulson had chosen to send with him. He frowned as he thought about his relationship with the archer. Out of all the Avengers, they were the ones who clashed the most. Clint was an asshole whenever Natasha wasn't around; he liked Steve but only to spar with. His relationship with Thor was iffy due to the whole Loki incident, and he would just exchange a few words with Bruce. His relationship with Tony was nothing short of horrible. They would argue and usually insult each other whenever they were together. This meant he had to deal with that for more than two days. He was seriously considering leaving Pepper a note: If I go missing, please make sure they investigate Clint. Yep, he would have to do just that.


"Hurry up Stark, I texted you and told you be ready in an hour. You've had me waiting for twenty minutes now." He would have left had Tony not been the one with the stupid package. He glared as the billionaire took his time putting his suitcase in the trunk and then the special package, which was a possible weapon of mass destruction, in the backseat. Deep breaths Clint, inhale and exhale, just like the therapist at SHIELD told you. He had a feeling he would be repeating this exercise a lot over the next few days. "Coffee? You had time to go buy Starbucks?"

Tony smirked as he climbed into the passenger side sipping his coffee. "Relax Cupid, it's not like we're in a hurry. Or do you have somewhere that you need to be. Although I doubt you do seeing as Coulson said this assignment's time frame was two weeks. I think you can spare twenty minutes." He gasped as Clint reached out and took his coffee away from him. "Harassment!"

Clint turned to glare at Tony as he sipped the coffee, it was good and it instantly put a smile on his face. "It is not harassment; I am the one that's going to be driving. Therefore, I need the caffeine more than you. I thought you were a genius, Stark." He smirked as Tony frowned, the one small joy of traveling with the tin can.

"You act as though we'll be driving all night." He risked a look at Clint and rolled his eyes when he saw the look on the archer's face. "We are not driving the whole way without any stops. I do not trust you behind the wheel for forty hours straight. Seeing as I'm not allowed to touch the precious SHIELD car, we will be stopping for the night."

There was no actual argument he could come up with that would counter Stark's current stance. As a sniper there had been many missions that required him to stay awake for long periods of time. However, that was while staying in one spot the whole time and the end result was that he got to blast someone's head off. He sighed and nodded. "Fine, we will stop for the night. That's only because I won't hesitate to murder you if I'm sleep deprived."

Tony's eyebrows rose in shock. "You would seriously murder a fellow Avenger?" The silence had him reaching for his phone, maybe they could wait on transporting the stupid thing.

"I won't murder you, Tony. The amount of paperwork Coulson would have me do is not worth it." He smirked knowing full well that he was scaring or insulting the billionaire next to him. "Besides, R&D takes too long developing arrows for me."

"Is that all I am to you, an arrow maker?" Tony feigned being hurt before rolling his eyes and looking out the window, this was going to be a long ride. He just couldn't figure out why Clint was the way that he was with him. He'd seen the archer during some pre-Loki days at SHIELD and had thought he was probably the only agent with a sense of humor. Then again the whole Loki thing had probably changed him. He turned to look at Clint once more before deciding the quiet was too much for him. As he reached for the radio Clint's had swatted his. "Hey, I just wanted to put some music."

Clint sent Tony a sideways glare, he was counting in Russian in his head. Was it possible for the man to go more than five seconds without noise? "You don't know what you're pressing. Some of these buttons look like normal car pieces, but there are some that fire rockets, nets, missiles… things like that." He spoke in a slow voice just in case Tony wasn't grasping what he was saying. Then again, he highly doubted accidentally firing a missile would deter the man from pressing a button on the car.

"I know which button is for the radio." He moved his hand towards the dashboard only to get it swatted away again.

"That's the net launcher." They had only been driving for two hours, two measly hours and he wanted to kill him already.

He reached for another button but was stopped again.

"Rocket launcher."

Every button and knob he reached for activated a damn weapon. "Does this car even have a radio?"

"Yes, but I'm rather enjoying this, so keep going." Clint grinned and kept his eyes on the road. He had the car schematics memorized from top to bottom. He shook his head as Tony reached for another knob. "That's the 'vanisher', you know, it makes us vanish."

"What do you even need half these things for? You don't even have a stupid cup holder you have so much crap on here. I'm surprised it doesn't fly." Tony crossed his arms over his chest like a petulant child and turned to look away from the dashboard. He could usually hold his own in a battle such as this one, but for the life of him he was actually quite irritated and was thankful he wasn't driving the stupid SUV. He turned to glare at Clint as music started playing, of course he would do it while Tony wasn't looking.

There was a look of pure satisfaction on Clint's face as the billionaire turned to glare at him. It had been a way to pass the time; Tony had spent a good hour trying to figure out where the radio was. Clint was surprised he didn't know, after all the man had hacked SHIELD. Apparently he hadn't read the equipment manuals. They spent a good hour and a half listening to music and Clint wondering whether he'd broken Tony, the man still hadn't said anything since he had turned on the radio. He frowned as he realized they didn't really have anything to drink or munch on. A look at the time revealed it was only three in the afternoon; they wouldn't stop at a motel until maybe eight. He changed lanes and grinned as the sat nav showed him a Wal-Mart nearby.

Tony looked up as Clint slowed down and made a turn on a random street. This was it, bird boy was going to kill him and hide his body in the woods. He had been trying to stay as quiet as he could after Clint turned the radio on; he had grabbed his starkpad and was writing up equations to send to Bruce. They did that, they sent equations to each other in the hopes that one of them wouldn't be able to solve it, thus declaring the other the winner. He kept looking out the window wondering where Clint was going to stop to kill him; he'd go back to SHIELD and say a bear ate him or something. He jumped a mile high as Clint spoke.

He'd been watching Stark the minute he'd turned off the highway to make a small detour for some snacks, he looked scared out of his mind. "You look like you're going to your death, Tony." He said and then laughed when Tony jumped in his seat, he shook his head and turned to look at the map on the screen, they were close.

"Why must you say things like that? No normal person says that." Tony's voice cracked a little as he spoke. He turned to look at what Clint was looking at, "Is that a map of where you're going to hide the body? Did SHIELD set you up to this? I bet it was Fury's idea, my money is on him, or Hill."

"Will you relax? How much caffeine have you had today, more importantly, have you slept at all?" He chuckled as he saw the nervousness in Tony's eyes. He probably hadn't slept much, otherwise he'd realize that he had the Iron Man suitcase in the back and could probably kill Clint with one of those repulsor blasts. "We are just stopping by at Wal-Mart for some snacks, something the genius forgot to bring." He said as he pulled into the Wal-Mart. He could see how Tony would think they were driving somewhere remote, but all these small towns they would be driving through had giant Wal-Marts in the middle of nowhere. "Come on, tin can."

Tony looked at Clint as he parked and got out of the car. He was about to say that they couldn't leave the weapon in the car unattended when he saw Clint grab the suitcase and start heading towards the store. Without a second thought he undid his seatbelt and went after Clint. It was odd for such a big store to be in what he considered the middle of nowhere, however, looking around he realized there were small houses nearby, just not many. "What is this place?" he asked as he caught up to Clint. The store had a lot of things considering its location.

"It's called a Wal-Mart; I thought you were a genius." Clint snorted as he grabbed a cart and put the suitcase on it, the damn thing was heavy he wasn't going to be carrying it around the place. He moved towards the food section and began dumping things into the cart. He looked at Tony "What, you're going to tell me you've never been to a Wal-Mart?"

"Well…"

Clint stopped shoving things into the cart as he stared in utter shock at Tony "You have never been to a Wal-Mart?!" His loud question causing a few heads to turn their way, he glared at them until they looked away.

Tony frowned as people went back to their shopping. "Pepper has been doing all the shopping since I hired her, then Happy did it, then Jarvis. I haven't really had time to go on a shopping spree, you know." He raised an eyebrow as they moved from the food section to the pet section, then the clothes section, it had everything! "How… this place is huge! They have everything, look they even have computers, mine are better but still. I feel the need to buy out the whole store. Do we have one of these in New York?"

"Wait, you're not kidding?" One look at Tony's face had him just nodding. "We have a few of these in New York; there are also some in California and just about every state that we'll be driving through." He kept walking through the store despite being done with the snack shopping. The look on Tony's face made him feel somewhat happy, that was odd. He shrugged off the feeling and kept pointing stuff out to Tony and laughed when Tony decided he wanted to buy a snuggie. "You know the motel we stop at will have blankets."

"Yes, but this one has sleeves on it!" He held up the box of the camouflaged snuggie and grinned.

Clint rolled his eyes but grabbed the box from Tony and added it to the cart; if it kept him quiet then he'd take it. "I figure we're done, we need to hit the road to get more miles in before we stop for the night." Without really asking for confirmation from Tony he walked over to the checkout counter.

He stopped to look at the archer as he paid for the things and loaded up the car with their stuff. For once he'd actually spent time with him without wanting to blast him to the next world, interesting. He followed him out as he saw the archer head towards the exit; this was the first time in his life that he was actually speechless. "Can I pick the music, now?"

"Nope. My car, my tunes."

"Dah… it's not even your car, it's SHIELD's car."

"It is when I'm driving it." Clint reached over to grab his soda and a bag of chips, his hands leaving the steering wheel for a few seconds.

Tony's eyes widened as Clint let go of the wheel. "Ten and two! Ten and two!" He yelled as he grabbed on to the side of his seat.

"Relax, it's straight road." Clint put one hand back on the wheel while opening his bag of chips with the other and his teeth.

"Easy for you to relax, you'd be killing a genius." He didn't have a problem with some reckless driving, but Clint was currently going over eighty miles per hour, at that speed anything can happen.


At around nine they pulled into the least shady looking motel they could find. Clint had vetoed every suggestion Tony had made, he grumbled as he walked over to the small office to get the room. "Hi, yeah I'd like a room." Once again, Clint had vetoed getting two rooms, something about it being safer to be in one. SHIELD agents and their paranoia. The overly smelly man at the office window grumbled something and slid the intake notebook over to Tony. Just as he was going to write his name, Clint snatched it from him. "What?"

"Geez Tony, we might need to train you up a bit. Or at least put you in some of the power point presentations Coulson gives." He wrote down two fake names and slid it back to the man behind the counter. The man looked from him to Tony and mumbled something about the world being a bit too liberal. Clint glared at him and then put an arm over Tony's shoulders. "Problem?"

Tony was really getting irritated with this whole 'I'm an agent and I must act like a ninja 24/7' thing Clint had going on. He turned to look at the man behind the window as Clint put his arm over his shoulders. He was caught too off guard to say anything to either of the men. The man simply shook his head and threw the keys at Clint. The archer caught them with his free hand and turned Tony around and towards their room. "What just happened?"

"We got a room." Clint informed him like he was a child. He carried the suitcase with the weapon as well as his duffel bag into the room while Tony carried his armor case and his suitcase. It wasn't too shabby, it was a motel and it looked about as good as a motel in the middle of the country can look. He placed the weapon suitcase on the nightstand next to the bed and his duffle on the floor. "I'll get the food from the car."

This wasn't where he wanted to be, he would have been in a five star hotel if he had it his way. Actually had he had it his way, he would already be in California, but Fury didn't want him flying the weapon either in his suit or on a quinjet. Aside from being stuck in a motel in the middle of nowhere USA, he had been denied some diner food. Clint said it wasn't safe to stay out in the open for long and something about being able to get a few more miles in before they actually had to stop for the night. He'd been stuck getting drive-thru taco bell with Clint. He placed his armor case on the other nightstand and threw his suitcase on the bed. "You didn't even let me ask him if he had a room with two beds." He said as Clint walked back into the room.

Clint rolled his eyes and threw one of the take-out bags Tony's way. "Look. It is better if he tries to erase us from his mind. This way neither you nor I are remembered. He can just go on about his closed-minded life." He wasn't irritated at this point, he was actually somewhat hurt. He knew Tony liked to hit on anything that moved which was both women and men, so why was he making a big deal over being thought of as Clint's boyfriend. He wouldn't have made such a big deal about it had it been the other way around.

"Alright, mister spy assassin ninja… dude. I was just wondering how we were going to do this seeing as there is one bed and two of us." Tony thought he'd heard a tone of hurt in Clint's voice but that couldn't be it. Why would Clint be hurt over him wanting both of them to be able to sleep in beds?

"I can sleep on the floor, Tony. I am trained to sleep anywhere, if I can sleep on a tree I can sleep on the floor." He opened up his tacos and started munching on them, it wasn't the ideal food, but he didn't want to be stuck with Tony in a diner. He would talk while they looked at what they were going to order, and while they waited, and while they ate. It was just too much for him. He pulled out his phone and smiled as he read Natasha's text. Are both of you still alive and breathing? Coulson wants to know. Another bite out of his taco and he was dialing Coulson's number. "Just checking in, we're currently at a motel in Illinois, don't worry Stark is still alive."

Tony turned to glare at Clint. "Really? Tell him I request to be sent with the spider next time."

"I was leaving a message, Tony, and I hung up already so you call him and tell him yourself. Though, I would like to see how Tasha would handle you."

"Tasha wouldn't handle me." Tony said, though his voice was full of doubt.

Clint smirked into his taco "If that's what you want to believe."

"Now that we're on the subject of, Tasha. What's up between you guys?" He had a bet going with Bruce that they were involved as more than friends, while Bruce believed they were just really cool ninja bros.

He arched an eyebrow at Tony. "That's Natasha to you, or she'll kill you. Also, there is nothing between us, she's just my partner."

Tony titled his head in disbelief. "You mean to say there's nothing going on between you guys at all, nothing. You guys are just two master assassins doing your assassin…ing thing?"

"Yup. Nothing between the two of us, actually she's currently dating someone." Clint smirked "She's also not really my type."

"Oh?" Tony arched an eyebrow and grinned. He remembered seeing the archer flirt with a guy in one of the lower levels of the Avengers tower. "Ooooh, so Coulson?"

Clint rolled his eyes, why did everyone assume he was either with Nat or Phil? "Nope, he's just my handler, besides he's like family to me… no." He threw his trash back into the take-out bag and carried it over to the nearest waste bin by the desk. "Well, I'm going to go shower, not that sharing time hasn't been fun."

Tony snorted as the archer grabbed some clothes and headed for the bathroom. He was such a riddle to him, and he was sure he did it on purpose. One minute he was acting like a huge bag of dicks and the next he could be the nicest guy ever, it was driving Tony insane. He would figure him out before the end of the trip even if it killed him, and in this case that ending was a high probability. He changed into some sweats while Clint was in the shower, he looked at the bed and shook his head, there was enough space for the two of them. With that in mind he left one side of the bed empty, maybe Clint wouldn't mind sharing a bed with him. He looked up as Clint emerged from the bathroom; he tried to ignore the feeling of want that was trying to consume him. He wasn't wearing a shirt and Tony was having a hard time looking away from the toned body before him.

"Coulson said he's happy you're not dead yet." Clint said to break the silence that had consumed the room.

He looked up at Clint's face and shook his head. "I swear the SHIELD sense of humor…" At last the small tension that had built up was gone and he laughed.

Clint eyed the empty space in the bed, he had said he'd sleep on the floor though so he put his clothes away and grabbed one of the extra blankets from the closet. Stealing one of the pillows from the bed, he laid down on the floor. It wasn't comfortable, floors never are, but he'd definitely had worse. He just hoped this floor didn't have unwanted pests.

He sat there for a moment trying to figure out what to say or do. He didn't want the archer to think he was hitting on him, but he didn't feel right with him sleeping on the floor. "Look uhm, I'm not a crazy sleeper. I don't take up the whole bed, which means there is space for you." Tony looked away from Clint who was now staring at him as if he had grown a second head. "I'm not trying to do anything funny, it's just that… I figured the floor just doesn't look comfortable."

His head shot up as soon as Tony started speaking, he was shocked that the billionaire was actually offering to share the bed with him. He grinned as Tony looked away and started stuttering, he had never seen him so nervous before. "Alright, just don't snore or I'll stab you with the knife I sleep with."

Tony paled and laughed nervously as Clint climbed onto the bed with him. He thought he saw a flash of something silver being placed under Clint's pillow but decided to ignore it. He was joking; he had to be joking, right?

"Relax, it was a joke." Clint chuckled. He was starting to like this game. Well, a game to him, he doubted Tony had any idea as to what he was up to. "Right, well, we should sleep."

He woke up feeling a slight weight over his chest. His eyes didn't open immediately; he tried to sense if there was any danger. When he deduced no one was in the room aside from Tony and himself he let his eyes open. His eyes wondered to his chest and his breath hitched as he realized it was Tony's arm. Tony was snoring softly next to him, his head nuzzled by his shoulder. For a moment he stared at the billionaire, it just felt right. Oh shit. No. shit. His eyes widened and with it the need to get as far away as he could overcame him. He swallowed hard and closed his eyes, he wanted to go away, but if he did then Tony would wake up. Tony didn't sleep much as it was already, and right now he was actually sleeping instead of trying to build another robot. He took a deep breath and kept an eye on Tony until he felt himself being pulled into sleep.


Tony woke up feeling rather rested and warm. He nuzzled his head against the warmth only to stop in fear. Oh no. He was cuddling Clint? Oh. Ah. Uhm. He was cuddling Clint, he was cuddling Clint! Wait. He was cuddling with Clint and hadn't woken him up? He looked at the archer's face, his heart melting at the sight. Clint could be a rather intimidating individual, but like this he just looked peaceful. He held his breath as Clint shifted a little, right he had to get up, let him sleep. As slowly and quietly as he could he got up and made his way over to the bathroom. He would get ready and go get them some breakfast.

The absence of a body next to him woke Clint up, automatically on alert. He looked to his side, Tony wasn't there. Next place his eyes zeroed in on was the bathroom which was empty. "No. No. No. No." He would have woken up had they been attacked or something. As fast as he could he changed out of his pajamas, he was in the process of putting on his boots when Tony walked in with two bags in his hands. He wanted to bang his head against something; he'd almost had a heart attack. Stupid Tony.

"Hey Cupid." Tony took in the look on Clint's face and frowned. "Something wrong?"

Clint groaned and closed his eyes. "Next time, wake me up?"

Tony shrugged and turned to look at the bags he'd placed down on the table. "Figured I could get breakfast for us, nothing happened."

"Yes, but something could have happened. You didn't have your armor with you." Clint tried to sound nonchalant. "Phil would make me do a ton of paperwork if something happened to you."

He arched an eyebrow "Really? Is that the only reason you were worried?"

"I was not worried, Stark."

"Sure seemed like it to me." Tony grinned as Clint huffed and looked away. "Anyway, I went and got us some breakfast. Didn't know exactly what you liked for breakfast but I figured everyone likes regular pancakes." He got a container of pancakes and gave it to Clint. He'd actually seen Clint eating breakfast in the SHIELD mess hall one day; he was eating pancakes with an unholy amount of syrup on them, meaning he knew exactly what to order for him. No reason for Clint to know though, he would get all smug and stuff.

Clint grinned as he got the container from Tony, he was actually rather hungry. "They're my favorite. I don't like any of those fancy pancakes with fruit or other things. Did you get any–"

Tony held out a small bag full of syrup packets.

"Yes! Pancakes are not pancakes without some good ol' fashioned syrup." He reached into the bag and pulled the syrup cups out, it was a rather big amount of syrup… the amount of syrup he put on his pancakes usually. He looked up at Tony and arched an eyebrow questioningly.

"What?" Tony made himself busy with his own container of pancakes, his where chocolate chip with cinnamon, they didn't exactly require much syrup. "I just got a big amount so we wouldn't run out."

Clint nodded and began pouring the syrup on his pancakes. "Thanks."

"No problem." The amount of syrup Clint put on his pancakes was crazy. "Do those even taste like pancakes anymore?"

"Yeah. Like really good pancakes."

"I thought you were supposed to eat all healthy and stuff, kind of like Natasha does. SHIELD regiment and all that crap." Tony dug into his pancakes before stopping and going through the second bag. Ah, coffee, glorious coffee. He'd bought three large coffees, two for him and one for Clint. "Here."

Clint got his coffee from Tony and nodded another thanks. "With the amount of workouts I do, it's actually okay for me to eat as much as I do. Granted, this is rather unhealthy, but I can't be bothered to care."

Tony smirked but didn't say anything else. After breakfast they loaded up the car and set off once more, they still had quite a way to go. They'd have to stop one more time overnight before reaching their final destination; Tony just hoped he'd be able to make it that far.


Clint looked over to Tony who was fidgeting with his phone and mumbling something. He'd been trying to get the courage to ask Tony to ride back to New York with him. Technically they didn't have to return the car to the New York office, but it was the best excuse he could think of to spend more time with Tony. It had taken him this whole trip to realize the reason why he couldn't stand being around Tony was that he had a major crush on him. At first he'd thought Tony was full of himself, but these past three days had shown him differently. Especially during the second night they spent at a motel. This one did have a two bed room available and Tony had gotten one of those. This meant they didn't end up cuddling like they had the night before. It just so happened to also be the night Clint's mind decided to grace him with a Loki nightmare. He'd woken up on the floor scratching at his chest trying to get Loki's scepter away from him his heart. Tony had coaxed him back into reality with jokes and sarcastic remarks. Afterwards he hadn't even made fun of him or tried to force him into talking about his nightmare. Clint was in trouble, he had it bad for Tony.

He kept his eyes on his phone, trying to distract himself from staring longingly at Clint. He wanted to ask the archer if he wanted to take a jet back to the tower with him, but it meant he'd make Clint wait while he made sure the California SHIELD facility had the weapon safe and under controlled conditions. Clint would probably say no or come up with an excuse as to why he couldn't just chill back while waiting for him to finish his part of the job. "So are you taking a—"

Clint had once again stopped looking at the road to turn towards Tony when his phone rang. He fished it out of his pocket and answered the phone. It was Coulson with a mission, great of all the time to have a stupid mission. "It has to be as soon as possible?" Coulson's sarcastic answer of 'No Clint, I'm sure you could just handle it next year.' had him glaring at the highway. "Alright, I'll get on a jet as soon as we get to Malibu."

Tony felt all his hopes and dreams wither at Clint's last words to Coulson. He didn't know if Clint would have actually accepted his invitation to wait for him so they could take a jet back together or not, but now he wouldn't even have the chance to ask. "Mission, Katniss?"

"Yup." Clint sighed trying not to let his frustration show. Of all the times, damn it Coulson! "I have to go as soon as we get to the Malibu facility."

The silence that fell over them was not like the comfortable silent moments they'd managed to have while driving. This silence was filled with tension, perhaps Clint couldn't wait to get to Malibu so he could leave. Tony thought they'd been having a nice fun time. Except for Clint's nightmare, they had been getting along; the archer had even shown him the button for the radio. "So…" he'd had enough of the silence. "Can I ask what the mission is about or is it a SHIELD secret?"

Clint smirked at Tony's question. He was glad that the billionaire had finally said something; the silence was starting to kill him. "If I said it is a secret, would it stop you from having Jarvis hack the database?" The look Tony gave him confirmed that it wouldn't. "It's an intel mission, I'm being sent to gather intel about a possible Hydra compound overseas."

Tony turned serious once Clint actually told him what the mission was about it. Sure he was just supposed to be gathering intelligence, but it was about Hydra. The few encounters he'd had with Hydra hadn't been the best ever. He looked down at his phone and began hacking into the database to get as much information as possible. "Are you meeting up with the spider for the mission?"

He shook his head. "Nope, it's a solo mission. It's just gathering intel, nothing I haven't done before." It warmed his heart to hear the concern in Tony's voice, granted he was usually concerned when any of them were sent out without any other avenger. "Do I detect a hint of worry, tin man?"

"Puh! Yeah right, just wondering how many deadly assassins will be at the tower when I get back." Tony rolled his eyes and tried to seem nonchalant. "Just remember you're an avenger so if anything happens, you can call for us."

"We're here." Clint said as they pulled into a gated facility, he flashed his badge at the security guard before driving into the facility. It gave him something to focus on as he tried to get over the surge of feelings, maybe he should tell Tony he liked him. No, it wouldn't be fair to tell him that and leave on a mission. He would do it when he got back, but he was going to give Coulson hell for making him do this.

Tony shifted his focus from Clint to handing the weapon over to the scientists and giving them instructions on what tests had to be run. Every few seconds he looked over to see what Clint was doing, each time he was happy the archer was still with him instead of heading towards a jet. Coulson was the biggest cockblock ever, well, in his book.

Clint took his time filling out the required forms for handing the car over to SHIELD. He didn't want to leave, but it was his job and he actually still liked doing it, just not at this precise moment. He nodded at the agent in charge of taking the car from him and handed over the keys. There was no way he could delay leaving any more, if he did then Coulson would probably call him to yell at him. "Hey Tony."

"Yes dear?" Tony turned to look at Clint, not that he wasn't already looking, because he wasn't. He handed back the clipboard to the scientist in front of him and waved him away. There was no way he was going to have a nosy scientist listening to whatever Clint was going to tell him, even if it was just goodbye.

He rolled his eyes and laughed, he was going to miss him. "I'm taking off. Coulson will get antsy if I don't report from a jet soon." He paused and rubbed his hand on the back of his neck. "Uhm. Thanks, I'll radio in for backup if anything happens."

"Alright, just make sure it's not early in the morning, I do need my beauty sleep." Yup, he was going to use humor to keep from showing what he was really feeling.

"You're an asshole, Stark." He turned to leave wanting to leave on a happy note.

Tony grinned and was getting ready to leave, himself when a thought struck him. "Hey Barton, wait up." He jogged towards Clint as he fished something out of his pocket. "Here."

Clint looked at the titanium bracelet that Tony handed him and nodded. It looked almost like the ones Tony used to call the Iron Man suit to him. What did Tony want him to do with it? "It's a very cute bracelet Tony."

He rolled his eyes and scoffed at Clint. "It's not a bracelet."

"Uhm…" Clint held up the bracelet and arched an eyebrow.

"Okay, it is, but it also serves as a communicator and it even has a tracker. It has a direct line to the suit, it's still in beta mode, but it's a Stark product." He didn't design shit products, so this worked as well as it could.

Clint put it on, it was a bit Tony but that's what made it awesome. "Thanks. See ya back at the Tower in a few weeks."


AN: My friend Megan inspired this, it was meant to be a one-shot but it ended up being 3 chapters. They're all done, so i'll be posting one each day. Enjoy!

I don't own any of the Avengers or Marvel characters.