Fandom: Hurt Locker, Avengers, Marvel

Summary: After Coulson dies, Clint has no reason to stay. So he goes back to one of his previous jobs. That is until three months later when something unexpected happens.

Pairing: Clint/Phil

. o O o .

Clint was still in shock. A week had passed since the invasion of New York and Phil's death and he couldn't believe that his handler and lover was dead. He couldn't handle it. He had to get out of there, so he asked Fury for a mission, any mission, anywhere one of his skills was needed at all.

This is how he had landed here, in Kabul, Afghanistan, back in the bomb squad, being Sergeant First Class Will James again. He and his new team had some downtime and were drinking, when one of them asked the question Clint had been waiting for for about two months.

"Well, who is the lucky girl?" Nathan asked. He was Clint's SIC. The man was motioning to Clint's left hand where his wedding band still sat. He just hadn't been able to take it off. It would have felt like he was betraying his husband.

"Husband," Clint said truthfully. Yes, he knew that there were people who had a problem with that, but DADT had been repealed a few years ago and he wasn't ashamed of his love for Phil. "He was killed in the attack on New York. Will that be a problem?"

Nathan and John, the third member of his team, shared a look.

"No," they both said.

"My brother's gay and married. I'd be a hypocrite," John went on.

"How was he?" Nathan asked. He couldn't imagine the man that his CO could love. And who would put up with that crazy motherfucker?

"Phil is the most amazing man ever," Clint started. "He once threatened Tony Stark that he would taze him and watch Supernanny while Stark was drooling on the floor and he's able to take out two armed men with a bag of flour and kill another guy with a paperclip."

Nathan and John shared a look as they listened to their CO talking about his dead husband. They both knew now that Clint had had it bad, and wasn't really even a bit over his husband's death, even though the attack on New York had been over two months ago. Now they understood the man and why he acted how he acted a lot better.

. o O o .

It was three weeks later that their routine got disturbed. Normally, when the team came from an assignment, they would check their gear to make sure that everything was fine and ready when they had to head out again, and then they would go and shower, but when the team got out of the car, Nathan and John saw their team leader freeze.

They looked up and the only people that were out of place on the base were a black man with an eye patch that wore a trench coat and a shorter man in a tight fitted suit. Only a moment later, Clint was across the square and had punched the black man in the face. It all happened so quickly that none of them were able to react.

"Sergeant!" their CO barked and motioned for some of the other soldiers to apprehend Clint, "You can't just punch a general!"

"I believe I just did," Clint answered calmly, as he took down the men around him. Once all of them were on the ground, Clint stepped close to the man in the suit and his teammates could only stare in amazement as the man's whole demeanor changed. His gaze went soft and he rested his forehead gently against that of the other man.

"He told me you were dead," Clint whispered, gesturing towards Fury, but it carried across the whole square easily. "I thought I had lost you. Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

The man smiled sadly at him.

"I'm sorry I couldn't come sooner. I was in a coma until three days ago. They weren't even sure if I would wake up at all," Phil whispered back. "I'm sorry."

Clint carefully checked his husband over with his hands, while asking: "What's he doing here? He should have known that I would punch him."

"I'm not very happy with him right now either, but so far only a few doctors and he know that I'm still alive, and the doctors wouldn't let me go without someone there to supervise me. He was the only choice. And he did know that you would most likely punch him."

While the two of them were talking, more men had come to apprehend Clint, but Fury winked them away.

"I deserved that punch," Fury said as he looked on as his two best agents reconnected.

"I wanted you to be the first one to know and I knew that you wouldn't believe it had I not come in person," Phil went on. "I didn't want you to take any more unnecessary risks, so I came as soon as the doctors let me. Letting you do this job the last time was bad enough. I just couldn't-"

Phil's rambling was interrupted by soft lips on his as Clint kissed him to shut him up. The kiss was slow and careful, but none of them had ever felt more alive.

"Thank you for coming back to me," Clint whispered as soon as they had separated.

"Thank you for not blowing yourself up, while you thought I was dead," Phil murmured back.

"And thank you two for not killing me outright," Fury laughed as the two men glared at him. He knew that there would be retribution from them both, as well as from the Avengers, but he'd rather have it this way than having told them that Coulson was still alive but in a coma and the man not waking up. He'd take the current scenario every day.

-Fin-

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