Summary: After saving Natasha Romanoff from a playground bully, Clint becomes best friends with the little red head. Follows Romanoff and Barton through school from kindergarten to high school. Features characters from the movie-verse and some from the comic book-verse. Alternative Universe.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers or any of the characters. They belong to Marvel.

I also do not own the premise of this story. I sort of got the idea from a blog I follow on Tumblr called "ohshitviolatefanfiction." The idea of this story comes from the story called "You Saved Me" about Violet and Tate from American Horror Story. It's an AU story about Violet and Tate through the years, saving each other. I asked the author of the story if it was okay if I drew ideas from the story and she said it was fine as long as I gave her the credit. So, here's the credit. She is on Fanfiction; her pen name is Lovely Helena. I actually suggest you look her up and read "You Saved Me." That one is my favorite American Horror Story fanfiction written by her. I highly suggest you read it.

I also want to point out that this is my first ever fanfiction! So please, go easy on me for the first few chapters. I'm new to this. I've never written a story that had characters that weren't created by me.


It was that time of year again, back to school and Clint Barton was waiting for the big yellow school bus at the end of his driveway with his brother, Barney. This year was going to be a great year. Not only did his mom buy him a new backpack (a Batman one), but he was going to be in the same first grade classroom as his best friends Thor Odinson and Steve Rogers. Not to mention that they were on the same bus route, so that just made the whole school year ten times better.

Clint kicked a stone and looked down the road for the big yellow bus. Sure enough, there it was as it came chugging up the hill. The school bus slowed down and stopped in front of the two boys and opened its doors to let them step on.

Thor and Steve were seated in the middle of the bus and greeted Clint with cheers. Clint took a seat next to Steve and the boys began to catch up. Though they had practically spent the entire summer together swimming at the local pool and playing on the playground, it had felt like an eternity since they'd been together.

Thor talked about his last few weeks of summer spent in Europe. His parents were very wealthy and were able to take Thor and his older brother, Loki, on expensive trips abroad. Steve shared that he had learned how to skateboard. Though he wasn't very good at it, Steve said that if he kept practicing, by next summer he'd be as good as the high schoolers in the skate park.

Clint and his brother also spent the summer learning archery. Their parents wanted them to do something constructive with their summer besides having play dates with friends so they enrolled them in archery classes at the local YMCA. After a couple of weeks, both Clint and Barney had gotten the hang of it and became the top two students in the class.

As the boys giggled and told more stories of their summer, the bus rolled to a stop to let another student board the bus. Clint wasn't paying attention until he saw the fiery red out of the corner of his eye. He had never seen this little girl before. Not in school, nor around town, so she must have been new to town in general. She was tiny and her curly, fiery red hair was gathered into two low pigtails on each side of her head. She was wearing a black pleated skirt that hung just above her knees and a red sweater. She hung her head low as she ducked into the first empty seat on the bus and settled in.

Normally first graders would think girls are icky and have cooties, but Clint Barton never found that to be a problem. Thor's older brother Loki was friends with two girls in his grade, Maria Hill and Pepper Potts, and whenever they would meet for play dates at the park, Maria and Pepper would be there as well with their parents. The fact that they were girls, nor the fact that they were a grade above them, never seemed to faze Clint, Thor, or Steve. It just seemed normal.

Once the red headed girl was out of sight, Clint returned to the conversation he was having with Thor and Steve until they reached Hamilton Elementary. When they stepped off of the bus, they were directed to the cafeteria where they were to be handed off to their teachers. Clint, Steve, and Thor had Mrs. Humphrey, an elderly woman who looked like she was going to keel over any second but she was the liveliest of the first grade teachers.

The morning went quicker than expected. Mrs. Humphrey showed her students around her classroom, pointing out the computers, the reading area, and the cubbies where they were to place their belongings. Halfway through the morning, Mrs. Humphrey provided them with pretzels and orange juice for a snack to hold them over until lunch time. After snack time, Mrs. Humphrey had them go around the room and introduce themselves and tell the class one thing that they did this summer.

By the time they finished, it was lunch time and Clint, Steve, and Thor couldn't be more excited. The first day of school was always the best day when it came to lunch in the cafeteria. The school was known for its strict "eat healthy" policy but they tended to break that rule on the first day of school, as well as the last full day of school as the end of the year before half days began. There was pizza, mozzarella sticks, and spaghetti and meatballs!

Once the boys each grabbed a tray full of food for themselves, they settled into their designated table with the rest of their classmates and began to chow down. Out of the corner of his eye, Clint could see the girl with the fiery red hair sitting all by herself at the end of the table that was designated for her class. Clint couldn't help but feel bad. The poor girl didn't seem to know anyone.

Clint was pulled out of his thoughts when Steve chucked a balled up napkin at his face and Clint laughed it off and returned to the camaraderie between him and his friends.

Following lunch, Clint and his classmates were led back to the classroom by Mrs. Humphrey for more first day of school business. After about another hour, the entire class was getting antsy and Mrs. Humphrey realized it was about time for recess.

Clint, Thor, and Steve took off for the swing set once they step foot outside. It was a rare occurrence to have three empty swings on the swing set, not mention three empty in a row! Clint, Thor, and Steve took their places and began to pump their legs and see who could gain the most momentum. It didn't take much time, but Thor had managed to beat both Steve and Clint. He always did somehow.

As they kept swinging back and forth and laughing, Clint saw her again. She was sitting on the edge of the playground, but she wasn't alone. Three boys surrounded her. One of them was pulling on her pigtails and another was kicking dirt in her direction. The largest boy seemed to be taunting and teasing her.

Clint stopped pumping his legs and let himself slow down gradually. He wasn't quite sure what he was doing, or why he was doing it, but if this girl was new to the school, there was no need for her to be teased and taunted. Steve and Thor noticed Clint had slowed down and they did as well.

"What's going on Clint?" Steve asked.

"Do you see that girl over there?" Clint asked, pointing in the red head's direction.

"Are they teasing that poor girl?" Thor boomed.

"Looks like it," Clint said with a sigh.

"I think she's on our bus," Steve said.

Clint was taken aback. So he wasn't the only one who had noticed, though it wouldn't be hard to ignore her with bright red hair like that.

The boys watched as one of the bullies kicked dirt in her face, causing her to cough and rub her eyes. Clint could see that a couple of tear had slipped out, but she was trying her very hardest to hide them. Clint looked around and noticed that none of the teachers were paying attention. They were all gathered at a picnic table under a shady tree, probably gossiping about their summers.

Not surprising, Clint thought, Whenever you need a teacher, they're not paying attention or not around.

"Do you think we should do something?" Steve asked, still holding onto his swing for dear life so as not to lose it to another student desperate to swing.

Clint slid off of his swing and made a bee line for the three bullies and the red headed girl. He stomped over, created a cloud of dust around his legs. He could hear Steve and Thor's footsteps pounding into the playground woodchips, trying to catch up with him. Clint approached the bullies but waited to say something until Thor and Steve had caught up with him. There was no way he would be confident enough to do this alone.

"Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" Clint said to the bullies once he sensed Steve and Thor standing behind him.

The bullies immediately stopped taunting the girl and turned to Clint. They seemed caught off guard that someone had even noticed them teasing the girl, and they immediately took a step back.

Clint didn't want to fight. He just wanted to scare the boys off and force them to leave the girl alone. He had to admit it. He felt naked without a bow and arrow in his hands. Not that he wanted to cause harm to the bullies but if this resulted in a serious confrontation, Clint was sure that a bow and arrow would certainly scare them off for good.

"Oh yeah?" the largest boy said, puffing up his chest. "What are you going to do about it?"

"I could go and tell my teacher, but that would make me a tattle tale," Clint said. "I think I'm just going to tell you to leave this girl alone or you'll have to answer to us."

The bullies stood their ground. Maybe they were really going to have to go tell a teacher.

"So," Clint started, and turned to Thor, "I guess you should go tell Mrs. Humphrey then."

Thor nodded and started to head towards the teachers when the largest bully told him to stop. The ringleader beckoned to his cohorts to follow him, but not before one of them pulled the elastic band from the red head's hair, causing her hair to fall loose on one side.

When the bullies finally disappeared to entertain themselves elsewhere, Clint offered a hand to the red hand to help her off the ground. She graciously took it and he pulled her off the ground. She wiped away the stray tears on her face, smearing dirt onto her tear streaked face.

"Thanks," she mumbled, staring at the ground.

"No problem," Clint said. The red head seemed really shy. Either that, or she just didn't feel comfortable around other people, specifically boys.

"These are my friends, Steve and Thor," Clint said, hoping to ease the awkward situation. Steve waved and Thor practically yelled that it was nice to meet her.

"And I'm Clint," Clint said, pointing to himself. "What's your name?"

The red head wiped at her tear streaked face once again and looked up from the ground to Clint.

"Natasha," she mumbled.

"Natasha, it's nice to meet you," Clint said, offering his hand to her once again, but to shake it.

She hesitated at first but she finally cracked a small smile and took Clint's hand and shook it.