Tangled Is Our Thing:

by Fandom Girl Writer

The Battle Of New York is a hard one, especially when you have a whole school to look after but it seems that protecting them is only the first hurdle. Meeting the Chitauri with frying pans makes you think of Rapunzel. But will you get a happy ending? Will you meet your Flynn Rider? That's another hurdle. Meeting Hawkeye is another. But is he a hurdle you want to jump? One-Shot.

Clint Battle Of New York One Shot

"What the hell?" You whisper, seeing the portal open to New York from, somewhere else. You'd been watching the children play and supervising when you saw it. All of the children were mesmerised as well, many filming it on their phones. It takes you a moment to register they weren't good and usher the children inside. You run all around the school for a weapon eventually settling for two frying pans from the food tech room, flicking hair out of your face feeling like Rapunzel for a moment. You ran back to the children and saw them all in the hall scared and huddling their belongings. Some children were in the corner being comforted by other teachers, crying in fright. Your heart ached for them but you remember you have to stay strong and lead the school.

Then the secretary ran in and told you of a perimeter the Avengers were setting up in the far end of the city. It was a perilous journey that would take time and you could be caught up in the main fight but you had no other choice. You thank the scared woman and tell her to call the parents, telling them their children will be safe and to get to the perimeter. You straighten up, standing tall on your heels and walk up to the podium that was reserved for the teachers and looked at the students, catching their attention with a cough. "Hello stu-," You start but falter, this was war. And these were children. No point in being formal now, you need to encourage them and get their fighting spirits up, not make them cry with your formalities. You weren't known for being formal, but you could hold it if you wanted to. You were a warm, caring Headmistress to everyone and tried not to punish students too much. This was a time for that. "Hey guys. You've all seen that portal outside right? Well, aliens are coming through, and unlike Thor on the Avengers, they aren't friendly." You let out a breath and tried not to cry with the few people who'd been sick at the information. "I promise, this school is going to keep you safe and we will protect you to the end. We will fight to the death." You promise, knowing it was completely true for you and looking around, you see the little staff that were in the hall meant it as well. The rest were calling the parents like you asked. "I've got my frying pans, those aliens will have a face full of steel in a moment." You joke, knowing it was the best way to rouse their spirits.

You hear a few shouts of "Yes Miss!" and smile happily at them. Then one student asked the one question you feared. "But Miss, won't they come in the school?" He put a hand up and speaking anyway, but you don't think it is a time for discipline.

"Yes, they will certainly try. But, we've just heard news of a perimeter the Avengers are setting up outside, by Stark Tower. If we can make it there, we'll be protected by the police and we've sent calls out to your parents, families and everyone on our lists to get to the perimeter. Now, it's your turn. You need to get out there and fight. I wouldn't normally encourage this but guys, it's time to let your animal out. When you fight in the playground, you get aggressive. Do that to these aliens. Yeah? I know we can beat these suckers!" You shout, receiving agreeing shouts and yells against the aliens. You even hear swear words but decide against telling them off. No point now is there?

"You don't even have to use your fists! Textbooks are massive for a reason, maybe they were waiting for this?" You shout, trying to engage them. You knew that in any other situation this is never going to happen again, so you might as well enjoy this new persona. You walk towards a kid, holding his textbook and mime using it like a bat and walk up to the girls. "You can use those fake nails of your as mini missiles. Or, you can hit them with your make up bag, you seem to have enough." You say, miming the same thing. The girl had a lot of make up on and you knew it was against school rules.

Then she spoke back saying, "I'd rather hit them with my P.E. bag instead." Holding it up with pride and you struggle not to let out a yell of joy.

"See! That's better! You don't have to use make up! Strong can be just as beautiful. Use your P.E. kits! Use your bags, hit them with everything you've got. They've just ripped up your perfect tests! What are you going to do?" You shout, causing a rebellion that everyone stood by, in a big group. Everyone was encouraged and roaring in agreement. "Use those killer heels! Kick with those boots!" You shouts, pointing at two girls who hate each other, and use their assets. They look at each other, confused as to how they might work and then smile, siding up together. You grab your stuff, pack in in one bag, strap it around you and lead everyone out with your frying pans. A roar escapes you as you run with the other teachers forming a protective circle around the children who are kicking and screaming at the aliens. The aliens turn, see you and come running. You immediately curse your heels and consider kicking them off but see the amount of dangerous objects on the road and decide against it. You can't count how many times you've been smashing your frying pans into these aliens and how many have fallen. You're making good progress and the teachers and holding their own with the children protecting their side of the circle.

Then one of the aliens grab a young boy from out of the group. A Year 7 who's screaming, trying to get the thing to drop him but it doesn't work. You hear screams from the children behind you and you charge, with sixth form defending your part of the circle as you one on one battle the alien. You smash its leg and it falls to its knees while you hold the boy's bag and smash its arm with the other frying pan. You pull the boy down and he runs back to the group. You can't count how long it's been and you are not going to check your phone while fighting the aliens but you finally see the perimeter in sight and when the coast seems clear you shout for everyone to make a run for it. By now, you have many cuts and bruises and your hair is coming out and many of the teachers are the same. They go and they all make it, the police shooting down the rest and the children's parents waiting for them taking them to the medics and checking them over. You're about to join them but then a group of the aliens come after you. You analyse the situation.

A break for the perimeter would make them follow you and break the perimeter. You couldn't let that happen. Fighting all of these would end in certain death, especially with how tired and broken you already are. So you run, you run back into battle hearing the screams of "Miss!... Come back!... We'll fight them!" behind you from your students and shout to them.

"Stay there! The police will protect you!" Turning your head for a moment, seeing one student crumple to the ground in tears before the heat of battle consumes everything. Your heart breaks and you swear you could hear it crack at the same time you left arm does. You cry out and are forced to drop one of the frying pans. "Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap." You continue to repeat like a mantra while tears run down your face. "I'm so screwed, so screwed, so screwed." Your mantra changes as more come and join the fight, determined to get you. "This is it, the end. This is so crappy." You mutter to yourself as you realise you can't see anything but the swarm of aliens around you. You're standing on their dead bodies, you're fighting them, and you've got cuts and bruises made by them, you can smell their dead stench, you can hear their growls and every sense in you wants to be rid of them. Your body is shutting down and the only thing you can hear is the universal beeping sound of a bomb. You see an arrow lodged in one of their bodies and see the beeping, a bomb. "Great." You mutter sarcastically as you try to run from it, breaking through the swarm as they stand mesmerised at the beeping arrow. You can't run any longer and brace yourself for the impact.

Then you feel the air around you whipping your hair. Your eyes close and all you can feel is the cold and warmth. Your brain can barely process anything, but you think the warmth is from the bomb, is the cold death? It feels more like a breeze. Cool and nice against the skin, until you crash into something. The impact makes you open your eyes and you find yourself in the air, stationary above the battle seeing the small explosion as a little light as you see the vastness of the battle. You wonder how you got here, is it your soul? Are you dead? Your body, scattered in pieces in the explosion below? No, you see an arrow piercing your shirt, it must've lifted you. How is that possible? It must be an amazing arrow and in your tired state you poke it gently before almost stroking it. You have no idea what to do now, but hang limply. You managed to hold onto your frying pan, but it is no use up here. You hold onto it anyway. It has served you well.

Then you see Iron Man fly past you and wonder if you should ask for help. No, you dismiss the thought, he's probably busy fighting and doing much better than you can right now. You shouldn't bother him. Then you hear a voice. "Hey, lady. You need a little help?" You wonder how this person got up there, seeing as you were hanging near the top of a building.

You try and turn to see who it is but can barely manage it, simply saying "Yeah, thanks." While this person pulls you up, the arrow coming out with a little tug from him, the thought shaking you awake. What the hell? It would come loose like that? Good thing this guy came, you mutter.

You're pulled on top of the building and fall onto your knees the second he puts you down. "You okay?" He asks while your head pounds, the dried blood sticking to your face and bruises throbbing. But what hurts most is your arm. You definitely broke it and it hurts just as much as the virus you had when you were young added to your cuts and bruises. Your thoughts are going crazy. You know it can't actually be that bad, but the fatigue and everything mixed together is taking its toll.

"My arm." You manage to choke out lying on the ground, trying to wipe the blood from your face. You're so tired that you can't even register who it is before you pass out, but you could tell he was handsome. You wake up with your arm bandaged and your cuts cleaned with plasters on them. In short, you're completely bandaged up, like a medic took care of you. But when you stand up you're still on the rooftop. The battle is still going on and you're still on the roof. You look around for anyone who could've patched you up, but you don't know who might've helped you. You don't even know how long you've been asleep but you know it must've been long enough for your mysterious saviour to go re-join the fight that's still raging on. You see your bag with all of your stuff and your frying pan lying on the ground. You check through it and find everything untouched and safe.

"What the hell happened?" You whisper to yourself, trying to block out the noise of the fight. You can't do anything at the moment. You need to focus. Whose face did you see when he pulled you up? You closed your eyes and focused on his face, he was familiar in some way. His soft eyes, a calm but accented tone, and his sweet smile. You'd never met him, you were sure of that otherwise he'd wouldn't have called you a lady. It was cute but you preferred to be called by your name. Not many people had nicknames for you and you didn't think they'd be here or even call you the nickname in the middle of a war. No, you didn't know this man directly. First meeting, so how was he familiar? Famous? An Avenger? Which one? Arrows. He used arrows. It must be Hawkeye! You open your eyes, knowing who had saved you, to see another alien on the roof. You grab your frying pan and ran to smash it into the ground instead. Knocking it off might hurt someone else. But then the roof caved in, with you on it. You tried to grab something, but your bag fell on top of you and you barely managed to keep a hold of your frying pan.

You couldn't even scream as you hit the floor and it winded you. You got up, your clothes covered in rubble and tried to orientate yourself again. You only dropped a floor and the whole place was deserted as you walked down the stair slowly. You had to re-join the fight. You couldn't leave everyone there and you had to get yourself somewhere safe as well. That chance was only taken from you because of the aliens. You couldn't let it be taken from anyone else. Anyone you met along the way, you had to help. Get them to the perimeter and keep scouring the place. These aliens knew you now. They knew you were dangerous and fought for others. That probably made you a big target and you needed to watch your back. You had regained some movement and fight and you knew you had to look in other buildings. You stuffed down your claustrophobia and entered cautiously, becoming comfortable with the place before searching the place. This became your routine, for the buildings all along the side, every house, every office you searched, killing as many aliens as you could along the way.

The main fight was coming and you had to be prepared. You wielded your frying pan and got closer and closer, killing too many to count. All you could think of was the students you had managed to get to safety and how many more you needed to help. You couldn't think of anything but that, it was all that engulfed you. You kept going back and forth, kicking and punching, flipping the pan and smashing it into whatever you could. You closed your eyes for longer than usual because it was just too much and blocking out at least one sense was enough to get you through it. Then you moved on. How long this went on for, you have no idea, but eventually you collapsed in an office building, beside one of the chairs. You couldn't do anything but lie there as your body wouldn't respond. Eventually your eyes followed the shutting down and not responding motion and you went into a deep sleep.

You woke up to someone shaking you and look tiredly at the archer who bandaged you up before. You barely registered him and it shook the sleep out of you. Obviously not having eaten for days, you were tired but the sight of the archer instantly made you perk up. You looked at him, and held up a hand "You, you, you helped me. You saved me from the aliens." Your words faltered as you struggled to form a sentence. He smiled happily at you and you couldn't help the feeling it gave you.

"So you recognise me then? Although, when I saved you, I thought you'd be safe after that as well. Not just go straight back into war with your frying pan. You aren't Rapunzel, you know." He spoke, his calming voice, grounding you back to reality and you focused on his face and was suddenly aware of his proximity. It wasn't uncomfortable but it was enough to make your heart race. You tried to focus on his words instead of his proximity though. The reference didn't go over your head and you smiled at him, finding it funny that he knew what Tangled was. Did he watch any more Disney?

"You like Disney? And I'm more of a Maximus." You manage to quip, retorting to his smile. He seemed happy that you spoke. His smile made fireworks go off in your stomach and you didn't know why but it wasn't a bad feeling.

"Yeah, I know Disney. And you do remember that Maximus is a horse right?" He asked, trying to keep the conversation going.

"Yeah, but horses are amazing. They're so beautiful." You speak, your tiredness starting to kick in again. Whenever you're tired you have a habit of seeming drunk. It's something you can't stop but others still laugh at your seemingly drunk demeanour. The archer couldn't help himself either and started to chuckle, his deep laugh making you smile again, before you were about to go back to sleep.

"Hey, hey, look at me. You can't go back to sleep. Not right now ok? I know this is hard, but you need to keep talking and I promise, I'll get you out of this. Yeah?" He tried, shaking you a little more. When you barely responded, he panicked and started to ask you questions about Disney. "So, what's your favourite Disney film?" He asked, peaking your interest again.

"I can't choose. I love them all." You tell him, remembering all the times you'd been asked to choose something and couldn't decide. "Runs in the family. None of us can choose anything. But I love the villains as well. Everyone thinks I'm crazy for it, but the villains are so good as well." You defend, remembering the amount of times you've sang their songs when you lose paperwork.

"Really? I thought I was the only one. You like Mother Gothel?" He asks and you realise you don't know his name.

"Yeah, I love "Mother Knows Best" because my Mum always says that and it makes me laugh." You say, laughing at the inside joke only you and your siblings know about. "Hey, what's your name?" You ask, wanting to know the name of your saviour. Something other than Hawkeye.

"Clint. Clint Barton." He answered, glad to have your attention. "Yours?" Clint asked and you struggle to process what he's said.

"(Y/N). (Y/N) (L/N). Nice to meet you." You say, moving to sit up straight and hold out a hand to shake, trying to wake up properly.

"Wow, you're very proper aren't you?" Clint complimented, shaking your hand with a firm grip as you do the same. His comment hit home and you smile.

"Yeah, comes with the territory. Being a Headmistress isn't the most comforting job ever but I'm trying." You say. "You know, my friends say that to me. They all say I speak really posh." You remember their teasing. You weren't posh, you thought, you were just, well read. But even as you said that, it sounded too posh and they smiled again. They gave you that look that said 'okay, whatever you say even thought I totally don't believe you.' In the end you gave up and they continued calling you 'poshie' as a nickname.

"You do. You sound like the Queen." Clint said but quickly repented when he saw your look. "Like a good Queen, it's a compliment. Not a bad thing." He rushed and you laughed. He was just like your friends but you wouldn't normally be this close to your friends, you thought.

"It's fine. Just don't call me poshie." You condition as he looks at you quizzically. "Wait, where's my pan?" You ask, noticing the lack of metal in your hand.

"You mean this one?" Clint asks and you rush to the pan, inspecting it for too much damage. If it was still usable. The other one was lost on the battlefield and you couldn't be bothered to find it. This was your last weapon. "I won't call you poshie, but I think I'll call you Rapunzel." Clint spoke up, amused at your affection towards the dented frying pan.

"And who are you? The Captain of the Guards?" You ask, sassing him. What you liked about Clint was that he liked your banter and understood it rather than just you being defensive. Everyone thought you were just supposed to take it and smile and thought you were just being defensive and moody. Clint wasn't like them. He understood your retorts and didn't mind them at all, he just came back you had a feeling that banter with Clint could go on for ages.

"No, I'm totally Flynn Rider." He retorted and they shared a smile, having nothing to retort and then it hit you both. Your smiles turned shy and awkward but neither of you crossed out the idea. Rapunzel and Flynn Rider, it fit, you mused. You didn't have a chance to move on from the topic as an alien crashed through the window and didn't move as Clint pulled you out of the way and held you tight to make sure you didn't fall. You hold his arms around you as you find yourself at the other side of the room. Your bag is safe beside the chair and Clint leaves you to check if the alien is dead or not and you instantly miss his warm embrace. He leans down to the alien and you gear yourself up for battle again, checking your heels and are surprised to find they are still safe and intact. Clint comes back and you look up to see his grimace. "It's dead." He says in a monotone. Although it was a horrifying creature it was Loki who'd brought them into this battle, causing them to kill and be killed. He hated that slimy creature. He wasn't a God, he was a murderer.

"Let's go back into battle then." You attempt a smile waving your frying pan, pulling up your trousers and unbuttoning your blazer. You couldn't express how thankful you were you hadn't worn a dress that day. You didn't know how long it had been but it felt like years ago that this battle had begun and you saved those students, telling them to get their textbooks to kill those suckers. You wondered if all of them were alright. Your heart ached for them and you knew they were more than just students to you. You knew your family was safe in England, but you missed them and knew they were probably going frantic. You could just imagine your mother shouting about whatever to all of your cousins and everyone you knew, trying to get some more information. They could've presumed you dead by now. You didn't even know how long it had been.

All you knew was that you were going to get an earful from your mother after this. You could hear it now, "Why would you do such a thing? I'm glad you got your students to safety but why couldn't you come back after you woke up? No need to be a hero. Honestly this is the 100th time you've almost died and given me a heart attack." She was exaggerating of course, it wasn't 100 times, it was somewhere about 30. You'd sort of lost count. Most of them were near car crashes, be it as a pedestrian or a driver. Other stuff was just knife crime and you'd grown immune to most of it by now. You almost got run over again the other day and all you could think of was how many times this has happened and being sarcastic as you made a run for it.

"No," Clint spoke quietly. You were snapped out of your thoughts as he spoke. You were confused, what was he talking about? "You can't go out there again. What if you get hurt?" He asked and you were hurt, just not in the way he thought you would. Why did he suddenly think you were his property? What you did had nothing to do with him.

"I have a frying pan and I've gotten this far. I'm tougher than I look and I can pack a mean swing. Clint, I'll be fine. Rapunzel was fine." You try to encourage him. You'd rather go out there with him by your side than alone, although you would if you had to. He didn't respond, and you walked up to him and surprised him by trying to move your head in his sight and get him to look at you. "Clint, look at me." You try when he moves his head away. "I'll be fine." You emphasize when he finally looks at you and you add, "Plus, I have my Flynn Rider don't I?" You try to joke again. You don't want to be mean to him. He doesn't respond and you give up simply walking back through the hole the alien crashed through. You glance back at his pleading eyes and feel your heart break. Why was he doing this? Why couldn't he let you fight? You knew you were just a civilian but you could fight as well. You straightened up and swung your frying pan being met by an alien almost immediately. He tries to grab you and you let out a yelp before smashing his face in and go into the main battle with the other superheroes, who barely notice you, trying to defeat the aliens themselves.

There are a few new cuts made by their hands reaching out to grab you from behind and grabbing your hair again. Your curse yourself for not tying it up. Oh well you think as you smash the pan behind you into the alien's face. Then you're lifted into the air by one of the aliens by your leg and your shirt slips down, revealing your stomach. You scream and your arms flail as you pointlessly try to hit the alien with your pan. It doesn't reach and you're stuck, screaming for your life. Then he drops you into Clint's arms and he catches you bridal style. Your breath catches in your throat as he holds your legs and supports your back, while you grab his neck with your hands. You see his cheeky smile and let out a breath, hugging him quickly as he lets you down. You pull your shirt down and he smiles at you saying, "I told you." And you give him a raised eyebrow back.

"Yeah, because defeating all of these aliens is a bad thing." You gesture to the piles of bodies around you. He shakes his head, defeated and you smile turning around. Then Clint is ambushed by another alien and is knocked to the ground. He's not used to fighting on the ground, he's better with a bow and arrow but he's all out. He's fighting the alien as best as he can but its hell bent on him. He already has an advantage over Clint and is about to kill him when you kick it and it turns to face you to receive a smash in the face. You kick it again and it falls to the side, probably dead or not going to get up any time soon. You hold out a hand to Clint, to help him get up and he hugs you when he gets back on his feet. You reciprocate and you feel glad to know he's back on your side. He picks up his earpiece and sighs, replacing it in his ear.

"It's broken beyond repair. I can't talk to them. Wait, I can still hear them." He gasps and you smile with him, wanting to know the new news. There is no more aliens in this part of the city and you wonder where they all went. Did you finally defeat them? Is the perimeter holding? Are your students safe? His face drops as he starts to shout "No, no, no, no, no!" Repeatedly turning in circles as you rush to comfort him.

"What is it? What's wrong?" You ask quickly as his face pales at the news on the earpiece. You feel your stomach flip, what else can go wrong now?

"They're going to nuke New York." Clint tells you and you feel sick. How could they? You and so many others have been fighting these off and now they're just going to nuke it? They'll kill billions. You sink to your knees and try to concentrate on not puking. What about your students? They'll all die. You did so much to get them there, the horrors they had to face. You and the other teachers. You realise you'll never see them again, they'll die thinking you died as well. Your entire family will. You'll never see them again. Then Clint starts again. "What the hell? No Tony you idiot! Why the hell would you do that?" He starts to shout again and you put aside your feelings to comfort Clint.

"Clint, they can't hear you." You gently tell him as he falls to his knees with you. You put an arm around him. "Tell me what happened. What's Tony going to do?" You ask calmly, trying to sooth him. He holds his head in his hands and you know it must be bad. Although you can't imagine what could be worse.

"He's going to steer the nuke into the portal, closing it with him on the other side." Clint tells you and you feel tears slip down your face. This isn't better. You've learnt that everyone you know is going to be okay and you're not going to die but you can't think. You're numb with the thought that someone is going to sacrifice themselves for New York and you feel like you'd rather die. Your mouth is hanging open when Tony flies into the portal. You can barely see it, the red and gold of his suit flying into the portal, but you focus. Then he disappears and you wait. You wait for him to reappear and keep an arm around Clint who's still on his knees with his head in his hands. You can't bear it when Clint lets out a sob as you assume they're going to switch off the portal. Your throat is dry and you can't feel anything. You can't tear your eyes away from the portal closing and keep waiting for him to reappear. You almost think it's an illusion when you do see the red and gold blur through your tears. He's coming out of the sky and you blink before you can confirm he is there. You turn to Clint and excitedly shout to him.

"Clint! Clint! He's there!" You shout, pointing to him, your excitement building. He takes off and you get up to follow him but you trip on a dead Chitauri body and break your leg, landing on a hand, its fingers going into your flesh. You yell and fall on your side. Clint turns back and sees you on the floor but you shout at him. "GO! RUN, QUICKLY! RUN FLYNN!" You yell as loud as you can, hoping he'll take your advice. You couldn't resist using the Disney character. It's all turning out well, like a fairytale you muse as he takes off again. You sigh happily and lay your head on your arm, hoping to God that Tony's alright. You lay there for a few moments wondering what to do. It will be a while before medics come to check for survivors. You decide to try and get up, using a piece of wood as a crutch. You lean on it, trying to ignore the throbbing pain that takes over your entire body as you limp back to the crumbling office building to retrieve your bag with your things. They're all still, thankfully, intact and you use your phone to call your mother who picks up immediately. Her tone is frantic and you cry from the relief of hearing her voice again.

"(Y/N)! Is that you? Oh, thank God! I was so worried!" She shouts over the phone and you both break down over the phone, consoling each other. You tell her what happened, leaving out Clint and the amount of times you almost died again. You say goodbye and she tells you she's going to fly out as soon as she can. You then call your Dad and your brother, telling them the same as your Mum. But when you call your cousins and sister, you tell them about Clint and they giggle in joy and you all rejoice over the fact you might have a tiny crush on the archer. You end the call and make one last special one to your best friends, in a group call. You call them and they all immediately pick up, and you tell the story of the 'Tangled' references included, with all of your conversations and close proximities instead of just the fact he saved you. They tease you about him and you cry with joy by the end of it.

It has been over an hour and your leg is going numb. You can't move, so you just sit there, hoping you see Clint again. You keep chatting, asking them all to keep you company as you wait. The topic moves on and you talk about anything and everything, just catching up and making sly, rude 'Tangled' references. You giggle and lay your head on a blunt piece of stone. You hair is messy and 'tangled' as one might say, and you use it as a constant reminder of Clint. When you tell them of how he wanted to protect you, they all went 'aww' simultaneously. You couldn't help but giggle again, happy to relax after the battle. Tears kept slipping down your cheeks but you didn't mind. You had to let it out sometime, you reasoned. They had to go after 2 hours though and you lay there content as you heard people calling out. You called back and they came running. You were lifted carefully onto a stretcher and your leg is put in a cast after being cleaned with antiseptic.

You asked to be taken to the rescue teams and map out the places you've already searched and found no one, saving them a lot of time and saving a lot of people. You gulp down a whole bottle of water and munch on a sandwich hungrily. You wipe away the crumbs and are met by your students who all made it safely. They engulf you in a huge hug and thank you for your bravery. They gush about how cool you are and you hug them back, complimenting them all on how brave they were. They are taken home by their parents who also thank you and you give the crying ones hugs, who didn't know what they would've done if you hadn't saved them. You spend the rest of the day, helping, giving and receiving thanks and cleaning minor wounds. You were trained in first aid, being a Headmistress. It is past midnight when you decide to give up, already having gone past the medics recommendations.

You sit in a chair and try to muster the courage to get up. You'd spoken to some of the sixth form and confided that you'd met Hawkeye and had a little crush when they asked you what had happened. You became closer as friends and you were both adults and equals. They weren't the shy, quiet year 7's she's taught all of those years ago. They had grown and matured and some of them wanted to join SHIELD to become an agent. You smiled at that, knowing they'd meet Clint. "Don't mention me there okay? Clint probably doesn't remember me." You condition, when they told you of their plans. They smiled at you and you give them hugs as they set out on life. They're not leaving yet, that's too soon, but the day is coming. And you couldn't be happier. You sat there going over the day and you decided to get up when you felt a twinge in your leg. It wasn't much, but after the week you'd had, it was enough to make you fall. You braced yourself for the impact as everyone around was doing other important stuff but it never came. Instead you found yourself in warm, comforting arms. You recognised them. You looked up to see Clint smiling warmly at you.

"Hey," He greeted when you saw his face. He pulled you up so you could balance on the crutch properly and you couldn't deny the happiness that burst in your heart like fireworks when you saw him again. "You alright?" He asked in his rough tone and you smiled at him. He had a few cuts and bruises on his face as well.

"Yeah, although I don't really know what classifies as alright in this situation." You joke, wanting to know if the same Clint you met was in there somewhere.

"I don't know either sometimes, but I guess finding humour in a frying pan is one of them Rapunzel." He says back, letting you know everything is alright and Tony's fine. You sigh in relief and lean on the crutch more as you feel the weights flying off your shoulder.

"Clint?" You ask as you feel his stare on your face. "Are you alright? Tony's alright? Loki's captured?" You ask, wanting to know what the problem could be.

"I'm fine, so is Tony and Loki's gone back to Asgard to face his punishment there." Clint summarised, while you breathed out another sigh, but leading you to wonder what the actual problem was then.

"So what's wrong Eugene?" You ask him, your nose wrinkled in concern. He smiled at you but it did little to take away your concern.

"What makes you think something is wrong?" He asks and your confusion takes over.

"Because you're looking at me weirdly. And you don't seem overjoyed even though probably everything you ever wanted since this war began is fulfilled." You summarise, not knowing all of his ambitions but knowing that a main one was wanting the war to be over.

"Maybe not all of them have been fulfilled. Maybe it's something I never realised I wanted, or needed until now?" Clint suggested and you move forward in concern, what would make him say that?

"Well, what is it? What's the unfulfilled ambition Fitzherbert?" You ask, laying a hand on his shoulder.

"Oh God, Cap's going to kill me later but," Clint muttered, before putting a hand on your cheek and leaning in. You moved your hand from his arm to his cheek and leaned in as well. Your lips met gently and he caressed your cheek. You felt him skim over your stitched cut and his other hand went around your head, getting tangled in your hair by the time he'd ran his hand through to the back of your head. You deepened the kiss, your hand caressing his bruise as well.

As you pulled away, you couldn't help but murmur, "I like Clint Barton better." And you felt him chuckle against your lips. You smiled as well, moving back to see his face. He scanned your face with his eyes and you did the same with yours. You heard everyone's cheers and wolf whistles behind you and one of the sixth formers were filming it. You made a mental note to get that video off of them later. You had to show your friends. You were leaning against him and your crutch was lying on the floor. You winced in pain as you tried to balance alone.

"Careful Rapunzel, don't trip over your own hair." He murmured again as he bent down to retrieve the crutch.

"It's not that long." You say back glad that the banter was still there. "And what happened to my name? The frying pans gone." You say, noting his use of the nickname.

"You're right. But it's still tangled. And maybe I should use your proper name. It might make this better." Clint breathes, trying to psyche himself up for something.

"Clint? For what?" You ask. Too many things had happened and you were overwhelmed. You didn't even know what sort of status you had with Clint now.

"(Y/N), I was mesmerised from the moment I saw you. You saved all of those students and thought about saving everyone else before yourself. Then you kept fighting and wouldn't give up. You understood every Disney reference I made and made me feel love for the first time in forever." Clint's eyes sparkled with recognition.

"Frozen now?" You murmured in amusement.

"You wouldn't sit back even when I asked you and kept going through this whole battle. I think the amount of deaths would've been so much higher if you hadn't done what you did. You've inspired me and I would like to ask you, will you go on a date with me?" Clint asked, wanting to take this slowly and be sure you were okay with it.

"Yes," You spoke, and he kissed you again in joy. "So this is love." You whispered as he chuckled again.

"Is Disney our thing?" He asked and you smiled in his neck.

"Of course." You reply, making him hug you as you heard even more cheers from behind. The entire Avengers team was standing there, making wolf whistles and shouting something you couldn't hear. You were too focused on Clint. "But Tangled is more our thing." You whisper again. He wraps you in a hug and you don't object. Why would you?