this is au because clint is a Single Man in this.

2466 words, by gdocs

Clint's stationed in Washington, D.C.

He hates it.

It's not that there's anything wrong with D.C., it's just that Clint craves New York. He craves the Avengers Tower, he craves sparring with Natasha, he craves sitting on the roof and just looking out across the city.

Except Steve asked Clint to stay in DC, and seeing as Clint is technically unemployed besides for being an Avenger, he said yes.

You don't really say no to Captain America.

Besides, Clint might hate being in DC, but at least it comes with benefits — Steve promised to pay for Clint's coffee addiction (which, he'd argue, isn't really an addiction). Seeing as he's off-duty half of the time, he spends a lot of time in the Starbucks down the street from his apartment.

Today, Clint's sitting down at his regular table, drinking his second cup of coffee. He lost track of time the night before, doing target practice, and his brain doesn't want to be awake.

"You're Hawkeye, right?" a voice says from above him.

Clint's about to tell the person to please go away because he's not in the mood to deal with a teenager with an Avenger obsession, but then he looks up and the words he was about to say get caught in his throat.

It's not a teenager. It's a man, probably around the same age as Clint, with sparkling brown eyes and chocolatey skin.

And damn.

Clint is sort of getting why Tony constantly calls him a gay disaster.

He has a strong urge to get to know this man. He wants to, so so so badly.

"That's me," Clint forces out, grinning at him.

The person lets out a little laugh, his eyes still sparkling a bit. He opens his mouth like he's about to say something but quickly closes it.

"You can sit down," Clint offers, gesturing to the chair across from him. The man smiles and pulls out the chair.

Name, a harsh voice from the back of Clint's brain says.

Right.

"What's —" Clint starts, getting cut off by his text tone. It's from Steve, judging by the loud bird call coming from his phone.

8th and E, reads the text.

ur cockblocking me, Clint texts back, but he gets up anyway, grabbing his coffee.

"Got to go," he tells the guy, heading towards the door. "Avengers duties."

The guy waves at him, laughter still in his eyes.

Well, that guy will be lost to the void of Men In D.C. There's always next time.

…

Except next time is the same guy.

Clint's at his Starbucks and can see him out of the corner of his eye — chocolatey skin, bright eyes — sitting at one of the tables, looking down at his phone. He just wishes the line would hurry up so he could go and talk to the guy.

He finally, after what seems like an eternity, gets his coffee and walks over, gulping it down. He needs to be at least thirty percent awake to flirt.

"Cute Coffee Guy," Clint says as he approaches.

He internally facepalms. Did he really have to say that out loud?

Smooth, Barton, smooth, he thinks. Gay disaster! the Tony in his brain yells.

"Cute Avenger," the guy says, glancing up and not missing a beat.

Ohhhhhhh.

Clint sits down, not even waiting for an invitation. The guy puts down his phone and looks up at Clint, smirking a little bit.

"I owe you an apology," Clint starts, gesturing with his coffee cup.

"Do you?" Cute Coffee Guy asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Sorry for walking out on you the other day," Clint continues, noticing the guy's eyes flick to Clint's lips — that's good, right? "I should make it up to you," he offers.

The guy taps his fingers on the table. "I mean duty calls, I get it," he says, leaning back a little. "But what were you thinking?"

He's gonna do it. Clint's gonna do it. He's going all in. His heart starts beating faster, and he's not sure if it's nerves or caffeine. Both, probably.

"Well, I was thinking that there's this place on —" Clint stops speaking as the guy's phone chimes. A normal text tone. Typical

"Duty calls," the guy says, looking down at his phone. "You know how it is," he says, looking ruefully at Clint.

Clint nods, because he does know how it is, but that's not supposed to happen to him. It goes the other way around! It's a little bit disheartening. Still, he waves goodbye to Cute Coffee Guy and leans back, drinking his coffee.

The guy's already out the door when Clint realizes that he never asked for a name.

…

Clint knows that by this point, he's not even going to Starbucks for his coffee addiction. He wants to find Cute Coffee Guy.

He realizes after he spends all day there — again. He's been just sitting at a table, drinking coffee, and browsing the internet on his phone.

God, he's a loser.

It doesn't matter, anyway — S.H.I.E.L.D. fell. He's not a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent anymore, which means he's technically unemployed. He doesn't have anywhere to be, unless Steve calls him.

Which means lots of free time to look for Cute Coffee Guy.

Except Cute Coffee Guy hasn't been here for a week. Part of Clint is annoyed that he's not spending more time with this cute guy. Another part is worried that he moved away. The other part is honestly just concerned — what if something awful happened to him?

Still, Clint waits. He's hopeful.

The least he could get is a name, honestly.

Finally, finally, after what has probably been two weeks, Cute Coffee Guy walks in the door. Clint should probably make a move, except something seems off about him. He seems tired.

No, not tired. Exhausted.

Clint just watches Cute Coffee Guy from his table and watches as he gets his coffee. When Cute Coffee Guy goes to grab some napkins from the station just a few feet away from Clint's table, Clint finally calls out.

"You're back!" he says, smiling at him.

Cute Coffee Guy turns to Clint and looks at Clint for a second before smiling lightly.

"I'm back," he says, smiling wider. A dimple appears on his left cheek and Clint doesn't know how he's never noticed that before. God, he loves it. He also notices, looking at his face, deep bags underneath his eyes. He looks as tired as Clint usually feels.

"You haven't been here in like two weeks," Clint says, gesticulating.

"I was in Europe," Cute Coffee Guy says. He's standing next to the napkins, holding a bunch in one hand and his coffee cup in the other.

"Fancy," Clint notes. Cute Coffee Guy shrugs.

"I've been looking for someone," he elaborates, still not moving from the napkin station.

"All across Europe? Anyone I can help find?" Clint asks because maybe this is their rom-com story — he helps Cute Coffee Guy find whoever he's looking for and they fall in love along the way.

Or maybe Cute Coffee Guy's looking for some lost love.

Clint'll try and ignore that thought.

"I doubt it," Cute Coffee Guy responds with a sharp laugh. "He doesn't want to be found." Cute Coffee Guy takes a swig of his coffee, a starts to walk away. "Thanks anyway, Hawkeye," he says, giving Clint a nod.

"Clint," he supplies instead, smiling at Cute Coffee Guy.

"Clint," Cute Coffee Guy repeats with a smile and a nod before turning and walking away.

Clint's internally facepalming because you're supposed to say your name now Goddammit.

Maybe next time.

…

Cute Coffee Guy's already there by the time Clint stumbles in the next morning, sitting at a table and reading something on his phone.

Clint's had a bad night — it sometimes happens that he can't sleep, just thinking about his life. It's not healthy, really, but Clint's body liquid is probably mostly coffee, so what does he know about health?

So Clint's normal tiredness combined with the tiredness he has from no sleep is affecting his brain and he could really use a coffee, but he finds his legs walking over to Cute Coffee Guy instead.

"Any luck with Mr. Europe?" he asks, sliding over.

Cute Coffee Guy looks up from his phone and raises his eyebrows.

"He's actually from America," he responds. "Brooklyn."

"Yet you're looking for him in Europe?" Clint asks, raising an eyebrow at Cute Coffee Guy and sitting down on the table's empty chair.

"Like I said, he doesn't want to be found. He's not just going to be waltzing into the Smithsonian or something," he says with a little shrug. "I've just ran into dead ends in Europe, though, so he's probably not there, either. We think he'll probably be somewhere that's not highly populated, but…" It sounds like Cute Coffee Guy's talking more to himself than to Clint, but Clint's only really comprehending half of what he's saying.

"I feel like I know more about the guy you're looking for than you," he notes with a small laugh.

Cute Coffee Guy looks up at Clint as if he's only just noticing him.

"You should fix that," he says, smiling. God, Clint really likes his smile. He does this thing where he licks his lips and then smiles, showing teeth and everything. Clint loves it.

"I should," Clint answers, still looking at Cute Coffee Guy's lips. There's something in the back of his brain that's bugging him, something he should ask, but it's before 10 am and Clint still hasn't had coffee or more than an hour of sleep, so he can't really remember anything.

"So let's make it a date," Cute Coffee Guy says, with his little smile.

"Are these not dates?" Clint asks with a little chuckle.

"An official one," he specifies. "Here, this time next Monday sound good?"

Clint nods without hesitation.

"I'm going to get some coffee," he says. His head's starting to pound — or maybe that's his heart. He has a real date with Cute Coffee Guy!

Cute Coffee Guy nods at him, still smiling, as Clint gets up to stumble towards the counter to order.

When Clint returns with his coffee, Cute Coffee Guy's already gone.

It's not until he finishes his first cup of coffee that Clint realizes that he still doesn't have a name.

…

Clint's on edge for several reasons.

He's already drunk two cups of coffee, so maybe his blood is pumping hard because of that, but there are two other huge reasons he's stressed.

Number one is that Steve and Tony have been down in New York, scoping out places that they think Loki's scepter might be. Clint's eager for them to find it — he's eager to destroy it. But it also means that he needs to be ready at the drop of a hat, just in case they succeed in locating it.

The second reason he's stressed is that he's sitting in his normal Starbucks, and he's about to have a date. With Cute Coffee Guy.

Clint watches as Cute Coffee Guy walks in the door and he stands up — he greets his dates like a gentleman.

At that moment, a bird call comes from his phone. Steve.

Cute Coffee Guy is walking over, smiling, when Clint checks his phone.

His heart plummets, but it's also beating really fast.

Loki's scepter, it reads. Meet at my apartment now.

Clint stuffs his phone back in his pocket, and looks up — Cute Coffee Guy is standing right there.

"Hey," he says, smiling at Clint, and Clint is melting inside. He really wants this date.

"I have to go," Clint says, a lump in his throat. He's already starting to walk towards the door, though. "We'll reschedule, though," he says, smiling at Cute Coffee Guy, even though Cute Coffee Guy's now frowning.

Clint really hopes he actually hears Cute Coffee Guy say, "Sure," as he walks out the door.

It doesn't matter, though.

He has a scepter to get.

…

There's new Avengers.

It's over. They saved the world from the newest murder-bot Tony built, and it's over. Cute Coffee Guy is invading his brain. He's itching to get back to D.C. — or more specifically the Starbucks where he met Cute Coffee Guy. He just has to explain that he was busy saving the world (as per usual) and they'll be fine. Right?

Except Steve's making him meet these new Avengers. Four of them. Clint, though, isn't in the mood. After Sokovia, he wants to go back to D.C., take a long nap, and then go to Starbucks and find Cute Coffee Guy.

He knows one's Wanda Maximoff, and honestly, he's not looking forward to seeing her after what happened with her brother — it was his fault, after all. The second must be Vision, though Clint's not sure if he counts as an Avenger — he's a robot. One's James Rhodes and Clint is a little surprised that Rhodes wasn't an 'official' Avenger before. The last one is one of Steve's friends he recruited — Sam Wilson, who apparently flies and has falcon wings.

"Can we just do this quickly, at least?" Clint asks Steve as they make their way to the training room to greet the newest members of their team. "I need to get back to D.C."

"I thought you hated D.C.," Steve replies, pushing open the door.

"I want to take a nap," Clint mutters as they walk in.

Wanda is standing there, along with Vision and Rhodes and then one person Clint doesn't know. The person that must be Sam Wilson.

Except.

He does know the last person.

Clint's heart almost stops when he lays eyes on the person. He's wearing wings and a smile and —

And he's Clint's Cute Coffee Guy.

"You know Rhodey and Vision and Wanda," Steve says, gesturing as he and Clint walk further into the room. Steve leads him right to Cute Coffee Guy. "This is Sam Wilson. Sam, this is Clint," he says.

And Sam has the biggest smirk on his face. He knew.

The fucker.

"Cute Coffee Guy," Clint mutters, looking Sam up and down. Is this really his life?

"You guys know each other?" Steve asks. Clint can see him looking back and forth between them out of the corner of his eye.

"We've met," Clint says, not taking his eyes off of Sam. He just grins more at Clint.

"Cute Avenger," Sam finally responds, laughing a little bit and Goddamn, it's the same laugh and the same smile and it's him.

Clint should've gotten his name.