A is for Alone
Story 1: Clint likes being alone. He likes the freedom to go on the missions he pleases and cut contact for months at a time. Problem is, Tony doesn't seem to think that's a good enough reason not to move in with the rest of them.
Characters: Clint, Tony, some Natasha
Category/Whump: Friendship/No

Clint likes being alone, which is why he is at first loath to move into the tower.

Stark has fixed him with a pair of loathsome puppy eyes and behind him is Natasha, her glare promising retribution if he doesn't give the right answer.

"I don't know," he drawls slowly. Tony's smirk becomes more of a pout. Clint curbs the desire to wince as Natasha's glare becomes heavier.

"Come on," Stark whines. Clint regrets calling the man a friend after all the missions they've done together. "It'll be a good living arrangement. Rogers will have a sparring partner, Banner will have a test subject, I'll have someone for target practice…"

Clint had heard it all before – the other ten times Stark had asked, ordered, begged, and cajoled him into moving in. Sometimes his advances were subtle – other times, not so much.

Natasha's glare turns predatory and he wonders if she's said yes. It's sometimes hard to tell with her. She probably delights in eternally confusing him.

The problem is, Clint likes being alone. He likes the freedom of being able to climb to the roof and relax, to be able to cut ties any time he wants and to go on long missions without being missed. He also is too intimately familiar with dragging himself to lie painfully on the couch, hoping the blood won't stain the fabric and the wound won't get infected in the three days it takes him to be able to move again. He'll admit it – he's always been a people watcher.

There's another problem: if he moves in, he'll have to acknowledge his bond with the others. He'll have to recognize that if they get hurt, he'll get hurt too. After Coulson-

"-and you're homeless anyway, so I don't see why there's any problem at all," Stark prattles on carelessly, cutting across Clint's darkening thoughts.

"Huh?"

"Hacked your file," Stark brags, looking incredibly smug and like the cat who ate the canary.

Clint raises an eyebrow in reply before reluctantly chuckling. "You really think I rent apartments in my own name?" he asks wryly, amused by the assumption.

The dumbfounded look on Tony's face is enough to provoke another laugh.

He doesn't say yes that day, and he certainly doesn't say yes the next after Tony accidently melts his bow. If he starts crashing on the couch in the penthouse a little more often (in his defense, it's above his paygrade and more comfortable than any bed he'll ever own), and if Natasha starts keeping his favorite cereal in the cabinet, then no one says a thing. He's not ready to move in, not quite yet, and with the exception of Tony, they're okay with that. He has a feeling that they understand him entirely.

He knows that Steve had been the first to say yes - the man had taken the offer like he was on the Titanic and the last lifeboat offered him a ride. Banner had taken a month of wheeling, bribing, and cajoling. Thor… no one is quite sure exactly if Thor had even been asked. One day he just showed up out of the blue and demanded something that sounded to be the Norse equivalent of the Romans' hospes. Tony had cheerfully agreed and they haven't seen Thor since. Clint isn't sure if or when Natasha agreed, but one day she started sleeping in the bedroom with the most windows, and she doesn't seem to show any signs of leaving.

It's going to take the Exploding Duck Assassination Attempt to make Clint say yes, but that happens several weeks from now.

Until then, if Clint isn't quite happy, he is more content than he's been in his lifetime.