Clint stood in deep contemplation. In less then two days it was Valentine's Day and he had no idea what to do. Before him was a bright, colorful display of reds and pinks. Briefly he wondering how he got himself into this situation and then he remembered. Clint finally built up the courage to get something for the girl he secretly loved. But, standing in front of the mix of heart boxes, stuffed animals, chocolates, and fake flowers, this archer had no clue what she'd like.
He already bought her a heart shaped diamond necklace with (supposedly) an emerald green hue and rubies lining the outside. And a sweet little card that stated most of what he felt, even if it was too 'flowery' for his intended. Clint had even previously checked out a near by flower shop. But that place was even worse. All the colors messed with his vision, nevermind the fact that he had a slightly embarrassing moment.
"Do you need any help, sir?" an unfamiliar voice questioned Clint. Slightly surprised that someone even noticed him, Clint looked back at the worker. The woman was happily smiling at him. He gave her a soft smile back.
"Sure, do you have any red flowers?" he softly asked. The woman furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and looked at the display behind Clint. It was filled with luscious red flowers. Clint turned to look back at the set up. All he saw was a dark greenish yellow flowers with an ugly yellow stem. Blinking, he frowned.
"Um, they are right there," she kindly explained. Clint groaned. Nothing looked red and all the colors looked rather sickening. Looking around, most flowers looked like a sickening yellowish color but a few were a disgusting graying blue.
"Oh. Uh... Nevermind," he told her before rushing out of the shop. Too bad he wasn't fast enough to miss hearing her laugh at him. He figured she was going to mention it to other employees or even other customers later.
Now, standing before the display of random Valentine Day gifts, he still could only see ugly yellows. But he was unconcerned about that. The color for most of these gifts didn't matter. But, the company he buys from will. He kept staring as other customers came over and in less than a minute or sometimes two before they grabbed whatever they wanted and left. Clint had been there for almost an hour.
RING RING
Clint sighed before digging out his phone and looked at the caller. It was Tony Stark. Groaning, he answered. "What, Stark?"
"Well hello to you too," Tony sharply retorted. Clint rolled his eyes before grabbing a rather large and expensive box of chocolates and headed to the checkout. He didn't even pay attention to the company name. After an hour, he was just too frustrated to care and figured that the girl he wanted to give it to would reject it anyways.
"Stark," Clint softly growled. Tony snickered.
"Just wanted to know if your joining us for dinner tonight," Tony mentioned. Clint looked down to his watch as he placed the box down on the counter to pay. It was about ten minutes till six and he was twenty minutes from the tower. Sighing deeply as he looked at the register for the price, he almost winced. It was rather a lot of money.
"I'll be late," Clint responded as he paid for the chocolates without complaint. He just wasn't in the mood anymore. As he grabbed the bag and left, he rolled his eyes when they briefly flashed back to the display he had been at before. Tony snorted, almost as if he assumed as much. "Maybe by ten minutes if traffic is good."
"Whatever dude. Just needed to know if we were going to have to stop the three skinny men who eat twenty plates each," Tony joked. Clint rolled his eyes. Since living in the tower with the other Avengers, the group had been surprised to see how much that certain ones of them ate. Steve's fast metabolism made it so he had to eat at least three times more then normal. Thor was a god with an unending stomach, or so it seemed. But the biggest surprise had been underweight Bruce. The poor scientist had to eat even more then Steve because his alter ego took most of the energy from the food.
"What are we even having?" Clint wondered aloud, he hadn't paid attention when the group decided earlier that morning. It was normally at breakfast that it was decided who would cook for the night and what would be on the menu. And if no one wanted to cook, then they ordered in. There was a lot of ordering in and Tony overpaying the restaurants that they order from.
"Uh, shawarma?" Tony guessed. Clint snorted. Whenever the genius didn't know the answer, he'd always say shawarma. Which was funny because Tony actually got sick after the Manhattan attack. And he was the only one who did. Ever since, whenever someone suggested trying it again, Tony would always find something else to order that more people agree with. Little did he know, when he wasn't around, the others tended to order shawarma because they all liked it.
"Sounds good. I'll be there as soon as I can get there," Clint said before moving the phone from his ear. He distantly heard Tony saying a good-bye before he hung up and started to actually pay attention to where he was headed. Five minutes later, he stopped. There in the window of a shop was the most perfect looking knife. Natasha had admitted to, a few days ago, loosing her knife and was on the look-out for a new one and Clint thought that this would be perfect. Smiling, he turned and entered the shop, intent on buying the knife. Six minutes later, he was back on the street with a new bag and headed toward the tower.
Two days passed in such a blur that Clint couldn't even begin to second guess any of the gifts he had bought. The night before, he had wrapped all the presents in (what Pepper promised was) very nice looking red wrapping paper. He had simply gone up to her with a variation of five papers and asked her what she thought was best. Not once did he mention that the paper she picked looked like a sickening greenish yellow. Damned colorblindness.
But either way, today was the day he had been waiting for. It was February 14th, Valentines Day. Grabbing the gifts, and with a deep sigh, Clint headed to the elevator to get to the communal kitchen. Once there, he spotted Pepper happily opening up a box that contained a light brown teddy bear and (what he assumed to be) a giant red heart saying I Love U. The CEO let out a squeal of delight as she hugged the bear and smiled at Tony.
"There is more," Tony gently prodded when it seemed like Pepper was done with just the bear. Pepper laughed lightly at the billionaire before digging into the box again. Steve, Bruce, and Natasha were sitting on the other side of the room, watching. Bruce held a small box of chocolates that had a small sticky paper attached to it and at his feet was a slightly larger box wrapped in newspaper. Clint assumed that he had gotten the girls something small like a simple stuffed animal or whatever. But Steve's hands worried him. Sitting beside him was a rather large basket of Valentine's Day chocolates and treats with a large tag reading Pepper Potts. But in his hands was a small velvet box. Clint had no guess as to what that was.
"Oh Tony!" Pepper suddenly gushed, making Clint realize that he hadn't been paying attention. Looking back over to the other woman, he smiled when he saw a golden necklace shaped in a heart with a red gear sitting beside it.
"That gear is from my suit," Tony declared. Pepper smiled.
"I love it!" she told him. Tony smiled, feeling rather pleased. "I love it even more that I didn't have to buy it for myself, too!"
"Wha?" Tony deadpanned as the others laughed. The day before, when Tony was locked in the lab, Pepper had admitted that she always had to buy all the gifts from Tony, including gifts for herself. Natasha, Steve and Thor had been shocked by the woman's admission but Clint wasn't all that surprised. Pepper said she didn't mind, she never had to really have an awkward moment where Tony gave her a gift she didn't like. Well, except the two story stuffed rabbit that Tony bought for her once.
"Just forget it," Pepper laughed before jumping to her feet and hugging him. Tony smiled and pulled her in for a kiss. Clint moved forward but before he could say a thing, Steve turned to Natasha.
"I got you a little something," the super soldier said softly as he held out the velvet box. Natasha smiled.
"You didn't have to," she answered, sounding a lot meeker and giddy then Clint ever remembered her being. Slowly she opened the box and gasped. "Oh my god, Steve!"
Inside was a small necklace that had a solid heart with an engraving on one side that said 'Be My Valentine?' and on the other 'Steve 2-14-14'. But that wasn't the only thing either. There was also a rather beautiful diamond ring. The diamond looked to be about 1 karat and was surrounded by smaller matching diamonds. But the big shocker was when Steve dropped down on one knee. Everyone in the room froze.
"I know what this looks like. But please, all I'm asking is if you would like to be my girlfriend," Steve muttered, sounding slightly confident. Natasha smiled as she looked down at the ring and necklace before looking back at Steve.
"You didn't need the gift to ask," she joked. Steve smiled and stood up to hug her.
"I know, but it helped," Steve retorted, covering the sound of Clint dropping his gift to the floor. Clint stayed frozen just long enough to watch as Steve kissed Natasha full on the lips. And then he spun on his heel and ran.
"Clint?" Pepper called before he was fully out of hearing range but the archer didn't stop. He took off toward the elevator but rather then taking the machine, he slipped through a door right nearby and headed down the stairs. 70 floors later, Clint was in the lobby, near hyperventilating. But he wasn't done. He stopped only for a second to get a sense of direction before bolting for the front doors. Distantly, he heard security scream for him to stop, but he didn't.
Once out on the street, Clint vanished into the crowd and soon got lost in New York. By the time he was finished running, Clint realized he had run all the way downtown and was now standing before the memorial for the World Trade Centers. Gasping for breath, Clint slowly walked over to the nearest bench and plopped down so hard that he could have bruised his butt. Thankfully, he could care less at this point.
Looking about, Clint was glad he came down here. Who would want to make out at the memorial of an attack? If he had gone to Central Park, it would have been packed with people. Every single one of them, reminding him of his failure. Sighing, Clint relaxed back into the bench and prayed that he wouldn't have to return to the tower at all that night. But as his right hand drifted toward his pocket, Clint learned that he didn't grab his keys. The keys that still had the key to his apartment that was only a few blocks away. The apartment that he paid for the whole building and he owned the 'pent house'. Groaning, Clint leaned forward and dug into another pocket. Nothing. He didn't even have his wallet with him.
"Perfect. Just perfect," Clint moaned as he sat back rather violently. He felt like this was just going to be a 'wonderful' day. Nothing was going right for him. He should have known better then to get Natasha a gift.
RING RING
"Really? Out of everything," Clint chuckled as he reached into his left pocket and removed his phone. The caller-id read Natasha. He rejected the call. It was the first time he had ever rejected her call. His chest constricted as he realized that fact. In all of the nine years that Clint had known Natasha, he never once rejected her call. Not even if he was in the middle of a mission. He always took it. Hell, he almost got killed once when he took her call. And yet, here he was... Not taking it.
RING RING
Again, Clint looked at the phone. Natasha. Reject. This time he gasped as he realized what he had done. But with tears coming to his eyes, he swallowed and decided to stick with it. He didn't want to talk to her. No, he didn't want to talk to any of them. With that decided, he shut his phone off just as it was saying there was an incoming call. He couldn't care less. Slowly, he put the phone back into his pocket.
"Telemarketers?" an unknown female voice asked. Clint jerked and looked over at the girl. "Or is it an ex trying to brag?"
"Um, neither," Clint answered, unsure why he did as he looked this girl over. She was thin with dark brown hair that went to the top of her butt. Her hazel eyes (which were mostly brown with a mix of green) were shinning with humor. She was wearing a black tank top that hugged her curves tightly and dark blue skinny shorts that sat down by her knees. It was an impressive look.
"Cara," she introduced, holding her hand out for a handshake. Clint slowly took it, still unsure what he was doing.
"Clint," he choked out. Cara smiled and waved to the rest of the open bench beside him. Clint nodded even as he shifted over slightly.
"My phone is off as well. Either my ex was calling to brag about the gifts his rich new girlfriend is giving him or my parents are calling to make me realize how much of a loser I am. Meaning, they are asking me out to dinner," she moaned. Clint smirked, feeling slightly better that someone else out there was having just as much of a bad day as him. Course, he did feel bad for Cara but as they say schadenfreude (which means basically enjoyment at the misfortune of others).
"The girl I liked just became the girlfriend of one of my bests friends and we all live in... Well, an apartment together," Clint admitted, wondering if she'd get some enjoyment out of his pain like he did for her. But instead she winced and gave him a sympathetic look.
"God, that sucks," she responded. Clint laughed lightly and nodded. "I think you win with that. Actually, did either of them know?"
"They do now. I left her gifts on the floor after I ran out," Clint said, a hint of humor on his voice. Again, Cara winced.
"So he gave her the gift first and your gifts were dropped on the floor?"
"He gave her a heart necklace that asked her to be his valentine and on the back gave the date. But there was also a ring that almost looked like an engagement ring. He used that to formally propose being boyfriend and girlfriend," Clint whined. Cara 'ooed' before wincing and mouthing 'sorry'. Clint shrugged.
"What did you get her?"
"A heart shaped diamond necklace with an emerald hue, surrounded by rubies... Chocolate and a new knife that she's been looking for," Clint answered. Cara gave him an odd look. Clint smirked. "She collects weapons."
"Oh. Well that sounds really cool!" Cara told him but Clint could tell that his gifts didn't beat Steve's. He sighed and looked to the ground. Seeing that her comment upset him, Cara waved her hands before her to get his attention. "No! Those are great gifts! It's just, I know I wouldn't want them! See, I'm allergic to chocolate and I'm also the clumsiest person you'd ever meet, so a knife would kill me."
"You can't be that clumsy," Clint accused, curious as to how she thought that she'd kill herself with a knife without intentionally doing something. Cara gave him a look that asked if he was serious or not. Clint raised his eyebrows in anticipation and she chuckled.
"I could slip and fall on it... I could pull a Final Destination and have it fall into my chest. Uh, a burglar could break in and use the knife to kill me. What else?" Cara asked herself but Clint had already dissolved into laughter at the mention of Final Destination. "See my point?"
"Yeah. Course the knife didn't originally kill the teacher. The chair slamming it into her chest killed her," Clint pointed out as he calmed down. Cara gasped in shock.
"You saw that?"
"Yeah, why, how many people do you know haven't seen it?"
"Nearly everyone," Cara sighed as she snorted at the thought. Clint raised one eyebrow in surprise. She laughed lightly at the look. "I don't have many friends and my family doesn't like scary movies."
"Oh," Clint smartly retorted. That got her to fully laugh.
"So, now that you're done sulking, what were you planning on doing today?" Clint shrugged. He had been hoping that he would have given his gift to Natasha and then he would have spent the day with her. But now that Natasha wasn't his Valentines, he had no idea. It never crossed his mind that Natasha would reject him or accept someone else. "Want to go see a movie or something?"
Clint slowly turned and glanced at Cara. She had a hopeful smile on her face until she saw Clint's gaze. He watched as her smile faded from her face and he sighed. Yeah, he felt bad for saying no, but he really wasn't in the mood. But after a moment, her smile returned but Clint could tell it was fake.
"It's okay. We just met and all," she excused for him. Clint sighed. Again it was true but that wasn't the only reason. But as he went to speak, someone else called out.
"CLINT!" the voice screamed from a distance. It was a familiar voice and made Clint wince at the sound. Cara turned to look and her gasp of shock confirmed for the archer who was calling. Clint slowly slid to his feet and went to move off before the man could catch up, but it was to no avail. "BIRD BRAIN! STOP!"
"Shit," Clint cursed before slowly turning to look at the billionaire rushing toward him. By the time Tony reached the bench, he was breathing rather heavily and had to rest as Clint and Cara watched. After a minute of him still trying to catch his breath, Clint smirked. "You really should exercise more."
"I know, I know. Pepper yells at me all the time," Tony gasped out. Clint shook his head as he watched his friend.
"You know Tony Stark?" Cara enviously called. Tony glanced over at her quickly. He had now caught most of his breath so he straightened.
"He lives in the tower with me. Got a problem with that?" Tony snarked. Clint sighed.
"Tony, Cara. Cara, Tony," Clint quickly introduced. Tony rolled his eyes, showing that he could pretty much care less.
"What the hell happened, man?" Tony asked, ignoring Cara's presence. Clint groaned, not wanting to get into it. Cara stood.
"I think I'll get going," she said as if her words had any meaning in the current conversation. Clint gave her a saddened smile.
"Thanks for the chat," he told her, refusing to answer the billionaire before him. Tony grunted in annoyance but looked back at Cara and waved a good-bye to her. Cara nodded to them before walking off as if she had never been there.
"What happened?" Tony pressed again. Clint groaned and turned to walk away but Tony grabbed his arm. "Clint, please."
"It's nothing. Just..." Clint began but sighed deeply. "I was stupid. That's all."
Tony let the archer go and watched as he began to walk away.
"She liked your gifts better," Tony called. Clint paused. "Pepper found them on the floor and showed them to Natasha. I think she actually cried. Wouldn't know. Was too busy watching Steve punch a wall as he berated himself."
"You're lying," Clint accused without even turning around. Tony sighed and walked forward until he was standing at Clint's side. The archer slowly looked over. His eyes showing the pain he felt at Tony's words.
"I wish I was. Steve is pissed off at himself and Natasha has no idea what to do. I know she tried calling at least once. Don't know what you did but she seemed pretty crushed when the phone was pulled away," Tony admitted. Clint glanced to the ground.
"I rejected her call," Clint muttered so softly his words blended together.
"What?"
"I rejected her call," he said louder. Glancing up at Tony, Clint saw his confusion. "In all the time that I've known Natasha, I've never rejected her call. I think I did it at least three times."
"Pepper tried at least once," Tony whispered. Clint shrugged.
"How did you find me?" Clint asked, changing the subject. Tony rolled his eyes as if Clint should know.
"JARVIS traced your phone to a small block radius. I then had to look through all the cameras and found you sitting on the bench," Tony proudly stated. Clint groaned. "Don't worry, I didn't tell anyone. Well... Actually, I told Pepper but she said she'd keep silent as long as you promised to come back."
"I'm not staying in the tower tonight," Clint snapped. Tony sighed.
"Pepper will disagree with you on that."
"Too bad. I'll go back and get some of my stuff. But no Natasha. No Steve... And I'm certainly not staying," Clint demanded. Tony frowned but said nothing. Clint could immediately tell that Tony wasn't going to let Clint leave if he reentered the tower. "I'm serious Tony. If either of them appear or you lock me up, I'll..."
"You'll what?" Tony asked after Clint hesitated. The archer sighed. He had no 'what' to say. There was just no good threat that Tony would believe and worse, the genius knew it. "Just forget it. Sides, I'll be by your side the whole time. How can I lock you in if you're right next to me?"
"Who said I wanted you by my side the whole time?" Clint countered. Tony rolled his eyes and just turned back toward the direction of the tower. As the billionaire began to walk away, Clint stayed put, simply watching. It took Tony almost twenty steps before he realized that Clint wasn't following. "Well?"
"This better not be a trick," Clint growled before slowly walking forward. Tony waited until the archer was by his side before grabbing him and wrapping an arm around him. Clint raised an eyebrow at that.
"I'm wasting Valentine's Day on you and not Pepper. Do you know how much this just screwed up my plans?"
"Hoping for sex?"
"A lot of it."
Tony and Clint returned to the tower in silence after that. Upon entering the tower, Tony asked the guards to keep quiet about their return. He even had JARVIS not announce that they had arrived. But JARVIS did make mention that Natasha was standing in Clint's living room. So, Tony asked for Pepper to be sent down to deal with the assassin. They were about a floor away when JARVIS called them.
"Miss Potts has informed me to warn you that Agent Romanoff is refusing to leave and that now they are waiting at the elevator," JARVIS let them know. Right away, Clint pressed the button for the floor below his, which just ended up being Steve's. And the super solider was standing there waiting. He was at least dressed differently. Rather then the outfit he had on before, he was now dressed in gym clothes. Clint's eyes narrowed at the man's appearance.
"Clint," Steve breathed in shock.
"Oh, shit," Tony cursed before glancing at Clint.
"Rogers," Clint nearly snarled before moving to leave the elevator. Steve caught his arm.
"We need to talk about this," Steve said. Clint snatched his arm back and Steve put up no resistance.
"No, we don't. You got to her first. She accepted. It's over. Now let me get my shit and go sulk elsewhere," Clint growled. Steve groaned.
"I don't want this to split the team up," he responded. Clint rolled his eyes.
"If you think I'm that petty, then you don't know me. I can still work by you and her. But I can't sit here and watch the two of you be love bugs. I still have my own place and I intend on staying there. For how long depends on how much you and her bother the fuck out of me," Clint snapped.
"So, you're gonna run away? Like a little coward?" a female voice demanded from the side. Clint glanced over and noticed Natasha and Pepper had snuck down the stairs and were now staring at the three men.
"What the fuck do you want me to do?" Clint shouted at her. Natasha jerked back in surprise. "I have loved you since the day I met you. That was one of the reasons that Coulson hated that I didn't kill you. He could see that I loved you. And then... You act like a fucking bitch the entire first year at S.H.I.E.L.D! But I still wanted you! I rescued you, tried to protect you. And all you ever did was call me a fucking fool! When I mentioned love, you always called it-"
"Childish," Natasha interrupted. She looked heartbroken. Clint couldn't care less. He was already crushed.
"But I guess it was only childish if it was with me," Clint snarled before storming toward her. Natasha didn't move when he walked beside her. He stopped and looked at her. "I hope he doesn't hurt you like you hurt me."
With that, Clint began walking down the stairs. Steve's room and even his own room was higher in the tower then the communal floor. So Clint had to walk down 73 floors before he reached the lobby. As he walked toward the doors, he was slightly surprised that Steve and Natasha weren't down there waiting.
"Clint! Clint, wait!" a female screamed across the lobby after him. Clint stiffened before realizing the voice belonged to Pepper and not Natasha. Slowly, he turned around to see the other red head rushing toward him. She reached him in a few seconds. "Tony mentioned that you might need your keys and wallet."
"Thanks," Clint muttered before accepting the two items and glancing down at them. He remembered briefly mentioning it to Tony on their way back but he hadn't thought the billionaire had heard. Never mind thinking that anyone would have been able to find them.
"Are you really leaving?" Pepper softly asked. Clint sighed.
"I don't know. I just... Just need to get away. At least for tonight," Clint admitted. Pepper nodded. Slowly she leaned forward and kissed his cheek.
"By the way, she loved your gifts," Pepper said before turning around and walking back to the elevator. Clint sighed before walking off to the New York streets.
Three days went by without Clint returning to the tower. Thankfully his apartment had extra clothes and other items needed for his job so he hadn't needed to return. Nor had there been any missions involving the Avengers or his expertise. But on the beginning of the forth day, Clint's phone rang with a mission for the Avengers. Agreeing to meet them on site, basically Liberty Island. A large bunch of mutant squids were trying to tear down Lady Liberty.
Clint got there just as the others arrived in the quinjet. Tony was already attacking some of the closer squids. Rather then it being Steve or Natasha coming over to hand Clint a comm, Bruce walked over. Clint raised an eyebrow at it but nodded thanks, and placed the comm in his ear without complaint. Without hearing a command, Tony flew over to Clint.
"Need a lift?" he asked as Bruce changed over in the background. Clint nodded. He had only a second to prepare for liftoff before the archer found himself placed on Lady Liberty's foot. It wasn't all that high but considering the distance from the actual battle, it would do.
An hour into fighting, Clint forwent his position and joined Natasha and Steve on the ground. None of the three spoke to each other and they all even made sure that there was a good distance between them. After a while, Clint glanced at Natasha and almost froze. She was using the knife he got her for Valentine's Day. And glistening on her neck was the heart necklace that he got her. Steve's necklace had the chain replaced to be a bracelet that dangled just slightly behind her Widow Bite.
"We really need to talk after this," Steve suddenly called over to Clint when he turned to see the archer staring at Natasha. Clint jerked to look at him in surprise. After glancing back at Natasha to see her reach for his necklace and giving him a soft smile, Clint nodded.
"Yeah. I think we do," Clint agreed.
Sadly, the three would never talk for various different reasons. The main one being that the three could never really get alone to speak to each other. But when Clint moved back to the tower after an hour after the mission, everyone knew that they were at least partly good. Natasha and Steve were very self conscious about acting 'lovie dovie' in front of Clint. But whenever Clint saw them together and saw how happy Natasha was, he found himself forgiving her for breaking his heart. At least, she was happy. And sooner or later, he'd find someone that would make him just as happy.