The Anvegers have started to discover the difficulty of being a team in the public eye.
The Mediator
Steve had looked at the two small pots of bubbling oil and cheese warily and looked towards Clint for some kind of reassurance.
But the archer was on the other side of the room, doing what he called 'schmoozing' with some of Tony Stark's particularly inquisitive and outspoken guests.
It was an odd development of their team. That Clint was proving again and again to be the best man for public relations for the group that was continuing to be called 'The Avengers'. The man had a way with people, especially hostile ones. It had to have something to do with the archer's years with the Los Angeles Police Force. He knew how to talk to people, how to give just enough information in just the right light to make it not only to please the masses but do no harm to the team.
Tony Stark was too much of a wild card, to brash and fueled by his own ego to appease anyone but himself. Thor could not understand half of what was asked of him, easily confused by the rush of seemingly pointless questions and anything that sounded like an accusation resulted in the proud Royal lashing out to defend their honor and causing a scene. Natasha politely refused to speak to anyone, giving and accepting nothing. Bruce, when he wished to, was able to sweetly charm anyone speaking to him but would quickly and quietly excuse himself. And Steve…
Steve had had enough of the media to last him a lifetime. When caught he was polite and courteous to a fault, answering everything with a smile that looked like cracked porcelain. Clint had gotten into a habit of cutting in, saving Steve from the assaults of reporters and interviewers.
Clint proved to be invaluable as the unofficial team liaison. He politely responded to summons and entreaties from political officials with quiet and politically correct declines. Talkshows begged for time and Clint would hand write thank you notes, include some small funny story and maybe a picture to satisfy the hosts and audiences but again, just a quiet no, but thank you.
Though it backfired a bit as the letters caught the attention of one host in particular and continued to invite some member of the Avengers to appear and would use the responding letters as a regular segment on their show, referring to Clint, who always signed as Hawkeye, as a reluctant but cordial pen pal. One could always tell what kind of mood or how much patience Clint had at the time of writing the letter. A good and indulgent mood was rewarded with a true story about some small incident or a casual quirk of one of the team, such as Steve's loosely enforced Swear Jar and Tony's bad habit of playing techno music in the middle of the night. A foul mood resulted in a long winded story about some battle over a choice of meal or movie that was always fictional.
The archer made sure that there were no press conferences, no questionnaire panels, no private interviews. Any award or cash prize or any kind of monetary recognition to the team in form of either object, cup, trophy, medal or direct cash were accepted graciously and immediately shipped off to the Red Cross, the USO, the Wounded Warrior Project, The United Way and any number of innumerable relief, research and charitable foundations to be melted down or cashed in to help further the efforts. Tony and Thor had been outraged at the loss at first, but with the constant arrival of hand drawn pictures from children, written notes of thank you and appreciation, photos of gracious recipients and that occasional ten cent bit of ribbon and tin cross they, like the rest of the team, declared the 'homemade stuff better'.
Clint only allowed the team, and in fact encouraged them, to participate in charitable events. Building houses for poor, handing out meals to homeless and elderly, going to support disaster relief efforts and anything with children or soldiers involved.
Clint was always careful, no matter his mood, to avoid speaking about anything to personal or dangerous to the team. He held up the weight of the media and seemed to flawlessly keep a balance between declining invitations, releasing carefully constructed statements and giving the Avengers a general ideal public face against the gritty news media, the liar reporters and the anti-vigilante and mutant supporters.
And constantly and attentively carried out damage control for the hurricane known as Tony Stark.
Clint did it all with a graceful air, a quiet smile and a steady hand and attention to detail that was fitting for his nickname.
But Steve knew the archer hated it. There was always a tightness to his eyes and jaw, a stiffness in his spine. His eyes would fade to a pale grey that only happened when Clint was in pain or ill. He never complained, had brought the duty on himself in a way and confessed that he at least felt as if he was contributing to the team.
Tonight was supposed to be a night of relaxation and casual company. A charity ball for the USO. Tony had made sure they were all dressed to the nines and period to the 40s, much to Steve's chagrin. The suits and dresses were glamorous and reminded him of Fred Astaire and James Cagney movies, thousands of dollars in ever stitch. But a few less than welcome media goers and anti-vigilante groups had slipped in and Clint was playing devils advocate, appeasing and distracting them for most of the night, as his spine and shoulders had grown steadily tighter and tighter under the clean lines of his suit.
Steve looked back towards the fondue pots, thinking for a second about Clint, how he was across the room and might as well be on another planet.
The soldier straightened himself, rolled his shoulders back and marched off to find Tony. Once he'd found the inventor and forcibly dragged him away from Bruce, loudly protesting he frog marched their host over towards Clint and the small group of media. He gently shoved Tony at the group, grabbed Clint by the elbow and led him away. Tony had looked back towards the retreating Steve and Clint them towards the group of reporters, protestors and anti-vigilante aggressors. The group had shuddered nervously as Tony's lips pulled into a predatory grin. Unleash the Kraken indeed.
Clint had quietly protested and complained softly that even if he didn't go back he'd be scrambling for weeks to make up for what Tony was likely to say. But Steve couldn't help but notice that Clint wasn't actually making efforts to pull away, that he was keeping pace with Steve and had actually hooked their arms together instead of being dragged along. The soldier could tell that the archer had relaxed instantly in his company. Steve had pulled Clint over to the fondue pot and platter and quietly whispered his story to the archer about his misunderstanding of the name and about Peggy and Howard.
Clint had been reduced to quiet laugher, smiling indulgently and spent the rest of the night at Steve's side, playing with the fondue pot, smearing bubbling cheese and oil on all sorts of meats and breads, even experimenting with bit of cake and cookies and generally making a mess.
Clint would have his work cut out for him come the next day, apologizing for everything that Tony would snark and snarl during the event, but the faces that the solider and archer made when they tried cheese covered kiwis and tried to make sense of what dragon fruits were was all worth it.
A/N: Bit of a 'day to day' look at the Avengers as they start to become a team. Hope you guys liked!