Disclaimer: Not mine, sadly…
Placing:After Hogwarts and the first Avenger movie.
Accompanying piece to "Confession Time", sequel to "Family Oddness" and "Birthday Presents"
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BROTHERS AND DEALS
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"What the hell? Stark!" one Clint Barton finally exclaimed and stepped inside Tony Stark's work room. He couldn't fathom what he had heard just now. "Was that Fury you just cut off and threatened?!"
Tony Stark shrugged.
He didn't feel guilty at all for threatening the man who had threatened Tony and his family first.
Still, he guessed he had at least to tell Clint about Fury's demands…
"He's after you," Tony said. "Something about you being his asset or some such."
It was something that Clint had expected weeks ago – but that didn't mean that he liked to hear it. He might have brooded for the last weeks, but at the same time he still had felt grateful to Tony for taking him in and giving him a place to live after he had lost his previous one to the prejudice of the remaining SHIELD personal – something nobody else but Natasha and Tony had done anything about…
Still, he didn't believe for one second that Stark would try to keep Fury away from Clint the moment Fury started to pressure Tony to give back Clint.
Clint gulped and then scratched his head nervously.
"I guess that means vacation time is over and I'll have to return to HQ," he said, sounding defeated.
To his surprise, Tony snorted.
"No," he said. "That means that my legal department will get their hands on your contract with SHIELD as fast as possible."
Clint stared at the billionaire as if he had lost his mind.
"Stark," he started to say, but Tony cut him off immediately.
"It's either Tony or Ant," he interrupted the other man.
Clint blinked confused.
"Ant?" He repeated surprised.
Tony looked at Clint expectantly. Clint didn't actually know how to interpret that kind of look – something that he had never seen on Tony's face ever before. In the end, he decided to go with the most pressing question he had.
"Why Ant?" Clint asked confused.
Tony shrugged.
"That's what I've always been called," he replied.
Clint snorted.
"I'm quite aware that Pepper calls you Tony, Stark," He pointed out.
Tony frowned at Clint.
"Ant," he corrected the other man. "For you, Ant, Clint."
Clint shuddered. Until now, he had never ever heard Tony address him with anything but his last name or some silly nick name. It sounded spooky to be called by Tony with his first name…
"You're a bit creepy right now, St..." he stopped at Tony's pointed gaze and corrected himself. "Ant."
Tony nodded approvingly.
"Good boy," he told Clint and Clint wondered since when Tony had started to confuse him with a dog. But then, maybe it explained why the billionaire had been willing to take Clint in in the first place…
Before Clint could think further about it, Tony continued speaking.
"And now, listen, Clint, will you?" He said. "There's some very important secret stuff I have to tell you…"
Clint blinked.
"Er… I'm Clint, not Pepper, St… Ant," he told the billionaire, quite aware that the only person Tony Stark might share secrets with was his C.E.O.
Tony frowned at him.
"Of course you are," he said and even if there was no disbelief in his voice, Clint interpreted it in it anyway.
"Honestly, Sta… Ant, I mean it," Clint said. "I'm not Pepper – and I'm definitely not someone you want to share your secrets with!"
Tony waved it off.
"J called you," he said as if that explained everything – and especially why he wanted to tell Clint his secrets. "It's fine."
Clint just stared at Tony in disbelief.
JARVIS called him so it was fine?!
Clint had known that Tony was eccentric, but this took the cake!
He simply wanted to tell Clint because his A.I. called Clint instead of Pepper?!
He somehow expected that JARVIS might have called the wrong person in – and Clint was definitively the wrong one...
"Maybe JARVIS should have called Pepper instead of me..."
Tony snorted.
"Pepper might be my girlfriend - but there're things that I don't even share with her," Tony said amused.
Well – that at least told Clint that Pepper didn't know everything as well… but it definitely didn't explain why Clint was there!
Clint raised an eyebrow at the other man.
"So, you just decided to tell it to some random person your A.I. chose for you?" Clint tried to understand the billionaire.
Tony, of course, waved it off.
"Of course not,… Clint," he said. "I don't chose people randomly. I always decide very seriously who gets to know one of my secrets."
There was just one thing Clint could say to insanity like that…
"And you choose to tell those things me?" He asked, disbelief in his voice.
Tony shrugged.
"Normally I'd say you were born to suffer my brilliance... but in your case..." Tony stared at him thoughtfully. "Ah, well, let's keep it with 'you were born to suffer my brilliance'!"
Clint stared at Tony as if he had lost his mind.
Yes, that was the only explanation that somehow actually fit.
Tony… Ant!... must have lost his mind today.
For a moment, Clint didn't know what to reply, then he decided to settle for the obvious.
"Maybe Barney could have said that - but you -"
Tony pouted.
"I'm Anthony Siger Edward Stark! Of course I'm allowed to say something brilliant like that!"
Siger?
Clint dismissed it and snorted.
"Your name has nothing to do with your allowance to tell me 'I was born to suffer your brilliance'!" He told the billionaire with a sigh. "I'm quite sure that that's something only my brother could say."
Tony wiggled his eyebrow at Clint.
"So... Barney, you said?" He asked.
Clint inclined his head.
"Barney," he agreed – he was the only brother known to SHIELD, after all.
Tony looked at Clint slyly and suddenly, dread filled Clint's stomach.
"So... Will would be allowed to say that to you as well?" Tony asked interested. "Or John?"
Clint nodded.
"Yeah, those two... too," he stopped shortly before ending the sentence with a suspicious look on his face. "How do you know about Will and John, Stark? There's no known connection between us and even SHIELD doesn't know about them!"
Of course, the only answer he got was a non-committal one.
Tony shrugged.
"It's Ant," he corrected Clint. "And John gave me Will's name."
John?
John would never give an unknown Clint's name and he would not even think about giving away their connection to a person he didn't trust!
So, Clint did the only thing he could that was as non-committal as Tony's: He raised a disbelieving eyebrow.
"And of course you know John good enough that he'd tell you his brothers' names without a second thought," he said sarcastically.
"I actually never met John," Tony corrected with a shrug. "I only know that Myc and Sherley are in contact with him and that you and Will are born to suffer my brilliance!"
Clint raised an eyebrow, then his eyes narrowed.
"That doesn't explain how you know my brother," he said, suspicion in his eyes. "Who else knows about John and Will?"
Tony shrugged.
"I guess at least Mycroft and Sherlock," he said truthfully.
Clint's eyes widened.
Mycroft?
As in Mycroft Holmes?!
The Mycroft Holmes, the man who was the British government?!
As in Nick Fury's British counterpart?!
"Holmes?" He asked faintly, clearly able to at least place the name 'Mycroft'.
Tony grinned.
"Holmes," he confirmed.
Clint frowned.
"That's not good," he said. "If Holmes knows, there's a chance that Fury does – and I can't have any connection with my family. It only would endanger –"
Clint cut off before he could say anything further, but Tony already guessed what the other man had wanted to say.
"Hermione," Tony finished the sentence.
Clint immediately reached to his back, his hand grabbing his knife, hidden there. It was an automatic reaction – one that he couldn't suppress and didn't want to at all…
Tony Stark knew about his baby sister – and Clint would do everything to keep his baby sister safe… even if it meant to kill Tony Stark in the middle of his own work room after the man took Clint in and helped him…
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Just a little idea
Hope you liked it
Ebenbild