By the time morning came around it had stopped raining, leaving the ground slick with deep mud and the sky grey. Tony had refused to go back to sleep that night, listening warily to the muffled voices on the other side of the door and watching Clint read through his book up by the ceiling. Once the rain had stopped and the clouds parted slightly, the woman and Buck drove off with the bags full of things from Tony's home. He watched them leave as Clint dragged him out into the woods, Jacques following behind slowly, to gather firewood. He frowned as he thought of all his mother's jewelry and the silver plated dishes his dad had bought from Italy and numerous other things driving away to never be seen again.
"Come on, Tony. I know it's wet but you're going to want to look for pine trees or birch. Those usually stay dry and burn easily." Clint said, yanking on his arm. Tony didn't budge and just dug his feet deeper into the mud.
Clint scowled. Tony had left home in only his pajamas so Clint had put him in his clothes and his only pair of shoes besides the rubber boots Clint wore. He was uncomfortable and cold. The clothes were too big, sleeves rolled up and socks stuffed in the toes of the shoes the help them fit Tony's much smaller body.
"They really aren't that bad." Clint said, handing Tony another pile of birch bark. He had been glaring at Jacques who was standing a few feet away, watching them closely.
"What? They your parents?" Tony asked. He didn't think Clint really looked like any of them but that would explain why he was here. Clint laughed slightly and shook his head.
"Nah. But they are like family. They take care of me and my brother and they teach me a lot so it's fine." Clint said, scratching the back of his head and glancing over to Tony. "They're definitely a lot nicer than my parents."
Tony pouted. He didn't understand and he usually understood everything. Was Clint implying that if parents weren't nice then he could get a new family? Tony didn't like the idea at all, especially since these people were terrible anyway.
He glanced off into the woods, taking every handful of sticks and leaves that was passed over to him. Tony didn't think much about it, he just shoved all the firewood into Clint's face and took off into the forest. He slipped over the mud and wet leaves but pushed himself up quickly and continued to run.
He was starting to think that he had gotten away from them when Jacques wrapped an arm around his waist, lifted him into the air, and Tony kicked as hard as he could. Jacques let out a pained groan as his foot connected and dropped him hard onto the ground. Tony gasped and curled into himself at the impact. Clint ran up next to Jacques before kneeling down to check on Tony.
"You're okay." He said, examining him closely. Clint held out his hand to help him up. Tony pushed it away and stayed in the mud.
"Don't run off." Jacques said firmly. "You'll go home eventually, we just have to be sure."
"Promise?" Tony asked. Jacques nodded but Tony just turned to look at Clint.
"Yeah, I promise you'll go home eventually." He said, holding his hand out again. Tony took it and allowed himself to be pulled out of the mud. Clint promised and although he hung out with thieves and kidnappers that he probably did think 'weren't that bad' but he hadn't lied about anything yet.
Clint was ordered to take him back to the cabin and just lock him in the room, no longer having the privilege to go outside. With a harsh push Jacques sent Tony forward towards the cabin while he began to recollect the firewood. He walked slowly, mostly trying to be careful not to slip in the mud again in his too long jeans and shoes that were several sizes too big but also to make it difficult for them. It worked back at home, if he annoyed his parents they would make him leave, if he annoyed these people then they would get rid of him faster.
"They're really as delightful as you said." Tony said with fake cheerfulness as he followed Clint back into the room from the night before. "No wonder you follow them 'round like a puppy, they're angels."
Clint growled slightly as he pushed Tony down onto the floor gently to sit and pulled on his hands. He had scrapped them slightly during his failed escape when he slipped. They stung because he was covered head to toe in mud and he could feel bruises forming on his side from where he had hit the ground.
"They aren't perfect but they're not evil. They're going to let you go home soon, better than you running away and wandering around in the woods for days." Clint said as he retrieved the pajamas Tony wore the night before and then dragged him up off the floor and out to the bathroom.
There wasn't any running water. Tony wasn't surprised since there wasn't any electricity either. Clint told him to take off the dirty clothes he was wearing and he quickly changed into his warm, dry pajamas. He yelped as Clint threw a wet towel over his head to clean off all the mud from his hair and face.
"That's freezing! Don't you guys have hot water? Did you guys forget to get hot water while you were skipping your lessons in manners and what to do in someon else's home, like not take their things and kids?" Tony barked out angrily as he threw the towel back at Clint.
Clint ignored him and continued to try to clean him off, moving Tony's arms out of the way as he continued to try to reach up to swat away the towel. Once his head was clean he moved on to Tony's hands, still cut up and muddy. Tony didn't try to pull away this time. He let Clint wash off his hands before dragging him back to the room.
He sat him down on the bed as he went to dig through his duffle bag, returning with a first aid kit. He took Tony's hands gingerly and rubbed disinfectant on them and wrapped the tiny scratches with bandaids before returning everything with his bag.
"You're really weird." Tony muttered. "Who kidnaps someone and then takes care of them?"
Clint shrugged and climbed back up the walls to the exposed beams by the ceiling. He dropped down the book he had been reading the night earlier and it hit the floor with a slight thud. Tony didn't pay much attention to it but Clint had jumped back down to the ground and was trying to hand it to him.
"I finished it last night when you refused to sleep. It's good, has dragons and trolls and stuff." Clint said. Tony took it and tried to read the title. It wasn't a word he knew and sounding it out was taking more time than he cared to admit so he just decided to open it and get started.
It was difficult. Tony figured that whatever this fantasy novel was either made up a bunch of words or just used a bunch of really hard ones. He sounded out as many words as he could before tossing it back to the boy sitting next to him. It fell against the bed with a dull thud.
"It's stupid. Doesn't even make sense." Tony said. Clint frowned as he glanced down at the book. "When are they going to send me home?"
Clint shrugged. "I don't know. Probably before me, Buck, and Jacques go home." He said. "Then the other two guys will take their share and disappear in to whatever cave they sprouted from."
"They're not your friends?" Tony asked as he went to sit by the window. It hadn't started raining against but the grey clouds had darkened and covered the sky again. "I thought they were your new family."
"Just Buck and Jacques. They stay at the circus with my brother and me. These other guys are just friends Buck knows that are here to help him get money to pay off his gambling debts. I don't like them." Clint said, reopening the book and looking down at it as he walked over to sit by Tony. "This book totally isn't stupid. Did you miss the part where I said there were dragons in it?"
Tony leaned towards him, glancing over Clint's shoulder. "You probably shouldn't tell me about where you and your family live, not that smart for a kidnapper." Tony said, Clint just shrugged again. Tony pointed down at the page. "See, those are probably made up words. It's a stupid book."
"It says 'sapphire amulet' and Dr. Seuss made up words all the time and his books were gold." Clint said. Tony still frowned down at the book.
"Reading is lame. Just talk about where you live again so I know what to tell the police." Tony said.
Clint shook his head and walked back to the wall. He climbed back up to the beam on the ceiling and continued to watch him. Tony was hungry. He hadn't eaten since dinner the night before and no one had offered him food yet and he wasn't sure if he would even take it. His mom always were annoyed when he refused to eat something when they were out, said it was rude and would immediately send him to his room whenever they returned home. They couldn't force him to eat here, it might just annoy them too.
Tony went back to staring out the window. It was quickly growing darker and the car came back up the small dirt road up to the cabin. His first thought was that they had come back to get him and drive him back. He stood up to walk out to meet them but Clint shook his head.
Buck and the woman didn't have anything with them, not everything they had taken from Tony's house or anything to eat, but they looked angry. He flinched as the door slammed loudly and yelling filled the cabin on the other side of the door. He didn't move from the window until the one man he didn't have a name for yet came in and grabbed him by the arm to drag him out into the living room.
Clint followed behind quickly, jumping down silently from the ceiling and taking a seat in the corner. Tony didn't say anything as they all stood around him when they sat him on the couch. A fire burned steadily in the fireplace with Jacques covered in mud and the woman held a cell phone tightly in her hand.
"Kid, do you think you can get us $200,000?" She asked firmly. Tony shrugged and she sighed, typing quickly on her phone. "Let's hope you are. God knows they have enough to pay that much for you."
Tony took the phone as she shoved it in his face. He recognized the voice that talked quietly on the other end. It was his mother, her worried voice sounded out through the speaker and asked who was calling and what he wanted and said she was going to get Howard.
"Mama, do I get to come home now? They said I could soon but they're not letting me and they're all mean except fo-." The phone was ripped from his hand quickly as the woman started speaking to his mother, demanding payment for his safe return.
Tony smiled over at Clint. He was going home. This had to mean that they were taking him home where he wouldn't be pushed around by strangers and yelled at for no reason. He could go back to his warm bed and familiar house where Jarvis would read to him and not get upset that he couldn't read and he wouldn't have to look for dry sticks for a fire. He hated these people and he hated this cabin and was happy to be going home.
She hung up angrily and glared at him. "They won't pay it." Tony looked up at her. Everyone in the room tensed up and he didn't know what to do.
Jacques grabbed him angrily, lifting him by the arms and dragging him out of the cabin and back into the woods. Tony thought at first that he was being taken out to the car but they turned drastically and went deeper into the woods. He screamed loudly, kicking at the man holding him until he was lifted higher and his arms and legs were pinned to his chest.
He was dropped silently and lifted his head to look up at the man. Tony froze when he saw the gun pointed at him. "You're worthless. We just needed $200,000 and they won't even pay that for you." Clint stepped in quickly, knocking the gun out of the way and standing between them. "Move kid. We didn't get enough. We don't have enough. If we can't pay it then we're all dead."
Clint didn't move as he crossed his arms. Tony yanked lightly on the boy's shirt as he pulled himself up and looked over at the rest of the group that had followed them out. They were whispering furiously and Jacques turned to shout angrily into the forest.
"They're not looking. You can just let me leave now and I'll be fine." Tony whispered. Clint hesitated before he shook his head.
"He wouldn't shoot you, he's just angry and stressed. Don't worry." He said. Tony groaned and looked back around. Everyone else was nodding and Tony made a quick look back into the woods, contemplating his chances of making it to a road or living out there for long in the cold and the rain if he just ran now.
"I have an idea of what we can do with him." The woman said. "Just keep your shit together, Duquesne, and you and Chisholm and your little student can go back to the carnival you guys crawled out of."