Wow, i can't believe how many people have read this story! I got so excited I wanted to update early. haha, thanks so much to everyone who reviewed, it means a lot that people take the time to read my story.

Clint awoke the next morning feeling much better but panic returned quickly when he remembered that he wasn't at home, sure the people from the night before had seemed nice enough which was a nice break from his father's mean looks and words but it didn't change the fact that he didn't know where he was. It scared him.

He lay in bed and looked at the clock. It was only five in the morning, he didn't know if that was too early to get up and so he stretched out. The bed was nice and warm. A double. At home he only had a twin. He liked it, even though it wasn't his.

He thought about the people he'd met. He liked Natasha, she was pretty and had been nice to him. He liked Tony too, he thought he was a very funny person. He also liked Bruce, or he thought he might if he could figure out more about him. His mind drifted to Captain America. He had messed that up. He hadn't been able to say a word when he first met him. He squeezed his eyes shut. He felt stupid. Captain America must think I'm an idiot! He thought. Maybe he was, his dad told him he was stupid all the time. The thought turned his stomach. His dad would be so mad at him when he got home. He curled into the bed covers. Maybe he could talk to Captain America, ask him to talk to his dad. Ask him to ask his dad to be nicer. He liked the idea. He would do it.

Sometime in his thoughts he drifted back off to sleep again and was woken an hour later by a disembodied voice. "Good morning Mr. Barton, breakfast is being prepared in the kitchen and the others are awaiting you presence."

Clint nearly jumped out of the covers. He looked around but could find no one.

"I'm sorry, my name is JARVIS. I am Tony Stark's personal AI. I am a computer program centered in Stark Tower. I have no physical form. I do hope that will not be a problem."

Clint relaxed slowly. Tony was pretty rich, so he probably had a pretty fancy computer. He didn't understand completely but somehow it made sense. Plus he thought he had seen something like that in a movie once.

He made his way to the kitchen, still in his pajamas. He would talk to Captain America as soon as he could. His parents had listen to Captain America.

Steve was finishing his second bottle of water after his morning his run just as Clint entered the kitchen. They had decided to make a fake call that morning. It was the best they could do. They would tell Clint that his parents were glad he was safe and tell him that he was going to spend a little time with them. It was the best they could come up with and as Tony had said, was an awful story.

Steve smiled as brightly as he could when Clint entered the room. "Morning." He said.

Clint gave him a small smile that looked more troubled than anything else and climbed into the chair he'd used the night before. He looked around and was invited to a bowl of cheerios. They were the adult kind but he didn't seem to mind.

"Are you feeling better?" Bruce asked.

The boy nodded.

"Would you mind if I felt your forehead?"

Clint shook his head and remained still for Bruce to check his temperature. "Much better."

Clint smiled a little and finished his cheerios. All throughout the meal he remained looking anxious and high strung, it was almost painful to watch the concentration with which he ate his cereal

After breakfast he tugged on Steve's sleeve nervously. Steve looked down and smiled. "What's up?" He asked.

Clint swallowed. "Can I talk to you?"

Blinking, Steve nodded. "Sure."

Clint glanced around. "Out there?" He motioned towards the hall with his head.

Confused, Steve stood and lead the way out. "Anything wrong?" He asked, worried.

Clint licked his lips and stood still. "Are you guys gonna call my parents soon?" He asked.

"Of coarse." Steve felt guilty lying to the boy, especially when he was supposed to be his team mate.

"C-can you talk to my dad for me?"

"Well sure, what do you wan me to say?" Steve gave him a kind smile; whatever Clint wanted him to say, it seemed very important to him and he wanted to be as encouraging as he could.

Clint twisted the hem of his shirt. Now that he had the chance to ask, he didn't want to. What if Steve got mad at him for asking? "Um, can you ask him to be nicer to me?" He hung his head. "You're Captain America and he has to listen to you!" The words came tumbling out now faster. "Maybe you could ask him to not yell so much and maybe not hit as much. . . maybe not hit me or my brother. You're Captain America and you're bigger than him, so he can't pick on you. Maybe you can make him be nicer. . ." He stopped short and ducked his head lower "B-but you don't have to. . . i-if you don't want to." His voice caught in his throat and he stopped talking.

Steve felt his lips part silently and a wave of cold fell over him. He had not been expecting that. "Clint. . ." The boy looked so upset his heart hurt. He looked angry and ashamed and sacred. Steve felt anger rise in his chest. Of all the things he had been prepared for, he hadn't even considered something like this. "Clint, does your father hit you a lot?" He asked gently.

Clint dug his toes into the floorboards and nodded, biting his lip. He looked up hesitantly and to Steve looked ashamed. Steve knelt and put his hands on the boy's skinny shoulders, they flinched under his touch. "Clint, if your father hits you then I don't think it's a good thing for us to call him. Would you be okay with staying here for a while?"

"What, like the services" The confusion on his face had the painfully doubling effect of making him look very innocent.

Steve swallowed. "A little like that."

"What about Barney, could he stay here too?"

Steve hesitated, wherever Clint's brother was, he was grown up and didn't need them. "We'll send someone to find him. Okay?" Another lie and Steve felt sick. He was angry with himself now too.

Clint nodded and smiled a little bit. "I bet Barney will be really excited to meet you." His voice was low and maybe a little tired. It looked like his request had had an emotionally draining effect.

Steve gave a weak smile. "I'm not that special." He said.

Clint gave him a disbelieving look that broke through his misery. "So you'll talk to him?" He asked hopefully.

"Yes but how about first we get you settled here for a while?"

The boy smiled a little more, having Captain America on his side definitely improved his spirits. "Okay." This time when Steve offered him his hand to lead him back into the kitchen, Clint took it with only a moment's hesitation.

Steve felt his muscles tighten. He wasn't sure what they were going to do now. One thing was for sure, he had to let the others know before any misunderstandings arose.

As soon as breakfast was finished and Clint went off to get dressed he cleared his throat.

Tony looked up from where he had been messaging Hank Pym. "What up, Cap?"

Steve hesitated for a moment. "Earlier when Clint asked me to speak to him in the hall he asked me to talk to his father. . . he told me. . . he told me his father hits him and asked me to make him stop." Bruce shifted uncomfortably and Tony looked at Natasha who frowned. "I told him that if his dad hits him then he should stay with us for a while and he asked if we were child services. Did anyone know about this?"

Natasha gave them all defensive looks. "I suspected some things." She said reluctantly.

"If he never told you then it's not your fault for not knowing." Bruce said softly. He folded his hands on the table. "I guess this explains the bruises he had when I first examined him. I was hoping they were from the crates you said fell on him."

Tony set aside his phone and sighed. "I'll have JARVIS look into child service records for Barton and see if I can't have someone track down his brother."

"He asked me if his brother could stay here too. I told him someone would look into it."

"Well that'll be tricky."

There was silence for a minute and then Natasha sighed. "Someone should give Thor a heads up. He's due back in a day or two."

"I'll message him." Tony said, picking back up his phone.

They sat for a moment more. Then Natasha stood and walked out of the room. She walked stiffly, her own demonstration of upset.

"I wonder how much she actually knew." Tony said putting his phone down.

Bruce frowned at him. "If she didn't say anything then it's probably because she was trying to respect Clint's privacy."

Tony was quiet for a moment, weighing the view point before he took a drink of coffee and nodded. "Yeah."

Steve sighed. "I feel bad for him." He said. "He looked so upset out in the hall. I wish I had known."

"It would have been easier if we'd all known from the beginning." Tony said, pulling up his phone. "I'm gonna go hack his child service records. I'll let you know if I find anything." He stood and left the room. Bruce followed after, saying he was going to go work on a blood sample he'd taken from Clint the day before.

Feeling slightly useless, Steve sighed and went to find the boy. He was glad that Clint seemed to feel safe with him but wasn't happy that it was just because he was Captain America. He wanted Clint to trust him for who he was, not as an icon.

He knocked and found Clint in his bedroom tying his shoe laces. "How're you doing, kiddo?" he asked.

Clint looked up and there was a very serious look on his face. "Did you call him?"

Steve felt his heart sink. He had to lie to the boy again. "Yeah, I did." He came and sat next to Clint on the bed. "I told him that if he hit you or your brother again he'd have to deal with me."

Clint bit his lip. "Was he mad?"

"He was a little mad but he can't hurt you while you're here."

The boy clenched a fist around his blanket. "How long do you think I can stay here?" He asked in a very small voice.

"Well, I don't know but I think for now as long as you want to."

"And you're gonna get Barney too?"

God this was difficult and it hurt too. "Yeah, we're gonna get him."

"Okay, cause it's worse when there's just one of us."

Steve looked down at the boy, feeling crestfallen. "Doesn't your mother do anything?" He asked, trying not to sound pleading.

Clint looked down and Steve realized that he was hiding his face because there were tears in his eyes. "No." He said softly. The even more softly he said: "I don't think she really cares. She's not mean but she doesn't do anything to stop him. Barney says she doesn't care and he's usually right."

Steve gently reached out and put an arm around the boy's shoulder. Clint stiffened and looked up with a startled expression. He blinked and Steve smiled at him, trying to cheer him up. Clint sniffed but didn't cry. He leaned against Steve for a minute and then puled away.

Steve gave him a gentle pat on his back and smiled. "So, what do you want to do today?" He asked.

Clint shrugged, sniffing. "I dunno."

"Well, what do you do for fun?"

Clint shrugged again. "Sometimes I go over to my friend's house. My friend Tommy doesn't live too far away."

Steve frowned, he still wasn't sure how old Clint was at this age. What did little boys do in the modern world? He thought back on his own childhood. When he had been this young he had been sick almost all of the time. But when he wasn't, he had played in the street with the other boys. They'd played games and kicked balls between them, they'd played with just about anything they could find and had pretend sword fights with sticks. A lot of the time he had been too sick to play but he'd always watched the others and sometimes he had sat on his front steps and cheered the others on, just to be part of the game. He thought of toys. Toys now were very fancy, they lit up and made noise and some moved on their own. His toys had been much simpler. Toy cars, a toy airplane (the propeller had moved when he twirled it!), he'd had jacks and a teddy bear and a a few puzzles. His favorite toy had been a set of little metal soldiers. On days when he'd been too sick to get out of bed he'd lain there pretending his knees were mountains the soldiers had to climb. He smiled thinking about it.

Clint looked at him curiously."Why are you smiling?" He asked.

"Oh nothing." Steve said, laughing a little. "Do you want to go to the store and pick out a toy or something?"

Clint bit his lip. "Can I keep it?" He asked.

Steve nodded. "Of course."

"Okay."

He smiled again. "Great, grab your coat and lets go." He left Clint to find his new coat and went to get his own. Before returning he stopped to call Tony. "Hey," He said. "I'm gonna take Clint out to get him a few toys. We might get lunch depending on how long we're out."

There was a bang on the other end as Tony put something heavy down and then a throat cleared. "Okay. Keep an eye on him though, we don't know too much about what he's like as a kid. He could take off or something"

"I'll watch him."

"Oh, and take my credit card. I'll pay for the stuff. Just don't come back with any heels. Armani or otherwise."

Steve chuckled. "I'll try. Thanks."

"No problem."

He returned to Clint's room to find the boy dressed and ready, swinging his feet on the bed. "You all set?" He asked.

Clint nodded and hopped off the bed, following him down stairs

Thanks for reading!

Next chapter Steve takes Clint shopping.