"Clint has an apartment?"
Five incredulous sets of eyes landed on Tony.
"Seriously? You're still stuck on the fact that Clint has an apartment?", Steve admonished.
"What? I can't be curious? I thought he lived in his apartment here in the tower."
"Have you ever considered," Kate interjected, "that he owned the apartment before the Avengers existed?"
Tony's eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth to respond, but Natasha cut him off.
"That's beside the point. Clint is missing and now we know that someone is after him. We need to start looking for where he may have disappeared to before this gets any worse. Jarvis, can you check city security cameras to see if Clint shows up anywhere?"
"Of course, Ms. Romanoff."
"Okay, while Jarvis checks on that, let's come up with a list of places Clint may have gone last night. Obviously he was looking for something to eat, so we'll start there," Coulson said, already stepping into his role as their handler.
There was a moment of silence as the team and Kate deliberated which restaurants and stores would have been open and close enough for an injured Hawkeye to walk to.
"There's that pizza joint that's just a couple blocks down?" Bruce said uncertainly.
"No, he hates that place," Kate responded. "He says that the sauce and cheese ratio is totally wrong. Maybe he just decided to go to the store."
"That would make sense, especially since someone took the rest of his pizza rolls," said Natasha, narrowing her eyes at Tony.
"You took his pizza rolls?" Kate's eyes grew round as she spun to face the self-proclaimed genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist. "You know he's gonna kill you in your sleep, right?"
"Who are you again?" Tony asked with a roll of his eyes. "And why did you bring that...thing...up to my perfectly clean tower?"
"He's not a thing. He's Clint's dog, and what do you mean 'who am I'? Didn't Clint tell you guys about me?" Kate turned to face each Avenger in turn, her heart sinking further with every shake of their heads.
"How could he have never said anything about me? I know everything about you guys!" Kate couldn't believe that her best friend, her mentor, had failed to tell his friends, his family about her.
Phil and Natasha shared a look.
"It was to protect you." Natasha said, stepping forward. "He-"
"So, what, are you, like, his girlfriend then?" Tony interrupted.
"What?!" Kate spluttered, looking horrified. "Absolutely not! I- He- He's way too old for me!"
"Then that does beg the question of the nature of your relationship," Steve prodded, a skeptical look on his face.
Kate looked at Natasha. At her subtle nod she took a deep breath to calm herself.
"Clint is my mentor; I'm his apprentice. I'm Hawkeye too."
Clint woke uncharacteristically slowly to the muffled sounds of city traffic. As he tried to determine why everything was so dark and quiet (this was the city after all), he became aware of his unnatural position, seemingly sprawled over something. Many pointy and hard somethings that smelled like…rotting food? He slowly came to the conclusion that his eyes were still closed and, after much more effort than he'd care to admit, he forced them open. He squinted as the spinning lights and colors finally slowed down and morphed into a fuzzy picture of his surroundings. He appeared to be in...a dumpster?...behind a chinese restaurant?
That explains the smell. Nothing like taking a nap on empty boxes and week-old mushu pork.
After a few more moments of self-determination, Clint forced himself to sit up and get a better look at his surroundings. Upon further investigation, he found that he was missing his immobilization sling, his hearing aides, and, based on the color of the sky, the past 6 hours of his memory.
Ah, futz. Now what have I gotten myself into?