Shadows

By: GalInTheMoon

When the elevator doors pinged open Natasha and Clint stepped out faces neutral. She squeezed his arm, "I'm going to change." She said as she disappeared down one of the hallways. Barton looked toward the common room, toward Steve. He hung his coat up and made his way toward him. Plopping down, slouching into one of the chairs, he kicked his feet up onto the nearby table, and laid his head back. Just as the silence was about to become awkward Jarvis announced someone was coming up the elevator. The two men shared a glance but neither got up to see who it was.

Soon the doors pinged open and Tony's voice rang from the open doors. "...so I'm thinking does he know about the snail on his shoulder, is it, like a fashion choice? Should I say something?" Pepper laughed and slapped his shoulder, "You are terrible." She was beaming as she looked to the two faces staring back at them from across the room. Tony followed her line of sight and shrugged when he saw the two men staring back at him. He walked toward them and Pepper followed.

"Evening boyscouts." He glanced back and forth between them, "Exciting as ever?"

Clint turned back around, "Hey Pepper." He said over his shoulder.

"Evening Clint." She smiled. Steve was watching Tony. Tony was returning the gesture with his own smirk added for good measure, when Pepper added, "Steve."

Steve smiled at her, "Ms. Potts." He glanced back at Stark, "Tony."

Peppers smile widened. Tony glanced at her, raised his eyebrows, bounced on the balls of his feet and rocked back on his heels. She rubbed his cheek and kissed him before disappearing into a side door. The trio remained silent for another moment. Clint looked at the palm of his right hand with intense interest. While Steve sipped his coffee, staring over the brim at Tony. Still fidgeting himself, Tony could take no more, "Well this is a blast and not at all awkward but uh..." he looked Pepper's direction and nodded after her, "I'm going to..." He didn't finish before disappearing as well.

A moment passed before Steve leaned forward in his chair, cradling the mug in his hands, "Listen Clint. I feel I owe you an apology." He lifted his head to look at Steve. "I questioned you without just cause."

Barton kept his eyes on the other man, "I get it. No apology needed."

Steve looked down at his hands, "I read more of your service record." If he was going to apologize he was going to be sincere about it.

"And?" Barton's tone was disinterested if not tired.

"I was wrong to think you were anything but a part of this team."

Clint raised his head, he had begun rubbing at his forehead, "Why would you think..." never mind he thought, move on. He sighed, "I didn't say anything about this." He gestured to his ears, "Because if it were a problem I would be the first to..."

"Clint..." Steve interrupted but before he could continue Barton cut him off.

"walk away. Do you think I would risk the safety of anyone on my team?"

"Clint." Steve repeated but Barton was on a roll. He kept his voice low and even as he continued. "No way in hell. I may keep my business, my business. I may work from a distance but the men beside me are my first priority. My top priority is their backs. it's your back. This..." he carefully removed the small hearing aid from his left ear. "You don't have to..." Steve said but, being ignored, he dropped his head as Barton moved to his right ear, "...changes nothing."

Steve looked up, "I know Barton."

Clint sat back in his chair, "Oh yeah?"

"Yes." He paused to discern how much Barton would catch. When the other man raised his eyebrows impatiently, he continued, "I understand the situation more now. I was wrong." He took a deep breath feeling as if he couldn't explain himself, "I'm not one for the cloak and dagger act. I've never trusted what isn't clear-cut, right in front of me." Barton shifted as he continued, "But that doesn't mean you deserve my suspicion. You are a good man Barton. Your actions have proven that. I'm ashamed I didn't see what was right in front of me and I'm sorry."

Barton watched him a moment, shaking the aids around in his palm, before saying, "We're good then?"

"We're good." Steve answered.

Barton watched him a beat. Steve felt as if it was his turn to be sized up as Clint came to some secret conclusion, "Apology accepted Cap."

"Steve."

"Eh." Barton shrugged. He shifted in his seat again. "You met Phil Coulson right?"

Steve nodded mournfully, "I did. He seemed very dedicated."

"Best man I've known." Barton added, "He's the reason I have these." He continued to shake the hearing aids in his hand, "Threatened to leave S.H.I.E.L.D. if they didn't make things right, one agent for the cost of two, if ya know what I mean."

"Make it right?" Steve took a sip of coffee.

"Faulty information bullshit. Walked into something they shoulda warned us about. Phil blamed the uppity-ups. Doesn't matter now." He shifted again. Every word felt thick and heavy as sludge in his mouth but he was confident he was speaking clearly, and he was. "He show you his cards?"

"The Captain America cards? He did." Steve still felt the guilt of not signing them while Coulson was alive.

"He tell you how he got them?"

"No."

"Figures." Clint shook his head, "Apparently, Phil's grandpa met you overseas during world war two. He was so impressed with what he saw he started sending those cards back home to his newborn shortly after." He paused a moment before continuing, "Phil's dad still had them tucked in a shoebox when he went down flying a chopper in Vietnam. They were Phil's first connection to him, his only in a lot of ways. He spent two years after they found you in the ice tracking down the missing ones."

Steve swallowed, "I'm sorry I didn't know." Clint dropped his eyes back to his hand at Steve's words. For no other reason than to hide the emotions that threatened to make themselves known.

Continuing to look down he said, "He would have stood by you to the ends of the Earth Rogers." He looked up, "I intend to do the same. For him... Just so you know." The just try to stop me, was implied, but so was the respect.

Steve was left speechless. It was more than he could wrap his thoughts or emotions around before Natasha came around the corner. It was debatable how long she had been there but at least she had the courtesy to actually change her clothes at an attempt to play out the ruse. She had their complete attention as she casually walked over to the kitchen and grabbed some grapes from the fridge before sitting with the pair. Steve noticed she chose to sit across from Barton, in a clear line of sight, rather than beside him. She tossed a grape in her mouth, "Everyone getting along?" She didn't give them a chance to respond before she said, "I'm putting on a movie." and flicked on the t.v.

"Any requests?" She asked as she flipped through the choices, glancing between the two of them. Steve shook his head no and leaned back in his seat, foot on his knee, cup resting on his ankle, thinking.

"Toss me one of those will ya." Barton asked none too politely, referring to the grapes in her hands. She nodded, broke off a branch and tossed it his way. She returned her focus to the screen, "How about..." and brought up classics, "..something we can all enjoy." She glanced at Steve who was watching the movie covers slide by with growing interest. When Robin Hood with Errol Flynn came up she smirked and started it. She glanced at Clint who rolled his eyes at her joke.

"This should be good." Steve announced.

"Seen it?" Natasha asked.

At the time this movie came out he was a kid taking care of a sick mother and raising himself. At the tail-end of a depression with a war on the horizon. A movie was a rare treat. Hearing the intro, seeing the bright technicolor, for a moment made him feel like the same small, struggling sixteen year old he had been. Sneaking into the theater, being transported to a world so foreign from the reality he knew. It was an odd sensation to be so close and so far from that time in the same moment. To feel this time-warped, confusing, survivors guilt. But there was no need to explain all that. Steve quirked his mouth sheepishly, and simply answered "Nah."

Clint watched the odd play of emotions cross Steve's face. He shook the loose hearing aids in his closed palm. He wanted to pop them back in but it wasn't much of an option. He cursed his lack of forethought. He would have to wash his hands, wipe the aids off, and he needed his specially designed, handy-dandy, one-of-a-kind tool to put them back in. He actually should have used it to take them out but he was proving a point damn it all. He had to be careful though the very thing that made them so effective also put him at risk for ear infections. Normally a mild enough thing, but an infection meant swelling, and swelling meant no hearing aid. That was something he preferred to avoid. Hopefully he hadn't already shot himself in the foot. Coulson would've called him an idiot, smacked him upside the head, and sent him off to put the damn things back in already, he grinned inwardly.

Without comment Natasha turned on the captions. He glanced her way and she winked back. Steve didn't react to their appearance, instead, he continued to watch the old movie in a state mirroring rapture.