Clint groaned as Steve walked in, calling out that he had groceries. Frowning slightly Clint took in how he had been sleeping, his gaze drifting down to the blond sleeping against him. It seemed while he'd been sleeping he'd adopted a position he had often used with Natasha when they'd had nightmares. He had curled his taller body around hers, chest against her back, forehead resting against the shorter woman's head, an arm slung loosely over her stomach. A comforting position he had desperately missed, although Catalina seemed to fit better against him than the taller Natasha had. Despite being somewhat surprised, he was relaxed and for once he hadn't dreamt of Natasha.

Shifting so he could prop himself up on an elbow he leaned across Catalina, grabbing one of the Ramen packages and hurling it over the edge. Amused as Steve cursed as he was hit. Ramen was light, and not that dangerous, but even dry noodles would smart if they were thrown fast and hard enough at you.

"Hawk?" Catalina muttered as she woke, frowning slightly. Not pulling away from him, unsure if he knew who she was, or if he was pretending she was Natasha, and not wanting to startle him if he didn't.

"What? Shut up trainee, I'm sleeping." Clint ordered as he listened to Steve cursing as he started to scramble up the ladder, smiling slightly as the woman relaxed against him. Smirking to himself he reached over, undoing the simple brace that held the ropes into place, grinning when Steve hit the floor after barely making it a foot up.

"You bastard! Clint! Let me up there right now! Some of this shit is frozen and is going to melt and go bad."

"Throw it in the damned fridge and go away." Clint demanded even as he pulled out one of the spare ropes, and reattached it before tossing it down to Steve.

"I'm not the one being loud. Now play nicely children, I'm going back to sleep." Catalina ordered as she listened to them argue, shifting around until all that was visible was the top of her head as she snuggled down into the bed.

Clint huffed a little as he glared at her, reaching down to yank the covers off her as he sat up. If he wasn't allowed sleep, neither was she. Ignoring her glower as she stared at him, Clint shifted over to watch Steve come up, stealing an apple as Steve put the stuff away.

"Fuck Clint, can't you find a safer way to get up here? Like, I dunno, a staircase, or better yet, maybe sleep on the ground?"

"No." Clint stated with a scowl as he complained about not needing all that food, or that he didn't want 'crap like that'. Which was mostly the vegetables, fruit, juice, milk, eggs...most of the good stuff. He managed to not complain about the toaster waffles or ice cream though. Eating one of the waffles even as he checked his magic cards over to make sure Catalina hadn't messed with them. They were all carefully placed in collector's books, so he didn't think it would be too bad, but he was still relieved to see that she hadn't removed or moved the cards around.

"You're such a nerd..." Steve muttered, laughing when he was flipped off.

"Don't look so worried, I didn't do anything to them." Catalina grumbled watching him look over his cards.

"You might have." Clint stated, eyes narrowing as he looked at the woman lying in his bed. "You touched my things, I have to disinfect them."

"Oh, for God's sake, I didn't touch anything but the covers. Your cards are safe."

Clint sneered at the woman, carefully wiping down the pages. He hadn't even let Natasha touch his cards, why would he let his brat of a trainee touch anything? Tilting his head slightly he opened his mouth to answer before looking towards the edge as he heard someone moving around.

"Is it safe to come up? I mean, he hasn't thrown either of you out yet, so I'm going to assume it is." Tony's voice said from down on the ground level, not bothering to wait for an answer before he started to climb the ladder. A flirty smirk played on his lips at the sight of the beautiful blonde already in bed; her hair sleep tousled and mused. He couldn't help himself, even though it was more reflex than actually wanting her. Tony was worried enough about Clint – casual flirting wasn't top priority. "Hey nerd, are you sober and ready to get back to work?"

"Flirt with my trainee, Stark, and I'll cut you." Clint warned, looking around for a knife before scowling as he realized that it hadn't been a mistake earlier, his weapons really were missing. "What the hell did you do with my weapons, Tony?!"

He knew it hadn't been Catalina, she'd know better then to leave an assassin without a weapon, and it wasn't Steve because he wasn't that stupid. Only Tony Stark would be so utterly reckless and disarm him when he was drunk. It cast some serious doubts over the man's intelligence.

"Why do you assume it was me? It could have been your trainee."

"I'm not that stupid. He was already going to be pissed I killed his vodka, no reason to take his weapons." Catalina said raising her eyebrows a little.

"I forgot about that. I knew there was a reason I didn't want you touching my things." Clint grumbled.

"He never lets anyone touch his cards... I tried once, just to look and nearly lost the hand. I don't think..." Steve tailed off, his face pained for a moment: 'I don't think Natasha touched them even' going unsaid. Studying the awkward look on Catalina's face he smiled slightly. "Hey he let you touch them. That's a good thing, he might be fussing now, but he didn't stop you either."

"True." Catalina muttered frowning slightly.

"Though, you do know he's going to punish you for ruining his vodka, you know that right? Probably make you run for hours."

"Fuck." Catalina cursed quietly.

"They're all down there. Which you would know, if you ever left the nest, not that I blame you with her sitting in your bed." Tony said, ignoring the two having a conversation.

"Stark, he said not to flirt."Catalina said, though she looked more amused then annoyed, distracted from her conversation with Steve.

"He should have known that wouldn't work, especially since he's not armed yet." Tony made a face, tilting his head a little. "I just came up to tell you me and Pepper are going out for the evening, so don't go burning down the place while I'm gone."

"I don't need to be armed to hurt you Tony." Clint hissed looking irritated. "And you aren't wearing your fancy bracelets, so you can't get suited up by the time I start to pummel you. Now leave, before I push you off." Clint said, not bothering to wait for an answer as he moved to the edge of the nest and dropped, catching the rope hanging on the edge and sliding down.

"Jesus Clint, I thought we were going to have to call the ambulance." Steve cursed as they followed him down. Amusement colouring Captain America's face as he listened to Tony complain about stupid birdbrained stunts as they left, leaving the teacher and trainee alone together, both men having gotten what they came for – reassurance that Clint was recovering.

Catalina smiled slightly as she got to the floor glancing around her, amused as she saw the pile of weapons stacked on the coffee table, standing stiffly a moment before sighing she shifted awkwardly. She'd done what Tony had asked her to do, gotten Clint sober and responding to people again. They didn't need her for anything else. Running her fingers through her blond hair she smiled sadly. "Well... I'll see you later. I probably should get back."

Clint spun away from the pile of weapons he'd been inspecting to make sure Tony hadn't messed them up to look at her. "Don't leave!" He growled as he grabbed her wrist, his voice almost panicked.

Catalina jumped slightly as he grabbed her, moving to hit him before she stopped the instinctive reaction, dropping her hand even as he let go of her wrist. "Well... I guess being in Stark Tower is better then my apartment." She said simply, overlooking the weakness he'd revealed in not wanting to be alone. "I assume there's an indoor pool? Frank said swimming would be better than fighting to get my shoulder back into working order, less strain on the muscles or something... I stopped listening after he told me swimming was good."

Clint swallowed hard, watching her recover, fighting back the urge to apologize for frightening her. "I dunno actually. I've never been anywhere but here and the labs downstairs." He admitted with a shrug.

"You poor boring man. You need to do more stuff besides drinking and working. He has a tower for his personal entertainment!"

"Hey Jarvis!"

"Yes Master Clint?"

Clint smirked a little as Catalina jumped at the posh British accent. "Does Tony have a pool?"

"Yes, Master Clint. There's a pool on the fifth, twelve, and forty-fifth floors. Are you wishing to do an experiment?"

"No. Just to swim."

"Then you will be wanting the pool on the forty-fifth floor. Shall I arrange for swimming clothes to be delivered?"

"Yes. Thanks Jarvis." He said as he headed for the elevator smirking a little. "Startled?"

"Hmm. That was creepy. Sort of. Weird computer thing..." Catalina said making a face.

Clint grinned a little before hitting the button for the elevator and stepping in. "Come on then. The sooner we get your arm back up to shape, the sooner I can torment you."

"You say that like some men say they're looking forward to a date. You shouldn't sound so excited, sadist." She said rolling her eyes before looking around her as the elevator stopped, staring at the Olympic sized pool. "I'll be back." She said looking amused as she headed into the locker room staring at the swimsuit that had been left out for her. Blushing as she changed into the itty bitty blue bikini. But she figured she was lucky to get a swimsuit at all, since Tony most probably liked his women in nothing at all. Sighing softly as she headed back out to the pool, eyes widening as she looked at what Clint was wearing.

"Don't you dare laugh." Clint glared at Catalina, who was starting to go red in the face from the effort of trying not to laugh at him.

Catalina smiled slowly, careful so as not to lose control, as she looked the man over. While he was scarred, and that wasn't really surprising considering what he did for a living, it wasn't ugly. Not the way you would have expected. The wounds had healed well, leaving their mark and adding mystery. But what really had her attention at the moment were the swimshorts. "You look good in kittens." She said snickering at the cute baby cats on his trunks.

"Shut up, trainee, and get working."Clint glared, sulking, not that he'd ever admit that he was sulking, as he slipped into the pool.


Clint studied the woman moving through his apartment, a slight frown on his face as he looked at his place. The couch, TV stand, and coffee table had been shoved towards the wall with the sole purpose of giving Catalina more room to work out in. Two weeks had passed since she'd gotten here, and while they hadn't discussed it, Clint had discovered that Tony had given her her own suite of rooms. Even if she didn't spend any time in them, preferring to be in his easier to work out in, roomier apartment, instead of her own standard set up guest rooms.

Watching her as she ate breakfast Clint thought about the woman he'd grown to know, despite having tried very hard to not know anything about her. He knew that she slept as badly as he did. Driven out of bed more than once by his own nightmares, he'd found his trainee outside on the balcony, despite the freezing New York winter. She could slip into dance moves so easily during a fight that he knew she'd started young, the habits so engrained that it was second nature to lash out. He knew she hated coffee, but loved orange juice first thing in the morning. He knew her favorite music to working out to was Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty waltz.

He knew that she enjoyed spending time with him, and easily answered his sarcasm with even more sarcasm. He knew that despite her worry about sponging off Tony and using his money to buy small things for her room, she was secretly pleased to have a place that was solely hers. As he had found out she had to share an apartment with another agent and he sensed she'd never really had a place to call her own. He knew that talking to Steve got her tongue tied in ways that talking to the other Avengers didn't, and it amused him to watch her sort out what she wanted to say. He knew she was intelligent and kind enough to not make Thor feel stupid when she explained Midgardian things to him.

What he didn't know was why he was starting to care if she stayed.