Clint never found out The Secret, because he always knew.
He wasn't stupid; as a victim himself, it was rather easy for him to recognize others with similar pasts. He knew a facade when he saw one. Of course, he wasn't exactly expecting the great Tony Stark to have demons so like his, but when he looked back on it, he realized it wasn't that surprising.
The famous ones always had pressure. Pressure to be perfect, with no flaws or mistakes. Perfection. It didn't take much to come to the conclusion of that was what Howard Stark expected.
The difference was that Clint knew it was wrong to hit a defenseless child. He knew it was wrong to be harshly punished for something you couldn't help. It was abuse, he now knew, and it wasn't right, and never was. Tony, for how smart he was, obviously didn't know. It was almost funny that the assassin knew something a full out genius didn't. Sure, Tony wasn't one to condone hitting a kid, but for some reason it was different when he was the kid himself. If Clint hadn't had the same mindset once upon a time, he would have thought that was crazy.
It was amazing what someone could gain from meeting someone who had gone through the same experience.
Stark was still hurting. A lot.
The sniper wanted to help, make it go away. He really did, but he had no idea how. His own memories didn't help at all, not in this situation. All he remembered was that he wanted it to stay hidden and he never wanted to speak a word about it. That certainly wouldn't work. Once again, Clint wished that his training covered shit like this. It would make life a hell of a lot easier.
Usually, he would talk to Natasha about things like this, but he really didn't want to reveal his teammate's secret. Even if it was likely that she already knew. He knew better than to take the chance, even if he trusted her more than anyone. He didn't like it, but he wasn't as disloyal as to tell something this personal. Definitely not when he understood it this much.
So he did what he did best, because he wasn't a man to be on the ground confronting.
He watched.
Shorter chapter because there wasn't much for Clint to find out and because I felt I kept repeating myself.
Also, sorry for the wait but I was very busy. Expect weekly, if not daily, chapters now.
