Author's Note: I'm totally uploading this instead of doing schoolwork. And I'm actually almost done writing the story for sure. And a part of me honestly wants to like... take the time to do a re-write of the story. Shorten it and everything. But I don't know if I'll actually do that.


Chapter Forty-Nine

"Hard Drive, how lovely to hear your voice at eight thirty at night." Tony said into the phone. "Though normal people are getting ready for bed at this time."

"Tony, you're not normal." Remy shot back. "What the hell was that email about?"

"A test, that's all." She could almost sense him shrugging at that. "Next time I see you I want you to list those numbers off for me. You know, prove you have that magic brain or whatever."

Remy sighed. "They're just numbers, right? Not like, launch codes or some shit?"

"They're just numbers." Tony told her. "Don't worry. Now, why did you call? Missing me tons? Sorry, though flattered, I am spoken for."

"Oh my God." Remy rubbed her face. "No, I only called because hey, Tony Stark sent me a fuckin' cryptic email. And cryptic is not what I want these days."

"Well, it's just numbers." Tony insisted.

"Good."

"Is that all you needed?"

"... Yes."

There was an awkward silence for a minute before Remy finally said a hasty goodbye and ended the call. Clint was still sitting beside her on the couch, listening to the call. Remy closed down her laptop and grumbled. "Fucking cryptic billionaire genius assholes."

"So..."

"He's just being an asshole." Remy sighed. "Let's go to bed. It's nothing to worry about."

Clint nodded and stood up, stretching his arms out as he yawned. "Let's take the dog out one last time."

She nodded and got up to put some clothes on. Clint did the same, pulling on jeans and a t-shirt before grabbing his jacket. Lucky was in his bed, tail wagging happily as he watched his owners. Once Remy was dressed and grabbed the leash, he jumped up and bounded over to her, barking excitedly. She knelt down to pet him, scratching behind his ears before attaching his leash to his collar.

"You are such an excitable little guy, aren't you?" She grinned, kissing Lucky on the forehead. "You're such a cutie. How do you get by in life with being so cute?"

"Easy." Clint replied as he made his way to the two. "Life loves me because I'm so cute."

"I was talking to Lucky." She teased as she straightened up. Clint pouted at her. "Aw, I think you're cute too, hon."

"Glad someone does." He mumbled as they left the apartment and headed outside. "I'm gonna place a reservation on a campsite tomorrow if that's cool. And then we can see what gear we need."

"I will probably need decent hiking shoes or something." Remy replied as they headed down the sidewalk. Lucky pulled at the leash, sniffing at everything he saw.

"We can look for those tomorrow." Clint said as he took her hand in his as they walked along. They went quiet pretty quickly, just enjoying each other's company and the fact that no one else was on the sidewalk with them. After a few minutes of silence, he gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "If you could live anywhere else in the world, where would it be?"

"That's... a random question." She frowned, stopping as Lucky found a bush to investigate. "You're not going to throw a black hood over my head and dump me somewhere, are you?"

"No, that's... no, wait, what?"

"Sorry, uh. Washington or Oregon? Or France." She shrugged.

"Why am I not surprised about the first two?" Clint replied dryly. Remy let go of his hand and gave his arm a pinch. "Ow, ow! Okay, uh, why France?"

Remy shrugged. "Spent time there in a school when I was 12. It was actually really nice and I got to learn French, visit the countryside, and see the museums."

"Huh."

"Yep. Now, what about you?" She asked as Lucky pulled on the leash suddenly. Okay, apparently he wanted to go on a longer walk tonight. They headed down the sidewalk again while she waited for Clint's answer.

He only shrugged in response, taking her hand again as they rounded the corner to the next street. "I dunno. I think so long as I have someone to come home too that doesn't completely hate me, I'm good living wherever."

"Well, so long as you don't mind feeding Lucky and putting up with me crying occasionally, you are more than welcome to stay with me." Remy assured him, giving his hand a squeeze. "And I like having you around 'cause you cook."

"Glad to know you keep me around to cook and care for the dog." He teased. "And not because I'm good in bed or anything else.

"Oh, I keep you around for other things. I just really like that you cook." She grinned as she leaned up to give him a kiss on the cheek. He turned his head at the last moment, their lips meeting, causing Remy to blush and giggle.

"You're kind of adorable right now." He murmured against her lips before pulling away. "All giggly and blushing. I don't think I can handle it."

"Well, get a handle on it." She teased as Lucky sat down on the sidewalk in front of them, looking up at them curiously. That usually meant he was tired and done being outside. "It's time to head back anyways. Lucky's tired."

Clint nodded as they turned around. Lucky wouldn't move, deciding to be stubborn and ignore Remy's commands of moving. Rolling his eyes, Clint bent down and picked the tired dog up. He was rewarded with having his face licked. He wrinkled his nose; Remy laughed.

"Whatever." Clint mumbled as they headed back to the apartment. "So, you really okay with that weird email Stark sent?"

She hummed, giving him a nod. "I really do think he's just being weird. I mean, he was wanting to do it when I first met him, but it was never a good opportunity." She sighed as they approached the building's door. "It's just terrible timing, I guess. Weird that he'd send it now when I'm starting to feel scared again about what's going on." She unlocked the door, holding it open so Clint could step inside first. "But really, I'm not gonna think too much on it."

Clint nodded, still holding the dog as they headed up the stairs and to their floor. "You don't have to think about it until Stark calls you at like, three in the morning some random day and demands that you recite it for him."

"If he calls me at three in the morning, then he better be dying and that those numbers are the only way to save his ass." Remy retorted as she unlocked the door to the apartment. "I mean, I think it's... flattering in a weird way that Tony fucking Stark has taken some weird interest in me? Like, I think people would kill me in to be in this position. But at the same time? Oh my god. How does one cope with this?"

Clint shrugged as he set Lucky down on the floor and unhooked the leash. "You just cope, that's all. If he becomes weirder then just punch him in the face."

"I should do that." She agreed as she locked the door behind them. Then she yawned. "Fuck, let's go to bed. I'm tired."


It was payday and two weeks since that weird email from Tony. Bills were paid, groceries bought, and Remy and Clint did a quick shopping trip to pick up what was needed for a camping trip. They were able to borrow the rest from Hill, because apparently she enjoyed camping from time to time with her girlfriend, and as long as Remy and Clint didn't do anything to dirty in their tent, then they were welcome to use it. Remy didn't want to ask what was considered 'dirty' to Hill.

The campsite was booked. Remy had her time off. And Steve was willing to puppysit Lucky. Everything was falling into place for once and nothing could go wrong.

Except the morning they left, she threw up twice. Clint was ready to cancel the trip when Steve had knocked on their door. And Remy was ready to fight Clint that they still needed to go because really, she was just nervous about leaving Lucky and that it was just nerves. She was fine, honestly, and after an hour of arguing, Clint gave in and they left.

He did stop to pick up saltines and ginger ale for her because like hell was he going to have her along if she was queasy.

The drive took a few hours. Clint kept a watchful eye on his girlfriend as she sat in the passenger seat, sipping contently on a can of ginger ale as she scrolled through her iPod, looking for the right music. Occasionally she'd pick a ridiculously sappy love ballad to play on repeat a few times before Clint would try to snatch it from her grip. Then she'd change the song to something classic to appease her boyfriend as he drove.

When they finally arrived at the campsite, he stole the iPod and hid it in the bottom of his bag. There was no way in hell he was going to go through that again.

The campsite was only a 20 minute walk from the car. And even though she had been sick in the morning, Remy was walking along like nothing had happened. It was weird and he couldn't stop worrying, because throwing up wasn't really a good thing. Granted, she usually threw up if she was overly anxious or stressed about something (such as flying or firing guns, but she had not been doing that at all lately), so what gives?

He kept an eye on her as he dug them a fire pit and she put up the tent.

"You know." Remy began as she finished with the tent and began putting their packs inside it. "You're making me nervous with how closely you're watching me. Like, are you judging my tent skills or something? 'cause you know, it's not that hard to read these instructions when they're just pictures."

"Oh, uh." Clint shrugged as he finished with the fire pit. "No, that's not it. Just... I like watching you work."

"Uh huh."

"I do." He insisted. "And watching you out here putting that tent up is hot."

She just gave him an unimpressed look. He just shrugged. She sighed. "Okay, I feel fine, Clint. I just felt a little off this morning, but now? I'm feeling just fine now."

Clint looked at her. "You sure?"

"Yes." She replied with a nod. "So don't worry, okay? Because then I will worry because you're worrying and we really don't need that cycle happening right now."

"I guess."

"Yep. Now," She turned her attention to the fire pit. "We have a fire pit. We now need a fire bucket. I nominate you to get that."

"Aw, babe." He didn't want to leave her alone but he wasn't going to say that.

"I'm gonna get the sleeping bags rolled out." She told him as she reached over and grabbed the bucket, holding it out to him. "And get the tent all comfy, okay? So be a good boy and get us some water." He pouted at her and she rolled her eyes. "I'll give you a reward if you do it."

"What kind of reward?"

"I'll give you the first s'more."

Clint wasn't sure if that was reasonable enough, but he wasn't going to argue with her. They did need a bucket of water for the fire, just in case. So without another word, he took the bucket, kissed her cheek, and wandered off in the direction of the stream they had crossed. It gave him a few minutes to himself to think over everything that was going on, which honestly, was not a lot. Sure, he was still on a break from SHIELD – one he wasn't ready to come back from after almost two months – and he was still having the occasional nightmare, but he was feeling better after the whole New York thing. Remy was helping to keep him grounded, letting him just stay at her place and do whatever he needed. As long as he didn't shoot arrows in her apartment or trash the place, she didn't really care what he did.

It kind of freaked him out from time to time how normal it was to be in a relationship with her. Then again, she wasn't any kind of assassin or spy, so that may have helped with that. All Remy did was sit at a desk and type shit. She couldn't fire a gun very well or kill someone like he could, but she could throw a mean punch if it called for it. He learned that one time in the office when he decided to sneak up behind her as a joke. Thankfully his nose wasn't broken, but his ego was slightly bruised.

Once the bucket was full, he headed back to the campsite.

When he walked up, Remy was climbing out of the tent with a grin on her face. Clint raised an eyebrow as he set the bucket next to the pit. "I'm back?"

"I can see that." She replied as sauntered up to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him down for a kiss. He returned the kiss, eyebrow still raised as his arms encircled her.

"Okay, what was that for?" He asked once they broke the kiss.

"Look, I just spent ten minutes on my knees on a rocky, horrible ground rolling out our sleeping bags." Remy told him as she grabbed him by the front of his jacket and tugged him toward the tent. "And I feel I deserve a reward for that, okay? And you're gonna be the one to give it to me, Clint Barton."

Well, he wasn't about to argue with that.


Closing Note: Aw, Tony, being all weird.

Thank you for reading this! I'm excited that I've finally almost finished writing the story, and once that happens, I'll upload it and be done. Maybe by Christmas, depending on how school is going.