After the Avengers have landed safely at Barton farm and had eaten, with Clint's family tucked into bed, Captain America A.K.A Steve Rodgers pulled three of his teammates aside and told them to meet him at the barn. Clint, Bruce, and Tony exchanged nervous glances and then stood and followed their team leader outside. Once reaching the barn Steve pulled a slightly dusty work bench out to the middle of the barn and stood behind it with his arms crossed and a serious expression on his face. The other three Avengers slowly trooped in behind him, Tony first, then Bruce, with Clint bringing up the rear. Once the other three men turned to face him Steve began to speak.
"Do the three of you know why I brought you out here?" "A late-night team building exercise?" Tony snarked "Shut up tin can!" Clint hissed while Bruce elbowed Tony in the ribs "I don't know about you two but I would like to be able to sit by the time my child is born" Steve held back a sigh at the antics and focused his attention on the most responsible member of his team. "Banner do you know why we are out here tonight?" Bruce's head jerked up from the floor and he gave an audible gulp before tentatively replying. "Because we all kept secrets from you?" "Is that an answer or a question?" "An answer definitely an answer sir "Bruce hurriedly responded. "Correct "My job is to keep the rest of you safe if you keep secrets from me, I won't be able to do my job properly. Stark, Banner the two of you made a machine to protect the earth from other worldly forces without consulting the one member of the team that is actually from another world. I don't have a label for that level of foolish oversight. And you Barton hid from your team, the people who are supposed to protect you, the fact that you have a wife and kids. What If something where to happen to them while you were in the field, what if there was a problem with your wife or kids? And how are we supposed to protect your family if we don't even know they exist?" Steve let out a frustrated sigh, before he barked out in a full officer's voice. "We are a team we should not keep secrets from each other, is that clear?" "yes sir!" the other three quickly replied.
Steve let another sigh before issuing commands. "Barton go stand at attention facing that wall." "Banner, Stark, over here hands on the bench" it said something to the level of guilt the other men were feeling that they obeyed this order quickly and without protest or snark. Steve unbuckled his belt and laid a hand on the small of Tony's back before quickly applying twenty-five hard swats to his upturned backside landing all of them in less then half a minute so the sometimes infuriating inventor could not squirm away and possibly hurt himself or get lost in his own head and forget why he was being punished in the first place as his thoughts were much faster than most other peoples. Tony sucked in a breath at the first swat and held it until the punishment was finished. The captain rubbed his back until tony was breathing again. Before moving on to Bruce. Unlike Tony, Bruce's history with abuse and the other guy required a punishment that was slow and calm with lectures sprinkled throughout. Which was exactly what Steve was about to deliver. "Tell me why you are here Banner" "because I helped secretly run an experiment without doing the proper research or safety protocols." "correct" Steve landed five hard swats before continuing with the next question. "What will you do differently next time?" "Do better research!" Bruce huffed out between gasps "Good" Steve accepted that answer with a few more hard swats before asking the finial question. "What else will you do?" "Follow Safety protocols and not keep the experiments a secret. "Excellent" Steve ended the punishment with the last few swats totaling Bruce's belting to twenty-five equal to Tony's. Steve gently rubbed Bruce's back till he was calm before telling the two geniuses to stand up. "As far as I'm concerned the two of you have paid for your mistakes and are forgiven. Go on up to the house and rest and we will figure out how to fix this in the morning. The two shuffled towards the door before Tony turned and asked, "you're not going to kill birdbrain, are you? he's annoying but he's ours." The Birdbrain err archer in question twitched slightly from his position by the wall but otherwise showed no outward sign of how closely he was listening to the answer. Steve let out yet another sigh before replying "no I'm not going to kill him, we are just going to have a discussion" all three of the listening avengers flinched at the wording of that and Bruce said "you will remember that he just had surgery, if he tears open I don't have the skills or the equipment to fix him" "Ill remember" Steve said before shooing the other two back to the house leaving him alone with his archer
Steve pulled a stool out from under the worktable before calling Clint over to take a seat on the bench. Clint obeyed staring apprehensively at the Captain. "Clint how long have you been on my team?" "two years" "and in those two years have I not earned your trust?" Steve asked earnestly, "You have!" "Really? You never mention your family in the two years I have known you and you expect me to believe you trust me?" "I do trust you it's just… I have never told anyone about my family before." Seeing Steve's raised eyebrow Clint hurriedly continued " I met Laura when I was a kid, I guess you could call us high school sweethearts except neither of us went to high school, so Fury and Coulson already knew about her when I joined S.H.I.E.L.D. and Natasha followed me home one day so I have never actually told anyone about my family ever. Bringing you and the others here instead of some other bolt hole Tasha or I have is the most I have ever trusted anyone" Steve nodded "Thank you for your trust in us I hope we continue to prove to you that it is not misplaced". "alright let's go on up to the house and get some rest" "wait... what that's it?" "do you want me to belt you?" Steve ask amusedly "NO!" "then yes that's it, I think listening to what happened to your teammates is enough of a lesson to you" Steve replied nodding to the fingernail marks on Clint's palms. "but if you disagree with me." "NOPE let's go bed" Clint cried as he rushed out of the barn and into his house before the captain could change his mind.