June 2014, Manhattan

"Out of interest," Clint said, "since when are you are our PR manager?"

"I needed something official on Twitter," Darcy answered, lounging in one of the armchairs in his apartment. "Otherwise my interacting with y'all would look weird."

"So, to clarify," Natasha said, "you're Jane's assistant, you're Tony's PA, you're the lab supervisor, you're our PR manager, and you're still going through the HYDRA data dump. Learn how to say no."

Darcy sniggered. "I don't like being bored. So together or separately?"

"I don't like this," Natasha said, not for the first time.

Darcy sighed, sitting forward to look seriously at her. "I get that. This is, like, the complete opposite of what you would usually do. But you two, if anyone, really need this. You are assassins. One of you was a freelance assassin for ten years. Murder is bad; that gets drummed into us from the beginning. I mean, it's not wrong, but sometimes it's necessary. If the government decide that's something that needs to be answered to, you need an army of civilians up in arms because actually they love you, body count be damned." She paused. "But this isn't mandatory, Natasha. I'm not going to make you do it."

Natasha chewed on her lower lip, thinking it over, trying to figure out if her reluctance was based in her past or her future.

As a spy, she wanted to stay hidden, but then the facial prosthetics from SHIELD had been incredible; she was willing to bet that Stark's would be better.

So if she did need to go undercover, she had faith that she could manage it - and she had a feeling that long-term undercover ops was not going to be the focus of her job anymore.

She considered the remaining Widows, other victims of human trafficking and sexual assault - maybe seeing someone who had been through all of that and come out the other side could help them in some way.

"Separately," she said finally. "Let Clint go first."

"Before you do that," Kate said, not looking up from the book she was certainly not reading, "you need to go to Bed-Stuy."

Clint hesitated. "Is there a party I've forgotten about?"

"No, but if you're going to tell the world you're an Avenger, you may want to forewarn the people who pay you rent," Kate said.

Clint grimaced. "Good point. I'll call a meeting."

"Okay, let me know when you're ready," Darcy said, getting to her feet.

As Darcy slipped out of the apartment, Natasha nudged Clint in the ribs, nodding at Kate, who still hadn't looked up.

Clint frowned, perching on the coffee table in front of her. "Katie-Kate? You okay?"

Kate turned the page. "Yep."

Clint sighed, tugging the book out of her hands.

"Hey, I was reading that!"

"It's upside down," Clint said flatly, "and in Russian. Which is probably why you didn't realise it was upside down. What's wrong?"

Kate still didn't meet his eyes. "You're not going to mention me at all, are you."

It wasn't a question.

"No," Clint said honestly. "You don't need the media following you everywhere."

"Following me where?" Kate asked. "I'm not allowed to leave the Tower, remember?"

Clint raised an eyebrow. "I guess the month's up."

Kate rolled her eyes. "That was not me being bratty about it. You'll know when I'm being a brat about it, trust me."

"I love you," Clint said firmly. "I am so proud of you, Kate. I'm not ashamed of you and I don't regret it," he added, because he knew how she thought. "I'm happy to tell people I have a daughter, and I will happily brag about you to anyone who listens …"

"He does," Natasha said dryly.

"I'm just not giving anyone any details," Clint said. "You're underage, Kate. Please let me protect you while I still can."

Kate sighed. "Fine. I'm still going to start being a brat about being stuck in here though."

"I know it sucks," Clint said. "You can come with me to Bed-Stuy. I know it's not much, but …"

Kate smiled. "It's better than nothing. Thanks Dad."


June 2014, Brooklyn

Two days later, Clint and Kate walked onto the roof of his apartment building to find that the tenants were already waiting for them.

With food - thank goodness for Simone; how that woman could pull off a potluck in the space of 48 hours, Clint didn't know, but he was grateful for it.

"Thank you all for coming," he said, catching everyone's attention.

"Is the rent going up?" Mrs Watts asked as the chatter died away.

Clint couldn't help chuckling. "No, Mrs Watts; nothing like that. Next Tuesday, there will be a press release going out involving me, and it seemed fair to warn you all first."

"Is it that you worked for SHIELD?" Simone asked. "Because we all figured that out already."

Some people hadn't, apparently, given the murmurs that started up again.

"No," Clint said. "Although I did work for SHIELD, you're right. Actually, I'm part of the Avengers Initiative."

"He's the idiot with the bow and arrow," Kate added. "Don't give me that look," she said, when he turned wounded eyes on her. "They said it, not me."
"Do you have a death wish?!" Mrs Watts demanded.

Clint sighed. "Considering I've spent the last twenty years in and out of war zones, quite possibly. I was fine, I promise."

"We saw the news," Simone said. "You jumped off a building."

"Oh, it's okay," Kate said, with false cheeriness. "He never misses."

"I've done it before," Clint said. "There's a mission protocol."

"Oh, well, as long as there's a protocol," Adrian said, rolling his eyes. "So everyone's going to know by Tuesday?"

Thank goodness someone was bringing them back to the reason he was there. "There is nothing on paper that says I own this building, so you should not get people bugging you. If anyone does ask, all I can do is ask you to please pretend you don't know me."

"Is there likely to be trouble?" Rodriguez asked.

Clint grimaced. "I have yet to have anyone come after me for anything I've done for SHIELD, but I have gone after some pretty awful people in my time. When I became the landlord, I did install proper security, you all know that - if you do see something that worries you, call me, alright?"

"And if Dad doesn't answer, call me," Kate added.

"Kate …"

"And I will find someone other than me to deal with it," Kate said, rolling her eyes. "Calm down."

"Important question," Simone said. "Will you still be coming to the potlucks?"

"Fourth of July, no," Clint said. "Thanksgiving … we should be unless something happens."

"And we can stay for this one, right?" Kate asked hopefully.

Clint couldn't help but smile. "Yes, we can stay for this one."

"I haven't left the Tower since May," Kate said.

"You know why," Clint said.

"I do know why," Kate said with far too much cheeriness, "but your month is up."

"Anyway," Clint said. "That's all I needed to tell you. Any questions?"

"What do they call you?" Anthony - Simone's young son - asked, clinging to his mother's hand. "I mean, what's you superhero name?"

"Oh, I'm not …"

"Hawkeye," Kate interrupted, grinning at him. "He's Hawkeye."


June 2014, Manhattan

Clint had been in the circus, and he was a natural performer. He told Darcy (and the internet) how he had ended up in SHIELD, telling circus stories that just skirted the edge of propriety, and had Darcy laughing so hard that she could barely hold the camera and had her begging him to stop.

The laughter faded when she began to talk about SHIELD; obviously he didn't give any precise details, but he also didn't shy away from the realities of what he had done.

"It's a horrible job," he said sombrely. "I read every single file three or four times before I agreed to any jobs, but it's not fun. The people I killed were bad people and other people were able to sleep peacefully at night once they were dead. That's how I deal with it."

"What about your parents?" Darcy asked, probably half out of curiosity.

"I don't actually know what happened to my parents," Clint admitted. "They died when I was eight, but I don't know what happened. They were … very abusive, and very cruel, and they'd convinced my brother and I that it was normal. So when they died, we ran away. We lived on the streets, and my brother left me at the circus when I was ten."

"Where is he now?" Darcy asked.

"No idea," Clint said. "I don't even know if he's still alive. If you are out there and listening … I forgive you. It can't have been easy, looking after a kid when you were barely a kid yourself." He hesitated. "Must have got harder when I lost my hearing."

Darcy raised an eyebrow. "All of it?"

"Most of it," Clint said. "I got sick with I was nine, not sure what with. When I got better, I couldn't hear."

"Are you okay with people knowing that?" Darcy asked, even though she knew he wouldn't have said it otherwise.

Clint shrugged. "I lived for nine years in the circus without any form of hearing aids; I can manage just as well without them. Maybe it would do people good to realise that this kind of thing doesn't make people incapable."

Darcy beamed at him, so it must have been a good answer. "Okay, quick fire questions. I've done them with everyone. Favourite colour?"

"Purple," Clint answered properly. "People got that right."

"Favourite person," Darcy said.

Clint opened his mouth, then paused. "I was ready for favourite memory. That's an unfair question, and I'm going to say my girlfriend, because she is the most likely to be mad at me if I don't say her."

Darcy laughed. "I don't think you're helping yourself, Barton. Favourite memory then?"

"Becoming my daughter's legal guardian," Clint said easily. "Circumstances weren't fantastic, but it was the best moment of my life."


June 2014, online

FoxNews ( FoxNews) - Do we really trust an assassin to protect our best interests? #avengers

JamesV ( Jamie12) - FoxNews Are you serious? Is that all you took away from that? What was he supposed to do?

RhondaWilliams ( Ronnie360) - FoxNews Weren't you calling for the Army to send snipers into the Middle East a while back? Or is it just that some of his targets might have been white?

MartinTuner ( TunerVision) - FoxNews Shut up. I did not just watch an 'assassin'. I watched a good guy who had crap happen to him who built a life out of nothing.

RhondaWilliams ( Ronnie360) - TunerVision also can we just note that every other avenger (to our knowledge) has some kind of enhancement and he went and fought aliens with a bow and arrow

RachelEsher ( capette) - Hawkeye is hilarious and I want a documentary that is nothing but a camera following him around.

ClintBarton ( Hawkeye) - capette my day to day life is really not that exciting

PeggyCarter ( LadyLiberty) - Hawkeye you used to hide in the vents of HQ and shoot senior agents with nerf guns

ClintBarton ( Hawkeye) - LadyLiberty What's your point?

MartinTuner ( TunerVision) - Hawkeye speaking as a hearing person who is probably very ignorant, how do you manage without hearing aids?

ClintBarton ( Hawkeye) - TunerVision sign language and lip reading. In the circus no one had time to 'coddle' you so you learned to deal or you got left behind.

NewYorkTimes ( nytimes) - Hawkeye any comment on your daughter?

ClintBarton ( Hawkeye) - nytimes no

DarcyLewis ( AvengersPR) - nytimes she's underage so we will be coming down hard on anyone who tries to figure it out or come after her.


June 2014, Manhattan

"I feel like my 'no' was enough," Clint said, scrolling through his phone.

"Diplomacy," Natasha said absently as she searched the closet. "Although if people were up in arms about your background, they're going to love mine."

"No one was up in arms except Fox News," Clint said. "And they've decided that Steve is the devil, so they're a lost cause."

"Maybe they're run by HYDRA," Natasha said.

Clint shrugged. "Or they're just racist, sexist pigs. To paraphrase a book, the world is not divided into good people and HYDRA agents."

Natasha paused for a second. "Harry Potter?"

"Well done."

Darcy tapped on the door and stuck her head in. "Ready?"

"No," Natasha admitted. "What should I wear?"

"What's wrong with what you're wearing now?" Darcy asked. "We want them to see Natasha Romanov, not the Black Widow."

Natasha glanced down at her t-shirt (appropriately emblazoned with the words 'Don't tell women to get back in the kitchen - that's where the knives are'; Clint bought it for her a few years ago and she almost collapsed with laughter). "If you say so."

Natasha's video was different from the others. Although the others had been emotional at points, they, at least, had some humour within them.

Darcy knew better than to ask about the Red Room, but Natasha talked. She told the world about her childhood, about the way they were treated and the things they were told about themselves. Her story made Darcy cry, the camera shaking slightly with her tears, but Natasha's eyes remained dry.

Regardless, where she might have masked any and all reaction, she allowed herself to be genuine. Her enemies knew about all of this after all; allowing the greater population a glimpse into her soul was not going to cause too many problems.

She hoped.

Besides, telling this story with no emotion whatsoever would probably have people wondering if she was a psychopath, and she had a feeling that wasn't the vibe Darcy wanted her to give.

"Holy hell," Darcy whispered when she'd finished. "I'm so sorry … Hang on guys." She out the phone down and came over to hug her tightly.

Natasha hugged her back, knowing that this was more for Darcy's comfort than her own.

Darcy pulled away, wiping her eyes, and returned to her phone. "Wow. Sorry everyone. I knew bits and pieces of that, but not everything."

Natasha managed a small smile. "That wasn't everything. No one wants to know everything." She sighed. "It's in the past. It sounds bad. It is bad, but I'm so used to it that I think it upsets everyone else more than it upsets me. I escaped. Survived for about ten years on my own as best I could. SHIELD … or HYDRA, I guess … they sent Hawkeye to kill me. He read the file, decided I deserved a second chance, and recruited me instead." She chuckled. "Such a simple statement, but … he saved my life. He really did."

That allowed Darcy to steer the conversation into lighter waters.

"Favourite movie?"

"Not favourite colour?" Natasha asked with a grin. "Lilo & Stitch. I felt a bit like an alien after the Red Room, trying to pretend to be human. I think it gives a wonderful message that family isn't always traditional and isn't always blood-related. And my favourite colour is purple."

She hadn't had a favourite colour for a long time, but now purple made her think of Clint, which made her smile, so it was purple.

"Favourite food?"

Natasha paused. "If I say caviar, Hawkeye's going to tease me forever about being stereotypical Russian, so … Pepper gets this hot chocolate imported from Switzerland or Belgium or somewhere like that. I swear it is the best thing I have ever tasted."

"Favourite city?"

Natasha smiled fondly. "Budapest."


Natasha 2014, online

MartinTuner ( TunerVision) - Oh my god … seriously crying after the last #Avengers video - how can anyone treat children like that?

USAGovernment ( USAGov) - With reference to the latest #Avengers video, we were not aware of this program and understood it was dismantled with the collapse of the KGB in 1991.

TheDailyBugle ( TheDailyBugle) - BlackWidow is it difficult being on an all-male team?

PeggyCarter ( LadyLiberty) - TheDailyBugle what am I? Chopped liver?

RachelEsher ( capette) - TheDailyBugle She survived absolute hell, came out the other side, and you think it bothers her that there are more men on the team?

MichelleJones ( MJ) - TheDailyBugle capette she'd probably wipe the floor with them. Did you see the new footage from the Invasion?

FoxNews ( FoxNews) - The release of 'new' footage from the 2012 attack on New York is conveniently timed. How long did it take to create IronMan?

RealTonyStark ( IronMan) - FoxNews It was withheld by the government because Hawkeye and BlackWidow were active agents at the time and their positions could not be compromised.

FoxNews ( FoxNews) - IronMan so you say

RealTonyStark ( IronMan) - FoxNews I mean there is also all the cell phone footage that's been floating around since then. Admit it - you're just afraid because she's a woman who completely ignores every single thing you think a woman should be.

PepperPotts (SICEO) - IronMan Tony, please stop antagonising the right wing media. FoxNews if you have any concerns about #Avengers press releases, I suggest you direct them to AvengersPR

DarcyLewis ( AvengersPR) - SICEO that's not fair Pepper - I was watching that! FoxNews would you like me to send you the original footage?

RachelEsher ( capette) - I notice FoxNews has gone suspiciously quiet after AvengersPR offered them the original footage.

MichelleJones ( MJ) - capette bullies always give up when they're challenged. They didn't say anything when footage was released after Hawkeye's video.

RhondaWilliams ( Ronnie360) - BlackWidow's story was awful and tragic but I stand by my statement - Hawkeye is the only non-enhanced member of the team and that takes some guts.

NatashaRomanov ( BlackWidow) - Ronnie360 He's not enhanced, but he does have the unerring ability to fall out of buildings without any injury whatsoever. He just shrugs and says 'circus'

MichelleJones ( MJ) - SICEO any chance you can tell us what hot chocolate BlackWidow was talking about?

Natasha Romanov ( BlackWidow) - MJ I have checked and it's called Cocoalux - she gets it imported, so you might need to make friends with a CEO.

CNN ( CNN) - BlackWidow was the arrow necklace in the video and at Congress making a statement?

NatashaRomanov ( BlackWidow) - CNN No.

ClintBarton ( Hawkeye) - BlackWidow I'm hurt.

NatashaRomanov ( BlackWidow) - Hawkeye you are literally sitting right next to me.

CNN ( CNN) - BlackWidow Hawkeye you're saying you're not in a relationship

ClintBarton ( Hawkeye) - CNN neither of us said that.


June 2014, Manhattan

"Are you going to tell them?" Darcy asked.

"It'll ruin the fun," Natasha said. "You know people love speculating about things like that. If we keep them speculating, it might take the focus off other things."

Darcy shrugged. "Fair enough. So that's you two, Steve, Peggy, Bruce … Sam wants to stay under the radar until he's told his mother … Is it worth getting Tony to do it?"

"I would," Natasha said, "if you can get him to be Tony, and not Tony Stark or Iron Man. Besides, the world already knows him."

Darcy grimaced. "Point. And Thor's still on Asgard."

"Thor's is going to be epic," Clint said with a grin. "You're going to have to do a full intro video to prepare people for the intro video."

Darcy sniggered. "I cannot wait for people to realise that the rest of the universe considers us the equivalent of slightly intelligent toddlers."

Natasha's phone beeped with a notification. "Oh, for … You have got to be kidding me!"

"What?" Clint asked.

"The Daily Bugle wants to know what I wear under the uniform," Natasha said, rolling her eyes.

Clint scowled, grabbing his own phone.

"Clint, please don't cause any problems," Darcy said with a sigh. "I can deal with it."

"I'm not going to threaten them," Clint said, typing away.

Natasha looked back at her screen, unable to help smiling at the tweets started coming.

ClintBarton ( Hawkeye) - TheDailyBugle Thank you for asking; I'm a boxers man myself.

RealTonyStark ( IronMan) - TheDailyBugle Full body suit. The armour chafes.

BruceBanner ( DrBanner) - TheDailyBugle I don't have a uniform

SteveRogers ( CaptainAmerica) - TheDailyBugle I've been informed mine qualify as 'old man boxers'

RealTonyStark ( IronMan) - CaptainAmerica I'll get you Iron Man ones for your birthday

SteveRogers ( CaptainAmerica) - IronMan What makes you think I haven't got any?

PeggyCarter ( LadyLiberty) - TheDailyBugle Do you often go around asking people what they're wearing under their clothes?

MichelleJones ( MJ) - TheDailyBugle I cannot be the only person fed up with your constant sexist ridiculous drivel #BoycottTheBugle

That hashtag was now trending

"Who is Michelle Jones?" Natasha asked. "She seems quite switched on. Wasn't she the one who questioned the government over the Ross thing?"

"She is a student at Midtown School of Science and Technology," JARVIS said. "Miss Potts is watching her as a potential employee once she has graduated; she came to attention prior to this due to her involvement in various protests and activist marches."

Natasha smiled. "Good for her."