Thunder clapped outside and Clint flinched instinctively. "Jesus," he whispers. Once he realizes that he probably won't get sleep tonight he walks out of his room and heads towards the sparring mat. Hoping some else was awake that would spar with him.
Apparently, the whole team was awake. They were all sparring with each other, Natasha being daring enough to take on Thor. Even though he doesn't understand the concept of "fighting against friends."
"Hey guys." Clint waves and walks over to the bend Steve was sitting at, unwrapping his fingers from yet another mixing match with the punching bag. "I didn't know you guys were awake." Clint says with curiosity.
"Apparently the whole team has some sort of PTSD with thunderstorms." Tony butts in. "Except Thor, but that makes sense. Do you?" Clint shrugs, not yet ready to reveal that information.
The truth? He's scared of the loud noises and whenever the power goes out, his only sense left is his crappy hearing.
"Wanna spar?" Steve asks Clint when Tony walks away. "You look like you could use it." Steve says this through sympathy. Looking at Clint's heavily burdened eyes. "Just to get some things off your mind." Clint smiles at Steve's attempt, "sure."
They head over to the mat and start fighting. Clint loves the adrenaline, he lives off of it. The ducking of punches and dodging of kicks, is a basic part of Clint's life.
The power goes out just as Clint was about to start ducking a kick, the power goes out. Normally Clint would've still ducked, but his fear kicked in with the huge thunder clap that hit, practically shaking the tower. He was brought back to reality with a harsh blow to the face, boot against temple.
"Crap, sorry Clint. I couldn't stop myself." Steve says. Clint's on the ground now and he groans. "C'mon you're fine." Steve holds a hand out to help Clint up, forgetting that he can't see, Clint finds his wrist and Steve helps him up. "Geez cap, you could've gone a little softer." Clint chuckles.
"Who wants to turn on the power?" Tony asks. "Dibs not it." Tony puts his hand on his nose like a child.
Clint, already knowing the responsibility will land on him, volunteers. "I'll go." He turns and heads towards the dark hallways. "I shall go with you friend Barton!" Thor shouts. His hearing becomes static then comes back in. Clint grumbles but allows Thor to follow him.
…
They reach the electrical box and Clint flips open the door. He flips the switch and his hair starts to buzz, but it's already too late. The switch flip and the electricity pounds into Clint's body. "Nghnn…" another surge hits and Clint is jerked back, the temporary paralysis kicking in. "Agnghhnn…" Thor acts fast and pushes Clint away from the box. The shaking stops and Clint falls limp to the floor, his ears bleeding.
"Friend Barton!" Thor shouts. Thor knows how lightning works, he knows that Clint is out for the count, probably staying like that for a little bit. Thor carefully picks up Clint in his arms and carries him all the way back upstairs. Mindful and aware of the slight shaking, the bleeding ears, and his left hand burned all the way up to the middle of his forearm.
"Oh my god what happened to him." Steve asks the second Thor sets foot in the room. "Friend Barton was electrocuted." Thor sounded really somber when he said this, totally uncharacteristic.
Bruce runs over from his bench, placing his tea on a table along the way. The first thing he notices are the bleeding ears. "What the…?" He mumbles, grabbing Clint's head in his hands and tilting it so he can see Clint's ears.
"There's metal in his ears." Bruce states. Natasha guiltily steps forward. "Uhh…those are his hearing aids." Their heads swivel to look at her. "What?!"
"He's eighty percent deaf in both ears, he was wearing shield hearing aids. They probably exploded with the electricity." She explains. Bruce nods in understanding. "How did he lose his hearing?" He asks curiously. "It happened a mission a while back. In order to take out the enemy, he held a sonic arrow in his mouth. A little idiotic I think, but it got the job done." She says lightly.
"Well we gotta get the metal out and stop the bleeding." Bruce nods to Nat and Steve to lift up Clint. "I swear we do this more often than he actually walks himself." Steve jokes. Natasha chuckles.
They lay him on a bed and Bruce gets two pairs of magnetized tweezers, handing one to Steve. "You're an artist so I know you have a steady hand. So you can do one ear and I'll do the other." Steve nods and seats himself on the left side of Clint.
The tweezers are cold compared to his ears and Clint flinches back. "Nnngg…" he mumbles. That's when he realizes that he can't hear himself. His breathing picks up and his eyes snap open, only to squeeze shut when the light hits them. The split second they were open was enough for him to see his surroundings. He relaxed.
"Tasha?" Clint says. Eyes still closed. She had walked over once she saw movement. She pats his knee, prompting a reply.
"Did I get electrocuted?" Clint opens his eyes and his pupils adjust to the light.
Steve laughs and Natasha responds. "Yep," She pops the p sound. "Pretty good too, have you seen your hand? Probably no shooting for a couple weeks." She signs the words too, faster than the rest of the team can understand but Clint manages to get it.
Clint groans in frustration, "every time." He sits up with a wince when his head pounds. He shudders when he feels a drop of blood drip down his face. He uses his finger to wipe it off, then he turns towards Steve.
"Hearin' aids blow up?" His words are kind of slurred but more pronounced at the same time. Steve nods. Not knowing how to respond knowing the Clint can't hear him.
Tony jumps in and adds "I'm making you new ones. You know what? I'm gonna do it right now. They're gonna withstand any voltage of electricity and they'll have spe…" his voice fades out as he walks down the hallway rattling off ideas as he goes. His back turns in the middle of the conversation so he only gets half of it.
Clint gestures to his ears. "You can keep goin' by th'way. Don' worry 'bout the pain, I've done it many times before." Steve and Bruce cautiously continue.
Less than five minutes later, Clint is sitting on the bed holding a towel to his ear, Natasha holding a towel to the other, and Clint's having his hand wrapped. Him and Nat are sitting next to each other and Bruce is applying salve to his hand and wrapping it loosely in a wrap that keeps air flow but also makes it so Clint can't really move his hand. There is a hard plastic side near his wrist that prevents him from moving it. "No shooting for two weeks. I'm serious." Bruce says sternly.
Clint nods in frustration. "Fine." Natasha turns to Bruce. "You might get a week out of him at best." He sighs. "Well, it's better than nothing."
"Also, no hearing aids until your ears are healed. Sorry.
Clint hates this. He can't hear anything until Tony builds him new aids. The team doesn't know how to approach him. At first Clint almost broke Steve's nose when he tapped Clint on the shoulder.
Natasha has noticed that Clint's old habit of when the incident first happened has returned, probably because of PTSD. But Clint constantly stands in the corner of the room, so he can see everything and everyone.
One day Tony walks into the room and having been in his lab for the past four days, he hasn't been aware of Clint's issue. He taps Clint on the shoulder, surprised when he whips around and raises his hands as if he's gonna punch him. Even though only one was functional, it was still menacing. He relaxes when he sees Tony. "They done?" He questions, eyeing the box in Tony's hand.
"Oh. Yeah. Here you go." He hands the box to Clint who opens it up hastily. Then he puts them in. "-ess noticeable than your previous ones, they can withstand electricity and are waterproof. They automatically adjust to make you comfortable, there won't be as much static and screeches as there probably was before at loud noises. The first couple days may be a little wonky but I hope they work." Tony looks so proud and it's kind of funny.
Clint was amazed. This was the best he's heard in over ten years. He swears he could hear the rest of the team chattering in the next room over, whereas before he couldn't even hear the microwave beep when his food was ready because the frequency was too high.
"Oh wow." Clint whispers in amazement. "Thanks Tony." Tony's smile is full of pride.
Thanks KatieMacAlpine for reviewing, it made my day at lunch today. Anyways...I'm off to start the next chapter.