Just in case it's not clear, I'm going off the comics a little bit with Ironman. Officially, Ironman is Tony Stark's bodyguard. Also, Captain America has been out of the ice for a while, but has been mostly working for SHIELD and being a public icon of Truth and Justice.

Chapter 23- Genius, Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropist

Clint had forgotten all about the mysterious Tony Stark when he arrived at the shooting range several days later. He had no lessons until after lunch, so of course he went to his favorite place, and he was looking forward to shooting and maybe working on some trick shots. Shooting from different positions and angles could be a challenge, and he wanted to practice.

His mind was full how to draw a bow if he was on his knees and he wasn't paying enough attention to his surroundings. He opened the door and ran right into a neatly tailored back.

"Oof," the back said before turning to reveal a widely grinning Tony Stark. "Mini-Hood, just who I was hoping to see."

Clint blinked and took a step back, glancing at the agent behind the counter. It must have been Longley's day off, because he was a stranger, a very annoyed stranger. "Why would you want to see me?" Clint asked as he inched around to the counter.

The agent behind the counter smiled at Clint. He grabbed the quiver and passed it over the counter without a word, before crossing his arms to glare at Stark.

Stark watched the exchange with a smirk. He apparently decided to ignore the agent and focused on Clint. "You intrigued me, you and your preference for ancient weaponry. So I came back looking to unlock the puzzle or failing that, make it more interesting."

"Mr. Stark, if the boy wants to be left alone, you will honor his wishes or I will report you to Director Fury," the agent said. Clint finally took the time to look at the man, pulling his attention away from Stark who seemed to draw all the attention in the room like a magnet. The agent was younger than Langley, but still seemed old to Clint. He had warm brown eyes that lit up when he smiled, but we're cold and dark as he glared at Stark. His uniform was immaculate, and his dark brown hair was shorter than regulations. Overall a very clean and precise man. "Agent Coulson and Agent Langley left specific orders."

"Looks like you have some fierce protectors, Legolas. So I'll ask you directly. May I stay to observe you?" Stark asked, surprisingly sincere.

"Why?" Clint asked again.

Stark shrugged. "A number of reasons. One that might interest you is I'm curious about your, what would you call him? Babysitter, maybe? Why is Coulson in charge of a teenager? Another reason is I can't help myself. I saw you shoot and after talking to you I kept getting ideas. I'd like to try them out."

Despite himself, Clint was curious. He glanced at the friendly agent but when the man just shrugged, Clint decided to press forward. For some reason, Stark didn't make him nervous, like some of the other people who had tried to take an interest in him. One of Coulson's friends, an agent named Garrett, had tried to befriend Clint in the first few days here. When Clint admitted to Phil how much he didn't like the guy, Garrett was sent off on a mission to give Clint his space without making a big deal of it. So, Clint knew that he was safe to refuse Stark, could tell him to back off, but he didn't want to. "What kind of ideas?" he asked instead.

Stark lit up like a Christmas tree. "Oh wait till you see these," he said pulling out a small device. It looked like a computer screen but flat and not connected to anything. He tapped at it with a little gold pen and turned it around to show Clint. On the screen was a drawing of an arrow, but the arrowhead was complicated with all kinds of stuff coming out of it.

"Um,I don't know what any of that means," he admitted ruefully.

Stark paused in his tapping and shrugged again. "Honestly, I'm not surprised, but you'll get there. This is a schematic of an exploding arrow. You said a bow was better than a grenade launcher, which is weird. So how about a grenade you can shoot with your bow?" Now Stark was on a roll and nothing Clint could say would have slowed him down and honestly he didn't want to. Exploding arrows sounded really super cool. "That got me thinking about other arrow designs. I already make different rounds for my guns; shocking rounds, remote detonation, tracking to name a few. So arrows aren't that big a stretch. But I don't know the limitations and variables associated with archery like I do with guns, so I came to work those out with you. Mostly, I want to watch you shoot and have you talk me through the process. I'm also thinking that I'll need to make you a new bow, one with more umph because some of these designs were getting kind of heavy, but that can wait?" Stark trailed off . He tilted his head, looking expectantly to Clint for a response.

"Wow," the young Archer breathed. He shook his head, surprised by Stark's enthusiasm. "Sure, Mr. Stark," he said politely. If this guy was going to make him things, he should probably be polite. A small part of him was worried about the hidden costs and risks of accepting anything but most of him was going "oh, cool, exploding arrows!"

"Please, if we're going to work together, call me Tony," Tony said, the smirk back in full force on his face. He looked really smug.

Clint switched his bow to his left hand and held out his right. "I'm Clint."

That night at dinner, Chinese takeout this time because Phil needed to unwind, Clint couldn't stop talking about the ideas that he and Tony had talked about. Tony was a genius and had all these ideas that Clint would never have even thought of but sounded so amazing. They had spent all morning and part of the afternoon just shooting and talking. Well, Clint did all the shooting and Tony did most of the talking.

"So you had fun, then?"Phil asked sarcastically as he pushed more steamed broccoli onto Clint's plate.

Clint rolled his eyes but ate the vegetables without argument. "I really did. Tony was really nice and honestly interested in my archery. And yes he's a bit of a jerk and completely full of himself, but he isn't that bad really."

"I agree with you. He just likes to mess with me because he can't always bother Fury. Just don't let him get carried away and get you both into trouble,"Phil cautioned. "Did you tell him who your guardian is?"

Clint stopped eating for a minute. He had thought about it, and Tony had asked, several times in fact, but in the end Clint didn't say anything. "No," he admitted.

"Good, let's keep that quiet for now. It's not common knowledge and we should keep it that way. He'll figure out soon enough, without you telling him. If nothing else, Logan will want to talk with him before he lets you carry around exploding arrows," Phil said thoughtfully as he nibbled on an egg roll.

Clint dropped his fork. He hadn't thought of that. "Is he going to be mad?" he asked nervously.

Phil shook his head. "Of course not, but it'll be interesting to see how they get along. I don't think they've ever met."

Clint couldn't stop the grin that stretched across his face at the thought. "Why is Tony here anyway? He's not an agent or a soldier."

Phil took a minute to consider his answer and Clint waited patiently. Finally the agent said, "He's something of a consultant. I can't tell you too much because it's classified, but Stark makes things for SHIELD. He used to make weapons, but now he focused more on the support side of our tech."

"That's cool," Clint said. He was more interested in grabbing the last egg roll then Phil's answer.

The agent snatched the eggroll out from under Clint's hand and took a bite thoughtfully, ignoring the teenager's glare. Phil handed over the fried rice which Clint accepted resentfully. "He's also helping us with the Hydra threat. Fury wanted an outside opinion on the situation. He and a couple of other esteemed experts are putting together a," he tapped his chin thoughtfully," team to deal with the problem, one outside of SHIELD's influence."

"Good to know you guys aren't really relying on Logan to do everything," Clint teased. Coulson didn't even acknowledge the jab.

But that started Clint thinking about Logan coming back. If he was honest, he worried about being left here. He didn't want to hope that Logan wasn't enjoying his time with the X-Men but a little part of him really did. The guilt followed him to bed that night making for some very restless sleep.

The next day, Logan was scheduled to check in. Clint felt anxious all morning and it showed in his demeanor. He snapped at Coulson and glared at anyone who looked at him. He couldn't sit still for more than five minutes and could not focus on his school work at all. Frustrated, Coulson sent him to the range until Logan called. Clint resented the dismissal, but admitted that it was the only choice. It was either that or the gym to pick a fight with someone and he knew that was a bad idea. Tempting though, he had been training with Coulson and Reynolds but they had been keeping him away from the general population. No one needed to know exactly how good his fighting was, just in case it got back to Hydra. It was frustrating.

Agent Longley (Ha! Finally remembered his name) was back when Clint walked into the range. He was showing some rookies how to care for a rifle, so he just tossed Clint the quiver without a word. The lanes appeared empty, so Clint didn't bother with his ear protection, heading straight for his special lane on the end. He was surprised to find it occupied though and he swore under his breath as he got closer.

"Hey, kid! Wow, this is way harder than I expected. I'd take off my hat to you, you know if I wore one," Tony Stark said with a grin. He was holding an expensive looking hunting bow and had a bunch of arrows in a holder beside him. Some of the arrows were scattered across the lane. One was lodged in the ceiling, two were on the ground, and only one was in the target.

Clint wasn't in the mood for chatter, but he couldn't refrain from responding. "Wouldn't want to mess up your haircut," he joked. "Looks like you could use some more practice."

Tony waved off the criticism. "Please, I could pull off a hat if I wanted. A nice fedora or something. I'd look right dashing." At Clint's unimpressed look, he continued, "Tough crowd today. Anyway, this wasn't just practice in humility. My simulations and models only tell me so much. I needed real world experience."

Clint nodded. It made sense. There are a lot of variables in archery, especially when you do trick shots or have trick arrows. "Did you learn what you wanted to?" He asked.

Stark shrugged and grabbed another arrow. He nocked and tried to settle into a stance. He struggled to pull back the string and let go before he could aim properly. The arrow hit the far wall, missing the target entirely. It was physically painful to watch.

Clint stepped forward and pushed Stark where he wanted him, centered in the lane. He forced the older man into the semblance of a real stance before handing him an arrow. "Pull the arrow back to your cheek, and hold it for a full breath and release on the exhale," he instructed.

Tony followed his directions and this time managed to hit the target. He slipped off the finger guard he was wearing and shook out his fingers. "Man that stings and my arms and shoulders are killing me already. How do you do this for hours?"

"Practice," Clint replied with a shrug. He settled his quiver on his back and pushed his way in front of Tony.

The billionaire backed off and let Clint shoot for a while before he couldn't help himself. "What's bugging you, Mini-Hood? Wake up on the wrong side of the bed?"

Clint turned his head to glare at Tony, releasing the arrow without looking. It hit the bullseye. "Nothing is wrong," he snapped.

Tony held up his hands defensively and raised an eyebrow. "Uh huh, and the attitude is…?"

Clint grit his teeth. He didn't want to talk about it, about the heavy feeling in his stomach, about how sure he was that Logan wasn't even going to call. "None of your business," he growled. "I'm just sick of this place."

Tommy nodded and picked up one of his arrows to twirl between his fingers. "Can't see as I blame you. Why are you here then?"

Clint emptied his quiver and pushed the button to call the targets forward. Tony would have to get the runaway arrows on his own later, if he bothered to at all. He could afford all the arrows he wanted. All of Clint's arrows were gifts. He had tossed out most of his old ones from the circus back at the cabin.

Tony watched, uncharacteristically silent until he saw the close grouping around the bullseye. He glanced over as Clint silently fumed. "I think you were doing better yesterday. So something big is distracting you. Just tell me what it is. Maybe I can help," the genius said.

Clint yanked out his arrows with less care then he usually showed, but still couldn't bring himself to be really careless. He was just angry and when Stark kept pushing for an answer he blew up. "Why do you care? Nobody ever cares about me, they all leave in the end. My mom, my brother and now Lo… my guardian. He's going to leave me here and I'll be alone again."

Stark blinked and stepped back. "There is a lot to unpack there, shorty. Let's start at the beginning. I care because I'm interested. You're interesting and your hobby here got me curious. That's it. Purely selfish on my end."

Clint snorted. "At least you're honest."

"And about your mysterious guardian leaving you here and forgetting you? We'll, since I don't know him I can't really answer that but I honestly don't think you have to worry. You are a special kid, and I don't see any good person just dropping you off like an unwanted puppy. And I don't think Agent would stand for it either."

"He's a hero, he's got better things to do than keep Hydra off my back."

"I'm a hero and I don't have anything better than to hang with you at the moment. Give your friend some credit."

Clint wanted to argue but he made himself think about it before he answered. He started shooting again to give himself time to think. Stark seemed okay to let him work through his thoughts. After Clint went through all his arrows again, he felt calmer. "He promised," he admitted in a quiet voice. "He promised to take care of me."

"And a hero keeps his word, right?" Tony pointed out.

"Yeah, especially him. He really cares about honor." Clint shook himself and turned to give Tony a wry smile. " So, what hero are you?"

"You weren't supposed to pick up on that," Tony grumbled. He glanced around nervously. "Can you keep a secret?" he whispered.

Clint nodded and leaned forward.

Tony glanced around and leaned in until there was just inches between them "Ever hear of Ironman?" When Clint nodded he continued, "Well, he's not just my bodyguard, he's me."

"Really?!" Clint exclaimed.

Tony shushed him urgently. "Yes, that's me. I'm Ironman."

"Why are you here?" Clint asked in a whisper.

Tony stood back up but kept his voice low. "We'll, Fury needed to clean house, so he called me to help. Myself and a few like-minded individuals are going to make a team to hunt Hydra from the outside, and do normal superhero stuff on the side."

"That is so cool,"Clint said, barely containing his excitement. "Who else is on the team?"

"That's what we're here to figure out actually. Iron man obviously, and Captain America, because he was the original Hydra hunter, but the rest of the roster is under consideration. There are a lot of names on the table right now."

Clint's mind practically exploded. "Captain America is here?!" He exclaimed. That was so cool, almost cooler than Wolverine. "Can I meet him, please, please please?"

Tony laughed. "I'll see what I can do. But it's supposed to be a secret, so don't say anything okay?"

Clint nodded vigorously. Captain America. Just the idea was so cool. Clint almost couldn't wrap his head around it. Just wait until he told Logan.