I'm back!

My recent update history looks like I've died or something, but I'm still here!

Having finally seen the first Avengers film, which meant introducing me to some material that actually had Clint in it, I thought I'd take a new stab at portraying him, as I find the general fandom-interpretation of him wasn't exactly the same as mine when I saw it.

No copyright infringement is intended, only fluff is intended.

TapTap

The sane portion of her friends generally wondered why she tortured herself like this, but the truth was Pepper rather enjoyed doing it. That alone probably qualified her as insane, nevermind everything else going on these days; but luckily Tony seemed to understand the sentiment just fine. She supposed he was a bit insane too. For all that he could be somewhat aggravating when getting up to build multi-million-dollar inventions at 3 am, it did come with the perk that he never ever judged you for doing something anybody else would stamp as mad without a second thought.

She was watching the newest installment of "Is Tony Stark Still Sleeping Around and With Who?" special, odd as most people in her life found the fact, making gleeful notes about an almost sadistically detailed lawsuit just for her own amusement as it went on. She might give it to the laywers just to be contrary back to those gossip-hungry pretend-journalists.

As she reached to put the pad down and replaced it with her wineglass, she ran her other hand down the neck of Tony, who was lying next to her on the supremely comfortable ottoman, head resting against her side as he tinkered with code on a tablet.

She hated nothing more than hearing about gossip when Tony was not with her... and took insane delight in doing the exact same thing if she could touch him. According to her own personal genius it was probably some form of "What most phsycologists would call unhealthy possessiveness".

When she had subsequently asked him what he thought about it, he had shrugged and decidedly told her that they could mind their own fricking business and only the two of them got to have opinions on their relationship. And he liked her intermittent strangeness just fine. Pepper really loved her fiance. Really.

"Is that thing still going on?" Clint stepped into the room carefully, titlting his head as he took in the scene to decide if he intruded. He and Natasha - always joined at the hip - had been staying a few days at a time, every few weeks or so ever since the battle. Pepper couldn't say she minded. They were both respectful and observant and while neither was a great cook, they each had a few signature-dishes; all of which they did well and none of which she'd previously had. And the tower was huge.

"They're all several hours long. People need better hobbies." Tony shrugged from his reclined position, making the gesture seem completely effortless anyway. "So Pep has kidnapped me. As she does. Don't tell the press. They'd make right a mess of the story. Or a wrong mess. Actually do tell the press. It'd be interesting to mock what they'd come up with." The genius engineer wasn't even looking up from his design drawings.

Shaking his head and with one of his assured, confident but not cocky laughs, Clint left the room, and his teammate to be kidnapped some more. It wasn't like he needed rescuing. Or wanted it, especially.

Drinking some more wine, Pepper went back to stroking Tony's hair and snickering about how many things these people got wrong. It was perhaps not very highbrow entertainment, but it was very entertaining for sure.

Pretty much like that lawsuit would be, she'd wager. She held back a snort. Tony was rubbing off on her, he really was. Not being such a grownup was entertaining, though she'd prefer to remain a bit more deliberate than her husband-to-be. Someone had to run this company, and that was her bit. He built, she managed. They really were the best of teams.