It was 2012.
The year the world was to end on the 21st of December.
When Tony and Clint had heard about it they couldn't help but laugh. People were so gullible, listening to each word the press printed and reported.
But as Tony stood there in the Helicarrier, learning about the mad god they had as a prisoner and listening to the other god, Thor, talk about his brother's plans, the futurist couldn't help but think that maybe the world would end. Maybe they were right about 2012. Maybe they just got the day and month wrong.
"Where's Clint?" Tony asked, his voice cutting through the conversation between Natasha and Coulson as he wandered over to the two, not wanting anyone else to overhear. Neither answered him and he felt Coulson put a hand on his back, "Where is Clint?" His voice was harsh but no one would answer him, even as chocolate eyes stared deadly serious into Natasha's green ones, "Romanov. Where the fuck is my husband?" He growled,
"Loki has him." Coulson was the one who answered and seemed to predict Tony's knees weakening because he caught the genius before Tony could fall to the ground.
"No." He whispered, eyes pleading as he stared at Phil wishing beyond hope that the man was lying, "No. No. No."
"We'll get him back. Don't worry. I need you to breathe."
"Tony, you need to focus on locating the Tesseract with Dr Banner. Agent Coulson, I'm going to go and interrogate Loki." Natasha murmured gently but firmly, thankfully Tony understood his current priorities…doesn't mean he liked it though.
—LINE BREAK—
"Give us a lift hun." Clint murmured as the battle against the Chitauri began,
"Any excuse to touch that ass of yours, dear."
"You know your ass is the best." Clint winked and the two shared a brief chuckle before the chaos kicked in.
Clint watched in horror as his husband vanished into the wormhole carrying a nuke. It took all of his training for him not to fall on his knees as the wormhole began to close. His husband still inside.
Tony was falling. He was falling and falling. But he was already dead. Until a roar from Hell woke him. He doesn't get off that easy; why would he after all the suffering he'd caused, why would he be able to sacrifice himself like that?
—LINE BREAK—
"Phil's dead," Tony whispered into the silence of their room. He had his head pressed against Clint's chest as he listened to the faint heartbeat, whilst his husband held an arm around him. Tony was holding Clint's free hand with one of his own and gently rubbed it soothingly with his thumb.
"I know."
"I'm sad."
"So am I." Neither were the best when it came to feelings, let alone ones of sadness, so whilst their words were blunt and seemingly uncaring, both were holding back their tears as they silently grieved for their friend, brother and sometimes their mother. "You almost died."
"I did die." There was no point holding that in, he felt Clint's arms tighten,
"I was trying to forget that part."
"I love you."
"And I love you."
The world didn't end that year.
But, part of their world was gone.
—LINE BREAK—
Three years passed by, they had been married for a little over five years and still, no one knew. It was crazy. Obviously, those who were at the wedding and Natasha knew, but the others on the team, the others at SHIELD and the whole world? They didn't. It was amusing. But luck ran out eventually.
—LINE BREAK—
"Put my husband down!" Clint growled as Thor held Tony by the throat. Started the god dropped him and Tony fell to the ground, the archer rushed over to him.
"You're married?" Almost everyone exclaimed in shock, the husbands ignored them and continued to talk about what just happened as it was significantly more important, the others took the hint.
"He said that someone died. But everyone's here." Tony heard someone say and felt his heart breaking,
"Someone did die." He showed them JARVIS' broken code and heard Clint stifle a gasp before placing a comforting hand on his back, he knew just how much JARVIS meant to Tony, whereas the others saw him simply as an AI, Tony saw him as a son.
—LINE BREAK—
They were at the farm that Laura lived at.
"Uncle Clint! Uncle Tony!" Came two shouts as a little boy and girl rushed at the pair hugging them both before noticing "Auntie Nat!"
Later Tony and Clint lay in bed.
"I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault."
"Yeah, it is."
"I don't know what that Witch showed you Tony, but I know this isn't your fault. It was that stupid sceptre and her mind voodoo." Clint declared refusing to let Tony fall into a sea of guilt, "I'm sorry about JARVIS." He heard Tony's breathing hitch and felt patches of wet on his shirt as Tony mourned his AI, "Can you recover him?"
"No." He choked out, "He's gone."
"Oh, sweetheart."
—LINE BREAK—
"So…you are…married?" Steve was the first to ask as the Avenger's sat together researching and thinking of a plan,
"Yes." They answered bluntly in unison,
"…how?"
"Well, Steven, it might've been different back in your day, but when two people love each other they tend to get married." Steve wasn't amused by Tony's mocking tone,
"We met in 2008 after Tony got back from captivity. Sort of hit it off from there and got married about a year later." Clint explained,
"But why does no one know?" Bruce asked curiously,
"Because the press sucks ass. We preferred to keep the most important thing in our lives quiet." Tony answered his voice quiet and serious yet filled with pure devotion as he grabbed his wedding ring that hung around his neck and took Clint's hand with his free one.
"We wanted privacy and I guess part of us also wanted to see how long we could go before causing the outroar that'll be the public and presses reactions." Clint murmured, relieving some of the tension with his joke, "So far, married, we've made it…" He paused and allowed Tony to finish knowing the numbers were at the tip of his husband's tongue,
"Counting today. Five years, four months and ten days. Or one-thousand nine-hundred and fifty-six days. Or Forty-six-thousand nine-hundred and forty-four hours. Alternatively, we've been together since the twenty-fifth of October 2008 as you asked me out after the Iron Man conference, so all together we've been in a relationship for six years, six months and seven days. Or two-thousand three-hundred and eighty days. Or fifty-seven-thousand, one-hundred and twenty hours." Before Tony could go on, Steve held a hand up clearly overwhelmed by the amount of numbers whereas it was calming to Tony, hence why he continued to ramble about them.
"Okay, okay! We get the point." That was the end of that conversation. There were things far more important to discuss than Clint and Tony's relationship.
—LINE BREAK—
"Witch." He stated amidst the battle from where he hid with the two Maximoff's, "I don't know what you made Tony see, but if either of you gets out of this alive, I will be making sure you both pay. This wasn't Tony's fault no matter how much everyone blames him. It's yours. I want you to also know that Tony isn't the reason your parents died. He built the weapons, but it was his father figure that was selling them under the table. The very same man tried to kill Tony." He growled before they went out and the fight continued.
Ultron was closing in as Clint held a young injured boy in his arms. There was no way to avoid the bullets coming closer, so he turned in the hope to shield the child from the bullets.
"Bet you didn't see that coming." It wasn't Pietro, who stood in front of him shocked as he'd been preparing to take the bullets. Instead, it was Tony in the suit. The Iron Man suit turned to face the surprised enhanced man, "Don't think you're getting out that easy. Fleeing from penance never works." Tony took off to get back to what he was doing whilst Pietro helped Clint get the boy away.
They won.
—LINE BREAK—
Clint was done. He had retired. Tony wanted to follow, but he had too much responsibility. They were together as much as possible but Tony needed to stay in New York and Clint was needed at the safe house to help his sister with her newborn and older children as Laura's partner had vanished and abandoned her. They both understood but made sure to talk every day and visit at the weekend.
Sorry about the paragraph with all the written numbers, I used an online thingamajig to work it all out, but I thought Tony might find running numbers calming.
Anyway,
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Bye~