Baby Clint has gotten a slight cold... So he refuses to go to bed at night since about Wednesday night. Hence why this post is now officially two days late. Sorry. Hopefully he'll be fine soon.

Age: 11

Place: Carson's Carnival of Traveling Wonders

"Yes!" Clint cried as yet again he hit the center of the target. There was already a grouping of five arrows around the little yellow dot on the far away target. He hadn't been out here long. Thankfully no one seemed to miss him when he did go to practice. Clint danced in place before preparing another arrow. A soft smile appeared on his lips as he prepped the scene. "The crowd goes silent as Young Barton prepares for this daring shot! He steadies himself. A hush falls over the arena. Sighing, Barton shoots! The crowd goes wild as yet again the youngest archer in history hits the target! AHHHH!"

"Nice shot," a voice called from behind him. Clint tensed. No one was supposed to know he was out here. Heck, the only two who normally came out here to practice archery didn't even know Clint had been as well. Knowing he had to see who it was, he slowly turned around to see Buck Chisholm standing behind him. The master archer was staring down the range at the target. Clint could only stare. He half wondered if Buck would beat him for taking the bow. Not that he or his partner used the bow anymore. But Clint almost feared that Buck would report him to Carson. The owner of the circus had strict rules about taking things from the other carnies. Clint would get kicked out of the circus, no matter how much work he performed before and after. Buck glanced down at Clint. In that second the old master understood what was running through the boy's head but ignored it. "Try that from here."

Silently, Clint nodded and moved over to Buck. Standing beside the master archer, Clint felt more frightened than ever before. Shakily, he raised the bow. Knowing he couldn't shoot like that, Clint tried to calm. For what felt like a lifetime, Clint tried his hardest to calm his shaking body. After a minute or so where Clint still had yet to shoot, Buck glanced down at the boy and saw him shaking like a leaf. Pleased that he instilled a bit of fear in the boy, Buck smiled. It was easier to train kids if they were terrified of him. Made it so much simpler. But, right now, he really wanted to see if Clint was as good as he seemed. Could the boy only shoot from that one spot or was there something more hidden behind his small frame.

"Calm down. I won't punish you for taking the bow," Buck stated as he turned back to the target. He had no idea if his words would calm the boy or if that was even why he was frightened. All Buck could do was assume he was right. Clint sighed, relieved at the saying. He had indeed feared Buck would punish him. After that, Buck wasn't all that scary. How he trained the other boy was no different from how his own father had treated him in his youth. But, even knowing all that, it still took the boy another minute or two to fully calm down enough to take the shot. Once fully calm, Clint focused on the target. Releasing a breath, Clint steadied his aim and fired.

THAWK!

Clint smiled, pleased that he had hit the outer line of the yellow circle. Buck grunted in amusement as he looked around for a new area to try from. As he looked about, Buck noticed that grass was pressed down in an exact path from where Clint previously stood to the target. Buck smirked, it was a sign that Clint hadn't changed distance before. But as he thought about it, the master archer wondered about Clint. If the boy had never switched positions before, how was he so good now? Shaking his head from such thoughts, Buck moved to a new area, further away and further to the side of Clint's normal spot. Once there, Buck motioned that Clint should follow him. Hesitantly, the boy did as he was told. Buck focused on Clint.

"Again," he demanded. Clint frowned, glancing at the target before nodding. Setting himself up, Clint took the shot in less than half the time as before. The arrow struck closer to the center than before. Raising an eyebrow in surprise, Buck shifted positions again. This time, Clint followed without prompt and took his shot before Buck could ask. Clint then focused on Buck as he took another arrow out and shot it without looking. Surprised, Buck looked down the range. Both arrows were nearly dead center.

"Well?" Clint questioned, almost accusing Buck of claiming that he hadn't been a good shot. Buck looked to the boy, almost daring him to act like that again. His smile had begun to morph into something deadly looking. But Clint stared back at Buck as if he was the one daring Buck to step out of line.

"Meet me at my range, tomorrow, before breakfast," Buck retorted before storming off, knowing there was nothing else he could say to the boy. Breakfast was normally at dawn, something that Clint normally never got to enjoy. It wasn't that he slept in late, it was usually that he was busy doing some chores. Clint tended not to sleep at night. Instead, he used the time to explore the circus or even work on his chores and some of Barney's. But now that was going to change.

Clint stared in the spot that Buck had previously occupied for a minute more before understanding what the archer meant. Buck was going to train him. Buck was going to train HIM! Excited, Clint ran back to the tent that Barney was currently using as his. Even though the brothers had barely spoken the past few months, Clint needed to tell his brother the happy news. But before entering the tent, Clint paused. He could hear voices speaking.

"What the?" Clint muttered to himself before sneaking around to the back of the tent. Having once been caught spying on his brother before, Clint had gotten the beating of a lifetime. Not wanting to repeat that incident, Clint was very cautious now. He had gotten better since joining the circus but Clint still knew that he wasn't in the clear. Anyone could come walking by right now. And even though Barney was one of the most hated people here, circus folk tended to like their privacy and would love to report Clint.

"I'm gonna train Clint with or without your permission. I just wanted to let you know that I was planning on training him," Buck's voice snapped through the rather thin cloth. His voice told Clint that the master archer had been speaking to Barney for a while now. More than likely, since he walked away from Clint. Feeling odd listening in now, Clint almost turned to leave. But, they were talking about him. Curiosity won out. Clint slunk down deeper to the ground.

"Why? The damned brat can't do anything worthwhile," Barney stated. Clint frowned. He had been doing more work around here than Barney. Where did he get off saying things like that? "He'll just be a hassle."

"That 'brat' taught himself how to shoot. I want to train him into my show," Buck hissed, downplaying Clint's skills so that he didn't have to fight Barney over money, food or chores. Barney scoffed, clearly not believing that Buck would be interested in Clint for only being able to teach himself how to shoot. But, Barney didn't have the time to watch over the younger boy so, he couldn't really stop Buck.

"I knew he had too much time on his hands!" Barney muttered to himself, sounding louder than normal. Buck stomped his foot, making Clint jump. He knew that Barney must have turned away from the archer to have gotten that. There was also the sound of quickly moving cloth. Clint shifted to lift the edge of the tent off the ground and peeked in. Buck had Barney by the collar of his shirt and held him a good foot off the ground.

"Listen! None of us have told Carson that you keep making Clint do your work. It's dishonorable and cruel. But, I will make everyone continue to keep quiet..." Buck trailed off, leaving his tone as the threat of what him implied to do.

"Thought you said you'd train him anyway?" Barney snarled, shifting to try and shimmy out of his shirt. A move that Barney hadn't done since before their father passed away. And now it was proving ineffective as he had grown too much and his shirt was a size too small. Buck hummed before tossing the teen to the ground. Barney landed with a huff and Clint had to freeze in order to avoid backing away too quickly. "What else do ya want?"

"If Clint begins training with me, he needs more free time than he currently has. So, you'll have to do your own chores from now on," Buck explained. Barney huffed, thinking that Buck must be joking. But when Buck lunged toward him, the teen backed down. "And... If he is really good, you'll have to pick up on his."

"Hell no! I need my free time!" Barney declared, stopping before explaining about the reason he needed the time. Buck raised an eyebrow at the declaration but didn't pressure Barney into saying more. The master archer really didn't need to know what Barney was doing with his free time. After all, the less the circus knew about criminal activities, the better.

"Is your free time more important than staying here? No? Then you'll do your chores!" Buck shouted. Barney winced as Buck spun on his heel and moved closer to the entrance of the tent. Clint lowered the tent down to the ground and backed away. "Just so you know, if you had actually been doing your chores this whole time, you would be fast enough to actually have this much free time."

Clint counted to ten before there was a loud scream followed by items being tossed about and broken. Some things even hit into the tent flaps and made the cloth flutter. The boy winced, knowing that this was going to come back harshly on him. Clint slunk away, intent on finding a place to hide for the night before Barney went after him. His tent wasn't safe. Barney knew where that was. No one else's tents were safe either. Quickly running out of places, Clint turned to the main tent. Julissa, one of the trapeze artists, had once shown him a small crow's nest on the main pain. That area had the other poles that the tent needed connect to it. Knowing that Barney was afraid of heights, Clint scampered into the tent. Taking one glance at the tall pole, he smiled. It was perfect. Climbing up the pole was easier than Clint suspected and then getting comfortable was even easier. The whole area was just big enough to fit him.

Morning came faster than Clint expected. The sunlight streaming through the small hole above him made the boy wake up in a flash. Fearing he may have already missed training with Buck, Clint rushed down the pole and took off to the range that Buck set up. He didn't even notice that no one was awake yet. If he had missed training, breakfast would have been over and everyone would have been starting work on their chores or practicing for the night's performance. A few minutes later, Clint arrived at the range to see no one there.

"Crap!" Clint called, thinking that Buck must have moved his training elsewhere or canceled training for his apprentice. Buck had a penchant for doing such things if he had gotten drunk the night before. It was the apprentice's job to figure out if Buck changed plans. Kicking the dirt before him, Clint sat on the ground wondering what he was going to do now. If Barney found out he already messed up, he'd get beaten up so bad. And Barney still needed to beat Clint for what Buck had said the night before. What the older Barton didn't know was that Clint tended to abuse himself mentally much harder than he could get physically beaten.

"Good, you're here," a voice said from behind the boy. Jumping to his feet in surprise, Clint turned to see Buck walking toward him. In the master archers hands was Buck's normal show bow, the bow that Buck's apprentice recently switched too and a new looking bow. There were three quivers draped across his back as well that Buck dropped onto the ground as soon as he got beside Clint. Without really focusing on Clint, Buck glanced around. "Where the fuck is Pat?"

"I haven't seen him," Clint muttered, staring at the third bow in complete and utter awe. He had been expecting to use the bow he had been working with before. Buck glanced down at him and noticed him eyeing the bow. Smiling, Buck handed it over. It was a thin bow curving back toward the string before turning back toward the front at the tips where the string sat.

"This is a recurve bow. It's similar to the one you were using before just a bit bigger and bit more tension on the string. Don't be surprised if your shots are off a bit," Buck mentioned, sounding kinder than he ever had before. Clint looked up to the master archer in surprise. What the archer hadn't implied was what Clint had grabbed a hold of.

"This is... Mine?" he asked. Buck nodded, smiling at the fact that Clint picked up on that of everything he had said.

"Even if I end up not choosing you, Jacques requested to use you in his show," Buck explained. Clint nodded, feeling better and better about this whole ordeal. Buck turned away to try and find his actual apprentice. Knowing that Buck wasn't watching him, Clint stood facing the target on the far end of the range and began to aim without an arrow strapped to the string. Buck looked back before Clint even had a chance to dry fire it. "NO!"

"What?" Clint cried, slowly releasing the string and turning to face Buck. Buck sighed deeply, holding his chest in shock.

"Never, ever! Dry fire a bow!" Buck demanded. Clint nodded, having watched Buck train Pat a few times before.

"I know," Clint answered. Buck raised an eyebrow. Knowing what it looked like he had been about to do, Clint smiled. "I was checking the tension."

Buck hummed, not sure he really believed the boy. But not having any proof otherwise, Buck couldn't really yell at Clint. So, instead he went back to looking for Pat. Clint looked down at the quivers. Each one had a color that matched the grip of each bow. Finding the color that matched his, Clint picked it up and began adjusting it onto his back. A few minutes later, he was done and began joining Buck in waiting for Pat. It wasn't until the sun was cresting the mountain in the distance that Buck turned to Clint.

"Go over to that tree and shoot the furthest target from it," Buck told him, knowing that in the weeks of training Pat, the boy hadn't been able to do it. He half hoped that Clint would be able to. Nodding, Clint gladly jogged over to where Buck pointed and set himself up. In seconds, Clint was shooting and hitting the target in the yellow circle. Buck smiled. "Good-bye Pat."

Slowly, he walked over to Clint. The boy barely noticed, just kept shooting away. Buck watched the boy shoot for a few minutes before moving forward and lightly corrected Clint's stance. Then he allowed him to shoot for another few minutes. His aim improved and his arms hurt less when he pulled back. Buck watched and corrected. Sometimes he had to explain why Clint missed just slightly. By the end of the day, Clint could hit every target, dead center, from any point that Buck had on the range.

"Tomorrow, we'll work with targets in motion," Buck announced. Clint frowned.

"No animals, right?" he asked. Buck laughed.

"No. We'd run out of animals before you got it right every time," he said. Clint smiled, glad that he didn't have to shoot animals. Barney had done it once before when they were little. Before the orphanage and before their parents died. The mess that that squirrel made, still scarred Clint to this day.

"My friend, how long did it take for you to learn?" Thor questioned when Clint paused to take a breath. Clint smiled.

"By the next month, I began performing with Buck," Clint mentioned. "It took another two months before Carson labeled me as Hawkeye, the amazing boy marksman."

"Wait, S.H.I.E.L.D didn't give you that name?" Tony asked. Clint nodded.

"I got that name from the circus and even used it when I was a gun for hire. That's how S.H.I.E.L.D knew so much about me. They traced me back from Carson's. It's also partly why I'm not big on codenames. Don't need them when people can easily figure out who I am," Clint explained. Tony smiled, pulling his phone out before Clint could finish.

"You deck out the tower in his circus posters, I'll kill you myself," Natasha snarled at the billionaire. He pouted for a bit before realizing there were many other areas that the assassin hadn't included in that. Smiling, he happily went back to his hunting.

"Is this one of the reasons why you never talked to us about your past?" Steve inquired, pointing to Tony as he spoke. The others laughed as Tony pouted at the captain. Clint shook his head no.

"Nah. He wouldn't bother me, no matter what he finds. It's just... I've never really been around people who cared about my background. The circus was more of a 'keep it to yourself' place. S.H.I.E.L.D is a place where, even secrets have their secrets who sometimes even have their secrets. So I wasn't about to open up to anyone. I guess, I just got used to keeping quiet," Clint answered.

"I never thought of it like that. I almost assumed you didn't want to get close to us," Bruce admitted. "I mean... I figured when Natasha and I began opening up about our pasts, you'd follow suit. But you still didn't say anything. So... I guessed I assumed the worst."

"Most people tend to. It's why I went through about four more handlers after Paradise before Coulson was subjected to me as a 'last chance,'" Clint replied.

"Last chance?" Steve muttered. Clint shrugged.

"The four handlers in between kept trying to change the way I tried to do my hits. And when I wouldn't change or they didn't listen to my suggestion, they spun the reports to me being disobedient. I think what sucked the most about it was that because each of them had been part of S.H.I.E.L.D longer than me, no one believed me. Well, 'cept Coulson. I think that's why Fury allowed him to be my last chance. Otherwise, Fury would have tossed me out long beforehand."

"You know what always has bugged me. Why'd you marry Barbara?" Natasha asked completely out of the blue. Clint burst out laughing at her before groaning as his ribs didn't like the motion.

"Wait! He's married!?" Tony nearly screamed. "And I didn't invite the wife to live with us?"

"No! No, god no!" Clint cried as he tried to calm his chuckling down to talk. "No, Bobbi divorced me the next year. She got wicked jealous of Natasha and claimed it was either Nat, or her. I chose Nat cause Bobbi and I didn't mesh well on missions," Clint explained.

"Still, why her?" Natasha nearly growled now. Clint laughed a bit more.

"I thought I loved her."

And I thought reviewers loved me... JK. Anywho, please review, favorite and follow. ^_^