HAPPY HALLOWEEN! I've been bad... very very bad... I am soooooo sorry this took so long. No excuse... Just... I guess things happen. Baby Clint is walking now with support. He's too afraid to let go of the support and even stand on his own. It's cute cause when we try to get him too, he'll over-balance toward us and slam his face into our chests. He's also waving now. And I mean waving to everyone. Car drives by, wave. Person comes toward him, wave. Cat walks passed, wave. Say hi, wave. Say bye, wave. He loves, loves, loves to wave. Heck, even today I saw him wave at the opening to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on Disney Junior. Right now he's out trick or treating with his father while I stay inside and update and pass out candy. Trying my hardest not to eat it all but you know how it is. You intentionally buy candy you know you like in case there are leftovers. Whoops, doorbell, BRB! ^_^
Age: 23
Place: S.H.I.E.L.D New York H.Q.
"Excuse me, could you help me?" a woman called from behind him. Glancing back, Clint spotted a woman with vibrant blond hair and bright blue eyes. She was just slightly taller than him and rather thinly built. Clint almost wasn't sure if there was an ounce of fat on her and wouldn't really believe if she weighed over 130. If one could believe in 'love at first sight' then Clint was totally smitten. He had no idea who this woman was, what she was, or even if she worked for S.H.I.E.L.D. She could have been an assassin sent to kill him and he'd more than likely just stand there with open arms. Yeah, Clint was a goner from the start. There was going to be nothing stopping him.
"What's up?" Clint asked, trying to sound like his normal self. Sadly his voice slightly cracked due to nerves. The woman smiled at the sound. To Clint it was almost like the heavens opened up on her teeth. They shined in the light and looked beautiful. He sighed in pleasure before promptly praying that it was only in his head. When she smiled a little more and chuckled, he knew that he didn't.
"I'm supposed to meet my new handler at the range, but... Well, I got kind a lost," the woman admitted with a sheepish look that made her look too cute for Clint. He laughed lightly at her to cover his own blush. That just made he seem to relax a bit more and chuckle at him again. Clint gave a sheepish laugh of his own before glancing around. He kind-of forgot where he was at the moment.
"Yeah you did. Especially considering the range is like four floors from here," he said. The woman looked really sheepish now which made him laugh even more at her. But she didn't seem to take offense to it, so Clint felt she was fine with it. Before she could prompt another question at her, he waved at her. "Come on, I'll show you."
"Thanks," she told him as the two began walking in the supposed correct direction. She smirked as she mentally congratulated herself for this whole thing. Clint smirked at her. "I'm Bobbi, by the way."
"Bobbi? Hm... Isn't that a guy's name?" Right away Clint mentally cursed at himself. He wasn't supposed to make fun of her name! God that was horrible. Thankful she just laughed at him.
"Well, actually. Barbara Morse. But I like people calling me Bobbi instead."
"Yeah, I get that," Clint answered as they finally arrived at the elevator. Clint pressed the button which stared a pause in conversation as they waited for the elevator to arrive. Bobbi looked to Clint, waiting for him to introduce himself. Sadly, Clint was too used to all of S.H.I.E.L.D knowing who he was. So he had no intention of doing so. He just assumed she already knew who he was. And if she didn't, then she wouldn't last long enough in S.H.I.E.L.D for him to bother. Bobbi huffed as the elevator arrived and opened.
"And you are?" Bobbi pressed as the duo entered the elevator. Clint hummed in confusion. She laughed at him, trying to brush off her agitation at him not being so forthcoming as she assumed he'd be. Rumors of him being a big flirt may not be as true as she once thought. She almost began to wonder if any of what she heard about him was true. "What is your name?"
"OH! Clint... Clint Barton," Clint answered, wondering why he was introducing himself but nonetheless did so. She laughed at him again. This time, Clint joined in as well. He would never really get over the awkwardness of this moment with her.
"We didn't really get to see much of each other for a while. She had training with her handler for a month and then was put on separate missions from me. I know Natasha worked with Bobbi at least once during that time. But I never did. It wasn't for a few months after that, maybe a month after working missions, that she joined me for lunch in the cafe. Natasha happened to be on a mission by herself. Something that was a bit of a rarity during this time..."
"Hello, stranger," a familiar voice seductively whispered beside Clint in line for food. Clint lazily glanced over, thinking it was some junior agent who felt that Clint was good looking and wanted a date for the night. Whoever spread the rumor that Clint was a bit of a flirt was really ticking him off. He still had yet to find out who it was and each day that passed that he couldn't figure it out, Clint wished more vengeance on them. But as he looked at the person beside him, he was surprised and rather pleased to see it was Bobbi.
"Hey, Bobbi," Clint greeted. Bobbi jokingly gasped at the archer. He almost winced, knowing what was coming next. Another rumor that was spread about him. This one he knew the origin from and had taken vengeance. But it was too late by that point.
"You remembered my name!" Bobbi said with a laugh. Clint nodded, giving her a soft smile but she could tell he wasn't pleased with this joke. A year or so before, Clint had mistakenly forgotten a junior agent's name that he was training. He had only met her and thirty other students the day before and when he couldn't remember her name and three other female students, she spread a rumor that he could never remember names. What the agents hadn't known is that he had just gotten back from a mission where he had gotten such a bad concussion that when he first had woken, he could barely remember Fury, Coulson and Natasha.
"Ha, ha. Guess I only remember important people," Clint joked back before grimacing. Bobbi smirked in humor at his words. "That sounded so much better in my head."
Bobbi laughed as the two continued collecting their food for lunch. Clint barely noticed what he had grabbed as they went. He couldn't even remember much of the conversation he had with Bobbi. All Clint could really focus on was Bobbi's body, outfit and the gossip beginning to spread around about them. He knew that for at least the next two months this whole deal was going to be the talk of the HQ. Why people were so interested in him, he'd never know but it really did get annoying.
"Really? Her?" someone called to their friends in disgust. "Isn't she married?"
"She's so blond," another whined, a voice that Clint recognized had asked him out the month before.
"I've been on a mission with her. She was such a whiny brat," a third voice said with such knowledge that even if they were lying, people would believe it. Clint rolled his eyes.
"I was her roommate during training. She was such a bitch."
"I could be so much better than her!"
"What makes her so special?"
"What the hell is his deal? He turns down everyone else but accepts her?"
"I thought he and that red head were together?"
Clint wasn't really surprised about the gossip that began overlapping each other as time passed. Especially the news about Bobbi. Natasha had gone on a mission with Bobbi before. Neither woman had gotten along during the mission, making it that much harder on all of them. It also didn't help that Bobbi complained about everything, including Natasha. Once they returned to base, Natasha spent the next week complaining about Bobbi and everything she did. He shrugged it all off as such more rumors that people were trying to spread. It was something he had gotten used to since joining.
"Are you even listening to me?" Bobbi suddenly asked in a rather whiney voice. Clint, jerking out of his thoughts, focused on the woman in surprise. He gave her a sheepish smile to which she rolled her eyes smiled back. In the back of his mind, Clint realized that Natasha was right. Bobbi was a bit of a whiner. "I asked where you wanted to sit."
"Uh..." Clint glanced around. Normally, he took his food to his room or the range or some other hiding place. It had always been like that. Since he joined, Clint was never too comfortable in crowds like this. Heck, he used to even wait for everyone to eat and leave before he went to serve himself. But lately he'd been trying to break himself of that habit. He just hadn't gotten around to sitting in the cafe. So now, as he stared out at the numerous amounts of tables filled with other agents, he couldn't figure out what to do. Most were watching the two with curios expressions. And Clint could see everyone already making plans to listen in. For a secret spy organization, S.H.I.E.L.D had some really crappy agents. But as much as Clint wanted to sneak off, he didn't want to sneak off with Bobbi. That would just cause more talk. Talk that he didn't want. So instead he looked at her. "Could care less."
"Okay," Bobbi responded before moving toward the middle of the room. Clint slowly followed, becoming more and more tense with each passing second. He watched as she plopped down at a table that had two other agents already cleaning up their lunch. Nodding their hellos and goodbyes, they left, leaving the blond all alone at the table. Smugly, she turned to look at him with a huge smile on her face. Clint gave her a weak one in return. "Here good?"
Clint glanced around, stiffening with each bit of realization he came up with. The table was pretty much set up as the exact center of the entire room. No matter where he sat, people would be behind him. He wouldn't have sight lines on everyone around him. It was one of the worst positions for a sniper. Hell, it was the worst position for him considering how many times people he trusted attacked him from behind. But as he looked back at Bobbi, he saw her pleased about the fact that they would be enjoying lunch alone at the table. Knowing this would be highly uncomfortable, Clint nodded and sat across the table from her. Bobbi smiled, but mentally growled at him sitting so far away, as the two began eating. She had to plan on better spots in the future. Meanwhile, Clint tried not to flinch anytime someone moved or made a noise behind him.
"Bobbi pretty much seemed to stalk me after that. She claimed that that was our first date and that we were now in a serious relationship. Considering she never told me this first, I couldn't really refute it by the time it got to me," Clint began explaining. Tony and Thor laughed at him. Bruce smiled, chuckling as he remembered how girls could be. Steve shook his head. Natasha shook her head, already knowing what was coming next anyways. "She followed me to the range after lunch. Then to the roof and the next day, she met me for breakfast and followed me around all day."
"After all this, what the hell made you want to marry her? Hell, what the fuck made you propose to her?" Tony commented as he calmed down from his laughing fit. Clint shrugged, really unsure how his whole relationship with Bobbi went. She controlled most of it. Actually, she tended not to tell him things first and made others get the information back to him so that he couldn't stop her from moving their relationship forward.
"I actually never proposed to her. She did it to me about three days before I turned 24. We got married about a month later," Clint answered. Before he could fully say everything, Bruce spoke.
"What made you say yes?" Bruce wondered aloud. Clint laughed at this one. He had Coulson keep the recording of the event in his file as a just in case. Clint watched it numerous times over his marriage to Bobbi.
"I was high on a bad mix of drugs. Most of which I happen to be allergic to. Bobbi caught me after I had just explained to Coulson that I'd say yes to fucking a polar bear. She came in, told me she was petrified for me, wanted to spend the rest of her life with me and proposed. I said yes and she went into planning mode," Clint mentioned. Tony chuckled at this. Bruce shook his head. Thor smiled. Natasha snorted but Clint couldn't tell if it was in anger or humor. Steve frowned.
"Did you even want to marry her?" Steve questioned, feeling sick that Clint was basically tricked into marrying Bobbi. Clint shrugged as Natasha got to her feet and began pacing the room. The archer watched her for any signs that she was going to snap at him. But she just seemed like she needed to move otherwise she'd go hunt Bobbi down and kill the woman.
"I don't know. I certainly wouldn't have proposed or even agreed that fast without the drugs. But... Who knows. It happened and I agreed and we got married. Not much either of us can do about it now." The other men traded looks. There was more to this story but they weren't gonna hear about it with Natasha in the room.
"Why did you divorce?" Tony asked, figuring that would be a safer topic with Natasha around.
Age 25:
"Clint Barton, are you even listening to me?" snapped Bobbi during breakfast. Clint jerked away in surprise, having dozed off during their conversation. Bobbi huffed at him. She had lately been noticing that Clint hadn't been spending much time with her and even when he did, he wasn't all there. This was just a perfect example. He had fallen asleep after just waking up. What she didn't know is that Clint had just finished a late night debrief only to get home, drop in bed for an hour before the alarm went off to wake the duo up.
"What?" Clint mumbled in a half daze. Bobbi rolled her eyes at her husband. He was getting worse and worse around her. She was beginning to feel as if she was the only one in this relationship. And she blamed it all on one person. That red headed she-devil, Natasha Romanoff.
"I was saying that I was going to ask Director Fury to make us partners," Bobbi reiterated. Clint snapped to attention so fast that his neck cracked with the force. Bobbi winced at the noise but wasn't all that surprised. Any time she had mentioned him leaving Natasha as a partner in the past it hadn't gone over well. She was beginning to feel that Clint liked Natasha more than her. And it bothered her more than she wanted to let on to even herself.
"What? Why?"
"Cause, we are married and you don't need to work with someone else. We are basically the perfect partners," Bobbi claimed, believing marriage to be a sacred union of two perfect partners and that it was nothing about love or feelings. Clint frowned. Bobbi was too different from him. He tried working with her on missions before. Most of them hadn't gone over well. Clint was always told to chalk it up to his inability to work with change, but Clint didn't feel as comfortable with Bobbi watching his back as he did with Natasha.
"Tasha and I work well together. We're one of S.H.I.E.L.D's best teams!"
"And I think you and I could be better," Bobbi said, making sure to stress the 'I'. Clint's frown deepened as he stared at her. He couldn't believe they were having this argument again. "Sides, you spend way too much time with Agent Romanoff."
"Nat and I are partners. We're supposed too to be such a good team."
"Agent Fredrickson and I are partners, but we don't spend as much time together as you and Agent Romanoff," Bobbi pointed out as though her partnership, which was mid-level group at best, was equal to the top group. Clint raised an eyebrow as he began to see where this whole idea was going. Agent Fredrickson was another female agent. One that Bobbi had requested after marrying Clint. And since then, she's begged for Clint to change partners. She even told Coulson once that Clint worked better with men than with woman. The next mission hadn't gone well.
"Are you jealous?" Bobbi looked offended for a moment. Clint smiled, thinking he figured it all out. "You are!"
"No, I'm not!" Bobbi snapped. Clint scoffed. "You shouldn't spend so much time with another woman when you are married!" Clint shook his head, having had this conversation many times before in the past two years or so.
"Nat and I are partners. Barely even friends. You have nothing to worry about," Clint tried, again, not for the first time. Bobbi took her turn to scoff at him now. Clint rolled his eyes.
"That's why there are rumors that you guys screw each other in the gym," Bobbi bitched. Clint snarled, having heard the rumors before. No matter what Natasha and he did, the rumor mill loved to hook the duo up in the craziest of ways. He launched to his feet in anger, the chair he was on clattering backwards on the ground. Bobbi winced knowing this was getting out of hand but she couldn't stop now. Not until she had won this argument. She was sick of being second fiddle to Natasha.
"We train! That's all we fucking do, Bobbi! We train to be better partners!" Clint shouted at her, sick of hearing this. Bobbi's eyes flashed with anger and betrayal. Clint winced, knowing that look all too well. He had ticked her off and he was about to get it. This look was something he had been seeing more and more over the past couple of months. He always tried to avoid it but it kept coming. Especially when Natasha's name was mixed into the situation. "Bobbi..."
"No! Don't you dare 'Bobbi' me," she snapped. Clint looked away for a minute. There was no backing down now. They were about to get into a huge fight and there was nothing that either of them could do about it. If Clint backed down, Bobbi would call him a coward. If Clint tried to apologize, Bobbi wouldn't believe him. If Clint argued back, than Bobbi would be put in the same boat as Clint and she never was one to back down when she believed in something.
"Look, Bobbi-" Clint began, trying to figure out how to avoid an argument. But Bobbi stopped him by standing and shouting back at him. Clint could only wince at the words coming out of her mouth.
"No! NO! I'm trying to make things better! I'm trying to work with you! But all you do is throw it back in my face! You want to stay with Romanoff! You barely ever see me! We haven't fucked in months. God! I don't even know if I love you anymore!" Bobbi screamed. She gasped at the words as soon as they left her mouth. Slowly, her hands came up to cover her mouth. Clint just stared at her. There were no words to say after that. Sighing deeply, Clint turned and grabbed his chair. As he righted it, Bobbi rushed around the table and placed a hand on his shoulder. He shrugged it off as she spoke. "Clint..."
"No. It's been said," Clint muttered. Bobbi let her hand drop back to her side. Clint walked toward the front door. Slowly he looked back at her. "I'm gonna stay at HQ tonight. Still got some emergency clothes there."
"Okay..." Bobbi moaned pitifully. Clint nodded before walking out the door. Softly closing it, he leaned against it with a huff. Inside he could hear Bobbi begin to cry. He shook his head. There was nothing he could do now. If Bobbi didn't love him, then she didn't love him. But as he stood there, Clint realized that he wasn't bothered by this. He wasn't bothered by the fact that Bobbi didn't love him. Sighing deeply, he pushed off the door and began heading to S.H.I.E.L.D HQ to meet with Natasha for training. The entire time he thought about his relationship with Bobbi.
"Bobbi gave me the divorce papers maybe three days after. I had never gone back to the house so she did it while at S.H.I.E.L.D. Rumors spread fast blaming Natasha, Fury, hell, even Coulson. Not a single one was right of course. Bobbi got the house and most of my paycheck to keep it until she could find a cheaper place to live. I was able to go in with the cops to get my things and make sure I didn't take her stuff. Even though we broke up mutually, the court ruled it as such," Clint described.
"That doesn't sound right," Bruce muttered, having seen divorce cases in his past. Clint shrugged. Bobbi had again controlled most of the whole proceedings. He wouldn't be surprised if she had given them a much different story than he gave of her.
"Doesn't matter now. I got divorced. Bobbi was moved to a different location by her request and we haven't really talked since," Clint explained.
"How long ago was this?" Thor muttered. Clint frowned.
"About two months before my 26th birthday and... Six months or so before Loki attacked," Clint responded. The others stiffened at the trickster's name. Even Clint shifted uncomfortably. "But that doesn't matter now."
"You once mentioned other handlers that you had?" Steve questioned. Clint nodded but before he could start with a new story, Tony interrupted.
"Hey! No! I want to hear more about the circus!" he called. Clint smirked, knowing that that was going to be basically the only thing that the genius would be interested in.
"You had your chance, Stark," Natasha snarled. Tony puffed up his chest in a show of bravado.
"So didn't you!" Natasha nodded.
"Let Steve have a chance," she snapped. Tony frowned. Clint just laughed.
"Listen, it's fine. I can tell you guys everything. As long as it keeps me awake," he said.
"I would like to hear of this place you call an orphan home," Thor muttered. Clint glanced over at him. The last time he mentioned the orphanage had been a long while back. To have such good memory over a small piece of his history, Clint was beginning to wonder if this was the best idea. "Why would you leave such a place?"
"Old Man Winters wasn't the most... Hospitable. As you know, I arrived when I was six. It wasn't until I was seven and a half before I realized why some of the other kids didn't like the place either. I hadn't been paying much attention to the other kids after Barney abandoned me. So Old Man Winters took me by surprise when he went after me..."
OMG! My doorbell just rang for like the fifth time tonight and I just caught my cat growling like a dog at it! He growled! Like legit, 'I'm a dog and I'm gonna get you!' It was so funny! I so hope he barks soon, that'd just make him the perfect cat.
Anyways, can't wait to see you all next time. Remember to review, favorite and follow!