I told you it wouldn't take too long! And I did promise it would be longer than the last chapter. I wanted to make it even longer but it would have dragged on too long, I feel. Thanks for the positive feedback guys!
Tony was fascinated. That might have been an understatement. Tony was extremely fascinated with Clint Barton. It was like Clint was the brightest, shiniest new toy on Christmas morning. Really, that was the best description for it. Who are you? Tony couldn't help but wonder, chin resting in his hand, openly staring at Clint, who was back to trying to ignore him, struggling to take down notes as quickly as he could. He kept shrugging off Tony's questions, shushing him loudly. Other students kept trying to turn around to sneak glances at the attractive, gutsy new kid who dared to sit next to Stark, but Tony's glare had them whipping back to face forwards again. Tony absently gnawed at his lip.
"So who're you here with? My friend said there were new kids. Kids. As in plural. You're one, who is the other one?" Tony didn't even bother to whisper, the teacher was too far away to worry about and the students sitting nearby knew better than to try to get him to shut up. Clint sighed heavily.
"You know Stark, I'm starting to think that you don't understand what it means when someone shushes you." Clint had this way of speaking where he sounded irritated and amused at the same time, all while keeping the tone low and casual, like he was talking to himself and making no effort to actually reply to Tony. And Tony was loving it.
"I'm a Stark, and notoriously the loudest person in a room at any given moment," Clint snorted at that, so Tony kept going, "Stop avoiding my questions Bambi."
"Stop calling me Bambi and I might answer. Or keep it up and I can move seats, Stark."
Grinning, Tony started to reply but a firm ahem came from the front of the room.
"Stark, stop distracting Barton. He actually needs to pay attention to class in order to pass this course-"
"Not if he has me. I'm worth easily double the textbook. That's like, a forty-dollar textbook we're talking about here. Now, I may be wrong, though I never am, but my multiple free ride scholarships say differently. I could teach this in my sleep."
"Then why don't you, Mr. Stark?" The teacher pursed her lips and held out her dry erase marker, gesturing Tony to the board. Damn she caught me, Tony glanced over to see Clint trying to hide laughter behind his hands. Rolling his eyes, Tony groaned and headed up to the white board.
Tony shoved two kids into the doorway, flying out into the hall. How the hell did he beat me out the door? Tony spun in a circle, trying to see over the heads of the students now flooding into the hallways. The bell had only just rung, and Tony was always the first one out, yet somehow Clint had given him the slip.
Turning around and veering towards the main hallway, Tony huffed and plowed through the mass of students in front of him. Catching a glimpse of Clint's grey jacket vanishing down a side hallway, Tony slammed a small herd of freshmen into the lockers in his haste to follow. And… the hallway was empty. Slowing to a stop, Tony spun in a circle. There was no way Clint had already walked down the length of the hall. Hesitantly still walking forwards, Tony jumped when he heard a huge thud just around the corner, and start running when a large crash followed it. Careening around the corner, Tony came to a dead stop to see Steve standing over Clint, holding some kid by the scruff of their collar, another teen laying dazed across the hall, like Steve had thrown him into the lockers.
"Clint? Oh my god… Clint!" Someone came running from the far end of the hallway, but Tony beat them to Clint. Helping the kid up, Tony turned to see his least favorite person in the world approaching.
"Rogers! What are you doing manhandling my friends?" Loki spat at them like venom.
"Friends? You mean your lackeys?" Steve was furious, Loki being one of the few people who could ever piss him off to such an extent. "They just threw themselves at this guy! Like usual, no reasoning, no warning, just started beating the crap out of some poor kid. But, as usual, I was here to stop them. Control your minions Loki," Steve growled, practically throwing the bully he had by the collar into Loki's arms. The kid who had called out Clint's name had finally made it down the hallway, brushing Clint's jacket off and looking between Steve and Loki, watching the standoff. Loki sneered, pushing his lackey behind him.
"The kid must have deserved it then, because," Loki cut off, finally looking over and seeing Clint. Although Loki's expression didn't change, Tony the hairs on his arms stand up, and tried to subtly angle himself so he was standing in front of Clint, but Clint was having none of that.
"I didn't even look at them, you asshat! I wasn't even walked near them and they swung at me! Cross me again and I'll swing back," he threatened, steely grey eyes flashing.
"Oh, how… intimidating," Loki drawled, sweeping his eyes up and down Clint's frame as if trying to point out the teen's shortness, but Tony knew his gaze was lingering longer than it needed to. The stranger next to Clint put a hand on his arm, trying to keep him from throwing himself at Loki.
The dark haired teen met Clint's stony expression with a sharp emerald gaze.
"I expect you're the new boy then, aren't you? You'll learn the rules here quickly enough I suppose, although…" Loki's eyes swept between Tony and Steve, "You're off to a pretty bad start. Choose your friends carefully, if you want to last here."
And with that he swept off, his cronies trailing behind him, glaring daggers at Steve before hurrying to catch up to Loki. Tony turned back to Clint, finding the stranger knocking invisible dust off his jacket again, fretting.
"Your first day! I can't believe it Clint, how do you manage to do this every single time? You've got to be more careful, what if no one was here to watch your back?" the stranger, with dusty brown hair and worried eyes, looking like a senior, turned to Steve, "Thank you so much, I can't believe you did that, I'm so grateful you stepped in there I don't know how to thank you!"
Steve looked caught between pride and embarrassment, stumbling to reply, while Clint looked like he was going to hit something.
"Phil, stop. Stop. Phil," Clint grumbled, looking at the floor. The stranger(Phil) turned back to him, trying to smooth out wrinkles in Clint's shirt while Clint tried to worm away. "I'm fine, seriously. They just caught me by surprise, they'd hardly touched me when Blondie showed up."
Steve sputtered at the nickname, and Tony rolled his eyes, tired of the awkward talking.
"Clint, Blondie's name is Steve. Steve Rogers. Steve this is Clint Barton, one of the newbies Bruce was telling us about. And this must be the other one…?"
"Coulson. Phil Coulson," he stuck out his hand formally, shaking both Tony's and Steve's, before continuing, "And Natasha is around here somewhere."
"So there're three of you? And you're all, what? Cousins? Siblings?" Tony quirked an eyebrow. Coulson and Clint exchanged a look.
"Cousins," Coulson said hesitantly, and Tony's gaze narrowed. Why the long pause? Before he could comment, Coulson started in on poor Steve again.
"Thank you so much, really, I really appreciate it Steve. I can't watch out for this kid all the time, right?" Clint was giving him a death glare but Coulson ignored him as if he were used to it. "We owe you one! Come on now Clint, let's get going."
Coulson practically hauled Clint down the hallway by the arm. Steve and Tony stared after them for a moment, both dumbfounded. Looking at each other, Tony struggled for the right words to explain what had just happened. Steve beat him to it.
"That was weird."
"Uh, yeah. No kidding. I thought Clint seemed alright in Calculus, well, my version of alright anyways, but now that we've met his… cousin, or whatever they are… it makes me wonder." Tony drifted off, and Steve's eyebrows drew together, taking note of Tony's tone.
"Tony, no-"
"Let's keep him!"
"Clint! Haha I bet you thought you'd seen the last of me, didn't you?"
"What are you doing here?" Clint gave Tony an exasperated look. Mocking being offended, Tony gestured to the classroom door, and the students milling around outside, waiting for the teacher to let them in.
"I was here first Barton. I think I'm allowed to attend my English class." Tony broke off suddenly as something rammed into his back, causing him to stumble to the side as something red swept past him, standing directly between him and Clint.
"You'd think people would have some sense of personal space, wouldn't you Clint? Everyone here is too friendly. Makes me want to castrate someone." The red turned out to be an array of carefully curled hair, belonging to yet another attractive new student. Huffing, still slightly doubled over, Tony managed to pull out his best playboy grin, to which the girl glared back.
"You must be Natasha," he began, but her eyes narrowed.
"And you must be Tony Stark. Yeah. I've heard about you. Don't take that as a compliment," She spoke coldly, Clint standing back and watching as if this were about to become the funniest thing he had ever seen. Tony was, at this point, genuinely perplexed as to why neither Clint nor his beautiful relation seemed immune to his charms. If the looks didn't cut it, his family name (and thus, vast fortunes) were usually enough for anyone to be falling over themselves. Who the hell were these people?
"So you were there at the Loki showdown, huh?" Natasha had her arms crossed over her chest, sizing him up. "What do you know about that kid?"
"Too much," Tony started, then shrugged. "He's the fucked up little brother of my friend, Thor. They moved here back in like, third grade from Norway. Their dad is a hardass, Loki is adopted and has always been trouble, the way I hear it. They've been trying to get him help for years but the little shit doesn't want any. He's nine kinds of crazy and attracts others like him. The only thing that stops him from stomping down the rest of the student body is my friends and I. Because of Thor, we've been dealing with him since he was young enough to not be able to do any harm. Now that he's older… well, Loki has only gotten more unpredictable. We try to keep him in line, but even we try to avoid coming against him face to face."
Natasha and Clint exchanged a glance, some actual emotion creeping into Clint's face for once. It was fear. It was gone as soon as it came but Tony added quickly,
"But hey, just stick around with us and soon he'll know not to mess with you guys, he'll forget about you soon enough Barton. Don't mess with him and he's likely to ignore you."
Clint straightened, squaring his shoulders, and the students around them finally started moving into the classroom, the teacher opening the door.
"I'm not scared of guys like Loki. Trust me Stark, I've dealt with worse." And with that Clint turned sharply and disappeared inside the classroom. Tony made as if to follow him when he felt a soft hand on his arm. Turning, he met the piercing gaze of the red head.
"You like Clint?" Tony nodded slowly. "You want to hang out with Clint?" Tony nodded. "Can anything I say convince you to stay away from Clint?" Tony narrowed his eyes at her. After a moment, he shook his head. She smiled coldly. "Good. Keep Loki away from him. Help me keep everyone away from him who'd try to get to him. I can't do it completely by myself. And besides," she turned and started into the classroom, "He deserves friends."
What could Natasha possibly mean by that? Hmm? Let me know your theories. Review please, and let me know if there is any particular scene/pairing/storyline/backstory/anything you want to see, as there is a good chance I will be willing to write it in. There probably won't be another update for at least a week or so, I am going to be out of town, but I promise to return with the next chapter completely written!