Clint wanted to yell and scream and curse and above all, he really wanted a warm bed, fresh clothes and a dose of morphine. Dham, he really wanted to be saved already, as he was not holding up as well anymore. He hated to admit it, but he would give a million dollars only to hear Tony Starks annoying voice again – or to hear anything familiar at all. But instead of help and a warm reunion with his teammates, he got something else instead: more trouble. Through the window of the house that Clint was currently using as his hideout, he could see the HYDRA facility where he worked for months, or at least what was left of it. The place was on fire, and parts of it were already collapsing. All around town, people were leaving. They fled like wild animals, leaving most of their belongings behind. But Clint did not follow them, as he did not want to and possibly would not be able to if he wanted.

He groaned as he shifted a little, leaning against the wall next to the central staircase. The bullet hole in his left calf was aching. He stitched it up as good as he could with the supplies he managed to gather around town, but he really needed proper medical treatment. The wound would get infected if help did not arrive soon, and ultimately, it would also kill him. In order to ease the pain, Clint gulped down a bit of whisky from the bottle standing next to him. To his surprise, it was almost empty. How did that happen? Clint wondered. Last time he checked, alcohol did not evaporate that fast? Or did he really drink all of that whisky? He closed his eyes, trying to remember what he did the past hours (did he really drink ALL of the alcohol?), but he couldn't. He was losing his focus, which was not a good thing.

"Where are you guys?" he wondered aloud as he drank from his whisky-bottle once again. He noticed that the more he drank, the less it helped to take away the throbbing pain at his side. Clint lifted his shirt a little with his left hand, in order to check in his bandages. His right hand was clutching a hand gun very tightly. His eyes drifted toward the bloody spot on belly: a sign that he pulled at least one of his stitches.

"Ah, great," he murmured. He pulled his shirt down again and tried to struggle to his feet. As soon as he stood, his knees started to buckle and he lowered himself again. This time, he would not be able to reach the first aid kid in the kitchen without fainting – that much was sure. All he could do was wait for help to show up, whilst hoping that no one else would discover him. But with all the luck he'd been having lately, he did not have very high hopes at all.

Instead of moving himself, Clint slowly readjusted the blankets around his shoulders. The hypothermia he had been suffering from after his dive in the nearby canal seemed to have disappeared, but he was still freezing. He didn't know if it was caused by the cold weather outside, the fatigue or because his strength was slowly sapping out of him. His vision started to blur as well, so he wanted to put his moneythat the fact that he was slowly dying was also the cause of is incapability to get warm.

"You better get here fast, Tasha," Clint whispered to no one in particular as he struggled to stay awake.

Natasha was really getting agitated. They had been investigating the stupid burning building for the entire 10 minutes by now. A total waste of time, if you asked her. She tried to voice her opinion to any of the others, but so far no one would listen.

"Come on, you can't stop that fire on your own. It's a fucking ENORMOUS BUILDING! Just let it burn, we have better things to do. And we draw to much attention to ourselves, standing here in plain sight!" she yelled at Steve, who finally turned his head around and gave her a sorrowful look.

"But what if there are still people inside?" he stated, "We need to help them!"

"Always the hero, aren't you? That building is collapsing, it's probably been burning for hours. The town is nearly deserted! If there are still people in that damned building of yours, I bet they are already toasted!" Natasha yelled.

"She has a point," Tony added. Natasha shot him a very annoyed look. The man was eating potato chips – how on earth could he be eating potato chips at this very moment? Natasha grabbed the bag and tossed it aside.

"Thanks for your consideration," she snapped, "now, has YARVIS found Clint yet? Or is he to occupied by burning buildings or food just like you lot?" Natasha looked like she was going to explode. Bruce gently put his hands on her shoulders in order to calm her down, but it only made her more agitated. She shrugged him away and stared at Tony.

"Not yet, missy," Tony told her, "That's why I am eating, just a way to pass time. It's better than looking around at burning buildings no one will be able to save anyway." Tony motioned at Steve: "He is just trying to get used to the idea that the building will burn down anyway. Give the man some time. Otherwise we'll have to hear it for days. 'What if I could have done something, bladiebladieblabla.'" Tony waved his hands in the air childishly and Natasha slapped him in the face because of it. Tony as ready to strike back, when Thor stepped in: "I believe we should stop arguing all the time. We are being useless. If we want to find the Hawkeye, we have to be a team. He told us he needed the team. I believe he will not be pleased if we turn up at his side whilst bickering and scolding."

His words seem to calm Natasha down, as the truth of them dawned on her.

"Yes, yes you are right Thor," she admitted, and she walked over to the jeep, which was parked a few feet away from her. She sat down on one of the back seats and started to talk to YARVIS. Tony shot her an angry look, turned around and picked his bag of chips up. To his immense horror, the bag was coated in a layer of snow and dirt. Bruce exchanged a look with Thor, and pointed at Steve over his shoulder: "Can you convince him that we have to leave?" Thor nodded once and took off. Bruce looked at Tony, who was still mourning the loss of his potato chips.

"Stop acting like a child all the time please, will you? The annoyed, selfish jackass act isn't working," Bruce declared. Tony didn't react but kept staring at his late snack.

"I know you heard me, and please keep pretending that you didn't, if that makes you feel better. But you can just talk about what is bothering you, instead of arguing with Natasha all the time. You two have serious issues, as well as Steve and Thor and me. But don't keep it to yourself. Don't you see it's driving all of us apart?" Bruce said, but Tony kept ignoring him.

"There is nothing wrong with a little bit of fear, alright? Or with whatever that's eating you. But right now, you have to push whatever you are feeling away. We need to find Clint. That's our priority," Bruce continued. Tony remained silent and an awkward silence fell, until the both of them were joined by a rather joyful Thor and a defeated Steve.

"Fine," the latter one said, "I agree, we must forget about the building for now. How is JARVIS doing?"

His eyes drifted toward the car, where Natasha was still talking to the AI. She looked up as soon as she noticed that everyone was looking at her and she motioned them.

"And?" Steve asked her as they approached the car.

"JARVIS can't track Clint's exact location, which is weird. But he has a clue about the part of town where he is hiding." Natasha lifted the Stark tablet she was holding. It showed a map of the town, and part of it was colored bright green.

"That a large area. Can't you narrow it down a little bit more JARVIS?" Bruce asked.

"No, I am afraid not sir. It is weird though, but something prevents me from finding Mr. Barton. This is a strange place," the AI responded.

"You don't have to tell me that," Tony told JARVIS.

"I guess we'll have to search the entire area, then," Natasha declared. And so they did.

Tony really started to believe they were never ever going to find Clint Barton. That man did a great job at covering his tracks. Nothing in this entire, godforsaken town indicated that Hawkeye had ever been here at all. Stark really pitied the kids that once had to play hide and seek with the guy in kindergarten. Something told him Barton would have nailed that game. So when Ton opened the door of yet another seemingly abandoned house, he did not expect to find Clint right in front of him. The man's eyes were blurry and he was clearly on the brink of collapsing, but the gun in his hand was directed at Tony's heart and he knew that Barton was still able to kill him with a single bullet, despite his dying state.

"Stark," he groaned, not lowering the gun, "Please make a really silly remark to assure me that this is really you and not my mind playing tricks on me?"

Tony frowned, and for the first time this day, couldn't think of a witty thing to say.

"I guess I have to shoot you then?" Clint demanded, but he lowered his gun and let his head slump against the wall. "But if you are just an hallucination, I am dead anyway. Can you please get another bottle of alcohol in the kitchen for me. Kind of need it…" Clint pointed at his side. Tony remained frozen in the doorway, taking it all in. After a few seconds, he unfroze.

Quasi automatically, he walked towards the kitchen, where he found a large pile of supplies. "Been playing the Last of Us in real life, haven't you? Having too much supplies and all, hiding in deserted towns and playing around with guns. I guess you are pretending to be a zombie at the very moment?" Tony remarked, while rummaging through the pile in search for some alcohol. Tony couldn't imagine how Clint managed to drag all this stuff over here in the state he was in. When he finally found a bottle of booze, he turned around on his heels and handed it to the archer.

Clint nodded in appreciation and asked silently: "Are you alone?"

Tony shook his head: "Of course not! The others are all here. And yes, Romanoff is outside there, somewhere. She can burst in any minute, as soon as she notices I am not coming out of this house again. So be prepared for your big reunion. I bet it is going to be epic!"

Clint snorted: "It won't be." Tony looked down at him, ready to ask him why, when Natasha walked through the door. By the look on her face, Tony instantly realized that Clint and Natasha's reunion was indeed not going to be epic at all.

So, what do you guys think? Still a decent story, or not? Please feel free to tell me! I forgot to say something about the last chapter: as Scarlet Witch en Quicksilver are new characters, I am kind of making up their personalities and traits. I did not read the comics, so I am sorry if both of them seem OOC compared to their comic counterparts. I will also not be sticking to the story of the movie (I read some spoilers, I don't know if they are true. But for example, there was a spoiler about Hulktasha - an idea which I am not a big fan of at all. As well as I am not a fan of Wanda and Pietro as villains in the beginning of the movie.) Anyway, feedback is apreciated! I hope you enjoy the story!

xoxo

Ellyn