They were attending elementary when they first met Clint, and it wasn't a good first encounter. It was recess; Bruce was waiting over by a wall for Natasha to return she had gone to see about getting a ball for them to play with. While standing there some boys who were a few years older than he was walked over with a boy his age walked towards him. He recognized the boy from his class, a new kid who had shown up a week before but both Natasha and Bruce rarely socialized with anyone so they had no interest in speaking to the new boy. Bruce tried to recall his name but didn't have time to before they reached him. He hadn't been doing anything wrong or anything to annoy them he was just waiting around but when looking for an easy target, a loner with big round glasses like Bruce tended to be the easiest.

One of the older boys whispered something to the boy Bruce's age and pushed him forward. The boy awkwardly rubbed his arm and looked at Bruce, "Uh. Hey nerd, give me your lunch money?" He sounded completely uncertain of himself.

"Why?" Bruce questioned.

The boy looked over his shoulder at the older kids behind him, the one who had whispered something had crossed his arms over his chest and frowned while the others smirked and snickered at each other waiting. The boy in front of Bruce took a deep breath and puffed out his chest slightly to look bigger, "Cuz I said so that's why. Hand it over or I'll beat it out of ya."

Bruce shook his head, "But it's my lunch money…" The boy in front of him still looked uncertain.

"Come on Clint don't want to be weak like him do ya?" One of the older boys called out. With that the boy, Clint apparently, seemed to change. No longer uncertain about what he was doing.

"I said hand it over dork!" Clint grabbed the front of Bruce's shirt and glared at him, "Before I break your face with my fist." He raised his hand to punch him and Bruce closed his eyes tightly.

"HEY!" Natasha's voice called out as the red rubber ball she had gotten left her hands and collided with the side of Clint's head. "Let go of my brother."

"THAT HURT!" Clint yelled letting go of Bruce to rub the side of his head. "Are you nuts!?"

"Of course it hurt, you were planning on punching my brother," Natasha replied getting right up into Clint's face, "I should be doing a lot worse to you."

"Back off princess we're trying to conduct a business deal here," one of the older boys stepped in, "your brother was about to pay Clint here out of his own free will." At the princess comment Natasha releases one fist into the boy's face.

Natasha nearly spits, "Don't ever call me princess."

"You little bitch!" The boy had his hand over his nose and his friends are prepared to help him beat Natasha up for her stunt.

"Barney just let it go!" Clint was yelling while getting in the way, "It's not worth it! I didn't want to do this anyways!" At that moment a whistle blows and they can see a teacher making their way over. The older boys back off since they don't really want to get in trouble more than they already could be getting into. The glares from them suggest that Natasha is probably going to get it from them eventually and the boy Clint called Barney shoots a nasty look at Clint.

In the end they're all escorted down to the office and thanks to the stupid system there Natasha in the one who gets in the most trouble while the boys are free to go. Despite the office staff and the principle telling Bruce to go back to class he refuses to leave Natasha, who is being sent home for the day and has a week of detention which originally was two but they were able to get it talked down to one, as long as she speaks to the school councillor at least once.

When their mom came to pick them up both Bruce and Natasha could see Clint outside the office, they didn't say anything to him as they passed but he watched them leave the school. Clint had learned the first rule of Natasha, touching her brother would lead to her wrath.

In the car both Natasha and Bruce are informed that they are grounded, though Natasha is grounded for longer than Bruce. Bruce was grounded for giving the office staff a hard time and forcing them to send him home as well. Though it's clear after Bruce tells the story that their mom believes all of the boys involved should have a much harsher punishment, but still Natasha is the one who actually punched someone and tossed a ball at Clint's head. Despite all the trouble they get into, when the story is told to their dad that night Natasha is sent up to bed without dessert, though Bruce notices him sneak off with a piece of cake for her anyways. Secretly, he's proud of what she did.

Bruce and Natasha entered the school the next day together as they always did. Natasha was frowning about having to stay after school but she knew Bruce would wait for her and they'd still walk home together, still it annoyed her. They took off their outdoor shoes and switched to the ones the school made them keep around so that they wouldn't track in mud and water. Placing the outdoor shoes one the racks at the entrance where their class kept theirs. They soon noticed Clint standing outside of their classroom. Both noticed his black eye and a few bruises forming on his arms. He was tugging at his sleeves trying to keep them covered. He seemed to lighten up when he saw the two, getting a slight smile on his face as he approached.

"Hey, I just wanted to say I'm sorry about yesterday," Clint looked at the ground starting to lose his nerves once he started to talk. Bruce didn't like Clint mainly from the event form before but he knew those bruises weren't from Natasha, nor was the black eye.

"Is that all?" Natasha clearly wasn't happy with Clint either but she was coming to the same realization of Bruce.

"Look Barney was out of line, I shouldn't have done what he said," Clint replied rubbing the back of his neck, "Please, I really am sorry about it."

"Sorry? Really? You tried to beat up my brother and take his lunch money and all you got is sorry?" Bruce had to hold Natasha back from punching Clint.

Clint winced, "I know, it's not enough. Barney is my brother and well, it was stupid. I'll find a way to make it up to you both. Please?"

Clint gave a slight smile at the two but Bruce still wasn't convinced, nor did he want anything to do with the boy. He started to drag Natasha into class whispering, "We shouldn't be late."

Bruce's stomach had twisted as he walked into the class room. Rather than the rows of two desks, they had all been pushed into groups of four. That could only mean group project. Bruce hated group projects. Still he pulled Natasha over to the usual desks at the back and sat down and waited to see who would be forced to join them. Kids filed in with excitement clear on their face as they started to divide into their groups of close friends. "You know who we're going to get," Bruce muttered to Natasha.

"Oh god," Natasha grumbled. Just as Bruce thought, Clint sat down across from Natasha and looked at her then at Bruce. "You?"

"Last seats open," Clint replied simply as another kid joined them who no one paid mind to.

Bruce listened carefully to the assignment while Clint grinned like an idiot and Natasha glared at him the entire time. Bruce rolled his eyes, the assignment was easy. Often he'd been offered the chance to skip a grade or two or even switch to a school for those with his intellectual gifts. Bruce had always turned it down; it didn't matter if he could complete everything in his grade in less than a month. It didn't matter if it was boring at times to him to move as slowly as they did. He wouldn't leave Natasha; if she couldn't go with him then he had no interest in what they had to offer. Hearing it was a group assignment for science in order to get ready for a field trip that would come up at the end of the month caused Brue to perk up a bit more.

"Guessing he likes science?" Clint whispered with a smirk noticing Bruce's reaction.

"Understatement of the year," Natasha replied then smirked, "we'll have this assignment done in no time with Bruce."

"Well from the sounds of it this might be my first A," Clint chuckled lightly as he whispered. Okay so he had picked the right table to sit at in order to boost his science grade.

Bruce zoned out halfway through the explanation on what they were doing, just completing an electrical circuits in different ways, simple enough. When the kits were handed out Bruce set to work, Natasha and Clint leaning over acting like they were paying attention. The fourth kid at the table did seem to want to understand so Bruce tried to explain everything to them while completing the project and writing down the answers to hand in after.

"So quick question," Clint looked at Natasha, "You said Bruce was your brother, but I couldn't help but notice during attendance that you two aren't called beside each other."

"You're certainly observant," Natasha raised an eyebrow looking at the boy.

"I don't miss things," Clint shrugged, "but you still called him your brother. Are your parents divorced or what?"

Natasha wasn't sure how much she wanted to tell this boy who had tried to hurt Bruce the day before, she kind of wanted to find a way to take her aggression out on him. She knew she'd get in trouble for it so she kept herself calm, for the most part; she just had a fist clenched under the table. She took a deep breath prepared to tell the boy to back off.

Then Bruce spoke up as he set up the first electrical circuit, "Adoption actually. My parents are gone so I went to live with Natasha and my aunt and uncle are now my guardians and thus for all purposes are now my parents. However I still have the last name of my parents, Banner." He purposely didn't say that Natasha was adopted, that was her choice to tell or not.

"So you two are cousins then?" Clint raised an eyebrow in confusion, "not brother and sister?"

"Bruce is my brother," Natasha stated firmly glaring at Clint, "never mistake that. Just because we don't have the same last name doesn't change that. Picking a fight with him is picking a fight with me."

"I think I learned that yesterday," Clint replied with a slight chuckle, "and that is not a mistake I want to make again. I have to say though you're weird."

"What?" Natasha raised an eyebrow at the boy.

"You're weird," Clint shrugged, "You're not like other girls. You act like one of the boys. You don't seem to mind getting your hands dirty, you pick fights, and really you just don't act like a girl."

Natasha gave Clint a very serious stare as what he said seemed to sink in. She didn't bother to say anything instead watching what Bruce was doing as he finished the last question. She ignored Clint for the rest of the day and barely said a word to Bruce, looking like she was in deep thought the entire time.

Clint asked Bruce what he did wrong but Bruce just shrugged, he'd talk to Natasha when they got home but he wasn't going to confront her when others were watching. Bruce knew full well that Natasha wouldn't answer him around others.

The two walked home after school and went up to their room to put their stuff away. When Bruce finished he poked his head out of his room to go talk to Natasha he found she wasn't in her room. He looked around for her in the house before heading to the backyard. Staring up at the tree-house that had been built in one of the trees he suspected she was hiding there. Natasha had kept climbing the tree during the summer months. Bruce's Uncle had gotten worried about her habit, thinking that some of the branches could break from her climbing. He looked for ways to deal with it and ended up building the tree-house where the tree was strongest. Ever since it had become a safe place for both Bruce and Natasha when something was wrong and they didn't want to stay inside.

Bruce climbed up, he had never been good with heights of climbing unlike Natasha but he pushed himself to keep going until he was inside. Sure enough there was Natasha sitting in one of the corners.

"Tash? What's wrong?" Bruce walked over to her, clearly worried.

"Bruce, am I weird?" Natasha looked up at him.

"What?"

"It's what Clint said at school. He said I'm weird because I don't act like other girls and I thought about it. He's right I don't act like other girls. I do pick fights a lot and act more like a boy sometimes. I don't shy away from getting dirty. I just don't get it. Is there something wrong with me?" Natasha shook her head unsure what to think. "Maybe it's why I keep having those weird nightmares. They're trying to tell me that I'm not right, that I don't belong."

"Not from where I stand," Bruce smiled at her, "if you didn't pick fights I'd have been injured really badly yesterday by Clint's brother and his friends. If you didn't mind getting dirty then you'd be afraid of climbing the tree and we would have never gotten this place. There's nothing wrong with you Tash. You're my sister so you belong, and you're the best sister I can ask for." Bruce knelt down in front of Natasha. She looked at him and smiled before hugging him.

"Well I guess someone has to look out for you and fight," Natasha mumbled.

"And someone has to remind you that you will always belong," Bruce replied returning the hug.


((I was stuck for a while because I wasn't sure how to really tie this chapter fully in with the plot but still wanted a intro to Clint. This was the last planned chapter of them as kids at all after this the plan was to go to High School and take a humorous approach, because I like making people laugh while still having a serious plot run under things. Not sure if/when there will be another chapter but this one was nearly done so I thought "Why not". I hope those who read it enjoy it.))