And here we are with chapter 11! Thank you all for your reviews for the last chapter, and your continued support for this story. It blows me away how much feedback I've gotten with this series, and I know it's all due to you readers, so thank you.
I'm still not entirely certain how many more chapters there will be, either two or three, so we'll just have to see on that. So, I'm not going to keep you from this chapter any longer; please enjoy.
As always, I own nothing.
Steve would be lying if he said he got a lot of sleep the first night of Jack and Marie Potts' stay in the tower. He would also be lying if he said he wasn't worried about Clint's state of mind, after the comments that had been hurled at him, courtesy of Pepper's father. Despite what they had seen of Clint and Natasha in the gym, and what he had heard, he wasn't so sure that the issue would be such a quick fix.
Even the pitifully bare outline of Clint's past that Mr. Potts had exposed was more than any of them had known in the first place, except for, of course, Natasha. He'd always guessed that the scruffy-haired, admittedly much smaller kid had spent much of his life as an underdog. In that respect, and in plenty others he was sure, they were similar.
It was this train of thought that had him up and nursing a cup of coffee in the common area around four in the morning. He looked up, startled slightly, when he heard slight noises from the air ducts above him. When the noises went directly towards Clint's room, he knew their cause.
Hawkeye was very careful and nearly silent in every way that he moved, but there was only so much you could keep from a hearing-enhanced super soldier.
He stood quickly, wanting to try to talk to the archer now that he actually knew where the man was. He stopped after going no more than a few steps, however, wondering if trying to force Clint to talk would actually do him any good. Considering the archer's attitude towards them the night before, he wasn't very optimistic.
Sighing, he finished his coffee and put the empty cup in the sink, deciding that if he was going to be up, he might as well do something. Going for a run sounded appealing, and didn't seem to have started snowing outside yet. And maybe, Clint would be having the same idea.
Because of that thought, he couldn't bring himself to be surprised when he got down into the lobby of Stark Tower, and saw Clint dropping easily out of the air vent nearest the door, and then slipping outside without a sound. Steve followed hesitantly, not knowing if he was welcome, or if he should even announce his presence.
The archer probably knew he was there already, but then again, Steve couldn't remember seeing him this tired and worn in months. Clint's sharp eyes snapped to him when he exited the building, and the Captain nearly winced when he saw the cold and defensive attitude that had formed in them. It was something he recognized from when Clint had first moved into the tower, and he couldn't help wondering how many giant steps back they had taken.
Even so, he spoke, seeing as Clint himself didn't seem to be keen to do so anytime soon.
"Mind if I join you?" he asked curiously, giving the archer the clear option to say yes.
Clint considered him for a moment, before relaxing a fractional amount and shaking his head, starting down the street easily in the next moment. Steve allowed himself a quick, triumphant smile before he followed, catching up easily and jogging at his side. He was slightly surprised but at the same time relieved that Clint had allowed him to tag along. To him at least, it showed that whatever Clint feared that they had taken away from Jack Potts' outburst, he didn't want to push them away.
After they'd gone maybe three miles and had entered the almost completely empty Central Park, Steve looked to his companion, before giving the slightest of smiles and asking his now-customary question.
"You want to talk about it?"
His smile slipped into a frown when Clint's shoulder's visibly stiffened, before he just gave his head a quick shake, eyes staring pointedly ahead of them.
"Alright." Steve responded easily, lapsing into silence again.
Somehow he managed to go another thirty yards before he realized Clint had stopped dead, staring at him.
"What's wrong?" he asked quickly, turning and walking quickly back to Clint's side, not understanding what had caused his sudden pause. He almost looked confused.
"Every time we go for a run, you ask me that question, and every time I either say no or blow it off completely. Why the hell do you keep asking, Steve?" Clint asked after a few moments of silence, his words not angry, but genuinely confused.
Steve gave a slow blink before rocking back on his heels slightly and responding.
"Because I'm not going to try to force you into talking about what's bothering you if you're not comfortable, Clint, but I want you to know you can talk to me about anything. And even if you did start to be comfortable enough with me to talk to me, do you expect me to believe that you would ever actually initiate the conversation?" Steve paused but didn't expect an answer from the archer whose expression had smoothed into complete emotionlessness. "So I ask so if you want to talk about it you can, or if you don't then you don't have to. It's that simple."
Silence fell between them again for a few short moments, before Clint's indifferent mask cracked and he gave a small, genuine smile. It only lasted about a half a second, but Steve saw it, and he returned it easily.
"Thanks, Cap." the archer said sincerely, giving a slow, almost disbelieving shake of his head.
Steve just gave a nod and started forward again, Clint falling in beside him silently. They ran for maybe another mile, lapsed into comfortable silence, before the Captain saw Clint glance to him before speaking carefully.
"It's not that I don't trust you, Steve. That's not it at all." he said and Steve turned to look to him as well, nodding acceptance.
"I know that. You're just a private person, and for good reason. I get it." he assured and Clint gave a single short nod, before turning his eyes back to their path.
The only slowed again when they had returned to the front of Stark Tower, both now sweating from exertion despite the cold. The sun had finally started rising, bright sunlight flitting between buildings and reflecting off the lower windows. Before Clint could lead the way into the tower lobby, Steve reached out and made him pause with a hand on his shoulder, speaking once the younger man turned back to him curiously.
"Look, I'm just going to say this, and then I'm going to drop it, alright?" the Captain started and the assassin narrowed his eyes slightly but stayed still, listening. "I don't know what you're thinking, or what you're worried about us thinking, but I can tell you that we're not going to believe what he said over you. You are our friend, and you are our teammate. Not the other way around."
With that, Steve let his hand slip off of Clint's shoulder, expecting the archer to turn away and go back into the air ducts. Instead, the other man stared at him again, some unreadable emotion in his eyes that Steve couldn't quite identify, but had him thinking that Clint was considering his words somehow.
After a few moments, the archer's jaw clenched imperceptibly and he bowed his head, but nodded.
"Can you… bring everyone up to the roof when they wake up?" he asked as a long sigh, and Steve gave a slow, somewhat confused nod.
"Yeah, sure Clint." he said and Clint nodded again before disappearing up into the vent Steve had watched him drop down from before their run.
By eight everyone, even Tony, had managed to trudge out of their rooms, and were variously spread across the common area. Only Pepper had had the motivation to leave already, seeing as she had some things she needed to get done at Stark Industries before she took the afternoon off to take her parents out to see some of the city.
"I went for a run with Clint this morning." Steve spoke up into the relative silence of the room, causing the other four heads in the room to turn to him quickly. "He, uh, said to bring you all up to the roof when we were all awake."
"Did you talk?" Bruce asked as they all stood and quickly moved to the elevator.
"Kinda." Steve said, running a hand down the back of his head. "He… didn't really say anything, I did a little talking, but reading him is virtually impossible when he doesn't want you to."
Tony snorted his agreement as Natasha pressed the button for the roof, seeing as she had stepped into the elevator last. The relatively short ride up was silent, and when they stepped out onto the roof of the tower, Clint's form seated on the edge of the roof overlooking the balcony that extended off the floor below.
His head tilted towards them slightly when he heard them approach, before he turned to face them, eyes only somewhat guarded.
"Hey." he said, almost cautious as he watched them approach and then sit in a semi-circle in front of him.
"What's with the pow-wow, Featherhead?" Tony asked curiously as they all settled themselves onto the cold roof, the clouds almost low enough to conceal them.
"I just wanted to apologize, I guess, for last night. I shouldn't have run like I did." Clint said in a hard voice, and the others shared quick, confused glances, before it was Thor that spoke up.
"I'm afraid I do not see why you feel the need to apologize to us, my friend." the demi-god said, his own tone troubled as he regarded the archer. "It was not us that suffered from the confrontation."
"Yeah, well, it didn't do much for the mood of the evening , did it?" Clint asked but Bruce just shook his head.
"The last thing that was was your fault." the doctor said firmly, and the archer looked to him for a moment with the same considering look he'd given Steve earlier, before he gave himself a slight shake and responded.
"Anyway, you guys don't have to worry or anything, alright? I'm fine. I just want to stay out of the way so there's no tension." he said easily, and Tony snorted, an eyebrow raising in disbelief.
"Right. I almost believed you there. Until I saw the subtle little glare Romanoff is giving you." the billionaire said casually, making Clint give a slight sigh and turn his own glare to Natasha who gave a small, innocent shrug. "You may be able to lie to us pretty effectively, but not her. Sorry Barton."
"And telling us not to worry wouldn't have worked really well anyway seeing as you're still holing yourself up in the air ducts." Bruce pointed out, with what almost sounded like apology in his voice and Clint gave a small scowl, pulling in on himself tighter in what was a barely noticeable action.
"Look, can you honestly blame me for listening to him? In a way, he's right. I did those things. I killed innocent people. Nothing I do now is going to change that. I know that." the archer's voice had changed slightly, expressing a bitterness that they all seemed to expect at some level.
"Clint," Steve started, but before whatever he was going to say to reassure him could be voiced, Clint continued, his eyes on the small area of concrete between him and the rest of the group.
"He had most of the basic points right, you know. About my past." the rest of the Avengers fell silent, slightly shocked at the turn the conversation had taken. "I had just started the first grade, a little less than six and a half, when my parents were killed in a car crash. Drunk driver. I have a brother, he's-,"
"Shut up, Barton."
Clint was just as shocked as the rest of them at Tony's outburst, his eyes shooting up to the billionaire but falling silent. Tony just snorted slightly and shook his head, tossing a hand into the air.
"I would be the first to admit that I've been trying to whittle your life story out of you since the get-go. But this is not going to be why you tell us. You have nothing to prove to us, at all, and you shouldn't think that you do." the billionaire's voice was short and matter of fact, holding the archer's gaze squarely for a moment before he pushed himself to his feet and walked away.
As the rest of the team stared after him, all still blanketed in a shocked silence, he didn't even bother to wait for the elevator, instead taking the stairs down without looking back.
"He's right, you know." Bruce said knowingly, glancing to Clint after they'd all had a few moments to process Tony's words and actions. "And I'd like to say that that was probably Tony proving a point, not Tony being rude."
"There's not usually a difference." Natasha said dryly, but there was a difference to her voice that made the others think that she was actually in agreement with what Tony had done, which didn't happen often at all.
After leaving the others on the roof, Tony made his way to his lab and stayed there until it was time for him to meet Pepper and her parents for lunch in a small, out of the way café that his fiancée was partial to a couple blocks away.
His three companions were already seated at a table when he arrived, and he walked up to them, only to slow and let a small frown grace his expression when he heard what Jack Potts was saying.
"Can you honestly blame us for being worried? You're living with a very… eclectic, group of people, who have probably made their own fair share of enemies." the older man was saying in low tones, but Pepper just shook her head.
"Of course not, but I've been working with Tony for more than a decade. I can handle myself." she said firmly, before looking up and smiling when she saw him approaching. "Tony! I'm glad you could make it."
Tony instantly let the small frown on his face be replaced by an easy grin, moving to take the chair on Pepper's right.
"This might be a first. I'm not even late or anything." he said in a sarcastic, teasing voice that just had Pepper rolling her eyes as he sat, giving a nod of greeting to his future in-laws that were seated across from him. Marie returned it with a kind smile, while Jack just gave a slight grunt and returned his eyes to the menu.
Tony couldn't help being partly insulted, as well as partly impressed. He could definitely see where Pepper had gotten her hard-headed determination. Not just anyone would respond to a greeting from Tony Stark himself with a grunt.
After lunch, the two couples did a bit of sightseeing around New York, seeing as Jack and Marie had never been to the city. Tony tried not to look too bored with it, dutifully following Pepper and contributing to conversation. To be honest it felt nice to just be doing something completely normal for once. Not working on Iron Man suits, or top secret SHIELD projects, or signing off on things for his multi-million dollar industry, or saving the world from aliens. Normal. Walking around the city with his fiancée and her parents.
They went to a zoo. Tony honestly couldn't remember the last time he had been to a zoo, though he thought it had to be sometime before his mother had died.
Even he had to admit that the looks he had gotten from Jack, Marie and even Pepper to a lesser extent after he had glared furiously at a pair of vultures and muttered under his breath at them had been amusing.
"It's best not to ask." he said in a matter of fact tone as they walked away from the birds, Tony refusing to fully turn his back to them, though that was more a joke to see his companions' reactions. "It's a long story. But if vultures ever go extinct, they totally had it coming. The bastards."
Pepper had caught on by that point, and she covered her mouth to hide her giggles, but he just snorted in contempt. His entire suit had been scrap after that debacle with the huge, mutant vultures in Boston.
The billionaire wasn't quite sure how they managed to go the entire day without attracting the attention of the press, but he wasn't questioning it. Maybe they hibernated. He had no clue. The group of four ended up on Broadway as the sun was starting to set, and within half an hour, they were making their way into one of the theaters.
Truthfully, Tony would probably rather take on a handful of Hammer drones without his suit than sit through a musical production, but Marie had expressed interest, and had asked, and Jack made the comment that they probably couldn't get tickets so close to show time.
Naturally, being Tony Stark, he had taken that as a challenge.
Not long after walking in, they were taking seats in a balcony, Tony putting on a charming smile as he greeted a Congressman that he could barely remember the name of.
"Congressman, thank you for offering to share your balcony with us." Pepper said warmly, as the older, heavy-set man shook Tony's hand, and then Pepper's.
"No trouble at all, Ms. Potts. Why let the seats go to waste? It's not every day you see Mr. Stark at such a mild function." the man smiled.
"Uh, I'm taking that as a compliment to my ability to throw a good party." Tony informed them quickly as he sat, waving a somewhat surprised and impressed Jack and Marie forward as the Congressman gave a booming laugh. "Ms. Potts' parents. They're in town for the week."
The Congressman greeted them just as warmly, before he sat in the seat at Tony's side that wasn't occupied by Pepper and started jabbering in his ear about political news and ideals and whatnot. The billionaire gave a smile that was obviously fake to everyone that knew him and almost completely blocked the man out.
Even as his mind entertained the debate of just how much he'd have to subtly insult the man in order to get thrown out, Pepper leaned over to his other ear and gripped his hand lightly.
"Thank you, Tony." she murmured knowingly and Tony stifled a long-suffering sigh, but relaxed back, all thoughts of purposefully getting kicked out collapsing instantly with her words. If it made Pepper happy, then he was happy.
He almost cheered when the show actually started, because it meant the Congressman had to shut up for the time being. Despite that though, he managed to tune out whatever it was he was supposed to be watching within five minutes as well, turning his mind to the new weapon he and Bruce were working on of the Iron Man suit instead.
By the end of what he thought was a musical, he had moved on to trying to come up with an electricity resistant substance he could use for the element's casing in his arc reactor. He only knew to look up when Pepper elbowed him pointedly in the side as everyone else gave a standing ovation. He jumped up as well, forcing a grin and clapping along with the rest of the crowd.
After they had left the theater, and subsequently escaped the clutches of the very insistent Congressman that Tony thought was sucking up a bit too much, he led them to a small, hole-in-the-wall bar/coffee shop/thing that he had heard about from Clint and Steve who had found it on one of their mind-numbingly early morning runs. They got themselves settled easily, Marie and Pepper with warm mugs of coffee, while Jack and Tony sprung for something a little more alcoholic.
"Thank you, Tony, that was wonderful." Marie said gratefully as she sipped her coffee.
"Oh, it was no problem." he waved off the thanks easily before tipping his head to Pepper and continuing. "The Congressman's probably going to want me to show up somewhere and support him on something now. Ignore everything."
"Tony," Pepper started, voice slightly disapproving, but he just gave a small, coy smirk as he sipped his Scotch.
"Do you want to listen to him drone on and on about whatever bullshit he's spewing for his campaign?" he asked pointedly and she sighed, reluctantly agreeing as her father snorted.
"Not a fan of the man?" he asked, but Tony just shrugged.
"Not a fan of politics." he said simply.
Jack gave a small nod, and Tony relaxed back into his chair, looking to Pepper as she spoke to him, sounding relaxed and happy, which made him content just hearing that tone in her voice.
"Where'd you even find this place, Tony? It's very… quaint. Not really your style." she said with a grin that was almost teasing and he gave a slight scoff, eyes glinting with amusement as he responded.
"I'll have you know, Ms. Potts, that I can be very quaint." he sniffed, before shaking his head. "Nah. Steve and Clint told me about it. They found it on one of their runs, figured we were nearby, might as well give it a try."
"Now that makes more sense." Pepper said lightly, and he gave her an insulted look as Marie gave a surprised blink.
"How far is it to Stark Tower from here?" she asked, and Tony quickly did the math in his head as he gave a shrug.
"Two miles maybe? That's nothing for them, really. From what I've heard them say, they usually do a circuit around Central Park in the morning. Crazy people, I'm telling you. Why two perfectly normal… wait, never mind. I see the problem." Tony spoke lightly, causing a sigh from Pepper while Marie gave a quick chuckle, and Jack just gave another snort, his eyes having hardened as soon as Clint had been mentioned.
Tony ignored it, even though he had noticed. Surprisingly, he had managed to have a fairly good time with Pepper and her parents today, and he wasn't keen to start an argument now. That said, it was far more difficult in practice than it was in his head, certainly not used to biting back a scathing comment instead of just bluntly saying it.
When Tony stood not long after to get refills of their drinks, Marie turned to Pepper, a knowing smile on her face.
"So when were you planning on telling us that you are going to marry this man?" she asked lightly, and Pepper instantly gave an uncharacteristic blush as her father looked to her curiously as well.
"It's not that I didn't want to tell you." Pepper said quickly, giving her head a small shake. "It was just you had never met him, and…" she trailed off when her mother's smile widened.
"You left the ring on, dear." she pointed out and Pepper looked quickly down to her hand and sure enough saw Tony's engagement ring glinting on her finger.
"Oh." she said simply, blushing again, which just caused her mother to laugh, and her father to give a somewhat lighter, amused snort.
"Have you talked about a wedding yet?" Jack asked, and before Pepper could answer a negative, Tony walked back up, setting their drinks on the table.
"Not really. I just sprung it on her like… a week ago. Haven't really had the time quite yet." the billionaire said easily, taking his seat again, and throwing an arm around Pepper's shoulders. "Whatever she wants is fine with me, though. My schedule isn't exactly set in stone, it actually depends on who wants to use what alien/mutant/robot-of mass-destruction to try to take over the world on any given day."
They spent a little more time talking about possible weddings before the two couples went their separate ways, Tony and Pepper back to the Tower, while Jack and Marie decided to take another walk around by themselves.
Back home, Tony found Natasha, Thor, Steve and Bruce watching the Travel Channel, and what was probably the weirdest show he had ever seen. Clint was nowhere to be seen, which made him frown slightly, before he and Pepper sat down with the others as Thor started an animated, obviously enthusiastic explanation of what they were watching.
After maybe an hour and a half, Pepper left the room with a phone call, only to come back a few short minutes later, looking shaken and clutching her phone tightly.
"What's wrong?" Bruce asked, noticing her expression first and causing the rest of their faces to turn to her quickly.
"Did something happen?" Tony asked, standing and moving over to her.
"They're fine." she said, making Tony think that something had happened with Jack and Marie. What, he had no idea. "We just need to get to the 18th Precinct. Now. I'll explain on the way."
Tony shared a quick, confused glance to Bruce before following Pepper to the elevator quickly.
So there we have it. I know you're all going to gather with pitchforks for that little cliffhanger there... But, pitchfork or not, please leave a review to tell me what you thought.
~Dogstar