It had been a week and Tony was still acting weird. He stopped avoiding Clint 3 days in, meaning Bruce did as well, but something still didn't seem right. Of course, Clint feared that it was because of that night. The night they almost had sex and he learned something very important about his boyfriend's sexuality. Tony seemed so genuine in his relief and contentedness, but maybe Clint had somehow misinterpreted the situation that night. On the tenth day of Tony's weird behavior, something happened with two major results. The first is that Clint found out what was wrong, and the second is that Clint discovered what one more thing that he could never do, under any circumstance, unless he wanted to truly hurt Tony and face the wrath of his protectors. Whilst in a somewhat abandoned hall, in the East wing of the library, Clint somehow managed to catch Tony on his own. He knew that Bruce couldn't be far so he had to act fast,
"Tony!" he shouted, jogging to catch up with the other boy.
"Hey Clint," Tony smiled weakly.
"Can we talk?" When Tony nodded, Clint hastily grabbed his arm and pulled him out the back door, "Whats going on? I honestly don't know what I did." Clint was so caught up in his own emotion that he didn't realize what he was doing. He had Tony pretty much backed against the brick wall behind him and was still holding on to his arm. He so rarely allowed himself to show so much emotion that he didn't even realize that he was almost shouting, nor did he pay attention to the fact that his boyfriend was on the verge of a panic attack. Tony's lack of an answer made Clint continue, "I- You said you were okay that night. And you genuinely seemed fine. Did something else happen that I'm unaware of? I-"
He was cut off by Bruce smashing open the door, with Rhodey and Natasha following. He wasn't even aware of their presence until he felt himself being pulled away from Tony, who he finally realized was in the middle of a complete meltdown. He wasn't having a normal "Tony panic attack"; he was standing there, frozen and not breathing. His face even began to change colors as Rhodey and Natasha tried to talk to him. When he realized who was talking, he realized that meant that Bruce was the one holding him. Though it wasn't Bruce, it was his other self that Tony had affectionately began calling "Hulk" (Clint didn't know his real name. Hulk didn't particularly like him, and Tony and Natasha only called him Hulk in his presence). His second personality had grown almost as fond of Tony as Bruce himself and took protecting him very seriously.
"Tony." Natasha tried placatingly, "Tony it's Natasha." She slowly reached forward and touched his hand. When she did, he flinched back so hard that his elbow slammed into the wall and began mumbling unintelligibly.
"Tony, you know where you are. You're right outside the campus library. Even though you didn't have to, you decided to continue getting your PhDs on campus to be with Natasha and Bruce. You're safe." Rhodey told him softly.
"инженеркя. Clint's an idiot, but that's all." Natasha continued and Tony's breath hitched as he took in a large gulp of air. Rhodey led him away and left Natasha and Bruce to deal with Clint. When Hulk calmed down and reverted back to Bruce, he helped Natasha explain everything to Clint. When they were done, Clint felt awful, but rather than confront him, he let Tony have his space. Then eventually, when Tony was ready, they talked and resolved all that could be resolved. And they stayed a couple, in a healthy relationship, for the next few years of college. And if Rhodey threatened Clint or punched him for what had happened that day, Tony was none the wiser.
He also conducted experiments with Bruce and found that what they had feared to be true, was. Howard had conducted experiments on Tony, that left irreversible side effects. However, they also discovered that they had worked in some ways. He was more like the "modified soldier", Steve, than he had originally thought. But that's another story.
AN: Ugh, I kind of hate how I ended that so cliche in the last paragraph.
So the Russian word should translate to "little engineer" because I read adding кя at the end of words put "little" in front of the word and made it a term of endearment.