Wow! Ok ... I didn't think I'd get quite so much feedback - favourites, followings, reviews - for just that first chapter. Yay! *beaming* Thanks, people! Glad you like this!

Short note: I got a certain number of scenes written and will try posting them here more or less regularly. After I'm done with those, it'll take me a while to add new stuff. Since it's not a "classic" story, there'll be more new stuff as long as new stuff keeps popping up in my mind. ;)

Coffee And Cereals

It was around six in the morning when Tony stumbled into the kitchen. He'd been cooped up in his workshop all night long and now, he needed coffee. Lots of coffee. Cos in two hours, he was supposed to attend a meeting at Stark Industries. By then, he had to at least appear sane enough not to piss off the stockholders. Pepper would do most of the talking. He only needed to stay awake and that was why he needed coffee.

He hadn't been expecting to meet anyone else here that early and so he stopped dead in his tracks when he became aware of someone perching on one of the stools by the counter.

"Jarvis, lights", he said.

Promptly, the lights came on.

"Gah!"
Tony tried to block out the sudden brightness with his arm.
"Jarvis!"

He blinked several times until his eyes had adjusted to the light, then turned to the person on the stool again.

Barton. And a bowl of breakfast cereals that he was happily munching. He seemed completely unperturbed by the light.

Which didn't help to put Tony in a better mood. He knew he was probably looking like a raccoon, with dark circles under his eyes. And that his hair would be sticking out at odd angles. It always did.

He thought he saw a slight smirk on the archer's face.

He mumbled something unintelligible and shuffled over to the coffee maker only to discover someone had already made coffee and that it was still hot.

Two large mugs of coffee later – and god, it was really good – he felt much more like himself.

He looked over to Barton who was still busy finishing off his cereals.

"So – circus, huh?" Tony said, casually leaning against the counter.

Barton glanced at him and nodded.
"Yup."

Tony grinned.
"Must have been a dream come true. I mean – who doesn't dream of running away from boring old home and join a circus?"

A shadow seemed to pass over Barton's features. It was gone so quickly, though, that Tony wasn't quite sure whether he had really seen it.
"It was – okay. Nice while it lasted."

Barton put away his spoon and lifted his bowl to drink the milk in it.

Tony watched him. The man seemed completely unaffected.

He wasn't, though. Tony was sure of that. He might be an idiot, sometimes – alright, most of the time – and a complete jerk, refusing to take things more seriously than they should be taken. That didn't mean that he was stupid. He was perfectly capable of reading between the lines. Genius, right?

Alright, so when it came to Barton, it was more like filling in the blanks than reading between the lines but being a genius also required being able to use your imagination. So, what did he know?

Tony leaned back against the counter, slowly sipping his coffee.

Five foster homes in just as many years. Obviously, none of those folks had wanted to keep little Clint – which meant that either, the guy had been a worse terror than Dennis the Menace or those people had been jerks.

Then the circus. Just as obviously, that hadn't worked out, either, or Barton would probably still be swinging from a trapeze upside down and doing trick shots for the audience instead of sniping bad guys for SHIELD.

He didn't know what had happened between the circus and SHIELD but he was pretty sure it had followed much the same pattern. Nice while it lasted but after a while, it had ended and Barton had moved on.

No wonder the man was trying to keep his distance.

Having finished his breakfast, the archer slid off his stool. He rinsed his bowl and spoon, dried them and put them away. He turned to leave.

Suddenly, Tony felt the urge to say something – reassuring or so. He later blamed the lack of sleep for it.

"This is gonna work, you know?" he said. "This here, I mean. It's gonna last."

Barton stopped but didn't turn.
"Nothing lasts forever, Stark."

"I never said it would last forever. But it'll last for a very long time."

Barton gave a huff that could or could not have been a laugh.
"And how do you want to know?"
He half turned. Tony thought he detected a hardness in his eyes that he'd never seen before.
"People die. Friendships end. Groups split up. That's just the way life goes."

There was a slight edge to his voice, too.

"Not necessarily", Tony pointed out.

Barton only shook his head and made his exit.

Tony took another sip from his third mug of coffee.

Patience wasn't really his forte but it did look like he would have to be patient with this one.