Right, only a short one tonight since I got home late. Enjoy!
Of Cats and Hawks
"Hey, Kat, what's up?"
Tony leaned on the back of the couch Barton was for once not perching but lounging on and watching a movie. Most recently, he'd taken to calling the archer Kat – short for Katniss.
"What happened to Legolas?" Barton had asked at that time.
Tony had raised his eyebrows feigning surprise.
"Didn't you hear? Took a ship into the west and disappeared."
Barton had glared at him.
He didn't glare now but rather sighed and shook his head.
"Y'know, I'd have thought, with you being such a genius and all, you'd have figured it out by now. I'm not Kat – I'm Hawk."
Tony grinned.
"Kat, Hawk – what's the big difference?"
"Easy. Cat: cute and furry, four paws, likes to smooch up to you. Hawk: feathers, beak, talons, will peck your eyes out if you call him Kat one more time."
There it was, that glare that probably could cut through ten inch steel plates. Second only to Natasha's infamous Glare of Death.
"Okay, okay!"
Tony backed off raising his hands, his grin growing broader.
"No more Kat."
Barton let his glare linger for a moment, then returned his attention to his movie where a maniac with a mask and chainsaw was getting ready to slaughter a screaming blonde.
Tony watched for a while before he spoke again
"So, watcha watching, Will?"
Barton again turned his head, this time to frown at him.
"Will?" he asked.
"Tell. William Tell. Will." Tony, too, frowned. "More of a threat than a name if you ask me – I mean, Will Tell? C'mon! - but I like the alliteration."
Barton shook his head. He looked like he didn't quite believe it.
"You really do have a death wish, Stark, dontcha?"
The grin re-appeared on Tony's face.
"Anything to keep life interesting."