Sorry for the shorter than usual chapter. Will make up for it with the next one :)

SDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSD

Hawkeye took one look at him, then groaned and shook his head.

"You wanted to prove them wrong, huh, kid?"

Spider-Man scowled behind the mask. "This isn't a dare, Barton!"

"So you bonded to that lunatic?!"

"I thought the consensus was that a broken bond cannot be repaired, which means he cannot bond."

That got him a scoff.

And how did Hawkeye take one look and think he had done anything with Wade? Sure, the guy was a preternatural, but he didn't have a superior sense of smell. His hand-eye coordination was preternatural. His reaction time was abnormally fast. And his sight, of course. That was far out.

But that was it.

Spider-Man gave the Avenger a narrow-eyed look. "What," he asked flatly.

Hawkeye rolled his eyes and sat down beside the webslinger. He scrubbed a hand through his hair.

"Sure, everyone says he cannot bond. Well, everyone who knows his background, which is pretty few. But who knows what he can really do? Deadpool's something no one knows anything about. He's a chimera. He might just be able to bond and if that happened, it happened to you."

Spider-Man remained silent.

"So you connected," the Avenger stated, trying to prod a little more out of him.

"Maybe."

"That's a big, fat yes then. Don't think we haven't noticed the changes in the two of you, Spider-Man. For the past months Deadpool's been keeping a low profile in the world of guns for hire and assassinations. SHIELD is getting more 'no thanks' notes from him than ever before. He never turned down a job, Spider-Man. Not when it pays like that for pulling a trigger."

Peter grimaced, refusing to be baited.

"He keeps hanging out around you. The two of you are always seen working in tandem. It isn't that hard to connect the dots." Hawkeye gave him a half-smile. "You're not really trying to hide."

"There's nothing to hide."

"Sure there isn't. Big bad mercenary hanging out with the friendly neighborhood spider-kid?"

He bristled. He wasn't a kid anymore! Still, Peter bit back on a more juvenile response.

"There has been some footage Tony got his hands on. Of you and him, fighting. You calm him down. You can get him to listen and focus. It's not just a gift. It's something deeper. And it's been going on for quite some time."

Hawkeye was fishing in the dark, but he was good enough to know when he came close or had hit bull's eye.

"Before you start off on that particular tangent, Deadpool didn't force me into anything," Peter stated flatly. "We work well together. He didn't blackmail me into being his team partner."

Hawkeye snorted a laugh. "Of course not. After we caught the first signs of your team-up being permanent, Bruce looked into the whole hellhound business. I heard more about those preternaturals in the past months than I ever heard in the years before. This kind of connection can't be forced. Both parties need to agree and be compatible. I'm just trying to think as to how come it's you."

Peter shrugged again. "Deadpool's not a hellhound anymore."

As casual as the words were, he didn't feel casual about it. The loss was part of Wade, had shaped him, but it had also brought him almost to his knees.

"We all know that. His file states it quite openly. SHIELD researched him pretty thoroughly after he popped up and started un-aliving people, as he calls it." He sighed. "Cap's gonna flip shit. Nat's probably winning some kind of obscure betting pool. You might be getting invitations from Stark and-or Bruce. Just because you've become a person of interest."

"Not interested. This is my life. I made my choice. I don't like being quizzed and interrogated about." Maybe the tone was a little sharper now.

The other man smirked. "You did make a life. And from the looks of it, you didn't just bond, you went at it like rabbits, cementing the fact in many, many ways, probably in all kinds of positions, too."

Spider-Man's head whipped around and he glared at the Avenger. "None of your fucking business, Barton!"

"And that little cursing confirms it." He whistled. "You don't do it halfway. You really slept with the chimera. And survived. Any permanent marks? Damage?"

"He's not a monster! Deadpool doesn't just… he didn't use force and he didn't have to!" Peter felt a surge of anger and something dark stirred at the other end of the bond. "You make him into a mindless nightmare, unable to think on his own, just following instinct!"

"Ah, well, depends on who you ask. His victims might disagree. If they could still talk. And his past employers, too."

Spider-Man glared more, fingers digging into the stone. A crack appeared in the concrete. He shouldn't let this get to him, but Hawkeye's words touched something sore and still new in him. It touched Wade though him, someone who had been the target so often before. He wanted to defend his bond mate. With whatever he had.

Hawkeye was either oblivious to it or he was willingly playing with danger.

"But it's common knowledge that even a mate bond can't be faked or forced from one side. It always takes two. One to offer, one to accept. You offered?"

Peter stubbornly kept his silence, fighting the anger.

"Okay, you did," Clint answered his own question, whistling softly. "You got balls, kid. And Deadpool accepted, which is mindboggling all on its own. The man's a mess on a good day. He's a force of nature; a very dark one. You should be terrified, Spider-Man."

But he wasn't. He had never been terrified. Not even remotely. He had faced the vortex, knowing it would never harm him. He had felt the claws in his soul, had felt the chimera claim him, and there had never been any pain or discomfort.

"Stop analyzing what we did!" Peter growled. "Stop looking at me like the innocent victim and Deadpool like the cold-hearted rapist!"

"I know he didn't rape you."

"You're treating me like I was victimized anyway! It was consensual. I wanted this! I've wanted it for a lot longer than you think, Barton! It was Wade who wouldn't let me take those steps."

Hawkeye smirked at him. "I really don't want to hear the details, but the mind's a curious thing. And the internet is full of kinky porn stuff. I get distracted."

"So I can expect Captain America to come down on us like a vengeful den-mother and read me the riot act?" he snorted.

"Nope. Not sure I can even tell him, actually. He'll have conniptions. I'll leave it to Tony."

Peter grumbled something under his breath. Just what he needed. The Avengers judging his sex life and life choices.

"Listen, kid," Clint spoke up, sounding serious all of a sudden. "I know you went into this with your eyes open. I know for a fact that despite his big mouth, Deadpool wouldn't force this on anyone, especially with his history. Even if he could. Even if the chimera was able to do what no other preternatural can: take a mate against their will. I also know that this is a kind of trust he places in you I can hardly grasp. No one knows what a chimera is and what it's capable of. We've only ever seen the results. You, Spider-Man, changed him from the moment you met. I think it could only ever end in this."

Peter was stunned by the calm, clear words. "Uh, thanks, I think?"

Hawkeye nodded. "If you run into anything you need help with… call. The chimera is an unknown factor."

"The chimera is Wade. And his basic nature never really changed," Spider-Man said sharply. "He is still a protector! That's what he always was and what fundamentally never changed."

"A protector with a fucked-up sense of right and wrong." Clint tilted his head a little.

"Yes, he's a mercenary," Peter stated coldly, hating to go over the old argument again and again. They were turning in circles. "I'm quite aware of what he did and probably still does. I know he killed people for money and has no qualms about it. I've seen him kill. Yes, I'm dealing with it, Hawkeye. I'm not an innocent, delicate wall-flower!"

"Never said that." Clint studied him with an unreadable face. "He's a loaded weapon. In your hands. He would kill for you."

"I won't let him."

Another nod. "We all know that. Just… take care. This is uncharted territory. He is the only one of his kind and you're the only one to get this close, to form the anchor. You're both unique."

With that he shot an arrow toward the next building and swung away. Peter cocked his head, part of him judging the performance and finding it lacking compared to a webline.

He then chose his own way home, taking the scenic route and apprehending a mugger on the way. It helped work out the tension that had settled between his shoulder blades, the growing anger at people interfering in what wasn't theirs to judge.

SDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSD

"Holy shit, the kid bonded to a chimera!" Hawkeye breathed, the shock still deep in his system, as he paced the length of the common room at Avengers Tower. "He really did it! Fuck… No idea if this is good or bad."

Spider-Man had… he had mated himself to whatever Deadpool really was. To a preternatural who had been artificially created and enhanced, defying classification. To an artificial construct of unknown power, who was a loose canon on his best days and the worst enemy you could think of.

Natasha leaned against the wall, face a thoughtful mask. "You really think it was voluntary?"

"Hell, Nat, I can't even say if it's real!"

"I doubt Spider-Man would lie."

"Nope. Not in his nature. But Deadpool?! Of every preternatural out there… Deadpool?"

She shrugged elegantly. "Some things can't be explained."

"Like Tony and Steve?"

She shot him a smile. Then the smile disappeared. "Something else bothers me, though. He is immortal."

"Kinda."

"He hasn't been killed so far and people have been very creative."

Hawkeye nodded. He was aware of it.

"What happens to Spider-Man now?"

"Huh?"

Nat tilted her head a little. "They are bonded."

"Mated," Hawkeye smirked. "The sexy difference."

"Not something I need to know about." She grimaced. "It's a life-bond."

"Yep."

"Deadpool can't die."

Clint was silent, his mind coming to a sudden stop. "Uh."

"Hellhounds die with their partner. Deadpool won't. The chimera is eternal. He is soulless, his original preternatural nature completely obliterated and replaced by something unknown. How does it connect to Spider-Man? How does he anchor to that thing? What kind of connection do they have?"

Clint blinked. "I reeeeally don't want to think about that, Tasha," he muttered.

"We should. Bonds break through death. Soul bonds separate and the surviving partner dies within a short amount of time, too. Bruce said the hellhound's soul is dead. Deadpool is soulless," she reiterated. "I doubt his own death will affect whatever this is. Nothing can be taken from him anymore."

"So what does he connect to then? That's what you mean?"

"What does Spider-Man connect to if the preternatural is soulless?"

Hawkeye chewed his lower lip. "Think we should ask Bruce for his opinion? He might be the better source for an answer."

Natasha shrugged. "He will research it anyway. Now that the cat is out of the bag." She cocked her head a little. "Or don't you plan on telling the others?"

"Is it my place to tell?"

"It's important intel, Clint. Everyone needs to know to assess future cooperation and maybe confrontations."

He expelled a breath. "Yeah, maybe. This is a completely fucked up situation, Tasha. If your suspicions are correct… and I somehow think they are, even if I don't want to believe them, then Spider-Man is… what? His conduit? His control?"

"The chimera was created to be the perfect weapon," Black Widow reminded him. "And he is, just not under anyone's control. I doubt Weapon X made the mistake to make him vulnerable by enabling him to bond and then lose the mate again."

"They had no real clue what they were doing," he argued. "They consciously destroyed the bond to destroy him."

She shrugged elegantly. "No one knows anything about the chimera, except that it's a wickedly real nightmare. I doubt it would let its partner go, Clint. I highly doubt it. As to what Spider-Man is now, I wouldn't give it a name. Officially he's a mutant, but he's life-bound to a preternatural that actually doesn't exist in any books."

Hawkeye stared at her like she was insane. And it sounded insane. He really didn't want to think about it all too much.

And still it would most likely keep him busy, thinking of the possibilities.

Do you know what you got yourself into, kid? he thought.

tbc...