Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm posting all this new stuff and not updating Mending What Was Broken. I'm trying to clear down my hard drive so there are less distractions. I took a wobbly on where I was going with MWWB but I'm back on track now, new update coming soon I promise!
No money made, no copyright intended.
I'm Hear For You
Bandages were over his eyes and around his ears, the stinging scent of antiseptic invaded his nostrils and Tony knew instantly he was in Medical. What the hell had happened? He remembered being called out to a mission, only he, Clint, Steve and Bucky had been at the compound and they'd responded to a call from Fury to assist in a takedown of a hostage situation at a bank downtown.
Two dozen hostages were being held at gunpoint by several armed men, and they showed no signs of being willing to let anyone go. There had been two deaths already and the kidnappers were not responding to hostage negotiation and had outright stopped answering the phone. It was the kind of mission they could have really done with having Vision around for, but he was away.
Something had gone wrong, they'd managed to do a snatch and grab and got all the hostages out, but then one of the kidnappers had thrown a grenade at Clint, and Tony had tried to grab it to throw it away but his suit had been damaged and the hand holding the grenade had failed to open again, making the blast go off too close to his body. Noise, pain, then nothing, just infinite darkness.
He could feel movement, the bed depressed next to him, then soft fingers brushed his cheek. Then nothing and he freaked out, tried to rip the bandages off, terrified. His breath came in short pants, his heart hammered in his chest, and he felt dizzy. Then those fingers were back, stroking his cheek and it took him a moment, but he recognised the rough, calloused fingers. Clint.
The bandages were unwound and Tony had to wince at the bright light, his head pounding immediately and then they were dimmed to a more acceptable level. He blinked several times, waiting until his vision became less blurred and spotted Bruce standing just a little behind Clint.
"Oh Bruce, I am so glad to see you!" He cried, but his voice was severely muffled, barely there.
He could see Bruce's lips moving, but all he could catch was buzzing and muffled noise. Oh fuck, no, god no, please. He spied Clint as he grabbed some paper and scribbled something down, and held it up for Tony to see.
Try to calm your breathing, you're hyperventilating.
Clint grabbed one of Tony's hands and put it against his chest, breathing deeply and motioning for Tony to do the same. He followed Clint's breathing until he didn't feel like he was going to pass out anymore, but the panic didn't fade and his heart still pounded away in his chest. The paper was back.
It looks like the blast has damaged your hearing. Bruce says your eardrums were ruptured.
"Is it permanent?" Tony asked, waiting as Clint jotted down the answer.
He doesn't know yet. Ruptured eardrums can heal but not to the extent that you'd recover your full hearing. I'm so sorry, Tony.
Deaf. Christ, he was fucking deaf. He knew he should be grateful it wasn't his eyesight but all he could think about was all the things he wouldn't hear again. Pepper's laugh, Rhodey's terrible attempts at jokes, Bruce's ever so soft swearing when he thought he was alone. So many things he always enjoyed were now gone.
Clint wrote down that he would help Tony adjust, teach him sign language, and Bruce would try to heal his hearing as much as possible but it was really just a waiting game to see if time would heal his ears enough that he could hear again.
Anger surged through Tony then, he smacked the paper and pen away and jumped off the bed, shoving Clint away from him when the archer tried to help him. Bruce tried to calm him, his eyes flashing green when Tony flipped the bed screaming in rage even though all he heard was muffled noise and buzzing. Then the tears came, full-bodied, wracking sobs that made his whole body shake, and this time when Clint pulled him close, Tony didn't move away.
-oo0oo-
The team adjusted better than Tony did, always making sure to tap his shoulder so he knew they were there, everyone went out of their way to help Tony as he adjusted to life without his hearing. It was hard on Tony though, he raged against the world, hated being benched from missions because hearing aids didn't help, and learning sign language was hard, even for a genius. It frustrated Tony that he could grasp nuclear thermal astrophysics overnight, but he couldn't wrap his head around sign language just as easily.
Clint had spent hours every day teaching Tony, and even though he could manage a stilted conversation, he lost the spark that everyone loved about him. The way he would explode in excitement when he found something new, or how he would go hyper-verbal during an intense discussion over a film or other such event the team were all involved in. Everyone else could hear him, but he could no longer enjoy the sarcastic banter he held with them all because he couldn't hear the inflection of their voices.
As weeks passed, Tony withdrew more into himself and they were worried, he could tell. They worked harder to try and draw him into things, even going so far as to do things they wouldn't normally do that Tony would have to beg them to join in with. No one could have guessed it would be Clint that pulled him out of the wallowing, self-pitying hole he'd dug for himself.
The archer barged into the lab and plonked himself on Tony's lap, making the engineer squawk indignantly. "Clint! Jesus Christ you're like a hundred and fifty pounds of muscle!"
Clint smiled at him and started signing. Come on, let's do something.
Like what? Tony signed back.
Anything you want.
Tony sighed and went to shove Clint off his lap but his arms failed to respond and instead, he wrapped them around the archer's waist. "I want to go flying," he said aloud.
You can't hear FRIDAY's commands.
"But she can display them on the HUD."
Sign, Tony, you need the practise.
Tony huffed a sigh but released his hold on Clint. FRIDAY can display the information I need. Please, Clint, I just need to feel normal again.
Clint nodded and said something he didn't hear, moments later Vision appeared, phasing through the wall. Clint signed that he would feel a lot better if he let Vision fly with him, just in case. Tony sighed but agreed if it meant that he could get in the air again.
Flying made him feel a lot more himself, he could see the blip that was Vision on the HUD and FRIDAY displayed all command prompts so he could enable what he needed. When he got back to the compound, he went to find Clint again. When he located him in the common room with the rest of the team, Tony grabbed the archer round the waist and dragged him close for a hug.
Clint returned it with a laugh, his chest shaking. What was that for? He signed.
For helping me.
Clint smiled and hugged him again. Lucky for you, I'm fond of you.
Tony couldn't deny how warm that made him feel, and finally, things started getting better. It took several months, but hearing aids now made it so Tony could hear well. And even though he could hear more, and manage conversations better, he and Clint still signed to one another.
The others had learned to sign as well, and even though it wasn't needed, they signed as much as possible, even while talking. It helped for the times Tony forgot to put his hearing aids in, which was often. Or rather, he complained how much they irritated his ears, rubbed the skin raw, and no amount of tinkering made them fit him better.
They now watched movies on movie night with subtitles on, so Tony could be involved and not have to rely on his hearing aids if he didn't want them in. Sometimes, Tony would refuse to wear them, the aids would pick up other noises, or the whine of feedback irritated him. One movie night, Tony was dosing off next to Clint, his head lolling on the large shoulder.
Clint shifted and gently pulled Tony's head down to his lap, calloused fingers carded through his hair in a soothing gesture. When he opened his eyes after falling asleep, the film was over, and the rest of the team had gone to bed. He could feel vibrations and rose up enough to see Clint had fallen asleep, the archer must have been snoring.
Tony studied the man in the low light, the strong jaw, light brown hair that was just a little too long and started curling, thick neck and broad shoulders. Not as broad as Steve or Bucky, but still pretty wide. Muscular chest and thick thighs, a trim waist with a small expanse of skin exposed where his shirt had ridden up.
Tony traced the warm skin with his fingertips, a blush coating his cheeks when he realised Clint was awake, blue eyes watching him. A hand rose up and cupped Tony's cheek. He leaned into the touch and met Clint's lips eagerly, kissing him back, sliding into Clint's lap and groaning when those warm, wide hands spanned his waist and held him tight.
When they broke apart, Tony saw Clint's hands moving. About damn time.
Tony burst out laughing and kissed him again. After that, Tony stopped the pity-party for one. He and Clint took a trip to Wakanda and Shuri healed both their hearing. There was a party for when they binned their hearing aids. When Clint was talking to Steve across the room, Tony hollered for his attention and raised his hands.
I love you, Tony signed.
Clint grinned at him and signed it back, returning to his conversation with Steve. Tony moved around the room until he stood behind Steve, hands hovering just over one shoulder until Clint caught sight of them. Marry me, Tony signed, howling with laughter when Clint choked on his drink and Steve enthusiastically thumped his back.
"You wanna get married?" He bellowed, the room going silent and staring, waiting.
Tony pulled out a box from inside his jacket pocket and opened it for Clint. He'd fished their hearing aids out of the trash and used various components to form their rings, explaining to Clint what he'd done. The archer smiled fondly, pulled the smaller ring out and slid it over Tony's ring finger, the engineer doing the same thing and pulled Clint close for a kiss. "Yep, I sure do, Bird brain. "
Grinning like an idiot, Clint lifted Tony and spun around until the man begged him to stop, laughing. "Okay, Shellhead, let's get hitched."
Considering it was Tony, no one was really all that surprised when they received invitations to the wedding the following day, and the two were wed within the week. Of course, it was even less surprising that Tony had whisked the two of them away to a private island for a week for their honeymoon. Everyone knew when they were back, not because Tony was ostentatious, or loud, or even announced it. No, they knew the two were back because Clint microwaved canary yellow Peeps in the kitchen and Nat could be heard from every corner of the compound screaming in fury.