Chapter Text
Tony got back with a coffee in hand after tipping the coffee shop a hundred dollars online. He walks into the lobby to find Coulson talking with Pepper and the blonde man walking away from them. He waved at both of them as he headed to the bathroom. Tony almost went to follow him when Pepper waved him over.
"Hey, who the hell is that blonde guy?" Tony asked a little bit pissed off.
"That's Clint, also here's your phone and wallet back," Coulson says holding it out to Tony before remembering he doesn't like being handed things and he just sets them down.
Tony picks them up and checks his wallet. Nothing is missing not a single dollar, not his license, not his credit cards how ever he does find a new card has been placed inside it. One with a little drawing with near to no detail. It has big eyes and ears, no mouth, but scribbled on blushy cheeks, the hair was also scribbled on but in a neatish way, the little guy was in a big hoodie and holding a bow with a little quiver of arrows on its back.
"Ok?" Tony said a little confused, why take a rich guy's wallet and do nothing but put a silly little drawing in?
"That is a goober, Clint's goober to be exact, and according to him, and I quote 'I goobed Tony Stark simply because I could.' So do with that what you will." Coulson said like this was a normal thing like this kind of thing happened all the time.
Pepper laughed a little while Tony just looked flabbergasted and very confused. The more he found out about this guy the weirder he seemed.
"OK. What the fuck is a goober and what the fuck is goobing?" Tony pressed.
"That's a goober and him taking your stuff to put him there was you getting goobed." The Agent responded with a sigh, "he's odd but damn good at his job and fairly good company."
"He's a sweetheart, but yeah very very strange. Though you can't say anything about that mister tin can." Pepper defended before Tony could make a bad and likely offensive joke or comment.
For some odd reason, perhaps it was the pure confusion of the moment the only thing Tony could force himself to say was, "he's deaf right? Hard of hearing at least. I saw his hearing aids while at the coffee shop."
"Yeah, lost his hearing in an accident. Anyway, I best get going before he gets bored of sitting in Lola." Coulson says getting a hug from Pepper and patting Tony's shoulder
After that, Tony was finding these goobers everywhere. In the files Coulson would bring for him the little goober could be found fighting ninja goobers or even just shooting random words on the pages with the little bow it had. Tony would find them drawn on sticky notes and stuck to his tablet, computer, and even one of his suites.
He has asked all the other Avengers about them and they have said that they also have been finding the little goober. Well other than Natasha who just laughed and said that it was just Clint being an idiot again.
So after three months of this, Tony decided to finally look into Clint properly. Logging into the Shield archives and finding his file.
Most of it was redacted though he found his full name, Clinton Francis Barton poor guy has a shitty name bet his parents hated him. What surprised him the most was he had direct contact with all of the Avengers before they were ever the Avengers. He recruited Natasha while on a mission in Budapest but he couldn't see much other than the name of the country and that it was the recruitment of Natasha. He watched Steve as he thawed alongside Maria and two other agents. He was the leader of the Shield team that was hunting the Hulk, he held an arrow to both him and Thor before deciding that shooting them would be a bad idea.
He has been in hundreds of missions and very few of them have been failures. While his medical record is long enough to cover four football fields he's done a lot of good work. Tony spent several hours reading what he could on this Hawkeye guy before the code name clicked in his brain.
The Amazing Hawkeye was a name of a little boy in the circus, a trick shot alongside his older brother. Said brother had been killed in a shoot-out while the younger ended up hospitalized, no one has heard anything of the case since then. Tiny couldn't remember the boys' names and figured it had just been a coincidence. But he couldn't stop himself from digging deeper, he looked into the shooting case. Part of him wished he hadn't. It was a dark rabbit hole, pictures of a dead young boy shot to death and his younger brother Clinton Barton in a hospital bed scared out of his mind.
Tony couldn't imagine what it was like. He shook the thought from his mind and turned off his holograms, a sigh left his mouth. Red flashed around him along with the loud noise. The alarm telling him he is needed, he stood up and ran a hand through his hair he couldn't get the image of a sacred ten-year-old boy in a hospital room hooked up to so many things. Tony knows he didn't consent to those pictures being taken of him, even if he did he likely didn't understand what was going on around him.
Tony felt bad about it but it also reminded him of how he felt around his father. The pure terror, his suit builds around him, and flies out.
"Jarvis, what's going on?" Tony asked his voice shook a little.
"Hydra is attacking Harlem, sir." The AI informed.
"Alright, is the team there or...?"
"They are on their way, may I suggest taking a few breaths, sir? You seem a little distracted." Jarvis says.
"I'm alright, J."
The fight wasn't going well. They couldn't get the situation contained, and Natasha has take a bullet to the thigh. Though she wasn't walking when it happened and hasn't touched the ground since the fight started using her flying bike to get to the rooftops.
They were spread too thin, across the entire city. Things weren't going well.
Tony watched as a man dressed in black Shield uniform pants a once white T-shirt and a pair of purple Convers jump from a building bow in hand upside-down free falling.
He shoots the four men behind Tony before using a zip-line arrow the swing into a building across the street. He runs and jumps out the other side as Tony turns the corner. Tony catches him by his ankle. The blonde smiles up at him and waves.
Tony speaks the blonde doesn't acknowledge it.
"Sir. It appears agent Barton doesn't have his hearing aids." Jarvis informed.
"Ahh that makes sense," Tony says as he sets Clint on the ground and lands. His face plate opens.
"What are you doing here?" Tony asked he spoke a little slower just to make sure Clint understood but not slow enough to seem like a dick about it.
"I was in the city and you guys were getting your asses kicked. Thought you could use the help." He shrugged.
"Where's your aids? Fighting without one of your senses is dangerous you won't be able to hear what's beh-" Tony raised his hand to blast the guy behind Clint just to have the archer beat him to it.
"I haven't been able to hear since I was four. I've gone on several missions without my aids, I think I'll be fine. Thanks for the concern though." The smiles brightly and runs off to find a good perch.
After the fight, the blonde man said hi to all of them before picking Natasha up as she insisted she could walk and he just ignored her even though he knew what she was saying. He left with her taking her to Shield to get patched up.
The team all looked at each other,
"Who was that?" Steve asked the three men around him.
"His name is Clint Barton AKA Hawkeye. Natasha's mission partner." Jarvis explains.
Since that interaction, none of the Avengers aside from Natasha have seen Clint in person. Though Tony has found himself asking about the man's well-being every so often over the course of three months.
They have all started to find the little goobers in places and they all find it funny and cute. The little guy fighting things around the tower or their homes. Though at first, it worried them that the man had broken into their houses at first before remembering that Natasha trusts the man and they didn't need to worry. The only one of them that didn't find goobers in their home was Thor, considering Clint can't get to Asgard.
So it was a surprise when Steve had actually seen the man again. Agent Barton walking around the SHIELD base with a purpose, and yet after watching the agent for a little while Rogers was able to determine the man wasn't doing anything but walking in circles. Wasting time, waiting more likely.
Steve debated on aproching the man but after about thirty minutes of watching him walk the same route none stop he was a little to intrigued.
"Watching the suits boy too?" A familiar voice spoke from behind him, it was Natasha.
"Yeah. What is he doing?" Rogers asked the woman.
"Waiting in Coulson to get out of a meeting. He probably has sensitive information, or gossip. No if it was gossip he would have told me or Pepper first... unless somes pregnant." She answered thoughtfully as Clint walked passed them again and down the corridor to the left.
"If it is intel isn't their protocol for this?" Steve asked knowing there was.
"Yeah, but Clints a special case. Well he gets special missions and thus often gets to bend or out right ignor most protocol."
Steve hums and nods, "so, why are you here?" He asked Nat who punched him in the arm.
"I work here." She responded, "waiting on my partner."
It took twice as long this time for Clint to circle back and find where Natasha was standing. He smiled brightly at her, too bright in Steve's opinion. You don't smile like that unless you're lying to yourself.
"Ready to run?" Nat asked, they stood a little too close to eachother.
"Yup, if you are." He stated and looked over at Steve for a moment.
He waves, studying the Captain.
"You look a lot better when you aren't a block of ice, Captain. It was good seeing you again." He said the same tone and body language as an old friend.
"Yeah, good seeing you, Agent." Steve said with a little nod.
Natasha was gone on this mission for the next week before the Avengers had been informed that things had gone wrong. A week, that SHIELD had known before they were told things had gone wrong. They were all a little pissed.