Avengers Fic: Five Women Clint Barton Loved and the One Man He Loves Part 2 of 2
Title: Five Women Clint Barton Loved and the One Man He Loves
Paring: Clint Barton/Phil Coulson, Clint Barton/Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton/OFCs
Rating: T
Words: 6000+
Warnings: Minor Movie Spoilers
Part 1
4. Barbara ‘Bobbi’ Morse aka Mockingbird
Bobbi is one Clint’s first partners when he signs on for SHIELD. She’s more experienced than him, having worked for SHIELD while she got her PhD in biochemistry. She’s incredible and truly the perfect partner to be put with a young rookie, whose learning the ropes. They go on increasingly more difficult missions, fulfilling their objectives.
They have a mission where they must pretend to be a married couple and the roles are surprisingly easy to fulfill. Its where Clint considers the start of their relationship. They complete their mission and return to the newlywed’s suite that SHIELD had sprung for them as part of their cover. They order food and collapse on the king sized bed, drinking champagne, tv low in the background as they talk. Clint isn’t sure who made the first move, all he knows is they end up having sex.
From there it gets better - their personal relationship makes their working relationship the other day. Their relationship progresses, dates to exclusiveness; separate places to just one. They celebrate birthdays and anniversaries, find time to do little things for the holidays together. Clint buys a ring and proposes over dinner, between missions. Bobbi says, yes.
The only downside are the SHIELD Handlers, who view them as tools that can be used and discarded as needed. The only objective is the accomplishing the mission and none of the handlers view returning both operatives relatively unharmed as a mission objective (a bonus, but not an objective). Clint gains a reputation for disregarding orders, because he was ordered back while Bobbi was still out there and in danger. There is only one person Clint can count on and that is Bobbi, just like Clint is the one person that Bobbi can count on. Its a bond they share, one they learned to have, through too many close calls. The handlers insist on calling on the shots, making ill formed decisions regarding them and in quiet voices as they head out Bobbi and Clint will often change the plans to suit them, to better their chances of coming out alive.
Just after the proposal, the bottom falls out of Clint’s world. One mission goes bad and the damn handler takes Clint down to prevent him from going after Bobbi. Clint wakes up in the SHIELD infirmary, knowing that his fiancee is still out there somewhere, and that he failed to bring her back. While the handlers never considered bringing Bobbi and Clint back alive a mission objective, Clint always did, and he failed in his most important objective (hIs record will say that this mission was a success).
Clint recovers and breaks out of medical as soon as he’s able. He hunts down deputy director Fury and finds him talking to typical g-man with a receding hairline. Clint recognizes a handler when he sees one and frankly doesn’t give the other man a look.
“I need time off,” Clint says to Fury, interrupting whatever they’re talking about.
Fury looks at him with his one eye, “Shouldn’t you be in medical?”
“I’m good enough,” Clint replies, because he’s going to go after Bobbi and fuck SHIELD.
“Good enough for what?” Fury asks, studying him. “Going after Agent Morse?”
Clint’s eyes widen slightly, but he has no shame, “So what if I am? Someone has to.”
“We’re putting together an extraction team, Barton,” Fury replies, “We’ll bring her back.”
Clint snorts, “Because you and everyone else did such a good job of it last time. If that damned idiot hadn’t stopped me, she wouldn’t be still be out there.”
“If Agent Fredricks hadn’t stopped you, you both could have been taken,” Fury states. “You’re not being put on this team.”
“Fine,” Clint replies, because he will damn well do it himself. “I got medical leave coming, don’t I?”
“Which you’ll be spending in the Infirmary,” Fury states.
“Put him on the team,” The g-man says softly.
“What?” Fury says, turning to look at him.
“Barton’s stubborn, so unless you’re planning on locking him up, which there’s no guarantee he won’t escape from, he’s going to go after Agent Morse,” The G-man says, not looking away from Fury. “I’d rather have him where I can keep an eye on him, than risk him either accidentally tipping the Phantom Riders off to our presence or even just putting them on higher alert. Besides having a sniper would be useful.”
“You think you can keep him in line?” Fury asks.
“We have similar goals,” The g-man replies, glancing at Barton to say, “The return of Agent Morse.”
Fury looks at Clint again, before looking at his g-man. “Make sure Barton comes back as well.”
“Understood, Sir,” The g-man replies.
Fury turns to look at Barton, “You’ll listen to Agent Coulson and if you don’t, I’m authorizing him to taze your ass and have Sitwell sit on you until the mission is over, understood?”
“Yes, Sir,” Clint replies.
Fury gives him a long look, before turning and walking away. “I hope you know what you’re doing Coulson.”
The mission is a success in that Bobbi is returned, it's a failure in that the Phantom Riders managed to elude SHIELD for too long. Bobbi comes home a shell of her former self, beaten, drugged, and raped and Clint has no idea what to do.
Clint is nothing, if not loyal though. He stands by her as she heals physically doing what he can to help. He sleeps on the couch, when she can’t bear his presence in bed and goes back to HQ when she asks for peace. He tries very hard not to force his presence on her, but still be there to support him. It’s a delicate balancing act, one he could do easily on a tightrope, it’s so much harder when dealing with people. For all circus training, Clint is unprepared.
He goes on a few short ops, because they have bills to pay and Clint is the only one who can. Bobbi spends most of her time with the psychiatrists or wandering New York, trying to be normal. Clint goes on an op and comes to home to find Bobbi’s enangement ring on the counter and only her SHIELD issue clothes. Clint puts his things away, showers, and goes to find a shithole of a bar to get drunk, to fight, to find something to make the world seem right again.
5. Natasha Romanoff
After Bobbi and after he has dragged himself out of the gutter, Clint goes back to work. Its not like he has any loyalty to the company (and their idiot handlers) anymore, but it's still the only thing in Clint’s life that has any meaning right now, so he goes back and this time he’s fully prepared to give his life up to achieve the mission objectives. He probably would have given it up, if he’d been paired off with any other handler, but when he comes back his missions are with Agent Coulson and Agent Coulson has changed the way the game is played.
The first change is Clint is given several solo ops, just him and Coulson and his bow. He’s a sniper and he’s being used like one. He knows how to sit and wait for the target for hours and then take the shot that needs to be taken. Sometimes, it’s part of a larger op, where he’s backing other agents or another agent up. The army trained him for that as well. He can make a shot with an agent between him and the target and the agent won’t realize anything.
The second change is that Coulson asks for his opinion on how the op should go, how it’s going, and when Clint changes things mid-op (after a thorough debriefing about why and his reasoning) he stands by Clint’s judgment. Clint has never had a handler ask his opinion, just been given orders and told to follow through them. He’s never had one that stood up for him afterwards. It’s unnerving and Clint is slightly relieved that the next time it happens and after being debriefed again, Coulson lays into him about it, though really he seems more upset that Clint was willing to sacrifice himself for everything. Sometimes he gets yelled at, sometimes he gets commended on it. He knows there’s a pattern, but he can’t really see it.
Clint finds himself in one of the situations a couple months later when he’s sent to take down the Black Widow, a Russian assassin. This is apparently a big thing and Coulson and other members of SHIELD have been tracking her for a while. They found her bolthole, the place she goes when she doesn’t have a job. He’s got orders to take her out, but as he watches her, there’s something that doesn’t sit right with him. He can’t quite explain it, but there’s something about her that reminds him of Bobbi after the Phantom Riders.
Clint decides to do what is probably the stupidest thing ever - pulls out his comm, leaves his gear on the roof, and goes in, instead of taking a shot. They talk for about ten minutes, which is how long it takes for Coulson to find Clint and come in guns blazing. He is less than pleased, and manages to get even madder when Clint puts himself between Phil’s gun and Natasha.
“I don’t need protection,” Natasha growls, from behind Clint as he presses her against the wall, so that all of her body is covered by Clint’s.
“Coulson,” Clint says, ignoring her. “C’mon, you’ve trusted my call before.”
“This goes completely against mission objectives,” Coulson states.
“Wouldn’t it be better for her to join SHIELD though?” Clint asks, trying to not to move, despite Natasha shoving at him.
“We’re not authorized to bring her in like this,” Coulson states.
“Well get authorization!” Clint pleads.
“What makes you think I have that authority?” Coulson asks. Clint just gives him a look.
“Can he do that?” Natasha asks, ceasing in her shoving to peer over Clint’s shoulder.
“I know he’s got pull,” Clint replies. “If he chooses to use it.”
“You have five minutes to convince me, Ms. Romanova,” Coulson offers, lowering the gun. Natasha convinces him, Coulson makes the call, and Natasha is made an agent of SHIELD.
After she’s gathered up the last of her belongings, which aren’t much, she pauses and looks at them, “Before we go there’s something I have to do.”
“Go ahead,” Coulson states.
Clint nevers sees the punch, doesn’t realize it until he’s on the floor. “Don’t ever try to protect me like that again,” Natasha growls, before reaching down and hauling him up. She hesitates, and then kisses him, fast and hard, before stalking out of the room and down to the awaiting van.
Clint stares after blinking for a few moments, muttering, “I think I’m in love.” He misses the arched eyebrow from Coulson and follows her out of the room.
Clint isn’t love with her. At least not yet. He’s still hurting over Bobbi and she’s still just hurting. They’re assigned as partners and spend most of their free time together. They do the tourist things in NYC, go to movies, steal into one another quarters and talk late into the evening, and eventually disappear to go on a road trip that turns into a drug smuggling bust. This happens each time they attempt a road trip, sometimes it isn’t drugs and those times are worse. The worst was the slavery ring, where Natasha lets herself get captured and when it is all said and done and Clint has ranted himself out about her negligence, she simply smiles at him and says, “I knew you would save me.”
It’s good and the pain from Bobbi lessens. No one would think of Natasha as a healer, but that’s what she is to Clint’s heart. She fixes him and he likes to think he helped her heal some of her old wounds. Clint has a thing for strong, independent women, so of course he falls for her as well and when he brings up the idea of being something more permanent, Natasha kindly, but firmly shuts him down. It hurts, but Clint can’t find himself surprised by it. They go back to being friends and not sleeping together. It sucks, but he’s actually alright with it.
What really hurts is when Natasha makes off with SHIELD secrets and he expects that he’ll be fired shortly himself. Clint is the one that brought her in after all, the one that insisted upon it. When he isn’t, he goes to Coulson to be put on the team hunting her down. Coulson refuses him, informing him that Fury had already said that under no circumstances was Barton allowed on this op. He figures they think he’s a security risk as well and lets it go.
Two months later, Natasha walks back in SHIELD HQ and is escorted straight to Fury. Clint finds out later and he realizes that Fury has taken a personal interest in Natasha. She’s become asset number one, Fury’s personal spy, and while Clint never knows exactly what information she brought back, he knows it was big. They go on less missions together, but their friendship never really ends.
+1 Phil Coulson
Clint doesn’t like handlers and doesn’t like authority figures. It goes back to having a drunk for a father that tried to beat the smart-mouth off his youngest son. It goes back to having a mentor beat him and leave him for dead when he find out he’s a thief. It goes back to having some shitty commanding officers in the army and even shittier handlers when he joins SHEILD. All of these things make him think that he won’t like Phil Coulson, even if Coulson stuck his neck out for him to get Bobbi back.
Clint isn’t sure what causes it, whether it’s the regime change as Fury takes the reigns of SHIELD that happens while Clint is still recovering or whether Coulson is just a better handler than any other he’s had (it’s really a combination of the two). Regardless, he’s unofficially assigned Coulson as his handler (Clint doesn’t even know it, Coulson does), who listens to him, takes Clint’s ideas into consideration, and doesn’t treat him like a tool to be used and discarded. Coulson treats him like an asset, a specialist in his field. Clint may get yelled at when he takes too many risks and almost ends up getting killed, but that’s because Coulson has to go in and save his neck. Clint is rather amazed he bothers. Then they go on their second mission.
Clint doesn’t really like Coulson, but he starts respecting him at least and listening to him. He makes a few cracks, which get some other agents to break their stoic faces, except Coulson. He doesn’t know why he notices, he just does and tries to get him to crack it. It becomes a routine for them, starting in the off hours, moving into debriefing until Clint does it on the comms. By that time Natasha has joined them and it’s the three of them.
Natasha turns him down, betrays SHIELD, except she doesn’t. Clint goes out with other handlers while Coulson is busy with Natasha’s supposed betrayal. Most are better than the handlers he had with Bobbi, those that aren’t he goes and sits in Coulson’s office until the other man deigns to notice him. Then he bitches about the idiots. He finds he misses Coulson though. Coulson is still the one handler he really listens to most of the time (He’s gotten better and will obey Fury and Hill, Sitwell is alright). He behaves though, because when Coulson is on base, he can go in and bother the other man.
When Clint walks into the mission briefing and finds Agent Morgan - the handler that had injured Clint and left Bobbi behind - waiting for him. Clint turns and walks out, ignores Hill’s orders to come back. He doesn’t really know where he’s heading until he’s sliding into Coulson’s office. He closes the door and sits on the couch without a word.
“Shouldn’t you be a briefing?” Coulson asks.
“I’m not working with him,” Clint states, looking down at his hands. “I don’t like him, I don’t trust him.”
“Working with who?” Coulson replies, pausing in his work.
“Morgan.”
“Morgan was on your handler on the Phantom Riders Op, correct?” Coulson asks.
“Yeah,” Clint agrees. “Send someone else, I don’t want to work with him.”
“Do you have any reason to think that he was involved in Agent Morse’s kidnapping?”
“He stopped me from saving her,” Clint whines. “He knocked me out”
There’s a long sigh, “Barton, I’m sorry, but that isn’t good enough.”
“Fine, but…”
“No, Barton,” Coulson states, “If there are any problems on this mission, then we can talk, but not until.” Clint wants to fight this. Evidently, it’s written clear on his face, “Barton, I know it’s hard, but you need to do this.”
Clint huffs moving to stand up, “Fine, but I don’t like it.”
“Noted,” Coulson says, picking his pen up. “Behave Barton.”
The mission goes about as well as Clint expects it to, which is horribly wrong. He wakes up in medical and overhears voices, soft and harsh. He recognizes Coulson’s right away, clearly in the midst of a dressing down and Clint smiles at that, which only grows larger when he realizes he’s dressing down Morgan. Morgan who is trying to defend himself, but is cut off by a third voice and it takes a while for Clint to recognize it as Fury. He falls back to sleep and when he comes back to, Coulson is there.
“Welcome back Agent Barton,” Coulson says, when he notices that Clint is awake.
“Thanks,” Clint says, voice rough from disuse.
“I’m sorry,” Coulson states, “If I had realized that Morgan was that bad of a handler, I would never have let you go out with him.”
“S’alright,” Clint replies, reaching out to pat Coulson’s hand, where it’s resting on the bed.
“I’m glad you’re going to be alright,” Coulson says softly
“Glad enough to give me less paperwork?” Clint asks, hopefully.
“We’ll see,” Coulson replies, offering him a small smile. The type of smile that Clint has been trying to get out of him (succeeding at times), it warms something deep inside of him.
“That’s a no then,” Clint sighs, because it is. Coulson will never lighten up on the paperwork. He blames the drugs on the next question. “When do I get to have you as my handler again?”
Coulson actually looks surprised by that, “When this business with Natasha is over.”
Clint makes a face, “You sure I can’t help with that?”
“Completely,” Coulson replies, pulling his hand out from under Clint’s, which makes Clint realize that they’d been practically holding hands this whole time. “Get some rest Barton.”
Clint falls a little in love with Coulson right there. The rest comes over the next few months. It’s slow and when Clint realizes what’s happening, he fights it every step of the way. He starts sleeping around, trying to forget about him, but it never seems to do any good. Natasha comes back and catches on, because Natasha is his closest friend, even if she did fake being a traitor for Fury. They go on missions, most of the time Coulson is the handler, sometimes he isn’t. Some are with Natasha, most are without her, surprisingly most of his ops with Coulson are without Natasha. When he complains to Natasha about how he never gets to work with both of them anymore, Natasha laughs at him - she has figured it out, but refuses to tell Clint what’s so funny.
The thing is each and every mission he goes on with Coulson is tailored to his skills, making hard almost impossible shots and almost always with newer and better tech - bows and trick arrows. While he waits to take these shots, he has Coulson on comms all to himself and he can talk, trying to get Coulson to smile. Then they debrief together over a meal.
Honestly, Clint would probably still be oblivious, if he hadn’t been gearing up and run into Sitwell, who had taken one look at him and said, “Oh, Date Night.” Clint shot him a confused look, before hustling off to meet Coulson for his briefing - the other man had said something about an explosive arrow!
Clint does think about it when he’s in position and the target is nowhere in sight. He’s been rambling for hours and is running out of material and he remembers that comment, so the next words out of his mouth are, “So Sitwell called this mission date night, there something I should know?”
There’s a brief pause and Clint is fairly sure that he just stunned Coulson.
“Because frankly I can’t see anything date night like about this at all,” Clint continues on, because he knows he’s onto something now. “No restaurant and its not like I’m delivering him his last meal or anything, I’m not even hiding my arrow in something that could be considered a gift.”
“Speaking of food, I was thinking of sushi for the debriefing,” Coulson says calmly.
Clint blinks, because Coulson has never mentioned food for their debriefing mid-op and then wrinkles his nose. “Raw Fish, Coulson? Pass.”
“That’s sashimi.”
“Whatever, ‘snot happening,” Clint replies and then offers, “We haven’t had Mexican in a while.”
“Will I get treated to you trying to prove your toughness by eating a pepper you have no business eating?” Coulson asks.
Clint makes a face at that memory, “Probably not.”
“How about Italian?” Coulson suggests, sounding almost like he was laughing.
“Yeah, Italian sounds good,” Clint agrees. “Can we get diced tomatoes on bread thingy?”
“Bruschetta? Of course,” Coulson agrees.
“Now I hope this guy turns up soon,” Clint says into the comm.
It takes him another two hours to show up and another hour for Clint to get back to base. Once he gets there, he gets his gear off and heads to Coulson’s office. His nose twitches as he enters, smelling good, Italian food.
“That’s what I’ve been thinking about all day,” Clint says, going to grab his carton and take it to the couch. Coulson joined him a few minutes later with his own food. After a few bites of the bruschetta “So Operation Date Night was a success.”
“No, I don’t think so, at least not yet,” Coulson replies, glancing down at his food.
“What else did I have to do?” Clint asks. “I gave him your present, I don’t think he liked it.”
“I think those were more a present for you,” Coulson notes, with a sly smile. “How’d they work?”
Paring: Clint Barton/Phil Coulson, Clint Barton/Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton/OFCs
Rating: T
Words: 6000+
Warnings: Minor Movie Spoilers
Part 1
4. Barbara ‘Bobbi’ Morse aka Mockingbird
Bobbi is one Clint’s first partners when he signs on for SHIELD. She’s more experienced than him, having worked for SHIELD while she got her PhD in biochemistry. She’s incredible and truly the perfect partner to be put with a young rookie, whose learning the ropes. They go on increasingly more difficult missions, fulfilling their objectives.
They have a mission where they must pretend to be a married couple and the roles are surprisingly easy to fulfill. Its where Clint considers the start of their relationship. They complete their mission and return to the newlywed’s suite that SHIELD had sprung for them as part of their cover. They order food and collapse on the king sized bed, drinking champagne, tv low in the background as they talk. Clint isn’t sure who made the first move, all he knows is they end up having sex.
From there it gets better - their personal relationship makes their working relationship the other day. Their relationship progresses, dates to exclusiveness; separate places to just one. They celebrate birthdays and anniversaries, find time to do little things for the holidays together. Clint buys a ring and proposes over dinner, between missions. Bobbi says, yes.
The only downside are the SHIELD Handlers, who view them as tools that can be used and discarded as needed. The only objective is the accomplishing the mission and none of the handlers view returning both operatives relatively unharmed as a mission objective (a bonus, but not an objective). Clint gains a reputation for disregarding orders, because he was ordered back while Bobbi was still out there and in danger. There is only one person Clint can count on and that is Bobbi, just like Clint is the one person that Bobbi can count on. Its a bond they share, one they learned to have, through too many close calls. The handlers insist on calling on the shots, making ill formed decisions regarding them and in quiet voices as they head out Bobbi and Clint will often change the plans to suit them, to better their chances of coming out alive.
Just after the proposal, the bottom falls out of Clint’s world. One mission goes bad and the damn handler takes Clint down to prevent him from going after Bobbi. Clint wakes up in the SHIELD infirmary, knowing that his fiancee is still out there somewhere, and that he failed to bring her back. While the handlers never considered bringing Bobbi and Clint back alive a mission objective, Clint always did, and he failed in his most important objective (hIs record will say that this mission was a success).
Clint recovers and breaks out of medical as soon as he’s able. He hunts down deputy director Fury and finds him talking to typical g-man with a receding hairline. Clint recognizes a handler when he sees one and frankly doesn’t give the other man a look.
“I need time off,” Clint says to Fury, interrupting whatever they’re talking about.
Fury looks at him with his one eye, “Shouldn’t you be in medical?”
“I’m good enough,” Clint replies, because he’s going to go after Bobbi and fuck SHIELD.
“Good enough for what?” Fury asks, studying him. “Going after Agent Morse?”
Clint’s eyes widen slightly, but he has no shame, “So what if I am? Someone has to.”
“We’re putting together an extraction team, Barton,” Fury replies, “We’ll bring her back.”
Clint snorts, “Because you and everyone else did such a good job of it last time. If that damned idiot hadn’t stopped me, she wouldn’t be still be out there.”
“If Agent Fredricks hadn’t stopped you, you both could have been taken,” Fury states. “You’re not being put on this team.”
“Fine,” Clint replies, because he will damn well do it himself. “I got medical leave coming, don’t I?”
“Which you’ll be spending in the Infirmary,” Fury states.
“Put him on the team,” The g-man says softly.
“What?” Fury says, turning to look at him.
“Barton’s stubborn, so unless you’re planning on locking him up, which there’s no guarantee he won’t escape from, he’s going to go after Agent Morse,” The G-man says, not looking away from Fury. “I’d rather have him where I can keep an eye on him, than risk him either accidentally tipping the Phantom Riders off to our presence or even just putting them on higher alert. Besides having a sniper would be useful.”
“You think you can keep him in line?” Fury asks.
“We have similar goals,” The g-man replies, glancing at Barton to say, “The return of Agent Morse.”
Fury looks at Clint again, before looking at his g-man. “Make sure Barton comes back as well.”
“Understood, Sir,” The g-man replies.
Fury turns to look at Barton, “You’ll listen to Agent Coulson and if you don’t, I’m authorizing him to taze your ass and have Sitwell sit on you until the mission is over, understood?”
“Yes, Sir,” Clint replies.
Fury gives him a long look, before turning and walking away. “I hope you know what you’re doing Coulson.”
The mission is a success in that Bobbi is returned, it's a failure in that the Phantom Riders managed to elude SHIELD for too long. Bobbi comes home a shell of her former self, beaten, drugged, and raped and Clint has no idea what to do.
Clint is nothing, if not loyal though. He stands by her as she heals physically doing what he can to help. He sleeps on the couch, when she can’t bear his presence in bed and goes back to HQ when she asks for peace. He tries very hard not to force his presence on her, but still be there to support him. It’s a delicate balancing act, one he could do easily on a tightrope, it’s so much harder when dealing with people. For all circus training, Clint is unprepared.
He goes on a few short ops, because they have bills to pay and Clint is the only one who can. Bobbi spends most of her time with the psychiatrists or wandering New York, trying to be normal. Clint goes on an op and comes to home to find Bobbi’s enangement ring on the counter and only her SHIELD issue clothes. Clint puts his things away, showers, and goes to find a shithole of a bar to get drunk, to fight, to find something to make the world seem right again.
5. Natasha Romanoff
After Bobbi and after he has dragged himself out of the gutter, Clint goes back to work. Its not like he has any loyalty to the company (and their idiot handlers) anymore, but it's still the only thing in Clint’s life that has any meaning right now, so he goes back and this time he’s fully prepared to give his life up to achieve the mission objectives. He probably would have given it up, if he’d been paired off with any other handler, but when he comes back his missions are with Agent Coulson and Agent Coulson has changed the way the game is played.
The first change is Clint is given several solo ops, just him and Coulson and his bow. He’s a sniper and he’s being used like one. He knows how to sit and wait for the target for hours and then take the shot that needs to be taken. Sometimes, it’s part of a larger op, where he’s backing other agents or another agent up. The army trained him for that as well. He can make a shot with an agent between him and the target and the agent won’t realize anything.
The second change is that Coulson asks for his opinion on how the op should go, how it’s going, and when Clint changes things mid-op (after a thorough debriefing about why and his reasoning) he stands by Clint’s judgment. Clint has never had a handler ask his opinion, just been given orders and told to follow through them. He’s never had one that stood up for him afterwards. It’s unnerving and Clint is slightly relieved that the next time it happens and after being debriefed again, Coulson lays into him about it, though really he seems more upset that Clint was willing to sacrifice himself for everything. Sometimes he gets yelled at, sometimes he gets commended on it. He knows there’s a pattern, but he can’t really see it.
Clint finds himself in one of the situations a couple months later when he’s sent to take down the Black Widow, a Russian assassin. This is apparently a big thing and Coulson and other members of SHIELD have been tracking her for a while. They found her bolthole, the place she goes when she doesn’t have a job. He’s got orders to take her out, but as he watches her, there’s something that doesn’t sit right with him. He can’t quite explain it, but there’s something about her that reminds him of Bobbi after the Phantom Riders.
Clint decides to do what is probably the stupidest thing ever - pulls out his comm, leaves his gear on the roof, and goes in, instead of taking a shot. They talk for about ten minutes, which is how long it takes for Coulson to find Clint and come in guns blazing. He is less than pleased, and manages to get even madder when Clint puts himself between Phil’s gun and Natasha.
“I don’t need protection,” Natasha growls, from behind Clint as he presses her against the wall, so that all of her body is covered by Clint’s.
“Coulson,” Clint says, ignoring her. “C’mon, you’ve trusted my call before.”
“This goes completely against mission objectives,” Coulson states.
“Wouldn’t it be better for her to join SHIELD though?” Clint asks, trying to not to move, despite Natasha shoving at him.
“We’re not authorized to bring her in like this,” Coulson states.
“Well get authorization!” Clint pleads.
“What makes you think I have that authority?” Coulson asks. Clint just gives him a look.
“Can he do that?” Natasha asks, ceasing in her shoving to peer over Clint’s shoulder.
“I know he’s got pull,” Clint replies. “If he chooses to use it.”
“You have five minutes to convince me, Ms. Romanova,” Coulson offers, lowering the gun. Natasha convinces him, Coulson makes the call, and Natasha is made an agent of SHIELD.
After she’s gathered up the last of her belongings, which aren’t much, she pauses and looks at them, “Before we go there’s something I have to do.”
“Go ahead,” Coulson states.
Clint nevers sees the punch, doesn’t realize it until he’s on the floor. “Don’t ever try to protect me like that again,” Natasha growls, before reaching down and hauling him up. She hesitates, and then kisses him, fast and hard, before stalking out of the room and down to the awaiting van.
Clint stares after blinking for a few moments, muttering, “I think I’m in love.” He misses the arched eyebrow from Coulson and follows her out of the room.
Clint isn’t love with her. At least not yet. He’s still hurting over Bobbi and she’s still just hurting. They’re assigned as partners and spend most of their free time together. They do the tourist things in NYC, go to movies, steal into one another quarters and talk late into the evening, and eventually disappear to go on a road trip that turns into a drug smuggling bust. This happens each time they attempt a road trip, sometimes it isn’t drugs and those times are worse. The worst was the slavery ring, where Natasha lets herself get captured and when it is all said and done and Clint has ranted himself out about her negligence, she simply smiles at him and says, “I knew you would save me.”
It’s good and the pain from Bobbi lessens. No one would think of Natasha as a healer, but that’s what she is to Clint’s heart. She fixes him and he likes to think he helped her heal some of her old wounds. Clint has a thing for strong, independent women, so of course he falls for her as well and when he brings up the idea of being something more permanent, Natasha kindly, but firmly shuts him down. It hurts, but Clint can’t find himself surprised by it. They go back to being friends and not sleeping together. It sucks, but he’s actually alright with it.
What really hurts is when Natasha makes off with SHIELD secrets and he expects that he’ll be fired shortly himself. Clint is the one that brought her in after all, the one that insisted upon it. When he isn’t, he goes to Coulson to be put on the team hunting her down. Coulson refuses him, informing him that Fury had already said that under no circumstances was Barton allowed on this op. He figures they think he’s a security risk as well and lets it go.
Two months later, Natasha walks back in SHIELD HQ and is escorted straight to Fury. Clint finds out later and he realizes that Fury has taken a personal interest in Natasha. She’s become asset number one, Fury’s personal spy, and while Clint never knows exactly what information she brought back, he knows it was big. They go on less missions together, but their friendship never really ends.
+1 Phil Coulson
Clint doesn’t like handlers and doesn’t like authority figures. It goes back to having a drunk for a father that tried to beat the smart-mouth off his youngest son. It goes back to having a mentor beat him and leave him for dead when he find out he’s a thief. It goes back to having some shitty commanding officers in the army and even shittier handlers when he joins SHEILD. All of these things make him think that he won’t like Phil Coulson, even if Coulson stuck his neck out for him to get Bobbi back.
Clint isn’t sure what causes it, whether it’s the regime change as Fury takes the reigns of SHIELD that happens while Clint is still recovering or whether Coulson is just a better handler than any other he’s had (it’s really a combination of the two). Regardless, he’s unofficially assigned Coulson as his handler (Clint doesn’t even know it, Coulson does), who listens to him, takes Clint’s ideas into consideration, and doesn’t treat him like a tool to be used and discarded. Coulson treats him like an asset, a specialist in his field. Clint may get yelled at when he takes too many risks and almost ends up getting killed, but that’s because Coulson has to go in and save his neck. Clint is rather amazed he bothers. Then they go on their second mission.
Clint doesn’t really like Coulson, but he starts respecting him at least and listening to him. He makes a few cracks, which get some other agents to break their stoic faces, except Coulson. He doesn’t know why he notices, he just does and tries to get him to crack it. It becomes a routine for them, starting in the off hours, moving into debriefing until Clint does it on the comms. By that time Natasha has joined them and it’s the three of them.
Natasha turns him down, betrays SHIELD, except she doesn’t. Clint goes out with other handlers while Coulson is busy with Natasha’s supposed betrayal. Most are better than the handlers he had with Bobbi, those that aren’t he goes and sits in Coulson’s office until the other man deigns to notice him. Then he bitches about the idiots. He finds he misses Coulson though. Coulson is still the one handler he really listens to most of the time (He’s gotten better and will obey Fury and Hill, Sitwell is alright). He behaves though, because when Coulson is on base, he can go in and bother the other man.
When Clint walks into the mission briefing and finds Agent Morgan - the handler that had injured Clint and left Bobbi behind - waiting for him. Clint turns and walks out, ignores Hill’s orders to come back. He doesn’t really know where he’s heading until he’s sliding into Coulson’s office. He closes the door and sits on the couch without a word.
“Shouldn’t you be a briefing?” Coulson asks.
“I’m not working with him,” Clint states, looking down at his hands. “I don’t like him, I don’t trust him.”
“Working with who?” Coulson replies, pausing in his work.
“Morgan.”
“Morgan was on your handler on the Phantom Riders Op, correct?” Coulson asks.
“Yeah,” Clint agrees. “Send someone else, I don’t want to work with him.”
“Do you have any reason to think that he was involved in Agent Morse’s kidnapping?”
“He stopped me from saving her,” Clint whines. “He knocked me out”
There’s a long sigh, “Barton, I’m sorry, but that isn’t good enough.”
“Fine, but…”
“No, Barton,” Coulson states, “If there are any problems on this mission, then we can talk, but not until.” Clint wants to fight this. Evidently, it’s written clear on his face, “Barton, I know it’s hard, but you need to do this.”
Clint huffs moving to stand up, “Fine, but I don’t like it.”
“Noted,” Coulson says, picking his pen up. “Behave Barton.”
The mission goes about as well as Clint expects it to, which is horribly wrong. He wakes up in medical and overhears voices, soft and harsh. He recognizes Coulson’s right away, clearly in the midst of a dressing down and Clint smiles at that, which only grows larger when he realizes he’s dressing down Morgan. Morgan who is trying to defend himself, but is cut off by a third voice and it takes a while for Clint to recognize it as Fury. He falls back to sleep and when he comes back to, Coulson is there.
“Welcome back Agent Barton,” Coulson says, when he notices that Clint is awake.
“Thanks,” Clint says, voice rough from disuse.
“I’m sorry,” Coulson states, “If I had realized that Morgan was that bad of a handler, I would never have let you go out with him.”
“S’alright,” Clint replies, reaching out to pat Coulson’s hand, where it’s resting on the bed.
“I’m glad you’re going to be alright,” Coulson says softly
“Glad enough to give me less paperwork?” Clint asks, hopefully.
“We’ll see,” Coulson replies, offering him a small smile. The type of smile that Clint has been trying to get out of him (succeeding at times), it warms something deep inside of him.
“That’s a no then,” Clint sighs, because it is. Coulson will never lighten up on the paperwork. He blames the drugs on the next question. “When do I get to have you as my handler again?”
Coulson actually looks surprised by that, “When this business with Natasha is over.”
Clint makes a face, “You sure I can’t help with that?”
“Completely,” Coulson replies, pulling his hand out from under Clint’s, which makes Clint realize that they’d been practically holding hands this whole time. “Get some rest Barton.”
Clint falls a little in love with Coulson right there. The rest comes over the next few months. It’s slow and when Clint realizes what’s happening, he fights it every step of the way. He starts sleeping around, trying to forget about him, but it never seems to do any good. Natasha comes back and catches on, because Natasha is his closest friend, even if she did fake being a traitor for Fury. They go on missions, most of the time Coulson is the handler, sometimes he isn’t. Some are with Natasha, most are without her, surprisingly most of his ops with Coulson are without Natasha. When he complains to Natasha about how he never gets to work with both of them anymore, Natasha laughs at him - she has figured it out, but refuses to tell Clint what’s so funny.
The thing is each and every mission he goes on with Coulson is tailored to his skills, making hard almost impossible shots and almost always with newer and better tech - bows and trick arrows. While he waits to take these shots, he has Coulson on comms all to himself and he can talk, trying to get Coulson to smile. Then they debrief together over a meal.
Honestly, Clint would probably still be oblivious, if he hadn’t been gearing up and run into Sitwell, who had taken one look at him and said, “Oh, Date Night.” Clint shot him a confused look, before hustling off to meet Coulson for his briefing - the other man had said something about an explosive arrow!
Clint does think about it when he’s in position and the target is nowhere in sight. He’s been rambling for hours and is running out of material and he remembers that comment, so the next words out of his mouth are, “So Sitwell called this mission date night, there something I should know?”
There’s a brief pause and Clint is fairly sure that he just stunned Coulson.
“Because frankly I can’t see anything date night like about this at all,” Clint continues on, because he knows he’s onto something now. “No restaurant and its not like I’m delivering him his last meal or anything, I’m not even hiding my arrow in something that could be considered a gift.”
“Speaking of food, I was thinking of sushi for the debriefing,” Coulson says calmly.
Clint blinks, because Coulson has never mentioned food for their debriefing mid-op and then wrinkles his nose. “Raw Fish, Coulson? Pass.”
“That’s sashimi.”
“Whatever, ‘snot happening,” Clint replies and then offers, “We haven’t had Mexican in a while.”
“Will I get treated to you trying to prove your toughness by eating a pepper you have no business eating?” Coulson asks.
Clint makes a face at that memory, “Probably not.”
“How about Italian?” Coulson suggests, sounding almost like he was laughing.
“Yeah, Italian sounds good,” Clint agrees. “Can we get diced tomatoes on bread thingy?”
“Bruschetta? Of course,” Coulson agrees.
“Now I hope this guy turns up soon,” Clint says into the comm.
It takes him another two hours to show up and another hour for Clint to get back to base. Once he gets there, he gets his gear off and heads to Coulson’s office. His nose twitches as he enters, smelling good, Italian food.
“That’s what I’ve been thinking about all day,” Clint says, going to grab his carton and take it to the couch. Coulson joined him a few minutes later with his own food. After a few bites of the bruschetta “So Operation Date Night was a success.”
“No, I don’t think so, at least not yet,” Coulson replies, glancing down at his food.
“What else did I have to do?” Clint asks. “I gave him your present, I don’t think he liked it.”
“I think those were more a present for you,” Coulson notes, with a sly smile. “How’d they work?”