Chapter Text
Clint was known for his eyesight. As a sniper, he had incredible vision. When Phil had picked him out to specialize in sniper, no one had argued. His shooting score on anything, not just a bow, combined with his vision scores were enough to justify the assignment. That assignment went well, the next one went better. Over and over, increasingly hard missions had Clint proving to be the best sniper in the field in the organization.
But Phil told him once that he hadn’t chosen him for his eyesight, but for his eyes.
Steve swallowed his regret as he tore the paper into pieces and threw it away. He had already guessed that his current roommates wouldn’t stop at his trash if they got curious. He’d been trying to sketch Bucky for days and it just wasn’t coming out right. Tony had gotten him a copy of the films and photos from the Smithsonian, but they really didn’t show the part of his brother that he wanted to sketch. Bucky wasn’t just a good soldier: he was a funny, sarcastic jerk. Laid back, he took everything that came at him with aplomb and then some. When Steve was ill, he had needed that strength. Now, in this world where some days he wasn’t sure he’d ever fit in, he could use some of that calm belief in the future right now.
A small sound had him sighing, “Clint, get out of the vents! Tony said he wasn’t done with the east wall yet!”
He heard scuffling moving away from his room. He hadn’t expected the archer to respond. He hoped the goof didn’t hurt himself while Tony revamped the ventilation system on the east wall today.
“Captain, Dr. Banner has requested your presence in the kitchen.” Steve sighed and looked at the blank page in front of him. Clearly he wasn’t getting anything done and as Bruce so rarely asked for anything, he should go see what the scientist needed.
Steve liked his team. Hell, he was growing as attached to them as he had been to the commandos, but he could tell he was missing something. Something big.
Bruce gave him a wan smile when he entered the kitchen. Steve immediately could tell why. Thor stood there with a sheepish look and eggs absolutely everywhere. Steve had to blink a moment, wondering briefly just how many eggs they had to produce such a mess.
“Ooooookaaayyy?” He really wasn’t sure why they had called him. Bruce was good about cleaning up messes and Thor was an enthusiastic, if clumsy, helper. Bruce sighed and raised an eyebrow at Thor. A moment later Thor’s hands came into view from behind his back. Steve hadn’t even registered they were hiding back there. In his hands were Steve’s combat boots.
Steve winced and when he dared to look closer, he found them practically swimming with egg guts. He had to swallow a small amount of revulsion at the sight of a pool of semi-viscous egg goo floating in a place his feet were supposed to go and the waste of food that was about to take place since there was no way they could safely eat the eggs. He glanced at Bruce for a moment before taking a deep breath to shove the nausea down enough to talk. He’d had a lot of practice at that as a sick kid.
“I don’t think I want to know what happened. Just-” He looked at Bruce again, but the man seemed to want him to decide the next step. “Just dump them and we’ll go see Tony.” And get laughed at, but that needn’t be said. Maybe Tony will force Thor to relate the actual story and Steve could hear it.
Bruce looked for a moment like he would say something, but eventually he nodded.
Bruce watched as the elevator doors closed behind Thor and Steve. Looking around the kitchen, he sighed and started wiping it down. He had half hoped they would stay to help clean-up, but Steve’s glances in his direction were enough to make him rethink that desire. Tony was the only Avenger who wasn’t worried about triggering an incident and Bruce wasn’t really interested in watching Steve dance around him.
Thor was the opposite of helpful. The only thing that kept him from triggering a sparring partner out of Bruce was Bruce’s obvious desire to not have an incident. As such, Thor swung widely between trying to spark a spar and tiptoeing so as to not mess with a hair on his head. It really was trying some days.
Bruce looked at the countertop he had just wiped. There were four eggs that had escaped Thor’s comedy of errors. He looked at them in defeat. Half of what had happened was because Thor had been trying to stay out of Bruce’s way.
Frowning at them, he picked up two eggs and glared at them a moment, allowing himself to feel his irritation. The rumble in the back of his mind didn’t stir much beyond what felt like curiosity. He clapped, splattering the egg, guts and all, on the newly wiped countertop. That had felt good. He glanced at the other two survivors of the egg massacre. Shaking his head, he turned back to the sink.
As he whipped the cloth along the countertop, he accidentally knocked the remaining eggs off the counter. They crashed at his feet and he jumped. Looking down at the mess left behind by his teammate, he chuckled.
Kneeling down, he started to laugh.
“I love surprises.” Unsurprisingly, his whisper went unheard.
Tony shook his head as he looked at the boots in disgust. It had to be eggs. The protein component was very fond of the fibers of the boot. Thor’s hangdog look at his sigh forced him to smile and ask for the story. It had been long as well as convoluted and Tony wasn’t sure Steve followed it any better than he did. In the end he knew three things; he needed to make sure Bruce was okay and not blaming himself for this mess, Steve wouldn’t be making omelets for breakfast for a while and he needed to wash the damn shoes.
Google was a wonderful thing. He turned the shoes upside down in a large bucket of cold water and asked JARVIS for an hour timer. During that hour he invented a boot washing device that was little more than an L tube that shot detergent and water into a boot and let it drain back into the fill bucket beneath. Rinsing was going to be interesting but Tony figured if all else failed, they could drop Steve in a swamp the next time they were out.
Tony glanced at the elevator the two men had just vanished through and shook his head before he could sigh. He didn’t have time for teammate worries. He currently had Pepper worries, namely if he didn’t finish this design by tonight she was going to call him again, and Tony feared her Glare-of-Unusual-Guilt more than Doom right now. She should get it patented.
He reached under the table to pick up his sphere’s stylus but blinked, when he felt an object that wasn’t his stylus. Lifting it out, he saw it was a bottle of scotch. It still had a good five or six shots in it, must have been left over from his pre-palladium days. He could see his hand shaking as he put in on the desk.
He wished he could do one damn drop.
The elevator door startled him enough that he dropped the bottle. Spinning around and seeing Natasha made him smile. She could distract him. He often enjoyed her distractions, they were usually interesting and unpredictable.
Unfortunately she had only come down to ask his update on the vent system upgrade. She hadn’t seen Clint for a while and was guessing he was in the ventilation ahead of Tony’s upgrades. Tony did an admirable job of not looking at the vent in the corner where JARVIS had reported the archer’s location when Thor and Steve left. He simply assured Natasha that the upgrades were complete in the Avenger’s levels and the rest of the building would be done tomorrow evening.
After she left he leaned against the table, staring at the bottle still on the floor. He had seen Natasha glance at it.
God, he needed a drink.
Natasha found Steve outside Thor’s room a few moments later. Thor had already moved into the room, so he nodded to the pair as he shut his door to change. The egg mess had truly been an accident. When he was younger, he’d had many of them before learning to control his strength, even in Asgard. On Midgard, things were more fragile and he was having to relearn his own strength.
The biggest difference was that here there wasn’t a Loki to laugh with him. Loki had always made his clumsiness into a joke they could share. Thor bent a fork, Loki created an illusion that many of the forks were bent and no one could tell which ones were and which ones weren’t. Thor shattered a goblet and next an illusion of the drink pitchers chasing him came to life. Thor would still end up soaked, but everyone could blame Loki’s pranks, not Thor’s oafishness.
He missed his brother something dearly. Loki’s sense of humor was off Thor’s but it was still amusing when Thor was paying attention. Many of Loki’s jokes had Thor at the butt, but Thor always learned something that he had been frustrated with before. He learned to balance on the thinnest of strings, to fly in the most confusing of turbulence and to block the most hidden of punches, all thanks to his brother.
That was the brother he loved and missed. He wished he had known that Loki had needed him. He wished he had understood Loki well enough to help him like Thor himself had been helped.
Thor sighed as he placed the egged shirt in the basket for washing and picked out a new one.
He missed his brother.
Natasha watched as Steve walked away. The super soldier seemed especially down today. Usually the egg comedy he had related would put him in amused, if not good spirits, but he just seemed to think the world heavier.
He also had been of no help in locating Clint. The man better not have gotten himself into any trouble in the vents! Christ, she was always saving his ass.
And he was always saving hers. She glanced up at the small noise, identifying her partner with ease. He was in the vents! She huffed. “You’d better not hurt yourself!” She heard him scurrying further away and down.
“JARVIS, where is he?”
“Normally that information is restricted, however, Agent Barton is entering an area Sir has not yet upgraded. He is not responding to requests to change location. Agent Barton is heading to level 56 East side. Sir has been notified of the possible danger.”
Natasha huffed and ducked into an elevator. JARVIS automatically closed the elevator and she started descending.
“Agent Barton has entered an area under active construction and not secured, the shaft is separating from the moulding.”
Natasha cursed under her breath in four languages as the elevator doors opened, “Notify the team. Where is he?”
“Team has been notified. Agent Barton has fallen into a shaft without cameras. You will need to locate him in person.” Natasha felt her stomach clench at the AI’s information.
“Then we go in person.” Steve came up behind her.
“Here, Itsy-Bitsy.” Tony tossed an earpiece her way before opening a laptop he was carrying. “I’ll try to track him from here, but he’s running on silent, so I don’t have a com to track. You enter the system through the elevator shaft, J will guide you. I’ll track his sounds through the PA system.”
Natasha nodded and turned to follow the holographic finger pointed at the elevator with Steve hot on her tail. JARVIS opened the doors for them and they descended a few floors before JARVIS directed them to another shaft. Steve detoured to the nearest floor, being rather large to fit, and Natasha crawled after her archer.
“He’s 9.3 meters ahead of you, Tasha. I’m getting sounds of him from a few minutes before J sent out the alert. He might be caught between rooms.” Tony’s voice was distracted. Natasha trusted his direction though, Tony Stark could multitask with the best of them.
“I am outside the building, have you need of me.” Thor’s voice boomed over the coms. Natasha was relieved to know they still had the flying help with Tony grounded working on a computer.
“I found him.” Steve’s voice gave her some relief. “He’s next to room 12A on the 43rd floor, Tony.”
“Can you get to him?”
“No, I can hear him behind a wall. He’s conscious.” Steve’s report had Natasha hurrying and she saw the archer as she rounded a corner.
“H-hi Nat.” Clint grinned at her as he hung on the opposite end of the shaft. “F-f-fancy meeting you here.”
“I found him.” She took in her long time partner and frowned. “He’s injured.” She ignored the concerned barking in her ear to focus on the hanging man.
“I can’t get a better grip, Nat.” Clint’s grimace showed he was in more pain than he wanted to let on. The long gash on the side and back of his limp arm spoke to at least some of his pain.
“Teach you to watch where you’re going!” She gave him a shark’s grin before refocusing on her com. “I can’t get to him from here.”
“Can you give me an exact location?”
“He’s a half meter below my level and 1.5 meters to the east on the outside wall.” Natasha’s information seemed to satisfy Tony as he started to mutter to himself. Finally he spoke, just as she was starting to worry.
“Thor, move two windows away from the sun. And now place your hammer on the wall.” Tony was probably watching the godling on outside cameras. She and Steve listened as Tony directed him to an exact spot and told him to make a man-sized hole. A moment later she saw the wall open up a meter away from Clint.
While Thor had been opening the wall up, Tony had directed Steve to a nearby window and the soldier was scaling the wall on the outside. A moment later he squeezed through the hole and made his way over to Clint. Natasha couldn’t hear them as Steve spoke to Clint, but she could guess her partner was apologizing for the bother. Steve was quietly talking to him, hopefully talking him out of that idea.
“Bruce is waiting in the conference room on that floor with a medkit. I’ll join him in a moment.” Natasha relayed Tony’s message since Steve must be off coms in order to talk to Clint without them hearing. She wasn’t sure why he removed them, but it was irrelevant at the moment. Once Steve had handed Clint off to Thor, she worked her way back along the vents.
Clint winced as he sat on the table and let Bruce look over his arm. This sure was a shit show. Not only had he gotten in trouble, but the whole team had been needed to get him out of it. He looked up as Natasha entered the room frowning with Steve right behind her. Bruce glanced over before shaking his head and returning to the scratch that traversed his arm.
Tony was still on his laptop behind him, muttering to himself. Thor was grinning by the door and waiting while Steve asked for an update.
“His arm is pretty hurt. I’m wrapping it, but I’d feel better if he gave it two days before doing much with it.” Clint looked at Bruce in irritation. He was fine! Bruce simply placed a hand on his shoulder and leaned closer as Steve turned to Tony. “I know you’re fine and if we get a call out you’ll be able to use the arm, but Clint, you depend on your arms. Unless it’s vital, let them heal. We need you to heal.”
Clint’s words caught in his throat. Most doctors wanted him to stop doing everything and heal, including missions, but Bruce just gave him a grin and turned back to Tony and Steve.
“No, the fall would not be helped by balance, he needed a braking system.” Clint then realized Steve and Tony were discussing possible changes to the vent system so that if this happened again, they could get to him easier and he wouldn’t get as injured. He was distracted from the argument by Thor placing a hand heavily on his shoulder. Well, lightly for Thor, heavily for everyone else.
“Mayhap you could show me the layout of the vent system, brother archer!” Clint looked at his team and realized that they all saw him exactly like he was.
Clint had been chosen by Phil for his eyes. He could see things no one else could see. And he kept looking until he saw all he could possibly see.
He hadn’t needed to stay nearby to know when Steve found his envelope. The picture of Bucky in that envelope was what he had been missing. It wasn’t the guy smiling or saluting or any of the other so-called good pictures. It was a shot of Bucky staring at Steve as he directed the rest of the commandos. The sergeant had this little quirk that wasn’t quite a smile. His arms were folded as he leaned against the tree. He was there, ready to step in if Steve needed a best friend. Otherwise, he would simply watch his best friend’s back.
Clint knew Bucky was a sniper, just like the archer. For a sniper, their true smile was when they were protecting their partner on the ground. That was the Bucky Steve had known.
Instead of hanging out near Steve, Clint had dropped on Bruce’s shoulders in the kitchen. He’d needed Bruce’s help. He wanted the man to teach Thor how to make omelets the proper way. Bruce had given him a look of surprise, but he’d eventually agreed. Clint smiled. Thor had liked the opportunity to learn to handle delicate objects. And he loved to eat, so he was completely on board.
Clint was already planning to drop on Bruce’s shoulders each time the man was in the room beneath him. The man didn’t need people to avoid surprising him. He just needed the surprise to not be dangerous. Tony’s surprises varied in that sense. Bruce still loved them. Nothing was more isolating than people tiptoeing around you.
After making sure Thor was enjoying the egg exercise, Clint had checked on the resident engineer. He had swiped all the alcohol earlier and hidden it on the common room. Tony had yet to respond to Clint’s request for a spar. He found the genius staring at the message on his screen.
Tony,
If you got a moment, I’d love to spar. I’ll give you more headaches than alcohol does, but I bet I can give you more laughs too.
-Clint
Clint left him to it. He’d respond when he was ready.
Clint smiled as he looked at his phone as it buzzed at him. Stretching from his place on the couch, he grinned when he saw Tony’s request for a spar in an hour. He looked down at the redhead resting against his chest. Her smile was soft and content as she listened to his heartbeat. He was the only one who knew about her nightmares. He could tell as soon as she’d caught up to him earlier that she’d been looking for him because she’d had one. It was a very specific nightmare. Only cured by the sound of a family’s heartbeat.
He knew, because he could see it in her eyes.
This was what Clint could see.