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Phil Coulson made it his job to know things.
That job got a lot harder after he became the liason for the Avengers. It was one thing, as a spy, to keep tabs on a target, to collect information in files, information that became data, became points on a graph, something he could disconnect from. It was quite another thing to do the same with people who’d become friends.
One of whom was his lover.
So he didn’t suspect anything when Tony Stark suggested they have a special team night to discuss their soulmates. It was only natural - any time Thor had a question that needed more than a simple explanation, the team would often come together. There had been an epic evening that involved too much alcohol and a powerpoint presentation to explain the special Project Runway tie-in episode of Dog Cops.
But bondmates weren’t pop culture.
Well, they showed up in pop culture often enough. Phil had to admit to a small addiction to the tv show “Days of Our Bonded” about a sprawling family coping with mismatched bondmates. He’d been privately shipping Eric and Charles, both of whom had lost their bondmates late in life, but were perfect for each other.
But the topic tonight wasn’t meant for gossip like his favorite tv show. Phil knew that the instant he saw Natasha had actually brought the nail polish, all meticulously organized in a plastic carrier painted black. He’d seen her take the same amount of care in organizing her weapons. The polish were weapons as well, only of an entirely different sort.
Which is how he found himself talking about the girl he’d loved and lost, the one destiny had bound him to and then took her away, just as fickle, in a car accident.
Phil told the story like he always did: dispassionately, as if it had happened to someone else. He ignored Stark’s jibe about high school sweethearts and rubbed the blurred mark on his wrist. Anyone who saw it would know he’d loved and lost, the person he had been bound to now dead.
Clint bumped their knees together. While the conversation moved on he lowered his voice and asked, “You okay?”
“Of course. It was a long time ago.” Phil try to joke about his age, but he saw Clint was having none of it.
“I know what it’s like to wonder about what if.” Clint looked down at his the mark on his own wrist and frowned. His own dull and lifeless mark meant he hadn’t even met his soulmate yet, as opposed to the blurred out mark on Phil’s that meant his soulmate had died. A live mark between two soulmates glowed with imbued color.
Before Phil could respond to him, Natasha had come over with the sparkly nail polish, and it was Clint’s turn to bear his soul.
And to Phil’s surprise, Clint actually did. He talked about his abusive father and brother who’d been bonded to their spouses, and that alone showed how much he trusted the rest of the Avengers. Phil hoped they understood the gift they’d been given.
“I’m happy exactly as I am,” Clint murmured as Bruce took the spotlight. He flashed Phil a look and there was heat in his eyes.
Unfortunately they were going to have to wait until the nail polish dried before heading back to the bedroom.
That’s when Stark dropped his bombshell. “I’m bonded.”
That was news to Phil, and he didn’t like being out of the loop. Last intel SHIELD had said that Tony and Pepper weren’t soulmates, although both had marks. It wasn’t unusual for people to date despite not being fated, some like Clint had issues with the concept of someone else deciding things for them. Others didn’t want to wait around for someone who never came.
“Her name is Sunset. She's the CEO of Baintronics.”
Phil’s fingers itched. He knew that name, why did he know that name? Damn it, as soon as he could, he needed to get into the SHIELD database. The fact that Stark had bonded, told no one, and hadn’t brought her to the tower said something, and Phil had a bad feeling about this entire thing.
He met Natasha’s eyes and she gave him a slight shake of her head. She hadn’t known either.
And that said more than all the words Stark did not speak.
***
Needless to say, Phil’s first encounter with Sunset Bain was not a good one. He’d headed down to the corporate floors for his customary weekly lunch with Pepper Potts. Phil genuinely liked Pepper. He had always thought she had a soothing influence on Tony even before he became Iron Man. On her own merits, she was an extremely capable and intelligent woman, qualities that Phil could more than appreciate as he often dealt with a world of incompetence.
He should have suspected something when Jarvis let him into Pepper’s office without a word. Inside he saw Pepper facing off against a woman with dark cinnamon hair, wearing suit in hunter green and shoes that Phil damn well knew cost over a thousand dollars.
“When Mr. Stark is in his laboratory he does not like to be disturbed,” Pepper was saying and it sounded from her tone that she’d said this same phrase several times already.
“Get it straight in your pretty little head right now.” Sunset leaned onto Pepper’s desk so she was looming over the other woman. “You don’t have any claim on Tony. Maybe he used you for a little bit of fun, but let me tell you, sweetheart, after bonded sex, there is nothing that can tempt him out of my bed.”
Few things shocked Phil Coulson, but he found himself utterly flummoxed by this woman. So Phil did what he did best - intervene. “Pardon me, am I interrupting something?” he said in his blandest ‘don’t mind me’ voice.
Sunset straightened, turned to look him up and down and utterly dismissed him. “As you can see we are in the middle of a conversation here. Go wait in the lobby.”
Ah, she’d made the same mistake many others had. Phil didn’t cower easily. “It looks to me,” he said conversationally, stepping forward to stand beside Pepper, “that your conversation is over. I’m sure Ms. Potts will pass on your message to Mr. Stark.” He put all the ice he could muster into his voice.
She smiled at him, a slice across her face that only paid a spare resemblance to what a smile should look like. “I don’t know who you are, but no one comes between a woman and her bonded. Not even someone he used to screw.” She winked at Pepper before making her way to the door of the office, where she paused, took a compact out of her purse and honest to goodness powdered her nose while Phil and Pepper stood and watched.
Message received.
When she finally left, Pepper collapsed into her chair and let her head fall into her hands. “Oh, Phil, she’s absolutely horrible.”
He couldn’t deny that. Phil placed his hand on her shoulder and remained a solid presence while Pepper started to sob.
“Jarvis,” he said quietly, “Please have lunch delivered here for us today. I don’t think either of us is up to dining out.”
“Of course, sir. I’ll send out to Darios for your usual.” Even the AI’s voice had a somber tone.
Pepper composed herself quickly and pulled out a tissue to dab at her eye makeup. “I apologize. I’m not usually...emotional in the office.”
“I’d say you have more than a right to be. I take it that wasn’t the first time that woman has bullied you?”
“Tried to, anyway. Right now I can play interference during work hours, but if she shows up at the tower when I’m not around…”
“You shouldn’t have to do that,” Phil said. Anger rose in his chest, and for the first time he really understood Clint’s point about bondmates. Whatever mystical connection existed between them, it didn’t prevent people from being nasty or cruel, and he’d seen nothing less than cruelty from Sunset Bain.
Pepper shook her head at him. “It just...makes me never to want to meet my own bonded.” She ran a finger over her own wrist, at the dark mark delicately curved around her skin. “I like the opportunity to make my own choices, and Tony, oh…” She didn’t finish, and Phil let the room fill with silence.
“Did you know,” Phil said slowly, “That Clint introduced Thor to Dog Cops?”
She gave him a look, that showed she knew exactly what he was doing, but Pepper smiled anyway. “Oh? What did he think of the little cop outfits the dogs wear?”
“I think he was more impressed with the Avengers special. Especially since they turned Lt. Corg into Thorgi.”
“Stop.” She started to laugh. “They did not.”
“They did.” Making her laugh wouldn’t fix everything, but it was a start.
Phil would have to start thinking hard for a solution, because he admired Pepper Potts and he hated anything or anyone that would make her cry.
Later he couldn’t shake his sense of disquiet, even after lying in bed, with Clint plastered all along his side, one arm thrown over Phil’s waist. Clint was an octopus in bed, although it was something he hadn’t quite been comfortable with Phil, not at first.
They’d been through a lot together, fought to be together. It hadn’t been easy, getting in behind Clint’s defenses, to show that Phil could love him. Hell, it hadn’t been easy convincing himself that he could have this, that he deserved happiness, even if it hadn’t been codified into his skin.
But that idea that someone could just swoop in and steal Clint from him, simply because they had a matching mark? It enraged him and frightened him all at once, stealing his breath as he struggled to calm himself, to not wake Clint from his slumber.
Unless. Phil turned his head to watch the rise and fall of Clint’s chest. Phil had a theory about Clint, that he’d had the mark tattooed onto his wrist, that no bonding mark had come in at all. Clint had never spoken of it. His comments on bonding were always spoken with a sneer, so Phil had never asked.
But right now he hoped he was right about Clint, that the mark on his wrist was only for show and that Phil wouldn’t lose him to someone with a greater claim by all rules of the universe.
***
Sunset did not endear herself to the rest of the Avengers either. Phil thought that short-sighted when dealing with a class of people who could break her in half with a single thought. But she apparently was the type of woman who expected everyone around her to bend in her wake, even those with superhuman strength.
They took great care to keep Bruce out of her path.
“Hey, Phil, what are you doing?” Clint called from the kitchen, Natasha yelling hello as the door slid shut. Phil had sent them to the gym to burn off some energy while he did his information gathering.
He looked up from his laptop and sighed. “Doing some background research on Sunset Bain.”
Clint chugged a purple gatorade as he entered the room, Natasha on his heels. “Find anything decent? And by that I mean anything decent about her? Does she love animals? There’s gotta be something.”
Even that wouldn’t make up for the way she’d been harassing Tony. Phil had been unfortunate enough to overhear a rather disturbing conversation between the two. The worst of it had been that Tony hadn’t fought back - and the Stark he knew would never keep silent. They were losing him, and Phil didn’t know what to do.
Phil clicked through the files he’d been gathering. “I’m afraid she’s exactly as she appears. Too much money for her own good and no idea what to do with it.” He sighed. “I’ve never thought about how bonding works before, how it gets decided. I suppose if Stark hadn’t gone through what he did in that cave in Afghanistan, if he remained nothing more than a playboy, then they might have been matched correctly.”
Natasha leaned over and narrowed her eyes at the data. “You think the mark works like that? That it can’t change as we change? It assumes we will ever remain the same?”
Phil shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s never been an area of study I’ve been curious about.”
She’d had her bonded torn away from her by a Bondbreaker in the Red Room. Perhaps it might give her some form of comfort to know that she had grown beyond whoever had once been her soulmate.
“It’s all crap,” Clint growled. “It’s what I’ve been telling you. I’ve never seen a bond go well.”
“I’m beginning to think you have a point,” Phil muttered. He clicked to another screen. “Baintronics, her company? Makes weapons. Specifically military drones.”
He dropped that little tidbit into silence. It went against everything Tony had done to reform Stark Industries, and if she was able to abuse the letter of the law and stick her fingers in his company, then who knew what would happen? Phil knew it would destroy Tony.
“Do you want me to kill her? No one will find the body,” Natasha snapped.
“No, Natasha, we don’t do that anymore. Reformed assassins, remember?”
She muttered something that sounded like “Whoever said I was reformed?”
Phil rubbed his forehead, suddenly feeling the beginnings of a headache, right between his eyebrows.
“Tony told me he tried looking for a Bondbreaker,” Clint said in a low, soft voice, a tone that immediately set hackles up Phil’s skin.
And it didn’t help his headache at all.
Bondbreaker. That word sent chills down Phil’s spine, as it would anyone. Bondbreakers were spoke about in the same breath as the boogie man or the devil. They were to be feared because of their ability to break bonds, and shunned from society. It had only been twenty years or so since the public execution of Bondbreakers had been outlawed. Stark had a difficult time ahead looking for someone who would admit to being a Bondbreaker.
“No one would touch this. It’s too high profile,” Natasha said with the experience of someone who knew exactly what she was talking about.
The conversation ended there, but Phil couldn’t quite get it out of his head, afterward.
***
Any time the Avengers were on a mission, Phil would either direct from a quinjet nearby or the war room in the tower if it was too dangerous or impractical for him to follow. It wasn’t so different from what he had done in his previous position as a handler for SHIELD.
But then he and Clint hadn’t been together, and while he always felt a hitch in his heart when Clint had been in danger, it now carried a sharper edge. Of course, he cared about the others as well, but he wasn’t in love with them.
The thought made him smile, even while watching the various screens set up in the war room. This mission had taken a number of Avengers in different directions, and Phil needed to be in one place to coordinate all of them.
“Coulson, I’ve lost contact with Iron Man,” Cap’s voice came with determination over the comm system.
He frowned as his hands danced over the keyboard. “Iron Man?” When no response came - especially the lack of a sarcastic comment, Phil pulled the data on the tracker in his comm. It was dead, but he was able to get last known coordinates.
The Avengers had gotten word about a nasty Hydra installation in Italy, but once they found the base, it had turned out to be an AIM factory instead. An AIM factory that was doing some kind of nasty human experiments. The team had gotten caught up freeing the imprisoned, but Iron Man had gone on ahead to look for more victims.
“I’m transmitting his last known location. Jarvis, can you give me access to the security cameras at the factory? I need eyes on the inside.”
“Aw, Phil, I thought I was your eyes on the inside,” Clint’s voice came over the comm, syrupy sweet.
Phil couldn’t help the sappy smile hearing Clint brought to his face. He was lucky no one else could see him. “Stay ready, Hawkeye, I’m going to need your intel.”
“Sir,” Jarvis interrupted. “I am still working on camera access. However, data has stopped transmitting from the suit. That means it is disabled in some way…”
“Avengers,” Phil barked down the line, “new objective. Find Iron Man. Possibly without his suit. Clint...it looks like you are closest to his last known location.”
“I’m on it,” Clint said, all traces of teasing gone from his voice.
Phil waited, tapping his fingers against the desk. The chatter of the other Avengers washed over him, a soothing counterpoint to his nerves. His team of SHIELD agents was handling the larger issue, rounding up the AIM agents for questioning. Phil dispatched several quinjets for containment, and then added a medical team, just to be sure.
That turned out to be the right decision, because moments later, Jarvis got the security feed and Clint shouted, “I got him.”
“Is he all right?” Phil asked.
“We’re going to need medical. They cracked the suit like a can,” Clint said.
“Modified EMP,” Tony’s voice could be heard through Clint’s comm and Phil felt a wave of relief.
“You don’t move. You probably have a concussion,” Clint said.
“Wouldn’t be the first time.”
“All right people, wrap this up. Get Stark to the quinjet for medical treatment, and I’ll rendezvous with you at the hospital.” Phil sat back and let out a sigh of relief.
It was about then than Sunset Bain called.
***
Pepper had been the one to catch Phil on his way to the quinjet on the roof. “Phil! Is it true?” Her eyes were red-rimmed and it caught him off-guard.
For a moment his heart raced and Phil feared something horrible had happened during the five minute ride in the elevator. He caught her arms. “What? What happened?”
“Tony is...dead,” she swallowed. “Sunset Bain called. Said her mark is smudged. She’s on her way over to take control of Stark Industries.”
“She thinks her bonded is dead and that’s the first thing she has in mind?” Phil drawled. He shook his head, still questioning the vagaries of the universe. “No, Pepper. I just heard Tony speak five minutes ago.”
Anything could happen in five minutes.
“But her mark?”
A tickle crept down Phil’s spine. He couldn’t be certain until he saw Tony Stark alive and well himself. “Could be anything. We deal with the impossible every day.” Phil let out a sigh. “But I’m on my way to Rome now. Come with me and we can both see for ourselves how Tony is.”
“Agent Coulson,” Jarvis interrupted. “I need to warn you that Ms Bain is in the elevator right now. Should I route her here instead of the main offices?”
“She’s trying to fire me,” Pepper snapped, and Phil liked the fire in her eyes much better than the sorrow.
“Trust me,” he told her. “Bring her here, Jarvis, if you please.”
“Certainly, sir.”
A few moments later the elevator dinged and the door slid open. They could hear Sunset’s dulcet tones as she spoke to someone on her phone, “...and we’ll have the memorial broadcast in Times Square, you know, to make the public feel part of the ceremony…”
Phil could feel Pepper stiffen beside him. He swallowed down the wave of disgust that flowed through him and put on his best blank agent face. Phil had dealt with numerous bureaucrats and bastards just like her, and he wasn’t about to be intimidated now.
Sunset seemed realized she wasn’t alone as she stepped out into the hallway and ended her phone call hastily. She had draped herself in black, from her pantsuit, to her four-inch heels, to even the earrings dangling close to her shoulders. All she needed was a little hat and veil to look the perfect widow. “Excuse me. I believe I fired you.” She glared at Pepper.
Phil put on his best smile. “Well considering that Tony Stark is perfectly well --” God, he hoped so, “I believe any firing is premature.”
She held up her wrist, the bell sleeve artfully draping backward to reveal the smudged mark. “This says otherwise. I would like both of you to vacate this tower, now.”
“As you cannot dissolve a contract with SHIELD that easily, that gives me ample time to prove that Tony Stark is alive. We are on our way to the hospital now.”
She snarled at him. “I’m coming with you.”
“Of course.” As Phil had intended.
It was a painfully tense ride on the quinjet to Rome. Sunset refused to leave Pepper alone with Phil, so they all sat in their seats, staring at each other. Nobody dared to make small talk. Their pilot - a SHIELD agent - kept darting nervous glances backward at the silence that cut like a razor sharp knife. Phil shook his head slightly and the young woman soldiered on.
Luckily a quinjet traveled much faster than ordinary jet planes. Phil didn’t think he could take 9 hours of having to be in the same small enclosed space as Sunset Bain. Normally he and Pepper got along very well, but he would not break the silence and show how well in front of Sunset. She already had reasons to hate Pepper.
They landed on the roof of the hospital - another perk of the quinjet - and Phil quickly made his way out. Steve met him at the entrance.
“Coulson. Good to see you.” Steve had a smear of dirt on one check, and a tear across the abdomen of his uniform. Otherwise he seemed intact.
“Captain.” Phil had gotten over his hero worship of Captain America the moment he’d come to know Steve as a man. Steve the man had a wicked sense of humor, was surprisingly thoughtful, and had a stubborn streak that put Clint’s to shame. “How’s Iron Man?”
Steve blinked as the two women disembarked down the gangplank behind Phil. And that was why Phil hadn’t called ahead. Sunset would claim he was stacking the deck against her. “Concussion, I believe. I had my share of those.” He grinned and tapped the side of his head.
“What bullshit is this?” Sunset demanded. She held up her wrist again. “Tony Stark is dead. This is the proof. I...I felt the bond snap.” Her anger suddenly turned, and tears streamed from her eyes.
Phil supposed it was uncharitable of him to consider her a damn good actress.
Steve looked bewildered. “I’m sorry ma’am, but he’s not dead. You can see for yourself.” He held out his arm, but she brushed past him and down the stairs. Steve looked at Phil and Phil could only shake his head.
“Lead on, Cap. By the time she gets to the landing she’ll realize she has no idea where she’s going.” Phil said.
Phil, of course, was right. Eventually they all made it to the floor where Tony was supposedly being held. This hospital had SHIELD connections, in addition to being the closest to where the battle had taken place. When Phil showed his badge to the nurse on desk, she took them back to Tony’s room without protest.
“This is absolutely ridiculous,” Sunset had found her voice again, and continued to complain as they trooped down the hallway. “I have no idea what you intend by this farce, but I am absolutely certain of the truth and it’s….”
“Hey sugar plum, you’re alive. Could have sworn you were dead.” A fairly hale looking Tony Stark greeted them, flanked by Natasha and Clint on either side of his bed. He held out his wrist, showing the blurred mark that matched Sunset’s, the kind that only happened when one’s bonded had died, like the one on Phil’s own wrist.
Phil said a mental prayer that they hadn’t walked in to find Tony shockingly dead.
For once Sunset had nothing to say.
“Pepper, glad you’re here. Can you call the lawyers? Make sure this one hasn’t already put in any claims on my stuff.” Tony narrowed his eyes.
“This is impossible,” Sunset stammered. “How could you have? This is a trick!” She turned on Pepper. “You managed this somehow. You…”
“As you are no longer Mr. Stark’s bonded, I don’t have to be nice to you,” Pepper said, her voice like ice. “Please vacate yourself from his presence immediately, or I will have you arrested.”
“There’s my girl.”
Phil took the liberty of escorting Sunset out himself.
***
“Do you think Bruce is right? That the EMP wave somehow managed to break the bond?” It had been a long day. They finally all made it back to the tower, safe and hale, and dispersed to their own apartments. Phil sat on the edge of the bed, wearing the Captain America PJs Clint had got him as a joke.
Clint had just come out of the shower, a purple towel slung low around his waist. He looked good enough to eat, and Phil hoped neither of them turned out to be too tired for midnight extracurriculars.
At Phil’s words he stiffened, then casually walked over to the dresser and started opening drawers. “No clue. Have you ever heard of bonds breaking when someone is declared dead and then comes back? Like, with a defibrillator?”
Clint pulled out a pair of boxers from his drawer hopping - silk ones, that Phil had given him as a gift - and let the towel fall to the floor.
Phil licked his lips. He almost lost the thread of the conversation. “But Tony’s heart didn’t stop. When you found him…”
“He was unconscious. Two AIM goons standing over him. Maybe they did something. Might be in that data we pulled from the computer.” Clint pulled the boxers on, the slim fabric catching against the skin of his ass.
Phil gave in and got up, crossing the room to pull Clint toward him by the band of those boxers. “Come here. You know I can’t think straight with you wearing those.”
Clint chuckled softly, and leaned in for a kiss. After a mission, it was always like this, the two of them, hands on skin, needing to feel each other’s heartbeat, to know they were alive. Without a bond, they would need this tangible thing to know where they stood.
Afterward, when Phil lay under the covers, a snoring Clint next to him, he worried. Clint was the only one with Tony when the bond snapped. Thankfully they’d kept that information private, or Sunset Bain would have included him in the lawsuit she’d filed against Tony. Phil didn’t know why she bothered, no court could reverse a broken bond.
But still, Clint had been unusually quiet afterward, when everyone else had loudly celebrated having Sunset out of Tony’s life. Phil couldn’t shake the feeling that Clint was hiding something, something more than just lacking a true bonding mark.
***
It all started because of a conversation they were not meant to hear.
Life had mostly returned to normal in the Tower. They hadn’t been called to assemble, but Sunset Bain had been banned from the property, and the tension that had been in the hallways had dissipated. Everyone had their own theories about what had happened, and the only worry was that if AIM could somehow weaponize this and break bonds willy nilly.
Bruce had volunteered to do some research and Phil had asked to be kept informed on what he found. He didn’t like the dark circles under Clint’s eyes, or how Clint often kept to the shadows more so than usual.
What had Clint seen at that factory?
Whatever had happened, Phil would do his best to keep Clint’s mind off of things. So he’d dragged Clint down to the common room for a movie with the hopes that the other Avengers would stop by and keep watching. Instead, they both fell asleep on the couch, spooned together while the movie played to a stop.
Which was why Tony and Pepper didn’t realize they weren’t alone when they entered the room.
Phil heard their arguing from a distance at first, as he surfaced from sleep.
“What do you mean, Pep? You won’t give me another chance? You know I didn’t want anything to do with that woman, it was just...destiny.”
“Exactly, Tony. Have you forgotten I still have a mark?”
“So, what you’re holding out for your soulmate?”
“You don’t understand,” she snapped. “It’s not that I’m desperate to meet them. But if we get back together and that person walks into my life and just screws everything up and I don’t even have a choice in the matter…”
Phil came to full wakefulness. He felt Clint sniffen next to him. At this point he didn’t know if the best course of action would be to pretend they were still asleep or reveal himself.
Clint evidently decided on the latter.
He sprang to his feet, and Phil followed in solidarity. “I’m sorry,” Clint said and at first, Phil thought he meant for the eavesdropping.
Tony and Pepper turned and stared at them and Phil felt bound to explain. “We fell asleep on the couch. I assure you we didn’t mean to overhear.”
Clint had stepped forward, something wild in his eyes. “You didn’t want that bond with Sunset, right Tony? If you’d had the choice?”
Stark looked at Clint. “Of course not.”
“It wasn’t healthy,” Clint shook his head. “Like...like my parents and my brother. You shouldn’t have been forced to be with someone so cruel.”
Tony’s eyes softened. “It’s all right now, Clint. AIM’s gadget or whatever it was did me a favor.”
“Clint, are you all right?” Pepper stepped forward and held out her hand.
To Phil’s surprise, Clint took it. “And you, Pepper, if you could, would you choose to bond with Tony?”
She smiled and even from where Phil stood he could see her eyes were watery. “Oh, Clint, if only it were that easy. But the world doesn’t work like that.”
“But if it did and it could, would you?” Clint hadn’t let go of her hand. Instead he reached out toward Tony.
Tony grasped Clint’s hand and chuckled, “What, are you marrying us? It doesn’t...hey!”
“Oh, my wrist. It’s warm.” Pepper looked down and her eyes widened.
Phil stepped forward. What was happening? It couldn’t be what he thought it was. “Clint?”
Abruptly Clint let go of both of their hands. He shook his head and stepped back, his mouth opening and closing. “I’m sorry!” He ran from the room.
Phil took two steps toward him before Tony let out a, “Holy hell.”
Pepper had grabbed Tony’s wrist and was comparing it with her own. The tears that had threatened before were streaming down her face. “Tony. Phil. How?”
When Phil got closer, he could see her bonding mark had changed and now Tony had one to match. Somehow, Clint had bound them together as soulmates.
***
No one had seen Clint for days. Phil regretted letting him leave that night, even though he knew Clint well enough that if Clint didn’t want to be found, then even Phil wouldn’t be able to find him. He didn’t blame Clint for hiding. With the sudden revelation that Pepper and Tony had bonded, things had gotten a little bit out of hand.
Tony Stark was in the public eye in a different way than the other Avengers. He had been a media darling since his youth, and the scandal about the broken bond had hit the tabloids. Now he had to announce his new bond, and it was another media sensation.
“Honestly, Agent, I’m grateful to him,” Tony said, juggling toast in the communal kitchen.
Phil sipped his coffee thoughtfully. “How are you spinning it?”
“AIM tech that has already been destroyed, so, oops, nobody can take a look at it.” Tony shrugged. “What can you do?”
Bruce settled in next to Phil at the breakfast bar. He’d been brewing tea and it had taken him some time to get it together. The scent of was lovely - like flowers and mint, but nothing Phil would want to actually drink. He preferred his brew highly caffeinated. “How did he do it?” Bruce sipped slowly. “There’s actual literature on Bondbreakers, but a bond creator…”
He got that faraway look in his eyes that Phil recognized from watching Bruce and Tony brainstorm.
“Well if Clint would actually show his ass around here,” Tony said, looking up at the ceiling as he raised his voice, “He might be able to explain it.”
“I don’t think he knows,” Phil said, chewing over Clint’s startled reaction. Clint had been so skittish since the breaking of Tony’s bond, and now Phil understood why. If it became public knowledge that Clint was a Bondbreaker, he could be put in jail or worse.
Phil would never let that happen. And he needed Clint to know that.
“Hmmm,” Bruce murmured.
“Is that a Hmmm or a HMMM?” Tony tilted his head to one side.
“It means I need to do some research.” Bruce stood, taking his cup of tea with him. He nodded at Phil before leaving the kitchen, with Tony at his heels, demanding to know exactly what kind of research he had planned.
It was so good to see Tony acting like himself again. Phil would never ever admit it, but he’d missed this - Tony snarking about something and raving about science. When Sunset was around, he’d retreated into a shadow of himself.
Like the bond was somehow harming him. Phil rubbed his chin as several pieces started to come together in his mind. Perhaps that explained what he knew lie in Clint’s past.
Natasha entered the kitchen, dressed in workout clothes and wiping sweat from her forehead with a towel she slung around her neck. Usually Clint would be with her. Seeing her alone meant Clint hadn’t shown up for their morning sparring session.
She pulled a protein shake out of the fridge, downed it, and then frowned at Phil. “He won’t talk to me.”
Phil blinked. “You tried?” Did she know where Clint was hiding?
“I wanted him to know I wasn’t mad at him. Except, I kind of am, for not telling me in the first place.”
Phil chuckled. Clint and Natasha were like brother and sister in so many ways. “You know why he wouldn’t tell you. Your bond was taken away from you.”
Along with so many other things in the Red Room.
“Yes, but not by Clint. And if he can make bonds….Then he is more than a destroyer.” She tossed the empty bottle in the trash. “But I couldn’t get him to come out of the ceiling.”
Phil drained his coffee. “Clint is like a stray cat. If you leave food outside for him long enough, he may come in and grace you with his presence. But if you try to grab him, he’ll only run away.”
Natasha smiled, something sly and wide. “I thought I was the cat.”
Phil shook his head as he left the kitchen. “You’ll ever be the spider, Natashenka.”
***
Phil gave it one more day before deciding he couldn’t let Clint stew any longer. Especially with the special guest Bruce had invited to the tower. Phil never doubted his love for Clint, but he damn well knew Clint often doubted his own self-worth. He’d heard too many “I’m not good enough for you”s to be satisfied with letting Clint stew for too long.
So he gathered together his most comfortable blanket, a selection of Clint’s favorite take-out foods, and his tablet loaded with the most recent episode of Dog Cops. Then Phil settled under the open vent in their apartment bedroom. Even if Clint had hid in the most remote corners of the vent system in the tower, Phil knew he’d return to watch Phil sleep.
“In this episode, I heard that Captain Chihuahua gets promoted.” Phil, like Tony had before him, directed his words up toward the ceiling.
No response.
Phil surreptitiously tapped the app on the tablet that he’d set up earlier with Jarvis. It showed a warm heat signature in the ceiling above. Ah, Clint was nearby and listening. Phil wasn’t just talking to himself.
“I’d much rather be watching this with you cuddling next to me.” Phil set the tablet down, tilted so even Clint couldn’t see the screen. He gestured to the tray of food beside him. “I know you can smell that. I got all of your favorites. I even stopped at that gourmet hot dog place.”
Phil picked up one of the plastic forks and started to fiddle with it. “You know I wouldn’t let anything happen to you. SHIELD has resources. You’re a valued agent. Just because you’re a Bondbreaker…”
He trailed off. That wasn’t the tactic he wanted to use. “I knew something was wrong,” he said softly. “Every time someone brought up bonds you’d retreat. I thought it was just because of your parents. Clint, you know as your handler I had access to all of your records, right? Even the financial ones. I know about the money you send every month to Alicia Barton.”
“She’s my niece,” Clint’s voice came from the vent.
Well. That was a start. “Her mother was...bonded to your brother?”
“I walked in on him beating her. While she was pregnant. He stood over her, his hand squeezed into a fist, and I just...snapped. I rushed him, and somehow...that was the first time I broke a bond. I didn’t mean it, but…”
“You couldn’t let him keep hurting her.” Of course not. Not his Clint.
“It got me kicked out of the circus. Only reason they didn’t turn me in was because of the code. After I joined SHIELD I looked her up. She’d left him and had the baby on her own, and I felt she deserved better than Barney.”
Clint had poked his head through the vent cover and stared down at Phil. Phil felt the distance between them like a physical pang.
“Come on down, Clint. I brought food.”
“Well. If you brought food.” A rare smile graced Clint’s lips and he finally, finally, came out of the vents.
He settled down next to Phil on the blankets and Phil wrapped Clint up in his arms, breathing deeply of Clint’s scent, getting notes of dust along with sweat and grime. Clint really needed a shower, but right now Phil did not want him to move.
“We would never kick you out,” he said, words whispered against Clint’s ears. He could feel the tension drain out of Clint. “And even if they did, I would follow you to the ends of the Earth.”
“Nat said the same thing.” There was still a tightness to Clint’s voice.
“The two of you had better not leave without me.” Phil injected a lightness in his voice.
“Never.”
Phil started up the episode of Dog Cops and they ate through most of the takeout. It almost felt like normal. Clint laughed at the antics of Sergeant Shar Pei and Patrolman Pug. He rewound a scene a few times just to watch the French Poodle slide across the wet floor. Phil even chuckled.
The episode ended and Phil slid his hand down to Clint’s wrist. “It’s a tattoo,” Clint admitted. “I didn’t want anyone knowing why I was missing a mark.”
He shifted in Phil’s arms and took hold of Phil’s wrist, frowning at the blurred mark there. It was an old pain, more about what could have been. But Phil was happy right where he was. “You know I love you,” he said.
Clint frowned. “I can’t...I don’t know how I bonded Tony and Pepper. That’s never happened before. I’ve only been able to break bonds.”
“Have you ever tried before?”
Clint shook his head.
Phil swallowed. “Bruce wanted me to tell you that he’s bringing someone to the tower tomorrow he wants you to meet. He says they might be able to answer all of our questions. Will you come?”
Clint looked down. “I think I’m going to have to.”
“I’ll be right beside you,” Phil promised.
Clint beamed. “I know.”
***
Bruce met them outside of the specialty conference rooms meant for Avengers use. To both Phil and Clint’s surprise, he greeted Clint with a hug. Clint looked over at Phil who could only shrug. It was about time Clint realized how valued he was by his fellow teammates.
“Thank you.” Bruce pulled away. “For what you did for Tony.”
“I didn’t…”
“You did. You told destiny ‘up yours’ and he really appreciates it. He just shows his gratitude in weird ways,” Bruce warned.
Clint sighed. “Is there going to be something weird delivered to my apartment while I’m here? Again?”
Phil coughed. Tony already had a box of sex toys and lubes delivered the night before, once Jarvis had reported that Clint had climbed out of the vents.
Bruce laughed. “I’m talking about how he flew in an expert for us. I’ll be honest, I think I’m getting an academic paper out of this.”
Clint stiffened.
“Trust me,” Bruce said softly. He opened the door and gestured inside. “Clint Barton. Phil Coulson, I’d like you to meet Thandiwe of Wakanda.”
Phil didn’t know what to expect when Bruce had told him he’s found an expert, but it hadn’t been the diminutive African woman on the other side of the door. She’d been sitting at the conference table with a cup of what smelled like Bruce’s special tea and rose to greet them when the door opened. Her dress was a brilliant green, embroidered in zig zag patterns, and her hair had been swept up in a matching headscarf.
“Pleasure to meet you.”
“Wakanda?” Phil narrowed his eyes. “You’ve come a very long way.”
She nodded with a smile. “I had to. This young man is very persistent.” Thandiwe had a beautiful lilt to her voice that made Phil think of music. “And I had to come and see for myself a Western Bond Maker.”
“Thandiwe is a Bond Maker and scholar at the Wakanda University. I found her work in an online repository. There is an entire school of thought regarding Bondbreakers...” Bruce spoke excitedly.
Thandiwe shook her head. “In Wakanda, we don’t have such odd ideas about Bond Makers. They are rare, something to be celebrated, not feared. If trained properly.”
“That’s not how things are here.” Clint swallowed, his voice rough.
She stepped forward and held out her hands. Clint took them and he looked up startled. “Ah, yes, you have the spark. You see them, don’t you? The threads that connect humans together.”
Clint nodded.
“Threads?” Phil asked.
Clint turned to him. “Everyone with a bond has them. I can see the connections between people. Most are bright blue. The ones that have ended in death are red, like yours. And bonds like the kind Tony had with Sunset are puke green.”
Phil was floored. If Clint could actually see physical manifestations of bonds, well, that was quite the gift.
“Some are healthy and well nourished. Others are sick and need to be plucked like weeds.” Thandiwe snapped her fingers. “Those with the ability to see like us have a responsibility to make sure no diseased bonds are allowed to flourish.”
“That’s not how things are here,” Clint murmured.
“Mmmm.” She nodded at Bruce, “He tells me you’ve already managed to create a bond. You know that is not something easily done.”
“It’s not done at all,” Clint said. “I mean, I’ve never even knew it was possible.”
“But are you willing to learn?”
Clint’s eyes went wide. “What?”
“Answer the question.” Her eyes were like steel. “Are you willing the learn the responsibilities and skills of a Bond Maker?”
He swallowed and looked over to Phil. Phil didn’t know what to do. This decision could only lie in Clint’s hands.
“Yes,” Clint finally said. “I don’t want to be tortured by it any more, to be afraid that I might accidentally snap someone’s bond.”
She nodded. “Then I will train you.”
***
“She actually invited me to Wakanda. Nobody’s ever been to Wakanda,” Clint was especially chatty that evening as he and Phil got ready for bed.
“Will you go?” Phil asked as he got into his pajamas, another joke gift from the rest of the Avengers. This one was covered in all of the various logos Tony had ordered for each member of the team. Phil still didn’t quite know what to think about Avengers merchandise. At least all the proceeds went to charity.
Clint sat on the edge of the bed. “I think so. I want to learn what she has to teach me. And I don’t want to be afraid anymore.”
Phil sat next to him and placed his hand on Clint’s knee, needing to ground himself in physical touch. “I’m glad. You know I only want the best for you. Did she say how long you’ll be in training?”
“It depends on how well it goes. Guess the Avengers will need another archer for a while,” Clint joked.
“I’ll work with Pepper on the PR spin. By the time you get back, we’ll have the entire country on your side. Clint, you can single handedly change how Bondbreakers are seen.” Phil was stupidly proud of Clint.
Clint grinned and leaned into Phil, but then his shoulders fell. “Phil. She told me something else. Bond Makers like me? We can’t ever be bonded. That’s why no mark. It’s not something I can do either, join myself to someone else.”
“Oh,” Phil understood the hesitation now. “You know that’s not something I need, right? I made my peace with that a long time ago.”
He got to his feet. Clint looked up at him, his eyes wary. “I know. I just would have liked to give that to you.”
“Are you saying you’d bond with me if you could?”
“Of course.”
Phil went over to the end table and pulled out a tiny black box. He then knelt in front of Clint and presented him with the ring. “Then Clinton Francis Barton, will you do me the honor of being my husband?”
“You jerk!” Clint exclaimed.
“Is that a yes?”
“Stay right there.” Clint got up and went over to the dresser. He returned with a silver box of his own, opening it to reveal a silver ring with a tiny purple gem set in it.
“Oh, Clint.” Phil let the box fall to the bed as he grasped Clint by the shoulders. They kissed, and all was right with the world.
end