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The first transformation, for Clint, was quiet jarring, especially since he was a 10-year-old child when he had been turned. But by now the whole thing was so routine the archer didn’t think twice about it.
Now though, living in a tower with four, and occasionally a fifth person and an A.I who could see everything at any time, Clint had to be careful when leaving for the full moon. Before as only a SHIELD agent it had been no trouble to slip away for the nights of the full moon.
With another night of the full moon coming, Clint needed out of the tower before nightfall, but it would be a challenge since tonight was a team bonding night with movies running well into the early morning hours.
“Hey Birdbrain, ready for movie night tonight?” Tony greeted, getting things set up for the movie marathon.
“Sorry Tony, but, uh I won’t be making it to the movies tonight.” Clint admitted after a moments pause. Silently praying that he wouldn’t be questioned too much, since there was no way he was getting away without being questioned.
As expected, Tony immediately began questioning the archer. “What do you mean you won’t be making movie night? What’s going on where you, of all people, skip out on movie night?”
“Last minute mission from SHIELD, you know how it is, I better get going before Fury gets anymore into a fit then what he probably already is.” Clint quickly gave a half assed answer that should cover him for the next two nights now.
Taking the chance Clint left the tower before Tony could question him for more details, the wolf growing more antsy, just itching to come out to play. Without realizing it Clint set it up for Tony to go question Fury about a supposed mission. One that didn’t exist.
There was truly nothing more exhilarating for the wolf then running through the trees in central park, wind blowing over his dirty blond fur.
Weaving through the trees, Clint came to the pond in the center. Seeing the water Clint indulged in his inner wolf and ran into the water so to splash around and bite at the flying water droplets. While in mid-bite, the wolf suddenly went on edge.
Ears perked and swiveling, snout raised to smell the surrounding area, the werewolf caught the growing familiarity of the scent of his new teammates. With how close they were, there would be no way for Clint to get away without them noticing a large wolf running into the tree line.
It only took a minute more before the rest of the Avengers came within sight of Clint and them him. Both parties were frozen, staring at one another from where they stood, no one knowing what to do, so stayed motionless.
“Uh, Nat, you sure our archer friend didn’t ditch that tracker and stick it on a random wolf?” leave it to Tony to be the first to break the growing silence. Thankful for the fact that while in wolf form his hearing came close to most others average hearing.
“Tony,” Natasha sighed in exacerbation. “There was no possible way for Clint to know I placed a tracker on him.” She stated, not once taking her eyes off the wolf a few feet away from her.
While the Avengers talked amongst themselves, Clint’s inner wolf was urging him to flee before the threat can take notice, but the human part was telling him to stay. If he tried to make a run for it then it would be all over for him.
Before Clint could decide how to proceed, Cap got everyone’s attention. “Everyone fan out around it, we can’t let a wolf run around Central park. Tony, check for any reports for a missing wolf from zoo’s or preserves, Thor, I need you to pin it so Nat can bind its legs and mouth shut. We’ll bring it back with us to the tower for now. Both of you be careful to not let it bite you.” Cap instructed.
“I had JARVIS run through any reports for a missing wolf and there are none,” Tony chipped in. “and while I was at it had him scan it. This wolf is considerably larger than any wolf breed, we’ll need to run some blood tests when we get back.”
Knowing nothing good would come from being brought back to the tower and having his blood drawn, Clint needed to get away, but he was already surrounded and couldn’t break from the circle without hurting his teammates.
“Are we sure this is the best way to go about this?” Tony questioned, watching the wolf in the middle of the circle carefully, as its ears pinned back and lowered its body towards the ground. Giving the appearance of submission but could easily turn.
Glaring at Tony, Natasha answered in a snappy tone. “Then help Thor to pin it so I can get it restrained all the sooner so we can get back out here and look for Clint.”
“Focus guys, we don’t need it escaping on us.” Steve brought their attention back to the matter at hand. “Tony, Thor you two get it pinned so Natasha and I can restrain it.”
Whining pitifully, Clint couldn’t see any way to get out of this without possibly hurting one or more of them so not to get his blood drawn and the secret of his lycanthropy out. But there was nothing he could do to escape the inevitable.
Allowing himself to be pinned to the ground and restrained without a struggle, Clint stayed perfectly still during it and the trip back to Avengers tower being held over the shoulders of the Iron Man suit with Thor flying next to Tony. The other two opting to stay behind to continue looking for him.
Once they reached the landing pad, Clint was switched over to Thor, so to allow Tony to get out of the Iron Man armor before they walked through the tower and to the lab Bruce was holed up in.
“Brucey, got something we need to do some test on.” Tony announced bounding into the lab and bringing Bruce’s attention onto the genius billionaire.
“What-?” Bruce started but cut himself off when he saw Thor walk in behind Tony with a large, tied up wolf across the god’s shoulders. “Tony? Why is there a wolf?” he questioned.
Instructing Thor to place the animal on one of the open tables, Tony answered Bruce. “Somehow our archer ditched his tracker and found a wolf instead. According to JARVIS it’s much larger than a normal wolf and no reports of any missing.”
“So, you want to run tests on it?” Bruce inquired making sure he was hearing that correctly.
“That is correct big green.” Tony casually said, gathering the supplies they’d need.
Like most things, Bruce had learned on how to handle Tony, he just rolled with it and prepared to keep the damage control to a certain point.
As the two scientists approached the tied wolf, Bruce was warily eyeing it, continuously glancing between it and Thor, who still stood next to the animal, giving him some comfort that the god could easily pin it if it tried struggling or possibly escaped.
Watching the wolf, Bruce could see what Tony meant by the wolf in front of them was not a normal wolf. The animal was watching the three of them very carefully and hadn’t moved an inch from what Bruce had seen.
The whole process of drawing blood was also quite easy as the wolf still had not moved, even with the prick of a needle. It was still reassuring having the thunder god standing nearby for the timid scientist.
Clint knew he was done for, there was no point in fighting against having his blood drawn to attempt to hide who he was. Once his blood was drawn and the other avengers found out what he was, he’d have to leave the team, hide out from SHIELD to avoid being a test subject. He’d have to keep on constant move less they catch up to him.
While his main focus was coming up with multiple contingency plans on how to get out, what he’d do to make money on the run and where he’d go to keep SHIELD and the other Avengers off his tail, metaphorically and literally, Clint continued to keep track of the other three people and what they were doing in the lab.
“This can’t be right. There’s no way it’s possible. JARVIS run this again for me.” Tony’s skepticism caught Bruce’s attention, drawing him over to the other man.
“What’s wrong Tony?” Bruce asked coming up next to Tony.
Practically shoving the result papers in his face, Tony started ranting, even catching Thor’s attention from where he stood off to the side. “The blood that we drew from the wolf, what it showed from the test runs can’t be right, there’s no possible way this can be, something had to have gone wrong.” Pacing the floor while Bruce looked over what came from the tests.
A look of bewilderment filled Bruce’s face as he read the results, now making Thor wonder what passed between the two scientists.
“How could this be? It shouldn’t be possible.” Bruce stated.
“Which is why I’m having JARVIS run the results again. I need a fresh sample to test again.” Tony said, trailing off at the end as he turned back to the bound wolf to draw more blood from the animal.
Between two different blood drawing and multiple tests on the blood between Tony, Bruce and JARVIS, all showed the same results from the first run they did.
“We need to call the others back.” Bruce was the first to acknowledge the fact that the team needed to get together to discuss what they found. There was no way to ignore the information in front of them any longer.
While Tony called Steve and Natasha back, the three filed into the elevator to meet on the common floor to comfortable talk about the finding results of the wolf, who tried his best to fold into himself as much as he could in the current position, he was in.
The other two must have been close by the tower since they made it back in almost record time, yet while they waited the remaining three waited in silence since the two scientists were busy running over what they found out from the blood tests.
“Tony, what did you find that was so urgent?” Steve asked as he and Natasha stepped out of the elevator and into the common floor.
True to Tony Stark fashion he immediately jumped into the explanation, “When JARVIS did a scan originally it showed that the wolf we found was abnormal so me and Bruce ran a blood test, but with the results that came in couldn’t be correct, so we ran it again, with JARVIS running it as well and every time it came up the same, but it shouldn’t be possible.”
Natasha was the first to get irritated from Tony’s rambling, snapping at him. “Tony! Get on with why you called us here.”
“The blood test results showed it was Clint’s blood we ran.” Bruce finished, knowing Tony wouldn’t give them the answer anytime soon.
“So, what? You’re telling us that werewolves are real, and Clint is one?” Steve’s confused voice was the first to break the silence that fell over the group.
“How can the man of Hawks change into an animal?” Thor was the next to question things.
Tony jumped into the explanation to Thor’s question. “Back in 60 AD werewolves first came to mention in Europe of someone who would change into a wolf on nights of the full moon because they were bitten by another werewolf that infected them.”
“Though by lore, most werewolves don’t keep their human mind and memories during the transformation.” Bruce added, thinking of the werewolf tied up in the lab a few floors below them.
“That might not be a problem,” Natasha started. “from his reactions earlier when we had him surrounded and tied up, he stayed in one place without struggling.”
Steve interjected into the conversation to give his input. “It also could have just as easily been the animal since we outnumbered him. I think it would be safer to wait until morning which,” glancing down at the watch he was wearing to see exactly what time it was, “is about two hours off. We can talk to Clint about this once he’s, uh, less furry.”
“But Steeevvveeeee.” Tony whined partially playing up the immature act. “There’s still so much that Brucey and me can do until Clint is less furry and more human shaped.”
“We’ve all been up for too long; you can wait for a few hours.” Steve persisted.
With that everyone split to get some rest while they could since when next they’d go down to the lab to confront Clint about his full moon activities, it would be a draining talk.
Down in the lab Clint was mentally freaking out. There was no way that they didn’t know it was him and soon the other Avengers would all know, the life he built was over. But with him still being tied up he was at their mercy, and even if he could have fought his way out the possibility of infecting them was too great of a chance.
As more time passed the weariness Clint felt grew harder to ignore. Between the energy it took for the initial transformation, running through Central Park and the adrenaline rush from the fight or flight response, eventually the exhaustion won out and Clint fell into a fitful rest.
Just as Steve had promised after the team of superheroes got a few hours rest, they gathered back in the common area so to head into the lab together to get some answers from their archer.
The sight that greeted the heroes when they entered the lab was a now human Clint, still tied up, naked and asleep on the table he was placed on the night before.
Natasha, never one to shy away from a situation, made the first move, going over to a shelf Tony kept well stocked with blankets. Grabbing one and going over to Clint she laid the blanket over his lower body before shaking the blond away so they’d be able to get this whole thing done and over with.
Almost instantly from when Natasha lay her hand on Clint’s shoulder did, he wake up and survey the room taking note of all who was in there and where they were.
As the awkward and tense silence continued to build, Tony couldn’t take it anymore and broke it with a smart remark. “If we untie you, you’re not gonna get bitey on us, are you? Cause if so, we can always have point break here pin you down.”
“Not now Tony.” Natasha bit out in a hiss towards the billionaire.
What did catch the team’s attention though was the laugh that broke out from Clint from the other man’s joke. “I’ll do my best as long as you untie me.” His voice light, helping to break the tenseness in the room.
In unspoken agreement, they released Clint from the binds of rope and watched as he sat up, rubbing away some of the soreness from his wrists.
“Now then!” Tony said, clapping his hands together and getting everyone’s attention to focus on him. “Ever planning on telling us about this whole thing where you turn furry a few nights a month?”
Looking down and away from the group, they could see Clint bodily shutting himself away from them, the answer was clear enough without him having to say anything.
Steve, Tony and Natasha all felt a pang from Clint’s distrust, but Natasha buried that feeling and Steve and Tony could understand in different ways why Clint wouldn’t tell them something this big. While Bruce was the closest to truly understanding why the werewolf would do that. For all they knew the archer hadn’t even told SHIELD.
Being the practical one, Steve was the next to ask a question before the others did. “Does SHIELD know about this? Um, you?”
Looking back to the others Clint answered. “I haven’t told anyone, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Fury knew. Hard to hide anything from him and that prying eye of his.” Getting a choked off laugh from Tony and a small smile from Bruce, Thor and Steve blanked face and Natasha hard pressed not to roll her eyes at her partner.
“It’s safe to assume then that the transformations are like the mythology we know and based on the phases of the moon and at sunrise you change back to human. Do you remember what happens during the transformations? Are you in control or the animal during the night?” Bruce spoke up from near the back of the group.
“I’m in full control and remember everything, like I’m still me, just furrier.” He ended with a shrug.
He could see Bruce’s mind whirl with different theories about the mythology and what Clint could prove or disprove about them.
A rising feeling of fear and panic threatened to overwhelm him, but the rational part of his brain argued that there’s no way either scientist would do anything to harm him in any way, even when they got carried away on a project, but paranoia was not kind to anyone.
Clint only focused back in when he caught Natasha trying to catch his attention by waving her hand in front of his face.
“Man of Hawks,” Thor spoke up now, while Tony and Bruce talked off to the side, most likely theorizing about werewolves and all that entailed for the fact they were real and living in modern day. “How long have you been able to change into this formidable beast?”
Looking just over the gods shoulder, Clint’s gaze grew blurry as he got lost in memories of when he was first bitten. “It was a long time ago when I was pretty young, happened after I joined the circus.” Physically shaking himself from the memories, Clint focused back in on the others in the room.
“So, Legolas,” Tony started coming back over to the others having supposedly finished the conversation with Bruce. “you are going to need a new nickname now since you tend to go to the furry side every now and then.” Helping break up the tension that had been building since Thor’s question.
Giving the billionaire a dead pan look, Clint was secretly grateful for the save, the archer made sure to look at Nat since she’d play along. “Give it your best shot, still better going furry once a month then flying in that tin can you got there.”
Placing a hand over the arc reactor in his chest, Tony spoke with playful sarcasm in his voice. “How dare you! And here I was about to play a game of fetch with you no less, oh well, your loss, I can just play fetch with DUM-E instead of you.” Turning away from the archer supposedly in search for a ball to play with the bot.
“Wow Stark how dare you assume I’d be like a dog and just play fetch like that. I sir, am a wolf, we do not play fetch.” Putting on a clearly fake snobbish voice.
“You say that now, but when we first saw you, you were splashing around in the water.” Tony retorted.
“Phhtt, you don’t know what you’re talking about.” Clint rebutted.
Steve ended up stepping between the two before they could continue. “Alright children that’s enough now.”
Tony, as childish as ever, pouted to Steve. “Aww, but Steeeevvveeee.” He whined with a smirk.
“Not gonna work Tony.” Steve casually threw as he walked away from the other man.
As the bantering continued Clint relaxed more and more. There were probably still questions that needed to be answered and some possible rough patches with his nightly transformations, but overall everything would settle back down to what they considered normal.