Actions

Work Header

Aw, snowball

Summary:

Clint Barton just wants to walk his dog.

Work Text:

Clint Barton just wants to walk his dog. Unfortunately, when your ex-Russian super assassin comes barreling through the window with snow crusted to her hair and bright spots of cold on her cheeks and her nose, walks get postponed in favour of staring in dismay at the screen that used to be over your window. He's got his keys in one hand and the leash in another, and Nat's glaring at him in affront, arms crossed in front of her.

Look, it's not his fault building code says the windows have to have screens. 

"Hey, Nat," he says belatedly, just before he hears a yell of "I'm going to get you!" and a snowball comes sailing in the window after her. It's a fairly well packed one, judging from the way it smacks into the wall. 

Realization dawns with her slowly growing grin. "No," he says, looking around for wherever his dog has gotten to. "I'm taking Lucky for a walk," he says. Barking from outside tells him that maybe just maybe Natasha has already conscripted his dog, and Kate's unmistakable shriek means there's already at least one Hawkeye involved in the fight, and Natasha's grin has grown into a full fledged smirk. "No," he says one more time, but Nat clearly takes that to mean, 'Of course, Natasha, I am excited by the idea of getting frozen snow crammed into my face, why aren't we already outside,' because she says "You, me, and Kate against Steve, Sam, and Bucky." 

"What about Lucky," he asks, because clearly this is happening no matter how many times he says no. Nat punches the air, because she's immature and also a sore winner (shut up, those exist) and says "Steve and Sam want him but I think we can flip him." Nat's all about the double agents, so this isn't really surprising at all. Clint sighs like he's not actually pretty psyched at the concept of a super hero snowball fight, and gets hit in the face with his gloves for his efforts. The two of them 'sneak' out the back door, skulking through the shadows, and it's just as they're leaning around to get a glimpse of the war zone that Clint gets pegged in the back of the head, hard. Nat's got two handfuls of snow in seconds after the unmistakable sound of Bucky Barnes cackling pierces the air, but the menace is already out of sight--apparently he's taken up residence on the roof of Clint's building, because there's a four foot high wall of sculpted snow providing cover up there that Clint knows for a fact wasn't there last night. 

His startled yelp brings two things around the corner: Kate, and a handful of snow that Clint dodges by dropping prone. This leaves him in prime position to snag Sam when he comes around the corner, and he makes sure that Sam gets a face-full of snow when he topples. He knows where two of the three enemies are, and where two of his three team members are, if you include himself in that count: Natasha has vanished, off no doubt to devastate Barnes from where he thinks he's invulnerable, so Kate and Clint bolt without having to stop and consult. Sam's still sputtering and Clint hasn't gone from on his stomach to at a dead sprint this fast since the last time the coffeemaker overflowed.

It's an hour and a half before he sees Natasha again, and another three hours after that before they call a ceasefire, citing desire to retain limbs and maybe not catch pneumonia before they're back inside, but on the plus side Lucky gets enough exercise that he doesn't even need the walk he misses.

Series this work belongs to: