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Thor was cleaning when Phil Coulson and Clint Barton entered the tower after a long day of work and that only meant one thing; Jane Foster was coming for a visit; which also meant that Darcy Lewis was coming to the tower and Phil was very fond of her. Clint told himself he wasn't jealous of Darcy, Natasha laughs every time he denies it.
Usually Clint knew why his partner would like or dislike a person, but he had no idea why the man liked Darcy Lewis. The two were almost total opposites, the only thing they seemed to have in common was their love of tasers. Clint was baffled.
"Slow down big guy, Jane won't be here for another two hours; you can't possibly get this place any nicer." Tony looked slightly alarmed by how hard Thor was scrubbing at the counters in the communal kitchen; it wouldn't be the first time he had to replace them because of Thor's enthusiasm.
"My apologies Tony, I seem to be doing the 'over doing it's again. I will stop." Thor had been getting better at picking up on how things worked on Earth, putting up air quotes with your hands was one of them. Clint felt oddly proud to have taught him that.
...
Three hours later found Clint hiding his jealousy again as Darcy Lewis was tightly hugging Phil for giving her a new iPod, complete with all the perks. Natasha didn't even bother hiding her amusement.
"And it’s green!" Phil smiled softly at Darcy's excitement and finally gave in to hugging her back.
"I do believe I owed you another one." Darcy beamed at him and then ran over to Thor to teach him how to play Temple Run.
"That was nice of you Agent, although I would have given you a Stark Play if you just asked." All of the Avengers knew what Tony felt about any other product besides his own, especially when it came to weapons or music players.
"She wanted an iPod Tony, if I had a choice I would have given her one of your products. They always perform better." Tony looked proud, and Clint could see that Phil was sincere.
"So what's the story between you and Darcy anyways?" Let in never be misunderstood that Tony wasn't blunt and to the point, Clint had been meaning to ask that for weeks when he came into a video chat between the two.
"She's a companion Stark, we all need those."
...
"So where were you?" Clint didn't mean to snap, but he had been sitting alone in bed for a few hours without any clue to where Phil was.
"I was out on a run." Clearly Phil had heard his irritation. To anyone else Phil looked his usual bland self but Clint knew him well enough to catch onto his anger.
"I didn't mean to snap at you Phil; I guess I'm just..." Clint's apology was interrupted by a kiss.
"No more talking." Clint couldn't help but obey.
...
"You're jealous." Clint glared at Natasha but he couldn't deny it. Jane and Darcy were only going to be here for a week and Phil seemed determined to spend most of that week with Darcy.
"Should I worry?" Clint was spying on the pair across the street in an antique store while they were drinking coffee.
"No." She was going Clint the 'you're an idiot, but you're my idiot look.'
...
Since the temperature wasn’t too cold out for December so Clint decided to clear his head for the night. Phil was working late and Natasha refused to be seen with him because his 'observation skills were clearly lacking.'
The park was relatively empty and the archer enjoyed how quiet it was, so he was quite startled to hear a high pitched sounds coming from the bushes up ahead.
Because he was a Super Hero now, Clint ran towards the noise. When he got there he saw two very large and very angry dogs trying to test apart what looked like a cat of some sort.
Said cat was making it very difficult for the dogs to do any damage. It was difficult to tell in the dark but he was pretty sure one of them was bleeding. If he had his bow the easiest course of action would be to shoot a few warning arrows, instead he decided to just throw some well-aimed rocks.
Once the dogs had run away Clint walked over to the cat and was startled to see a fox instead. The fox was extremely calm and actually leaned onto the hand Clint offered to smell.
"I probably shouldn't put a hand near you, but you’re a friendly fella." The fox looked at him and then nodded. "Can you understand me?" The fox gave another yard.
By the time Clint got over his state of shock, the fox had run away.
...
"There are more of you running around, right?" Phil's only response to Clint dropping down from the ceiling was the raise of an eyebrow.
"You might want to elaborate on this one Clint." Phil was clearly amused and it only made the archer more nervous.
"Well, like animal people or whatever. I mean there has to be more than just you." Phil sighed and saved whatever he was doing to pay full attention to Clint. It made him smile.
"Yes there are more of us out there. We've had this conversation before, or were you not listening?" Clint knew he was blushing now.
"Well I've always assumed it was just wolves or something, and I was in the park last night and there was these two big dogs and a cat but it wasn't a cat it was a fox and I saved it," Clint took a deep breath from his ramble. "I went to see of it was okay and it nodded yes when I asked if I could understand."
"Okay, well yes there are more of us out there, and yes there are more than just wolves." The older man was smiling in a predatory way and Clint couldn't help but feel like he was going to be reprimanded. "And we are just going to ignore the fact that you went to go pet a wild animal because I know you are a good person."
"Yeah well you know me, can't help but save all the little guys out there; especially the fluffy ones." Phil rolled his eyes, which only made Clint laugh. "But seriously, how do you know when you meet another person like you?"
"I can't really explain it, it’s just an instinct I get. I just know that this other person can understand what it’s like. If we like another we become companions."
Later when Clint is all alone he'll bang his head on the nearest wall when all the pieces fall together.
...
"So you were honestly jealous, that is just too cute."
Clint was surprised when Darcy agreed to meet him for dinner since they never really interested, but as the evening went on he could see why everyone liked her so much.
"So you've guys are companions?" Darcy nodded through her California Roll.
"Yeah, I mean normal people. Can’t really understand it I guess." Clint nodded even though he had no idea what that meant, just that Phil felt the same way. "Basically it means that Phil and I like to run around and chase our tails."
Clint had to laugh at that image; Phil Coulson would never chase his own tail.
...
Tony was taking pictures.
"You have to admit that's pretty fucking cute." Clint looked inside the gym to the wolf and fox curled up in another sleeping.
"I want a copy of that." He needed one because pictures of Phil were rare, and blackmail was always a good thing to have.
"Please, when I'm done with Photoshop, this is going to be the Avengers' Christmas cards.