Chapter Text
Clint didn’t like small spaces. Especially very low small spaces. Like the basement of Stark Tower, which was similar to a war bunker. So why he had agreed to accompany Tony to help him settle his robots into his holding area was beyond him. The holding area, as of now, held two suits under incredible security and while normally Butterfingers and You would be upstairs in the lab with Tony, both programs were used in making quick adjustments to the security of the suits. Dum-E (Dummy) would stay in the lab, which Clint was grateful for because that robot is the only one that didn’t use its prongs to pick at his pants or knock over his drink. “They’re not good with new people,” Tony had remarked, an annoying smirk on his face. Clint had only replied with a scowl.
“Hey, You, Butterfingers , keep up!” Tony called to the two that rolled behind them down the long, dimly lit hallway. “You’re being slow. I know you don’t want to leave the lab, but you know how it is.”
“What, do they feel homesick already?” Clint asked skeptically. Tony’s creations were advanced, yes, but he’s pretty sure that his robots didn’t have “feelings”.
“Nah, they’re just wondering where Dummy is. They’re spoiled brats, too. He’s been around the longest, and they get fidgety in their coding when they’re not all together.”
“Robotic separation issues,” Clint chuckled, mostly to himself. “Who knew?”
Tony smiled, pleased that at least someone appreciated his creations. If Clint kept this up, Tony might end up building Clint his own AI that would no doubt follow him around like the current ones did Tony. He had mixed feelings about that. From the whining chortles that the robots gave when Tony was gone for more than 20 minutes, they wouldn’t do well when Clint was on a mission. Knowing Tony, he’d try to make it the worst experience first, laugh about it, and then fix it with smugness.
“Here we are.” They stopped in front a huge bulk of a door with a code panel, and Tony entered in the code such quickness Clint couldn’t memorize it even if he bothered to try. The door slid open, and the AI’s chirped and pushed them both aside to enter. “Oh, now you guys are excited! Well, don’t just stand there, Barton, get in here.”
Clint shook his head in exasperation, blinking against the sudden glare of light. Once his eyesight adjusted, he examined the room. It wasn’t as impressive as Tony and Bruce’s labs, being exactly as it was: a storage space for important property. Suits were lined up in glass chambers, and in the middle it looked like it opened up for the multiple mechanical arms that helped assemble the armor. Each upgraded suit was more automatic, but these were older suits that worked just as well if need be.
It was clear to Clint that Tony was paranoid of someone stealing his tech and using it for bad intentions. He knew why, he read Tony’s file and how the former president of SI, Obadiah Stane, had been dealing under the table and sent Stark Industries weapons to terrorists. In fact, Clint had been with Fury as they monitored Stark’s activities after his return from Afghanistan, and Coulson had told him briefly what happened with the case before it died down until reports of Tony dying from palladium poisoning had reached SHIELD. At that time, Clint couldn’t have cared less. Stark had been just a genius, a valuable but expendable ally that really didn’t want to cooperate at all.
If Tony had been dying now, Clint would make sure he didn’t with all his power. Of all the Avengers minus Natasha, Tony was probably the one he liked the most…in a way. He was an asshole, but Clint could be too. And he didn’t look at him any different when he had told the team about his hearing loss. In fact, he seemed to be in a lighter mood around him. He supposed it was because he had something to compare to Clint: having something that can affect you in a bad way but still making good out of it. In Tony’s case, it was the arc reactor.
“Not much, is it?” Tony mused, snapping Clint out of his thoughts. “I haven’t been down here that much. This is just one floor from the arc reactor that powers the building, so if something were to explode down here it could…make that blow up. Which would be a very big explosion, and I just fixed this building. So no touchy, yeah?”
“I like my room, so I’ll heed your warning.” Clint retorted. “Ow! Hey!”
Tony snickered as Butterfinger twirled his three-fingered “arm” in amusement from running over Clint’s foot. “He likes you.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t like him.” Clint grumbled, shooing away the AI. “Can we get out of here? Natasha brought some of the best movies I loved and they have subtitles. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get classic movies in subtitles these days?”
“Near impossible, if it-“
“Sir, if I may, there’s been a breach in our firewall of the Tower databases.” Jarvis suddenly announced, cutting Tony off. Clint’s eyes snapped to Tony, confused. A security breach? Tony’s security? That was unlikely.
“What the fuck? Pinpoint it and get rid of it, J!” Tony’s face went dead serious, his lips into a thin line. “SR2-59047 Protocol, but do not engage. Burn and track.”
“My severs are now threatened of being neutralized, sir. How would you like me to proceed?” Jarvis asked, and before Tony could answer, the bodiless AI continued, “Emergency lockdown initiated.”
“No, J!” Tony growled, and glanced to where the heavy metal door was beginning to slide close. “Clint, we have to get out of the basement before the lockdown is finished. I don’t know how long we’ll be down here.”
Clint didn’t need Tony to say it again. He made sure Tony stayed ahead of him as they ran to the exit, because…well, it was an instinct. Civilians need to be protected. There was just a foot left of space, and they were two feet away.
One foot…
¾…
½…
They were going to make it, barely. Right as they slipped into the hallway, the lights blinked out. It was pitch black. There wasn’t any light. Or anywhere to escape. Clint’s heart rate accelerated a little. “Tony!”
“Clint?” The muffled sounding response made Clint’s stomach twist. Was he alone? Had he saw wrong and Tony was still on his side?
“Tony, where…where are you?” Clint asked, trying to keep the edge from his voice.
“Um, I think...hang on…”
Clint flinched violently as a hand touched his bicep, his arms jutted out in defense, and there was the sickening feeling of a nose breaking under his fist.
“Owww!” Tony’s pained moan echoed, and Clint mentally kicked himself. Tony had been next to him, not in the other room. “What the hell, bird brain? I liked how my nose looked!”
“Shit, Tony! Are you all right?” he asked, gripping Tony’s shoulder to keep him steady. “Hold still.”
“Goddammit. Jarvis better get...power up soon, ...think I’m going to bleed...death.” Tony grumbled, and Clint strained to capture every word. Fuck. The dark was one of those things on the list of Clint’s hate list. And with the mutters and almost unintelligible words that Tony kept saying, Tony was about to be at the top of the list. He couldn’t read lips in the dark, and nothing was ever what it seemed. Advanced as his hearing aids were, they had no sense of direction or closeness. Things that were close sounded far away, right was left, left was right, that sort of thing. Hesitantly, he reached up from Tony’s shoulder to his chin, and then grimaced he felt warm, sticky liquid.
“Sorry, Clint, I don’t swing that way.” The billionaire snapped, swatting his hand away.
“Shut up, Tony. And lean your head back. I’d say pinch your nose, but…”
“Not happening. Hurts like a bitch to touch.”
Was it just him, or did the air feel thicker? “We’re not going to run out of oxygen or anything, are we?”
“Not for 8 hours at least. So you don’t have an excuse to kill me in here when I get on your nerves.” Tony’s voice sounded strange from his nose being plugged. So, that meant Clint was just freaking out. That was good and bad, he supposed. His fingers twitched anxiously and his eyes darted in all directions, looking for a sight, an object in the dark that he could focus on.
“And how long are we going to be stuck down here?”
“I don’t know. Not long, I would imagine. Jarvis has to cool down and make sure there’s no one trying to get in. If there’s a stupid bastard trying to hack me, you can bet he’ll be shot down pretty fast.” The calmness in Tony’s voice pissed Clint off.
“Can you make it soon?” he demanded.
“I’d like to, but I can’t. Do you see any computers in here? Anything I can possibly use to unlock the Tower?” Tony shot back. “What the hell is your problem?”
“I don’t like the dark.”
“Are you shitting me right now? You’re scared of the dark?” Tony’s voice was incredulous, and Clint could imagine the smirk curling on his lips.
“I’m not scared, Tony. I just hate it.” Clint wanted very much to punch Tony in the face again, and this time on purpose. Couldn’t he just let it go?
“Yeah, sure. Want to tell me why?”
“No.”
“Tell dear Tony what’s on your mind, birdy.” Tony sing-songed.
“How about we sit and wait quietly?”
“Isn’t everything quiet to you?” Tony snarked, then paused, “Wait, wait, I get it. You can’t read my lips.”
Clint didn’t answer, and that answered Tony’s question pretty much.
“Alright, hey. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. It’s pretty stupid, I know that.” There was a long, drawn out silence that seemed like it lasted an eternity in the darkness. Clint could imagine Tony thinking of the time estimates of when they could get out of here, of-
“I don’t like caves.” Tony said abruptly, a little louder and clearer, probably for Clint’s benefit. “Not scared of them, but I get a little fidgety. You know what I mean?”
“Yes,” Clint answered, and he meant it. He knew Tony was aware that he knew why, too. Clint’s been through a lot, most of it bloody and awful and nothing he would ever like to think about again, but he was trained to deal with it. He knew how to push it back and to know what his mission was if he was in a kind of position where there was torture and captivity. Tony, on the other hand, had been a civilian during Afghanistan, a man of genius but still a person who had gotten in over his head.
“Holy shit! Why didn’t I think of this before?” Tony exclaimed, and then Clint heard the ripping of fabric.
“Uh, Tony…”
“Hallelujah!” Brilliant blue light erupted from the arc reactor in Tony’s chest. Clint blanched as he noticed the blood that was now smeared all around Tony’s lower face, the cocky grin making it look a bit eerie with the pale light. It’s the first time Clint has seen the arc reactor from beneath his shirt. “Don’t gawk at me.”
“I’m not.” Clint blinked furiously against the fuzziness in his vision, and realized that it was closer quarters than he realized. The hallway was narrow and long, made up of a concrete floor and wall. “Where’s the door?”
“I think it’s that way.” Tony frowned. With the shining blue illumination, he could see and hear everything Tony was saying without being completely paranoid. “But it doesn’t really matter now, does it?”
“No,” Clint agreed. His stomach was still doing flips, but he shrugged it down. Clint eased himself down to the ground and leaned his head back against the wall, and the two were silent for what felt like a long time.
Tony shifted on his feet, glancing down at his arc reactor. “You are damn lucky I like you, you know that? I hate showing off this thing. You better make sure Fury gives me a fucking medal.”
“No medals. You only get a lecture, and maybe a nice pat on the back and maybe, if you’re just as annoying as you usually are, he’ll give you some paperwork!” Clint teased in an overly cheerful voice.
“Well I am not helping you anytime soon again, that’s for sure.”
Clint would have replied with another sarcastic comment, maybe a few insults if it felt necessary, anything to distract himself, right? But Tony suddenly froze in place, brows furrowing.
“Did you hear that?”
“Don’t ask me that, you make me nervous.” Clint said tersely. Clint placed a hand on the concrete, keeping a steady gaze on Tony, on the light, but he listened. In his own adapted way. There was nothing at first, although Tony kept roaming his eyes over the ceiling, insisting there was something. “Do you think someone broke in?”
Tony opened his mouth to obviously scold him of how ridiculous that was, that it wasn’t possible. But then there was a CLANG that even Clint could hear. “Where’s that coming from, Tony?”
“Up above. Either someone is pulling a really stupid move, or the others are tearing apart the place to get our sorry asses out of here.” Tony grumbled.
Clint kept a hand on the wall, and then felt a rumble within. Then a massive one, that shook all around them and almost made Clint lose his footing, and Tony tumbled to the ground. Then all the noises stopped. The vibrations, sounds, everything. The silence droned into the room.
Until, of course, the sickening creaking and rumbling began again. Tony gripped his arm. “Holy shit, the floors are collapsing. That was an explosion, and the floors are starting to collapse!”
True to Tony’s word, the cement ceiling cracked, groaned, and they ducked their heads as a chunk of debris came down around them, small chucks following and even pipes. Tony and Clint looked at each other, faces grim, and Clint could see slight panic in Tony’s eyes that he tried desperately to hide. “Cover your head!” Clint yelled, and it was then that the whole thing decided to cave in.
Clint dropped to the floor automatically, and only had time to roll over onto his stomach and cover his head, seeing Tony do the same a few feet away, as the rest of the ceiling came crashing down. Then the darkness came again.