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Clint hated high school with its rules and guidelines. He hated that he had to sit all day and take notes or read. He hated how, because he was an omega, he was expected to take Home Ec classes and not gym or any other physical activities.
Most of all he hated how he was the oldest omega in the school not to have had his first heat and everyone knew about it. It wasn’t his fault, he’d been underfed when he was growing up and that had delayed his development.
He hated most of the teachers at the school. The only decent one was Dr. Morita, the school’s audiologist. He’d actually found Clint a tutor and Clint wanted to hate him for that, but really he knew it wasn’t Dr. Morita’s fault that he managed to choose the one guy that Clint had managed to have a crush on.
Clint hated most of the students as well. His hearing aids were pretty damn effective, so he knew he was being made fun of for being a dumb, deaf, heatless omega that didn’t know his place. The worse was John Garrett and his stooge, Grant Ward. They were on the fringes of the popular group. The most popular were Nick Fury and Maria Hill with a bunch of others including Clint’s tutor, Phil Coulson.
Phil was everything that Clint wasn’t. He was smart, handsome, had more friends than Clint could imagine (he had one and she went to another school), and was an alpha. He was nice and cracked lame jokes that were never meant for Clint’s ears, but Nick had given Phil the nickname Cheese for a reason. He was patient with Clint when they got together for tutoring and he was kind. He never made Clint feel like an idiot. He would always reach out and tap Clint’s or the desk to make sure he had Clint’s attention before talking. Clint liked that he had a reason to stare at Phil’s lips, though it really did help him understand.
It was the one thing that got him through the day, which Clint needed. Just a few more short hours and he could meet with Phil and work on English and history. Why he needed to be in class with Mr. Falsworth and Mr. Dernier, Clint would never understand. He had enough trouble understanding people with unaccented English.
Clint grabbed his tray, staring down the line. It was pizza day and not the shitty school pizza, but actually pizza. Clint could see the stacks of cardboard boxes. He licked his lips. Okay, so they at least fed him, which was better than some places. Clint had at least been looking forward to that. He made it the head of the line and got his slice. The lunch aide made sure to give him one of the big ones and Clint gave him a big smile. He still made sure to load up his tray, remembering his doctor’s order about trying to eat right to make up for the lack of nutrition.
“Geez, Barton got enough food,” Garrett sneered, suddenly in his face.
Clint tried to pretend he didn’t hear him, but Garrett grabbed his shoulder.
“Hey! No one likes a fat omega.”
Clint glared at him.
“Oh hey, look,” Garret said, glancing over at his crony Ward. “It can understand English.”
Clint tried to slip past him, because he didn’t want to start anything.
“Whoa there.” Garrett grabbed his tray. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“To eat.”
“Yeah, you don’t need this much food.” Garrett tugged at the tray.
“Yes, I do.”
“No, you really don’t.” Ward echoed. "Garrett’s an Alpha, he deserves that food.“
“He can get his own.”
“No,” Garrett stated, tugging on the tray again.
Clint glanced around, looking for some support, but no one seemed to notice or care. This wasn’t fair, all he wanted to do was eat.
“Back off,” Clint growled, because he wanted to eat.
“What are you going to do, wet yourself?” Garrett asked. "Oh wait, that’s right, you can’t, because you haven’t had a heat yet.“
Garrett tugged again and Clint let go. The food flew in Garrett’s face and Clint couldn’t help, but smirk. ”Oops.”
"Why you little…” Garrett growled, dropping the tray. Clint backed up, nimbly avoiding Garrett’s reach.
It wasn’t until Clint had laid out Garrett and Ward, because Garrett couldn’t even fight fair, that the staff intervened, physically hauling him away.
It wasn’t until Clint was in Mr. Stern’s office, the school principal, that he realized he was missing both of his hearing aids, so that he couldn’t understand what was being said. He dimly remembered Ward going for his ears. He got the idea that he was in trouble for the fight, even though Garret had started it. He tried to interrupt to tell them, but they didn’t seem to care. Instead he just sat there and considered how his foster parents were going to take this. They weren’t going to be happy, especially about the hearing aids. He was going to get sent back to the group home, he was sure of it. It had to be better than this though.
The principal cut off suddenly, glancing at the door. Clint fell when he saw Phil standing there. Phil said something and then opened his hand to show Clint’s hearing aids. Clint didn’t wait for permission, he lunged to grab them. They were covered in gunk and needed to be cleaned, but they were safe and Clint was fairly sure that he could get them clean and useable. Maybe he wouldn’t get sent back to the home after all.
A hand landed on his shoulder and Clint glanced up to find see Phil looking at him softly. When Phil spoke, he did it carefully. “Would Dr. Morita have what you need to clean them?”
“Probably,” Clint answered, casting a discreet glance at the principal.
Phil said something, but wrapped a hand on Clint’s shoulder and tugged. Since Clint didn’t think that Phil would disobey the principal, he followed him out. He frowned seeing Jemma and Leo, two freshmen in the waiting room. Jemma slipped past him and Leo patted him on his back, before giving him the thumbs up sign, and following Jemma into the office.
Phil took him out into the hallway and down to Dr. Morita’s office. Phil must have explained, because Dr. Morita let them in, waving him toward the table and began setting out what Clint needed to clean them up.
He was partway through cleaning the first one when he glanced up to find Phil next to him. Clint arched an eyebrow.
“Later,” Phil said and tapped the towel that his hearing aid was resting on.
Clint hurried it up and put the first hearing aid back in.
“Can you hear me now?” Phil asked.
“Better than before,” Clint admitted.
“Are you okay?”
Clint nodded. “Yeah, thanks for saving them.”
“Well, last I heard health care doesn’t cover them, so…” Phil shrugged.
“Yeah…” Clint agreed.
“Did Mr. Sterns not realize…?”
“He wouldn’t let me go. I tried to tell him.”
“You should tell Dr. Morita.”
“What’s the point?” Clint asked, going to clean the second one.
“Because there was no point in yelling at you, when you didn’t have your hearing aids. Not to mention that he shouldn’t have done it in the first place.”
Clint shrugged. “Not like anyone was going to stand up for me.”
“What do you think Jemma and Leo are doing?”
“I don’t know…”
“They’re saying that Garrett provoked you.”
“Well…”
“They couldn’t stop them and they’re sorry about that, but they’d get their asses handed to them. Jemma went to grab someone and Leo told me that he thought he saw your hearing aid fall off.”
“They did?” Clint asked, glancing up.
Phil nodded. ”Yeah.”
“Well, thank ‘em for me, will you?”
“Sure,” Phil agreed, falling silent.
“You don’t need to sit here, you know?”
“I know, but I want to. I want to make sure you’re okay.”
“I’ll be okay,” Clint said.
“Well, I’ll sit here until you are.” He paused. "If that’s okay with you?“
Clint blinked. ”Sure. I.. I guess I don’t get why though?”
"Because you’re an omega that just kicked two alphas’ asses all over the lunchroom.”
“That’s a good thing?”
“For me it is. I think it’s… hot.”
Clint glanced up to look at him, because he must have misheard Phil. ”What did you say?”
Phil blushed, but didn’t duck his head. ”I think it’s hot. I think you’re hot.”
“But I’m… heatless?”
“Guess that gives me time to woo you.”
“I wear hearing aids?”
“So? My cousin has a cochlear implant.”
“I’m dumb?”
Phil snorted. “You got a higher score on our last math test than I did.”
“I did? But I used your notes…”
“Yeah, I take great notes, but I don’t get it. Think you could help me?”
“I…I… I… ” Clint stammered, because no had ever asked him for help before. "I can try?“
"Great. Maybe we could study at my house instead of the library sometime?”
“Um, sure.”
Clint smiled as he ducked back to work on cleaning his second hearing aid. He glanced up and out of the corner of his eye to find Phil watching him something that Clint kind of thought he must look like when he thought Phil wasn’t looking at. Clint hesitated, before asking…
“Maybe we could stop at the ice cream store after school?”
“Like a date?” Phil asked.
“Yeah.”
“Clint,” Phil said and Clint lifted his head to look at Phil, so had a clear view of his mouth as Phil answered. “I’d like that.”