Duyên || Clint Barton

018 || aftermath

•••

Once I had calmed down slightly, I sought out Nat in one of the control rooms, her face fully blank as she stared at a blacked-out monitor.
"Hey" I said calmly, "you okay?"
She turned around to face me, tears in her eyes.
"He's gone. Bruce is gone. The hulk -"
"Oh hun" I cooed, pulling her into a hug, "this wasn't your fault"
"But it is. We were going to leave - he wanted us to get away but we needed the hulk. I pushed him -"
"Hey" I gave her a stern look, "you did what you thought was right. You didn't know Hulk would go rogue -"
"He told me that he wanted to leave with me. We could've done it - gotten away from everything- we were so close"
I continued to rock her slightly, just listening to her outpour.
"And now, he's stuck as the hulk on a cloaked ship and we have no idea where he is. He could get hurt, or lost -" her voice faltered near the end of her sentence as she continued to try withholding her tears.

Nat took a deep breath, burying her head into my shoulder to hide her tears just as Clint poked his head around the doorframe, being followed in by Tony and Steve.
"Everything okay?"
When Nat resurfaced her tears were gone, a mutely happy expression on her face.
"Yep"
"See this is what I meant Clint, maybe it's not me that you need to worry about" Tony said, gesturing towards Nat and I.
I snorted slightly, thankful for the jokey interruption, "That might well be right, god knows, if only Nat was gay ..." trailing of teasingly, earning a flirty wink from the redhead next to me.
"Well now that you mention it-"
"Woahhh Okay" Clint laughed standing in between the two of us.
"You ruined the show you dick" Tony huffed, turning to Steve as if to say 'is he serious'
"Don't look at me" the captain said, raising his hand in surrender, "I have no opinion on this matter"
"Naw, Nat's family" I grinned, elbowing her side slightly.

The five us easily slipped into pleasant conversation, Thor joining in as he strode into the room.
"Well now we know you exist you'll have to come to my next party" Tony insisted, "it can get wild sometimes"
"I've heard" I chuckled, "Nat told me about one time you dared her to give the barman a lap dance"
"Poor man almost had a heart attack" Nat laughed, shaking her head at the memory.
"Ah yes, we can have quite a drunk jest at Tony's parties" Thor grinned, "They are quite enjoyable indeed"
"Just try to leave before they force you into karaoke" Steve shuddered, eyebrows pulled into a light frown.
"Well I'll have to drop by to the next one for sure" I smiled gratefully, earning a small celebratory hoot from Tony.

"I-"
I was cut off by an urgent message through my earpiece, making me sprint out of the room as fast as I could, only skidding to a halt as I burst into Pietro's room.
"What's wrong?" I asked urgently, making my way over to the bed.
"He stopped responding" Wanda said breathlessly, pointing to her brother.
"It appears to me that he may be going into shock"
I did a double-take as I looked at the red humanoid-type thing in the corner.
"I'm sorry, who are you?"
"Vision, pleasure to meet you Grace Barton"
"I - compartmentalising that, Okay - shock, umm"
I hovered around the younger boy for a few seconds as I pondered what to do. I recounted my knowledge, before hiking the bottom of the bed up to lift his feet roughly 12cm above his head, as well as placing a gas mask over his mouth and an IV in his arm.
I watched his stats on the machine lift up a bit, smiling victoriously.
"Normally I would order some urine and heart tests but I can't really do that until we're back on the ground" I said, turning to Wanda and Vision, "this is all I can do for now. I'm guessing you can, uhh, scan him, Vision?"
"Yes indeed"
"When his breathing levels out you can take off the mask" I said with a small smile, "call me again if anything changes"
I walked back out of the room, all the avengers (minus Bruce) staring at me weirdly.
"What?"
"You ran off as if someone was murdered"
"Pietro's in shock"
"Aren't we all" Tony grumbled, Steve nudging him in the ribs.

I rolled my eyes slightly, tilting my head slightly as another man came up to us.
"Rhodey!" Tony grinned, patting his shoulder jovially, "This is Clint's wife Grace"
"Okay - What"
"Fury kept it off the books" Clint smiled.
"Barton has game?" Rhodey laughed, shaking my hand, "nice to meet you"
"You too?"
Clint laughed as his arm snaked around my waist, "did you doubt my flirting skills Rhodey"
"Well you're not getting any younger and at one point I thought you were gay"
I burst out laughing, patting Clint's cheek lightly.
"Gee, thanks Rhodey"
"Nothing wrong with being gay" I laughed, "just not you Clint or we're gonna have some issues"