Duyên || Clint Barton

035 || searching

•••

"Are you free next Saturday?"
I smiled, shaking my head at Lacey as I took of the latex gloves, walking out of the room with her following behind me.
"I've told you a million times Lace, I'm not interested"
The blonde scoffed, throwing her hands in the air as she scowled at me.
"But Jason-"
"No!"
"Fine! Fine! Be miserable"
"I'm not miserable, I'm not going to die alone, and for the last time: I don't need you to find me a date!"
Lacey grumbled under her breath, walking away with hunched shoulders. As soon as she was out of sight I let out a heavy sigh, running my hands over my face exasperatedly.
Ever since starting work at the hospital, the nurses had made my dating life their personal business. At first I thought they just needed to distract themselves from the snap, but after three years of it? My patience was running thin.
Pulling my phone out of my back pocket, I called Nat, biting my nails nervously.
"You good?"
"Hey Nat, just checking if you're still going out tonight?"
"Yeah - do you need me to cancel?"
"Wha? No! No I'm fine. Just wanted to know if I could walk around naked is all"
Nat snorted and I could literally hear her rolling her eyes.
"Sure. Steve's out and Rhodey's in Belgium so you should be fine"
I chuckled at her response, her blind faith in me making guilt start to pool in my gut.
"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow then?"
"Will do"

•••

The compound was empty, a rare occurrence due to the fact that Nat was almost terrified that as soon as she was unavailable the whole world would come crashing down.
After one check to make sure Steve was definitely out, I made my way to the control room, eyeing the computer suspiciously.
"FRIDAY?"
"Yes Grace?"
"Turn off all video and audio feed in this room until further notice please"
"Done"
Releasing a breath, I sat down in front of the monitor and began my routine.
Ever since I had started being left alone in the compound I had been sneaking into the control room to try and track down Clint.
I had started after the two year anniversary of the snap, overhearing a conversation between Natasha and Rhodey.

"He took down 3 cartels in the space of a week, they were all brutally murdered Nat" Rhodey said, voice low, "It's the same as all the other times before and it matches with what we know was Clint's fighting style"
"Rhodey-"
"He's not slowing down. If anything it's getting more animalistic"
"We just need to find him, to bring him home" Nat murmured, running her fingers through her hair nervously, "he'll be okay if we can just get him home"
"You know how we can-"
"We're not telling her Rhodey. We're not. She's doing well, this will just upset her again. Ok?"

So I had taken it into my own hands, using the main computer when the compound was empty to do my own searching.
"FRIDAY, can you pull up the reports on the recent Tahiti mob killings?"
My eyes scanned over the images, matching them to Clint's progressively aggressive methods.
"How many remaining mobs are left in Tahiti?"
"Four remaining mobs are known"
"Give me their info"
I murmured as I read, narrowing my focus down to two mobs.
"FRIDAY can you-"
"There's been an update, there are three remaining mobs left in Tahiti"
Swearing loudly, I slapped the desk in frustration. This happened every time I was close to trapping him, almost as if he knew.
By now Clint had burnt through our list of targets, so I was totally blind, my anger only building every time he slipped though my fingers.
With another sigh of frustration, I cleared my search history and returned everything to the way it was, asking FRIDAY to resume all video and audio footage as I left the room.

By the time Nat came home, I was sat doing paperwork at the dining table, a half empty bottle of wine sat next to me.
"You don't look very naked" she winked, sliding her shoes off, "Did I miss the show?"
I sniggered quietly, nodding.
"If you were here five minutes ago you would've seen me dancing to ABBA in my birthday suit"
"Sorry to miss it"
I watched as she crumpled into the chair opposite me, picking up the wine bottle and taking a deep swig.
"How was your night?" I asked, returning to my paperwork.
"It was alright, met with some people working on the orphanage projects. Everything's running smoothly so far"
"Of course it is, you're in charge of it" I smiled proudly, "it's been working like a charm since the beginning, Nat. You've got this"
She nodded, taking another big sip of the alcohol as she worked her hair out of the bun.
"I know, I know. It's just a lot, y'know?"
"I know" I leant over to rest my hand on her shoulder, fixing her with a smile, "but you've gotta learn not to rest the weight of the world on your shoulders"
A contemplative silence slipped over the two of us, only broken when I smirked.
"Or you could, y'know, get laid"
"Grace!"