"What the hell is going on, Hill?"

"Tony, listen-"

"How could you lose an entire person?"

Maria opened her mouth to give a reply that was likely to be the last thing that Tony wanted to hear, so despite his desire to kick back and watch the entertainment unfold, Nick stepped up and decided to give it a shot at helping. "It's easier than you'd think, Stark," he interrupted, immediately regretting his choice. "This is a pretty big rock we live on, with all kinds of room for her to wander off. You know as well as I do that if she wanted to hide, she could do it. With you as a brother, I'd bet dollars to donuts that she knows exactly how to get herself off the grid, even to where you couldn't find her."

"Still, I sent her with you, trusting you when you said that you knew how to help her. It really pisses me off how often it is that I trust you only for you to screw me over. But this time it's not just me. She's my sister, Fury. She's all the family that I have left."

"We've sent in Barton. He's the best choice-"

"Oh, great," Tony huffed, "there's a sure thing. I want her brought home, not turned into one of your SHIELD flunkies because he has a soft spot for angry chicks with a murder complex."

"Hey!" Natasha scoffed loudly in offense, but Nick held up a hand to hold her silent.

"You know, Barton deserves more credit, Tony. Romanoff is one of our best, and he made that call."

"You're only bolstering my point! I don't want him to turn her into one of your agents! (Y/N)'s said a million times that she doesn't want this life. Especially now." Tony stared back and forth between Nick and Maria, but they held their silence; his eyes gave away that he had so much more to say, and they would wait to hear it. After their blatant error, they agreed that he deserved the floor and the time to say what he needed so that they could get back to work.

Tony had been an Avenger for years, and you had been around him for every one of them, and many before the idea had ever been born. You were leading the search when he had been abducted, and you had to fight your way out and in front of Pepper to greet him as he stepped out from his rescue plane with Rhodey. Tony was right, you were all he had left, and he was all that you had just the same. So, when the day had come that your powers of ferrokinesis emerged truly out of nowhere, it was problematic at best with a brother who had spent a great deal of his daily life in a giant metal suit. No one knew for sure what event had taken place to activate the ability, because they hadn't begun until much later in life than any other mutant you had ever met. When they began to interfere in Tony's work, and you had no one to help you learn control, Fury was called in to assist.

"Stark, he's going to find her," Nick tried again, this time his voice was much softer; almost uncharacteristic for the man. "You know as well as I do that he's not about to stop until he does."

"Yeah, well, it's been three months, Fury," Tony huffed, turning back to his work with a dismissive wave, "I never give people this long to impress me. How goddamn much longer does he need?"

~~~

"Clint, it's been three months," you smiled, "he has to know that you've found me by now."

"Obviously not," he scoffed loudly, "if he did, don't you think he would've rescued you from me a long time ago? There's no way that Tony Stark is gonna leave his sister with a guy like me any longer than he has to. Especially if he knew what he was doing with her."

"Oh my god, shut up!" you laughed loudly. Rolling over to face him, you left a bright red handprint on his arm after a stinging, but playful slap. "My brother never, ever needs to know that, you got it?"

"Fine by me, but we both know that we have to go home sometime."

"You found me only because I couldn't keep it together and caused a scene. I've got it now, so if you want to get back to the team, feel free to be on your way, Barton. I'm doing okay out here, but as soon as I'm back around Tony and those suits of his, all hell's gonna break loose again. He doesn't deserve to have to deal with that every day."

Clint pushed himself up on his elbow, turning to face you as well, "hey, that's not fair. He doesn't see it that way. He just wants you back home, and he wants to help you learn how to control these powers of yours."

"And when he finds out about us?"

His skin immediately paled at the thought, and you reached out to take his arm when he began to sway as if he might actually pass out from the fear that was overtaking him. Clint had never planned for this to happen. He had never once thought that he would fall in love so quickly. He had never so much as looked at you this way before, but once he had found you and spent every minute of every day with you, he just couldn't help it. Maybe he could get Tony to understand; maybe he could convince your brother to see that he was being genuine, and that you had changed him for so much better. He wasn't afraid of the powers you were barely able to control yet, and he wasn't about to give up no matter what Tony would bring to make him try.

"Well, whatever it is, I'll deal with it."

You ran a gentle finger down the slope of his jaw, seeing the truth looking back at you with the warm haze of morning sun giving the man a comfort that you hadn't seen from him before, even in all this time. Clint had protected you from the day that he had found you here, promising that he would stay at your side so that the evils of the world wouldn't come after you. To the other SHIELD agents, and maybe even a few of the Avengers, he was nothing more than a guy with a bow and arrow, with no superpowers to fall back on; to you, they were all nothing compared to him. He had promised to keep you safe, and now it was up to you to return the favor.

"No, Barton, whatever it is, I'lldeal with it."

~~~

The day to deal with it came only several later, when after a lengthy discussion, the two of you decided together that the time to stop hiding had come. Clint wouldn't say it directly, but he missed the work with the team, you could tell. He was fidgety and restless, and not even target practice held his interest anymore. He never let you see it outwardly, and his time with you was fully yours, but you had been together so much that he didn't need to say a word for you to know.

As the two of you stood at the door to the tower, on the busy sidewalk of Manhattan, it was as if you were the only people there, and as if time had stopped. With one hand on the door and the other tightly within yours, Clint took a long, shaking breath and opened it to allow you to step through first. He planted a chaste kiss on your cheek as you passed, and even in that small moment of appreciation, you felt his apprehension.

"You change your mind?" you whispered to him, though your eyes searched the building rather than looking back as you spoke. "I don't see him yet. We have time to make a run for it."

"Nope, I'm still in this," he nodded, albeit uncertainly. "Well, I think I am. I haven't seen the guy yet. If he's in the suit, I can't be held liable if instinct takes over."

"He's not gonna shoot you, Clint."

"You don't know that."

"Excuse me?" you scoffed. "You're damn right I know that. Ferrokinetic over here, remember? The suit is metal, genius."

"Oh...yeah, right...good call."

The gentle whoosh of the door closing behind you wasn't so gentle as it echoed in your head with a slam of finality as Tony stepped into your view at that exact moment. He stood on the level above, looking down at the two of you with a strange mixture of emotions that you couldn't read. He seemed relieved to see you, but you couldn't help but notice that his eyes were drawn to your hands; he was staring at your fingers intertwined with Clint's, and his attentions were locked.

"So, that explains a lot," he muttered softly. "You could've just said that you wanted some time away. I wouldn't take it so personally."

"Tony-"

"You guys all in love now? Is that it?"

Clint opened his mouth first to answer, something smug and defensive, certainly, but no sound came out. He continued to hold his breath as he turned to look at you as if you might have the answer that eluded him now, when the question was finally asked. Your only reply was much of the same, leaving him no choice but to take the leap. Even if the leap was into the deep end filled with sharks just waiting to tear him to shreds. Or at least one shark wearing a repulsor aimed at a critical part of his happiness.

"Um...well..." Barton tried, but didn't get much farther, his glance darting between you and your brother.

"Oh shit, you are," Tony gasped. "You are, aren't you? (Y/N)?"

"Clint?" you asked him, ignoring Tony when the truth was forced to be addressed before either of you were ready. "How were you going to answer that question?"

"I was about to say that I am," he shrugged, "but now I'm terrified that you're not and I'm mentally planning every escape route out of here that I can think of."

"JARVIS, lock down the vents."

"Tony, stop," you huffed, "he doesn't actually do that." The final word had barely passed through your lips before you felt the release of his hand from yours, and his fingers slipping away as you tried to catch them at the last second. Tony had taken one, solitary step closer, and Clint was in the wind. Mere seconds had passed and the gentle taps of his toes against the metal of the vents overhead caught your attention. You followed his path and anticipated his next turn, choosing the perfect moment to bend the vent on either side of him, trapping him so that he couldn't move until you felt ready to let him.

"Hey! (Y/N), what the hell?!"

"Calm down, sweetie, I'm dealing with it, like I said." You waited for Tony to finish taking the rest of the steps down to meet you, giving him a hug when he finally relented and welcomed you the way he had wanted to for months now. "You gonna be okay with this?"

"Of course," Tony smirked, "you know I like to give Barton a hard time and look at how much fun we can have now that you've got those magical twinkle fingers. I'm sure he's been too worried about my reaction to even consider what you could do."

"Trust me, Tony, when he's thinking about what I can do, you're nowhere in his mind. You're the furthest thing from it."

"Okay, that's just great," your brother grimaced, "I really don't need to hear things like that, (Y/N). Just because I said that I'd be okay, it doesn't mean it was true."