Archive of Our Own

The little diner was way off any main road, tucked amongst the forest-like shrubbery, dark green vines slithering up its subtle grey walls. The scent of frangipani was strong in the air, at least to Clint’s nose, but he could make out the musky fragrance of waffles wafting out of the louvers just on either side of the entrance doorway that proudly proclaimed ‘Sandy’s Bed and Breakfast’ in cursive, purple letters.

For that fact alone Clint liked it already. Still though, it looked pretty cosy, a couple of log cabins tucked further back amongst the tall Ponderosa Pines, probably the owner’s house and a bathroom building while the diner itself was done in old English style two-storey house. However, from what he could see through the window, it was dark wood panelling inside, appearing more old American style. It was like they couldn’t decide which theme they wanted to go for so splurged for both.

Another reason why it appealed to the archer. Why have one when you could have all? Yeah, he liked that. Not going with the one monotonous theme for society’s sake, but simply saying, ‘To hell with it, I like the combo’.

He was finding himself losing his bad mood for having to trek all the way out to the back country of Pennsylvania to infiltrate an out-of-the-way factory. According to sources, it was actually being used as a front by an up-and-coming terrorist group to create shockwave devices to try to set off larger earthquakes, and in turn, tsunamis in areas that already experienced such afflictions, just on smaller levels. They just wanted to amp the destruction up to a twenty.

Why? Clint simply concluded they were sickos.

The whole team had been one month off freedom and it had been arranged they were all going to spend an extended amount of time off at Clint’s farm, which he was secretly thrilled about. The kids were going to love the group, he was sure of it, while he knew the team would love them back, even if Tony would have a unique way of showing it and Bruce would be wary of getting too close. Still though, the archer thought it would be great for all of them and he couldn’t wait to combine the two groups so he could spend time with both families.

One month to freedom and this damn thing had popped up. Fury hadn’t cared they were about to go on holiday so was still making use of the fact that they were technically on call. It was just Clint had been getting in holiday mode and this was the last thing he had felt like.

Still though, it was meant to be pretty simple. Clint thought it had been a bit pointless to bring Tony, Bruce and Thor along for the ride, thinking he, Natasha and Steve could have really handled it.

Sometimes it really hurt to be wrong. Literally.

It turned out that the terrorist group weren’t really the brightest bulbs in the chandeliers and thought it a swell idea to set of some shockwave devices in the building to try to deter the Avengers. Without concluding that would bring most of the damn factory down on top of them, which, when that realisation set in, turned them into freaked-out chickens trying to escape getting their heads chopped off.

In the midst of trying to extract as many people as they could, because, according to Steve, they couldn’t leave them to get crushed to death, but needed to be properly charged and jailed. Clint did have an awesome argument for the whole ‘Letting the murderous people get crushed to death’ route, but didn’t really have the time to lay it all out.

In the fray, the Quinjet, which Clint had landed about half a mile away from the factory because he had assumed it would be safe at that distance, had been damaged by the epic shockwave covering about a square mile. While the damage had really been contained to just forest and the factory, to lose their transport didn’t really make Clint’s day. In fact, it officially turned it to the ‘This Sucks On So Many Levels’ type of day.

Now though, after having secured the terrorists in the nearest police station and called in for transport, which was still three hours away, Clint was starting to feel happier with just looking at the cosy feel of this little diner and the prospect of getting some food. Truthfully, he didn’t care if they served stale chips, he needed some type of sustenance after being thrown to the floor one too many times from a shockwave that he couldn’t remain standing through. Not his most favourite battle in the world; not his least.

‘What do you think?’ Clint asked, waving his hand out in front of him as Natasha and Steve came to stand beside him.

Tony was back at the Quinjet, de-suiting, while Bruce was getting a new change of clothes. Thor had joined them, under the guise of just keeping them company, but Clint knew the demigod was going to offer a ride back to the diner Clint scoped out so the two scientists didn’t have to walk. Bruce was always exhausted after the Hulk and while Clint was yet to see Tony out of the armour, the archer doubted the engineer would be faring much better than the rest of them.

Steve smiled as he studied the building. He’d pulled on some grey slacks, thrown his old brown jacket over his suit and pulled his mask off so it wasn’t noticeable who he was.

‘Looks homey,’ the super soldier commented, which was his biggest compliment really. Steve was just every cliché in so many ways, preferring home-cooked meals, tasteful jokes and thought a wild night out was to go dancing until nine.

Natasha screwed up her nose. ‘Yeah,’ she deadpanned. ‘Awesome.’

‘Not everyone is into the whole “Chaos decorating is Magical” architecture style,’ Clint scoffed, though  his eyes twinkled, knowing Natasha was just trying to get a rise out of him and play into a cliché of her personality which didn’t really exist.

‘They don’t know what they’re missing out on,’ the assassin smirked, but began walking towards the diner anyway, holding the door open long enough for Clint to get his hand on it.

‘I’ve always preferred Baroque myself,’ Steve said cheerfully, sarcasm spilling friendly-like into his words.

Clint snorted at the super soldier smashing the clichés he built up around him only to build them up again when he pulled out a seat for Natasha. In turn, the assassin did it for Steve, which garnered an amused grin and knowing nod of his head, as though saying, ‘I know, I know.’

The assassin in general deplored people doing things for her. Except Bruce. The physicist could practically do anything and Natasha would never pull him up at all.

Rolling his eyes at his often petty best friend, Clint glanced around the diner.

It was even better than he expected. The wood on the walls were raw while the floor was such a deep polished colour that it felt inexplicably warm. Soft booths lined the front of the shop and there were only a few people there, but they weren’t large enough to hold the massive group of superheroes. A counter with six barstools bolted to the floor almost ran the length of the shop, but cut off so there was enough room for one large table to the very right of the shop, tucked into the corner, just in front of a fireplace and to the left of a window that gave a lovely view of the trees shivering in the autumn wind outside, some droplets of water frozen on the fronds.

Pictures were high up on the walls, showing old cars, unlikely friendships between animals and humorous sayings like, ‘My Wife Would Never Leave Me … She’d Hate To See Me Happy’.

‘I want to get Laura that one,’ Clint said, pointing to the sign, as he settled into a cushioned chair with intricate carvings of leaves and birds in the back of it.

Natasha grinned, showing all her teeth. ‘Please let me be there when you give it to her.’

Clint pretended to look horrified. ‘You’re a sadistic woman, you know that?’

The assassin casually perused the menu sitting on the round table, leg already propped up on the edge of Clint’s seat. ‘You should lose your job if you’ve just figured that out,’ she threw out easily like she was commenting on the weather.

The archer chuckled at her dry sense of humour. Steve ignored the two of them in lieu of staring at the pictures of the old cars, clear blue eyes saddening a little as they obviously brought back memories to him.

Clint mentally grimaced at this. He hated it when some of the team were down. It just made for a generally sad evening and well … yeah, okay, he hated to see any of the dopes upset.

In fact, Steve had been a little down for a while. There had been a recent mission to try to find Bucky, which ended empty-handed, the leads totally cold and useless. It had brought it all back again for the super soldier so he’d been quiet recently around the Tower. Clint had hoped the mission would bring a bit of spark back and it had. Momentarily.

Really, what the super soldier needed was to be reminded again of how awesome everything was now and what a super dorky, but awesome little family they had going on.

That got Clint’s brain turning. He glanced around the diner. It was very quiet and there was only one waitress at the counter, who held up an index finger in a ‘Be just a minute’ gesture.

A pretty good environment to stir up some mischief.

He resisted rubbing his hands vigorously together as he counted the chairs around the table. This could turn out to be the ‘So Good I Don’t Want It To End’ kind of day if he pulled this off right.

For his plan, Thor wouldn’t really react. The guy didn’t understand the concept of embarrassment hugely well so a lot of great pranks were lost if attempted to be played on the demigod.

And if he wanted to pull it off right, he couldn’t have his intended victim to be Tony. The guy was fun to get a reaction out of, for sure, but he could be downright scary in his retaliation. After the whole glue and feathers incident, Clint was a little reluctant to tangle with the engineer again. He really needed his energy up for that and this afternoon certainly wasn’t the time.

No. Bruce was the perfect one. While Clint often refused to play tricks on the physicist in fear of death by guilt (or Tony), this one was harmless, fun and would succeed in putting them all in better moods. Sure, Bruce would suffer from some embarrassment, but it wasn’t like it could get any worse for him after the whole sickness incident. He should be used to it by now.

Also, Clint knew Steve wasn’t the only one that needed cheering up. Despite Clint and Tony teasing and ribbing each other basically more than they breathed, Clint loved the sharp-tongued nerd. And lately, Tony hadn’t been so willing to tangle it up there with him. Initially, the archer had been worried if he had taken one insult one time too far, but then found out from Natasha that Tony’s parents’ anniversary of their death had just passed.

So, yeah, another reason why this was perfect to do to Bruce. Someone needed to bring a smile to the engineer’s face and it had been far too long since Clint had seen the skin around his eyes crinkle. It was probably another reason why Steve was down as well. Despite being another two who sniped at each other constantly, Steve often fed off Tony’s mood and if the genius was down, Steve tended to be absolutely miserable, hating for Tony to just even be a little bit off.

It was becoming glaringly clear daily how much Steve was growing more paternal over Tony, except to the two involved.

As the waitress, an auburn-haired girl who was probably a college student trying to make an extra few bucks for courses, approached the table, dark red uniform accenting her tanned skin.

‘Can I start you off with some drinks?’ She asked, smile pleasant, not yet fan-girl because she hadn’t recognised any of them.

Clint smiled back, trying really hard not to do it too hard, which was what he did when he had something on his mind exciting him. He didn’t have a wish to freak the poor girl out. Yet anyway. If she started fan-girling over Tony, he wasn’t above giving her the look which had new SHIELD recruits reconsidering all their life choices leading them to that moment.

Natasha saw it though (of course she did) from his right, and cocked her head to the side, raising her left eyebrow slightly. Not asking a question, but interested to see what was going to play out.

Clint ignored her for the moment to address the girl whose nametag proclaimed her, ‘Charlie’.

‘Actually, we’re waiting for three more.’

‘I’ll get some water then while you wait?’ She asked pleasantly.

Clint nodded. ‘That would be great. Oh,’ here, he snapped his fingers as though just remembering something, ‘would you also take one of the chairs away?’

Steve’s eyebrows rose high on his forehead as he looked around the table. Like he was thinking to himself, ‘Poor Clint, didn’t know he couldn’t count.’

The girl seemed to be in the same space. ‘Um,’ she nervously hit her pen against her notepad. ‘Didn’t you say three others were coming?’

Clint couldn’t hold back his smirk. ‘I know. That’s why there has to be just five chairs here by the time they get here.’

Natasha was already doing that thing where the corner of her mouth twitched, showing how she knew what he was up to and finding it extremely humorous. Steve looked completely lost, similar to the time when Tony tried to introduce the soldier out of time to an ATM. While it hadn’t been successful in the way the engineer had obviously hoped, it made Tony ground his teeth in frustration profusely so Clint considered it pretty successful. It all depended on point of view.

It took a few seconds, but the girl’s hazel eyes lit up. ‘Ah,’ she said, smile crooked. ‘Someone did something to deserve to stand for a meal?’

‘Something like that.’ Clint reached into his pocket and withdrew a fifty-dollar note. ‘And no matter who asks, there are no other chairs then what is right here. All right?’

Charlie’s eyes immediately lit up upon seeing the money. Easily plucking it from his loose grip and shoving it in her apron pocket, she proclaimed, ‘Done,’ before making one of the fancy chairs disappear through the door out back.

Steve leaned back in his own seat warily. ‘What are you doing?’ He asked, trying to sound in that stage where he was about to reprimand, but not quite there. This time though, he sounded just more curious and didn’t look so wistful already.

Clint simply held up a finger to his lips before leaning over Natasha’s shoulder to read her menu. She purposefully held it at the worst angle possible for him and in turn, he shoved her foot off his chair. That then made her rip some hairs from his forearm. Before he could decide whether to chuck a glass of water that had been brought to the table on her or just blow in her ear, Steve gave a tired, ‘Behave,’ before glancing up as the bell above the entrance door rang.

The archer tried really hard not to scowl, especially because Natasha was looking far too smug at him that she got the last hit in, but he knew she knew somehow. The damn woman always did. He didn’t have any further chance to implement his revenge on her because as a voice rang out in the small area, his other prank was about to take priority.

‘And there are The Three Stooges. Tell me, guys, knocked your heads on any low doorways yet?’

Curving his head over his shoulder, momentarily ignoring the engineer, Clint caught a glimpse of ruffled curls. The smile that lit up Clint’s face was free from any mocking or teasing whatsoever.

Thor had Bruce on his back, giving the physicist a piggyback ride. Bruce’s arms were slung around the demigod’s neck and he was looking around the new surroundings through exhausted eyes.

Thor came to a stop once he got through the door Tony held open for them. Slowly, the huge man began lowering himself to the ground, letting Bruce slip off his back, keeping his massive hands on the physicist’s arms until Bruce caught his balance. Tony had obviously refused a ride, still too prideful, but it had been a bit of a thing that after an exhausting battle where a lot of walking was required to get back where they needed to, Bruce often hitched a piggyback ride with Thor. It was one of the sweetest sights Clint had seen to date, the long-haired muscular man gently carrying the small scientist sleepily fisting his heavily-lidded eyes. Bruce was never flown because the Hulk wasn’t a very big fan and Clint suspected, neither was Bruce, but didn’t pull the physicist up on it.

Sometimes it was Tony who Bruce got a ride from when Bruce had a particularly hard transformation or battle and needed his adopted older brother’s closeness. So the engineer would easily gather the smaller, physically and emotionally exhausted man on to his back and trudge back to the Quinjet without a single complaint.

Mostly though, it was Thor and the team had been trying to encourage it to be the blonde man because the contact was doing wonders for the demigod’s relationship with the Hulk, much to Thor’s delight. The Other Guy hadn’t even attempted to punch him once today, which was getting to be less of a rarity.

Also, while it was initially done from Bruce’s exhaustion, it soon became apparent with how Bruce would slump in the hold, completely relaxed and face lax as well as peaceful, the physicist took great comfort from the touch and Thor was particularly gentle with the smaller man, more than anyone on the team really. While Bruce skittered away from touch, it was in fear, not lack of wanting. That lesson had been really driven home for Clint when the invention of the lullaby came around.

Allowing a gentle fondness to emanate from his tone, Clint called out to Bruce.

‘Hey, Doc, think you could grab some sugar for the table before you settle?’

There was a yawn in reply followed by a soft, ‘Yeah, sure,’ then shuffling as the physicist walked to the counter to find a shaker.

Truthfully, Bruce was a tiny bit adorable when in his post-Hulk state: sloppy, slow, and rumpled so would take a while to accomplish the task. Clint couldn’t help but be reminded of Nathaniel when he woke up from a long nap. While the physicist was far from the archer’s child, Clint couldn’t really categorise him as anything else in his mind sometimes and often treated him accordingly (jokingly of course), often to the confusion and embarrassment of Bruce. He really couldn’t help it, especially when Bruce was sleepy. In most moods, Bruce was gentle, but when recovering after a Hulk-out, the physicist was inexplicably sweet and soft. What made Clint feel better about this turn of events, of the great Hawkeye being a pushover for a little nerdy guy, he took great pleasure in realising the rest of them were in the same category.

Except Natasha. The assassin was the exception to this practically ubiquitous rule. Clint knew she had other feelings for the physicist, but found him no less adorable, which was why the assassin was softer with him than anyone else.

Thor settled between Steve and Clint, smiling at them all. ‘This is a fine dining hall.’

‘If it isn’t, Clint picked it,’ Natasha said easily, giving her sideways smile to the demigod.

Clint threw her a deadpanned look, not bothering to reply to that one. It would be awesome then he could dig it in all he wanted. There was such a thing as biding his time for the opportune moment. He could be sarcastic; then he could be sarcastic and win. So much more satisfying.

Tony fell into the only chair left, between Steve and Natasha, without even realising he preoccupied the last seating.

‘Does that mean he’s buying?’ He threw out, though for once, the words were softened with a grin.

One joke the engineer made which no one took offense to was anything to do with money. While Tony often teased them about his wealth, he got downright offended if they ever bought something semi-expensive, throwing his hands in the air, saying, ‘It’s like you have something personally against my money,’ then go out and buy a bigger and better version of whatever one of the team purchased. It had become apparent instantly that the billionaire was all bark when it came to it being his money and actually loved buying anything and everything for all of them, though he tried to hide it under sarcasm and his endless wit.

Once, and once only, Steve had attempted to foot the bill at a little pub they went to when Tony ducked into the bathrooms. When the engineer returned and saw what happened, he looked around with that terrifically bland expression of his then upended an entire jug of icy water over Steve’s head without his face changing once. Then, he strode out of the pub with his hands stuffed in his silk trousers, jauntily whistling as though celebrating a job well done. It had been downright eerie how cheery he had been about being offended.

While Clint was darkly curious to see what the engineer would do if someone actually attempted paying a dining out bill for a second time, no one was game enough to join the archer in his social experiment and Clint certainly wasn’t prepared to put himself in the line of fire.

Clint smirked back at the engineer. ‘Hey, I scoped out this awesome joint.’ He held his hands out to either side. ‘You’re welcome.’

‘Wait until we eat before you start patting yourself on the back, Gordon Ramsey,’ Tony said, snatching up the menu with his left hand, quick chestnut brown eyes taking it in with one sweep.

Clint’s own grey eyes narrowed at that. Tony was right-handed. There was only one reason why he would be using the other. In fact, as Clint studied him more closely, Tony looked a little too put-together. The rest of them were exhausted. Even Thor looked tired, dressed in a casual muscle t-shirt and jeans, while content, but still covered in a fine layer of dust.

They all were, yet Tony’s face was super clean, long-sleeved shirt straightened and hair brushed. While most would dismiss it to say the engineer obviously just cleaned up better than the rest did, Clint knew better.

After a battle, if Tony actually sustained an injury, he tried his hardest to hide it by practically trying to glow with healthiness afterwards, i.e., super tidy and clean. Really, the damn nerd had no self-preservation and seemed to be under the impression that he could walk anything off if given enough time.

It was moments like this Clint really had to refrain from scolding the man like he was Cooper when he tried to hide how he broke yet another item of the household in some sort of elaborate game or ‘experiment’.

Sighing, he subtly nudged Natasha with his shoulder.

Her eyes flickered up, flashed to his face to see where he was indicating then jumped to Tony. Within seconds, she put it together.

‘Stark, give me your hand,’ Natasha said, sternness firm in her tone as she leaned her right elbow on the table, hand held out.

Tony didn’t even look up from his menu though his eyes did flicker about the laminated sheet while he shifted minutely in his spot. ‘Thanks for the offer, Red, but I’m a taken man now.’

Natasha lowered her eyebrows and grew still as all her muscles tightened, giving her features a hard and terrifying edge. Clint swore Tony sunk a little lower in his seat, but still refused to look up.

‘Tony,’ Natasha said softly, causing both Steve and Thor to wince at the tone of voice the assassin was using. The woman always meant business when she talked soft. ‘Hand. Now.’

Tony did look up then and even Clint had to appreciate the deadly glare on the billionaire’s face, eyes dark and mouth pulled back in a vicious glower. However, it wasn’t in refusal, but rather frustration and bluster at having to concede to the assassin’s demands. Even Tony wasn’t suicidal enough to refuse Natasha when she wanted to check him for injuries.

She simply returned his gaze with her burning eyes.

Huffing what sounded like a frustrated whine, the engineer dramatically rolled his eyes before, as slowly as he possibly could, removed his right arm from underneath the table. Natasha humoured him and allowed him to put off the inevitable.

Seeing he wasn’t making any impression, other than getting the three men at the table to smirk at his petulance, he threw away the act, though with a dark scowl, and pulled up his sleeve.

Clint hissed through his teeth at the same time Steve sighed sadly, ‘Oh, Tony,’ looking like he wanted to wrap an arm around the smaller man’s shoulders but knew better.

‘What?’ Tony exclaimed, voice a little too high, how it went when he was trying to deny he was hurt. ‘I’m fine!’

The archer didn’t say anything for a moment as he studied the long slice along the top of the engineer’s forearm where his armour had probably terribly dented and dug into the skin. It wasn’t very long, but it was rather deep and looked a little jagged though it hadn’t been properly cleaned so maybe it looked worse then what it was.

On the other side of the coin, for Tony to use the other hand, it must have been hurting. It made Clint want to simultaneously grimace in sympathy and clip the engineer upside the head.

He decided to just do both.

‘What the hell was that for?’ Tony snapped, grabbing at the side of his head where Clint leaned over Natasha and clipped him. The archer knew the engineer was over-dramatizing. Despite the way they argued, Clint would never do anything that would remotely cause the billionaire pain.

‘For being an idiot,’ Steve supplied with a disapproving frown sent the engineer’s way, which in turn, made Clint give the super soldier two thumbs up.

‘I’m a genius,’ Tony grumbled, but again, Clint noted that his heart really wasn’t in it. He was even slumped in the seat, placidly allowing Natasha to examine the injury without even trying to make it awkward on her, just to be of nuisance.

Natasha saw it too. She gave a tired sigh, though the archer could detect the fondness there for the sharp-tongued engineer.

‘Why didn’t you say something?’ She asked, more gently this time.

Tony sent her a mutinous look, but must have seen something in her gaze, because he softened a bit, before giving a jerk of his head over his shoulder. ‘Brucie doesn’t like it when I get hurt. Thought I would just fix it when I got back to the Tower so he wouldn’t have to see.’

‘That doesn’t make you any less hurt, Stark,’ Clint couldn’t stop himself from pointing out.

‘Or that just because the good doctor does not like to see you injured means he wants you to hide it,’ Thor added, so logical in situations like this.

Tony rolled his eyes again. ‘What are you all, my conscience?’

‘Not such a bad idea,’ Steve glared, always hating when Tony did things like this.

‘I always hated Jiminy Cricket,’ the engineer shot right back.

‘All right, all right,’ Natasha waved her left hand, immediately silencing any comeback. ‘We’ll talk about how much of an idiot you are later.’ She ignored the grumbled, ‘Hello, genius’ and continued, ‘For now, I’m taking you to the bathrooms, cleaning it and seeing if you need stitches now.’

Tony must have been feeling down to not make some sort of snarky remark out of that last statement. Instead, he just cocked his head to the side in thought. ‘What about Jolly Green?’

‘Sent him to get sugar,’ Clint told him.

‘Ah.’ Tony nodded, well aware with Bruce’s half-drunk post-Hulk state. It didn’t happen all the time, only after harder battles, though in general, Bruce was always that little bit softer after a Hulk-out. ‘Make sure he doesn’t forget what he’s there for and wander off into the forest.’

‘Got it,’ Clint grinned, but it didn’t feel very genuine as he watched Tony allow himself to be led off by Natasha to the bathroom building adjacent to the diner.

While he was always on at Tony not to be so stubborn, it was more than a little disturbing to see him so placid. He wouldn’t mind it if Tony was just tired (or drunk, the engineer tended to get fairly loving and happy when drunk), but it was the reasons behind why Tony wasn’t fighting that Clint hated with a fierce passion.

By the dark, protective looks on both Thor and Steve, they hated it too.

Clint glanced over at Bruce, who was blearily staring at the countertop, completely lost as to why he was there while Charlie looked like she wanted to approach him, but was unsure what to say if she did.

The archer couldn’t help, but chuckle at the little nerd. Yeah, his coming reaction would be sure to get a good feeling going around the table again, for particularly Tony’s sake.

Within ten minutes, Tony and Natasha had returned.

‘It’s deep, but not enough for stitches,’ Natasha quoted off the statistics, having gone into mission mode where everything needed to be taken care of before she could relax. ‘He will need a Tetanus shot though.’

‘I told you,’ Tony scowled, though he did look a bit brighter around the eyes at obviously having the wound cleaned and bandaged, ‘FRIDAY will tell you I had one six months ago.’

‘I trust your AI’s word as much as your own when it comes to your health, Tony.’

Natasha softened her words by running her fingers gently through his silky hair before sitting down again and snatching up her menu, body already easing back at now having the engineer taken care of.

Tony blinked at the display of affection. Despite Natasha doing it quite often now to him, he always looked so hurtfully wondrous, like he was amazed she kept on doing it.

Steve looked like he was ready to go punch out someone. Clint could relate and he had a select person in mind.

Quickly though, Tony pushed on, squirming a little, actually appearing a little uncomfortable with the attention on him.

‘You’re just bitter because JARVIS didn’t tell anyone I was dying,’ Tony muttered, a little sulky as he picked up the menu, again with his left hand, so it still must be throbbing.

‘Imagine that,’ Clint said, eyes wide with mock amazement and shock while Natasha sent the engineer a reprimanding glare.

Tony simply made a face at him, totally ignoring Natasha, while Steve shook his head in disbelief with a muttered, ‘Unbelievable,’ at the engineer who seemed to take pleasure in giving them all heart attacks when it came to his health.

Normally, Tony would have given some sort of comeback, like, ‘Don’t worry, Cap, I already know how awesome I am, you don’t have to reassure me,’ or maybe, ‘I know, Cap, most of the time, I amaze myself too’.

However, Tony said nothing in lieu of examining the menu again even though Clint knew the genius would have long ago picked out what he wanted, memorised every item on the laminated paper and would probably be making up dumb songs in his head using tortured food puns from the list while he waited for the rest of them to choose.

When Tony wouldn’t rise to the bait when Steve dangled it out of all people, things really weren’t good.

Which brought Clint back to his original plan.

‘Hey, Doc, don’t worry about the sugar,’ Clint called out to the physicist, who had now turned his attention to the barstools, like he was trying to figure out how hard it would be to lie along them so he could sleep. ‘I’ll survive for lunch.’

Bruce blinked up, honeyed eyes looking even huger in this sleepy state, and took a few seconds for the words to register.

‘Oh,’ he said softly, ‘okay then,’ and began to shuffle towards the table, not at all put out that he had essentially been sent to look for sugar for twenty minutes.

What he did notice though was the lack of seating at the table though it did take another few seconds as he stood a couple of feet away, taking it all in.

‘Where’s a seat?’ He asked, voice soft and a little huskier than usual.

Tony immediately looked up and frowned as he finally noticed there were only five chairs at their table. Before he could snap his fingers to get the waitress’s attention, Clint jumped in.

‘Sorry, Doc,’ the archer said, holding back the teasing smirk on his face, but instead, played innocent and oblivious. ‘Already checked. They haven’t got any spare chairs.’ The next sentence was really hard to say with a straight face. ‘Guess you’ll have to sit on one of our laps.’

The reactions were instantaneous.

Steve nearly choked on his water, trying to hold back his laughter as he finally realised what Clint had been up to. Thor looked bemused at the reaction the archer’s sentence garnered as though not really understanding what the big deal was (which was why Clint didn’t see much point playing pranks on him in the first place). And Tony did that thing where he looked like he hadn’t reacted, but his eyes had so gradually widened while his eyebrows rose so high on his forehead that it seemed impossible. Natasha hardly reacted at all, demurely sipping on some water, the tiniest dent at the corner of her mouth, showing her amusement at the situation.

And Bruce? Poor Bruce looked like he was really hoping he didn’t hear right, but when he saw Clint wasn’t breaking into a smile, his mouth dropped open while his nose screwed up in absolute horror. His cheeks immediately reddened while his eyes cleared a bit of their bleariness, as though woken up by the indignity of the situation.

‘What? You’ve got to be … no!’ Bruce immediately backed up a couple of steps, arms crossing firmly over his over-sized yellow sweater as though trying to protect himself from someone who was suddenly going to drag him on to their knee. ‘I’m not doing that, no!’

Clint raised an eyebrow while Tony watched the spy intently, a wrinkle appearing between his eyebrows, which showed his brain was spinning quickly.

‘Why not?’ The archer asked casually. ‘You’re the only one without a chair.’

‘That’s because you sent me to get sugar!’ Realisation dawned on Bruce’s face and he downright glared at Clint, though it had as much effect as an angry kitten on the archer, especially with how Bruce’s hair was everywhere and he looked so small in his large clothing, like he’d played dress-up with his big brother’s clothes. ‘You’re a very evil person.’

Clint could no longer hold back his amused, fond chuckles. ‘Come on, Doc, it’s not that bad.’

Bruce’s hold on himself tightened as his cheek colours darkened further. ‘Yes, it is!’ His voice cracked a little, going into falsetto, which tended to happen when he was exhausted.

‘Naww, you’re in puberty,’ Tony couldn’t resist doing some teasing, smile large and loving, hand snaking out as though to tickle Bruce on the stomach.

The physicist immediately jumped out of range and almost tumbled over his own feet. ‘This is exactly why I’m not doing that!’

Steve grinned, all melancholy gone as he watched the physicist unintentionally make an adorable scene of himself (something Bruce was continually doing, but had no idea he was). Even Clint could tell Natasha was biting the inside of her cheeks to keep from chuckling, having thrown away the act that she wasn’t watching the proceedings and had curved her neck to the right to watch Bruce with bright, loving unique green eyes.

‘Why?’ The soldier chuckled, ‘In fear of Tony tickling you?’

Bruce tossed Steve a fairly dirty look. ‘In fear that it will encourage you all to treat me like a child more than you all already do.’

Thor gave one of his infectious smiles and golden-like laughs. ‘We don’t treat you like a babe, friend Bruce.’

‘Really?’ Bruce’s sarcasm was at its peak in that one word while dry disbelief coloured every expressive line in his face, chin dipping in a ‘You’ve got to be kidding me’ gesture. ‘The other day at that coffee shop, Steve lifted me on to the barstool.’

Tony’s chuckles were downright evil at that exclamation, earning himself a glare from his adopted little brother. The engineer simply smiled up at Bruce, chestnut brown eyes twinkling.

‘They were tall,’ Steve defended himself, looking truly shocked Bruce actually thought they babied him. ‘I was making it easier.’

Bruce sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, looking more frustrated than tired at the moment. ‘I’m a grown man,’ he moaned, as though sick of reiterating this lesson over and over again. Come to think of it, Clint realised he had quite a bit in the past so yeah, maybe he had a right to be a little frustrated. ‘I can find my own way up a barstool.’

‘But I made it easier,’ Steve insisted, blue eyes innocent and confused as to why this actually counted towards Bruce’s arguments.

Realising he wasn’t getting anywhere there, Bruce gestured to Thor with a sloppy throw of his hand, too tired to stop himself from getting into this discussion, where he would normally just let their treatment of him go. ‘Thor didn’t want me to order the soup last month because he thought it was too hot for me.’

Thor nodded, easily confirming this. ‘It was a most displeasing burning through the mouth.’

Bruce threw his hands up in the air. ‘I lived in India! What do you think I ate over there? Blue cheese?’

‘Did you?’ Clint asked with mock curiosity, making his eyes wide, causing laughter to go around the table.

The poor little nerd was too tired to not rise to the bait, even though most times, he would just good-naturedly ignore it, levelling the archer with a glare. ‘Curry, Clint. I ate burning … hot … curry.’

‘Ah,’ Tony said with a nod of understanding, causing Natasha to smirk over at the engineer.

When no one reacted after that, Bruce looked absolutely shocked, mouth dropping open again as he glanced at all of them in disbelief. ‘Don’t tell me you all can’t see what I’m talking about here?’

‘Nope,’ Tony grinned, popping the ‘P’, making Clint and Natasha chuckle while Steve and Thor still looked genuinely on in agreement.

‘Wha?’ Bruce gasped, not quite able to finish the word in absolute indignation. He gave one more gesture to the archer, as though he couldn’t believe what he was hearing and just couldn’t give up.

‘Clint ruffled my hair yesterday and called me “sport” after I accomplished my experiment.’ The guy sounded so hugely put-out by this action, like he truly couldn’t believe it was done to him.

Clint snorted. He more did it as a joke and even, sometimes if it wasn’t, he wasn’t that bad. Was he? He really didn’t think so.

He voiced as much, saying, ‘I’m not that bad, Doc.’

‘I can hear it most times in your tone each time you talk to me,’ Bruce replied dryly.

Clint screwed up his face in disbelief. He wasn’t that bad. He wasn’t.

‘He’s a dad,’ Natasha’s velvety voice made itself known, smirk full on her face as she regarded the physicist. ‘You can’t hold that against him.’

Bruce looked like he really wanted to argue with that, but wouldn’t with the assassin. Instead, he grumbled something unintelligible under his breath before he gave a whine in frustration, but Clint could see he had given up on the fight for now, realising he wasn’t going to win it any time soon. The archer did notice though Bruce never once protested Tony’s treatment of him even though the engineer would have been the most guilty out of the group of being protective of Bruce.

However, Bruce still shook his head firmly, blush now firmly back on his cheeks as he realised he was back to where he started.

‘No! Why does it have to be me? Why can’t it be someone else?’

Clint jumped in, fully prepared for this question. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Tony watching him with bemusement, having stayed unusually quiet this whole time. The archer carried on though, counting off the reasons on his fingers, slapping his other hand down on each digit that came out with each reason. ‘No one would be able to see around Thor or Steve’s shoulders and/or they would crush someone to death. Tony’s paying so he gets to sit wherever he wants.’

Tony blinked over at Clint, nonplussed at the credit given to him, and the archer swore he saw the tiniest of proud smiles cross his face as though the genius was thrilled this was his role in the group.

Clint pushed on, a bit more confident in his prank. He had been feeling a bit mean, especially to do it to Bruce when he was so tired, but it was the only time he could probably wrangle the physicist into doing it and on top of it, it was working. Tony was smiling more genuinely while Steve was obviously no longer reminiscing in the past.

‘And Nat,’ here, he paused, but thought better of it when Natasha let her deadly glare settle on him. He gave an exaggerated gulp. ‘Yeah, let’s not go there. And I scoped out this fine establishment.’

‘Some fine establishment,’ Tony murmured to Steve. ‘Can’t even scrounge up an extra chair.’

Steve’s blue eyes were bright with amusement and his shoulders shook as he tried to hold in his laughter, sending a fond side grin to Tony that was usually reserved for just the engineer.

Bruce’s horror grew as Clint kept talking and by now, the blush had worked all the way down his neck. ‘No! No … I just … no!’ He looked close to just crying and Clint felt a little guilty again. The guy was downright exhausted, slumping on the spot, and his honeyed eyes were a little heartbreaking with how much they were pleading. ‘I’ll just go sit at one of the booths instead.’

‘Ah, come on, Dr. Banner,’ Steve jumped in, for once, actually participating in a prank. ‘You can’t split up the team for an after battle meal. It’s ruining tradition.’

‘And we all know how much Capsicle loooves tradition,’ Tony whispered to Clint now, which had him snorting.

‘Yes, come feast with us, friend Bruce,’ Thor waved him kindly forward and opened his arms wide. ‘You may choose whichever vessel you wish to rest on.’

While the demigod obviously thought he was offering a generous and lovely thing, Bruce looked like he had been given the choice of whether to drown or hang himself.

‘Even Nat,’ Clint couldn’t help adding.

The assassin couldn’t hold back her amused chuckles at how bright red Bruce went at that and Clint had never seen him look like he wanted to sink through the floor more, but at that moment.

He cuddled into himself shyly, hiding from Natasha’s fond smile, and peeked up to his right, finally appealing to what he deemed a higher power. Which had Clint making a silent ‘Aw’ formation with his mouth.

‘Tony,’ Bruce all but whimpered, and suddenly, he was rubbing a fist in his right eye again, which was turning a little red.

The engineer immediately softened from his teasing stance and encouragingly waved the smaller man forward. ‘Come on, short stuff. You’ll have the chance to embarrass one of us in the future.’

‘You keep saying that, but I’m not seeing the results,’ Bruce grumbled. He didn’t move forward, but he didn’t just up and leave. Though he did glance back at one of the booths, weighing his options.

Natasha saw it too and Clint was grateful when she reached out and managed to snag the end of Bruce’s sleeve.

The physicist stiffened momentarily until he recognised the touch and just like his green counterpart, melted under the hands of the redheaded spy. He was too shy to look directly at her, blush back in full power, but he did peek up from underneath his lashes.

‘Come on, Bruce,’ Natasha soothed, velvet tones strong and calming. ‘No more teasing, I promise.’

Bruce bit his lip at that. He flicked his gaze over to his adopted big brother.

Tony simply made a cross over his heart, smirk softening into a smile.

It took a few more seconds and Clint felt the physicist wouldn’t have made the choice he made if he wasn’t just so damn tired.

Giving a defeated, miserable sigh, Bruce’s shoulders slumped down and the redness in his cheeks wouldn’t subside, giving his face an adorable ruddy complexion.

Natasha smiled at him, giving his sleeve a gentle tug.

Again, Bruce gave another sigh, before sending everyone around the table a glare, Tony and Natasha excluded. ‘You all suck,’ he grumbled.

‘Yes, Stark,’ Clint mocked with a large grin.

‘Shut up,’ Bruce said with no real heat, but it was pretty funny to hear the gentile physicist say it. He was tired.

He shuffled forward and predictably, headed to Tony.

The engineer had already pushed his chair back and opened his left arm out wide to receive his adopted little brother.

If Clint thought Bruce appeared embarrassed before, the poor guy looked downright mortified now. Again, the archer felt a little guilty, but Steve and Tony appeared so damn fond at the moment that he couldn’t bring himself to regret his decision.

Slowly, movements painfully awkward while he refused to look anywhere but the floor, Bruce shrunk down on to the edge of Tony’s knees.

Giving a small smirk and fond chuckle, Tony wrapped his arm around Bruce’s waist and easily lifted the smaller man fully on to his lap, eliciting a surprised squeak from his adopted little brother.

Immediately, Steve turned to Clint and his eyes were so sappy as he went ‘Awwww’ silently, as though he couldn’t believe the physicist could just be so downright adorable without meaning to be. Thor’s grin was openly loving as he regarded the physicist. The two had become very close in the last few months and he was always so gentle to Bruce against his usual loud nature.

Even Natasha’s eyes had become soft, the way they only became with people she cared for on such deep levels. Clint didn’t know what his face looked like, but he was pretty sure he was melting on the outside because he sure as hell was on the inside.

It was Tony’s reaction though that really clinched the deal for Clint. His eyes finally, finally, crinkled strongly, and if no one was there, the archer knew the engineer probably would have given a comforting kiss to the temple of his adopted little brother, as he was prone to do when the physicist was quite distressed.

Instead, he reached up with his bad hand and gently brushed back Bruce’s curls. Clint noticed when Tony was trying to get Bruce to smile, he would ruffle the curls. When he was comforting though, the genius would gently stroke back Bruce’s hair in a more comforting gesture then teasing.

Bruce automatically leaned into the touch, but his blush didn’t subside nor would he look up from the ground, shoulders back to being hunched around his neck, fingers fiddling with the loose threads at the bottom of his sweater while his bottom lip was being tortured. The poor little guy was the epitome of embarrassment, which just added to his adorableness, which would have made Bruce all the more mortified. It was a vicious circle for the little nerd.

Tony’s smile was inexplicably fond, no teasing in his countenance whatsoever as with the hand he had wrapped around Bruce’s waist, securing the smaller man firmly in his lap, he used it to give the smaller man’s tummy a reassuring pat.

Bruce squirmed adorably at that and Tony’s face got that soft look on his face which could only ever be brought on by his adopted little brother.

‘Come on, Brucie, it’s not that bad. Here,’ he scooped up the menu with his free hand, half-using it to give the shy man an illusion of privacy and somewhere for him to hide for a bit until he got settled. ‘What do you want to eat?’

Bruce slowly dragged his eyes up at Tony’s words. Clint could see he was really tempted to look around to see if anyone was doing anything he disapproved of, but was just too embarrassed and afraid of what he would find.

So, instead, he curled a little into Tony, one hand unconsciously coming out to clutch on to the engineer’s Bruce Lee shirt, and squinted at the menu presented to him.

‘I … I can’t read it,’ the physicist murmured, the redness in his sloping cheeks refusing to subside at all.

That’s when it hit Clint the physicist didn’t have his glasses with him. He frowned, disliking the poor little nerd had to struggle so much to see, knowing it mustn’t be pleasant and maybe bordering on uncomfortable. Particularly after a Hulk-out, where Bruce’s eyes were always worse for a few hours, like the power of the transformation just took it out of him.

‘Don’t we have a spare set of his glasses on the Quinjet?’ He asked, directing his question to Tony.

‘Those were the spares he was wearing,’ Tony supplied back, lowering the menu a little so he could see it rather than shoving it in front of Bruce.

Clint’s frown deepened at that. ‘We need to carry more sets. It’s not right for him to have to struggle.’

Tony nodded easily in agreement. ‘I’ll order more when we get back to the Tower.’

The archer nodded in satisfaction, but paused when he saw Bruce raising his eyes to the air, though there was a tiny smirk there.

What did he find so fun … oh. Well, yeah, Clint heard it a bit that time. Still though, he wasn’t that bad.

By Natasha’s teasing smirk sent his way, she obviously didn’t follow his thinking.

Tony smiled reassuringly at the physicist on his lap. ‘Don’t worry, bud. I’ll read it out to you. What are you in the mood for? Pasta dishes, breakfast dishes or some of those stomach-churning salads you like?’

Bruce squirmed a little, still so obviously embarrassed, and curled his head around so he was hiding a bit into Tony’s hold. Still though, he mumbled softly, ‘Pasta, please.’

Clint exchanged a fond glance with Thor. Bruce’s politeness after turning into the Hulk was one of the sweetest things the archer had witnessed.

Tony gave Bruce’s stomach another comforting pat. ‘I’m on the same page, Brucie. You want the vegetarian special with anchovies, chives and all those other unknown vegetables?’

This time, Tony’s rambling got the desired effect. Bruce smiled the tiniest bit, dimples just able to be made out underneath his blush. ‘Yes, please.’

‘Chips and dip as well? And blueberry green tea in a takeaway cup?’ At Bruce’s confirming nod, Tony sat down the menu and ruffled the curls, causing Bruce to weakly shove the hand away though the grin on the physicist’s face grew exponentially. ‘Thatta boy, Brucie. Show Conan and Miss America that you could hold your own amongst their two-way eating competition.’

Thor and Steve grinned in amusement, but didn’t take offence to it. At the beginning, when they had tried to order smaller, more normal amounts of food, Tony had put two-and-two together pretty quickly then proceeded to order three of everything on the menu at the Italian restaurant they were dining at. In the end, even Thor hadn’t been able to eat another bite and they had enough leftovers for two team dinners back at Avengers Tower.

Charlie came around after that and took all their orders. At seeing Bruce on Tony’s lap, she sent a confused, but amused look Clint’s way, but didn’t say a word, simply gathering up the menus and saying the food would be out soon.

Soon, chatter began to go around the table, Thor and Tony beginning to trade quips at who performed best in the air. Clint was thrilled to see for the first time in a week, Tony was holding his own. Meanwhile, Steve was chatting to Natasha about the move she used to take down three terrorists in one go, asking if she would teach it to him in their next training session, not one mention of the past or Bucky.

And, much to Clint’s happiness, Bruce began to gradually relax, not holding himself so stiff. Even the blush was beginning to diminish. Upon feeling a gaze upon him, the physicist looked up. A tiny smile pulled at his face and he pointed a finger at Clint, as though in command, but it was more a shy request.

‘Not any of your clandestine photo taking,’ he murmured softly to the archer.

Clint laughed and held his hands up, palms outwards, to show his empty hands. ‘Promise. I won’t take any photos.’

Honeyed brown eyes scrutinising for a moment, Bruce slumped even more, deeming Clint was telling him the truth. A barely perceptible smile slipped over Tony’s lips as he felt the relaxation of the occupant in his lap and gave his tummy another comforting pat, never pausing in his conversation with Thor.

Natasha subtly nudged Clint’s shoulder, giving a congratulatory wink. The archer smiled back, all bad mood from earlier disappearing to be replaced by a warm satisfaction. He was really looking forward to bringing this lot to the farm so he could have both of his families together for once.

He was satisfied to let everyone talk it out around him and just sit back and enjoy. Especially when Bruce’s yawns became more prolific and he slumped more and more into the engineer’s hold until his forehead was pressed against the crook of Tony’s neck.

His honeyed brown eyes kept on closing for longer moments of time until, Clint knew, they wouldn’t open again. This was often a problem after a hard battle. Though Bruce needed food more than anyone on the team, he was often too exhausted to stay awake and one of the team always had to keep shaking him awake so he could get some sort of nutrients into him before he went into hibernation. It was too unhealthy for him to just go straight to sleep after exerting that sort of energy, as they had found out when he collapsed once when they felt too guilty to wake him up after he had fallen asleep after one battle.

Tony grimaced sympathetically as he saw what was happening and gave his knees a gentle bounce. ‘Come on, bud, you got to stay awake.’

Bruce’s eyes blearily blinked open and he gave a soft, ‘Hmm,’ left hand coming up to scrub at his face.

The engineer went soft and he looked guiltily over at Clint, who gave him an encouraging nod coupled with a sympathetic smile. It sucked, but it had to be done.

‘Not too much longer, short stuff, then you can go comatose on us, all right?’

Bruce nodded though Clint doubted he really heard Tony’s words. He did try harder this time to keep his eyes open, but again the eyelids fluttered closed, in which Tony had to once again give him a gentle bounce to rouse the exhausted physicist.

If Clint’s backup wasn’t getting photos of this cuter-than-it-had-a-right-to-be scene, the archer was not above recreating it. Steve’s look was absolutely sappy and Clint could see why he often got the nickname of the Avenger’s mum. Though, from the look on Thor’s face, he was close to giving the super soldier a run for his money. Overall though, it was a gentler way to keep Bruce awake then shaking his shoulder all the time and safer then jumping forward to catch his head before it connected with the table when the physicist inevitably dozed off. It should really be what they did all the time, but Clint doubted Bruce would be in on it.

A shame really. It made for a lovely group dinner, so soft and familial.

Finally, the food came out. Just in time too because Tony had to bounce Bruce about three times to get a reaction out of him.

The guy made blinking look exhausting and he mechanically began to eat the chips placed in front of him, totally ignoring the dip. Whether he didn’t notice it or was just too exhausted to move that bit further, Clint really didn’t know.

Tony chuckled fondly, easily eating his pasta dish while never letting his hold on his adopted little brother waver. Thor inhaled his waffles and was now moving towards one of the four whole pizzas he ordered. Steve, who normally picked on his food when he was a bit down, ate his plate of hotdogs with relish.

Natasha was doing a good job of her own, already finished half of her own pizza and was now picking on some of her chips. To see if she would get a reaction, she dipped one of the French fries in Bruce’s guacamole dip.

Predictably, Bruce didn’t even glance her way. He was too busy staring at the last chip in his hand like he’d forgotten what he was meant to do with it.

‘Uh-oh,’ Clint grinned. ‘Zombie mode.’

It was what they had dubbed one of Bruce’s rare stages after a Hulk-out, when he was so exhausted he didn’t even feed himself. It had only happened a handful of times, but the power the Hulk had exerted in this battle, spending the better part of it holding up however many tons of concrete to keep the people from getting crushed, had been tremendous. No wonder Bruce finally slipped into zombie mode.

Rolling her eyes at the physicist’s placidness, though Clint could see her full beautiful smile ready to be brought forth if she would have allowed it, Natasha gave a put-upon sigh.

‘We’ve got to find a better system,’ she said, but Clint knew she loved being able to do something other than stab with a sharpened knife and give a better take-down shot than anyone he knew, when she slipped her chair closer to Tony and Bruce, snatched up a forkful of Bruce’s pasta dish and waved it in front of his mouth.

Just like he always did when he got to this zombie stage, Bruce placidly opened his mouth and allowed Natasha to slip in the forkful of food, chewing slowly.

Natasha snorted, though the fondness absolutely emanated from her with just the gentle way she poised the next mouthful next to Bruce’s face.

‘And you wonder why they treat you like they do,’ she whispered, more to Bruce than for everybody’s benefit though Bruce just gave an indistinguishable sound in response, unable to form words at the moment.

‘Hey, I treat him like I treat any guy,’ Clint snorted.

Natasha raised an eyebrow at him. ‘You keep on telling yourself whatever you want to get you through the day,’ she said in that tone where she sounded like she was agreeing with him, but she was actually making fun of him.

Clint let his stormy grey eyes burn into her. He wasn’t that bad. He wasn’t.

The glare had no effect on the assassin whatsoever and she gently fed Bruce another forkful.

Yeah, and Bruce thought they were just going to stay friends. Natasha wouldn’t do this for anyone and showed what a special place the physicist held for her. In return, Bruce wouldn’t so placidly accept anyone feeding him, no matter how much in the zombie zone he was.

And everyone thought he was the oblivious one when it came to romantic interactions. Bruce was way out ahead of him in that race.

Finally the eating slowed until it wasn’t being done like it was going out of fashion by the team. Charlie came around to gather some of the empty plates in which Tony ordered two takeaway boxes of chocolate chip cookies, containing sixty all up. Thor laughed and put up his hand up for a high five, which was one of his favourite Earth actions, along with when Tony taught him there could actually be secret handshakes.

Tony grinned, but gently tapped the hand so as not to disturb Bruce, who had just accepted another mouthful of the pasta dish. After that though, he turned his head away and curled into the crook of Tony’s neck. When Natasha waved the food near him, he burrowed further in with a whine.

The engineer chuckled, turning his head to try to look down at the smaller man now completely at ease in his lap. ‘All done, bud?’ He asked softly, but it was more directed at Natasha.

The redheaded woman gave a confirming nod. ‘All done,’ she said, giving the physicist rapidly losing his fight with sleep one of her full, warm smiles which could no longer be held back. He was too out of it to really appreciate it though, doing that thing where his eyes were closing for longer each time he blinked.

‘Was that good food, or was that good food?’ Clint grinned smugly, linking his fingers behind his head, feeling exceptionally satisfied and not just because of the food.

‘I think you stuttered,’ Tony shot back, eyes bright, and Clint was thrilled to see, the skin around them crinkling prominently as he brought his right hand up to wrap around the physicist, securing the smaller man tighter to his chest in a cocoon of warmth. Bruce was now completely limp, legs straddling Tony’s lap, leaning back against the engineer, neck twisted so he could tuck his head against his adopted older brother’s neck

Clint scowled at the engineer, though really, he just wanted to send him a happy smile, letting the genius know how glad the archer was just to see him smiling and being his usual self again. It would freak Tony out though so he just played happily along with the genius like he always did, heart thumping happily at having the engineer, who Clint sometimes thought of as his frustrating, but albeit endearing oldest child, back to his old self.

‘It was lovely, Clint,’ Steve said, the pleasantness in his tone unable to be faked. ‘Good choice.’

‘A grand dining hall,’ Thor amended his earlier words as he picked up his last slice of pizza and inhaled it easily,

Steve nodded, eyes suddenly becoming deep and thoughtful. Clint watched as the super solider leaned over and murmured something to Thor. The demigod, for once, held back his large smile and simply gave a nod, though gentleness was evident in his gaze.

Steve grinned his thanks and turned to gently tap Bruce on the shoulder.

The physicist didn’t so much as twitch. Tony smiled and gave a guilty sigh as he gave his knees one more bounce.

That did garner a reaction, Bruce’s honeyed brown eyes blearily blinking open and he gave a soft grumble.

Steve’s smile softened as he regarded the smaller man and he slipped off his chair so he could crouch in front of the physicist, clear blue eyes warm and genuine.

‘Hey, Bruce,’ he murmured softly, hand coming up to clasp the physicist’s shoulder. ‘Thor’s going to carry the two boxes of cookies back to the Quinjet so is it all right if you hitch a ride with me?’

Tony gave the soldier his bland, sarcastic expression, rolling his eyes over to the blonde man, letting him know very well the engineer knew what was going on. For once though, Tony didn’t call Steve on it.

And Bruce was too far in zombie land to realise how pathetic Steve’s reason was for just wanting to carry the physicist for a bit. Maybe to feel needed, to feel that Bruce was back or just for Steve to be close to one of his family members, Clint didn’t know and it didn’t really matter. Probably all three.

So, the smile on Steve’s face was absolutely huge when Bruce sleepily nodded, rubbing at his left eye now with his fist. ‘Mm-hmm,’ he hummed, voice husky and warm with sleepiness.

The captain looked like he wanted to give a bit of cheer, but settled for grinning madly. ‘Swell,’ he exclaimed and staying in a crouch, turned so his back was to Bruce.

‘All right, bud, here we go,’ Tony soothed, letting Bruce know exactly what he was doing before he did it, easing the physicist from his lap to Steve’s back.

The soldier’s hands came up to grip the physicist’s legs, keeping him firmly in place, while he leaned forward quite a lot so Bruce could slump forward easily, not in danger of falling backwards even though Tony’s hands never left his adopted little brother until he was settled.

Luckily anyway, Bruce’s arms automatically came up to sling around Steve’s neck. It was that thought which really made Clint’s day and chest buzz with happiness. Bruce was no longer automatically ducking away from them; it was now becoming his nature to react positively to their touch, which was something special, something Clint truly did understand.

While Bruce squirmed a little, as though getting used to the different person carrying him, after he shifted a bit, he settled down with a soft sigh.

Steve’s smile absolutely lit up his face and he stood as sedately as he possibly could.

Tony stepped back for a few moments, gaze intense as he watched to make sure Bruce was indeed at ease before combing the curls back from the smaller man’s face. Bruce sighed softly at the touch, giving Tony a small, adoring smile as though tacitly letting the engineer know he was all right and thank you.

Tony returned it, gave his hair one last stroke then left to go pay the bill. Thor disappeared to the bathrooms while Natasha got up and came round to Steve, getting into conversation about battle strategies.

Clint decided to slip over to Steve’s side, just where Bruce’s head was resting in between the soldier’s shoulder blades, hand back to torturing his left eye.

‘Leave it,’ Clint scolded gently. ‘You’re only going to make it worse. We’ll get you some eye drops when we get back.’

Bruce screwed up his face, showing a bit of Tony-like petulance in his tiredness, but did listen, which was extremely un-Tony-like.

The archer smiled. ‘Thanks, champ.’ He went to ruffle Bruce’s hair but stopped himself as he realised just what he had been about to do. He stiffened in horror.

Oh, lord. He really heard it that time. Maybe Bruce had a teeny-weeny little bit of a point about how the team sometimes treated him.

‘Let’s go,’ Tony waved them out after leaving Charlie in absolute shock with what had probably been a thousand-dollar tip, which he tended to do when in a really good mood.

Clint smiled privately to himself at that. Yeah, he was awesome and damn it, a social genius, no matter what Natasha said.

They all spilled out on to the dirt parking area, just off the tiny gravel road, so off the beaten track. Thor still wasn’t out yet so Tony and Steve began to walk up and down the road while they waited, both knowing the motion usually relaxed the physicist more than anything. Bruce’s eyes were blearily taking in the outside world, boneless in the piggyback ride, and Clint doubted the honeyed brown eyes would be open for much longer.

Natasha sidled up to him, smirk curving into her strong face. ‘If Steve’s the team’s mum, I’m pretty sure I know who the daddy is.’

Clint’s glare was piercing as he stood outside the diner, legs apart, arms crossed over his chest. ‘Please, if you want to categorise it in familial terms, I would be the wacky, no-rules-needed uncle.’

The assassin raised one perfectly plucked eyebrow. ‘Is that why you reprimanded Bruce for rubbing his eye and insisted we buy more glasses for him?’

As Clint opened his mouth to argue, she simply cut in. ‘That’s a dad thing to do, Clint.’

He blinked, a little taken aback at that.

She smiled, a little too smug for his liking. ‘Tell me. How do you categorise Bruce in your head?’

With anyone else, Clint would have snorted at the person and told him or her that they were crazy before briskly walking off. However, this was Natasha. She understood how things were categorised in his brain because he knew she did the same thing. And he also knew she knew when he was lying to her.

Knowing all this, he elected to stay silent, though he felt a little bewildered as to what she was pointing out to him. What do you know? He really was that bad. He had adopted a nerdy, little physicist in his head, and no longer as a joke.

Natasha gave a satisfied nod before walking away from him. ‘If you’re the dad, does that make you and Steve a couple?’

He really felt like throwing something at her at the moment, but instead, called after her, though it wasn’t loud enough for anyone else to hear, ‘And how do you categorise Bruce in your head?’

She simply curved her head to glance demurely over her shoulder. ‘Don’t worry. I’ll get Laura to explain it to you. I’m sure you’ll understand someday.’

With that, she made her way to Steve, Tony and Bruce, sashaying confidently.

Damn woman; did he ever get the last say with her?

Thinking back on it … not really.

Gravel crunched behind him and he recognised the footsteps as Thor.

‘Well?’ He asked, glancing up at the demigod.

Thor handed over the Starkphone Clint had spent painstaking hours showing him how to operate the camera, then how to do it discreetly. ‘I believe you will find many of my angles very pleasing to the eye.’

Clint laughed at Thor’s humour and began to flick through the photos. Hey, he didn’t take them. He kept his promise to Bruce, but just neglected to mention he had an operative working undercover.

As he looked at the photos, he couldn’t say he regretted spending the time at all teaching the demigod how to handle a camera in a phone.

‘I’ve got to say, man,’ Clint said as he came across a close-up photo of Tony and Bruce. The engineer’s happily sparkling eyes were glancing down at the smaller scientist on his lap, who was peering upwards, hand rubbing at that poor, red eye, blush still on his cheeks, but he looked so trusting of his adopted older brother. It was probably when Tony was reassuring him everything was all right it and it really wasn’t that bad when the physicist got another bout of shyness when he caught everyone glancing at him with not-so-subtle, fond smiles. ‘I think you have a talent.’

Thor grinned. ‘I must say, it is most enjoyable catching these memories.’

Clint nodded at that, eyes peering thoughtfully where the other four were on the road. ‘Yeah,’ he murmured. ‘It is.’

It had actually been a bit of an obsession of his ever since Cooper was born. He never wanted for one special moment to slip away without having something to commemorate it by. Because he loved being able to pass on the stories, pointing to the photos, and being able to say, ‘Hey, remember when we did that?’ and having all those wonderful, nostalgic feelings flood back as he recalled that amazing moment in time in great detail.

All because of a photo.

Thor somehow followed his thoughts. ‘I shall organise them?’

‘I’ll get Charlie,’ Clint said, turning on his heel.

By the time he got the waitress outside, finally getting around her babble of, ‘Dude, I can’t believe I just served the Avengers and didn’t know until I got paid!’, he found the crazy loons that were his home away from home all gathered on the edge of the road, the forest behind them making a beautiful back drop.

‘Clint, we don’t want our photo taken,’ Natasha sighed as soon as he jogged over to them, while Charlie fiddled with the camera, out of hearing range as she was trying to get them all into focus. ‘We’ve just been in battle for Christ sakes.’

‘If you like photos so much, I can get you a job with the paparazzi,’ Tony supplied helpfully, not looking as putout by the request as he sounded. ‘Not much different from your spy gig now. Just more underhanded.’

‘Then spying?’ Steve asked, voice high with disbelief.

‘You better believe it.’

‘I should like to try it,’ Thor said cheerfully. By now, it was realised he was actually having a go at them, using his pretended obliviousness to make jokes.

‘Sometimes you scare me, Goldilocks.’

‘All right, shut up, all of you, photo time so smile like you mean it,’ Clint waved his arms in a shushing motion and got into position between Natasha and Thor.

‘You’d suck as a motivational speaker.’

‘I said shut up, Stark!’

‘Be nice,’ Steve admonished, shifting Bruce up a little so his head rested on the soldier’s left shoulder.

‘Can we all say, “Yes, Mother” on three?’

‘Our faces would not be captured at a flattering moment,’ Thor chipped in

‘Ready whenever youse are,’ the waitress called out, looking scared to actually direct their attention to her. ‘On three, yeah?’

‘You all have no originality. Do you actually want us to say cheese? Not even mozzarella?’

‘Stark. Shut … up.’

There were a few seconds of silence as Charlie held up the camera. ‘All right! One …’

‘Cheddar?’

‘Christ, I’m going to kill you.’

‘You love me too much, Tweety-Pie.’

‘I don’t. I really don’t.’

‘… two …’

‘Oh, oh, I think Daddy’s getting mad!’

A laugh turned into a cough, coming from a certain redhead.

‘That’s it! Stark, hold still and pose!’

‘I can’t do both. Seriously, I know I’m a genius, but still there’s only one me. But I suppose I could … hey, hey, what are you—hey!’

‘Take the damn photo!’

‘THREE!’

The phone snapped, a quick flash of light in the cloudy afternoon.

To this day, it was still Clint’s favourite photo of the team.

Steve was standing tall, smile amused, directed just to his left at the antics going on around him. Bruce was fast asleep, head propped up on the super soldier’s shoulder, for once, not nervous or bashful in a photo, but instead, totally at peace, mouth slightly open as his fingers were loosely entwined in Steve’s brown jacket.

Natasha was next to Bruce, hand protectively resting on the physicist’s back, head cocked to the right, her sideways quirk of the lips for once being more open, in a half-laugh at what was happening around her, unique green eyes glancing over at the sleeping physicist, a different kind of softness in her expression only ever brought on by Bruce.

There was a gap between Natasha and Thor where Clint had been standing, but leaped forward to snag Tony around the waist. Despite his words being harsh on the day, the archer’s face had humour in it, grey eyes bright in amused disbelief at the nut he was trying to wrangle still for just a few seconds because when Tony talked, he moved.

Clint’s fond gaze, with just a touch of proudness, was directed at Tony, who was bent forward, hands already grasping at the archer’s arms linked around his stomach. Despite being on the receiving end of a tackle, the genius was downright laughing, mouth open and lips pulled back in a devious expression. Upon closer examination, Clint saw that the engineer’s right hand had formed into his patented peace sign, showing the rotter had planned to get Clint to dive for him in the photo from the beginning. His mischievously twinkling chestnut brown eyes were looking over his right shoulder, back at his adopted little brother to see if he was watching. However, the fact of Bruce being fast asleep hadn’t diminished his mood at all, if the strong crinkle of the skin around his eyes was anything to go by.

Thor finished it off, smile huge and dark blue eyes laughing as much as his mouth. His arms were held out wide, gesturing to the entire group and he was the only one actually looking at the camera. It was like his expression and stance was saying, ‘These people all here are mine.’

Laura had taken one look at it and got it framed, hanging in the hallway along with so many other frames decorating the walkway.

When Lila had pointed to it one night, one week before the team was due to come to the farm, when he was carrying her to bed in hopes of distracting him from his task (he was ashamed to say he wasn’t immune to her tactics), he had stopped, eyes studying everyone in the picture.

Slowly, a loving smile formed on his face and he had stood in the doorway, Lila on his hip, as he began to tell her all about the ‘So Good He Never Wanted It To End’ day he’d had in that picture.