Chapter Text
Clint had claimed the center of one of Stark's comfortable couches in the hopes that no one would sit by him and sit somewhere else. He stretched and plopped his booted feet on the coffee table and sunk into the warm leather backing. The largest bowl he could find in the kitchen was balanced in his lap, full of buttery popcorn. Clint turned on the flat screen TV and flipped through the thousand and one channels until he found an interesting documentary on birds of prey. A massive hawk was soaring above a valley before the camera switched to a group of adorable looking furry rodents. The large bird swooped down and snatched one of the critters from off its feet. The animal squealed in alarm before the documentary cut to commercials.
"What are you watching?" A calm, measured voice asked from behind Barton's head. He immediately knew who it was. Very few people could sneak up on Hawkeye and Phil Coulson always made use of the fact. The SHIELD agent walked over and sat down on Clint's left side. "I could smell the popcorn from the lab," Phil explained as he tried to sneak a handful of the salty goodness.
Clint slapped his hand away. "No popcorn for you. Dead guys don't get popcorn." Phil's eyes laughed even if he physically did not.
"Does that mean I can have popcorn then?" Natasha and Bruce seemed to have followed the smell too. Bruce had a small smile on his face when Natasha dropped to the couch and pulled him down with her. "I could blackmail you-" Her voice dropped off as a mischievous smirk spread across her pretty features. Clint immediately handed the bowl to his partner. Bruce chuckled and Phil adopted a slight pout.
The documentary was back on and Clint allowed his attention to be drawn to it. Bruce and Phil didn't seem to care about what they were watching, their interest currently being held by the popcorn bowl. Clint slapped another one of Coulson's hands away. Natasha began looking bored a few minutes in and snatched the remote away from the bird. Before he could protest, she had already found a reasonable replacement. The partners began a game of keep away while the two others took the opportunity to finish up the popcorn.
It wasn't long before the rest of the Avengers team was drawn to the living room by the occasional Russian and English curse. Tony walked in with Pepper and burst into laughter at the sight of the two assassins fighting over the remote. Pepper merely put her hands on her hips and glared at them. Phil and Bruce had since slunk away. It was always best to stay out of the occasional wrestling matches between Hawkeye and Black Widow.
Captain America watched from the doorway, unsure of what to do. As the unofficial team leader, it was his duty to break up little things like this. Wasn't it? He didn't have to worry for much longer. Clint suddenly sat up and with a final glare at his triumphant opponent, switched on his SHIELD communicator.
"Agent Barton, we need you and Romanov at the nearest base immediately."
"Is there a situation, sir?"
The voice sighed in annoyance and was gone. Clint rolled his eyes and signaled to Natasha to get moving. The rest of the team followed them to their rooms. "You have a mission?" Coulson questioned when they returned to the living room. Neither of the assassins replied, so he took that as a yes. He watched with a slight frown as they checked over their gear. Not being Barton and Romanov's handler anymore was certainly a bitch. Even though Coulson had taken his old position after the Loki incident, Fury had refused to let him become a handler again. Apparently someone more 'disciplined' and not so 'chatty' was needed for the two agents.
Clint snapped his bow into place and doubled checked his arrows. Once satisfied, he made sure he had all of his hidden knives. Natasha changed the magazines out for her weapons then nodded to her partner. Once they had a mission and were focused, words were rarely needed. Natasha snatched one of the many key rings from Tony's grasp and tossed it to Clint. They hurried to the billionaire's garage and hopped in a sleek, black Mustang with tinted windows.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
With Clint driving, it took them maybe ten minutes to get to the SHIELD base. Waiting outside for them, was a man dressing in a pressed black suit and tie. Natasha was the first to climb out of the car. She directed a sharp nod towards the figure. Clint managed to hold back a growl when he saw him. The partners cautiously made their way to the man. Once they were about a foot away, the man turned on his heel and led them inside the compound. The man held a door open to a conference room right off the main hallway. He immediately left once the two Avengers were inside.
"Looks like the high and mighty Stonewell couldn't show his face today." Hawkeye snorted at the serious tone Natasha had spoken in.
"When does he ever?"
Natasha plopped down in a chair with a oomph. "Good point."
They waited in silence for another ten minutes or so before another man stalked in. His wavy, light brown hair barely reached his ears and his dead green eyes were capable of an iron stare that weren't easily escaped. He was dressed like the first man, but with a dark blue tie. A little silver pin with the SHIELD logo was over his heart. Clint barely managed to cover his huff of laughter with a sneeze. Agent Nathan Stonewell was not on Clint's list of favorite people ever. Actually, if Clint had to choose one person to hate (and it had to be a human), it would be Stonewell.
"Agent Barton, Agent Romanov." He greeted before launching straight into their mission. "Two teams of SHIELD agents are going to clear up a rumor about an A.I.M. laboratory that supposedly is trying to recreate an energy source similar to the Tesseract. We have heard that this laboratory is at one of two locations, hence the two teams. Your mission is simple, accompany the teams to their destination and assist in anyway you deem necessary or for the good of the mission. If any data is found regarding an experiment similar to what I have told you, then you are to retrieve the data and turn it over to me. Any questions?"
Clint raised his hand and returned the agent's glare with a look of pure innocence. "We're splitting up for this assignment?" That earned an eye roll from the clearly frustrated agent, once done being dramatic, Stonewell nodded. Hawkeye one, Stonewell zero.
"You are dismissed. Your respective quinjets will be taking off in five."
Natasha and Clint shared a look before jumping to their feet and hurrying to the air strip. Natasha spotted the groups of SHIELD workers first. She walked over to the closest team and was immediately giving a rundown of the operation. Clint jogged up to his team just as they began to board. The agent in charge of the team snapped at a younger officer to give Clint the details. He sat in the seat next to the nervous woman and waited until the quinjet's engines had become a low roar to turn his attention to her. Her dark green eyes revealed her wariness of the man next to her.
"The mission details?" He reminded the officer once he figured she'd stared long enough.
Her gaze sharpened and she gave him an apologetic smile. "Right, sorry, sir. We are heading to one of two locations where an A.I.M. laboratory is supposedly. The orders are to find the facility, take it, and retrieve any information. A relatively ease operation." She turned her attention back to her tightly clasped hands.
Clint looked around the quinjet then studied the passengers. The leading agent had a sour expression on his face and the five other officers were either quietly talking or checking their gear. When the woman next to him sifted to open something out of his sight, Clint caught a flash of dark red. A red medical cross had been sown to her left sleeve. He thought about poking her, but decided against it. He cleared his throat, which worked well enough in getting the officer's attention. "Medical?" He pointed to the symbol. The woman only nodded before turning back to what she had been doing. "Why would a mission like this need medical personnel?"
The woman looked back up at him and, seeing the she wouldn't be able to ignore his question, replied, "There isn't a lot of information that we have to go on. It could be that if they really did make some kind of energy thing, it might have caused some serious set backs. I'm only here for an emergency. Well, that and I had trained to be a techie, so I guess they get two birds with one stone with me." She smiled and gave a huff of laughter.
Hawkeye nodded, allowing her to finish whatever it was she was doing. He let the details of his mission drown out everything else. It seems that maybe this mission wouldn't be as easy as it seemed.