Pietro with Princess hair
You can take the agent out of SHIELD, but it’s harder to take SHIELD out of the agent.
Clint still rose at 5am every morning, rolling on to the floor to begin his day with push-ups, chuckling as a sleepy and disgruntled Pietro threatened to start sleeping in his own quarters.
Another holdover of his SHIELD days is his hair, which he still keeps neat and short, a far cry from the flowing, blonde locks he’d sported before Coulson recruited him. (JARVIS, and now FRIDAY, have standing instructions to delete any digital evidence of this as and when it crops up, all the better to keep certain Avengers from finding out.)
In truth, he misses his long hair but at least now he has Pietro’s to play with. Tangling it in his fingers, twirling it absently as Pietro’s head lies handily in his lap as they watch a movie. Gripping it tight, using it to guide Pietro’s clever mouth as his boyfriend moans between his legs. And sometimes, just sometimes, using it as practice for the elaborately braided hairstyles that Lila was favouring these days (Clint still curses the maker of Frozen on a daily basis.)
That’s what he’s doing, last bobby pin being worked into place, when the perimeter breach alarm starts to sound.
Both men immediately fall into work mode, following emergency procedure to the letter as they make their way, stealthy and alert to the rally point, adrenaline pumping and already itching for action.
Only to be disappointed to find Steve waiting for them with a clipboard and a stopwatch. (Never mind that a STARK pad would do the job better.)
“Good drill, people” Steve compliments when the last of them arrives. “Next time, I want at least 30 seconds shaved off this time. It could’ve been better.”
As Steve dismisses them, Tony starts to cackle. “Gotta disagree, Cap. This was the best drill ever. Pietra? Loving the ‘do. It’s a little more than I wanted to know about you and Barton’s dynamic but it suits you.”
They really need to revisit the conversation about moving off-base.