Clint Barton. Clinton Francis Barton
Clint can’t regain his footing.
Believe him, he’s tried. He’s an archer, a sharpshooter, Hawkeye, and he has the steadiest hands of anybody in the world, even surgeons and medical specialists.
Well, maybe Bruce and Tony could match him for hand stability, but that’s not the point.
He has the surest steps and steadiest hands in the world, but he can’t get his footing. No, he can’t, not even the slightest. He likes to think that S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers have helped with that, and somedays they have, but it’s not a permanent thing.
He remembers the accident, the funeral where Barney stood with him, both staring at the twin caskets, eyes dry and unfeeling.
He remembers foster homes and orphanages, remembers being sick and tired of the other kids making fun of him and Barney.
He remembers running, running to the nearest escape, leaving behind a world of hate and foster care and living in the system.
He remembers the circus. He was happy, for a while, free, with Barney and his newfound friends, with his mentors Swordsman and Trick Shot.
But even that had to be snatched away.
His entire life crashed the moment he found Swordsman counting the money that he’d conned from the circus, and Swordsman offered him the chance to be in it.
He refused. He wasn’t that much of a douche to steal money from the very place that’d essentially raised him.
Of course, that had had its own horrible consequences. Namely Swordsman trying to kill him and leaving him for dead.
And Barney leaving.
Trick Shot’d stepped up then, training him and honing his skills more than they’d already been, and it was only a few months ‘til the man asked him on a criminal raid.
And he said yes.
He remembers shooting Barney, remembers the panic and the agony and pain. Remembers his own mentor shooting him.
He remembers Barney leaving. Again.
Clint remembers clearly, too clearly, the day he meets the new Trickshot. He remembers the day the new Trickshot had unmasked himself.
He remembers years of vigilantism, before he meets Coulson for the very first time, joins S.H.I.E.L.D.
And that is the day Clint will never, ever forget. It is the day he will never regret.
Because that is the day that changed his life forever.