The shrine of red skull
Now
Coulson is gonna kill me Clint thinks as wipes his eyelids, his fingers already slippery with blood.
No scratch that, Nat is definitely gonna kill him.
Aw man, but how the fuck was he supposed to know his neighbors were actually fucking neonazis and not the usual bros, they had a Dalai Lama poster on their door for fuck sake.
He mournfully looks at his broken bow, laying a few feet from where he’s hiding behind a pillar.
At least it had gone down in glory over a fucker’s head.
Clint risks a look at his shooters over a turned table and his head is almost blown up. Okay, that looked- pretty bad.
He takes the knife from his boot, giving a silent thank you to Natasha’s frightening but useful tips.
“Man, my favorite bow” he mutters under his breath.
Running to avoid the roar of gunfire, he takes cover under a downturned table, almost tripping over a dead body with the tentacle sign tattooed on his neck.
Hydra again. These guys. No wonder Cap bashed their heads with his shield before their opened their mouth with all that nonsense about-
Hold on for a minute.
He strains to hear them now, the static of the fucked up hearing aids giving him trouble. Just silence until.
“Hail-“ someone says very thin and it’s cut to a frankly horrifying scream.
Damn it, by the sounds of that he’s gonna have to hire Jeremy from the shield Clean up crew. And that guy sucks.
Oh okay, focus. This looked bad like ten minutes ago when he had actually tripped and stumbled upon the shrine of red skull in the hallway of the 10th floor.
And now-
Clint risks a glance at the unhinged window. His last promising escape route, but his sprained ankle is killing him, he can already picture himself falling to his death for a silly mistake. Still, better than whatever started killing back out there.
He turns to see a pair of heavy boots in the doorway.
Shit. How the fuck-He didn’t feel them get close-
Clint tightens his grip on his knife, breathing out slowly. But before he can move a dark shape surrounds him, an unyielding grip in one of his wrists.
He’s so- so fucked. This guy is enhanced, Clint is unfortunately very fucking aware after months of training with Cap “Call me Steve” Rogers. Clint uses every move to get free, desperately even, but the guy is a fucking mountain and he’s waving at him-
What?
Waving at him with his cyborg arm- and something clicks in his mind like a ton of bricks. Probably a concussion butthat’s a metal arm, he thinks dumbly, and the only motherfucker he knows-
“Holy shit” says Clint out loud, finally relaxing because what the fuck is happening “you are still alive”
The Winter Soldier levels him with a hard look and points at his face with his glinting finger, before waving again.
Now you see.
“what? I don’t speak assassin” Clint babbles but his heart is beating loudly in his chest, Oh Goddamned all to hell. Of all the things he had expected, Cap barreling to save his ass or even Nat anything but this.
Winter sits on the back of his heels because he is a super engineered super assassin that could kill him with his pinky, Jesus christ. Winter stares hard at him and points to his face again.
No hand waving this time.
“Shit okay. Fuck, wait for a sex- a second”
Clint drops the knife, telegraphing his movements to get closer because he is not an idiot, no matter what Natasha says and unclips the mask and googles off Winter’s face. He is hit with those beautiful eyes and that killer jaw but fuck it.
Clint is a desperate man, he does dumb stuff like running his bloody fingers to the light stubble thats growing on Winter’s face.
“Hey buddy” Clint says as Winter turns his eyes on him, a little smile playing on the corner of his mouth “long time no see”
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12 Years ago
So, Clint is an idiot. Yes, he ran away from the circus with Barney and everything he knew to start a new life.
Turns out life was harder when you were so glaringly different, so Clint stuck to the street-performance with his bow, getting along with the wrong kind of people. Again. Because apparently trouble stuck with him whenever he goes.
“who do you work for, Mr Barton?” says the apparently not-so-harmless man in a suit. Clint usually prides himself in his pickpocket abilities but he almost lost his right arm when the man snapped a gun at his face and kidnapped him.
So here he is. Still not knowing what the fuck is going on.
“I already told you, I work for no one. Also, you kidnapped me man so fuck right off” He grins at him, he still can taste the metallic taste of blood where suit-guy punched him.
And his hands may be bolted to the table now, but it’s only a matter of time. He already had the clip from Mr. Suit when he got close enough to put a cup of water in front of him, and he was sure he didn’t notice this time.
“Would you like to have a job?”
Clint hesitates. He really doesn’t want to go to jail, where he might actually find Barney giving his dumb luck. But now, even the thought of working for someone shady tasted sour, Barney pretty much snapped him out that life by selling his ass to Trick-shot.
You’re a burden Clint.
Yeah. He got it. Not need to burn those cigarettes on him and drop him off in the desert with his hands tied behind his back. But leave it to Barney to be nothing but a specialist on twisting the knife even deeper.
“have it your way then” suit-guy lifts an eyebrow. But relents with a soft sigh “but if want to change your life, work for something worthwhile. I will be waiting Mr. Barton”
Suit leaves and Clint works on his handcuffs.
“Yeah, whatever” he answers to the empty room as his hands get free. They were probably another gang who has it out for Barney. Really, it’s for the best they part ways.
__
14 years ago
“Barney, I don’t know man” Clint says as he watches Barney passing on their trailer, the gun on his hand is loaded. Probably Trickshot with his crazy ideas about stealing banks and the government and the whole fucking world. Who cares? Barney apparently.
Don’t you want to be Robin Hood Clint? So fucking own it, for fuck sake.
“It’s something called Hydra” Barney closes his backpack “and they're paying good bucks. So shut the fuck up and shoot when I tell you” the sudden hand on his shoulder of all sudden feels frightening “you got it?”
“yeah, I do” Clint says automatically. And he’s losing him, he’s starting to think he loses everything when Trickshot gets involved. His girlfriend, his brother, even the damn tiger he feed strips of parmesan chicken.
“We need the bucks” he says with a lazy smile and then Barney is smiling back. And Bingo, he has his bro back.
__
Of course, Clint doesn’t stay where they tell him to take watch, in case everything goes to hell. Is he risking everything over a hunch? Probably, but his instincts have never failed him before. He creeps inside the factory, avoiding the security detail and shit- the place is really bigger than what he had imagined.
He slips between the crates, avoiding the lanterns of the guards. He can see better than most, even in total darkness.
No one notices him wandering, until its been a while since he’s last seen someone else. Clint feels he has walked miles, thinking that maybe Barney was right about this thing- when a small ball comes rolling towards him.
He stills, his eyes flickering around before picking it up.
It’s a piece of candy. Clint realizes as his fingers stick on it. And it’s warm.
What is this place? . He turns the curtains over one of the boxes laying around, making his best impression of the lion tamer-
And then he freezes, as he sees children inside the cages. Dozens of hands of people trying to reach him. Slowly one grabs the edge of his shirt. Drugged- he realizes with a sinking feeling.
What the hell is he doing here? And the most telling one What the hell is Barney involved with?