Chapter 1
1.
Tony Stark never imagined that becoming an Avenger entailed fighting Japanese robots welding katanas that also had machine guns on the bottom.
Oh, and blasted what he was pretty sure was the Japanese equivalent of fucking earrape.
Sure, they had fought strange bird robots that had massive beaks that actually made sounds like seagulls on steroids, and giant metal unicorns that breathed fire, but this--this, was making his top five list of most interesting villains, ever (especially considering that numbers one to five consisted of actual fire-breathing dragons, a crazed Soviet man weilding electric tentacles, reptilian aliens, robot raccoons, and a Latverian crazy mad scientist, in that order).
“This one’s going on the top five villans list,” he remarks over the comms, to the eternal chagrin of Captain America.
“Focus, Iron Man,” Captain America orders, sounding a little breathless.
“Got it, Cap,” Tony replied, rolling his eyes, rolling and ducking out of the way of an especially large robot.
“Hey, uh, slight problem here,” a new voice chimed in. “I may or may not be out of arrows?”
“Hawkeye, do you require extraction?” asks Cap, always helpful. Tony hears metal clanging off of metal, and for a second, feels sorry for the robots meeting the end of the Captain’s red, white and blue shield. And immediately takes it back as bullets ping off of his armour.
“Pick up one of those swords and use it,” Tony says absentmindedly, blasting at one of the robots, as it falls apart in an unholy heap of scrap metal and swords with a screech.
“I think I’m good,” responds Clint, and Tony can hear the grin in his voice. Tony hears Natasha sigh over the comms.
“What are you up to now, Barton?” asks Tony. A large roar sounds from the distance, and Tony swiftly ducks and rolls out of the way to avoid getting squashed by a big green fist. “Hey buddy,” he yells. “How’s it going?”
The Hulk roars off, lumbering after the largest robot, and he shakes his head, smirking.
☆
After the last creepy Japanese robot has been smashed to bits by the good Captain, Tony heads over to their extraction point, where he found Steve, Natasha, and a slightly shivering Bruce waiting.
“Where’s Robin Hood?” he asks, flipping open his faceplate.
Steve shrugs, and takes off his cowl, running a hand through his messy hair. “If he doesn’t show up in the next five minutes, we’re leaving without him,” he says. He raises a hand to his ear. “Hawkeye, check in.”
“Hey Cap!” comes a chipper voice. “I might be a little late ‘cuz I’m a little stuck but give me a couple minutes and I’ll be fine, just hang on a couple of minutes, like I’m just--”
“Where are you,” Natasha demands, cutting off the archers rambling, her lips pursing into a thin line.
“I’m almost there! Just wait a sec-- oh hey guys!”
They all turn to see Clint skirting around a fallen robot, a katana in each hand, bow slung across his shoulders. He sees them staring, and waves with one large sword. “Hey, guys,” he calls.
“You know I was joking about the swords, right?” Tony deadpans, while Natasha rolls her eyes beside him.
Clint twirls the katanas. “I mean, I actually do know how to use swords, so I guess that was a good suggestion.” He throws one into the air, gracefully catching it as it comes down, as if to prove his point. “I mean, I’m still a bit rusty but it worked though,” he says, seemingly unaware of the wide-eyed looks everyone else is giving him. (Other than Natasha, that woman knows everything.)
“Where...what?” says Steve. “Where’d you even learn how to use a sword?”
“Circus,” says Clint, as if that explains everything.
Steve glances at the swords, then opens his mouth to ask another question, and then closes his mouth. “Yeah...we’ll discuss this later.”
☆
After they are all comfortably seated on the couch in the common area (except for Bruce and Natasha, who are both taking showers, and Thor who is somewhere on Asgard), Tony demands an explanation from Clint.
“So, you’re an archer, and a, fuckin’, fuckin’ swordsman?” Tony says gaping at the man sitting across from him, ignoring Steves eye roll next to him.
Clint shrugs. “I mean, I learnt some from the Swordsman in the circus, but it's not really my thing,” he trails off, awkwardly scratching his chin.
Tony gapes. “When the fuck were you in the circus?” he looks at Steve, who looks utterly nonplussed by this information. “Cap, are you not surprised?”
Steve shrugs, turning another page in his book (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, god, that man was such a nerd). “A lot of kids wanted to run away to the circus as kids, it was kinda the dream, right? I’m assuming that happened.”
Clint flashes a bright grin at Steve. “...and we have a winner!” he mimes ringing a bell, and his face falls just a tiny bit. “I ran away to the circus as a kid. Wasn’t as fun as you might think, but I learned a lot of helpful skills.”
He pulls out the Wii controllers from under the coffee table and turns on the TV. “Enough about my childhood, who wants to play Mario Kart?” he says, his grin returning at full force, as he tosses two controllers and Steve and Tony.
Tony, mouth still open, jerks as the controller hits his face. “Yeah...sure, cool cool cool, let’s just play Mario Kart,” he mumbles, shaking his head.
He should have probably read those files SHEILD had given him.