Bruce couldn't sleep and Tony had banished from the lab for the night. So, he wondered the empty halls hoping to waste energy until he was tired enough to fall asleep. He headed for the gym, knowing that Steve usually had restless nights and normally ended up through. Sometimes he would just stop by and watch the man. It was a little later then normal so he wasn't actually expecting the room to be in use. But even before he opened the door, he could hear the sounds of someone hitting a punching bag.
He pushed up the door, quietly not wanting to disturb the captain, only it wasn't Rogers it was Barton.
Bruce didn't know him well. After everything that happened with Loki and the Chitauri, the archer had been kept on lock down at shield for a couple months until he was cleared for duty.
When he came to the tower it was by arm. Literally. The agent had been dragged in by Ms. Romanoff, who shoved him in the room Tony had made for him and told him he was staying.
No one questioned in, not even the archer. Though he seemed to keep to himself or vanished so entirely that they had thought he was gone. It put some of them on edge. Tony was suspicious while Steve worried. Bruce was somewhere in the middle, not sure how to feel about the man. While
Natasha seemed to find it amusing and would smile at them. Then calmly informed them that Clint was around.
Bruce hadn't believed her until he came across the archer on night, sneaking out of one of the labs. He had seen Bruce given him a smirk and disappeared around the corner. He had chased after him to see what the younger man had been up to but when he turned the same corner, Barton had been gone.
After that Bruce didn't doubt that the agent was in the tower, he just wished he knew where he was and why he was refusing to interact with them.
He wondered if he should speak up, let the man know he was here. But as he watched, he started to worry. Barton was hitting the hanging bag with everything he had and it only took Bruce a second to notice his hands had no protection.
He didn't like it. The man was an archer, his hands were important and Bruce could see dark red on the blue bag. He only gave a brief thought before he walked across the a room, making no move to hide his steps. He saw Barton tense and turn towards him.
Before the blonde could get a word out Bruce reached out and grabbed his hands. They were a mess, bruised, swollen, and bleeding. then taking a play out the Natasha's book, he tightened his grip on the right wrist and dragged Barton our of the gym and up the elevator towards his room.
The archer yelped in surprise and in the elevator he tried to open his mouth to say something but Bruce turned around eyebrow raised and the agent closed his mouth.
When they were in his room, he shoved the other man into the bathroom and pulled out his first aid kit.
Barton say on the toilet lid, not looking at Bruce or his hands.
"Why aren't you were gloves?" He asked as he started to clean the abused knuckles. Barton cursed under his breath at the pain but didn't fight him.
"Forgot."
Bruce called bullshit on that. He could see older bruises along the archers fingers.
He stayed quiet for a few trying to figure out the other man and why he would risk his hands like this. It was when he wrapping a bandage around the first hand that he figured it out.
"Your punishing yourself." He said and felt the man tense.
Barton went to pull his hand away but Bruce held tight. When he couldn't get his hand free he glared at Bruce.
"Why?" He asked, moving on to wrap the second hand.
The other man eyed him, "Why do you care?"
He could hear the defensive tone hidden under the anger. It was tone he knew well. He used it when talking to people all the time. People always wanted something from him or the other guy. Tony had been the first person in a long time to see him and not just the monster. It had made a world of difference to him. Maybe it would help Clint too.
"Because your hurting yourself." He said, "and because we are a team, we look out for each other." The archer huffed.
"I shouldn't be here." He muttered.
"Why not?" He asked letting go of the hand, but not moving from his spot.
"I killed them."Clint whispered. "My own people. I tried to kill my best friend."
"Clint," He said, moving to stand before the man, "You had no control over that. That was all Loki. You can't blame yourself. And no one here blames you either."
"But why not?" the blonde hissed. "I killed them. It was may hands, my bow, and they just forgave me. How could they just forgive me?" The man's voice broke at the end and Bruce could see tears in the archers eyes. He moved forward taking both the man's hands in his own.
"Because Clint, it may have been your hands but it wasn't your desire or will. You would never hurt your own. You had a being, a god, force his way into you head and he used you." He looked Clint in the eye.
"You have to understand that there was nothing you could have done to stop him. You can't keep blaming yourself." He let the archer go.
He wasn't sure if his words would hold, it was a hard thing to come to the understand that sometimes there wasn't nothing you could do in certain situations. No matter of training or trying could stop things from happening. It took him years to understand that. He just hopped it didn't take Clint that long.
As he walked out his bathroom, he stopped at the door way and looked at the man. His head was down and he staring at his hands.
"Clint," The man looked at him, " The blame for those deaths lies with Loki and we stopped him. Remember that."