Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Clint Barton walked down the steps lugging behind him two purple duffle bags, a purple suitcase, and a purple backpack. He wasn’t looking forward to the rest of the day. He was starting at Shield High School. It’s a private school that takes in any student no matter what your grades are as long as you can do any type of sport and be at the top of your age group. Clint would have to go back up to get his archery gear before leaving with his foster father.

You see Clint had been in foster care for just over two months at this point after being tossed out of a car for pissing off the carnival that he’d been with since he was eight. Clint hadn’t been to school since he was in the third grade and that was probably why he was dreading heading to the school. Well, that and he would be staying in the dorms.

“Clint make sure to remember to put everything beside the door before coming to eat.” His foster father, Nick Fury, rounded the corner and saw Clint and lowered his voice. Clint nodded moved to place his bags by the door.

Sometimes he wondered why his foster father didn’t get a glass eye and stuck with an eye patch. Though Clint figured that it did keep his students in line when he gave you that one-eyed stare that seemed like he was looking into your soul.

Clint climbs back up the steps and pulls his archery gear down the steps as well. His bow and arrows case was a hard backpack with a tube attached to the side of it. The rest of his equipment was in another case that was rigid but not hard.

Once Clint made it into the kitchen he saw that Fury had already made his plate and one for Clint and had two table settings all laid out. Clint came and sat down across from him before digging into his breakfast.

Once the two were done they loaded up the car before heading out of town to the school. The high school rested on approximately 270 acres and while there was both an elementary school and a middle school that was associated with the school they weren’t on that land. No, the high school was ten buildings used for classes, five dormitories, a park, and three recreational buildings along with every type of sports field and practice area needed for any sport that you could think of. Fury let him out in front of his dorm before heading to his office.

Clint put his backpack on before sliding both cases onto one shoulder. He slipped his equipment bag over the handle on his suitcase before grabbing the duffles and making his way into the dorm. He swiped his ID and made his way into the building. He noticed that he was in the co-ed building and after remembering which dorm he was going to be in made his way to the elevator.

He made it up to the third floor and at the far end of the hall spotting room 322, his new dorm. He knocked on the door with his elbow hoping that his roommate was already there to open it because at that point he wouldn’t be able to open it himself because bags were starting to slip down his arms. The door opened slowly to reveal male with close-cropped brown hair and already in the school’s uniform, which he needed to go to the school store to get it. Though he did admit that the purple blazer was going to be his favorite thing about the uniform.

“Are you Clinton Barton?” The male opened the door to allow Clint to see the two beds, desks, and wardrobes.

Clint nods and the boy moves to allow Clint into the room. He points to the bed that was just a mattress and plain white sheets. Clint drops the duffles on it rests the two cases against the bed before turning to his roommate.

“Clint Barton.” Clint stuck out his hand.

“Phillip Coulson. Call me Phil.” Phil took his hand and shook it.

Clint starts to unpack his stuff and places his clothes in the wardrobe, shoves his archery equipment under the bed, and pulls his semi-decent laptop out of his bag to charge. He pulls his blanket, pillow, and stuffed eagle. The blanket and pillow were both purple with a bullseye on them. The stuffed animal was a beanie baby eagle that's wings were the US flag. The white on it was slightly discolored telling how long he'd had it.

“So I'm assuming that this is your first semester?” Phil helped Clint shove his bags into his suitcase before shoving it all under Clint's bed.

“It is. I was informed that my uniform would be covered by my scholarship.” Phil nodded as a huge bang came from down the hall followed by a woman screaming the name Stark.

“Great I thought Stark wasn't supposed to get here till Sunday.” Clint gave him a skeptical look.

“Anthony Stark son of the board of directors member Howard Stark. He’s a bit of a menace and normally doesn't arrive till right before classes start. The girl who screamed was Natasha Romanoff and she's a martial arts scholarship student.”

Clint nods. He wondered why his new roommate was being so helpful and he started to run his fingers along the sides of his shirt. He'd not even asked about why he was wearing hearing aids which were normally the first thing out of someone's mouth when they meet him. Clint hears a knock at the door and Phil walks over and opens the door. Clint looks over Phil's shoulder to see a red-headed woman who was wearing a tank top and jeans.

“Phil, did you get assigned a new roommate this year?” She asked looking directly at Clint.

“Yes, I did Natasha, meet Clint Barton he's an archery scholarship student. Clint meet Natasha Romanoff.” Phil introduced. Clint nodded to her and she didn't make him shake her hand.

Natasha sat down at Phil's desk. “Do you want to know what Stark did this time, and I swear that Pepper is going to kill him one day.”

“What did he do this time?” Phil dropped down onto his bed and looked like he wanted to strangle Stark without even hearing what he'd done.

“Well don't leave the dorm until Pepper and Sam come back with all of our IDs. Stark reset the whole buildings swipe access and well they can't figure out why they couldn't get the old ones to work so they are reissuing everybody's.”

“Alright. I guess we're going to have to wait to go get your uniform then. Natasha who else has made it here?” Clint's eyes widened when he realized that he would be meeting all the people that Natasha and Phil called friends. His hands clenched down on his shirt before he relaxed them and he dove for his bow case before running out of the dorm and down to the first floor and out the building. Clint raced off to where he had seen the archery/rifle ranges to have been when he'd visited in the summer.

The archery range was set with the back wall also being the back wall of the riflery range. The rage had gray walls that had an area that was equal to the lobby that was set up for people to watch what was going on in the range and was protected by plexiglass so that no-one watching got hurt. There were twelve targets set up at the end of the range with the shooting line painted on the floor in purple spray paint.

He goes to the last target, set up, and started to shoot. His bow was a beautiful purple and black recurve bow. Each shot landed around the bullseye and when he ran out of arrows he walked and pulled them out of the target and started again. He did this ten times before his fingers started to bleed and continued even as his bowstring was stained red. After thirteen rounds he went to pull back the string and when he released it, it scrapped down his right arm leaving a red welt that had blood beaded upon it.

After twenty-five rounds, he could no longer pull the string back and slid to the ground. His thoughts raced back to what had caused him running out here in the first place. He needed to get away from people that he didn't know the intentions of. People that seemed nice, but he knew better than to trust. The last person he trusted tossed him from a moving car. Before he passed out he heard the door being pushed open and then someone rushing towards him.

Chapter Text

Meanwhile, Phil was worried. It had been over two hours since he'd seen his new roommate, but since their floor had yet to get new IDs he couldn't just leave to go look for him. He wasn't even sure that Pepper and Sam, the two floor RAs, had even managed to get the full list of IDs that needed to be replaced after Stark's little stunt. Natasha had been recruited to allow people into the dorm from their floor so that left Phil alone to pace in his room.

That's when a knock came at his door. He hurried over and opened the door. Standing on the other side was Steve Rogers his next-door neighbor.

“Hey heard from Nat that you got a new roommate that ran off earlier.” Phil let Steve inside and plopped down on his bed.

“Yes, but I can't go find him because of Stark. Because if you are in the dorm then leave and make Pepper or Sam come to look for you after something like this, you just make them even madder.” Steve nodded in agreement.

They sat in the dorm talking back and forth till another knock came at the door about a half-hour later and Steve stood and opened it to reveal a strawberry blond woman who was wearing a blouse and skirt. She had an envelope that looked like it was about half full.

“Steve, here is your and Barnes's ID cards.” She hands over two cards from the bag before looking at Phil. “Sam's coming with yours and your roommate's, Phil. I only had Barnes's because Sam had given it to me.” She walks off to the other side of the hall to hand out the rest of the IDs.

“Do you want me to start looking for your roommate?” Steve pulled out his wallet and slide the ID cards into it.

“No. He hasn't met you and you'd likely make him run off again.” Phil laid down to wait for Sam to come around to his dorm as Steve left. It was ten more minutes before Sam knocked at the still opened door.

“Phil, is your new roommate one Clinton Barton?” Sam had two IDs in his hand.

“Yes, he is. I'm going to take his new one to him.” Phil took both the IDs from Sam and made his way out of the dorm. He had noticed that Clint had taken the case for his bow so he decided to check the ranges first. On his way there he saw Kate Bishop and a few members of the staff running towards the rages. He picked up his pace to catch up with them. When they made it into the rage the first thing that occurred to Phil was the strong smell of blood. His first thought was that someone must have left the middle door between the lobby and the rage open.

Kate pointed the staff to the archery range door and he followed them in and going around the edge of the range knowing that he’d be able to see what was going on. What he saw shocked him. Laying against the wall was Clint. His fingertips on his left hand were bleeding sluggishly.

Kate had already removed his bow from his hands and when one of them came back with the stretchers kept at the range. They loaded him onto it before taking him to the infirmary. Phil and Kate stayed behind to pack back up his bow and clean the range.

Phil knowing that you should replace the target no matter which range you were in went over to the pack that was sitting on the shelf and pulled out a new one before making his way down the range and when he pulled the arrows loose so he could pull down the target there were only ten holes in the target. Phil hung up the new one before heading back down the range making sure that he had all ten of the arrows that had been in the target.

“Kate was there any other targets used today?” Phil asked as he stepped back onto the raised shooting platform.

“No, why?” Kate was tearing down and putting away Clint’s bow with careful hands.

“Because Clint had ten arrows and his target has only ten holes, and I’m assuming if he caused his fingers to bleed it wasn’t with ten shoots, even without finger guards.” He places each arrow into the tube on the side of the bow case.

Kate took the target and looked at it. “I sure hope he's an archery scholarship student. If he shot this well without any of the asseting gear I can't wait to see what he can do with it.”

Kate had finished packing up Clint's bow and zipped the case before leaning it against the wall that Clint had been collapsed against ten minutes before. It was then that Kate looked at Phil with a critical eye.

“Coulson that was your new roommate.”

“Yeah, his name is Clint Barton he’s here on archery scholarship.” Phil pulls out Clint’s ID from where he’d shoved it in his hurry to leave the dorm. Across the top of the card was Shield High Eagle Card in white. Clint’s face stood out on the right side of the card against the purple background of the ID card. His name was printed in bold under that in white. On the opposite corner was SS-A, indicating that he was a scholarship student for archery.

“That’s good to know. Now, Coulson, I’m going to take this back up to the dorms and then go see the headmaster about him, because he’s not going to be shooting for a while. I’ll leave it with Pepper so you can collect it and put it back in your guys’ room. You go see if he’s even conscious.” Phil nodded knowing that she could run him through with one of the arrows in the bow case.

Phil made his way across the grounds to the infirmary. It was closer to the contact sports fields and therefore all the way past his dorm and past the administration building. He makes it to the infirmary to see Sarah Rogers, Steve’s mother, tending to the front desk.

“Nurse Rogers I’m here to see my friend Clint Barton.” Nurse Rogers nodded and lead Phil thought to the room that he was in. Clint was laying on his back with his left hand wrapped in bandages. He had an IV line on the other side.

“Steve told me that you had Mr. Barton’s new ID because Mr. Stark’s already messed with the system?” Phil nodded and placed Clint’s ID down next to a pair of bright purple hearing aids.

“How long do you think it will take for his fingers to heal?” Phil knew that like most of the sports students he wouldn't want to be out of practice for too long.

“Two weeks at least. He should be able to go back to light practice in a week or two.” Phil nodded and took a seat next to Clint’s bed as Nurse Rogers left the room.

Phil took the time to look over his new roommate. His hair was a dirty blond and skin tanned by outside work. Phil could see light scarring on his exposed skin, which was more than earlier because he’d been changed into a hospital gown, and a burn scar that he could tell had been bad when he first got it going down his chest.

About ten minutes into his observations the headmaster walks into the tiny room.

Phil stands before speaking. “Headmaster Fury, what are you doing here?”

“Ms. Bishop came to me telling me that Clint had been brought here, and she said that you might know what happened seeing as your his roommate.” Fury took the seat on the other side of Clint and motioned for Phil to sit back down.

Phil nodded before he started to talk. “Clint came into our room and I helped him get his stuff put away and then I was going to help him get his uniforms, but before we could leave Tony did whatever he did to the card readers. Natasha came by and I asked about who had already made it here and he took his bow case before running off. And sir, may I ask why you are so interested in Clint?”

“I’m his foster father.” Phil nods before standing to head back to his dorm.

Once he makes it back he stops at Pepper's door and knocks on it. She opens the door slowly, probably thinking that it was Tony, before spotting Phil and opening the door all the way.

“You here for your roommate's stuff?” Phil nods and Pepper moves to the desk and Phil can see Clint's bow bag leaned up against it. She picks it up and brings it over.

“Remember that our floor is going to dinner in the dining hall together tonight. Clint, if he is back, must go alright?” Phil nods and takes the bag before heading to his room.

Once he makes it back he lays down on the bed and falls asleep, knowing that someone would be sent to find him when he didn't show up to the common area.

Chapter Text

Clint wakes to see whitewashed walls instead of the gray and plexiglass walls of the archery range. As he sits up he notices the smell of disinfectant and blood along with a pinch of the needle in his arm. A woman starts towards him when she looked over at him to see him awake. Once she reaches him she picks up his hearing aids and hands them to him. He fits them into his ears and looks at her expectantly.

“You will come here every other day to have your fingers checked. You are not allowed to practice for at least a week if not longer. I have told this to both the range master and the head of the archery team. Otherwise, you are free to head back to your dorm.” She hands him his clothes and points him to the bathroom so he can change. Once Clint had changed he headed back to the dorm. Once there, he noticed that his bow bag was sitting on his bed. He wondered who had packed it up when Phil came into the room.

“Good, your back. Kate packed up your bow.” Phil sat down in his desk chair.

“Who's that?” Clint placed the bag back under his bed.

“Kate Bishop is the head of the archery team here. On that matter, our floor has weekly dinners together so I'll introduce you tonight.” Clint nodded and plopped down on his bed.

Clint had started to doze when there was a commotion in the hall before a knock came on the door. Phil stood and opened the door to reveal a six-foot-tall muscled blond man. His clothes were almost bursting at the seams.

“Son of Coul and roommate we are heading to dinner now.” Phil nods and waits for Clint to get up before leading the way to were about half of the floor was standing in front of the elevator.

A few of the students made their way down the steps, and as the elevator came back up to their floor Clint, Phil, Kate and a few other students got on. Kate saw that Clint was standing next to Phil and held out her hand.

“I’m Kate Bishop the captain of the archery team.” Clint takes her hand and notices the thick calluses on her fingers.

“Clint Barton, archery scholarship student. I herd you put my bow away earlier.” She nodded.

“I did. I also saw your target. That's some impressive barebow shooting. You'll probably end up being one of our men's individual and part of one of the teams.” Clint nodded as Kate talked about her plans for the team.

“How do you guys already know each other?” Clint and the others stepped out of the elevator on the first floor.

Phil pushed open the lobby doors and started towards the university center where all the dining options were located.

“So some of us like, Tony Stark and the Odinson brothers have known each other since kindergarten. But most of us started in middle school and were in the dorms as well. The floors for the dorms in the middle school are kept the same when you move to the high school with a few kids swapping around. Mostly our floor stayed intact with a few dropping out of the school's program or dieing over the summer.”

Clint nods in understanding as they make their way into the cafeteria. Each of them hands over their ID to be swiped and then head towards the buffet line. Clint finds a few things that looked good before following Phil over to where 5 tables had been pushed together. Clint took the end seat next to the blond boy from earlier and Phil sat on his other side.

Clint noticed a boy with shoulder-length brown hair who only had one arm. He could tell that he had lost it not too long ago because everyone seemed a little surprised to see him.

“Barnes didn't think you'd be back in school till at least next week!” A brown-headed boy yelled. His clothes were covered with grease.

“I don't have any other choice Stark. My mother can't afford for me to stay at home if we are ever going to be able to afford for me to get a prosthetic. Headmaster Fury has given me till just after Christmas break to either find a way to keep my current scholarship or to find a new one to do.”

The girl that was sitting next to Stark slapped a hand over his mouth and hissed, “If the next words out of your mouth are invasive, insensitive, or dirty I am going to make you clean all the bathrooms on the floor. Got that?” Stark nodded and she removed her hand.

“Anyways, Clint tomorrow afternoon is the first meeting of the archery team. You'll need to have been sized for your uniform by then.” Kate draws his attention away from the rest of the group.

“I still need to be sized for my school uniform as well.” Clint finished his dinner and went to put his dishes away. He then makes his way back to the table and notices the group had started to debate about who would be the first to end up in detention. It seemed like it was up in the air between the Stark boy or the black-haired teen that was seated next to the teen that grabbed them earlier.

Clint turned to Phil and asked, “Is this a common occurrence?” Phil nods as he stands to take his and Kate’s plates to be cleaned. Once he comes back Clint stands and they make their way back to the dorm. As they reach the building Phil remembers that he had said that he would take Clint to get his uniforms.

“We’ll go in the morning to get you fitted for the uniforms that you are going to need. It opens at eight so be ready to go by then.” Clint nods as Phil grabs some clothes before heading to the bathroom. Once Phil gets out he goes and showers as well.

Once he settled into his bed he fell asleep much quicker than he thought he would. Never in his life had he fallen asleep within ten minutes of laying down, typically it was closer to an hour before he fell asleep.

Chapter Text

The next morning Clint got ready for his day before going out to the common area that he had noticed the day before. It was still early and there was only one other person there, the one-armed teen from the night before. “You're the new kid rooming with Phil. Clinton right?” Barnes motions for Clint to sit opposite him. Clint nods as he does so.

“How did you lose your arm? You don't have to tell me if you don't wanna, but everyone else on the floor seems to already know.”

“Lost it in a car crash at the end of the school year last year. Missed finals and the tournament to decide who would be the captain of the marshall arts team. How did you lose your hearing?”

“There was an explosion a few years back and I was standing too close.” Barnes nodded and allowed Clint to continue to ask questions.

“How is the ranking for the sports teams decided?” Clint pulled his left hearing aid from his ear and cleaned the moisture off of it.

“At the end of the school year, everyone not graduating from high school and eighth-graders that have been accepted from the middle school are entered into a competition at the end of the year. From there depending on the sport you get the captain and co-captain at the end.”

“Alright. Are the teams solely made from scholarship students or are other students allowed?”

“Anyone. You are also allowed to use any of the facilities on campus as long as someone from the team or scholarship program is there. I often go to the shooting range.”

They sit together and talk about the scholarship programs and how they factor into the lives of each of the students' lives at Shield till Phil emerged from his and Clint's room to take Clint to get fitted for his uniforms. They quickly got him fitted before handing him the altered blazer and pants that had been done from his fitting.

After lunch, he headed to the range to see who all was there. Once he was inside he counted five recurve archers and two compound. He noticed a woman with short dark blue hair and dressed in what he thought was one of the school jackets leaned against the back wall of the range watching those already there. The woman waved him over and introduced herself as the archery team coach, Shamir Nevrand.

She then went on to explain the rules for the range and showed him back to the locker room and which locker was his. She explained that that space was used by all students in the building and how the bathrooms/changing rooms worked. Kate came back while he was fighting with the lock on his locker and she asked him his combination before easily getting the locker open. She told him how they were picky and the way to get them open.

“How do you know these things your only a freshman?” Clint looked at her and she answered with, “The middle school students last year got to pick our lockers for this year and were told how to open them.”

She then went on to explain that the brackets on the side were meant to move around so that you could hang the bow by the grip and not have it touching the bottom of the locker. Clint noticed the little shelf that he could keep his aids on when he didn't need them.

Clint headed back out to the range and looked at those who have arrived at the range since he had gone leach into the locker room. There were two more recurve archers and three more compound archers. There was a black-haired boy that he recognized from the night before. He thought that he might have been the brother to the blond that gathered them from their dorm the night before, though he wasn't sure.

When the entire team arrived Ms. Nevrand called them all to the back of the range to give the start of year speech. After that Kate said that she was going to watch because all of them took a few practice shots to see where they would be best suited.

Clint leaned against the wall watching them shoot. He saw the boy pull several knives from somewhere on himself before Ms. Nevrand called him over. They talked for a few minutes before the teen was allowed to go back to what he was doing. Clint watched as he started to throw the knives.

Clint walked over to him after the first call to retrieve arrows was called. "Hey, that looks interesting do you mind teaching me?”

The boy nodded before handing him one of the knives. He proceeded to show him how to throw them before allowing Clint to throw it. It landed at the bottom of the eight ring.

"Well, you've got a good aim. Most wouldn't be able to land it on the target at all with their first try.” He handed a few more knives to Clint before turning back to his target and throwing it again.

Clint spent the rest of the practice throwing knives. Once the practice was over he handed the knives back to the boy. "My name is Loki. It's nice to meet someone who doesn't start running when I pull out my knives.”

"I've spent some time around knife throwers. I've just not ever been taught.” Clint looks straight at him before continuing, "Clint Barton by the way.”

"Loki Odinson." Loki held out his hand for Clint to shake. Clint took it. That was the start of a friendship that would last through adulthood.

Chapter Text

Clint was dreading his first class at Shield. He hadn't had formal education since he was eight and in the third grade. He really didn't think that he would even know the concepts that would be talked about at the lowest level of English class. On that matter, he was following the Odinson brothers to the English Class that the three of them had together. He had been placed with the remedial English class. There were very few students whose first language was English in his class.

As the three entered the classroom Loki seemed to realize who's classroom they were in.

"Well, We get to have Mr. James again. This will be fun.” Loki and Thor went to seats with their names on them. This meant that Clint would have to find his sent and it would likely be that he wasn't anywhere near anyone he knew and knew that he wasn't the best academically.

Once the rest of the class came into the room and the teacher had as well the class started. He handed out the syllabus, and as Clint looked over it he hardly could read what was there. He looked back up at the teacher as he started to go over the books that they would cover that year. He didn't know any of them and he wondered whether or not he would even be able to read any of them. His reading skills had been deplorable when he was being formally educated when he was younger he didn't even want to know how bad they were now that he hadn't had a formal education in seven years.

The teacher started to hand out the first book that we were going to read, which was Romeo and Juliet. He explained that they would popcorn read the first not before going on from there. How they would read would be five lines each.

As they tossed around the reading Chat only knew where they were because each of his fellow students never read more than the five lines.

When they called on Clint he found his lines and started to read, “I will frown? as I pass by, and let them take it as they list. Nay? as they dare. I will bite my thu...thumb at them, which is a dis..disgrace to them, if they bear? it.” Clint was cut off by the teacher.

"You are a disgrace. Not even able to pronounce some of the basic words given. Do you even know what you just-” Mr. James was cut off by a knife landing in the whiteboard beside his head.

“Loki, no!” Clint turned to see Thor gripping Loki's arm which held another knife. James looked over at them before starting on another tirade.

“Odinson you will be getting detention for this.” James pulled a yellow disciplinary form from his desk, but the bell rang and Loki, Thor, and Clint got their stuff before making a mad dash for the door.

Once they were in the hall Clint turned to Loki and said, "You didn't have to do that.”

"Nonsense. He had no right to do that. He knows that class is full of students that wouldn't fully understand what Shakespeare meant when he wrote these plays, especially for the students that barely passed eighth grade English.” Loki started off to his next class which was physics.

"Do not worry Clint, my friend. Loki will end up in detention for weapons passion/threatening a teacher many times this year.” Thor says with a straight face waving it off as he leads Clint down to their history class.

Once they were there Clint found a seat next to Phil who was already there. Thor sat on Clint's other side. When the teacher came in she introduced herself as Peggy Carter.

She handed out her syllabus and Clint was glad that more of the words on the paper he could understand and knew what they meant. There still were a few that he didn't know, but he was sure that they would cover them in due time. She then passed out their textbooks before asking it they had any questions.

Thor held up his hand and when Ms. Carter called on him he asked, “How many tests will there be?”

"At most five, but I normally only give three. There will be multiple-choice, short answer, and fill in the blank on all of my tests.” She answered. "Any other questions?”

When no one else raised their hand, she looked down at the papers on her desk before heading them out. "These are how your notes will always be. I will hand them out at the start of class and you will fill in the blanks.”

Clint was glad that his notes for this class would just require him to listen close enough to what was being said. Also, he knew it he missed anything he could ask either Phil or Thor for the blanks.

Then Carter got started. they made it through half of the blanks on the first page before the bell rang for them to get out of class. Clint then headed to his math class. Once he made it there he noticed Tony sitting in the front of the class. Clint decided to sit next to him.

"Tony, why are you ever in my math class?"

"Because I felt like it. Really though I fell asleep during the math placement test at the end of last year, and they sadly won't take my other math tests as placement because I fell asleep.” Tony waved it off as he pulled out an extremely battered notebook. He flipped open to a page that seemed to contain plans for a prosthetic arm.

When the teacher came in he introduced himself as Hank Pym. Tony looked up from his notebook with surprise written on his face. Pym looked at Tony before saying, "Of course I get stuck with the son of Stark."

He then handed out his syllabus before explaining how the year would go. Clint was hopeful that he would be able to understand the concepts that would be covered so that he could try to get the actual math down. He then headed out their textbooks as well before the bell rang for the end of class.

They then made the trek to the cafeteria for lunch. Kate, Thor, Loki, and Phil were already sitting at a table and Tony and Clint make there way over to them and drop their backpacks before going to get in line for lunch. Once they were back at the table Phil asked, "How have your classes been so far today?”

"Alright, but English was hell.” Clint dug into his food as Thor and Loki explained.

"We have James as our teacher and he decided that he was going to use Clint as an example and Loki threw a knife at him.” Clint nodded and Phil nodded as well.

"Mr. James can be an ass. He likes to find a student to pick on in every class. I can't believe that they put him in charge of the lowest English class though. Normally, he teaches the AP/IB/Honors classes.”

"He had our English class last year as well.” Loki finished his lunch and took his tray and dumped it.

When Clint finished he took his tray before heading to his next class. He made it to the fine arts building just as Steve did as well.

"You're going to art right?” Steve leads Clint to the art room once he nodded. The art room head a few long, white tables and a gray concrete floor. Steve took the seat closest to the whiteboard and Clint sat down next to him. Once the teacher came into the class and started Clint figured out that this would probably one of his favorite classes. They started going over what they would cover this year before being released.

Clint then headed to the science building to go to biology. Once he got to the class he saw, Natasha, Phil, Tony, and Kate were all in class with him. They had left a seat open in the middle of the group for him to sit in.

"Tony I thought you were here because of your science knowledge. Why are you even in this class?” Clint turned to the boy that was sitting behind him.

"I'm here because of my chemistry knowledge, not biology, that would be Bruce.” Tony leaned back in his seat.

Once the teacher entered the room and started the class Clint paid attention. This class Clint realized he knew none of the words that the teacher was saying. That was at least he didn't know any of the science words. When the teacher announced that their textbooks would be kept in the classroom the whole class cheered.

Then the bell rang and Clint went to the gym with Natasha, Tony, and Kate. He was sad that Phil had a different gym class than him even though they were at the same time. Once they were seated the teacher introduced himself before going over what they would be doing that year. That included a swimming module in September/October. Though that one would be with the other gym classes was the only reason that Clint was looking forward to it at all.

Then they were dismissed to walk around the gym till the end of class. Kate came up beside him as he started to walk. "So on Tuesdays and Thursdays, you will have archery club after your gym class, and will not have one of your other classes.” Clint nodded and they continued to walk. He knew that it would still be a while before he would be allowed to shoot but he didn't care. It would be getting him out of one of the more academic classes. Once the gym let out he made his way to his dorm before heading to the range for the meet.

Once he got there Kate tossed him out saying that the nurse wanted to see him about his fingers. So he headed there. When nurse Rogers pulled the bandages off his fingers and he saw the damage that the bowstring had done he flinched. His fingers were raw and still weeping slightly. Nurse Rogers tisked before placing cream on his fingers and rebandaging them. She went over what she wanted him to do for a while and wanted him back on Wednesday. He left and headed back to his dorm.

Chapter Text

Two days into Classes Clint figured life wouldn’t be so bad at Shield if he could get a different English teacher. He’d just left the class and the boy that sat directly behind him came up to him. He was blond, but it had been dyed that way because his roots were a dark brown. His uniform was ruffled and he hadn’t buttoned the jacket.

“Hello, you’re the new student in Dorm B, right?”

“I am. My name is Clint Barton.”

“Which means your Coulson's roommate, right?” The boy was a fast talker and it seemed like he never slows down.

“Yes, who are you and why does this matter?” Clint was worried that this boy wanted to do something to hurt his new friend, and wasn’t that a thought, he’d made his first friend that he could remember.

“Coulson used to run a study session for the English class. I was wondering if you could get him to do it again.” The by said before running off, but before he got too far he turned back. “I’m Pietro Maximoff by the way!” He then dashed off out of Clint’s sight.

Clint realized that he’d been standing in one place way too long and cussed as he rushed off to his history class. He ended up being a few minutes late, but Ms. Carter didn’t look at him any longer than to hand him his notes sheet and send him to his seat. Once he got his pen out Coulson passed his notes over for Clint to copy. He’d only missed two lines and so he made quick work before passing them back.

The rest of the class was pretty boring in comparison, and he left with Phil right next to him.

“So, why were you late to class?” Phil asked as they walked down the hall and to the math building.

“Pietro Maximoff stopped me after English. Asked about you.”

“What did he want?”

“He asked me to ask you about doing English tutoring sessions again.”

Phil shakes his head before heading in the exact opposite direction of Clint. He yells his answer back at Clint, “Tell him to ask me himself!”

Clint giggles before running off to class. He makes it to his math class just before the start of class and that Loki was sitting in the seat beside the one that he’d been sitting in for the past two days.

“I didn’t know that you were in this class Loki.” Clint sat down next to Loki and pulled his math textbook from his bag.

“Fury wanted to talk to me Monday, caught me before this class, and yesterday I just didn’t feel like coming.” Clint nodded and turned to the front of the class as Mr. Pym entered the classroom.

Clint spent the class trying to decipher handwriting and wishing Pym would face the class a bit more than he was. His words being jumbled up by the time they reached his aids. He has all the writing that was on the board, but without the explanation, he would be screwed.

Clint looked over at Loki's notes to see his handwriting jumbled and with some misspellings. Then he looked over at Tony to see him asleep. He wished that he could sleep through his classes like Tony did their math classes. It would be horrible for his grades though.

As Pym let them out of class, Clint stood and shoved Tony awake. Tony sat bolt upright before sanding and walking out of the class. Loki walks out of the class ahead of Clint who is tugged back into the classroom after the teacher had left by his backpack strap.

“What the hell?” Clint yelled as he was shoved up against the wall. The boy who had grabbed him reached up and grabbed Clint’s left hearing aid from his ear.

“What are you? A fucking gay? Purple’s a girl's color.” The boy said just before he was torn off Clint by a much taller boy than either of them.

“So what if he is? It shouldn’t be your problem that he likes the color.” The boy says before taking the aid back from the bully. He hands it back to Clint before shoving the bully out of the classroom.

“Thanks for that,” Clint says as he slips the aid back into his ear after making sure that it wasn’t damaged.

“You’re welcome. I’m Quill, Peter Quill by the way. I’ve seen you around the dorm building. Your first year here?”

“Yeah, I’m Clint Barton,” Clint answers as he walks out of the room to see both Tony and Loki there.

“There you are. I was worried when you didn’t follow us out of the class.” Loki had a somewhat worried look on his face.

“It’s nothing. Let’s get to lunch before we don’t have any time to eat.” Clint steadfastly looks head and forces the other two back the way they came. Quill trailed behind them till after they had left the building. They make it to the cafeteria in record time with Clint staying silent on what had happened after their math class.

They get their lunch and sit down next to Phil and Thor. Both of whom look at the trio with a questioning look on their faces. Phil had taken one look at his roommate and decided that someone decided to bully or at least said something to him. Also, Clint wasn’t looking at any of them at all. No, he was steadfastly looking at his food and his eyes weren’t venturing any higher than that.

“Clint, you alright there?” Phil asked.

“Yeah.” Clint didn’t lookup. He quickly finished his lunch before rushing off.

“Anyone know what happened to our friend?” Thor asked.

“Quill might he left the math class when Clint did,” Loki answered.

“Does anyone have another class with Quill today?” Tony asked as they all stood.

“I have PE with him,” Coulson answers.

They all put their trays away and head out of the cafeteria and to their next classes. Coulson was just waiting on the fact that he would be able to talk to Quill during PE. They weren’t doing anything too intensive right now so it should be possible.

Once he got to the gym Phil was approached by Quill.

"I heard that you might know something about my roommate." Phil and Quill walked back to the changing room.

“I do if your roommate’s the new blond that’s got cool purple hearing aids.”

“He is.”

Quill nodded and pulled him to the back corner of the locker room. “Clint was caught off guard by Klaue after our math class today. He shoved him up against the wall after Odinson and Stark had already left the room. Then he pulled one of Clint’s hearing aids out. He said and I quote, ‘What are you? A fucking gay? Purple’s a girls color.’”

“Shit.”

“Yeah, I pulled Klaue off him and got the hearing aid back, hopefully without damaging it.”

They got changed and headed out into the gym. Phil was distracted during class and got payment for it in the form of a basketball to the face. Phil hit the floor his back hitting first. He sat up and looked around a little confused. He got his feet under him and stood. He walked over to the gym teacher, Mr. Hill.

“You alright? You took a pretty bad hit there.”

“I think I’ll be alright. Can I sit out of the rest of class?”

“Go ahead and get changed. If you start to feel worse go to the infirmary.”

Phil nods and goes back into the locker room. He changes out of his gym clothes and back into his uniform. He sat down on the bench and waited for class to end. His thoughts wandered to Clint and how he could help him. Klaue had no room to speak on the fact that Clint was wearing purple, they all did it was the school color after all. Though Clint did have a fondness for the color. Maybe it was because Klaue called him gay? He’d have to ask Quill if he saw what Clint looked like when that was said to him or if he refuted it to see where he needed to go from there.

When Quill came back into the locker room Phil walks over to him and asks.

“Barton didn’t say a thing when Klaue yelled at him, and he looked afraid. Kinda like Riley did when he was outed as transgender.”

“Thanks, Quill.” Phil started to back up, but before he could get far Quill grabbed his arm.

“Coulson, you’re not about to confront him about it are you?”

“Nope, going to tell Loki though. They can probably get him comfortable enough to tell people when he’s ready to.”

Quill nods and lets go of Phil who runs off to find Loki. He had a plan and he was going to go through with it. Now just to get Loki in on it.

Chapter Text

Clint made his way to Pepper’s dorm as soon as he made it up to the third floor. He wondered if she knew of anyone that would show him how to do the math and would be willing to tutor him. He knocked on her dorm door and she opened it after a minute.

“Hey, Clint what do you need?” She leaned up against her door and gave him a kind look.

“I’ve been having problems understanding Mr. Pym, my math teacher, during class, and I was wondering if you knew anyone who would be willing to tutor me?” Clint’s hands were fidgeting in front of his body. 

“Tony, Bruce, Rhodey, or if you don’t feel comfortable with any of them I could. I was Loki’s tutor last year.” Pepper looks at him with kind eyes and it causes his hands to calm down.

It was then that there was a loud bang of a door hitting a wall. Pepper looked down the hall ready to scold to see Loki, in a dress. Pepper smiled at them and called out, “Loki come here for a minute.”

That caused Clint to turn around at Loki. His jaw dropped as his eyes landed on the dress. ‘He looks . . . pretty.’ Loki had put his hair in a braid around the top of his hair and allowing the rest to flow free. It worked well in the simple green and gold sundress. 

Clint’s brain had barely caught up with him by the time Loki started to talk. “What do you need, Pepper?”

“Clint was wondering about a tutor for math. So what are you up to?” 

“Five-foot five. Why?” 

Pepper sighed at his response. Though she continued to talk like Loki hadn’t just given the most direct answer to her question. “Loki, how did you like me tutoring you last year?” 

“It was good. I’m going to go talk to the science team professor, again.” Loki heads off into the direction of the elevator.

By the time Loki was out of the room Clint’s brain still wasn’t firing on all cylinders. “Was Loki in a dress or was I dreaming?” 

“You were not dreaming. Loki, as far as I know, is genderfluid, you know what that means right?” Pepper’s voice was soft and gentle.

“I think? Isn’t where the person changes between genders?” Clint was trying hard to remember what the acrobats had told him while he’d been staying with them.

“Yes. Loki doesn’t typically want to be called by traditional pronouns and instead goes by they/them.” Pepper watches Clint’s face. He didn’t seem repulsed so that was a plus. Though he was showing such little emotion that it was worrying. Possibly something she needed to bring up with Phil.

Clint was quiet for several seconds and then he says, “So will you be my tutor?” 

“Yes. Thursdays after club, starting tomorrow?” 

“Sure.” 

Pepper nods before dismissing Clint. Clint walks in a daze to his room before he remembers that Nurse Rogers wanted to see him. So he walks down to the infirmary in a daze. Once there Nurse Rogers looked at him with worried eyes. 

“You alright there, Barton?” Nurse Rogers asked as she started to pull the bandages away.

“Mostly. I’m processing something that I learned today.” Clint answered. He looked down at his fingers to see them healing. The swelling had gone down, but he was pretty sure that he still wouldn't be allowed back on the range for a little while longer. 

“What was that?” She asked as she closely examined his fingers.

“Loki’s genderfluid.” 

“How does that make you feel?” She asked as she started to wrap his fingers.

“Nothing bad, it’s just odd?” Clint pauses to think. “No, not odd, different.” 

“Do you still want to be friends with Loki?” she asked as she taped down the bandages.

“I do.” Clint’s face was alight with such determination that it caused Nurse Rogers to smile.

“That’s all that matters. Now on the subject of your fingers. You are still not allowed to train.”

Clint nodded and slid from the seat. He made his way back to the dorm thinking about what he’d learned. Loki was genderfluid and he didn’t hide it. Maybe he could be himself too. Though he didn’t know what Phil thought about homosexual people and he didn’t want to share a dorm with someone who hated him. It was a dangerous thing. You wanted the people who slept next to you to like you or they could just kill you in your sleep. He swiped his ID and made his way up to his dorm.

Once there, he sat down on his bed and sat against the wall. He pulled his stuffed eagle and thought back on when Barny had stolen it for them when they first entered foster care. It was the only thing he had from back then and he wasn’t sure where Barny had gotten it from. He’d just handed it to him after Clint couldn’t stop crying. That was when he learned that being different didn’t help you in the world, that had just been reinforced when they ran away. 

His thoughts were interrupted when he could feel the vibrations of someone hitting the wall. He knew that Steve and Bucky had the room beside him and got up to see what was wrong. He knocked on the door realizing he still had ahold of his eagle. I was too late to go back and put it back on his bed, so he just stood there waiting for the door to open.

“Clint, you alright?” Bucky asked as he opened the door.

“I’m more worried about you You tossed yourself against the wall pretty hard.”

“You heard that?” 

“No, I felt it. I’d been sitting against the wall.”

“Sorry, about that. Didn’t think you or Phil were even here. Most of the teams have meetings right now.” 

“Can’t shoot, and I’m pretty sure that if I did go to the range Kate would murder me. What about you?” Clint rubbed his hands along his eagle’s wings.

“I can’t continue doing martial arts with a single arm. My balance is too far off. I’m not good enough at anything else that the school offers scholarships for.”

“Phil said that you were in his English class. Why not try something with writing?”

“I might do that.” Bucky then raises his hand up to his face and with fingers touching his chin with an open palm moves his hand forward.

Clint looks shocked at the ASL. Bucky smiled and said, “Loki and Pepper brought it to our attention that we should probably know ASL in case you can’t wear your hearing aids or we go somewhere loud.”

Clint nods and stumbles back to his room. He sits down on his bed and thinks about the revelations that he’d had over the day. ‘Loki’s genderfluid and asked the others to learn ASL.’

“Hell, I don’t even know that much ASL,” Clint muttered.

“What do you mean you don’t know ASL?” Phil asked.

Clint jumped and looked at Phil. “I lost some of my hearing before I was placed in foster care, and there I wasn’t taught much while there. Then I ran away and learned some while on the run from books in public libraries. Then I lost more of my hearing. Fury focused on getting me tutored in the basic classes I’d have here. So I know a little, but overall not a lot.”

“Well, then I’ll just have to teach you.” Phil sets his books down and digs through his draws till he finds a little black notebook.

“How do you know ASL anyway?”

“My younger cousin was born deaf. Her parents couldn’t afford her to get a cochlear implant and she doesn’t benefit much from her hearing aids so we all got together and learned sign language and helped her learn it.”

Clint nodded. They spent the next several hours going over what Clint knew before Phil started to show him new signs. After a while, there was a knock on the door. Phil got up and answered it. When he opened the door Natasha pushed her way into the room.

“Come on you idiots. You two haven’t eaten since lunch and the dining hall closes in an hour.” She says before she grabs Clint by his arm and drags him off the bed. 

Chapter Text

Clint woke with a start and looked wildly around the room trying to figure out where he was. He could just make out someone asleep across the room and after he looked a bit harder he could tell that it wasn't his brother, but his roommate. He fell back onto the bed and laid there for a minute before sitting back up. He knew he wasn't going to be able to fall back asleep so he grabbed his hearing aids and his laptop before heading out into the hall and up to the common area. He sat down on one of the couches and slipped his right aid in before opening up his laptop.

He looked up some ASL lessons on his laptop and spent several minutes repeating the signs before moving on to the next one. After the third one, he felt a presence behind him and turned his head to see Loki standing there. Clint waved at Loki before turning back to his work. Loki sat down next to him and watched his hands. They sat like that for a while before Bucky emerged from the hall with his laptop in hand. He sat down on the floor facing Clint and Loki and placed his laptop on the coffee table.

“So what were you two doing?” Bucky opened his laptop and turned it on. Adding another light to the still dark room. It also allowed Clint to see that Bucky did have some of his left arm, which was from about elbow up.

“Clint’s been working on ASL. I’ve been watching.”

Bucky nodded to Loki’s answer. Neither of them questioning why Clint was working on ASL. They all went back to doing what they had been in silence. After a while, Bucky fell back onto his back and Clint looked up from the sign for archery to look over at him.

Suddenly there was a bang from down the hall before it was followed by at least half of the floor yelling some variation of, "Go to sleep, Tony!" Then there was an extremely loud sore that Loki shook his head at.

"Tony wakes most of the floor, but my brother sleeps through it. Of course, he does."

"Yep." Bucky doesn't even try to sit up to look at the other two. Clint moves to place his laptop on the coffee table and looks at the other two.

"Will they be mad when they realize that we are up?" Clint grabbed the edge of his shirt and started to fiddle with it.

Bucky sat up a little before answering, "They don't mind as much. You'll probably get a stink eye from Phil or Pepper in the morning, but otherwise no."

Clint nodded and went back to work. Bucky fell back onto his back and Loki let their head hit the back of the couch.

At some point, all three of them fell asleep in the common area. Clint and Loki were a mess of tangled limbs on the couch and Bucky was still in the same place on the floor, and even though those coming out of their rooms were not quite the three stayed asleep.

“Oh look, there is a Barns Pancake and a Cliki pile.” Tony gets a slap to the head from Rhodey.

Phil walked over to Clint and Loki and shook them awake before Tony could take pictures of the two. Both of them woke and separated in slow motion. Clint’s hearing aid had slipped out and he picked it back up and slipped it in before reaching into his pocket and slipping it in.

“Tony wake you with his explosion last night?” Phil asked as Steve woke Bucky.

“I woke up before that.”

Phil nodded. “Go get ready for classes. We have about an hour and a half before our first class. Do you want me to get you anything from the cafeteria?”

Clint shakes his head before heading to his dorm to take a shower and change into his uniform. He heads straight to his English class when he’s done and gets there just before the teacher. He sits through the most grueling English class so far before leaving and going to his math class. On his way there Loki grabbed him by his collar.

“Did you eat before coming to class?”

“No, I’m not hungry,” Clint answered as they walked into the math building.

Loki didn’t press Clint, but his face showed displeasure at the answer. They walked into the class and sat down in their desks. Tony was already there and was drawing something in his notebook. They sat in their seats and waited for Pym to show up. When he did, he took one look at the front row and sighed. He turned to the board and started the class though.

Clint made sure to get all of his notes written down before the end of class. After class, he headed back to the English building for his foreign language class. He hated the fact that he was required to take a foreign language. Not that he didn’t want to learn one, but because it was hard to associate the new sounds with what they should be. He sat down next to Bruce and sat through the grueling process of trying to learn the German alphabet.

He lays his head down on his desk before the teacher can call on him. Eventually, Bruce pokes him on his side and cups his hands up next to his eyes before moving them forward.

Clint replies with his index and middle fingers hitting his extended thumb. Soon the teacher dismisses the class and Clint stands and makes his way to the infirmary.

He makes his way back to Nurse Rogers so that she can check his fingers. She unwraps them before saying, "Your fingers are looking good. You can go back to practice, but I want you to use both your preferred finger guard and have them wrapped. Do you know how to wrap them?"

Clint nodded. She smiles and gives him a roll of bandages before saying, "I want you to come back if you run out or you break the skin before next week. You got that?"

"Yes, ma'am. But I can go without the bandages otherwise?"

She nods.

Clint leaves the infirmary and heads to his next class as the bell rings. He makes it to choir class just before it started. He takes his normal place next to Steve. The class starts and he has the same thoughts about the choir as he does German. He can’t hear it so it’s hard to do, and if he’d had the choice he wouldn’t be doing it.

“Barton are you tone deaf?” the teacher asks after she cuts them off.

Clint turns his ear toward the teacher and pointed at his ear and the bright purple hearing aid before saying, “Nope, just deaf deaf.”

The teacher blushes before moving on. Clint giggles to himself and as soon as he’s let out he makes his way to the gym. At his point, he starts to feel lightheaded, but he’s done whole shows without eating for days so he’s pretty sure that he’ll make it through both gym and his archery class.

Kate catches him as soon as he walks into the gym and notices that he doesn’t have the bandages around his fingers. “Are you free to practice again?”

“Yep, got approved at lunch. I just have to wear both the bandages that Nurse Rogers gave me along with a finger guard.” Clint makes his way back to the changing room. He changes into his gym clothes and makes his way back out onto the gym floor.

By the end of class, Clint could see spots but they cleared up as he started towards the range so he just headed to the back and changed shirts, not even thinking about the huge scar on his right shoulder.

“What the hell?!?!” he heard one of the other members yell. He turned to see most of the male members of the archery team in the doorway to the changing room. Clint just grabbed his uniform shirt and slid it on before shoving his way out of the room. He goes over to his locker and hangs up his uniform jacket and shirt before grabbing his chest and arm guard. He then wraps his fingers and then slipped out his bow and strung it before grabbing his shooting glove and quiver. He headed out onto the range and took the target closest to the locker room.

He slid on his shooting glove before getting ready to shoot. He knocked his arrow and took a deep breath before pulling the arrow back taking aim on the target on the other end and releasing it. It lands just outside the ten ring. Clint rolls his shoulders before reading another arrow and shooting it. That one lands in the bottom on the ten ring and Clint barely pauses before shooting his next arrow. This one lands in the x ring. He smiles and finished off his ten arrows, with most of them landing in the ten and x ring.

He felt someone’s hand on his shoulder and turned to see the dark-haired and tan-skinned recurve archer.

“You’re really good. How long have you been shooting for?”

“I’ve been shooting for about four or five years.”

“Retrieve arrows!” Kate yelled.

Clint walked forward and pulled his arrows free. He dropped them into his quiver before walking back to the shooting line. He readied his arrows and started to shoot again. This time his arrows were much closer together from the start, with most of them landing in the x ring and a few below in the ten. He retrieved his arrows and returned to the shooting line.

After the third round, he started to feel light-headed and as he left the shooting line he felt himself tipping forward and then hitting the floor.

Chapter Text

When Clint opened his eyes he could see the white walls of the infirmary and sighs. He sat up to see Loki and Phil standing at the end of the bed. He couldn’t hear himself as he moved around all that well so he figured that someone had removed his hearing aids. He looked over at the table and saw that both his aids were sitting on the table there. When he lifted his hand to grab them he saw the IV line. Clint finished his movement and grabbed the hearing aids and slid them into his ears. 

“Clint, what the hell were you thinking? Not eating all day? Loki told me that you guys had been up for hours last night, and that’s not a bad thing all of us have problems sleeping, but you cannot go that long on the little bit of food that you ate yesterday!” Phil was pissed and that was almost an understatement, his face turned red.

Clint just shrugged his shoulders. He didn't want to bring up the fact that he'd done much more strenuous archery shows after days of eating the bare minimum. He didn't want to bring up his past at all if he could help it. He didn’t want his friends to know that he’d actually ran away and joined the circus. So he just stayed silent. 

“Mr. Barton, you are free to go when you are ready to. I hope not to see you here for a few weeks,” Nurse Rogers says as she comes into the room. Clint nods and slips out of the bed. He slides on his shoes and doesn’t really look at Phil or Loki as he walks out of the room. 

He makes it halfway to the dorms before Loki stops him and says, "You are eating. Now."

Clint turns towards the caf and Loki and Phil follow him there. He gets some food before sitting close to where they normally do. Clint eats his food before heading back to the dorm. It had been a long day and all he wanted to do was lay down and sleep. He makes it back, and Pepper is sitting in the commons area with her math notes.

Clint walks over to her before saying, “I’m too tired to want to do any math. Is that alright with you?”

Pepper nods and sends him off to his room. Clint goes and doesn’t even think about changing before laying down on the bed and falling asleep.

The next day Clint woke up in a much better mood than when he went to sleep. He went and took a shower before realizing that he didn’t have his uniform jacket. He looked everywhere in his side of the room before remembering that he’d taken it off before archery practice and had left it in his locker. 

Clint realized that if he didn’t get going soon he wouldn’t be able to eat before English. So he shoved on his feet into his shoes and headed to the cafeteria. Once there he saw both Kate and Phil sitting in their normal spot. Kate spotted him and waved him over. Clint sat in the empty seat opposite them. 

“Did you put my bow away yesterday, Kate?” Clint asked before he started to eat. 

“I did. I put it in your locker. I saw that you had your uniform shirt and jacket in there.” Kate answered.

“You didn’t get it out and bring it back?” 

“Nope, sorry. Anyway, unless it’s a competition day you don’t really need to worry about the full uniform.” 

Clint nodded. He finished eating about the same time as the others and they all walked out onto the grounds together. They split off not long after each heading in their own direction for the class. Clint sits in his seat just before the bell rings. He sits through his class paying attention to what he could hear and hoped to hell that Loki had gotten all of the notes for the class because Mr. James wouldn’t talk when he wasn’t facing the board. 

Once they were dismissed Clint headed to his next class and sat down. Ms. Carter didn’t face the board at all when speaking and instead faced the class for most of it. That meant that he could read her lips along with what little that his aids picked up consistently. Then they were dismissed and Clint had to again hope that Loki got all of their notes in their math class so that when he went to their study session with Pepper they’d have something to build off of. 

After class let out he turned off his hearing aid as he made his way to the cafeteria for lunch. He didn’t turn them back on until after he got to the next class. He knew that he probably bothered some of his friends, but he was too tired to care. 

After his classes for the day, he headed back to his dorm. He was too tired to care about doing anything else and so he laid down on his bed. His head was killing him and they’d announced that the inner school archery competition would be that next weekend. He went to sleep leaving this world for one of his dreams.

Chapter Text

Clint walked down to the archery range with Kate and Phil. It was the day of the inner school archery competition. Clint didn’t know why, but he was nervous. He knew that about half of Dorm B would be there to watch. Most of those who wouldn’t be there because they had their competitions to go to. Though they said that they would be there as soon as they possibly could to cheer him on. The three walked into the range and Phil split from the other two to go to the stands and Kate and Clint continued to the locker room.

Clint moved to his locker and pulled his uniform from his locker and walked back to the changing rooms to change into it. Once he was dressed in the purple and gold shirt of the school along with the black pants that went along with the shirt and slid on his chest guard. He then headed back out and strung his bow and put on his arm guard. He then slid his quiver onto his back. He then headed out to the range to wait on the competition to start. He didn’t have to wait long. 

Kate had told him that he would be part of the last match for the first round. They’d had two of the official judges for the region come down so that the students could get used to the competition format even if they hadn’t ever competed before. It was something that Clint liked about this.

Clint watched as two of his classmates stepped up to the shooting line. He watched as they were read the rules and then they started to shoot. He watched as they traded turns to shoot and after three arrows each they took a break to score the arrows and bring them back. Then they announced the scores for the first round before starting the second round. After switching back and forth with who was shooting for the second round the scores were tallied a second time and then put up on the big screen. Clint walked back into the locker room after the first round, not needing to see the rest of his teammates get eliminated one by one.

Soon it was his turn and Clint walked to the second target. He’d been told in advance that his target would be number two for the first round and depending on how it goes with a full audience it would be his no matter what. He walked up to it, his bow gripped lightly in his hand. 

He watched as the judge came and had them sign the sheet that he knew that the target was blank when they started. Then both of them knocked an arrow. Clint knew that he was to shoot second and waited for the light around his target. It lit with a slight sound that he guessed was the buzzer. Clint pulled his string back as he took aim and after a few seconds took the shot. The shot landed just inside the X ring. He waited again for the ring to light before taking his shot. This one landed in the target next to the first. It was another eleven. Soon it was the third shoot and he took it. It landed just on the other side of the first arrow and was probably a ten. 

Clint looked up at the scoreboard to see that the score was currently 32 - 30 in Clint’s favor. It was then that Clint noticed that it was Kate gathering his arrows at the target. She walked back up the length of the range and handed him his arrows before asking. “Could you hear the buzzer?” 

“No, I don’t understand why. I’d been able to hear it during practice, and there aren’t many people being loud right now.” Clint slides the arrows back into his quiver and Kate walks to beside him. 

“I’ll talk to you after this end. I’m going to go inform Ms. Nevrand.” Kate walked off as they started the second end. This time Clint shot much closer together ending up with all three arrows in the X ring. A Second end score of 33 bought his overall score to 65. His opponent had a score of 58. Clint would be moving on. Clint turned to his opponent and they shook hands.

Clint went back to the locker room after one of the others brought him his arrows. Kate was standing in the far corner and walked over to her. “So what was up with the buzzer?”

“I asked Ms. Nevrand and she said that she used the one that a lot of our latter companions use to see if you’d be able to hear it. It wasn’t our normal one cause she wanted to see.” 

“You think we should practice what we’ll do if my aids are on the fritz?” 

Kate nodes. “But leave your aids in.” She runs out of the locker room. Clint goes over to his locker and checks each of his arrows for damage. When he was satisfied that they were fine he slid them back into his quiver. That was when Kate came back into the locker room. 

She walks over to him and taps him on his shoulder before putting her right hand into an l before putting her thumb against her chest. She then flips her hand so that the thumb is facing him. Clint recognized it as the movement for the sign ‘turn’. 

Clint stood and headed back to the range and up to the shooting line. He faced the sidewall so that Kate could sign to him. He could hear the judge saying something, but instead focused on the signs that Kate was doing. She first did the sign for archery then the sign for one. This told him that he was going to be shooting first. 

He took an arrow and knocked it before looking down the range. When he saw the target light up he raised his bow and took the shot. It landed right where he wanted in the X ring. The next two landed right next to the first. A perfect score of 33 for the first end. Clint smiled and turned to Kate to see her giving him a thumbs up. 

He took his arrows when Ms. Nevrand brought them to him before reading the next shot. The next three arrows landed in the last three holes. A perfect round, that granted him a score of 66. Overall his score was 124. He looked up at the board to see that the next highest score was from Claude von Regain with a score of 120. 

Clint looked over at Kate to see her talking to Ms. Nevrand. He stepped back from the shooting line as soon as he was handed his arrows and walked over to them. Kate gave him a big smile. “That was the best round I have ever seen.”

Clint’s jaw dropped. Ms. Nevrand spoke next, “In all my years teaching here, I’ve never seen a perfect sixty-six with only three holes in the target. You did good, kid.” Ms. Nevrand left to deal with the next two rounds. 

“She’s got to be kidding right?” Clint paused to adjust his aids, “Or was my aids not picking everything up?” 

“You heard correctly.” Kate gave him a big smile. “There are only two rounds left and I can’t wait to see your scores from them. I wonder if you can keep up the perfect scores?” 

“Of course.” And the next two rounds he scored sixty-six in both. His total points from the competition were 263, one point off from a perfect score. Kate wrapped him in a hug as the scores came up for the men’s scores. The next closest score was Claud von Riegan, with a score of 259. He’d been the last one that Clint had shot against. 

Clint headed back to the locker room and put his bow and quiver up before pulling off his arm and chest guard. He turned when he saw the door to the riflery range opened. Phil, Loki, and Bucky all came into the locker room. They walked over to him and congratulated him. Phil had a wrapped sandwich that he handed to Clint to eat.

“I noticed that during the second round Kate was doing interpretations for you.” Loki looked straight at Clint.

“I still had my aids in and on, Kate just thought that it would be good to practice what would happen in a competition where I didn’t have my hearing aids.” 

Loki nodded and they sat and talked while the woman’s recurve archers did the same as the men had. It was the easiest way to see who would be able to compete this year, by having them do single-elimination rounds. The compound shooters would be doing the same thing the next day with the last thing they were going to do today was the announcement of the recurve teams. The three sat in the locker room talking until then. 

Not long after Kate came in announcing her final score of 195, three points off perfect for the three rounds that the women did when all the recurve archers called into the range. Phil, Bucky, and Loki headed back to the stands while the archers headed back into the range. Ms. Nevrand was standing almost exactly between the targets and the shooting line.

“When I call your name for the team I want you to come out here to join me until the full team has been announced.”  It was then that Clint noticed that she had a sheet of paper.  “First we will start with the men’s individual shooters: Clint Barton, Ignatz Victor, and Claude von Riegan.” 

Clint walked forward with the second-best shooter and who he assumed was maybe the third best. They stood together near and Clint looked at the crowd to see all of his floormates signing the same thing, “Congratulations, Clint!” Instead of clapping.

“Next, the men’s team: Ignatz Victor, Ashe Ubert, and Claude von Riegan.”   Clint watched as a gray-headed by joined the three.

“Lastly before I ask the boys to leave, the Mixed team: Clint Barton and Kate Bishop!”  Kate joined the boys. She gave a big thumbs up to Clint before the boys headed back to the range for the women’s teams to be announced. 

Kate ends up being on the women’s team with two of the other individual archers. Once Kate joins him near the shooting line they head back to the locker room to shower and change back into their school uniforms. Clint shoves his uniform into his bag so that he could take it back and wash it. 

By the time the archery club students made it back out to the rage the stands were empty. Ms. Nevrand called for the archery team students to stay behind for a second before heading back up to the dorms. After both the compound archers and the rest of the recurve archers had left did she start. “For those only shooting in the men’s, women’s, or mixed teams this mostly applies to you. Though I might have you, individual archers, practice this as well. What it is is that you will need to get used to switching between each archer in either one minute for the three-person teams or forty seconds for the mixed team. This is for one arrow apiece. We will start this on Tuesday during class. You are dismissed.” 

The students head out and Clint turns to Kate as they walk. “Does this mean we don’t have practice after classes on Monday?” 

“It’s not a required practice. We start to lessen the number of required practices after the inter-school archery competition for us to be able to do all of our homework and have a bit more free time.” Kate explained as they walked to the dorm. Once there Kate swiped her ID to let them in and they went up to their floor. Clint tossed his bag on the floor next to bed before tossing off his uniform jacket and laying down.

Chapter Text

It had been a very long week. While there were fewer archery practices, the ones there were grueling. Clint was pretty sure his shoulder hadn’t hurt this bad in years. There was also a crap ton of homework to do. As Clint made his way up to his floor he could tell the rest of the students agreed with his thoughts by the sluggish movements. When the elevator opened on the third floor he could tell someone was going to get into trouble with Pepper.

There was confetti everywhere. It was like what he assumed Times Square looked like on New Years'. When the elevator dinged Loki and a black-haired girl, whose name he’s pretty sure starts with a D, turned to look at him. The girl was on the floor trying to clean up the confetti. “Thank god you’re not Pepper. Come help us clean this up before Pepper gets here.” The girl begs. 

“Why is there even this much confetti up here?” Clint takes a tentative step into the common area and makes sure that he isn’t stepping on confetti. He knew how slick it could be from when they would use it in the circus. 

“I was going to prank Jane. She’s got some payback coming and Loki had a place that had this much confetti in a convent way to do it. It exploded before I could get to our room.” 

“I’ve got homework to do.” Clint makes his way carefully to the hall. He knocks on Bruce's door and it opens after a few seconds. Bruce looks out into the hall and sees the confetti before allowing Clint into his room. 

"What happened out there?" Bruce pulls over the other desk chair to what Clint assumed was Bruce's desk.

"Something about Jane needing to be paid back for something. It exploded earlier than expected apparently." Clint sat down and pulled out his German textbook.

Bruce nods and follows suit. “Where should we start?” 

“How about we start with pronunciations?” 

“So, when I found out you were deaf and in my German class I found out a few ways for you to pick out the sounds better, and I was taking German in middle school as well so I have a good basis for those sounds that you are trying to do.” Clint nods.

They go over the basic syllable sounds and by the end of it, Clint is starting to get used to those that are closest to English ones. They end talking a bit in ASL because when all on the floor realized that Clint didn’t know much ASL they made it their jobs to learn it and teach what they learned to him. It is also great practice for both. After that, it was time for the floor dinner and Clint stopped by his room to drop off his bag and blazer. When he makes it to the common area he sees that there is still confetti everywhere which didn’t surprise him at all. He makes his way to the caf to see everyone else made it there before him.

Once Clint gets his food he takes the only empty spot between Coulson and Loki. He notices that for once the table is quieter than it normally would be. Though that could be that both the girl was in trouble for the confetti and that Tony had his head buried in his journal. The conversation about competitions starts up pretty quickly after that. 

“Clint, how are you feeling about your competition next weekend?” Phil asks.

“Alright I guess? Ms. Nevrand could go a little bit easier on us. I haven’t had my shoulder hurt this bad in years.” Clint looked down at Kate to see if she was listening. 

"I mean I guess, but we have a chance at the national title this year, it would be great to actually get it. What about the other teams, how's your guys' prospects on national titles?"

Phil was the first to speak up, "It's going good, this year's team will be decided this weekend. Tony, you're in the science club, how's that going?"

Tony answers with very few words which was odd for him. They continue to go around the table, most of them agreeing that they have a decent chance of at least a state title if not a regional one or even nationals. They then move on to different conversation topics, with some of them doing signs along with their words. 

After dinner and once everyone was back in the dorms, Pepper and Sam stand and do what Clint had found to be the weekly announcements. They often were to remind them of what was and wasn’t allowed to be on the floor and what competitions were going on so they could go support their friends.

“I’ll start with the competitions: riflery and martial arts inter-school competitions start tomorrow with Phil shooting at eleven am. Natasha, you go to the mats on Sunday night?” Natasha nods and Pepper continues, “The homecoming football game will be next Friday so eat before six! I want you all there by seven,” Pepper pauses to glare at Loki, “even you Loki. Next weekend will also be the county archery competition, Kate will shoot Friday and Saturday with Clint shooting Saturday and Sunday. Your up, Sam.”

Sam cleared his throat, “Alright from here on out confetti is banned from the floor. Darcy and Loki will be cleaning it out of the common area for weeks at this rate.” Loki let out an enraged sound, but for once he didn’t pull a knife out. “Next week the group dinner will be Saturday night because of the football game. That is all.”

They all spit up to do different things, Clint grabs Phil and they go down to the main floor to do the little English study group. Thor and Loki followed them down and there were five or six other students already down there. They sit down and talk for a minute before Phil starts the study session. It was only less grueling because Phil wouldn’t yell at them when they pronounced a word wrong. The study session lasted about half an hour before it broke up. 

Once Clint and Phil made it back to their room Clint told Phil to shower first because he was the one that was going to be competing the next day. Phil nodded and went to shower. Clint went over to his computer and pulled up his homework. He started to work on the paper that was due in two weeks for history. When Phil got out of the shower he tapped on Clint’s shoulder. Clint nodded, took out his hearing aids and placed them in their case on his bedside table, and went to shower. When he got out he noticed that he’d forgotten a shirt. He just shook his head and walked back into the dorm.

He was glad that it looked like Phil was asleep. He didn’t want to deal with the question about the scar on his shoulder. He pulled on an old t-shirt before laying down. It takes a while for him to fall asleep. When he does it is to dream of the last day he was with the circus.

Phil shakes Clint awake just before he has to leave to meet with his team. Clint looks up at him with a questioning look on his face. “I compete today,” Phil signed. Clint nodded and Phil headed out of the room. Clint stood and changed into his school uniform, before sliding his hearing aids in. When he walked out of his room Loki was standing there. They were in their school uniform with their hair pulled back into a bun.

“Clint, come on. The rest have already left for the day. We need to eat in time to get good seats in the range.” Clint nodded and let Loki drag him out. They went to eat before heading to the range. When they got there they went through the Archery range to get to the door that led to the riflery range. While the other side had very few empty seats that were closer to the top of the stands, the side that they were on had empty seats galore. They easily noticed that Phil was going to be in the early round with handguns as he was already on the starting line. Clint hadn’t been told which type of gun he was going to be shooting with it was a bit of a surprise. 

“We will start in a few minutes. For those wondering the rules are as follows: for each group, there are three rounds, ten students in each. They shoot five rounds each and then are scored. The process repeats twice.” A man, probably the instructor, announced from the middle of the room. “First up is the boys, handgun class. Please step up to your stalls!” He made his way to the stalls and went through the last one which opened. 

Clint reached up and turned off his aids and just watched as the men lined up and took their shots. From where Clint was sitting he could see Phil cleanly hit the center of the target several times before the last two landed a little off. The rest of the rounds went like that with Phil’s shots going wide right at the end. Though it still looked better than some of the others in his group. When the scores were announced Phil had the top spot by a much wider margin than Clint had in scores. Phil shot in a few more rounds with different types of guns always ending up in the top-scoring spots. 

When they called for the girls to step up to the stalls after a ten-minute break Clint and Loki went back into the locker room. Coulson was already back there putting his guns into his locker. Clint turned his hearing aids back on before approaching. 

“Phil, I didn’t know that you had that good of aim.” Clint tapped Phil on the shoulder as he talked.

“Only with a gun. My dad used to take me to the range all the time when I was a kid. We lived out in the middle of nowhere back then, so people didn’t look at me oddly back then.” Clint nodded along to Coulson’s words. 

“What you’re saying is that the most normal-looking of us have the oddest of backgrounds, aren’t you, Coulson?” Tony stated as he came into the locker room. 

“Stark, you didn’t have a normal childhood nor do people mistake you for having one.” Phil retorts. 

“Was worth trying. Anyway, good shooting, almost as good as Legolas over there.” Tony pointed at Clint as he spoke. 

“Thanks. Now if you would head back out, I’m sure they're about to announce the teams.” Coulson headed for the door that led to the range while the other three headed for the back stands doors. Coulson was right, just as they made it out there they started to announce the teams. Coulson ended up on two of the teams, both of them technically individuals, but they acted like it was a team. 

After that, they all headed back to the dorm to celebrate. When they went to the martial arts competition the next day, Natasha wiped the floor with the rest of her competitors. For which Clint made a mental note not to piss her off. 

Chapter Text

Clint looked around the gym and felt like he was drowning even though they weren’t yet at the pool. He wouldn't be able to hear and the only benefit to the classes was that at least he'd be with a lot more of his floormates who all of whom knew a passable amount of ASL. So they made their way down to the pool and were immediately told to sit on the benches. They would be split up into three groups on swim skill level. 

Clint was placed in the bottom group which surprisingly contained Tony and a handful of other students. Most of the students fell into the middle group and only a couple fell into the top class and were allowed to free swim during this first class. They were sent to change and Clint carefully tucked away his hearing aids in the provided locker. He went to the stalls to change into his trunks. That's when he remembered that he wasn’t allowed to wear a swim shirt for some stupid reason.

He stood there for several seconds before deciding to go out of the stall. When he did Tony was standing there. "What do you want?"

Tony’s eyes drift to Clint's shoulder. At the same time, Clint’s eyes drift to Tony’s chest. There was a large metal disk that was glowing a light blue embedded in his chest. "What happened to your chest?" 

"E-X-P-E-R-I-M-E-N-T G-O-N-E W-R-O-N-G. E-X-P-L-O-D-E-D A-N-D L-E-F-T S-H-R-A-P-N-E-L. W-A-I-T-I-N-G O-N Y-O-U S-O W-E G-O O-U-T T-O-G-E-T-H-E-R." Tony fingerspelled.

Clint nodded and they headed out of the locker room together. Tony stood in front of Clint as they went to join the rest of the class. Clint spotted Phil standing next to the teacher that was teaching the beginner swimmers, which was gratefully not Clint’s PE teacher. 

Phil caustic his eye before signing, "Me translating teacher for you." Clint nods and the class gets started. It goes better than Clint thought it would, mostly because they were only in the shallower end of the pool, and Clint was able to keep his head above water with little problem. They spent the class learning how to tread water and by the end of it things were going well with the interpretations from Phil. 

At the end of the class, the teacher wanted to see Clint after he’d changed back into his uniform and Clint went to him. “Barton, I wanted to talk to you about Phil helping you during these Swimming classes. Phil came up to me when he remembered that I always have the beginning classes, mostly because I used to be a professional swimmer. I wanted to know if it makes you uncomfortable to have Phil interpreting for you, I can get the Headmaster to get someone else to do it.” 

“No, Phil’s fine. I don’t know a lot of formal ASL and my dorm floor has been really accommodating about helping me learn ASL, so it would be best for Phil to continue. It even worked while we were in the water.” Clint was rambling, but the teacher nodded. 

“Alright, I’m glad that your floor is doing that for you. You’re free to go.” Clint nodded and left the small offices in the pool to see Loki and Phil standing there. 

“What did Mr. Hill want?” Phil asked as they started out of the pool. 

“He wanted to make sure I wasn’t uncomfortable with you doing the interpretations instead of an actual interpreter. Offered to get one for the classes if I was.” Clint responded. Neither spoke up, but both looked at one another behind Clint’s back.

"I told him no. I don’t know enough formal ASL to get by with a normal interpreter. I know that. It's why I don't have one in classes, to begin with." Clint turned to look at Phil. "You did just fine today, even after you entered the pool as well."

Phil gave him a big smile. Clint felt his heart skip a few beats before running to get to practice without a backward glance. When he got there Kate told them they would be working on their switching due to the competition that weekend. With only eighty seconds to shoot two arrows, they had to get their timing right with each other. After their first time doing it, it was decided that Clint would go second due to his skill with shooting with seconds to do so. 

The practice that they were doing now was mostly so that Clint could get used to using stabilizing rods if he wanted to use them during the competition. It wasn't a requirement, and it seemed to make his shooting worse.

"Kate, I'll never get used to them at this rate. My equipment should just state I don't use them." Clint pouted. 

Kate just sighed. “It would be better if you could get used to them, only so that if we do have to substitute a bow that you can use anyone’s set up. I know that you can shoot steady without them, but we will be doing some outdoor shooting and those competitions always go better when you use stabilizers.”

“I know, but I won’t be able to before this competition. Which is here, so I know we’ll be doing indoor shooting.” Clint put his bow down before going to retrieve his arrows.

"Fine, but you better keep working on it." Clint nodded.

That Friday Clint got dressed in his school uniform, ate, and headed to the range instead of class. He knew that he’d have make-up work, but it didn’t make him any less happy about being able to skip classes. He didn’t see any of his fellow teammates in the main part of the range and so he went back to the locker room and there was everyone on the teams. The rest were probably doing their duty of making sure the other schools made it to the range. 

Kate sent him to change as soon as he got there. He then headed back out to see when he’d be shooting. Clint found out that he’d be in the fourth set and went to the locker room to sit. After a few minutes, Kate came over and told him to get warmed up in the riflery range, seeing as they had allowed it to be used as such. 

Clint got the rest of his gear on before grabbing his bow and heading over to the other side. Sure enough, several people are warming up in the modified shooting range. Clint saw that the stand near the end of the range where Phil normally warmed up was free and so he went down to it. He lined up a few shots and took them. They landed low. Clint adjusted and took a few more shots. Someone called a cease shooting and Clint went and retrieved his arrows. He took a few more shots when they called to resume shooting. It wasn’t long before Clint had to collect his arrows so that he could go shoot.

When he went through the locker room Loki was sitting on one of the benches. “What are you doing here Loki? Don’t you have class?” 

“Ms. Carter’s classes are coming to watch all day. So are Ms. Nevrand’s classes.” 

Clint sighed, “Loki you’re not in either of those classes.” 

Loki just gave Clint the ‘So what?’ look. Clint glares at him, but Kate pops her head through the door and makes him come out. Clint goes up to the shooting line and gets ready. 

“You’re really going to shoot a barebow?” Clint’s opponent looked like he thought he was going to win automatically because of that fact. Clint just smiled at him. They were told to take their places and that Clint would be shooting first. Clint took his first shot and it landed on the X. His opponent's landed in the 5 ring. Clint just smirked and continued to shoot. The last two arrows of that end landing in the 10 and X ring. His opponent’s arrows landed in the 8 and 9 rings.

The second end was much better for his opponent, his three arrows landing in the 9 and 10 rings. But not enough to make up for his shitty first end. Clint’s arrows landed in the 10 and X rings, giving him the better score. The next round went just as well. They then broke for lunch and Clint realized that it was the normal time for lunch. 

When he got to the caf he saw Tony and Phil sitting at one of the tables. By the time that he’d gotten his lunch, Loki was also at the table. Tony was doodling in his notebook instead of eating. “Any idea of where the rest of the group is?” Clint sat down next to Phil.

“Natasha is still in class and I don’t know where my brother is. By the way, good shooting out there.” Loki poked at Tony who only swatted at Loki’s hand without looking up from his notebook.

“Tones you need to eat.” Rhodes sat down next to Tony. Tony picked up his fork in his non-dominant hand and started to pick at the food while working.

Phil caught Clint’s attention before speaking. “You did well this morning, Clint.”

“Thanks. Why were Ms. Carter’s classes even down there to begin with?” Clint hadn’t heard that they were going to be there until Loki told him before he went to shoot. 

Rhodes looks up from trying to get Tony's notebook away from him. "Each teacher takes two of the on-campus events throughout the year during the school day to take their students to during class.” 

“Ms. Carter also had about a fourth of the archery club in one of her later classes. I think she didn’t want to have to assign that much make-up work.” Phil explained. “Also it was nice to watch you decimate that cocky kid in the first round.” 

Clint blushed and hid his face. “He had it coming. Acting all high and mighty because he uses stabilizers. It’s just something that helps you aim.”

It wasn’t long before the bell rings and they make their way to their respective spots on campus. The last three rounds are just as easy for Clint to win as the rest. The finals came down to Clint going up against Claude again, Claude only scoring one point short of Clint in the end. It had come down to a shoot-off too. But with that win, Clint was declared county champion and Shield High had its first win under its belt. 

As soon as he made it back to the locker room with the gold medal around his neck he was swamped by teammates and dormmates alike. All of them congratulated him on his shooting skills. Even Claude came up to him and congratulated him on the win. When he managed to detangle himself from the others he was caught by Kate. “Now you need to do the same thing tomorrow in the team. We’ll be shooting first so get here on time. Got that Barton?” 

“Understood.” 

When Clint made it to the range the next morning more people were wandering around. He got caught up talking to Bucky and was running just a tiny bit late. He spotted Natasha and Phil leaned up against the door talking. “Hey, guys have you seen Kate?” 

“She’s back in the locker room. I’d get you’re but back there if I were you.” Natasha gave him a pat on the back as he walked past. He wasn’t running that late was he? As he went through the range to the locker rooms he realized he was running that late, oops. They had already started up warm-ups and Kate had wanted him here before that. He ran back to the locker room and Kate was staring at the door with a glare that could freeze hell.

“Sorry, I’m running late. I haven’t missed the first round have I?” Clint went over to his locker and started to get his stuff out.

“Thankfully no, but it was close. You’re going to have to shoot without warm-up shots though.”

“I can do that. We are sticking with you shooting first?” Clint hands his bow and stringer to Kate so that she can put it together while he changes. Clint pulls off his shirt to switch for his archery uniform. He’d worn the pants to the range though, mostly because he forgot to change out of them the day before. He then pulls on his chest protector and arm guard. Clint starts to do some stretches so that he doesn’t hurt himself. 

Kate strings the bow and makes sure that the clicker wasn’t about to fall off before handing it to Clint. “Yes. You do better with less time. Hell, I’m pretty sure that first round of yours was done in under fifteen seconds on your part.” 

Clint nodes and takes the bow and straps his quiver to his hip. Taking his finger tab out of his locker he shuts it back and waits for Kate to catch up. Kate quickly has her stuff in hand and they head out to the range. The range had cleared except for two other teens. The stands were a lot fuller than they had been the day before. They get set up and target two, where Clint’s lit-up target has been set up. The introduction goes well and then they are allowed to start shooting.

Kate takes the first shot and lands it in the 10 ring before stepping back. Clint takes to the line and shoots. His arrow landed in the X ring. He steps back as the other team takes their two shots, a 9 and a 10, respectively. Kate then takes her second shot and it lands in the 10 ring as well. Clint takes his last shot and it hits Kate’s arrow as it sinks into the ten ring. They both step back to the wall, not paying attention to the other team's last shots seeing as they were a point down from the first two shots. 

“What the hell, Clint? You haven’t done that in all the time we’ve been practicing,” Kate furiously whispers. 

Clint raises his hands in defense. “Still warming up. I won’t do it again, I promise.” 

“You better not, or you’ll be buying me replacement arrows.” 

“Understood.” 

They were called back to the lines and handed their arrows that had been collected. Kate takes care to look over both of them carefully before placing one and each of the two pockets on her quiver. They were informed that they would be shooting second. They nod and Kate gets ready to step up to the line after the other teams shot, they were both in the ten ring. 

Kate steps up and shoots an X that was almost a spider.^[1] “Good shot Katie-Kate.” Clint says as he goes to take his shot. He draws and shoots a ten. The other team lands a five and an X. The last two arrows of the opponent team land in the X and 10 rings. Kate’s last arrow landed in the X ring again, and Clint’s last arrow landed in the X ring above either of Kate’s arrows. They knocked arm guards as Clint stepped back from the shooting line. They had won their first-round as a team.

“Only one more team and we’ll win this.” Kate and Clint headed back to the locker room to wait. 

“Wait really?” Clint looked at her with a shocked face.

Kate sighed and shook her head, “Hadn't you noticed there were only three other school uniforms wandering around?” Kate pulled the arrows that Clint had clipped out of her quiver. The fletching was slightly damaged and she put it in her locker. 

“No?” 

"Clint, you are so very unobservant that it's a minor wonder your an archer." Kate watches as Clint goes over his arrows.

Clint shrugged. "It didn't seem important." 

Kate shook her head but didn’t say anything else. It was clear that Clint would be Clint. They didn't have long to wait before their next round and they spent most of that time thinking about separate things. When their names were called they headed back out. 

Clint spotted their floormates sitting about halfway up the bleachers on the locker room side of the stands. He could see Phil, Loki, and Natasha signing, “Good luck.” in their direction. Clint waved at them and he could see Phil’s smile widen. 

This round went even better than the last, all of their arrows landing in the X and 10 rings. Their opponents did force a shoot-off, but with both Clint and Kate’s arrows landing in the X ring and their arrows landing in the 10 ring. They shook hands before having the gold medals placed around their necks. They head back to the locker room and the team congratulates them. Clint gets changed out of his archery uniform and back into his school uniform. He breaks down his bow and puts it away before going to meet with the rest of the floor in the stands. 

They attacked him with hugs and “Good shooting.” all around. Thor claps him so hard on the back that he almost goes tumbling down the stands. Phil catching him around the shoulders being close to the only thing that keeps him in the row. He sits and watches the rest of the tournament with his friends. Kate and the rest of the girl’s team take home gold with the women’s team. Shield High Archery Team’s combined gold count was eight for that season so far. Only missing out in the men’s recurve team and men’s compound individual.

Chapter Text

Another day at the pool another day that Clint will dread being in class. As they trudged across campus from the gym Tony was mumbling about something, too low for Clint’s hearing aids to pick up. Just as they started to walk past the pool to get to the locker rooms someone came from behind and shoved Clint.

Clint went flying into the pool, landing with a hard splash, and when he didn't resurface Natasha jumped into the pool after him. Loki turned and pulled a knife on the student. Most of the students stepped back from Loki and the other kid as Loki got ready to throw the knife, but Tony and Pietro both ran forward and knocked Loki to the ground. Tony struggled to get the knife free and when he did he tossed it away.

Tony looked over his shoulder to see Natasha struggling to get Clint back up onto the dry ground. He spots Thor standing just behind him and shouts, “Thor, go help get Clint out of the pool, me and Maximoff have Loki!” Thor nods and runs off. 

Tony turns back to Loki and mutters, “Clint will be fine and there are less violent ways to deal with dicks like him. You don’t need to end up in jail to do so. I’m going to let you up and you are not to pull another knife. You are going to walk over to Nat and stand over there, alright?”

Loki nods and Tony and Pietro let him up. Thor lays Clint on the ground as Natasha lays her head on Clint's chest. She starts chest compressions and after a few seconds Clint starts to cough and they roll him onto his side.

"Odinson, Romanoff, take Barton to the infirmary. Erickson to the headmaster's office. Maximoff go with him. The rest of you still have class."

All of the Dorm B Floor 3 kids are restless throughout the class. After Thor and Natasha came back it only got worse. They were gossiping throughout class and thankfully this was the last class of the day. They all got changed and headed for the infirmary. 

Nurse Rogers sighed when she caught sight of the group. She was just thankful that they hadn’t left the lobby area. She walks out to them. "Mr. Barton will be just fine. I will let one of you back. So who will it be?"

They looked at each other. Danvers and Thor stepped back immediately. Some of the others stepped back as well leaving Loki and Phil the only ones glaring at each other. Nurse Rogers sighed and motioned for both boys to follow her. She leads them back to the room that Clint had been in the last few times he'd been. He looked pale and his hearing aids were sitting on the table beside him. 

Phil walked over to Clint and was about to touch him when he remembered that there were other people there. He pulled his hand back and rested them against his side.

"Will, his hearing aids work after being submerged as they had?" Loki looked over at Nurse Rogers.

"We won't know for sure until Clint puts them back in after he wakes up. Though I think they will be fine. Now that you have seen him can you go tell your friends that he will be fine?"

Loki opened his mouth to protest, but Phil grabbed his shoulder. "Thanks, nurse Rogers. I'll get the rest of them to leave." Phil pulled Loki out of the room and back to the rest of the group. They look at the two with beseeching eyes. 

“Clint looks fine. We should go back to the dorm, Sam and Pepper will be looking for us here soon.” If one or two of them were not in the dorms right after class, not all that worrying or odd, but all seven of them that would be cause for a search party. So they headed back to the dorms. When they got there Pepper was sitting in the commons area with Jane and a few others.

"Where were all of you?" 

"Clint got shoved into the pool before class. We went to see him after." Phil continued to move in the direction of his room. He changed out of his uniform and sat down to work on his homework. 

Phil didn't move from his spot until the door slammed against the wall. He turned to see Clint looking a little flustered, but unhurt. "Do you want to talk about what's made you mad?" Clint shook his head and flopped face-first onto his bed.

Phil glanced at the clock to see that it was getting close to the time that the caf closed. "Have you eaten dinner yet?" 

Clint turned his head so what he said wouldn’t be muffled. "No, don't want to get up." 

Phil went over to his bed and reached underneath it for a small backpack. He unzips it to show a few plastic food containers. "You don't have to, I'll go get you something if you tell me what you want." 

"You're a godsend, Phil Coulson." Clint grinned and Phil blushed. Clit rattled off a few things that should be in the caf and Phil left. It didn’t take long for Phil to fill the containers with food for himself and Clint and make his way back to the dorm.

When Phil got back Clint was snoring and still had his hearing aids in. Phil put the bag on his desk and shook Clint awake. He jerked awake and his eyes searched for what had woke him. When his eyes settled on Phil he started to calm down. He adjusted his hearing aids in his ears and sat up.

“I’ve got your food over at our desks.” Clint nodded and threw his legs over the side of the bed. He went over to his desk and Phil pulled out the multiple containers of food before pulling out two sets of utensils that matched the containers.

Clint started to eat and after a while of sitting in the quiet asked, “Why do you even have these containers?” 

“My old roommate, Riley, was often unable to make himself go to the caf to eat. Me and Sam, Riley’s best friend, got together to buy this set so that we could bring things back for him to eat.” Clint nodded and went back to eating. Phil followed suit and soon they were done and taking turns in the shower.  Overall not a horrid day save for the fact that Clint had been shoved into the pool.

Chapter Text

The bell rang for the last class of the day to let the kids grouped in the front of the gym left for their club activities. Clint, Kate, and Phil headed for the range. "So how do you feel about your first away competition, Clint?" Phil asked as soon as they had gotten away from the loud crowd of fellow students.

"Alright, I guess. Kate, you said that this is an outdoors shooting competition as well?" Clint looked between the two as he spoke.

"Yeah, it'll be the only one before we go on Christmas break, but yeah, we'll be shooting outdoors. It's why we've been practicing on the football field." Kate got herself in front of the other two and spun on her feet so she was walking backward. "You gotten used to using stabilizers when doing outdoor shooting?"

Clint shook his head. "I don't think I ever will. Used to shoot outdoors all the time as a kid without the stabilizers. I probably won't use them there either. Where are we even going?"

"Middletown Heights. It's a four-hour bus ride. We'll leave tonight after dinner here. We'll probs not get out of practice til right before dinner, so have you packed a bag, or do you need time to do so?" 

Clint shook his head. "Phil, made me pack a bag last night." Kate smiles. They made it to the range and all three headed back to the locker room. They got their stuff out and headed to their respective club meetings. Clint and Kate walked into the range to see the whole team lined up against the wall, all of them in school uniforms. 

"Barton, Bishop, line up with the rest." Ms. Nevrand ordered as they walked into the room. They joined the line-up. Once they were settled Ms. Nevrand started to explain how exactly the weekend would go. They would leave from Shield that night and stay in a hotel close to the host school. The next morning taking a bus to the host school and compete. It would have the normal breaks that they had observed for lunch at Shield. They were then released for practice on the football field. 

Clint went and got his bow ready, including his stabilizers. He only really still had one left on it, but it was mostly so he could experiment. He and Kate headed out to the football field together once they were ready. They happened to be the first ones out there after Ms. Nevrand who pointed them to the farthest two targets to get some warm-up in. 

Clint went to his, lined up his shot, and waited a few minutes before pulling back trying to see which way the wind was going. After a few seconds he pulled back his shot and it landed out in the two ring. He readied another shot and did the same with only slightly better results, it landed in the four ring. He continued till he’d shot his entire quiver of arrows and it didn’t get much better. Not long after Ms. Nevrand called a cease-fire and to collect arrows. Clint went down and pulled his out. 

When he got down to the target the only benefit to his horrid shooting was that they were all close together. So at least when he was off target he was off enough that they were all going to the same place. 

“Was that round due to the wind or the stabilizer?” Kate asked as they headed back up to the target line. 

“Stabilizer.” 

When Clint got back to the line he took off the stabilizer and got ready for Ms. Neverand to call to resume shooting. It was a couple more minutes before she did so but when she did Clint imminently shot an arrow that landed in the ten ring. His next nine followed in a close grouping that landed in the ten and x rings. 

This time when he went to collect arrows Kate looked sheepish. “Guess it was the stabilizer. Why exactly is your shooting so bad with the stabilizer?” 

“I told you I learned to shoot without them. I did shooting mostly outdoors without any sort of stabilization on my bow. No dampers, counterweights, or rods.”

“I mean, sure but hell it shouldn't have this much effect on your shooting.” 

Clint turns his head and doesn’t answer. There was no need to explain that the conditions on which he learned to shoot were life and death in a way that she would understand. No need for her to know the scar on his arm was because he got his own act in the carnival. Especially now that he’d heard some of the other archers talking about how Hawkeye had been the thing to start them in archery. No, he’ll just keep that to himself for now.

They continue to shoot for a few more rounds before Ms. Neverand calls for the teams to get together and practice shooting. 

“Do you want me to practice with Clint or the Women’s team?” Kate asked as Ms. Nevrand came by them.

“Woman’s. I want Barton to practice with the stabilizer for the rest of practice.” They both nod and separate. Kate goes down to where the other two members of the Women’s team were waiting and Clint picks back up his stabilizer. He screws it back in and gets back to shooting. 

None of his shots for the next hour landed anywhere near the ten ring. Most of them land in the left side of the target in the five and six rings. Which while better than his warm-up shots still wasn’t good enough for competition. Sometime not long after the eight o'clock bell Ms. Nevrand calls a final cease-fire. They all go to grab their arrows before joining Ms. Nevrand near the gate leading out of the football field. 

“I want all of you to head back to the range and pack up all your gear to get ready to go. You’ll have two hours to eat and get your stuff from your dorms. If your not back at the range by ten-thirty you will be left behind, understood?” Everyone nodded and she dismissed them. 

Clint rushed back as fast as he dared and broke down his bow with smooth motions. He grabbed his spare chest guard and arm guard, tucking them away with what he had on. He also grabbed the second set of limbs that were sitting in the locker. After that, he pulled all his arrows and tucked them into the tube before tucking his quiver into the bag as well. He grabbed his school bag and tossed it over his shoulder.

When he was done he saw that Kate was as well. “You’ll want to take your bag out to the range door. Ms. Nevrand will lock it so no one can tamper with it once the last of us leave.” Clint nods and they place their bags down and head to the caf.

They spot Phil and Carol Danvers, who was Kate’s roommate, sitting at a table with two extra trays of food with them. They waved them over and they went. The two trays were untouched and filled with both Kate and Clint’s favorite foods. The food was also still steaming. 

“Thanks, Carol, Phil. I know that I must have pulled you from getting home early.” Kate sat and motioned for Clint to do the same. 

“Not going home. My brother’s going to be home and he tends to be an ass when I come home at breaks.” Kate nodded and Looked over at Phil with a raised brow. 

“I’m not going home either, my parents are going on vacation next week.” 

“They didn’t take you with them?” Cint was confused; he'd always heard that families took vacations together. It wasn’t like Phil ever complained about his parents either.

Phil shook his head. “It’s their wedding anniversary trip that they take every year. It was supposed to happen last week, but mom misscheduled it so it’s next week. It happens. I’ll see them at the first competition anyway.”

“You’re not mad?” Clint looked at him with questioning eyes.

Phil shrugged. “It happens. They did it once near my birthday. It happens. Anyway, I have homework to do. I’ll also spend some time practicing. I wouldn’t be able to do that if I went home.” Clint could understand wanting to practice, but Phil didn’t have to work for food. 

They quickly ate their food and then raced back to the dorms. They didn’t have long to get the rest of their stuff before having to head back to the range. “Why do . . . we have dorms so far . . . from the range?” Clint had to pause to take deep breaths as they got onto the elevator. He allowed his school bag to fall off one shoulder as the elevator came to a stop on the third floor.

“At least . . . we aren’t . . in dorm D. They are far from everything. We at least enjoy . . . being close to some of the education buildings.” Kate slowly caught her breath but still had to pause every few words. 

They got out of the elevator and headed to their dorms. Clint tossed his school bag on his bed. He grabbed the purple duffle bag that was on the floor next to his nightstand and grabbed his hearing aid case off the nightstand; shoving it into his pocket. He felt his bag for his toiletry bag and when he noticed that it was there he headed out. He met Kate in front of the elevator and they made their way back to the range. 

As they got close to the range they could see the bright yellow school bus sitting on the road. They walked around it to see Ms. Nevrand standing there. “Go get your stuff from the range. You’ll store both your archery bag and your overnight bags under the bus. They nodded, got their bags from the range, and shoved them under the bus. 

When they boarded the bus they realized that they were the first people on the bus and had their choice of seats. “Where do you want to sit?” Clint looked at Kate. Clint had no clue where to sit on the bus, the last time he’d rode one he’d had to sit in the front due to the rules. He also knew that most high schoolers preferred to ride in the back of the bus.

“Front. It'll be quieter. Believe me, you’ll want to sleep on our way down.” Clint nodded and they took the first seat behind the bus driver, Clint in the window seat and Kate on the aisle. The bus slowly filled with the rest of their teammates. Once everyone was on and roll had been called they were on their way. It didn’t take long for Clint to fall asleep to the gentle swaying of the bus.

Clint woke as the bus slowed down. He looked out the window to see the lights of a city. Clint guessed it was Middletown. He looked around to see most of the rest of the team was still asleep. Though he did notice Ms. Nevrand was awake. She saw him and smiled before standing. 

“Alright TEAM!” She paused as the team jolted in their seats. Once she noticed that most of them were looking at her she continued. “We will be arriving at the hotel in ten minutes. You will wait for me to go inside. Get everything off the bus, because we won’t be coming back to this one. You’ll have till seven-thirty to sleep before I come knocking at the door. We will meet down in the dining hall in the morning, understood?” 

“Yes.” “Yes, sir.” and “Understood.” came from various parts of the bus. She nodded and sat back down. Unlike earlier in the bus trip, no talking started up. They just sat there in silence the entire time. 

They arrived at the hotel, unpacked the bus, and got their room keys with little fuss. Clint made his way to the room that his key indicated and unlocked it, Ashe followed behind him. “Which bed do you want Clint?” 

Clint looked around the room before answering, “The one closer to the door if you don’t mind?” 

Ashe shook his head and ambled over to the bed and face-planted onto the bed closer to the window. It didn’t seem like he’d be moving anytime soon so Clint went over to the other bed and sat his stuff down. He pulled out his nightclothes and changed before heading back to his bed. He spent most of the rest of the night tossing and turning so much that he didn’t get any sleep. 

When the wake-up call came at seven he showered and changed into his archery uniform before letting Ashe do the same. They grabbed their archery bags after making sure they had all of their uniforms in the bag before heading down to the dining hall. 

“Go ahead and get what you want. It’s all free for us.” Ashe grabbed a plate and started to pile pancakes on it. Clint followed suit with some bacon and eggs, he also grabbed a cup of coffee. He turned and looked around and saw Kate sitting in one of the corner booths. He went over and sat with her. 

“How did you sleep?” Kate looked over at him with appraising eyes. 

“I didn’t sleep,” Clint grumbled.

Kate looked at him with wide eyes. “Please tell me you slept on the ride here, right?” 

Clint nodded and Kate left it there. They ate in silence before grabbing their bags and getting on a different bus. Everyone ended up sitting pretty close to where they had on the bus ride there. Ms. Nevrand went over the protocol for the competition once more than left them to talk amongst themselves. Kate pulled out her phone and Clint looked out the window. 

“Does anyone know if pretty boy has graduated yet or not?!” Claude stood as he yelled. 

“Sit down Mr. Riegan!” Ms. Nevrand shouted back at Claude. 

Claude was about to sit when Ashe answered. “Nope two more years before Greenleaf graduates.” Instead, he ended up falling back into his seat. Clint turned to Kate with a raised eyebrow.

“Legolas Greenleaf, Middletown's top student. He’s won the individual recurve national title for the past three years. He’s not competing in team, but you will have to worry about him for individual.” Kate explained as she pulled up a picture on her phone. She turned it to show Clint. 

Clint had taken several seconds to look at the picture. “You sure he’s a guy?” Kate nodded. It wasn’t long before they were stopping at a humongous school building. It was almost as big as all four of the dorms at Shield. 

They disembarked and Ms. Nevrand led them to the outdoor range. They were lined up near the wall, before being pointed to a locker room that they could get ready in. “You can use the lockers. We don’t have locks for them, but if you brought your own you can use it. You have ten minutes before the opening ceremony.” Clint was glad that Phil had lent him his lock that he used at away competitions.

They nodded and got ready to compete. Bows were put together, quivers strapped on and loaded, and various guards slid on. Soon the team was ready to head out and Clint swore that everyone was standing closer to each other than normal. They announced the schools and teams, several of which once Clint looked over at had been at Shield. 

As they went back to the locker rooms to wait for their chance to shoot warm-ups Clint asked Ashe why that was. “Each event has a certain number of people that go onto the next competition. Anywhere from three to ten archers at each competition move on.”

Clint nods and soon it was his turn at the warm-up targets. He agreed with Kate to at least attempt during warm-ups to use the stabilizer. It didn’t go well but it also made people unsure of how well he would shoot. Once he was done he headed back to the locker room and took off the stabilizer. Once it was his turn at the range to compete he noticed that Kate was standing next to his target. 

“Why are you out here?” Clint made sure that his bow was ready and waited on the other kid to show up. 

“They won’t allow you to use the light-up target for this. So Ms. Nevada is working with them for her to interpret for team, but for now, you have me.” Kate says and Clint nods. It wasn’t any different than those practice rounds that they did every week and he still shot flawlessly, taking the first round. Clint goes back to the locker room to wait for the next round and talk to Kate some. That’s when a blond came back and sneered at him. 

Clint just ignored them and continued to talk to Kate. They had been talking with sign, mostly because it allowed for some privacy and allowed Clint to let his ears take a break from the aids, which he'd taken out and slipped into his pocket as he'd sat down. Then the blond grabbed Clint by his shoulder and Clint reacted, sending the blood to the floor with a well-placed punch and kick. 

“I can get you suspended from competition for that!” the blond yelled. Clint shrunk in on himself and the door opened and several men came into the room to investigate the yelling.

Chapter Text

Clint was glad that he’d taken out his hearing aids before they sat down to talk in the locker room because without them he couldn’t tell what they were yelling about. He let Kate take over the talking for him for the moment. There was movement in the corner of his eye and he saw Ashe dart out of the locker room, likely to go find Ms. Nevrand. He kept his head down so that he didn’t have to deal with the others.

After a few minutes, two others enter the locker room and Clint looks over at them. It was Ms. Nevrand and another man, he looked a lot like the guy that he’d tossed to the floor earlier. Ms. Nevrand signs to Clint when she realizes he was looking at her, “OK?” Clint raises his hand and shakes it and she gives him a thumbs-up before looking around the room. 

Clint tracks her with his eyes, wanting to read her lips, but Ms. Nevrand turns so that he can’t. Clint drops his head again and fiddles with the edge of his uniform. After an indeterminable amount of time Kate taps his shoulder and signs, “Accompany Ms. Nev.” 

Clint stands and moves over to Ms. Nevrand. She puts a gentle hand on his left shoulder and they walk out of the room. The blond boy and the man that had come in with Ms. Nevrand leading the way. It wasn’t a long walk before they made it to a mid-sized office and were directed to the seats. Ms. Nevrand allows Clint to sit but doesn't sit.

“Have your hearing aids?” she signed once she was back in Clint’s line of sight. Clint nods and pulls them out of his pocket before putting them back in. The other adult looked surprised at the fact that Clint had hearing aids, and when Clint looked over he could tell that the boy was as well. 

It doesn’t take long for the two to recover and start protesting about something. Clint wasn’t sure because well he wasn’t paying attention. Ms. Nevrand clears her throat before asking, “What the hell happened?” 

Clint waits a moment before speaking, “I felt someone grab my bad shoulder and I know I shouldn’t have reacted like that, but it was more to protect myself than anything else.” 

Ms. Nevrand seemed satisfied with that, but the man didn’t. It made him remember that Ms. Nevrand had seen his shoulder and the damage that had been done to it. He could feel the fact that he may have to strip off his shirt. He was proven right when the man glared at him before saying, “I want proof of this ‘injury’.”

Ms. Nevrand let out a loud sigh before looking over at Clint with eyes that said just how sorry she was. Clint shrugged and unclipped his chest guard, tossed it off before pulling his shirt over his head. He felt two pairs of eyes being drawn to the scarring and waited while they noticed just how deep the scar on his shoulder was. It was a massive indent in his shoulder, encircling most of it. There was so little fat there that it was more an indent than anything and when touched it felt like it burned due to the nerve endings that had been exposed.^[2]

“Put shirt on.” Ms. Nevrand signed and Clint did so. “You see now why I wasn’t going to reprimand Clint for what he did?” The man nodded mutely and dismissed both him and Ms. Nevrand. Clint picked his chest guard back up to put it on. Once they were out of the office Ms. Nevrand told him to get to the range, seeing as his next round was about to start. 

Clint nodded and hurried to the range, spotting Kate with his bow and quiver already standing there waiting. Once she handed the items over she raised her hands and signed, “Not disqualify you.”

“Nope.” Kate smiled at that and ushered him to the range. He removes his hearing aids and tucks them back into his pockets. This round went just as well and Clint was undisputed the winner of the round. It was the same after the next round but there was a slight pain flaring in his shoulder. He spent his next break rolling his shoulder to free the pain. 

They broke for lunch and Ashe came to the locker room with food in his arms for the three competing along with Kate and himself. So they sat in the corner of the locker room to eat. Clint’s next round after lunch went just as well and after his shoulder had been given a break he shot just as well as he had before lunch. 

The next round was against the blond boy that he’d tossed on the floor. His bow was very ornate and was a single carved piece of wood, but there were a few dampeners attached. When Clint turned to look at Kate she seemed surprised at the bow that was in the other boy’s hand. 

Kate gave him a look that said that she would explain later before helping him with what the organizer wanted him to do. He allowed it but vowed the moment that they were back on the bus he was asking. That round against the blond was the first round that Clint had lost, but only by a point. He shook out his shoulder trying to shake away the phantom pain as he headed back to stand at the wall. 

It wasn’t long before he was led back out for the silver medal match. It was against Claude and he smiled before signing, “Good Luck!” Clint returned it in sign. Causing Claude to break out into a smile. With that, the two turned serious, and with shifting winds as the round started Claude lost by a larger margin than he had the last time that the two had gone up against one another. It wasn’t just him affected by the wind, Clint had as well, but not to the degree that Claude had.

The blond as Clint found out was Legolas Greenleaf, when he put back in his aids for awards, got gold, he was silver and Claude was with bronze. 

They headed out to a local pizza place and Clint ate his way through two slices before anyone else was done with their first. Clint shook his head and just grabbed his third slice of pizza. Kate made the rest of the team focus on their food with a glare that due to Clint being next to her didn’t see. There was light conversation all around but Clint didn’t pay attention to it because after a day like today he was too tired to listen. He did gather that they took home the gold for the men's compound, but that was about it. 

After everyone had gotten their fill of pizza they headed back to the hotel and Ashe disappeared for a few minutes into the bathroom to change. Clint heard the shower run for a few minutes and when he came back out steam followed. Clint went and went and took a long shower to release some of the tension in his shoulders before going to sleep.

The next morning Clint was woken by Ashe tapping on his bicep. Clint slowly stretched before getting dressed. Today was all the team competitions and he grabbed his archery bag as he followed Ashe. 

Once they were at the school Clint stretched and got changed. He met up with Kate who was glaring daggers at one of the other girls. He let her continue to glare, knowing that it was better to not fight it. Soon they were called up to the starting line. Clint was shooting second like normal with a barebow much to Kate’s dismay. They did come out on top though as they had before. They had gotten gold and Clint went to break down his bow and pack up his stuff. 

Clint then went to find a place in the stands to watch the rest of the team rounds. He’d pulled out his hearing aids, not needing to get an ear infection from the sweat that was building up in his ear canals. What he hadn’t noticed was that over a few rows were the other kids from the archery team along with a few of his dorm mates. They moved over when they noticed that he hadn’t noticed them. With Phil in the lead as they went over to him. 

Phil tapped on his bad shoulder as he got close enough, and ducked as Clint whirled around to throw a punch. When Clint realized he’d done that he started to shake. He curled up on the stand and started to rock. No one touches him after that sitting in a loose grouping around him keeping others from getting close to him. Loki sitting on his left, Phil to his right, Tony in front, and Thor behind him. The others fill in around them. 

It takes a while for Clint to come back to himself, by the time that he does the women's teams have already finished shooting with Shield coming away with silver. Phil was pretty sure that was because Kate had looked up and seen that something was wrong with Clint and was worrying. He’d watched her run to the locker room without a backward glance after the medal ceremony. 

Clint turns to him and his face has worry written all over it. “‘Orry tha’ I did tha’.” 

Phil raised his hands, having noticed that Clint had taken out his hearing aids. “My fault. Snuck up on you.” Clint shrugged. 

“Still shouldn’t’ve reacted tha’ ‘ay.” 

“Maybe, but it alright.” Phil wrapped an arm around Clint and pulled him so that he was nestled into his side. Clint’s heart started to hammer being so close to Phil. It wasn’t long before Kate was arriving and asking if he was alright. 

They were soon ushered back to the buses and similar to the night before they went out for pizza before heading back to the hotel. The next day the last round of competition went well with Shield coming away with silver and bronze in women’s recurve and bronze in compound.

Chapter Text

It was the Tuesday of fall break when things started to fall apart for Clint. Tony announced that Thursday that anyone that had stayed over break was going to go see the circus that was in town. Now Clint hadn’t looked into it, but Kate was very excited to go and so were most of the others. Bucky and Bruce were the only two that were like Clint and were very reluctant to go. 

Thursday morning came and Phil drug Clint from the dorm and down to the curb in front of the building. Sitting at the cub was a stretch limo that Clint could believe belonged to Stark. Phil got in first and then Clint, which left him with a good view out the window. Clint stared out the window the whole way there, and when he first spotted the big top he knew exactly which troupe was there and started to shake. It was Carson’s Carnival, without a doubt, he’d spent too much time helping to set up that big top. 

Phil noticed but not waiting to draw attention to it in front of the others kept quiet. He knew that Clint was still embarrassed that the others had caught him having a breakdown at the competition last week. So he just let it be. Soon they were pulling up and Tony was dashing out as soon as the family butler was opening the door. Even though Clint was the closest to the door. The rest of them unloaded in a much more orderly fashion than the rest and then they were heading for the ticket booth. Clint only glanced at the name of the carnival, Carson’s. 

Clint glanced around at the posters that were up to see which acts were going to be done this time. Thankful that his poster had been removed from the boards by this time. No need for them to find out that way. Phil handed him one of the admit bracelets and he quickly had it on his wrist. As he went through the gate he kept his head down. He was tempted to reach up and turn off his hearing aids, but he didn’t want to end up with the others questioning why so he left them be. 

As they passed one of the roustabouts that was advertising that the show in the main tent started in ten minutes Phil reached out and took Clint’s hand. Clint jerked his hand away from the contact. Phil sighed and let it go. The others decided that it was best that they went ahead and watched it, before doing anything else. 

Clint listened as they chatted about the show. One of the headliners was Trickshot, which just set a new wave of shivers through him. Clint sat between Loki and Phil once in the big top and looked around to see the number of people gathered there. He reached up and turned off his aids not being able to handle the sounds coming from around them. It had been a long time since the sounds of the circus were so clear, which only put him more on edge. 

It wasn’t long before Carson was stepping into the ring with a flourish. Clint managed to stay in his seat until Trickshot came into the ring. He managed to get the others to stay there by saying he was going to find the porta potties. 

When the circus tent started to empty, Phil and Loki realized that Clint had not come back. They turned to the others as they started out of the tent. “Clint didn’t come back from the bathroom.” 

“You sure he’s just not sulking somewhere?” Tony asks, “Seeing as he didn’t want to come in the first place?” 

“I mean he could, but I just don’t feel right with him being all by himself.” Phil puts a hand on Loki’s shoulder. He knows that Tony is just salty that Clint wasn’t all for their fall break group building activity like the rest of them. And they didn’t need to cause a scene away from Shield and Headmaster Fury just giving Loki extra stuff to do around campus, instead of sending him to juvie. 

“Fair, we can all split up and look for him. He couldn’t have gotten too far could he?” Tony shrugged looking at the others. They nodded and split up into groups of two. Phil ended up being paired with Bucky, Loki with his brother, Kate with Steve, and Tony with Bruce. Phil and Bucky start looking around hoping to spot Clint but after half an hour still aren’t able to find him. 

That’s when one of the performers walks up to them, “I noticed that you’ve been looking for someone?” After taking a good look at her Phil concludes that she’s one of the acrobats from the earlier show. 

Bucky nods, “Our friend, he up and disappeared while we were watching the performance in the big top.” 

She looked between the two of them. "Do either of you have a picture of him?" 

Phil pulled out his phone and unlocked it. He navigated to the photo app and clicked on a photo of Clint with a bow in hand just after a round at Middletown. Clint was facing the camera, his eyes even looking in that direction. “His name’s Clint Barton.” 

The acrobat’s eyes went wide. “Is he deaf in both ears?” Phil and Bucky nod in unison. “I know where he’s went. He used to be a part of this circus.” The acrobat motions for them to follow her and they do, wide eyes as they text the others that they may have found out where he went. As they walked across the circus grounds some of the others joined them.

They made it to some of the trailers set up in the back of the area and stopped at three of them that formed a slight triangle. There was a gap between them that the acrobat went through first and Phil followed. Phil gasped at the sight that awaited him, Clint with a bloody knife lying beside him, blood pouring from a wound on his stomach. It had started to pool on the ground. 

The acrobat rushed over to Clint’s side and placed a hand over Clint’s mouth and let out a sigh before pulling out a cell phone. She called 911 before looking over at Phil. “Can one of your friends go to the front gate and lead the first responders back here?” Phil lets out a shaky breath and looks back at the gap to see some of the others having to look away from the scene. 

“Can one of you go to the main gates and wait on the EMTs?” Bucky turns grabbing the back of Kate’s shirt as he does so. When he turns back he sees the phone that had been used to call 911 sitting next to Clint’s almost motionless body. 

“Can one of you go into the gray trailer,” the acrobat points at the one directly behind her, “and go into the small bathroom and get all the towels in there?” Phil doesn’t turn to see who moved but they were moving quickly. Instead, he goes over to where Clint was laying and was careful not to touch the knife that was surly covered in Clint’s blood. 

It wasn’t long before Loki was shoving his way through with towels in his hands. The acrobat took the towels and pressed down on Clint’s wounds. “Can you help me keep pressure on this?” Phil nodded and reached over and put his hands on top of hers. 

It was then that the shrill ring of Tony’s cell broke through his thoughts. He listened as Tony answered. “Headmaster Fury, I’m guessing that you got my text then?” Phil tuned the rest of it out, thankful that someone had had the foresight to call Clint’s foster father.

It wasn’t long before they could hear someone ordering people out of the way. Phil looked over his shoulder to see a paramedic and a set of EMTs. The Paramedic told them at the count of three that they should let up and let them take over. When they got up there was also a pair of police officers standing there. “We need to talk to anyone that may know anything. Is there anyone else? Also how old are you guys?” The police officer looked between the teens. 

Everyone spoke up at once with a chorus of “fourteen” and “fifteen” the officer sighed. “Are any of your guardians nearby and how old is the one that was stabbed?” 

“Clint’s fourteen and his guardian has already been contacted. We’re,” Tony indicated to most of them leaving out the acrobat, “boarding students at Shield High.” That drew another sigh from the officer. 

“Did the headmaster know that you were coming here?” Tony nodded. That made the officer look just a little relieved. “Alright, Miss,” he pointed at the acrobat, “Could you take this young man where he can clean off his hands? And where would the owner be at this time?” 

“Carson’s most likely in her trailer. It’s the red and white one closer to the main tent.” She grabbed Phil’s hand and pulled him to the trailer that she’d pointed to earlier. “I’ll meet you over there in a few with this one.” The officer nodded and Phil watched out of the corner of his eye as Clint was strapped to the gurney. He followed her and she let him clean his hands off first in the tiny sink in the crowded kitchen in the trailer. Then she did and he just watched as Clint’s blood ran off her hands instead of paying attention to the weird feeling of his bloody clothing sticking to his skin. 

“I’d offer something else for you to change into, but nothing here will fit.”

“Thanks. Do you have any idea who could have done this?” 

“Yes, but I’m not going to say til after we talk with Carson.” Phil follows her across the grounds but would have likely been able to find Carson's trailer by sound alone, seeing as Loki was yelling something he wasn’t sure what, but he knew that voice well. 

Around when they got there Fury was also waking up with the law teacher following behind. This wasn’t the first time that something like this had happened, most of the time it was when a kid from another school was injured at Shield, but Hogarth knew how to deal with the more temperamental students, including Loki. 

They were allowed into the much larger trailer and saw the cops standing next to the ringmaster with the other Shield students bunched up, most likely trying to keep Loki from attacking someone. Phil joined the Shield students. Letting the acrobat and Fury take to the center of the room. 

“Lady Carson, I’m pretty sure that it was Chisholm that did this. This wouldn’t be the first time he’s attacked Clint either.” The acrobat spoke up as soon as everyone was looking at her. 

Carson seemed to deflate. “So it was the Barton boy then?” 

“Yes, ma’am. I can confirm that it was Clint Barton who performed under the stage name of Hawkeye that was carried away on the stretcher. How else would he have known of the Acrobat’s trailers being a good hiding spot?” Carson seemed to deflate at that. 

Phil froze in his place. Clint had always been skittish, and this explained it, he’d been a part of a circus. For how long who knew, but how did he end up in foster care with Fury. Clint told him that he’d only been with Fury for just over a month and before school started, but where had he been before that? Had he bounced around foster families before getting to Fury or was that where he’d been placed in the first place? What the hell had Clint been through? 

“Are you these teens’, in loco parentis?” The cop was looking directly at Fury.

“Yes, and I am the legal guardian of the boy that was taken away on the stretcher, Clinton Francis Barton.” The cop nodded and decided to address Hogarth next. 

“And you are?” 

“Jeryn Hogarth, Shield High School’s Attorney. So you will not be talking to any of these children without me or Fury present.” The cop nodded and looked around.

“Alright let's get this over with because I believe this will be a cut and dry, by the sounds of things. Headmaster Fury I’m going to start with you. Did you know that this group was coming here today?”

“I did. There’s always something going on during fall break and the students that stay behind are allowed off-campus during it when they are in the high school as long as they have a signed slip saying that they could go off-campus. All that came here today had that paperwork done.” 

He nods and writes something down. “How did you get here today?” 

Tony spoke up voice clear, “My family’s butler, Edwin Jarvis drove us. He dropped us off and was going to pick us up when I called for him to.” More scribbling. Phil starts to fidget, knowing that no one that Clint knew would be at the hospital when he woke up with Fury there and all of his friends here too. 

“With a group this big, I’m surprised that someone could corner one of you. How did he get separated from the rest of you?” 

Phil put a hand out in front of Loki. “He’d said that he had to go to the bathroom while we were watching the show. We only realized he’d not come back when it was over.”

“Miss you said that you knew of someone that would have done this?” 

The acrobat nodded, “Buck Chrisholm, better known as Trickshot. He’s a performer with Carson’s. He’d mentored Clint while he’d been here with his brother. There was an incident a few years ago when Clint got a part in the big show and Trickshot hired a fellow performer, Jack Duquesne, better known as Swordsman to attack him.”

“Why couldn’t it have been Swordsman?” 

Carson spoke up this time, “There was a second incident around five months ago. Clint was shoved from one of the trucks when we were moving to go to another location. Swordsman and Clint’s brother both disappeared after this. I haven’t seen either one since and well good riddance.” 

Phil, and just about the rest of the Shield students stilled at this information, Clint was shoved from a moving truck? Five months ago? And he has a brother? Why are they just now finding out about this? 

Phil let this information settle in his mind wondering just what else he’d been hiding. Five months before, Clint was in foster care for around two months before school started. It was unlikely that he’d been placed anywhere other than with Fury with the likely injuries that had come from being tossed from the truck. But he knew forcing Clint to reveal this information would just push him away. 

After a few more questions from the cop, they were allowed to leave with Fury to head back to the school. Fury pulled Phil, Kate, and Loki aside from the rest of them when Tony’s Limo pulled back up. 

“Do you three want to go with me to see Clint at the hospital?” All three of them nodded and got into the black SUV that belonged to Fury. Phil sees a small bag of clothes on the floor. “Coulson, Stark told me that you were covered in Clint’s blood so I went down to the school store and got you a change of clothes.”

“Thank you, Headmaster Fury. Do I owe you anything for it?” Fury shakes his head. 

“No, you don’t kid. When we get to the hospital you’re going to get changed and then you can see Clint.” Phil nodded and strapped into the seat with a towel draped over it. The other two got into the other open seats in the back and they were off. 

Chapter Text

When they arrived at the hospital Fury had to explain that Phil was not injured and only needed to change his clothes. Once he was dressed in the Shield High School sweats they were off to find Clint’s room. Fury made sure they were also allowed to see Clint even though they weren't family. But it seemed to have only been allowed because Fury was their loco parentis. Also, Phil knew this hospital had dealt with Fury and Shield, he’d been admitted when he got struck by a bullet back in middle school.

When Phil set eyes on Clint’s body he sucked in a breath, his body not responding to him wanting to move closer. Clint had an IV line or two and an intubation tube down his throat. Kate’s steps are uneven as she makes her way over to the bed. Loki stands shock still and mumbles something that was likely a threat. Fury nudges the boys and they head further into the room. Fury takes the seat on the far side of Clint’s bed and notices that someone had placed his hearing aids on the side table. 

They sit there in silence for a little while until a nurse comes in. “Ah, Headmaster Fury, are you this boy’s legal guardian, or are we waiting on his parents?” 

“His legal guardian.” The nurse nods and then heads to find the surgeon. It wasn’t long before they were coming back in. The doctor looked at the three teens and was about to say something but Fury cut him off with a look. The surgeon's face did an odd twist before he looked at them again.

He nods and gets into it. “Mr. Barton was very lucky. All of the wounds were clean cuts, no big gaping wounds. But his intestines and one of his lungs were nicked and he did lose a lot of blood. He’s on IV fluids and antibiotics to prevent infection. He’s on his last transfusion of blood. And as soon as tomorrow we’ll be removing the intubation tube. He’s sedated for now to keep him from moving around. Any questions?” 

“Are there going to be any long-term restrictions on his movement or diet?” 

“Not in his diet, but he may find it hard to move his torso or strain those muscles that were injured. But that should lesion as he heals. I do not see this impacting him in the long term either.” The doctor’s voice drifted off and Fury nodded seemingly catching onto what he was implying. Phil did as well there was an unspoken ‘if he wakes up.' Kate had pulled out her phone and made notes. Phil had been taking notes in the group chat and sent the prognoses to the others. “If that’s all I’ll be going.” Fury nods and the doctor leaves. 

*“Headmaster, if Clint can’t compete, does he risk losing his scholarship?” Kate looked over at Fury.

Fury shakes his head. “If you’re thinking about the situation with Barnes happening to Clint. It won’t, not unless he can’t shoot come next fall. Also, you must know this, if it was up to me Barnes would have longer to figure out another path to switch to without having his funding pulled.” 

Phil was startled by that fact. “What do you mean?” 

“The board of directors has made it impossible for me to extend someone’s funding if they aren’t contributing to our stats in their scholarship fields. Sure not everyone on the teams is a scholarship student, and not all of the scholarship students in a field are on the teams. But those students still have the possibility of being a part of the teams. Barnes can’t fight without his arm.” 

Kate looked down causing her hair to cover her face. Phil knew why as well. This was the first year in a long time that any of the archery teams had a chance at making it to nationals. It was like that for the riflery teams as well. They sat there talking until the nurse came and said that visiting hours were almost over and only one person could stay overnight. 

“Can someone see if you can’t get ahold of Stark and have his butler come pick you up?” Phil nods and pulls out his phone to call Stark. He wasn’t on the phone long before looking over at Fury. 

"Tony says Jarvis will be here in ten. Said that Jarvis will call when he gets to the main entrance." It was almost exactly ten minutes later when Phil’s phone rang and Jarvis was telling them that he was downstairs. They were escorted down to the main entrance by a nurse at Fury’s instance, him mumbling that he didn’t need one of them to end up in the hospital as well. 

Jarvis drove them straight to their dorm and let them out. All three of them packed into the elevator. When the elevator doors opened, those who had stayed behind were sitting in the common area. Someone, most likely Tony, had ordered pizza. They sat down and grabbed a few slices. 

“How is he?” Someone, Phil’s not sure who asks. 

The image of Clint just laying there on the hospital bed popped up in front of his eyes. “He’s not awake yet. They’re keeping him under til at least tomorrow. He’s on a ventilator.”

Steve lets out a hiss. His hand went to his throat. “His voice is going to be shot for a while when he wakes up then.” Bucky leans into Steve. It’s then that Phil remembers that both of them had spent time on ventilators as well. Steve when he was little had spent a lot of time in hospitals hooked up to machines, and Bucky just last summer. Phil just nods and heads to his room, barely eating anything. 

Phil drops onto his bed and stairs at Clint’s empty bed across the room. His mind drifted back to that morning when he dragged him out of the room. ‘Clint didn’t want to go, but we made him. And now he’s injured in the hospital. And while the doctor seemed optimistic maybe he only was because we were there. Didn’t want to worry us. We shouldn’t have made Clint go.’ Phil’s thought’s circled like that until he couldn’t stay awake. His body overbalanced, sending him to the floor. He didn’t wake.

Kate woke early the next morning, just as the sun was rising, to an explosion happening down the hall. When the fire alarm didn’t immediately go off, she picked up her phone, made note of the time, and went back to sleep. The next time she was woken by someone banging on her door. She huffed and got out of bed and walked over to the door. When Kate managed to untangle herself from the blankets and open the door Bucky was standing on the other side with a wild look in his eye. 

“What’s wrong?” She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes as she heard talking coming from the commons area. 

“You have the master key for the floor right?” Bucky’s voice was breathless like he’d been running.

“Yeah Pep, left it with me when she left for break, but we aren’t supposed to use it unless it’s an emergency.” 

Bucky runs his hand through his hair. “None of us have heard anything from Phil this morning.” 

“So, he’s probably still asleep like I was. We were out pretty late to start with. And Phil’s grown very attached to Clint. He probably didn’t fall asleep when he went to his room last night. Not all of us are like Tony who can live off two hours or less of sleep.” 

“Very true, but Phil’s phone’s been going off every five minutes for the full length of his ringtone every five or so minutes since then, it’s almost eleven now.”

Kate leaves the door open as she turns to her desk and pulls open the drawer. She shuffles the stuff around for a minute and turns around with the spear key in hand. “This just had to happen when Fury’s likely still off campus and Pepper and Sam decide to go home for break.”

They headed down to the end of the hall where indeed you could hear Phil’s ringtone. Kate slid the key into the lock and unlocked the door. When she pushed open the door she let out a gasp at the scene that awaited her.

Chapter Text

Kate had to process what she was seeing. Before she reacted, because if she didn’t she may hurt Phil more than help him. She walked slowly into the room and heard Bucky yell down the hall for Steve. Phil had fallen off his bed and hit his head on what looked to be a hard-shell case of some sort. There was blood soaking into the carpet. Phil’s blood. She placed a hand on his wrist and felt his pulse. He was alive. That was good. 

“I’m going to call my mom. I’ll be right back.” Steve steps back out of the room. Kate keeps her hand on Phil’s pulse point until then. 

Phil’s phone starts to ring again. Bucky goes over to it and sees that it was Fury calling. He hesitates long enough for the phone to stop ringing and decides to call Fury on his own phone. Fury picks up on the first ring.

"Who is it?"  Fury’s voice was so tense that Bucky flinched. 

"Bucky Barnes, Headmaster."

"Can you find Coulson? I've been trying to get a hold of him for an hour."  

Bucky let out a nervous chuckle. "Um, how do I put this, but Phil is currently bleeding from a gash on his head. Steve's calling his mother to see if we should move him or not."

It got suspiciously quiet on the other side of the phone. Bucky knew it was because Fury had muted the phone to do something. Likely cursing. Or the doctor had come in to talk to him. Still more likely that he was cursing. It was a minute before there was sound again.  “Wait, how did you get into Coulson’s room anyway?” 

“Pepper left her master key with Kate. Seeing as Phil had Sam’s.” It was then that Steve came back into the room with his mother and two of the others that worked in the infirmary on campus. They did a once-over before putting Phil onto a stretcher. 

"Headmaster, they're moving Phil now. Do you want me to tell them anything?" 

"No, they know what to do."  Bucky nodded even though Fury couldn't see it. Fury hangs up not long after that.

Bucks helped Kate back off the floor. “We need to find someone that can clean up Phil’s blood.” She muttered. Bucky nodded and called another number. They walked out of the room, leaving the door cracked. 

“Steve, do you think they're going to be sending Phil to the hospital too?” Kate takes note of how quiet the rest of them were.

Steve shrugs. “Probably. He knocked his head. We don’t have the stuff to deal with both imaging and blood transfusions. My mom said she’d keep me updated about that.” Kate nodded and went back to her room to change out of her pajamas. 

When she came back out of her room Steve was holding Tony back. "What’s going on?” 

“They’re sending Phil to the same hospital as Clint. Tony is demanding that we go over there.” Bucky looks up from where he was slumped. 

“We can’t. We had enough problems getting to see Clint yesterday and that’s with his legal guardian there. I doubt that we’ll see Phil before his parents fly in.” Tony slumped in response. It was true. The likelihood of them getting to see Phil before his parents got in was unlikely. Hell, they would have to call Fury to even get into Clint’s room again.

Kate waited until after they went to lunch to call Fury who said that they should focus on their schoolwork. Seeing as classes start on Monday, he would keep them updated on Clint and Phil. 

The rest of the break was subdued. They had someone come in and clean the blood off the floor and when Pepper and the rest of the floor came back to see the all being quiet, including Tony they demanded explanations. By the time Phil came back to campus late Sunday night everyone knew about the incident and didn’t bring anything up. Seeing as Clint hadn’t woken yet and it was starting to look like he might not. 

Most of the Dorm B floor three students were quiet throughout their classes and when it came time for archery practice after classes Kate was forced to pull Ashe for practice with her because Clint was missing. It went disastrously and ended up with Kate having to replace two of Ashe’s arrows. 

It was right after the group had come back from dinner that Phil’s phone went off. Phil looked at it for only a second before picking up the phone and putting it on speaker. “Headmaster Fury?” 

“Clint woke up about an hour ago and will be back at Shield on Friday at the latest.” 

Phil repeated this to the rest and some of them screamed. Phil just let himself drop into a chair next to him. “How long before he returns to classes?”

“Next Monday. But he will be back on campus by Friday.”  Phil hummed before hanging up the phone. It took a while for Phil to be able to get up and he went and ran to his room. Curling up in the corner of his bed. Phil’s thoughts ran around his head that mostly containing the fact that Phil was the reason why Clint got injured. And him wondering if Clint would still like him after it had happened. The last thought that Phil had before he fell asleep was that he loved Clint. And maybe that was why he was feeling so much guilt. 

Chapter Text

Clint returned to Shield High on Friday while everyone was in their morning classes. Fury drives him to the front of his dorm and helps him make his way up to his dorm. Clint lays on his bed in his room for a while with his hearing aids sitting on the side table. It was probably near lunchtime when the door to the room was opened, disturbing Clint’s sulking. Phil comes into the room with Tupperware containers in his hand. He places the containers on the desk.

Phil tapped on Clint’s arm to get his attention. Clint pried open his eyes and looked at Phil, his face screwed up in confusion.

“Food. All Cleared.” Phil signed. Clint sat up and Phil helped him over to his desk. They sat in silence as they ate. When they were done Clint went back over to his bed and lay back down, but he looked over at Phil he signed, “Thanks.”

“Welcome. Others back later. Class.” Clint nodded and watched as Phil settled on his bed.

“You not going to afternoon classes?” Clint asked, his voice horse.

Phil shook his head. “Head hurts.”

Clint got up and pulled the curtains closed to eliminate a lot of the light in the room. Something twisted in Clint’s gut. Phil had given himself a concussion on his bow’s hard case. ‘I caused that. I caused his pain.’ Clint’s thoughts started to spiral. ‘I’m why he’s missing class. Why his head hurts. I caused this.’

Clint curled up in a tight ball. His gut injury flared with pain when he did so. ‘I deserve this pain. I caused Phil pain. I deserve to hurt.’

Clint’s eyes roamed around the room, but they never stayed on Phil for long. Never allowing himself to pause looking at the boy that he was falling in love with. Clint was unsure how long he lay there like that, but eventually, someone must have knocked at the door because Phil got up. When Clint looked over Natasha was standing in the doorway.

Clint doesn’t bother watching what was going on, closing his eyes against his pain. Clint lays there for an unknown amount of time. That was until there was a tap on his bed near him. Clint pries open his eyes and see Kate standing there.

“What?”

“You H-A-W-K-E-Y-E.” Kate signs.

Clint shakes his head. “No, I’m not.”

Kate huffs thinks for a moment, and signs. “Hearing aids.”

Clint sighs and reaches over to his desk for his hearing aids. Putting them on as he sat up. “What do you mean I’m Hawkeye?”

“I mean this is you.” Kate pulls out her phone and shows a shaky video of a boy in a purple body suit that was covered in sequins. The video was both grainy and shaky, but the boy was standing in the middle of a tent with a bow. There was a circus march playing in the background that Clint could just make out over the other sounds.

“No, it’s not. I’ve never met the boy in that video.” Clint looks at Kate with hard eyes.

Kate sighs. “I won’t tell anyone. And Phil won’t either, will you Phil?” Phil shakes his head.

“Clint I know this is you. And everyone else that was there when you got stabbed? They know your old stage name as well. It probably won't take Tony all that long to find old videos of you. But I’ll not make it easier for him.”

Clint’s face went from stone to angry. “Who told you? Who told you my stage name?”

“The trapeze artist that saved your life. When we were rounded up to talk to Carson and the police. We all heard her say your stage name Hawkeye.” Phil watched as Clint fell back on his bed.

“Clint the others haven’t really even talked about it. I’m not sure any of the others have figured it out. Or at least that there were videos made.” Kate sat down next to Clint turning off the video that was playing.

Clint shrugged. “I know there is a possibility of videos. I’ve been performing since 2014. I just didn’t want you to know.”

“Why not? I know you’ve heard some of the others talk about the fact that seeing you perform was part of why they got into archery.”

Clint turned from the other two, rolling onto his side. He muttered something into the bed before lifting his head. “I didn’t want them to make fun of me. When I’d go into town with some of the older carnival workers we’d often be harassed.”

Kate picked up her phone, flipping it over to go through her photos. She stopped at one that showed a little girl standing next to the boy in sequins from the video. “Clint. Do you remember taking this picture with me?”

Clint turned and looked at the photo, confused for a moment before remembering. “Kinda. I didn’t really know what was going on. I had just lost my hearing. All I knew was Barney wanted me to stand there after the show ended. Then this little girl ran up and hugged me, talking too fast for me to understand. Then he got my attention for the picture.”

Kate blushed as she talked. “Meeting you was my birthday present that year. It was also the last time I got to go to Carson’s. I started at Shield that next fall and was never home when Carson’s was coming though. I’d spent so much time at the archery range, Ms. Nevrand scouted me for Shield’s team.”

"So what else do the others know?"

“The only other thing that was brought up was that you were tossed from a moving truck before school started,” Phil answered.

Clint fell back onto the bed not wanting to confront the others but knowing he’d have to eventually. “You said none of them had said anything about it?”

“I haven’t heard anything. And I don’t think Tony’s going to bring anything up either. Seeing as I know he was feeling guilty about dragging you to the circus when you clearly didn’t want to go.”

“Are the others back from classes?”

Phil and Kate both nod. “Yeah. Most teams didn’t meet today either so most of the floor is just chilling in the lobby waiting for dinnertime. I think Pepper was planning a floor dinner tonight too.”

“Sounds right. I heard her say something like that in the elevator earlier. Comeon better to get over with the others knowing.” Kate pats Clint's shoulder. He sighs and sits up.

They head out to the common area together and once they were out there Clint watched the others perk up. Loki is the first one to speak up. “It’s good to see you again, Clint.” With most of the rest saying similar things.

Clint goes and sits next to Bucky on the couch and everyone goes back to what they had been talking about. Clint lets the sounds wash over himself. It wasn’t until after dinner when they had come back to the floor that anyone brought up what they had heard while at the circus.

“Is it true that you used to be in the circus?” Pietro asks.

Clint nods. “I’d rather not talk about it but yeah I was.”

“Understandable. If someone that was with the circus decided to stab me I wouldn’t want to talk about it either.” Bruce sat down next to Clint.

Clint looked down at his hands as he decided to speak up. “I’d also like it if you guys would tell the rest of the students.”

“Of course not my friend. It will stay between us and us alone.” Thor started.

“I’ll stab whoever tells the others or makes fun of you for it,” Loki states as he flips his knives.

“If you ever do want to talk about it, don’t be afraid to speak up though. It may be good to talk about what happened on your terms. But we won’t make you talk about it.” Sam says.

And that was that they spent the rest of the night talking about classes and other things. Never heading back to what happened to Clint or what he’d done before starting at Shield. When Clint went to bed that night he was less filled with stress than he had since he’d woken up in the hospital. But was still feeling the overwhelming guilt of having gotten Phil injured.

Chapter Text

Clint slowly healed over the next few weeks. Benched from practice again while his gut healed sent him a little stir crazy. He spent a lot of time sitting with Bucky back in the dorms learning more and more sign language. It was something to do that took a lot of thought but not a lot of gut movement. He managed to improve his sign language enough to communicate with some of the others without fingerspelling anymore.

The weather had truly changed too. It was getting colder which made Clint wish for just a moment that he was still with the circus. As the cold weather would have sent them south so they didn't freeze at night. This meant that Clint hadn’t built up a tolerance for cold in so long that he was so close to asking Fury for something warmer to wear.

“Are you going home for break?” Petrio asked as they walked to English class from the dorms.

“What break?” Clint was confused as far as he knew the next break would be closer to Christmas.

“Thanksgiving. We get the days on either side off.” Loki explained.

"As far as I know I'm staying here. I don’t think Fury has any family to speak of." Clint said.

The others didn’t seem surprised at that. It was then that they made it to their class and they split up to go to their seats. English went as well as it normally does in that it went horribly. After that Clint and Loki make their way to their math class. When they get there they notice that Tony is missing for the fifth day in a row. It had become more and more common to not see Tony in class, even those he was failing. At this rate, he was risking getting kicked out of the school for truancy.

After math class, Clint and Loki go their separate ways for their next class. Clint to German and Loki to his next class. Bruce was already in the classroom when Clint got there. “Have you seen Tony recently?”

Bruce looked up from his work. “No, he’s been skipping classes. I also haven’t heard anything in the middle of the night in a while, which makes me think that Tony isn’t coming back to the dorms as often. Why was he not in class with you earlier?"

Clint shook his head. Bruce just about cursed before shaking his head. "I will bring it up to the others later. Okay?"

Clint nodded as class started. After class, they headed to lunch to see the others sitting about but Tony wasn’t to be seen anywhere. When they sat down with the others Bruce went ahead and brought up the fact that they hadn’t seen Tony. The others that were there at the time seem to agree and they all agree to go looking for him after classes.

For the rest of his classes, Clint was a bit distracted but paid as much attention as he could to his classes. When it came time for archery practice Kate allowed him to practice by himself after the first time that he almost split one of her arrows. He wasn’t sure why he was so distracted, he hadn’t known his fellow students all that long.

Clint continued to shoot as he thought through things. And then just as he was about to release his arrow everything clicked. They had accepted him for who he was. No one before in his life had done that. His fingers slipped off the arrow and sent it flying. His thoughts flew through everything that Dorm B had done to accept him as fast as an arrow toward its target. Especially everything that Tony had done for him since he’d started, including doing a minor repair to his hearing aids after having been shoved into the pool earlier that year.

The arrow struck the next target over from him and he and everyone else around him cursed. “Barton! Bow down now!” Clint put his bow down on the floor and stepped back.

Kate came up beside him along with Ms. Nevrand. “Barton with me. Kate, break down his bow and put his stuff away.” Kate nodded and Clint took off his quiver and guards and handed them over.

Clint followed Ms. Nevrand to her office. “What happened out there today? I have never seen you miss the target so bad you hit another.”

Clint shrugged and Ms. Nevrand shook her head. “Ah, somehow I don’t believe that. And if you can’t tell me what is going on, then I can’t allow you to shoot. Had you made a mistake like that today and it ended up with you striking over a barrier then you could have hurt or even killed someone. So no shooting until you can tell me it won’t happen again.”

Clint thought about it for a second. He had to shoot, that was the only reason he was here. He could lie and say it was his gut acting up. But that wasn’t the truth and if he was benched again because of that he wouldn’t be able to stand it. He’d just gotten back to being able to shoot. He didn’t want to lie either. People were just starting to trust what came out of his mouth as truth. He didn’t want to be branded a liar again like he’d been at the circus. There must have been a knock at the door while he tried to think of a reason because Ms. Nevrand looked past him before saying, “Come in.”

Clint turned to see Kate standing in the doorway. “Clint, is this about the fact that Tony’s been missing classes?” Clint looked away from Kate without doing anything else.

“Clint, it’s fine to be worried about one of your friends. You know that right?” Ms. Nevrand pulled Clint’s attention back to her.

Clint gave a little nod. “I know. I’m just not used to people caring about me back.” Clint’s voice was low and quiet.

“Well, the whole of our floor is going to go find Tony after classes. We've only got a little bit left until classes let out anyway.” Clint nodded. They stayed in Ms. Neverad’s office until the bell rang signaling the end of class.

Kate pulled Clint from the room to meet with the others in the dorm. When they got there they split up into small groups to go look for Tony. Clint was with Loki, Phil, and Bruce and they were headed to the engineering building.

As they worked through the building they ran into a few people who said that they hadn’t seen Tony but there was a machine shop on the fourth floor that he tended to haunt. They headed straight up to that lab and the door was cracked open which was good, none of them would have been able to get in there with their student badges.

Bruce led the way into the room. There in the back of the room was Tony sitting with something that could have passed for an arm. They walked back there to see that it seemed to be an arm for Bucky. As there wasn’t anyone else who could use an arm that looked like it could hold a larger rifle steady.

Bruce stepped up to Tony’s side and shook him awake. Tony sat up so fast that the chair started to tip. The only reason that it didn't was because Bruce kept it upright. “I'm up! I'm up!”

“Tony, how long have you been in this machine shop?” Phil asked as Tony scrubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

Tony shrugged. “What day is it?”

Loki looked to the ceiling. “It's the thirteenth of November. I know you have missed at least a week of our math classes.”

“I skip math as much as possible. Pym hates me.” Tony waved his hand. “I think the last time I left the lab was earlier to go to the bathroom and get something from the snack machine.”

Bruce had his phone out and was texting on it when he asked, “Alright then when was the last time you went back to the dorm?”

“Last week? You said it was the thirteenth, right?” Loki nodded. “Then yeah, last week.”

“Tony, you can’t go that long without proper sleep,” Phil said.

All Tony did was shrug. It was then that the door opened to the lab, allowing in Pepper and a few others. “What have you been doing here Tony?” Pepper asked as she stepped up beside Phil.

“Working on an arm for Barnes.”

“What?” Bucky sounded so confused as he came up beside Clint.

“I know you’ve been trying to get in with the writing program to keep your scholarship, but I remember that you spent a long time with the riflery team. And you’re better at it than some of our team before you lost your arm. I figured if you could shoot again then you could join the riflery scholarship.”

Clint watched as Bucky’s mouth dropped as Tony talked. “Why?”

“Because no one should have to lose their scholarship so quickly after something like you went through. But the school board's full of old men who only see the scores that are generated by the students. Bastards, the lot of them.”

Tears started to flow down Bucky’s face. “Do you think it will work?”

Tony nodded. “There may need to be some adjustments, but yeah it should work. You want to try it on?”

Bucky moved forward in response and it only took Tony a few minutes to get the arm situated onto Bucky’s stump and the straps around his body. But once it was, it fit quite well if Clint had to guess. When Tony stepped back he had a manic grin on his face.

“How does it feel?”

Bucky moved it a bit. “It feels good. I think it will allow me to hold the gun steady.”

“You want to go down to the range?” Phil asked as he looked over at him.

Bucky nodded and they all headed down with the others. “Phil, are you able to open the stand doors? There will be too many of us if all of us are in the booths.” Clint asked as they got close to the range.

“Yeah, but, you should be able to as well, but if you can’t I think Kate can also open the stands. You may be able to as well. At one point I opened the doors to the archery range stands with my badge.” Clint nodded as they opened the doors. Clint leads everyone other than Bucky, Tony, and Phil over to the stand doors. He swiped his badge and Phil was right he was able to open the stand doors.

They take their seats in the front of the stands just before Kate brings in most of the rest of their floormates. There also seemed to be some of the other riflery students and someone who he thought was the coach for the team.

“Kate, did you get a hold of the riflery coach?” Kate nodded.

“In the end, it will be up to the coach to take Bucky in. I mentioned that this is likely the worst Bucky can do. As he was very good in middle school, and only went through with the martial arts scholarship because he was just that much better.”

Clint nodded and they watched as Phil handed Bucky one of the larger rifles. It wasn’t long before they were watching Bucky take the first shot with the prosthetic. He hit the target’s outer edge with that first shot and every single one of them let out a loud cheer.

Clint looked over and saw the coach had the same look that he’d seen from Ms. Neverand when he’d first met her. He was pretty sure that Bucky was about to be offered a spot on the scholarship. They watched as Bucky took a few more shots that got closer to the center of the target.

Clint watched as the coach went down into the range and talked with Bucky and by the loud yell that Tony let out, it was an offer to join the riflery scholarship. So Bucky didn’t have to worry anymore about being kicked out of the school. Which in a way was a weight off all of them, because none of them wanted to lose their friend. All of them headed back to the dorms that night bugging Tony to start going to classes again so they didn’t lose him either.

Chapter Text

Clint had been right in saying that he wasn’t going anywhere for Thanksgiving. Which he was grateful for seeing as he now had time to catch up on his homework before heading to regionals in two weeks. He was sitting alone in his room working on that homework when a knock came at the door. He got up and answered the door to see Bucky on the other side. “What’s up?”

“The rest of us that stayed here are going to be heading to the caf here soon. They have a Thanksgiving special for all of us who can’t go home.”

Clint nodded and went back to his desk making sure he was at a good stopping place before heading out. Once he finished up the last line on the page he left it be and joined Bucky and the few others that had stayed behind in the common area. There were only a few other students that had stayed and he had only ever talked to a few of them so he stayed close to Bucky and Natasha.

When they got down to the caf there were a lot more people than he expected to see in the building and many of them younger than them as well. “What’s up with all the kids younger than us?” Clint asked Bucky as a blond girl ran up to Natasha.

“They bring the middle schoolers over so if anyone has siblings that are there they can eat together. It’s one of the few times a year that they do it. They also do it for Christmas, but I haven’t been here during that in a while,” Bucky explained.

Clint nodded as they followed Natasha as she was dragged through the caf by the younger girl. They ended up at a table with two other middle schoolers and one of the other teens from their dorm. “There you are, Yalena. And you brought your sister and her friends. That’s good I thought the table was going to be nearly empty this year,” the middle school boy rambled. All the while his hands played with something small.

“Peter, when have you known my sister to go home if I didn’t?” the girl, Yalena said. Peter shrugged. “Who’s the blondie with you?”

“Clint Barton, the new kid in my year and dorm. Clint, this is my little sister, Yalena, and her two friends Shuri and Peter.”

Clint waved at the others. Natasha sat down next to her sister and Bucky sat down next to the other teen, leaving the seat between them open. Which Clint was grateful for. He didn’t want to sit next to the others that he didn’t know, only because it would be harder to read their lips if it got too loud in the room.

They sat there talking as food was brought around and some of the tables hung their heads as they held hands. He looked to the others at his table to see none of them doing the same as the others. He tried to make out the words but wasn't able to, well that was other than the word, ‘Amen’ that was said before everyone stood to get in line. That's when it connected to Clint that they had been praying.

After that, they went and got their food. It wasn’t much different than what they normally had, other than the main foods being turkey and ham. But it was fine. When they made it back to the table the others started to talk about their classes. Clint wasn’t able to follow much of what the middle schoolers were even saying and it made him worry that he wasn’t going to make it through his classes.

At least that was until Bucky spoke up. “Alright, you three. Can we dumb it down for those of us not on a science scholarship?”

Peter blushed and the other two looked at Bucky for a moment before explaining what they were talking about in words that Clint mostly understood. It still went over his head but at least at that point, he understood that it wasn’t anything that they had covered in his classes yet.

Clint just sat there listening for a while. That was until the others started to talk about things that he thought they were covering in his classes that he didn't understand and piped up. “Hey, Natasha, isn't that what we're covering in class right now?”

Natasha nodded. “Yeah, but I'm sure you won't have to know it as deep as those three do for class but yeah it is. Why? Are you still having issues following?”

“In class yeah. Ross-Hogarth went over some of it so fast I couldn't follow. But I think what they were saying is making more sense now.” Clint looked between the others.

Peter broke out into a smile and said, “I'm glad that we're helping.” Clint nodded as Peter continued, “Is there anything else from your classes that you're having issues understanding?”

Clint shrugged. “I don't know. Almost everything for my science classes to be honest?”

Peter hummed, “Have you guys gone over DNA and RNA yet?”

“I think so?” Clint said as Bucky said, “We have.”

Peter nodded and launched into an explanation that finally made the differences between DNA, RNA, and mRNA make sense. Which was a godsend seeing as they had a test on it on Monday.

It wasn’t long before the dining hall started to empty and one of the teachers came around to take the middle schoolers back to their dorms.

When Clint made it back to his dorm he sat down and started to go back over the notes for the things that Peter had gone over. His explanation about it made everything else in the chapter finally click and he was able to hopefully store more of that information for his test.

During the rest of the break, Clint split his time between studying and training for the next event. He also spent time talking to Peter and Shuri and they were very helpful in explaining things in a way that made sense. He also got into a long debate with Peter about Dog Cops that Shuri walked away from in the middle of.

When the test came around that next week Clint managed to pass it, which was an improvement over what he had been doing beforehand. He needed his grades to come up if he wanted to keep his scholarship. He may have been one of the best archers the school had, but Fury had made it clear that he needed to keep a C average no matter what the school policy said about the top scholarship students. Fury said he would pull him out of the archery program if he didn't keep his grades up so he was glad that the grades were coming back up. Archery was the only thing he was truly good at and he was finally making friends through it. Friends that stood by his side no matter what was going on.