Author's Notes:

Inspired by the story "A Family Matter" by Coruscare

To be honest, it surprised me. This just kind of showed up, one of those sudden evil plot bunnies that appears out of nowhere, and demands to be written right then and there and doesn't let you go until you've finished. There's no beta, there was none of that planning. Just a quick brain fart and here you go...enjoy?

Rating on account of potty mouth boys.

"What the ever living fuck, man?!"

Clint scrubbed his eyes with the back of his free hand as he adjusted his grip on the side of his cell.

"You're shitting me with this, right?"

"Good morning to you too, sunshine." Clint mumbled into the phone as he rolled over to look at the clock. Four am. Figured.

"Where the hell are you?"

"In bed. Trying to sleep." Judging by the irate voice on the other end of the line, Clint threw the covers back and shuffled down the hall to put on some coffee.

"Why didn't you call?"

"I was asleep!"

"Oh, I'm sure you were so busy sleeping that you couldn't be bothered to call your brother and let him know that you'd made the idiotic decision to run off and join a team of superheros when your yourself don't in fact have any superpowers!"

"Oh my god, Will. You don't have to yell. Let me have some fucking coffee, will you?" Clint stared at the machine as it tortured him with the promise of coming coffee with the steady but far too slow drip, drip drip into the pot. "What on earth are you talking about?"

"New York."

"City? State? Or Yankees?" Clint smirked as he imagined his brother's aggravated face on the other end of the line.

"You know what I'm talking about Clint. The invasion. Aliens, whatever."

"Yeah, I saw that on the news. Iron Man was there, right?" And it was true, Clint HAD seen recaps on the news. SHIELD had been really good about catching and censoring any footage that contained two of their premiere undercover agents working with a group of superheroes. There had only been a few glimpses of Natasha's bright red hair, and only in shots where there were so many civilians she could easily be explained away. Clint himself had been almost completely on a rooftop, so he was covered.

"You would know, ass. You were there." Clint stiffened as he pulled the coffee pot out to fill his cup, his brother was too smart for his own good sometimes.

"Naw, I have an assignment in New Mexico or Arizona, or wherever the hell this dry, boring state is."

William snorted on the other end of the line. "Don't lie to me. I've been following the news. Iron Man, Thor, Hulk and Captain America are all making big news…but there's other news that's more important to me."

Clint took a deep drink from his coffee, waiting for his brother to go on.

"There were arrows found at the scene, Clint."

Well of course there were, I was shooting them. He bit back his smart ass remark to let his brother go on.

"There was some footage of the fight, there's clear evidence of arrows. Benji is having a field day with the conspiracies online about where on earth the arrows could have come from; everyone could plainly see none of the four they're focusing on were using them. And then there's the strange fact that some of them have purple fletchings."

"That is strange."

"But all this means there was at least one other person there. An archer. An archer who would be good enough to go on the field against aliens, with a demi-god on his team."

"Sounds like a pretty impressive dude…or chick, whatever."

"Cut the crap, Clint. I've seen you shoot."

Another long drag on his coffee, but Clint didn't say a word.

"What's a private security consultant doing in New York fighting aliens with super heroes?"

"What's a desk analyst doing in Budapest and Dubai?"

There was silence on the line. Clint knew he had him.

"Почему - Вы?" Natasha shuffled into the room, limping slightly on her still healing ankle.

Clint forced a smile at her and managed to hold it as she relieved him of his coffee cup and returned back to the bedroom.

"Officially, you weren't in New York, were you." It wasn't a question. William understood security clearances.

"I'd say it's nice this time of year, but the news suggests it's taken a beating. Might want to stay clear."

"Little late for that. I've been in New York over a week."

Clint felt his pulse jump, the whole place was almost nuked just a day earlier. He had tracked his brother to Seattle before the Loki incident, it was stupid of him to think his kid brother wouldn't have gone on to another mission after that.

William coughed, "Guess it was a good thing the place was also full of super heroes. Suppose I should thank them for saving the city…and my life."

He sank down against the kitchen counter, completely out of wise cracks to make back to his brother.

"So, Clint…?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."