hey everyone :D

so, thanks so much to everyone who reviewed! you guys are why I do it :DD and also, in reply to discordchick, I do plan on doing a continuation of the last one, but i think that'll be the next one or so, because if I don't get this one out right now I'm going to forget about it

I've actually taken to starting these on binder paper during school lol and whenever anyone comes up behind me I turn the paper over and pretend to be doodling. Not that that's much better, but at least no one will read my drawings aloud to the rest of the class.

Oh, yeah, these kind of skip around in time periods haha this one is definitely at least a good few months after the last one. possibly in a different universe...in which Hawkeye lives...lol jk :D

Or am I? ;)

I don't own Avengers. :(I want to cry just saying that:)

Enjoy!

"Leaving in ten, Nat, you ready?" Clint skipped the last step, landing on the hardwood with a loud thump. His bow was in one hand, and a black overnight bag was in the other.

Tony muted the TV, resulting in a cry of protest from Thor, which Tony brushed off after a moment. "Where're you going?"

Natasha hurried down the stairs, brushing her hair out of her eyes. She was dressed in her SHIELD uniform, which Tony hadn't realized until now had slowly become uncharacteristic. Perhaps she was relaxing after all. Similarly to Clint, she was well-armed and had an identical bag slung over her shoulder.

"New mission. Got the call a few nights ago. Forgot to mention it, sorry." Natasha closed the garage door behind her, but Tony followed after a moment.

"Again?"

A SHIELD SUV was waiting on the curb. Natasha was tossing Clint her bag, which he caught with a practiced ease. This was something they'd done innumerable times before.

Clint shrugged at him. "It's kind of our job, Stark."

Tony didn't go back inside until the car was out of sight.

Steve gave him a quizzical look. "What was that all about?"

He just shrugged.

When they got back a week later, Natasha stumbled in an expensive looking black dress, haunted eyes, and hair matted with blood. Clint still wore a ripped tuxedo, and the once-white shirt was specked with red. His quiver was empty, and his bow looked broken.

They disappeared onto their respective floors (yes, floors), leaving silence in their wake, and not reappearing until morning.

And in the morning, in their typical Natasha-and-Clint fashion, they acted as if it hadn't happened. Bottled it all up inside and ignored it.

But that just couldn't be allowed.

"So...," Tony began as he sat down with a cup of coffee, "Where've you been?"

Natasha gave him a cool glance and looked at Clint, who gave a noncommittal shrug.

Tony exchanged a look with Steve. "What happened?"

At this, the assassins seemed to have a brief mental conversation before Natasha replied stoically, "Had a few slip-ups, but we're fine."

The others shared an odd look and with renewed determination, they looked towards the assassins.

"It's just," Bruce started hesitantly, "we don't really think...you should still have to be..." He gave up and turned his eyes to the table.

Clint's eyebrow arched. "What? Working for SHIELD?"

"Well, yes..."

Steve sighed. "I can't help but think that you don't exactly enjoy it, and we just don't like that you put yourselves in harm's way so often."

Natasha scoffed. "Because being here is just like sitting in a padded room-"

Tony cut in. "No one's trying to say that this is a walk in the park, all he means is that when you're here at least you've got all of us to watch your back, alright?"

"We've been watching each other's backs for longer than you've even known who we were, Stark, so-"

"That doesn't make it better!"

And suddenly the room was a huge jumble of arguing and yelling, and breakfast lay forgotten on the table.

Thor's voice rose above all the others. "We are friends here! Cease the madness!"

"The only 'madness' that needs to 'cease' is everything that's coming out of this jackass's mou-"

"Widow, Stark has a point," Thor cut her off mid-word, "Perhaps you should not simply refute everything before you hear it."

"I'm hearing everything, Thor, we both are," Clint replied hotly.

"You are listening, archer, but I don't think you are hearing. We are worried for you. That is all, so you needn't react so strongly."

Clint crossed his arms, looking away. "Don't see why you even care anyway," he muttered.

"Clint," Steve glared, "We care because we're a team, and if one of us is down, we all are."

There was a moment of silence, and then Natasha stood up. "We'll think about it." Both of them swept out of the room.

Steve probably wouldn't realize it until later, but he'd basically just pointed the Hulk at one of the many walls the two had built up and told him to smash.

They weren't used to being cared for.