A/N: Because they all have things to learn.

This will eventually have six chapters, one per character. Sometimes what is being taught is fairly obvious, sometimes it isn't.

A man who is a master of patience is master of everything else. - George Savile

"No. Now put that down before you kill someone."

"Or someone kills me?" Tony asks. He gets a dark look in response and puts the gun down. "Sorry, you're right, bad taste. It's just, I would feel much safer if I had, at least, a passing familiarity with guns."

"Really?" Clint drawls, not so much forgiving the kill comment as moving on from it. "You'd be the only one."

"I could ask someone else, if that's the problem," Tony offers. "I just thought, you know, master sniper… But if you're not up to it, I understand."

"That hasn't worked on me since I was seven."

"I'm insulting you, aren't I?" the billionaire barrels on, changing tactics effortlessly. "This is demeaning, or something. It's like asking the chef of a five-star restaurant to teach some high school dropout how to operate the fryer at McDonald's. Is that it?"

"Why is 'no' such a difficult concept for you to understand?" Clint counters. "You hear it often enough."

"Do not."

Clint gives him a droll look, then smirks. " 'Hey, Steve, can I borrow your shield? I wanna hook it up to the amplifier in the surround sound system and see if we can blow out the neighbor's windows.'"

"In my own defense, I was a little drunk," Tony begins. Clint lifts his voice to talk over him.

"'Hey, Bruce, wanna go to Lollapalooza?'"

"All right, a lot drunk, but I'm trying to-"

" 'Hey, Thor, will you test this? I'd do it, but I'm afraid it's gonna blow up.'"

"- get you bunch of tightwads to loosen up, am I the only one around here-"

" 'Hey Natasha, I know it was just part of your cover at Stark Enterprises, but have you ever given any serious thought to doing model work?'"

"-who knows how to relax and have a good time and just enjoy myself?"

Silence descends, their last words echoing around the shooting range as they eye each other. After a moment Tony shrugs and glances away.

"Technically, I never actually heard anyone say no that last time."

"Maybe not, but you were walking funny for three days," Clint says mildly. Tony takes a moment to study him- he and Natasha have been working together for years, no way you'll convince Tony that Clint hasn't, at some point or another, been introduced to Natasha's unique way of saying 'no'.

Tony considers the conversation thus far and decides to go for broke. "Hey, Clint, will you teach me how to use a gun?"

"No."

"Boring," Tony says instantly. "And surprisingly unoriginal. Everyone else always says no- or hits me, which by the way is not a suggestion- and now here you are, doing the same thing. I'm surprised, Clint. I expected better of you."

Clint doesn't say anything. He doesn't really need to. Tony is perfectly capable of holding a conversation entirely by himself. The other people in the room aren't really participants so much as his audience.

"I didn't think snipers were followers," Tony plows on. "I thought you all had that lone wolf thing going on. But I see you're really just part of the herd."

"Pack."

"Whatever. Look, if you don't want to do it, I'll just get…. I'll get…" And here Tony flounders, trying desperately to think of someone who both can use a gun and would be willing to teach him. He has already gone through the list once, which led him to Clint to begin with. He doesn't really fall into both categories, but he fits the first one and the third, unspoken requirement- conveniently located- and Tony had figured that with enough effort he could antagonize the sniper into fitting into the second category if for no other reason than because it would be the only way to get Tony to leave him alone. Except Clint has turned out to have considerably more patience than Tony anticipated- another sniper trait, he really should have expected that- and now the person on the verge of losing it is Tony.

"Steve!" he says, yells really, feeling triumphant. "I'll ask Steve. He'll show me."

Clint folds his arms over his chest and raises his eyebrows expectantly. There is the almost audible sound of a bluff being called.

Tony jerks his chin up, gives the marksman his patented I-am-superior-to-you-in-every-way look, and heads to the door. He stops a step away. "Okay, you got me. I can't ask Steve."

He'd had too much fun mocking the soldier when Steve had first offered to show him how to use a gun, first on the various ways 'use a gun' could be taken as, given modern slang, and then expounding on why Iron Man did not need some puny little peashooter. And Steve would still show him, if Tony asks, but he'd have that smug look on his face the whole time, and then Tony would have to hit him and would most likely succeed only in breaking his hand.

Finally, he tries one last time, taking a tact he hasn't before. The word feels like a stone in his throat, and he drags it out with extreme reluctance. "Please?"

He can't actually look at Clint as he says it, so all he hears is the soft sounds of movement. "All right."

"All- what? All right? That's all it took?" he demands incredulously.

"Yup. Should've tried that first." Clint moves over to the gun and spins it idly, catching it by the grip and picking it up. With an almost lazy casualness he picks out the target at the other end of the range and puts twelve neat little holes in it.

"Can you do the thing where you spin it?" Tony asks, making a looping gesture with one hand, once he's absolutely sure there are no bullets left. Clint ignores him, which is honestly the best he could have hoped for.

"First thing," he says casually. "Everything you've ever seen on TV or in a movie is wrong."

"Huh," Tony replies. He'd figured as much.

"Second thing," Clint continues, "I learned how to shoot in the Army." He reloads the gun with quick, precise movements, and Tony knows just by watching him that he's done it a thousand times before, can probably do it in the dark by feel, even in his sleep by rote.

"And?" Tony prompts, when it seems like that's all he's going to say.

"And they're not exactly known for being the most patient teachers," Clint finishes. He aims the gun down the range for a moment, then steps back and offers it to Tony, along with the least friendly smile the billionaire has ever seen. "Your turn."

"Oh, good," Tony says, and takes the gun.

It's probably far too late to run.

"Hey, Tony," Steve says as the billionaire walks into the den. The TV is running on the twenty-four-seven news channel but the soldier's focus is on the sketch pad in his lap.

"So I have an idea," Tony says without preamble. If he plays this just right, he can get Steve to okay this without actually knowing what he's agreed to until it's far too late to do anything about it. "Team building and all that jazz."

"Saving the world together wasn't a good enough team builder?" Steve asks, sounding amused. Not suspicious, at least not yet, which really just proves how much he underestimates Tony.

"Fine, a field training exercise or whatever," he says dismissively, waving a hand as if to shoo away a fly. Steve finally looks up at him, frowns a little.

"Are you all right?" he asks.

"All right, perfectly. Yes." Tony forces himself to stop rubbing his shoulder- don't lock your elbow or you'll be able to bend your arm in more places than normal, but funny how he didn't mention that taking the recoil properly left your shoulder feeling like Thor had given you a good wallop-and sticks his hands in his pockets.

He's never going to be anything better than just decent with a gun- Clint's assessment ran something along the lines of 'you'll do, but if you ever point a gun in my general direction, it will take a team of surgeons eight hours to find it again'- but it's better than nothing. And as a bonus, he has a much more thorough appreciation of Clint's skills, which is what prompted this idea.

"Okay," Steve says carefully, in his humoring-the-madman voice. He gets to use that one a lot around here. "So what's your idea, then?"

Tony bites back his grin. If he grins, it will be his Mad Scientist grin, and Steve will say no before he can even ask.

"Have you ever heard of laser tag?"