I hate being starting a new fic when I got exams on the way -and I reaaaally should be studying -or eating for the matter- but hey, it's the only way I can get this story off my mind :P So, if everything goes according to the plan, this fic should be seven chapter or so long.

Title came up listening to the radio; I thought it'd be fitting :)

AU halfway high-school (Clintasha) and halfway college (Steve/Maria). I took some liberties with each characters background, don't be offended ^^".

Enjoy!

I'll Be There For You

1.

"Okay guys, let's leave it here for today. Good job." Steve Rogers, SHIELD high football coach announced loudly. The team sighed in relief and quickly made their way back to the changing room. Only a few stayed back to clean the field. It was only when they left in turn that Steve spotted him.

Clint Barton. A senior student, captain of the Archery Club. Steve had heard his nickname, 'Hawkeye' due to his amazing aim- although he had never seen the teen in action himself. When Barton noticed him, Steve nodded as a greeting. The student replied with a wave of the hand before setting up the archery material. Steve went to the changing room in turn and upon the exit, glanced at the archery field. Froze. In barely ten minutes, three targets -set about twenty meters away from the shooter, were pelted with arrows, all fighting for space in the bullseye. Man, Steve thought, he knew the teen was good, but not that good. He moved towards him, fully intending on congratulating him on his performance, when the angry expression on Clint's face made him slow down.

"Is something going on ?" he blurted without thinking. The arrow Clint had just released flew and joined the rest in a 'wizz tchac'. Without looking at Steve, the archer reached for another arrow, aimed the third target and released the string. Wizz tchac. Okay, Steve thought, the teen was definitively angry.

"Woods is a dead guy walking" Clint hissed, picking a new arrow. Wizz tchac. "I saw him cheating on my sister."

It took Steve a few seconds to realize the Clint was talking to him, and more to catch up no what was said.

"Your sister?" As far as Steve knew, Clint Barton was an orphan, adopted by a childless couple. The woman had died a while ago and the man hadn't married again. Unless, Steve suddenly realized, he was referring to...

"Yeah, Maria." Clint's features tensed. "Son of a bitch."

Wizz tchac.

Maria Hill. The Ice Queen of high school when Steve was still there, now a college student in political science and waitress in the best bar in town. A beautiful girl, with breath-taking steel blue eyes. But also a cold and closed up teenager, civil at best and very unpopular among her peers. Steve couldn't remember her having any friends; her snappiness and impassive blank stare at anyone attempting to get closer to her made students either hate her on spot or tolerate her. Steve freely admitted that at first, he belonged to the formers. It wasn't until their graduation year that his opinion of her had started to change. Barely. He didn't really get along with her, but didn't consider her as a heartless robot anymore.

Wizz tchac.

Steve reported his attention on Clint. For some reason, the only person able to get to her was the teenager, and it came as a huge surprise to see her smile at him. Another thing that helped him tolerate her, the never ending respect and admiration a loner like Clint held in regards towards the young woman he shamelessly called sister. And the protective streak she had towards him.

"Are you going to tell her?"

Wizz tchac.

"Can't and won't" the young archer muttered, looking even angrier.

"Why not?" Steve asked out of curiosity. "You think she won't believe you?"

Wizz tchac.

"Oh she'll believe me all right." Clint replied, his eyes flaring -Woods was a dead man walking indeed. "But she's got enough shit on her mind right now, I don't wanna add some more to it." Wizz tchac. "Her father passed away yesterday." Steve winced.

"Sorry to hear that?"

"Oh believe me, it's not what you think." Clint snorted. "She walked out on him at thirteen and demanded emancipation at sixteen. She's pissed because she will never prove him wrong – he called her trash till she got fed up with it and moved in with her uncle." He paused, checked around for another pack of arrows, his quiver empty now. "Plus, she found out he remarried, got her two half-brothers and never bothered telling her."

"Oh" was all Steve could say -because really, what could you say? Clint picked up a new quiver and started shooting again.

"Yeah, oh." Wizz tchac. The targets looked pitiful, torn by the bunch of arrows. "She'll never be able to prove him wrong, y'know? I mean, he always told her she would never do something decent with her life. You knew her mom died in labor, right? Daddy never forgave her for it."

Steve didn't know what to day. He could only sympathize -because not being able to prove your father you weren't just some 'midget', he understood. But he had never suspected that part of her life. No wonder why she seemed so unapproachable back in high-school. And now, the frustration, the feeling of loss and discovered lies all at once...

"Why are you telling me this?" Wizz tchac.

"Need to vent, and you're good at keeping things to yourself." Steve accepted the excuse, although he suspected that there was more to it.

"Where is she now?"

"She spent the whole morning beating the shit out of punching bags. Guess she headed back there after her shift. But I'm not sure it's a good idea to talk to her right now, Cap." Captain America, as the football team called him instead of coach. Steve never understood why. "She might now be in the mood for listening."

Steve lips' thinned into a straight line.

"I sort of owe her a debt, Barton. And if I bother her, she won't hold back on me. Maybe it'll help her lay off some stream."

The last arrow in Clint's quiver flew and hit the bullseye once again. Something resembling a smirk grew on his lips.

"Y'know what Cap? You might be right."

Take pity on me and tell me what you think :)?