AKA Five times you met Clint in the air vents and one time you didn’t

1 When you first moved into the tower

   It was hard to believe it had been almost a week since your cousin Tony called to invite you to stay at his tower. It was even harder to believe that it also housed the Avengers for the time being.  Of course you had only met Bruce and Steve, seeing as Thor was back in Asgard and everyone’s favorite assassins were on a mission.  

“I wonder why Tony made this air vents so large.” You mused aloud as you easily crawled through them. It was like he was asking for you to sneak into his lab and re-paint his Iron Man glittery pink and glittery purple. You were so deep in thought that you never even noticed that somebody was in front of you until they cleared your throat.

“You must be (y/n).”

“That’s me and I’m guessing that you’re Clint.” You replied smiling at him after blowing a stray piece of your (h/c) hair from your face.

“Yep, what are you doing in the vents?”  He asked with a taunting smirk placed on his lips. You wanted so badly to reach out and smack it from his face, but you knew that if you even attempted that he’d probably break your arm.

“Nothing much, what are you doing here?” You answered like it was a normality to bump into people inside vents. Clint actually raised the left side of his mouth in a small smile. Without another word he pressed himself to the side of the duct in an invitation to go past him. You gave him one last smile before squeezing by.

2 When you were hiding from Tony

“Hiding from Tony?”

“God, Clint don’t sneak up on me like that,” You reprimanded angrily, “But yes I am. Apparently JARVIS is a squealer.”

“Gee, some AI’s are just plain rude.” Clint stated with a mock serious face on.

“I know right. Besides I did Tony a favor, I made his suit look FABULOUS.” Your voice raised when you said fabulous while you did the best fabulous pose that the small space and your horizontal position would allow. Clint’s laugh mixed with yours as they bounced around in the ducts.

“So are you just going to stay in here all day?” Clint asked you once your laughter died down.

“Yep, wanna keep me company?”

“Sure.”

………

…………….

“So are hawks your favorite type of bird or something?” You asked seemingly out of nowhere as your played with the bottom of your shirt.

“What?” Clint asked thoroughly confused at your strange question.

“Your codename is Hawkeye because you have good sight or whatever. But all birds have good sight, so there must have been a reason you picked hawk. I would’ve picked the eagle… or better yet vulture. Vulture-eye, that’s going to be my nickname for you.” You ended your semi-short monologue and flipped over to lay on your stomach so you could watch Clint’s reaction.

“(Y/n).”

“Yes, Vulture-eye?”

“I think I just joined Tony’s side.”

“Crap.”

3 When you were delivery Christmas gifts

      You sighed heavily as you shimmied through the air vents once more. Only Tony would make a contest out of anonymous gift giving.

“Whoever can give their gifts without anybody finding out who gave them will win,” You mocked your cousin bitterly, “let’s see how he’d like to crawl around in a vent while he lugged around six gifts.”

“Seems like we both had the same idea.”  Clint stated from behind you. You let out a breath as you let your head drop.

“Why must you sneak up on me like that?”

“I enjoy the view.” He accidently said aloud. You quirked an eyebrow as you twisted around to face him.

“Of your face when I scare you.” He hastily tried to mend what he had just said.

“…Okay. Can you tell me how to get to Thor’s room from here?”

“Go down take a right and then third left.”

“Thanks Vulture-eye.” You scurried away before Clint could grab your leg and pretty much maim or kill you.

4 Mid-night snack run

“Breaking you bet already?” Clint asked you the moment climbed back into vent that lead from your room to the kitchen.

“Don’t tell Tony!” You pleaded with your second favorite archer (Robin Hood being the first).

“Stop calling me Vulture-eye and we have a deal.”

“B- Fine.” You reluctantly agreed with a sigh as Clint crept backwards without your knowledge. It wasn’t until he was near a duct leading to his room that he called out to you again.

“I make no promises’ that JARVIS will keep quite though!”

    You stared in disbelief for a moment before smacking your head at your stupidity, “Sometimes I really hate that man… that AI too.”

5 When you were spying

      Your eyes narrowed and your fingers curled around the shutters of the air vents. The shutters groaned in protest as you pushed them as far apart as they would go. Small streams of light burst into the duct and hit you right in your eyes. You threw your arms up to protect your (e/c) orbs as they adapted to the change.

“Hi Clint.” Your smirk showed not only on your face but in your voice as well. You didn’t even need to look at his face to know that his grin had faded from his failure to sneak up on you.

“What are you doing this time?” He questioned while he moved beside you and peeked out with you.

“Spying.”

“On the kitchen?”

“Yep, somebody’s been eating my ice cream and JARVIS won’t tell me who it is.” You complained as you pressed the side of your face against the side of the duct.

“JARVIS really hates you. Why?”

“I’ve got two theories. The first is Tony programed him like that, the second is he may be ticked from the time I spilt my sweet tea on him and fried his circuits.”  You shrugged your shoulders while giving Clint a ‘what can you do’ look. Your gaze returned to the kitchen just as Thor strolled into it.

“The first one makes-.” Clint started but you slapped your hand across his mouth and pulled him to you. Your eyes once again narrowed as you watched your Asgardian friend pull your ice cream out of the freezer. But while you were concentrating on the scene in front of you Clint was failing at not staring at the scene in front of him; which happened to be your cleavage until you abruptly jumped from the vent.

“Thor drop the ice cream or prepare to die!”

1 When he finally asked you out

    You ran your fingers through your hair as you walked toward the door of your room. Whoever had been pounding mercilessly on the poor block of wood finally stopped, allowing time for your headache to recede.

“What do you want?” You semi-growled as you yanked the door open.

“What’s wrong?” Clint asked with worry in his eyes as he took in your deep scowl. With a sigh you pushed the door to open wider and motioned with your hand for him to come in.

“It’s actually quite stupid. It’s just that they discontinued my favorite ice cream flavor.” You grumbled with another sigh. Clint of course just stared at you in disbelief for a second or two while he processed what you just told him.

“You’re enraged because you can’t get your preferred ice cream?”

“No,” You shot him a dirty look before continuing, “I’ve only ever eaten that flavor. So it’s more like them taking away ice cream.”

    A smile spread across Clint’s face just then and all because you had just unknowingly given him the perfect opportunity for him to ask you out, “Well I had come here to ask you if you wanted to watch a movie with me tonight. While we watch it I can introduce you to some new flavors of ice cream.”

“Really? I’d love to watch a movie with you!” You nearly squealed as a large smile spread across your face.

“Great, so I guess we should go get a couple of ice cream buckets then.” Clint stated while he stood from his seat on your couch. A nod was your reply and with a great haste the two of you stole one of Tony’s cars and credit cards.