Type: Clint Barton X Reader

Warnings: None

Requests: Open

A/N: If any of my readers for "An Entity Within (Doctor Strange X OC)" read this book then I am really sorry but I unpublished it but then put the writing in a new book as the previous book was messing the chapters up (I hope that makes sense 😅) - so yeah, make sure you add the new version of the book if you haven't already ^-^

As for the imagine, I hope you all enjoys it ^-^

________________________________

You were incredibly talented. Having learnt how to use a plerthora of bows and firearms by the age of sixteen, you were quickly sought out by multiple agencies to work for them however you denied the opportunities. The shooting was merely your hobby and you still had a whole life ahead of you. Your aspirations were possessed by the idea of being an olympic archer - not some operative working for the government. By the age of twenty, you were an expert marksman - well, marks-woman.

You never missed your target. All the shooting competitions you had entered over the next two years you had won and in all fairness, they weren't fun anymore. The adrenaline rush you got from shooting in competitions was fading rapidly and the novelty was wearing off. You stopped shooting professionally and instead did nothing for an entire year. Skills that you had now acquired were left because you simply didn't find it exciting anymore.

Over the next six years you had chosen to go for a normal life. Whenever you needed a bit of extra money, you would compete in an archery competition. Your life was like clockwork in those years, working as a waitress. You enjoyed it but it wasn't the same delight you got from shooting.

That's when S.H.I.E.L.D contacted you and broke the engine so to speak. There was an unexpected knock at your door and you opened it to see a middle aged man in a black suit. He had a dark receeding hair line and kind eyes.

"Who are you?" You questioned him. He looked like an official or authority-type figure so it was fair to ask.

He smiled, flashing an identification card up, "Agent Phil Coulson; I'm with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division - S.H.I.E.L.D for short. I just had a few questions to ask you, it won't take long." His tone was calm and his gaze trusting so you let him in to your flat.

Your hospitable manner kicked in the moment he walked in, "Tea or coffee?"

Phil put his hands up, "No, no, thank you, I won't take long." He smiled again briefly and sat down at the small kitchen table you had.

"Okay," You shrugged and sat down opposite to him, "What did you want to ask?"

He put down a paper file he was holding and opened it to look at a sheet, "Do you shoot anymore? Bows, guns, anything?"

You subtly frowned, already getting an idea of what was happening, "I do occasionally but it's not as fun as it used to be."

"Do you know how likely you are to hit a target dead centre?"

"One hundred percent."

Phil paused and looked up from his documents with an impressed expression but then looked down for the next question, "Ever considered joining the armed forces?"

"Once upon a time but I decided to try professional shooting instead - if I joined the armed forces I probably would have been a sniper." Your tone was nonchalant at this point simply waiting for his questionnaire to end.

"So you wouldn't have a problem with killing people then?" Phil looked up to meet your gaze.

You paused at the question and considered it, "Only if I had a good reason, in the case of the armed forces, only if they posed as a notable threat."

He closed the file and you anticipated what was coming next, "How would you feel about joining S.H.I.E.L.D, as an operative?"

An unsure smile crossed your lips, "I have a life here, I can't just fall off the grid."

"You don't have to, all your information will be confidential and you'll have a codename to protect your identity." He answered, "You're personal information is protected."

Quietly, you considered it now. Shooting hadn't been as fun as it had been before and this would be different. Your future hadn't gone as you had planned but this could still make for an exciting opportunity at this point in your life.

"What would I do?" Your curiosity was growing slightly.

Phil smiled again, "Why don't I show you?"

Fast forward about a half a year later and you had met Clint Barton, codenamed Hawkeye. You were practicing your archery skills when he arrived to see the new recruit in action. You passed the test with flying colours as you fired away at of the targets. Clint had approached you afterwards.

"That was some sharp shooting." He had complimented you and offered a hand for you to take, "Name's Clint."

"Y/N," You smiled back, noticing the quiver on his back, "You shoot too?"

"Everyone knows how to shoot here." He joked.

"Well, I know that - "

"Yes, I'm the only other one that uses a bow." He interrupted with his answer giving you a cheeky look.

His smile was infectious and you couldn't help but grin back, "Well, come on, then, show me your skills."

"Okay then, how about a little competition. Shoot the furthest target dead centre - with your eyes closed." He posed the idea to you.

A scoff left your lips, "That's easy." You mumbled, getting an arrow from your quiver before looking away and closing your eyes before firing.

It was a perfect shot.

Clint nodded with an amused look, "Nice, I can go one better though." He gave you a knowing look as went to pick up his bow off of the shelf, "So closing your eyes was a little too easy but can you do it with your back turned?"

"Pardon?" You frowned with confusion.

Without another word, he turned his back to the targets and closed his eyes. You watched with intrigue weaved into your expression as he aimed his arrow to the wall in front of him and fired. Given the angle that the arrow had been fired back, it hit the roof and headed straight for the target you had shot - splitting your arrow down the middle. He looked over to you with a grin whilst you looked from the target to him with amazement.

"How the hell - "

"I can teach you, don't stress." He shrugged the matter off.

You shook your head in awe, "You - " A pause as a thoughtful frown crossed your face, "You're a show-off, that's what you are." You folded your arms.

"Thank you but does that mean that you don't want to learn it?" He quirked an eyebrow at you.

You altered your statement, "You're a very talented show-off which I could learn are lot from.

An amused look crossed his face, "Brilliant - Welcome to S.H.I.E.L.D."

You both trained together after that and also met up with another operative called Natasha, codenamed Black Widow (you still had no clue why). S.H.I.E.L.D gave you the codename Artemis (however Clint ended up shortening it to Arty which you hated because of how ridiculous it sounded but he kept on calling you it because your frustration was humorous). The three of you often worked on missions together and the same joy you felt when first competing all those years ago was felt once again. You admired Clint's marksmanship and he felt the same towards you except you rarely mentioned it to each other - just silently appreciated it. In fact, you admired more than just his marksmanship but you liked him too. Natasha could see this of course and on a number of occasions she had spoken to both you and Clint about it separately.

"Do you like Clint?" She posed the question to you one day.

You gave her knowing look, "I don't tend to mix my love life with work one."

"Please," Natasha scoffed with an amused look, "When working S.H.I.E.L.D, no one has a successful love life outside of work."

You dropped the file you had been skimming through, "Well, thank you for having so much faith in me." Came your sarcastic response.

She threw her hands up in defence, "I said 'no one', not 'you'."

"Still..." You picked up another file to read through.

"Still what? You still haven't answered my question." She pointed out.

Whilst you were hoping she didn't pick up on that you knew she inevitably would, "Yes. I doubt he feels the same way though."

Natasha simply smiled, "You don't know if you you don't ask."

"No," Shaking your hesd you gave her a stern look, "We have work to do - we can't waste time."

A week later, Natasha and Clint were organising equipment for a mission whilst you were finding out all of the information. The two were sorting through all sorts of gizmos and gadgets when Natasha spoke up to Clint.

"Do you like Y/N?" She questioned nonchalantly.

Clint was thrown off by the question, "Hey?"

Natasha looked to Clint, "Do you like Y/N? It's a simple question."

He gave a nervous chuckle, "Now why would you think that?"

She shrugged, "She likes you."

He paused for a moment, "She likes me?"

"Yes." Natasha nodded, "Do you like her?"

"I mean, of course, but are you sure she really likes me?" He posed the question back to his friend.

"Well, if you confess to her that you like her, then you might be nicely surprised."

"Nat, are you kidding? I can tell her before an op!"

"Tell me what?" You questioned as you walked into the room with several files.

"Nothing." Came Clint's sharp reply.

You paused in the doorway, your gaze switching from one person to the other before you shrugged and headed over to Natasha. Showing her the files and briefly watching Clint turn his back to the both of you, you whispered to her:

"Did you say anything?" You hinted about your earlier conversation from the week.

Natasha shook her head innocently, "No." She answered convincingly.

The next day, the three of you were in Kazakhstan for your op. It was pretty simple this time around - an agent had been abducted by American criminals that were residing there as a place of refuge. Your tracking equipment led you to a warehouse that stored toys - it threw you off slightly but then again it meant that they were hidden in plain sight.

"The video they sent us shows that Agent Kellman is in the Manager's office." Came Nick Fury's statement through your coms.

"Roger that." Clint confirmed.

"You two take to the roof, I'll stick to the ground." Natasha then instructed.

Clint grinned as he looked to you, "Come on, Arty."

You rolled your eyes, "Coming, Birdy."

"Birdy?" He raised a brow.

"Well if you're gonna give me a stupid nickname, you deserve one too." You mumbled with a grin.

Natasha shook her head, "We don't have time for this, just go."

A short while later, you and Hawkeye were precariously balancing yourselves on the beams above the warehouse, getting the perfect view of where each criminal was. You looked to the office where you saw that the agent was tied up accompanied by one of the thugs that waving a gun around to him. You didn't have much time. There were only six other men from what you saw.

"Clint, I'm gonna have to take a shot. Nat, you ready." You mumbled into your com.

Natasha replied, "Go for it."

And Hawkeye then confirmed. Aiming through the window to the current hostile, you shot, the arrow leaping from your bow and swiftly soaring into the glass window, shattering it and finally landing in its victim. Of course the sound of the broken glass drew the others attention. Both you and Hawkeye saw Nat sprint to the stairs of the manager's office but then a bullet ricocheted off of the metal beam beside you and you looked down to see three of the thugs aiming at the both of you.

You cursed under your breath as you grabbed an arrow to fire at them when you felt a sharp pain shoot through your ankle and you yelped as you fell forwards, dropping your arrow but managing to keep a hold of the bow as grabbed onto the vertical metal beam beside you. Hawkeye saw this and immediately leapt over from his beam to yours to try and help. You saw that more of them were starting to arrive though.

"Give me your hand!" He yelled to you.

You snapped as you struggled to pull yourself back on, "Screw that, stop them! I'm fine."

Clint listened to what you were saying and was already firing net arrows to the new arrivals. Nat was currently stuck in the Manager's office helping the other agent but you knew she would be fine. You would all be fine. Rather than struggle more, you decided to place one of your gadgets on the beam and a rope eased you down quickly. More people swarmed around you used your bow to bat some of them away. You limped away hurriedly to get some space between you and the men however they were quicker. Before you could blink though, Clint was already by your side.

"You could have told me." He stated to you briefly as he fought off the one guy whilst hitting another with a net.

You pulled a specialist bow from your quiver and aimed up, "It was difficult." You muttered as you let the arrow fly. A net popped out half way up and fell on three of the people.

He grinned, "I meant about the fact that you like me."

You threw a look to him, "What?"

"Nat mentioned it." He muttered aiming another arrow.

"So you won't tell her before an op but you'll tell her during a fight?" Natasha spoke up through the coms.

"Nat," You whined, whacking one guy with your bow and punching him in the gut, "Why'd you tell him?"

Clint turned to you briefly, "Because I also like you."

Your head tilted with a thoughtful glare, "Then why didn't you say anything sooner?"

"I could ask you the same question, Arty." He grinned at you.

You glared at him, pulling out another net arrow, "Duck."

He chuckled, "I'm a hawk remember."

You rolled your eyes and as he did, you let the arrow go again. He had rolled over to you and stood back to back to incapacitate another guy who was about to attack you from behind as well.

"Are you guys almost done? We need to go." Natasha urged you both to hurry up.

"Got three more guys, then we'll be out." Clint answered.

You both simultaneously finished off two people and at that point he turned to you again as you took out a final arrow and fired it at the last guy without taking your eyes off Clint.

"Do you want to go for a drink when we get back then?" You posed the question to him.

A smile crossed his lips, "As long as your buying, Arty."

A sigh escaped your lips at that point, "For that, Birdy, you can buy the drinks." And with that you turned to head out of the building to Nat.

"Hey, Y/N, wait! Look, I'll stop calling you Arty."

"You just did it again."

He caught up to you, "You have to admit it's a pretty cute name."

"I hate it with my heart and soul." You gave him a warning look.

Clint simply smirked, "You don't really."

_________________________________

A/N: How did you find that? 😄