Work Text:
Thunk
Thunk
Thunk
Bruce raised his head from where he was overseeing one of his experiments. He could see Clint sitting up in the rafters of the lab Tony built for Bruce in the Stark Tower, from where he was shooting NERF arrows at various pieces of lab equipment.
“If you break something you get to tell Stark.”
There was a pause and then another thunk right next to Bruce's hand. Bruce sighed and stepped back from the table, holding a level stare at the beam where he new the archer had gone to hide. “Would you like to come down here?” Clint always did stuff like this when he wanted to talk about something, but didn't know how to bring it up or if he wanted to get Bruce out of the lab.
A quiet “no” came from above Bruce's head. Looks like it was the former, then.
Bruce walked around the table to the ladder that Tony had installed so that Bruce could get up into the rafters with Clint. (Bruce honestly isn't sure how Clint gets up there, but he's never been one to question)
Bruce lifted himself up the rungs, pausing a couple of times (hey, he doesn't have to keep up a fitness regime like the rest of the team) before finally reaching the top. He climbed onto the beam carefully and looked for Clint.
He found him sitting propped against a vertical beam, legs pulled to his chest and the toy bow laying across his knees. Bruce crawled over to him and settled cross legged in front of him, his legs resting on top of the archer's feet. Clint frowned a little but didn't move away.
Might as well come right out with it. “Clint, do you want to talk?”
Clint's frown deepened and he didn't respond. Bruce reached across their legs to grasp Clint's hand. “Clint,” Clint actually turned his head away, so Bruce decided to change tactics. “ Sweetheart ,” Clint's gaze snapped back to Bruce, eyes softening, fingers tightening around Bruce's. “Talk to me, please. I don't like it when you keep me out like this.”
Clint blinked, eyeing Bruce like a target he couldn't get a sight on. (which never happens on the field, of course) “I-” he started, then stopped, frowning. “I can't have movie nights with Thor anymore because he's gone back home for the Asgardian equivalent of a family reunion or something, Tony won't have my new arrows ready for testing until next week because he and Steve are 'working on the Tony's agility in the suit' but I think that's code for sex. That doesn't even matter anyway because Coulson restricted my range access because 'I'm there too much'. By the way, what the fuck, how can you get too much practice . Natasha's been out on an assignment that 'they don't need my abilities for' and you-” Clint paused, eyes falling away from Bruce's, focusing instead on their entwined hands. “And you're always in here.” He finished quietly.
Bruce started to say 'I'm sorry' but then he realized that's not what Clint needed. Clint needed to do something. “Would you like to go out? Get something to eat, maybe?”
Clint smiled, no, grinned and sprung across the distance between them, pulling Bruce into a hug so hard he thought they'd topple off the rafters.
~*~
Bruce ended up taking him to a little Italian bistro that neither of them had been to before. The lighting was low and there were candles on the tables. They had surprisingly good bread sticks.
They then went to the park to lie on the grass and people watch (Clint liked to do stuff like that. They made up ridiculous back stories for anyone who walked past; including a business man who worked as a rodeo clown on the weekend and an older lady with an extensive collection of African walking sticks and twenty-three cats)
On the way home, they stopped by S.H.I.E.L.D and Bruce got Clint's range access reinstated. Bruce never asked for much and even when he did, Coulson hardly ever refused. (“Do you really want to say no to me, Coulson? It might make me angry .” Clint snickered at that. Coulson glared at them but said that Clint would have full access by the next morning.)
And, when they finally got home, they closed themselves into Bruce's room and didn't reemerge until the next afternoon.
Needless to say, Bruce was going to keep a better eye on the time he spent with Clint and Clint (probably) wouldn't be shooting NERF arrows at dangerous lab equipment anytime soon.