TB2020 – Protecting Family

itle: Protecting Family
Author: Saydria Wolfe
Fandom: MCU
Genre: Fix-it, Rule 63 (Girl!Clint Barton)
Relationships: Clint Barton/Steve Rogers
Warnings: Casual Sex, Safe Sex
Author’s Notes: Girl!Clint still goes by Clint. This is my headcanon. If you don’t get it, feel free to read my Consultation Series, at least the first part—it explains it. This particular story is a different AU, set after Age of Ultron but before Civil War.
Challenge: Just Write Trope Bingo, Square: Found Family/Family of Choice
Beta: PN Ztivokreb
Word Count: 2,095
Summary: Clint does what she has to to protect her family. No matter the cost.

 

 

“God, Steve, yes!

Steve growled and pounded into the woman below him with renewed vigor. Clint was the best thing about the future. The very best thing. She spoke to him, not about him. She didn’t give a shit about his place in history or when he was born. She absolutely roasted him every time his ego started to get the best of him and she took his cock like she was born for it.

“Steve!” She clenched around him. “Steve!”

He squeezed her hips and moved his hands to her shoulders. He pushed her down until her strong archer’s arms gave in and she fell chest-first into the bed. She groaned heartily. He knew she loved it when he pushed her around in bed. They both did, it was the only time he got to use the excess of his strength outside of a superpowered fight.

Steve changed his rhythm from long, strong strokes to short, quick ones. He didn’t want to pull out too far. He loved being inside her when she came and experience told him that she would be soon.

He gripped her hip with one hand and used the other to reach around the front of her body and flick her pretty little clit. “Are you gonna come for me, baby? Are you going to come on my cock?”

Her back arched and she screamed. He gasped and came with her.

Her callused hands gripped him firmly and he realized he’d lost some time. He was laying on his back beside her, his condom was gone.

“That was a good one,” she grinned.

“Everytime I think I’ve never come so hard in my life,” he admitted. “Then somehow the next time…”

Clint laughed at him. “You’re welcome.”

She moved away from him, not her usual so soon after sex. And—since she saw better at a distance—it was a sure sign she had something on her mind.

So, he asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I think…” Clint sighed and shifted uncomfortably. “I think you need to tell Tony.”

“Tell Tony what?” he asked with a sinking feeling in his stomach.

“I think you should tell Tony that Bucky might have been used to kill his parents.”

“Clint.” He stared at her in horror. Then he had to get off the bed. He just—he had to.

“I’ve seen the file, Steve.”

“Then you know Bucky killed his parents, killed his mom. Tony will never forgive that.”

“And you want to bring Bucky here anyway? Let him establish relationships with our team—with our family—under false pretenses?”

“I— Clint—” He started looking for his pants. He needed his fucking pants.

“No, Steve, stop.” She left the bed but she didn’t move closer to him. She actually moved further away, which was a strange sort of relief. “Think about it. You know Tony. He’s practically your best friend. He knows about the mind control and the torture.

“You also don’t have any proof.”

“Clint!” he objected. He wasn’t even sure why he objected. Or what he was objecting to.

Why had he not left yet?

“No, Steve, you don’t. You have a record of thawings and freezings by date. It’s suggestive but it’s not proof.”

He was panting for breath, his heart was racing—he didn’t even know why.

“Tony knows what it’s like to be a prisoner, Steve. He knows what it’s like to have your choices taken from you. He won’t—he’s not a risk to Bucky, if he knows.”

“But?” Steve asked, strangled.

“But—Steve, if someone found proof and ambushed him with it…”

“You’re saying Tony’s unpredictable. That he is  a danger to Bucky.”

“No, Steve,” Clint took a deep breath. “I’m saying that Tony has PTSD. All of us do except you and…I don’t know, Banner? Maybe? We are all unpredictable—we’re all dangerous—when we’re startled and Tony’s parents are his weakness. If this…situation goes wrong—if any part of it goes wrong, it could destroy the team.”

He finally got his pants on and started to walk away. He couldn’t…he couldn’t have this conversation.

“Steve,” she called and he turned to face her. He knew he shouldn’t—he should just leave—but he couldn’t be so hateful to her. Not to Clint. She looked him straight in the face, there were tears shining in her eyes. “This is my only family, Steve. We made this a family, all of us, and I…I can’t let you kill it.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “But…I think this is why Mjolinr rejected you. Because you’re using Tony, and everything he has, without telling him something you know he would want to know.”

“I don’t care about Thor’s stupid hammer,” Steve said, conviction burning inside of him. “I care about Bucky.”

A tear broke loose and rolled down her cheek. “Don’t you wanna be the man Dr. Erskine knew you could be?”

That…was worse than a punch to the face. He turned and left immediately. He—he didn’t— Clint didn’t know what she was talking about, clearly. Her view of the team was warped. She saw them as a family and he knew her opinions of them could not be relied upon.

Bucky was his family. Bucky was all he had left in the world and Steve didn’t care what he had to do to get him back.

With the team or without them.

-*-

Steve avoided Clint after that. He didn’t know what to say to her. He didn’t know what to think. She’d always had his back before—kind of like a version of Bucky that he could fuck and not go to jail or get killed for it.

She had a friend come over that he had never met before. A very good friend because Steve had caught them sharing a kiss. It stung, a little bit, the thought that she had abandoned his whole gender over one argument. It was a very important argument and rather civilized, really but— Well, they’d made no promises to each other. They weren’t even dating, technically. They were just friends that fucked. Whatever she wanted to do, it was her right to do it.

Then Clint came to dinner the next night holding a familiar brown file folder under her arm. Steve’s gut froze.

“You know I’m on your side, right?” she said right to his face as her friend, Darcy, took the folder and walked out of his range. “I’d follow you through anything—but not this, Steve. This is too far.”

“What’s too far?” Tony asked as he grabbed a grape off the bar and tossed it in his mouth.

Clint turned to face Tony, giving Steve her back within the reach of his hand. That gave him pause. She…never let people stand so close to her back. No one other than Natasha in a fight or him—very rarely—during sex. She was…showing him trust even as she defied him, betrayed him. He didn’t know what to do with that.

“We think we might have found something out about Sergeant Barnes,” Clint said. “But it’s…hard.”

“Oh, god,” Tony grimaced. “Worse than the torture and the brainwashing?”

“Maybe?” Steve could hear Clint swallow. “I called his granddaughter, Darcy Lewis, to help decide who had the right to know it and…we agreed that it was best if we all knew this. But it mostly affects you so, you also get a vote in the…team knowing,” Clint waved a hand, “thing.”

“What is it?” Tony frowned and asked.

“Darcy?” They all turned to Clint’s…friend.

“Wait, granddaughter?” Steve asked.

“Hey, Uncle Steve,” Darcy shot him that same smart ass salute he’d gotten from Bucky at least twice a week during the war. The one that was more a fuck you than any sort of acknowledgement or respect. “James Barnes knocked up Memaw—you might remember her as Connie Lewis?”

He nodded. He remembered the Stark Expo and…all of that.

“—just before he shipped out,” Darcy continues. “She had his son, my father, and obviously he fathered me. So, granddaughter.”

“Good to know beautiful breeds true,” Tony quipped and Darcy laughed. “What nightmare do you have to tell us?”

“Tell you, mostly,” Darcy corrected and laid the folder down on the dining room table. “This is book seventeen, part two, of James Barnes Military Record of Service, Mobilization and Experiments, according to Hydra.”

“That…sounds terrible,” Tony decided.

“It is,” Bucky’s granddaughter agreed. “Mostly, this particular folder is just a record of his freezings and de-frostings by date.”

“That’s a terrible way to put it!” Tony laughed reluctantly.

Darcy stopped digging through the file and looked up at Tony. “What else would you call it?”

Tony considered that. “Alright, I’ll give it to you.”

Darcy nodded once and held up the papers from the folders in two different stacks. She waved the one in her right hand. “The originals Natasha managed to secure from fuck knows where—in Russian, not exactly helpful.” She dropped them back in the folder and held the other stack in both hands. “Translated from Russian. Clint and I both had them retranslated by separate linguists since we didn’t know and had no reason to trust the first translator considering how everything was all jumbled up with Hydra when the folder was first located.”

“And?” Tony prodded.

“And, this is my translation, provided by Doctor Abrams at NYU,” she pulled out one particular page and handed it to Tony.

Tony took it with a bemused look. “Is this supposed to tell me…” Tony trailed off with a frown.

“Yeah,” Darcy said gently. “It’s supposed to tell you something.”

“He…” Tony choked. “Barnes was defrosted two days before…”

“Your parent’s died,” Darcy finished. “And refrozen three days later. It’s not proof but…”

“It’s suggestive,” Tony swallowed. “Do we have any proof?”

“We’re looking,” Clint said, stepping closer to Tony. “But, Hydra’s been hiding since World War II. If they don’t want us to find something…”

“And if they do want us to find it, we probably can’t trust it,” Tony said.

“Yeah,” Clint agreed.

“Were you ever going to tell me?” Tony turned to look at him. “Steve, you’ve been searching for him from here for… months. Were you ever going to tell me?”

“…No,” Steve admitted reluctantly.

Tony looked devastated. “Why?”

“I was afraid.” Steve cleared his throat. “I am afraid.”

“Of who?” Tony demanded.

Steve felt his mouth move but no words came out. He…he didn’t know what to say.

Clint looked between them. “Not of, Tony. For.” She gave Steve her big, beautiful I believe in you eyes. “Right, Steve?”

He nodded, he couldn’t deny it. “I…didn’t want to hurt you. And I’m scared. Bucky’s so damaged. The last time I saw him, he didn’t even know his own name and…he did all these terrible things. I just want him safe, Tony.”

“No,” Tony said fiercely.

“Tony…” Steve began, knowing he had no right to argue with Tony. If Tony decided to kick him out for this, it was completely justified.

“No,” Tony repeated. “Steve, Bucky did not do those things.”

Steve blinked. Tony couldn’t be saying what he thought he was saying.

“Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes fell into a ravine and died. The…construct Hydra built in his body was a weapon. I know weapons, Steve.” A tear rolled down Tony’s cheek but he ignored it.
“No one knows them better than me—it is not the weapon’s fault what the hand on the trigger did.

“We have a chance to resurrect your friend and save my dad’s friend—and we’re going to fucking do it. You hear me?”

Steve staggered under the weight of his relief.

“Now if you’ll excuse me,” Tony said and turned away, “I’m…I need a minute.”

Tony fled and Steve sank to his knees. Was it really…was it really that easy? He put himself through all that worry and fear…for no reason?

Clint dropped to her knees beside him. “I’m not sorry. I had to protect our family.”

He blinked his eyes into focus and looked at her. “Okay.”

“I…I think Tony could love you. I don’t know what kind of love,” she hastened to defend her statement—like he had the brainpower to object. “But, you’re clearly important to him and if you had…” she hesitated.

“Betrayed him?” Steve offered even though he kind of felt that was what she had done to him.

Clint tipped her head to one side. “I think it would have destroyed him. And Tony didn’t deserve that.

“None of our family does.”

 

 

Back to Bingo Page.

9 Comments:

  1. This was absolutely fabulous, just… don’t read it while listening to “All of You”. I’m a sobbing wreck right now. Seriously. Thank you, my dear, for sharing this…. All of your works, you’re one of my favorite writers, I love all of your stuff.

  2. I love this. I was so disappointed with what the MCU did with Clint’s character (and Steve’s tbh). Tony deserved not to be used that way. I’m glad your Clint agrees. And Darcy Lewis as Bucky’s granddaughter is my new head canon 🙂

  3. Thank you.

  4. Every word was made of awesome. Darcy as granddaughter, Clint seeing true, everything. Though, I wouldn’t mind a bit more racking over the coals for Steve. I don’t know if he really owns how callous and deceitful he is. He’s still thinking he was betrayed when he is the betrayer.

    • I headcanoned myself like whoa back when I was writing Remix #394 and Icebreaker for the Quantum Bang. I can never read Bucky/Darcy ever again which is a shame because they are delightful and snarky together but she will always be his granddaughter now for me and that’s just…no.

      • I”m actually in the middle of re-reading Icebreaker 🙂 I didn’t put two and two together and I suppose I just assumed a good idea being put to use by another author. *snicker* I need to pay attention to details more.

        And yeah, I skip right on over any stories now that have Bucky/Darcy. Your headcannon in now my canon for these two.

  5. Love this. Still want to smack Steve with something heavy, but thank you for the wonderful fix-it! 🙂

  6. First, absolutely love that Darcy is James granddaughter and I now feel slightly creepy about the Darcy/Bucky stories I’ve liked lol. Second, adore your female!Clint in the stories she’s been popping up in, her being true to what the avengers were building as people over what was easy is awesome. Also major kudos for the sexy start of this one, Steve still needs to be hit with Thor’s hammer though lol.

  7. Fuck, yeah. Major Fix-It!

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