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Old Ones 63: Confessing Old Ones.

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Summary: Clint's really horrible dream vision leads to him going to a bar to hang out with the actor who played him in the movies.

Confessing Old Ones.






Clint woke up with a gasp, looking around the bedroom. Dawn and Natasha were starting to wake up so he calmed his mind and his breathing. That had been a horrible nightmare. Damn that was something he'd never do, even if prompted, but it was evil and maybe some had stuck to him from the bad guy of the week. Or possibly Liz Stark because now and then she did go evil. But it had to come from somewhere because he wasn't like that. He wouldn't do that to his women. Not ever. He slid out of bed, glancing in at the kids. They were all sleeping for a change.

Though Mira must've heard him, she started to crap herself and she seemed to reserve that honor for him. He snuck in to change her before Lexi got the same thought. He was so good at it, Mira barely woke up and went right back to sleep. He cleaned his hands on his way to the kitchen and their small bar. That dream was lingering. It was disquieting him and it was driving him nuts. He'd never do that.

He poured a drink and went up to the roof to look around. It was cold, but he wasn't feeling much of it. His mind was still stuck in that horrible vision. He felt the shivering that had nothing to do with the wind and drowned it in the liquor. That helped some. He looked around, ignoring the press people camped on the other roofs. The spell to hide the house hid most of it but the roof looked ghostly and the top five inches of the living room windows had that same almost seen quality. It was how someone had gotten a few shots of the kids playing with Dawn.

Speaking of, he felt a warm arm go around his waist as his jacket was put over his shoulders. "Bad dream?" Dawn asked quietly. He nodded, finishing the drink in one gulp. "Wanna share?"

He looked at her. "I'd never do that."

She kissed him with a grin. "I know you'd never hurt us, Clint."

"No...." He pulled her into his little command blind she had set up for him. It was his mancave away from the kids. His safety and security. She settled in his lap. He kissed her. "The dream was really horrible. Somehow we had someone who looked like Jean Gray from the movie showing up. She was pretending to be a reporter while messing with my head, verbally and not. She was helping with a plan Hera or someone had to punish you for stepping in where you didn't belong. They thought you were getting uppity basically." She cuddled him. "They had me do something really mean and it...it sucked, Dawn. I'd never do that. I'd never intentionally wear you down that way and I'd never intentionally play you that way."

"I know," she said quietly. "So do you."

He gave her a squeeze. "I can't shake this."

"So we'll act against the horrible vision," she said quietly. He looked down at her. "What started it off?"

"You were helping someone that Lady Mnemosyne refused to help."

"There's been a few of those and I think personally someone clouded her."

"They did not," the Goddess of memories said as she appeared. "I think you overstep yourself, Key."

Dawn looked at her. "And yet, you were letting a woman suffer, a true healer no less, suffer because she lost her daughter to an accident. She was drowning so hard that she begged you to take that single memory from her so it would not make her join her daughter."

"We have...."

Dawn got up and laid a hand on her arm, canceling the spells on her. "Now look at her." The goddess huffed but looked and started to sniffle. "I'd never let anyone suffer that way. It was one memory, and not the one of the funeral, just watching her daughter die in that car crash. Before she followed."

She nodded. "I would not deny that," she said quietly. "What have they done?" She went to look at the other cases that Dawn had stepped into.

Clint got up to kiss her. "Thank you." She grinned. He kissed her again. "I...."

"Go get a bit drunk. I'll fill in for you today if there's something huge," she promised. He smiled and left. "Take someone with you to watch over you, Clint. Just in case?"

"I can find someone to have some beers with as long as you can stop that problem." They both looked up at the goddess screaming. That hadn't been Mnemosyne. That had been Gaia. "Let me know?"

She smiled. "I'll come find you later, when you're okay and you've shaken it." He nodded, going down to the sidewalk to get a cab. He knew not to drive like this. Dawn went back inside, looking at the huffy goddess standing in her living room.

"Huffy am I?" Hera demanded.

"Yeah. You're steaming up the windows." She stared at her. "So you really wanted some of those people to die? The ones who actually still believe in your powers and pray to you?" Hera flinched. "I may have to help now and then, even as a mortal, because I'd never let anyone suffer that way." She stared at her. "Nor will I ever let anyone suffer that way."

"I doubt you know what suffering is," she sneered. She flicked a hand. Dawn's spells protected the kids. She glared. "It won't last forever."

"Nat, move the girls," she called.

"You'll find she's not able to help."

Xander appeared and grabbed her by the hair while Phil got the kids, Natasha, and Dawn to the temple. "Let's go talk about this plot because you're whiny you're not the top goddess around any longer," he said in her ear. "I've had enough." He took her to the judicial tribunal, which Gaia had called. He slung her forward. He put up the memories Dawn had shown him when things started to go wrong and no one knew why. The tribunal all sighed and nodded. "Just tried to hurt Dawn's kids to get back at her for protecting others."

"She is a bit pushy," one of the trial judges said.

"Yeah, she's a lot like me," Xander agreed with a smile. "I adore that about my near-little sister."

Dawn appeared and went for Hera with her nails. Gaia tried to stop her but one touch of Dawn's skin showed her what was going on. She got out of the way. Suddenly, Dawn was The Key, not Dawn, not a semi-immortal being, but The Key. A glowing, pissed off assassin who knew why her daughter was presently having a brain swelling moment to kill her. Hera shrieked as Dawn attacked but it wasn't going to be stopped. She couldn't fight Dawn. Ares wouldn't come to help her. Neither would her husband or other children. Dawn snorted. "Clearly I'm the better mother too." She looked at Xander. "Permission."

"Go for it." He sent her back in time himself. Clint still had that nightmare, unfortunately, but Dawn had made sure the girls couldn't be harmed by moving them right before he woke up. Then she had come to tell one of the other senior gods and Xander what had happened so the rest could replay. Which changed only the future of the children. Xander looked at the judges. "I'm so glad I taught her tactical thought."

They considered things as they laid, then looked at Hera. "Her green eyed curse has rebounded on her."

Xander nodded. "There is that pesky rule of Karma." He stared at Hera. Then at the judges. "So what do we do about this? Because I won't have her hurting people for no reason. She's made others not do their jobs and it's creating pain and misery among those who have done nothing to deserve it." He put up the other interactions that had been happening. They decided Dawn had done the right things when the gods were out of their minds. The few that she had others handle for her were generally good ideas. One wasn't but they saw why and it was a better idea after all. They sighed and stared at Hera. She had been the top goddess in all the pantheons, one of the strongest left. Now... she was a bitter old woman who hated her job, her family, and her duties. "I don't know either," Xander said. "Unless we're sending her to therapy."

"If that would work," one agreed. "I doubt it will though." He checked, Gaia had freed the other gods from Hera's insidious little curse and they were righting their own areas. "Demeter?" one asked.

"That's not her doing," Gaia said. "That's mortal caused, not us. I would fix that if I could. Demeter as well." She looked at Hera and sighed. "Is that therapy idea any good?"

"Possibly but it'd take years," Xander said. "It's to help you work out your own shit through talking and things." He smiled at her.

"Can you send Odin there?" she asked dryly.

"Yes, I can." He smiled at the tribunal, which shuddered. "I think it'd help the All Father to talk about his feelings, don't you?"

Loki appeared, staring at him. "He'll smite you and me for that idea, son." Xander smiled. "Even if you rend him powerless for a few weeks and that therapist would be long gone by then." He looked at Hera, shaking his head. "You are truly a woman of many twisted feelings. Perhaps you should be allowed to be a teenager again? That way you can redo bad decisions that were forced onto you?" She glared at him. "I do happen to have some deaging serum," he said smugly. He held up the tiny crystal vial. "That would let you be a strong mortal teenager and let you make your own choices about spouses and children for the span of a mortal lifetime."

Xander touched it and frowned. "It's curdled. That would probably start her on the same curse I had, which I'd never wish on anyone," he told his father. "Remember the hell I went through?" he said quietly.

"I do. I would not wish that on most people. Though a few...." He smiled.

Xander snorted and smirked a bit. "There's a few I'd like to give it to too. But I won't because I'm supposedly on the side of good."

"When does that curse wear out?"

Xander shrugged and smiled. "No clue. I said at least a year." He grinned at his father. "I know Strife's out from under it. Coyote."

"Damn you," Loki sneered.

Xander grinned. "Being on the side of good has gotten you legitimate worshipers like Janus has. It's gotten you status. It's gotten you power. Even if you and Ares do have to juggle some things to make it more...interesting." He smirked. "We like you on this side, Dad. Isn't it so much nicer than people swearing about you?"

"Sometimes. Not always."

"Hmm, yet people on the light do have to sometimes help others on the light lighten up."

Loki shivered. "That's nearly a thought worthy of Discord."

"I think she's still stuck too."

Loki could suddenly see the bigger picture about why his son had done that. "You little bastard," he said fondly.

Xander smiled. "Well, you never did marry Mom."

"I'm not sure why anyone would have," Loki muttered, then shook his head. "Most of your chaos outbursts have worked to help people in the long run. Though a few, like the disco balls that floated after you and the butterflies, had no known good reason."

"Actually, they created good feelings when people needed them. They were planned that way." He smiled. "It just happens to have worked out. Janus did bless me to be a force of probability upon my birth." Gaia whimpered and shook her head. He grinned at his father. "You know, I really should've had one of those every Asgardian decade, not every mortal decade or so. You never even noticed that the last one wasn't a full decade."

Loki blinked. "I hadn't thought of that." Xander smiled. "Damn you."

"Sometimes, but mostly thanks to Mom and Phil's wearing that out of me."

"Good!" He stared at his son for a moment. "I thought I was sneaky, and Ares had plans."

"Well, I'm your son," he said dryly. "And Mom had plans too. Just not good ones. Then again, I did get trained by some of the best at making plans. The Dwarves were very handy at that."

"Good point." He was suddenly respecting his son's skills. "You are one of the best things I ever did."

"Have a few daughters to take the evil side of your powers. We could use a Discord-like goddess and maybe one'll be the Goddess of therapy since so many need it. Or that could be the same goddess I guess."

"Not a chance this decade."

Xander smiled. "Someone has to. Do you want that sort of power going into one of Aphrodite's triplets?"

Loki considered them then shook his head quickly. "No, I'd rather that not happen."

"Then maybe it's not such a bad idea, huh?"

"Perhaps. I'll talk with my spouse later." Xander grinned. "Little shit," he said fondly.

"I am what you guys made me be."

"Good point. You'd be more normal if it wasn't for Odin's picking on us." He patted him on the arm. "I'm proud, son." He disappeared, going to talk to Ares, who had heard it all. He was looking impressed about his son. "I'd take credit but I truly can't."

"Me either but he's good at it." They saluted Xander with mugs of ale and got to work on those other plans. Xander had a few necessary ideas. Including that the Goddess of Therapy should come from a chaos parent. Strife and Cupid could have a kid. They'd like that. Strife adored children.

Xander grinned at the judges again. "So, what am I doing?"

"Give her the same vacation that Cupid got given," one decided. "Let her find happiness and work on it that way."

"I can do that. Without the blocks beyond on her powers outside of emergencies." Xander looked at Hera. "We'd all like you to be happy." She started to open her mouth but he slapped the blocks on her and sent her to Earth as a child. D'Hoffryn helped him place her in a great family that would help her regrow into a happy young woman who might find love out there. Then he went to do the same to Zeus. Because they were mated. Maybe Zeus would figure his shit out and make Hera happy finally. Or maybe he'd figure out why he was such a bastard when Hera found some nice guy. He came back with a smile. They all shook their heads but agreed it was a good idea. Plus it would give Ares something more to do for a few years. That would keep him busy.

Gaia went back to her house and giggled herself sick with Hestia. They adored the creative punishments Xander came up with.

***

Clint found his target already at a bar and walked in. A few people looked at him then at the actor then at him. He shrugged and got a beer, handing it to his friend. "I need to talk."

"Sure. Huge problems with the new story line?"

"No, huge problems in my life. I'd talk to Nat but she'd kill me for thinking too hard." He walked him into the back room, settling down to drink and talk. He wanted to talk. He needed to talk. He couldn't figure out what to say but he really did need to talk.

"You look like hell. Bad battle?" the actor who looked like Clint and played him in the Avengers movies asked. They had spent some time getting to know each other so the actor could handle his part the best possible way.

Clint sighed. "Not exactly. Bad things from on high prompted a vision nightmare that had me turning on Dawn to put her down and things. It's freaky and it hurts that they think I'd do that. Which I'd never do."

"So, how did you and Dawn meet?"

Clint grinned. "At SHIELD. After the New York battle. She might've been in New Mexico with us but Coulson kept her and Tara apart from where I was with everyone else. Thor has said he saw them sometimes. They taught him how to play rummy for M&M's. Dawn said each time he made a bad remark about women one would take something off the wall and hit him on the head with it. Apparently Tara was feeling a bit more aggressive. Back then, she'd stutter and not even look at you in the face." He sipped his beer. "Nat and Coulson did a lot of helping Dawn back then. They were training her to handle it the next time she got snatched."

"So, you two met on the hell carrier?"

"HQ. After the battle of New York. She was doing assistant things and I kept hearing rumors so I looked. Then we met and I realized Coulson's a really picky big brother about her. Still is most of the time, even though he's stepped back some and it's making her pouty." He took another sip and leaned his elbows on the table to lean on them. "Nat explained Dawn to me before we went to the training camp Xander had set up for the first run through it. It was a good warning but I upset Xander thanks to something Fury wanted me to pass on.

"So she knocked me out, magically tied me to my bunk, went through all my stuff, then was sitting on my stomach when I woke up. It was the weirdest interrogation ever. She gave me more facts that Fury had withheld. It made me look at Xander and Dawn a lot differently. Then our Loki showed up to taunt her and she showed she was scary too. By then Nat was there and she didn't know that Dawn could be scary either. Dawn learned to hide stuff from everyone from Xander. She's really good at it sometimes."

"Can she still do that with whatever bond you guys have?" he asked.

Clint nodded. "Yeah, she can. Even with a very tight telepathic bond between us." The actor looked a bit confused. "As we found out later, her showing me something that Fury hadn't to help me understand Xander better led to a slight connection. During the time in Romania, we were using that to keep ourselves from being taken over. She'd call and ask me for music to take her mind off things. We'd make escape plans and find out we were in a VR training simulation system.

"Nat barely had a bond with her then and that came later, when we got free. That was to help Dawn because she got flashes from that. They tried to screw her up hard to make her break and be only theirs. Lady Mnemosyne and Loki both worked on that shitpile they installed in her head. Neat things like we broke up because it'd put her in danger but I'd still attack her some day to make her my bitch." The actor shuddered. "And that was probably the nicest. They were going to make her kill me for training. She still gets flashes now and then but we worked how to get around it with sparring practice and things."

"You do spend a lot of time in the gym."

"I did before the Avengers thing got started. Being in SHIELD means you have a higher standard of badass to live up to. Plus there were a few times when Nat and I had something similar done to us. Sparring wears out those urges to handle things the easy way." He finished his beer and got them another round, paying for it. He put some money on the tab. "I need it. It's been one nightmare of a week." The waitress nodded, taking the extra money back to do that for him. Clint looked at him. "I don't mean to unload on you."

"No, I'm good. I can listen and I know that half the stuff you do most people would freak out at." He grinned. "I probably won't use it beyond playing you better."

Clint grinned. "For all I care, turn the non-classified things into a mushy love story sort of things. Dawn would coo about that."

"She does seem like the mushy sort."

"Yeah but she won't watch girl movies with Natasha unless there's guns or car chases." The actor laughed and nodded, sipping his new beer. "We were so screwed up back in those days."

"You three or you and Natasha?"

"Kinda both. Coulson and I helped Natasha heal from all that shit in her history, and helped her smooth out her remaining rough edges. She could pretend but couldn't handle it in her own life. She could totally sex people up for intel and then not understand why her date of the night wanted to make out. It took nearly five years for her to get to the point of 'I'm okay' in her own mind."

"It sounds like she fought it hard."

"Very hard." He sipped his beer. "Nat's a fighter but Dawn's ... Well, she's a pick up a bat and turn you into goo sort most of the time but now and then she'll subtly pick at a point until it unravels. She learned that from Xander too." He took another drink and put the beer down. "I adore the ladies of my future destruction."

"They are?"

"Yup. Some day, Nat'll kill me. She's promised if I'm ever that injured she'll come kill me nicely so I don't suffer. Dawn won't let her but she'd probably be able to get around Dawn. Maybe. Dawn's a lot sneaker than we think."

"How deep does the bond go?"

"Nat's got history with mental programming so they taught her how to shield her mind. Dawn told me there's lessons for that during her vacation in Miami. She and I had talked a few times around the office, which was after the whole training camp time, but she was basically Coulson's part time assistant until that vacation."

"The bikinis were hot," he agreed.

"Yeah but not just because of then. Thanos, the big purple guy, had a cult that was working on summoning him. They needed a virgin sacrifice with power."

"And she was," he said.

"Yeah. It wasn't just that she was way too busy for two normal teenagers. Nat and Coulson both said she was doing good in school, working full time with Stark and Pepper, then helping her mom each night. Coulson said there were plenty of nights he carried her up from the car to tuck her into her couch. Of course, he had no idea that Dawn had handled a few demons and others trying to take her back then but she did apparently." The actor winced. "People like that seem to be attracted to Dawn. That mostly ended after the battle in Sunnydale, though there were a few notable takings after that. Including the guy that started her on that sexy picture habit." He took another drink, shaking his head. "That was while we were in Brazil, after Romania and our time in North Dakota for healing. And Guatemala hiding from everyone."

"So you guys finally got yourselves free and then you went to North Dakota?" the actor asked. "Why?" he asked when Clint grinned and nodded.

"Cheap to live there, still within the US if something happened and the team needed us. Dawn could heal there. We could all heal there. The day we got free, I was thirty pounds under my usual weight. Nat was about twenty under. They had kept me and Dawn sedated through most of it and between the battle and that, Dawn was about ninety pounds soaking wet with rocks in her pockets. We told them she had PTSD due to something on the college campus we supposedly all came from. She went to work at a gym. Natasha helped the guy who ran the local motel with his billing and things. I worked at a hardware store.

"It was uncomplicated and defragging for us. Dawn got through most of the healing she needed to do and it strengthened our bond. We helped her get rid of most of those training memories. Loki showed up to help with Lethe water while Xander was still incorporeal. He didn't want Xander to get mad." He smirked. "He's always had a slight soft spot for Dawn. We finally figured out why thanks to Dawn and an apocalypse I had to go back and stop." He gulped that beer and got given another one. The waitress stared at him.

"I am not driving. At all. Even tomorrow." She smiled and made sure he'd be fine. He looked at his buddy again. "Back then, we all needed the uncomplicated defragging time," he said. "Dawn needed to learn how to push those back. She had a slight slip in there and went after the guy who had orchestrated it on the Romanian side. That's when we realized that Dawn had been pushing down awfully hard on those things. That's when we taught her how to spar and work through those urges."

"How did you three start all this? I can see you and Dawn. I can see her and Natasha at times, though she seems a bit...unwanting at times."

"Nat and I had been together for a bit before all that stuff at SHIELD. That's one reason why I recruited her instead of shooting her when ordered to. She didn't know who I was. They had messed in her memories again."

"So they got that right."

"The writers had copies of classified personnel files, dude. Someone who used to work for Stark hacked them." The actor winced, taking a sip of his beer. "But that cult to Thanos that wanted Dawn? We found out they wanted Dawn when Xander told us about Thanos, a few days before the end of her vacation. She showed up in a bikini that was highly indecent and they told her she had to fix that. She angsted for over a week with everyone putting in a lot of pressure. Including Fury's problems at the time. We got together when she picked me to fix that problem for her. I was about the only good choice since she couldn't do it impersonally and she couldn't do it in the clubs in Miami when she tried."

"Being a girl can be a bit frustrating," he agreed.

"Fury found that out when Dawn turned him into one and he had to break that same barrier to get switched back. He realized why it took a week." He grinned. "He had Dawn given rophies at an event Stark made her go to. We talked after that and the next night we decided was a good time since I had gotten us time off. It went well. Dawn was a little hellcat even back then. She told me she was taking stripper pole dancing lessons as a PE for her gym in high school. Had the pole." That got a grin and a new sip of beer. "She's not bad but she still can't do the spins and stuff. She has the upper arm strength but can't climb ropes either.

"She did okay and I taught her a lot over that day and a half. Then she got dosed with a renewal potion." The actor moaned and shuddered. "Oh, yeah. That made her eligible again. Things were going really bad. We had way too many problems with Thanos. Dawn was trying not to think about having to die during the battle. She was stressed. We were stressed. She was great stress relief but I ended up fixing that problem eight or nine times before it finally got taken from her." He finished that beer and took his next one to put beside him with a grin for the waitress. She left them alone again. "Then that attack in Amsterdam happened."

"The one with the giant robot?"

"Yeah. Led back to the same douchebags that had put a price on her head through the Russian mob to capture her before that battle. The council over the slayers were not decent humans by any means. They figured they'd get Dawn from the Russian mob after they made her *docile*." That got another shudder. "We saved her and she saved herself a few times before we ended most of that threat for good. Though they were sending her offers to work in their higher up places for a few more years. We found that out about when the church in Georgia started to happen."

He shuddered, looking at his near twin. "I so wanted to go destroy them for her. But... way back when, after that attack in Amsterdam, Xander took her to Asgard for a few days up there to work on her magical focus so she could access it better." That got a nod and the actor sipped his beer. "Dawn had a migraine from the magic she used during the battle. She had clenched her jaw so shut it wouldn't open at all. They got all that healed and they came back with dinner from Valhalla's kitchen. Mead, boar, veggies. They interrupted me curing Natasha's dosing with that potion...."

"Ow. Really?"

"They thought it might distract me so I'd be unhelping Dawn," he said dryly. "Anyway, she and Xander showed up with dinner. So the three of us, Tara, and Coulson piled into my room at HQ to have a quiet, calming down dinner. Loki had given Dawn a book that gave witches who asked answers. That's why Tara decided it was the right night to get pregnant. Apparently she was under some sort of vow that she'd never touch a man willingly but that got around that. She and Coulson were very delicate and barely got undressed as I remember on the floor at the foot of the bed. Coulson sent Dawn over to distract us so we wouldn't notice. Nat's always had an...interest in that direction and we were all tipsy so I suggested it to Nat, who pounced.

"It meant Dawn got used to other things. Nat likes things a bit rougher than Dawn does and hates to be teased. Well, she loves to be teased but she'll swear at you for it." He grinned. "We worked out well and it was casual until we got free. Then we spent five months in North Dakota healing and getting on each other's nerves. Dawn found out Nat's picky about cleaning things. The bedroom at the farmhouse was so cold Dawn preferred the couch and I took the little nook on the ceiling beams I set up. Nat usually joined me but now and then she got some Dawn time. We finally worked it out as we're together and it was good."

"Then you got busted at that one battle with the wannabe storm troopers," the actor said.

"Yup. Stark took us from work and brought us there."

"How?"

"The SGC has a beaming satellite. Stark took the plans for it, upgraded it so it was better, and instituted it for certain Stark personnel and emergencies." He grinned. "It's real handy at times. We like it a lot to get between the two labs."

"So you guys got home..."

"Found out it had been all over the news. We moved to Guatemala. Dawn found a rental house on a pretty lake that was probably meant to go to a drug lord. Nice house, huge house. Built in gym and things. Way to big for my tastes but the girls liked the pond so I put up with cutting back the jungle now and then. It meant Dawn could pull back out the bikinis. And did often, especially after I ended the drug dealer that lived on the other side of the lake. Who had been the father of a guy Dawn dated but he had tried to kidnap her so she went clubbing instead.

"Which was when we found out HYDRA had an interest in her. Right before we busted him in Miami on her vacation." He smiled. "Dawn's always been a flirty tease. Even back before all that in Miami she was a flirty tease. A perceptive one too. She said some really wise things about internal scars and some people may look like a creature but they weren't and things like that. That's when I found out there's shielding exercises." He smiled. "Dawn's one hell of a young woman back then. Hyper too." He gulped some of his beer.

"We were in Guatemala and Dawn was doing things we didn't know. She went to visit some of the nearby ruins and found an ancient portal that led to some lost tribes. Found it by accidentally tripping into it and they didn't kill her for it because they were scared of the magic stuff. We found that one out a few years later. We found out a few months after she had to deal with a few other thugs that thought she was pretty enough to force her to marry one of the top people in their cartel.

"They kidnaped her from the local market and had a priest on hand. Apparently she enforced her no with their weapons. So the priest was needed for different reasons. We had no idea about that at all. Even with us being in such contact that she'd accidentally broadcast through us if she was sick, we never found out a few things. Though I still like the guy in Brazil who had her kidnaped from right next to where we were sitting to force her to do sexy photographs. Dawn said he met his eventual wife the same way. We *really* needed a leash set for Dawn back then."

"I take it there were a number of those?"

"Oh yes. Way too many for my tastes. Used to drive Nat nuts enough that she actually nagged instead of chided subtly. That guy in Saudi from that family. A few drug lords and a few weapons dealers. Bad guys love Dawn."

"I guess you're dangerous enough for her?" he teased with a grin.

"Barely," he quipped back with a smile. "I make up for it in other ways. Including that I put up with her shopping habits."

"She's very fashionable."

"She is." He took a sip of his beer. "When we first got back to New York, we had an apartment building that she had talked to Stark about starting on her own but he had taken over the idea. Her bedroom had a wall of closets. And a tiny vanity area. We had normal closets in the rest of the building but hers was an entire wall. She had a clubbing clothes closet, a formal gown closet for all the stuff Pepper made her go to with them. She had a work suit closet. She had off-duty clothes closet. When we ended up merging the apartments, I kept most of mine upstairs and a few normal wear things down there in a closet Dawn cleared for me. Natasha didn't even try to fight and kept all hers downstairs in her own closets."

"I've heard a few people claim that Dawn has an outfit for any occasion."

"Yup, still. And she's teaching the girls and Philip that habit. Though I'm glad Philip's getting out of his kilt phase. I'm hoping Callia's recent attempt to drive her father to drink himself to death, with Liz's help, isn't going to spread. She taught Liz and Chris about Bollywood, since she had liked it a lot. Liz loves saris." He grinned. "Liz is the one who told Chris that boys needed to look pretty to be a Stark and them having a pretty dress was a *great* thing. Which spread to Philip when Sean took him to meet some goth kids he hung out with at college."

"So Chris used to wear Liz's dresses?"

"Whenever she suggested it. That made him pretty and girl like. He's the only guy in that family outside the adults. When Pepper's hormones started to bother her, he asked her to please give him a brother to even the odds out."

"I can see that need."

"Liz started on her 'Chris needs to be pretty' back when he was barely crawling. She'd go shopping with Mommy Pepper and sneak in a lace dress for Chris. Which then Steve found and tried to deal with but she always found it and helped him put it on. Stark went 'eeh, it's a phase' and dealt with it when it got noted. Steve flipped his wig." His buddy smiled and nodded he might too. "Steve's been slowly sliding back to 'why can't the girls dress like women did in my day' recently. Not sure why but it's gotten to the point where Dawn slugged him because he told her she was too flirty and turning Callia flirty. Apparently he didn't realize the whole point of bras was cleavage. And now that Callia has cleavage he's really upset that girls show those things a tiny bit. Tried to complain about all her clothes so Callia took them to Old Navy to show him what modern kids really wore and how slutty it could be. He had a fit about that and he's still complaining about things like showing her shape and her being more comfortable in a bikini bottom at the moment."

"I saw some of that in the news."

"Stark about kicked his ass over it."

"Huh." He sipped his beer. "So how deep does that bond go?"

"We've pulled Dawn out of coma-like states. We've held a number of relationship talks in there too. Because now and then Dawn will panic that we actually are humoring her or something and try to hide even more stuff. Which we hate. We handle it though." He took a sip of his beer. "Dawn's great about hiding stuff to this day, even with it. She hid that we were upsetting her horribly when she was pregnant with Lexi.

"We had no idea that she was seething at a few things until she basically snapped at us. Then my idiot brother's clone tried to get the kids so she decided we'd be breaking up by her going to New Zealand. That's how we found out about Dawn's emergency ID and her owning a few farms. And that her sexy photo habit had kept going." He took another sip. "She didn't say a word but Pepper snapped at us for it. I wasn't around for most of when she was carrying Philip so Nat and I were doing the first time parent stuff and cutting her out. I was a dumb fuck."

"Is there some favoritism still?"

"Some. Nat and I have history, and we have a bipolar sort of relationship. Nat's ... Nat likes to be on the outside more due to a lot of things. She likes to guard herself. Dawn likes to clamp on and ride it for all it's worth. I'm more inclined toward Dawn's style of relationship but my history with Nat makes me try to bring her in, which means a lot more attention to her. And Dawn never complained until it got to the point where she was being totally ignored. But we worked on that. We're back on better footing."

"So, Natasha likes to watch you two have your thing," he said with a smile. "While she's protecting herself."

"Not always. She treats Dawn like she's a very fattening treat anymore. She was raised in a time when women didn't like other women. It was something that got you locked up in a pretty hospital with the extra long jackets. They taught her it was only okay for the job when they took her in. So, she's comfy at home most of the time but she and Dawn don't interact as much because that's slightly come back out. Nat's a lot more happy to treat Dawn as a seriously fattening and deadly treat she sneaks. Then again, due to the *job* we're in the limelight and that's what started that off."

"Because that would get that old prejudice noted," he said.

Clint nodded. "Yup. Which is why she likes to watch us flirt in public but at home she'll curl up with Dawn. Not that they don't argue. Those two fight like bitches in heat at times. I'm usually stuck in the middle trying to calm it down. It gets really bad when the hormones get involved. During the pregnancy, Natasha was seriously down on Dawn reading 'frivolous' things like fantasy novels. I found some of them a bit meatier than some of the classic lit stuff Nat reads. I read mysteries mostly," he said with a shrug. "She learned to like mine but all that was pushing on her mood swings to push Dawn away. We worked that out after New Zealand too." He paused. "She said Lavelle had a farm there. She didn't really inherit much on what he did with the legit side of his business and she said that Lavelle had told her about it but they didn't really have time to talk during that convention she went to so she could talk to the potion making Xander." He considered it then smirked. "She lied about that to protect that other identity."

"Is that in case she wanted to leave? Or just for protection?"

"Probably a bit of both. There's plenty of times Dawn's like a mini Xander. He's real self-protective too because he's been hurt a lot over the centuries. Dawn's seen some of that. That and I think it was to help us disappear if we ever had to. We had no idea she had bought that house in Guatemala until over a year later. Or that she had a hidden apartment in Rio. Not until the nanite thing. New Zealand is her second one since we unmade her first one when things got rough in our real lives."

"Nanites?"

"Oh, so bad," Clint moaned, shaking his head. "Warren and a few others dosed Stark Tower with nanites to make them turn on Dawn and attack her for fussing over them. Some of them got into Dawn too. Stark went into a deep, dark well. So did Andrew and Jonathan, and McKay since he was there. We had to help her protect herself, and I listened the whole time while she was getting away from everyone. Then because she was infected, she flipped out when I came in to cure the guys. She left for Singapore and we had to track her down to help her. Which fragmented her mind a lot and nearly killed her. That's after we found out about the life-like robots and she was working against them at that time. Then someone made a wish and I got infected instead of everyone else so it was better that way."

"How many times has that been the answer to a problem?"

"Three I think. Maybe four. The nanites, the thing that was going to kill Dawn and us while she was pregnant with twins that turned into just Philip, the plane crash with Joyce and Bruce...."

"There was?"

Clint gulped some beer and nodded. "There were other situations going on at the same time. That was a happy coincidence we could solve at the same time. That's when she got stuff sent to her desk that sent her to the infirmary for weeks on end." He finished that beer in a few more swallows and got another one. The waitress gave him a pointed look. "I have a huge tolerance, dear. I always have. Raised in the circus does that to you." She snorted but handed one over. He put the mug down in reach then shrugged. "Dawn has almost no tolerance. She gets more flirty though."

"Huh." He sipped his own beer. "You guys have a weird yet really difficult relationship."

"It's not all problems or the girls nagging each other about the laundry and things." He got a pointed look. "Nat's...particular about the laundry and how you clean the house so we let her tell the housekeeper how to clean the house when we got one." He smiled. "Dawn and I aren't nearly as picky and Dawn will let the house turn into a wreck before she cleans it. Or did before the kids. No one's been able to let the house get that dirty since then."

"Kids do change things."

"Yeah, they do. I remember having long flirty nights with Dawn at the club. We don't get to do that as often anymore. The girls get kinda cranky when we go out for the night. No more sex on the couch. Or the kitchen table." He shook his head but was smiling. "It's usually great. It's special and it's hot and we adore it but now and then we do argue just like everyone else. We just argue over things like the people who steal Dawn or who want to steal the kids. Or over someone's past making them unable to deal with human beings for a while."

"I guess that makes it more normal. You hear things, ya know?"

"Oh, yes, we do know and throw a lot of fits if it isn't something we've let out."

"There's rumors that Dawn's had herself fixed so there's no more kids ever."

"Don't know. She did get the little clips put in to make sure it wouldn't happen soon but she might or might not. I'm leaving that totally up to her. Then again, we might adopt from the overcrowded system. Save a kid like me and Nat were." His buddy grinned at him for that. "We haven't even talked about it yet. We'd like to get the girls out of diapers and into school before we do talk about it. Or maybe not. Not sure what Dawn wants. Philip's a little Natasha half the time but flirty like his mother. Lexi's more like me and Mira's more like me if I was an academic like the ladies. Don't know how that happened though." His friend laughed and nodded. "Maybe the next one can be all like Dawn or Nat. Even if it's a boy. Just...not anytime soon. Diapers are hell."

"I'm sure I'll find that out."

"I heard. Congrats."

"It's...complicated."

Clint nodded. "Even normal things are complicated sometimes. Dawn has a real gift for making simple things complex but yet somehow better, usually."

"I guess she didn't have too much experience dating before you two, huh?"

"No, just a few here and there. And one we ran into who was trying to shoot Steve on a beach." That got a wince and a head shake and some beer drunk. "I don't know. The ladies are mine and I love them. Though there's days I'd like to spank them both. Nat would break my arm in multiple places and Dawn will tie me down and leave me there if I try it though."

"Dawn was quoted as saying she was the dangerous wife."

Clint nodded quickly. "Nat's dangerous. She's deadly. Dawn's...creative and just as deadly. She might just stab you. She might turn you into a tiny white mouse and let you live out a few years that way. Nat torturing you hurts, Dawn's ruins your mind."

"I heard something about white mice."

"I made her turn them into hedgehogs instead of white mice after they found the eighteen she had put into a storage room at Stark Tower and forgotten about."

"What were they doing?"

"Trying to take her. That was before she got pregnant."

"Oh, those people."

"Yup. Lots and lots of those people. The Stark guards at the time asked her to please keep it under a group meant to pull a carriage for Callia." His friend burst out laughing, shaking his head. "Yeah, that's why I made her change to hedgehogs."

"Damn."

"Some days." He grinned. "But if we are, most of the time it's a pleasurable damning."

"I saw that article where she said you were her personal sex god," he said with a grin.

Clint grinned a goofy grin. "It was pretty spectacular. Just there on the couch, cuddling, and then I started to explore and just gently used my fingertips over most of her body. We got higher and then she talked me into going a bit primal, then we went back to normal stuff to finish wearing ourselves out. I love that Dawn lets me be the possessive guy I am at times."

"We heard you dragged her out of a doctor's office."

"She thinks she's getting sagging breasts from breast feeding Philip and carrying both kids. No more than normal but she's a bit ...with the way the reporters stalk her and nag about her figure sometimes she's a bit not wanting to hear them nag about that at her age. She was going to get them tightened and I reminded her that we had put up an agreement between all three of us that we did not need plastic surgery for any reason. I told her she was trying to take my toys away and got her better bikini tops. She still fussed for weeks."

"She's nicely proportioned."

"She is." He smiled. "I love that she's not all muscles and flat lines. She's got curves and a bit of softness. It makes her more womanly. Nat's got some of that but she's a lot more angular and I don't want to put that down but it's easier to cuddle Dawn than Nat, even if Nat didn't hate to cuddle."

"A womanly woman is a great thing. A lot of women today aren't."

"No, and I don't think I'd mind. Dawn sometimes turns into this warrior bitch and that's okay with me. As long as we're not in the middle of an argument when she pulls it out. Natasha hates it. Claims it's not subtle and it draws too much attention to us. Then again, Dawn's subtle enough that we didn't realize she had to keep rescuing herself. Nat discounts a lot of that."

"Sounds like Natasha is maybe jealous?"

Clint nodded quickly. "A lot. Dawn has all that emotional stuff that Nat had to learn to repress and she lets it out. She encourages Nat to loosen up and let her hair down. Which isn't Nat's strong suit. Nat likes to have something to push at. Dawn will let you push at her until she reaches her line of 'I'll be damned' and then it's a fight. Nat pushes at me and I push back so she relaxes when that boundary's reaffirmed. Dawn doesn't really do that. Then again, Joyce was pretty normal and we weren't raised that way."

"Joyce and Dawn seem a lot alike."

"They are," Clint agreed. "Very alike. Grandma will bust someone's ass at work if she has to. Dawn has a few times with the geeks at Stark. Then she babies them, just like Joyce does."

"Grandma?"

"She said we could call her Mom but that felt a bit weird so when she became a grandmother with Philip, we decided that was okay. She enjoys it. Bruce sometimes enjoys being Grandpa instead of Bruce. He adores explaining things to the kids." He grinned. "He got to explain boys to Philip recently when he realized that circumcised kids look different. Philip found that out and locked himself in a closet in daycare to look at himself better. Called it quiet time." His buddy choked, shaking his head. "When Mommy Dawn caught him, she was not pleased. He wanted Grandpa so he got to explain it to him. Then I got the 'why do girls look different' question."

"Wow," he said, sipping his beer. "The kids are really smart."

"They're little smartasses. Philip still likes to moon people he's picking on. He mooned Mommy Nat the other day and got swatted for it. Dawn swatted her back for the spanking and stuck Philip in the corner. Then she reminded him he's only supposed to show that part of his body to others if he's in Playgirl or something."

"She did?"

"Philip has had a nudity problem in the past," Clint admitted. "Including laying with the cats naked. He used to meow at us too." That got a grin. "So Dawn started to tell him how he had to keep his clothes on unless he was doing something to get paid for it. It finally got through his head. Though, he didn't seem to mind when Chris told him how you didn't wear big boy undies under kilts. He told us later he thought that might be a bit nasty but Mommy had taught him how to clean himself up really well so it might be okay." His buddy choked again, moaning slightly. "Philip's kinda unique sometimes. And he hates to share. He is so much like Mommy Natasha at times." He sipped his beer.

"She doesn't like to share?"

"Nope."

"At all, like not even her shampoo?"

"Nope and you don't find too many assassins who would. It's a risk that someone could poison us using our shampoo or body wash. We all keep our own and Nat tends to lock hers up. Though that could be because her former trainers kinda subliminally programmed her and Dawn to dose each other with fertility meds that way, not real sure. Even before then she told Dawn how bad it was to share that stuff and how dangerous it was."

"So assassins don't share anything?"

"No. We don't let people hand us food usually, unless it's someone like the waitress and we're pretty well known to the bar. I wouldn't be letting the waitress bring the beer but I took a general antidote before I came out just in case. Dawn makes them taste a lot better than they should."

"I've heard rumors that she could poison people." Clint smiled and nodded. "She's very dangerous." Clint nodded again, even happier with that, then drank some more of his beer. He was finally starting to feel calmed down. He looked at his phone since it beeped. He answered Natasha back and put his phone back in his pocket. "Which wife?" the actor joked.

"Nat. She's wanting to fuss at the kids. Phil's a little diva when you first get him up. Natasha taught him Russian fairy tales so he calls her a mean evil queen most mornings. Dawn just gets yelled at until she glares back. Then he gets pouty. The girls are hating being woken up this morning too. I pointed out she could take the day off to play with the kids. She could use a day off. She'll probably send back that's not her idea of a fun day off."

"I figured you guys had some help."

"Beya. She's one of the ladies that used to run Valhalla's kitchen and is presently in Xander's temple kitchen. She went to Stark for Callia when his last one killed one of her pet mice. She's a great lady and she has a *lot* of patience. A lot more patience than I do. She'll stare down Philip until he gives in. I can't usually last more than five minutes."

"He's stubborn?"

"He's *so* stubborn. He's got all three of ours stubbornness combined at times." His phone rang. He looked at it and answered it. "Morning, son." He listened. "That's a good thing. Why are you up this early?" He smiled at his buddy, putting it on speaker. The kid was complaining loudly in Russian at his mother. "No, that's her job, Philip, and you'd hate to miss playing with Chris today, right?" That got a very loud huff and a snort. "Have Mommy Natasha put you in something that makes you feel nice."

"No, pretty!" Phil complained. "She wants me to be ugly, Daddy."

"You're never ugly even if you're wearing something hideous," he and Dawn said together.

"Is! Is icky and scratchy and yuck!"

Dawn sighed. "Philip, pick a shirt," she ordered. "Mommy Natasha can match the shirt with something. Not that one. It's too small again." That got another huff. "Here, try it." He did and whined when apparently it ripped. "See, told you it was too small. I was going to give that to Lexi and Mira."

"They do not need hand-me-downs."

"It was pretty and girls need pretty!" Philip said firmly. "Mommy, fix it?" he whined.

"I can do that. It's only a small hole. One of them can wear it for the next pictures." Philip cheered and bounced around by the noise since it sounded like he tripped. "That's why you need to put up most of your toys at night," Dawn said dryly. "Now, pick out a shirt. You have two minutes or you only get toast for breakfast and we don't have time for jelly on it."

"Ewww!" Clint and his friend both laughed. "Daddy!"

"You're the slow one this morning, kiddo. Hurry up and you can have jelly toast."

"Fine. Blue one?"

"I love your sense of style," Dawn said. She blew a kiss. "Tell Daddy to have a good day."

"Be good boy, Daddy. Not make Uncle Tony laughies at you. I kiss sissies for you." He hung up with a blown kiss.

Clint put his phone back up. "I love the kids. I didn't think I was going to but I adore them most of the time. At least until it's a pooping olympic medal run." He sipped more of his beer. "Crap, that means we have to clean out everyone's closets and go shopping. Dawn'll probably want to do hers too so I'll have to help."

"You help?"

"Yes! Otherwise she gets some really flirty stuff that drives me fucking nuts." He huffed. "Nothing too showy but by the time the tailor fixes it she's usually in the running for queen of dick teases. I need pictures and I don't have them."

"I saw her in that one sheet dress."

"So down on the scale. That was sexy and sultry, playful Dawn." He texted Stark, who was probably up by now in the lab. He got sent back a few pictures and the file from her modeling. "That's Dawn's past things. Stark said to wear the pink one and the black one was because her closet got slimed by a neighbor." He let him see.

The actor stared then shook his head quickly. "Wow. How old was she?"

"That's right before the battle in Sunnydale so eighteen."

"Wow." He saw the other file downloading. "Looks like you're getting work files."

"No, I'm getting Dawn's way of making herself feel sensual. That's her modeling stuff."

"I saw that museum exhibit. Damn!"

"We didn't know about that until then. She totally hid it from us. That's how she made herself feel sexy." He let him go over it, shaking his head at a few moans. "Go ahead, we all did." He grinned a mean little grin. "I so made Gamble swear about those. I only sent him and Benji a few but they *so* swore at me for it."

"Wow." He handed the phone back so Clint could put it back into his pocket, sipping his beer. "You're lucky."

"I am. I'm a lucky little bastard most of the time. Even when Natasha does yell at the kids." He looked up with a grimace, yelling at her. Dawn was yelling at her too. Natasha huffed but let it drop for now. "Nat really needs a spa day," he said, finding that and setting up her appointment for in the morning. He sent her that information. "There, that should help her bad mood." He put his phone back with a head shake and draining that glass of beer. The waitress gave him an odd look. He smiled. "American beer is really weak beer. You should taste the ales on Asgard, which are about twenty-five or so proof for the weak ones they feed the kids." She let him put more money on the tab and got him another beer, walking off shaking her head. "Thanks," he said more quietly.

"It's what was needed and I'm learning a lot." He smiled. "Some day maybe I'll find a girl like Dawn to drive me nuts."

Clint looked at him. "It's worth it, no matter how many times you have to kidnap her back or rescue her." That got a laugh. "Seriously! I've rescued Dawn a lot with Natasha and without her. Dawn does good at rescuing herself but she's always very happy for the help. Even when someone's just engaged her temper in a way that makes her glow and growl. Then she'll try to fuss over us for some reason instead of letting us fuss over her." He took a sip of his beer and smiled. "She switched me to nicer German beer. Thanks!" he called with a smile and a wave.

The actor shook his head with a grin. "That was nice of her." He smiled. "Dawn going to work?"

"Yup. Nat's going to spar with the trainees today. She'll be frustrated all day so we'll spar tonight in our gym with the kids cheering us on. We made them a little padded bench behind a see-through plexiglass shield so they could be safe and we'd hear them if they needed something huge while we sparred. Unless Beya wants them for a few hours."

"Do all the houses have gyms?"

"No. Not really. We spar in the backyard when we're in LA or North Dakota. The last one in LA someone had to tell the officers that we weren't having a fight, we were sparring. They were not amused at Gamble doing it, but he was staring in awe at us." Clint grinned. "Because we're great at it."

"I'm sure you are. How long do you spend in the gym?"

"Two hours on the weights and machines a day when I'm home, a pretty fast 5K run twice a week, then sparring three days a week against Nat or someone, plus two hours of team level sparring once a week."

"Wow."

Clint smiled. "It's being called being in Avengers shape. Dawn manages it and manages to still keep some curves and plushness, which we do like on her. Nat's all muscular and a bit feminine but Dawn's cuddly and feminine. Or as Natasha put it, Dawn's the real wife of the family." His buddy laughed, shaking his head. "She's good at it and doesn't mind." He felt someone brush across his neck and looked back. "Like I didn't hear you coming," he teased.

Dawn smiled and kissed him. "I figured you did. I can sneak up on Nat but not on you." She kissed him better with a smirk. "Pepper fell in the shower. Tony's declared the whole building has the day off so nothing takes time from his spoiling her for it. Everyone but the daycare and the infirmary."

"She hurt herself badly?" he asked, finishing that beer.

"Nope. Twisted her ankle a bit. Slipped on some conditioner that spit out." She grinned. "So I conveniently have the whole day off and an announcement." Clint blinked at her. "Tony *really* hates New York."

"Figured that."

"Tony's building the new New York head office for Stark upstate." Clint moaned. She nodded with a smile. "We're going to be in Ithaca."

"That's going to suck for our commute to work."

"Mom's moved all Avengers to either Avengers tower or the LA office. Including Stark and you and Nat." She slid onto his lap, perching on his knee. "So...... The team's taking a vote."

"LA," he said with a smile. "I love the LA house, even if I didn't buy it for you." She kissed him, nibbling on his lip. "Dawn," he moaned.

"That's what Tony wanted too. He missed his house."

"What about the reno he just did?"

"Chris is going to take over this tower. Callia's going to renovate the old mansion some year soon. So Chris'll have the penthouse, maybe with Liz or Maeve."

"That's going to be great. They have a plan to get easy dating areas."

Dawn smirked. "Tony's already laid down the law about Chris's future dating, which cracked Callia up, and Steve's sulking."

"Again?"

"Still."

"Bikinis?"

"More than. Came up again. Tony said he might want to stay here for a few weeks."

"Shit," Clint muttered. "Moody Stark then."

"Pepper mediated but yeah. So we're all going back to LA?"

"I guess we are. The house here?"

She considered it. "Want me to sell it?"

He shrugged but kissed her. "You bought it. Our name's not even on the deeds, Dawn."

She snuggled into his chest and kissed him. "Yours is." He stared at her. "They wouldn't allow me to put more than one name on it unless we're part of an ownership corporation. Hers is on the house in North Dakota."

"Sell it," he said. "If we need to come back here long term we can rent for a few months." She smiled and kissed him hard and fast, making him moan and grab her hips. "Damn," he said with an evil smirk. She winked. "That means more bikini time."

"It does, but also more dressed up time."

"Less protests and we can go out to dinner out there easier." She smiled. He spanked her, getting swatted back. "Go get pretty for me?" She leaned in to say something in his ear then nibbled. His moan was a bit loud and deep but if everyone else blushed he was good with that. "Let's get you back to the hotel."

"I can cab. This is only my second beer," he said with a smile. "You guys go have fun."

Dawn grinned. "The fangirls are outside. NYPD is not amused at them staring in awe at the bar." He smiled but shook his head. "C'mon, I'm driving." She got up. Clint looked at what she was wearing, then up at her with a grin. She smirked. "What?"

"You evil dick tease."

She leaned down to kiss him. "I always cure whatever problems I create for you, Clint." He growled. She smirked. "That's a sound I love. C'mon." She helped him up and smiled at the actor. "You're mostly on the way." He laughed but let her take him out to the SUV. He smiled and waved at the fangirls, who all squealed at him and Clint, who smiled and waved too. They got in and he grinned. Dawn smirked back. "They're previewing major clips of the newest movie at the next Avengers convention."

"I heard. We're having a panel."

Dawn smiled. "I know. I've already arranged Tony's part." She drove them off, dropping him off at his hotel so he could clean up and go to work later that day. She and Clint made it to the red light at the end of the block before Clint leaned over to kiss her hard and too long so they missed the green light and got a lot of honking.

The actor smiled, shaking his head as he walked inside. The people he was working with stared at him. "Dawn and Clint." That got a nod. More honking. He looked. Clint apparently needed to pounce Dawn a lot. "It's only six blocks to their house." He went to shower and get breakfast. He came down to tell them that news because they were working on one of the Avengers centric outside stories. He sat down at the table with his sandwich and tea. "Stark is moving the New York office to Ithaca. The towers will end up being Chris's headquarters."

The guy who played Stark smiled. "Why?"

"Probably got tired of all the shit. Dawn said he misses his house in Malibu." That got a smile. "Callia's going to take over their old mansion for her think tank."

"Awww." They looked at each other. Then at him. "Any other news?"

"I found out how Dawn and Clint actually met." He grinned and ate a bite.

"What happened?"

"Clint had a mind-ripping dream vision and it unsettled him that much."

"I guess it happens," they decided. "So they're moving the Avengers to LA?"

"Full time. Though there's some non-marital stress going on with the other trio." That got a shiver. "Apparently he's a bit mad that girls today are flirty."

"Yeah, that'd probably bother someone from his generation," the director said with a grin. "Their backup team?"

"Taking over out here probably." He shrugged and ate another bite. "Clint said Dawn's often stolen." They smiled and nodded at that. "And he likes to rescue her. Apparently they have fantastic sex. Oh, and Dawn has modeled more than that show in the museum. Clint said it's how she makes herself feel sexy. The portfolio? Damn!" The actors all smiled at that. His phone beeped and he looked at it. That same file was downloading but it was from Natasha's phone. It had her name listed. He smiled. "Why did you send me that, Natasha?" he muttered, accepting it. And the link. He had to blush. "Clint is the man." He let them see that file while the live link was in the background. Dawn and Clint in the parking garage. Dawn was loud. Clint was apparently into nibbling on Dawn's chest and throat. The actors all stared. He shrugged. "It said it came from Natasha's phone."

"Must be the On-Star camera," the director said. "Wow." He looked at the pictures and shivered. "Damn was right." Finally Clint's phone rang and he turned off the camera in the overhead light. It cut the feed as Dawn bit Clint on the throat. They all smiled at the phone. "Wow."

"I guess that's how they play and roll," the actor said with a grin. "Clint's clearly The Man of the Avengers." They all nodded and settled in to talk about the upcoming shooting schedule instead. Clint and Dawn were fascinating but they had other things they had to think about today. Even if Tony Stark had just flown past in his Iron Man suit to handle something. Or maybe he was making a run for Pepper. Who knew with the Avengers at times.

The End. End of Series.
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