a/n: so here's how it works-sometimes there are prompts in avengers kink meme. there was also that one time when I opened my tumblr for prompts.

all ironhawk, because this ship needs more love.

these are all my attempts to fill those prompts with few-thousand-words ficlets, and if people like certain ones, I may continue them :) so unless stated otherwise, every chapter is an independent story with various permutations of clint and tony's relationship, sometimes canon, sometimes au, sometimes fluffy, sometimes sad; and always-all the feels.

hope you enjoy and feedbacks in any form are lovely!

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basic rocket science

prompt: clint is secretly a genius.

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It's not that Tony thinks Clint is stupid.

No, definitely not. Clint does archery and is a professional sniper, and anyone with one-tenth knowledge of either would know that shooting things is always 90% calculation and 10% of, well, actually shooting things. So no, Tony doesn't think Clint is stupid, not by any stretch of imagination.

It's just that, Tony wouldn't guess that Clint's a genius, either. In his defense, Tony's a prodigy, a genius before he's a billionaire playboy philanthropist, and Tony mastered Thermal Physics in one night so his standard for 'genius' may be a little bit too high. Clint may be smart for a regular fellow, but Tony is the genius one in the relationship. Not that there's anything wrong with that—they're equal in a lot of things, and Clint has better biceps and butts, so it's only fair for Tony to have the better brain, damn it.

(Also, it's not like he wants to have kinky, physics-themed sex. Okay, maybe he did remove that one off his bucket list when he started dating Clint, but hey, you can't have everything in life.)

So it's safe to say that he doesn't really expect much when he says he's going to teach Clint basic physics immediately after he finds out that Clint's childhood involved a lot more… circus and a lot less formal schooling than he expected.

"Look, Tony, I'm totally fine with it, okay?" Clint says as Tony rummages through his high school physics notes, clearly aiming for indignant but only comes across as shy. "I'm totally fine with never learning physics. I'm totally fine with not knowing—I don't know—E equals to mc square, or Newton's Third Law, or—"

"Don't," Tony hisses as he slams another stack of dusty notes on his workbench. "Continue that sentence and I might actually burst into tears."

"Are you trying to say that I'm stupid?"

"No, I just think that you," Tony pulls out the last stack from the cardboard box and pushes everything towards Clint's side, "are a poor, unenlightened soul."

Clint looks scandalized. "Because I didn't get to learn why the fucking apple falls from a tree."

Tony grins and gestures at the pile. "Yet."

"This is stupid," Clint mumbles, but he reaches for a paper anyways, because he knows Tony means well and Tony would never make fun of him when it matters, and the fact that Clint tells Tony all these things in the first place can only mean that Clint trusts him enough to and god, Tony is in love.

"What?" Clint asks, but Tony just ducks his head to hide his smile and pulls a metal chair to sit beside Clint instead.

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When Clint and Tony first got together, there was some skepticism, but mostly it was a general agreement that Things Could've Been Worse.

They could've been mortal enemies instead, Hill once theorized, and teambuilding sessions would've been a nightmare. There's only so much snark and sarcasm one can take in a lifetime, after all.

But the worse case scenario is the one proposed by Nick Fury, who had been so convinced that Tony would end up in Bruce's bed instead, and everyone knew Tony Stark is only one evil laugh away from being a mad scientist. Bruce, with his brain and brand of dark humor, would've definitely been a push in the mad-scientist way. Clint has his fair share of dark humor, but everyone, including Fury, assumes that he's lacking in the brain part. When Clint and Tony got together, the world was immediately branded Mad-Scientist-Stark-Free.

Fury should've known not to assume things.

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The physics crash course lasted longer than Tony expected, and that should've tipped him off. They are in a heated discussion about the Schrodinger's equation when JARVIS announces that it's already time for dinner.

"Huh," Tony says, because the last time he checked the clock said it was one in the afternoon. Which means that Clint has been studying for five hours, and that's the longest amount of time Clint has ever concentrated on something that isn't archery or sex.

"Huh," Clint says, because he's probably thinking the same thing Tony is thinking.

Tony wants to comment on that, but his stomach is growling, so they go out of the workshop instead, and no one brings it up again.

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It's weeks after that first physics crash course when everything comes into light.

There were a couple more crash courses after that, and Tony should've realized, really—the way Clint is learning really, really fast for someone who didn't even go to college, the way the time they spend on these courses gets longer and longer—but Tony doesn't notice anything out of the ordinary.

Not until today.

Tony and Bruce are working on a possible improvement for Natasha's protective gear and Clint is, as usual, lying around the sofa Tony put in the lab just for Clint (not that he'd admit that), and Tony is busy with an equation when he hears, "you missed an integral."

Both Bruce and Tony stop in their track.

"What?" Tony turns, only to see Clint pointing at one of the screens.

"You missed an integral there," Clint says, looking as confused as Tony and Bruce are. "I mean, just—look. That equation, the one at that corner screen, there should've been—ugh, that's what the squiggly lines are called, right? Integrals?"

"Uh, no offense, buddy, but do you even understand what's going on—holy shit."

Bruce takes off his glasses in alarm. "Tony?"

"He's right, Bruce, we missed an integral," Tony says, immediately tapping at the screens in record speed, "which would explain the anomaly in the second result, and of course we missed it because this was a delicate process and would've been unnoticeable if not—Jesus Christ."

There's a pause.

And then Tony quickly turns, strides across the lab in less than a dozen steps, and grabs Clint by the shoulders so hard Clint actually looks alarmed.

"Tony?" Clint tries.

Tony's grip on the shoulders only tightens. "You. IQ Test. Now."

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Assumption is a dangerous thing, because after knowing Clint's past, SHIELD simply assumed that Clint has average IQ, and Clint never sat for an IQ test.

Until today.

"JARVIS, pull up the file called 'bucket list' and add 'kinky, physics-themed sex' back into it again," is the first thing Tony says after the result comes up, because the hell if they're going to waste Clint's IQ of a hundred-fucking-seventy.

Clint simply smirks.

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