NEW STORY MAN!

So, I was studying for 'Fluid Mechanics and Fluid Behaviour Analysis', right? And I thought, "Fuck this, why the hell did I choose Engineering!? Why don't I go join a circus! But man, that would probably be difficult as fuck too.."

And this idea popped into my head..

For those who requested, and there were a few man, I will get to your stories after my exams! Just need something to ramble on with so I don't go insane studying about why water flows over weirs the way it does!

Enjoy!

DISCLAIMER; DON'T OWN ANYTHING OF MARVEL'S! JUST PLAYING WITH THEIR CHARACTERS INSTEAD OF STUDYING LIKE THE GOOD LITTLE PROCRASTINATING MARVEL FAN GIRL I AM!

"I'm telling ya, man. If you put the motor there instead, it would make enough room for the Noz then the thing would work!"

"Oh, and what would you know?"

"I know more than you think I do!"

"That's right, you might also know how to make balloon animals, I don't know!"

Harsh.

Tony was never quiet about how much enjoyment he got out of the fact Clint used to be in the circus. It amounted to alot of teasing, alot of jokes, and alot of Natasha having to hit Tony across the head for upsetting her boyfriend.

Today, was no different.

The archer had wandered into the billionaires lab to let him know himself and Natasha were going to get dinner if he wanted to put an order in. He found Tony blinding and cursing under the hood of one of his race cars and was automatically curious, so he went over and took a peek to see him struggling to find a place for a Noz cylinder he wanted to install, most parts of the car taken out to find space.

"You watch your mouth, Stark." Clint growled, standing up straight from his hunched position over the engine to glare at the man next to him. "One more snappy comment like that and you won't be walking for a week."

"Yeah, right." Stark laughed, standing up and going over to wipe his hands on a cloth. "What, gonna get Romanoff to do your dirty work again?"

"Where do you think she learned most of her tricks?" Clint countered, his glare shooting dangerous daggers now.

He was used to people putting him down, used to this attitude of 'All he does is shoot arrows, nothing special. Next candidate please.' people seem to have about him.

It seemed to be especially prevalent with the billionaire since Clint's been on the sidelines. A building collapsing on him kind of fucked his body up for the past few months. His leg was only healed enough in the past two weeks for him to ditch the crutches. So, they had to be without a sharpshooter for a while. He offered Kate's services, but she seemed to rather stay back when Avengers went on missions to look after Clint. Nat's idea, no doubt.

Tony had been specially horrible to him the past month or so. The mission Tony came home with a bullet in his arm from a straggler apparently that would usually be Clint's job to take out. Ill feelings existed towards the archer from the billionaire, and nothing he did or said would make them go away.

"Didn't know she knew clown tricks. Juggling or fire breathing?" Tony responded with an 'impressed' face, throwing his towel at Clint then before going back to the car. "Just get out of here, carny. This is a mechanics job. An engineers job. Y'know, an actual hard working qualification?"

"And what, my skills weren't gotten through hard work?" Clint pretty much yelled, losing his cool at that insinuation.

Stark smirked to himself and shrugged, loving how worked up the archer was getting.

It's true; he wasn't happy at all with how much the team was suffering without Clint there. Not on Clint's part, he can't help it. But it's because it appears that he's the one they need the most, the guy with no powers or suit, the guy who fires arrows every now-and-again being missing made every mission a little more difficult to handle and Tony hated that. If anything, he always thought he'd be the one to be missed most.

"You said it, not me!" Stark laughed, finally fitting the motor in the place he wanted, not where Hawkeye wanted. He stood up properly and looked to Clint, his killer eyes were on him.

For some reason, Tony felt happy about this. Since the building collapse, since that heart stopping moment they all thought they lost the archer, Clint had been pretty out of it. Pain pills did alot of that, sure, but once he heard that he'd be sidelined for months on end, it just seemed to Tony that the kid lost all his fight.

Seeing the fire back in his eyes, even if directed at Stark, gave the billionaire a grin.

"Guys, we can hear you two from upstairs." Both Clint and Tony looked to the door of the lab to see Natasha standing there, Steve standing just behind her, both looking pretty confused at the shouting. "Relax."

"He started it, Tash." Clint growled, pointing an accusing finger at Tony.

"Go for a walk, Clint." Steve said, knowing that getting worked up wasn't the answer. They were all just a little frustrated with eachother, Clint more so than anyone. "Calm down. We'll go training later."

"He needs to learn his place." Clint said with a shake of his head, causing Tony to roll his eyes and turn his back to the man he was fighting with.

"Jesus, you're annoying Barton. No wonder your wife left you."

Everyone froze at Tony's comment, even the man himself.

Well, shit.. Nice life you had, Stark! Good way to go!

That was still an iffy subject. Even if Barton was in a new relationship, bringing up the wife and divorce was a big no no.

But, Tony wasn't thinking. And the words just tumbled out because it was the only thing he knew would hurt the guy, and in a fight, isn't that the whole point?

But, he knew he just flew over a line and couldn't even see it anymore. So, he turned back around to the archer.

"Man, I'm sorry, that jus-"

He couldn't finish the apology, there was a hand around his throat pinning him to the wall before he could.

"Clint!" Natasha yelled, but Barton wasn't paying attention. He was too busy glaring at the man he held in his hand.

"Care to repeat that? Hmm? Hearing's not quite what it used to be." He growled. Tony's eyes went a little wide, he really did cross a line. He never heard the guy this mad before.

"Clint, I didn't mean it, rea-"

"Oh, but you did!" Clint laughed, increasing the pressure on the man's throat to shut him up. "Go on, say it. I'm nothing but a carny freak, a trickshot, a failure as an Avenger and as a husband. Go on, I know you think that!"

There was going to be no reasoning his way out of this situation, so, instead, Tony resorted to his favourite tactic; attack.

He held a hand out and, before Barton could react, the hand section of his armour was on. Barton had a pretty strong hold on his throat, so he had to get him off or he was going to black out. The grip around his throat was loosening though as Clint realised what was about to happen, but he was a little too slow.

Near point blank range was gonna hurt like a bitch! But Tony took aim at the archers chest and fired anyway, sending Clint backwards towards the glass wall, smashing right through it.

Neither seemed fazed, both men too caught up in adrenaline, so while Tony was still coughing and spluttering, and Clint had a nice giant fresh burn on his chest and glass embedded in his skull, both jumped to their feet and went for eachother again.

"Enough!" Steve yelled, running over to hold back Tony, his arms hooked around Steve's to stop him moving. Natasha was doing the same to Clint, but both men just continued to glare at eachother.

"You really think my life is so easy, Stark!?" Clint yelled, trying to get out of Natasha's grip.

The smirk Tony sent him just made him all the angrier. That ass really did think Clint just had a simple life.

"You wouldn't have lasted a week in the circus!" Clint growled, shrugging Natasha off finally.

"Oh, and you'd so last an hour in an Engineering course!"

"Oh, poor me, growing up loved and cared for and actually getting the chance to go to college!" Clint mocked in a sarcastic tone, his hand going to the back of his head where he was sure he was bleeding.

"Hey, you got to fuck off and raise a family, sounds like a nice normal life! Not my fault you fucked that up like everything else." Tony replied with a shrug, holding his hands up in a 'just saying' kind of way when Steve gave him a warning 'Tony.'.

"No, Steve, it's fine." Clint growled, turning then to leave. "Have my fucking life if you think it's so easy, see if I give a shit. Don't say I didn't warn you!"

"Clint." Natasha called after the archer, chasing him up the stairs when he ran off.

Tony just loosened out the muscles in his back before taking off the glove of armour, not fazed by the encounter at all which had Steve gob-smacked.

"He needed to be told those things. Walking around the place like he's better than all of us." Tony sighed, bringing his armour back to the rest of the pile.

"You and I both know none of that was the truth." Steve said with a frown, trying to figure out in his mind where the hell Tony was getting all of this from.

"Wasn't it, though?" Tony replied with an eyebrow raised, grabbing a bottle of water he had on the desk to take a gulp. "Think about it, Cap. All he did was run to a circus when he was younger, and we have to treat him like some sort of hero?"

"All I did was submit myself to a science experiment. All Thor did was be born. All Banner did was get in an accident. All you did was build a suit." Steve replied with an eyebrow raised, failing entirely to see Tony's point here. "He's the only one of us who chose to be a hero."

"Doesn't give him the right to come in and act like he knows everything." Tony shrugged, not feeling bad about anything except the wife comment. The kid shouldn't have tried one up him on a mechanical issue.

Steve sighed and went over to a filing cabinet in the corner of the lab, pulling out Barton's file before flipping through it. "You don't know much about him, do you?"

Tony was about to ask what he meant but the file was placed infront of him on one of the benches and a finger was pointing to some tests scores on the page.

"Top marks across the board. Psychological, physical, tactical, general theory, language, and yes, mechanical and engineering skills aswell. SHIELD need people who know how to fix gear in the field. Kid knows what he's talking about."

For once, Tony was lost for words. Looks like Barton knows more than he ever let on, and now Stark was made out to be a fool infront of his team.

"He knows everything. But never acts like it. Maybe you should learn to do the same."

Steve spoke as he walked towards the door, he didn't care about Tony right now. He had a much more injured team mate upstairs somewhere, both mentally and physically.

"I should apologise, huh?" Steve heard being said quietly, and he looked over his shoulder to see Stark looking at the file with a frown.

He simply shook his head and started up the stairs.

"You've already done enough. Just leave him alone."

"How's he doing?"

"Won't open the door."

He could hear the exchange between Steve and Natasha through the bathroom door, but he didn't care right now. He knew they meant well, but he wanted to be alone.

He had his shirt off and was trying his best to clean the nice burn his team mate had just given him, difficult with his hands shaking so much.

Just a bad day, Barton..

That's all..

He didn't mean any of it..

He sighed to himself and supported himself by holding either side of the sink, watching the face staring back at him in the mirror. If Tony thought his life was easy in the circus, he was dead wrong.. The scars criss-crossing his body, the grooves in his fingers from hours of torturous training, the nightmares that haunt him each night and flashbacks each day, they'd all tell the billionaire just how horrifying his time in that place was, and how each little reminder the guy brought up killed his soul a little.

Just a bad day..

Just a bad year..

"I had a talk with him." Steve said behind the door, as Clint sunk down to sit against the sink, his bad leg instinctively pulled up close to his chest.

"Wouldn't have been talking I'd have done.." He had to laugh softly at Natasha's reply. He loved how protective of him she was. Especially with the whole divorce thing.

Each member of the team had been threatened with castration from the Widow if anyone brought it up. Clint didn't know about this until about a month ago when Steve let it slip that that's why no one asked anymore.

"It's why I'm glad you followed Barton. I didn't want to have to hide a body." Steve laughed back, and another knock came after.

"Come on, soldier. Let us patch you up then you can lock yourself away again."

Damn, he hated how they all knew now that a commanding voice got him to do pretty much anything..

That little cat left the bag when Pepper was trying to get him to clean the living room. Still on his crutches, and in a sling, so she was joking as she moved around cleaning up after them all. But the words "Clinton Barton you clean this mess yourself." were said in such a commander sort of way that, while the others were laughing at her joke scolding, he just simply jumped up from his half-dead, pain killer induced state, and cleaned the whole room and half the kitchen before Natasha came in and ordered him to rest.

Pre-conditioning was a horrible method of torture..

Now they used it as a joke, he sometimes found it funny alright, other times he found it pretty shitty that they were using part of his PTSD to make him do things.

It's fine.. He uses Tony's as a joke all the time.

'A guy flew into a space worm hole' had recently become one of his favourite jokes.

This time it definitely was fine though, because they were worried about him so they had to order him around.

He reached up from his spot on the floor and unlocked the door, Steve opening it a moment later. Both he and Natasha frowned at the sight, Steve coming in to help the archer off the floor and back to his room while Natasha went to get a first aid kit from her room.

"Next time; don't hold him against a wall." Steve said with an amused smile as he eased Clint onto the edge of the bed, and Clint gave him a slight smile in return.

"Next time; it's an arrow to the balls." He laughed in reply, and Steve nodded with a face that screamed 'That'd work alright!'.

Steve never seemed to scold him. The guy just understood people, understood why these things happen, and never questioned people unless they're in the wrong. That's how Clint knew he was never in the wrong.

Now, dealing with Natasha, on the other hand..

"Easy!" Clint hissed when Natasha smacked the back of his head, going to kneel behind him then to see if there was actually any glass stuck back there.

"No more picking fights, you idiot. You're injured enough." She growled, and he had to nod.

"Yes ma'am.." He replied quietly, sending Steve a 'Say something, I DARE you to.' look when the captain laughed.

They let Clint get lost in his own little world as they worked, Steve cleaning the burn up and Natasha picking the glass from his mess of hair.

They knew how all that stuff Stark said got to him. Everyone did, including Tony, which is why he did it.

This wasn't just a little squabble, this was a guy purposely trying to hurt Clint every way he knew how.

"Pepper and I can go get the dinner." Steve said when he was finished, snapping Clint from his thoughts. His chest was now nice, clean, and wrapped. The man was a wizard, no pain or anything. He learned some good skills in WW2. No pain relief in the field back then, so they had to be gentle or lose men to the shock of pain. "You two relax here."

"Thanks Steve." Natasha replied, Clint could tell she was smiling.

The Captain left with a nod, closing the door behind him softly.

Clint sighed a little and ran a hand over his face, smiling a little when Natasha started to gently massage his shoulders.

"Don't listen to him, ok?" She whispered in his ear, her hands managing to relax his shoulders from all the knots that had built up there over the past hour. "He never knows what he's talking about."

True..

Tony grew up sheltered, got things handed to him. He was put through the finest education, given a multi-billion dollar company to run. Became Iron Man and was now an Avenger.

Clint grew up battered, got handed things alright. He was put through horrible children homes, given the chance at being a circus star. Became a master archer and was now an Avenger.

Stark may tease all he likes, but he was no more a hero than Clint was.

He turned his head to smile at Natasha, giving her a soft kiss as a thanks. They never needed words for that, sometimes not even actions, just a look would work for letting each other know how grateful they were.

He fell back onto the bed and sighed softly, pulling Natasha close just to relax for a while, her hand gently resting on his chest as he closed his eyes.

Yes, there were stark differences between their upbringings, but they were in the exact same place now.

Your past doesn't define you.

Your present, your here and right now, that's what defines you. Just keep thinking about that.

Right now, he was an Avenger, a hero, and that's all that matters.

A/N Yes, Tony is a little mean.. But I like asshole Tony, he's fun to write! And he just had a bit of a meltdown, I can relate when something doesn't work, and yeah, hope you enjoyed! Next chap. soon I guess!