Inell's Fanfiction Archive

It’s impossible to get the lips right. Steve’s already reached a wall when it came to capturing the expression he wants in the eyes, but now he’s getting frustrated trying to sketch the way Clint’s mouth looked when he was kicking out during the Lindy Hop. It’s a memory that Steve wants to commit to paper. Most of his sketches are random things he works on when he’s trying to decompress or relax, but there are some things he draws because he wants to remember them. He has memories of the old days, of Bucky and Peggy and Howard and the rest, but he still regrets that his sketch book hadn’t crashed with him. He knows it probably wouldn’t have survived like he had, yet it’s the thing he misses most besides the people themselves.

With a low groan, Steve puts the pencil against the table and leans his head back. He can see Clint in his head, he just can’t get that onto the paper. He focuses more on the memory, paying particular attention to the lips and the way they quirk slightly to the left when Clint’s amused. His fingers start to twitch as he concentrates, which means he has to pick up the pencil and try again. This time, he manages to get the lips right. When he finishes, he lightly drags his thumb over the sketch to get the shading right.

“America’s Captain! I hear the melodious sounds of King Elvis.”

Steve isn’t startled, too much, when Thor’s loud voice suddenly disturbs his focus on the sketch. He quickly closes the book and looks up, arching a brow when he sees Thor dressed for going out. Thor rarely bothers to wear shoes unless he’s leaving the tower, so he’s either coming home or leaving. “King Elvis?”

“Yes! Brother Clint enjoys him very much. I do not understand what a Jailhouse Rock is, but the tune is memorable.” Thor grins and Steve can’t not see the vision of him as a muppet. Damn Clint for putting that into his head.

“I think it’s an action, not a thing.” Steve notices Thor grin slide into a smirk and realizes there’s definitely some merit to Clint’s belief that Thor’s often just messing with them. The current song playing is Can’t Help Falling In Love, which fit his mood and provided a calming soundtrack to the sketch. Now, he’s a little embarrassed that he’s got it playing on repeat. “JARVIS, you can pause the playback.”

“Of course, Captain.”

“So, have you been out?” Steve asks, not entirely sure what to say when Thor simply stands there smiling at him.

“No. Brother Clint and I are going to buy supplies for our culinary desires. The Man of Iron is coming, too. Clint said I should invite you to come along. Will you come with us, America’s Captain?”

“Tony’s going shopping?” Steve isn’t sure that Tony’s ever gone shopping since they’ve all lived together. The thought of him and Thor in a store together tells him exactly why Clint made sure to include him. He’s going to need help babysitting. “Sure. I can do that. And, please, call me Steve.”

“It will be an adventure, Steve!” Thor slings his arm around the back of Steve’s neck as they leave the room. “Clint has told me that it is different here than when I shop with my beloved Jane. He also said that you will explain to me about a budget and how I will have to follow that during this quest.”

Steve is going to kill Clint. That’s all there is to it. And Clint knows it because he’s smiling this smug smile when they join him and Tony in the lobby. He’s just had to spend the entire elevator ride trying to explain about budgets and spending to a man who can’t comprehend limits to money despite not having any sort of income outside of what S.H.I.E.L.D. pays them.

“Glad you could join us, Steve.” Clint winks at him when he glares and silently promises retribution, which distracts him from the plans to plot revenge.

“Captain! Damn, I owe Legolas a hundred bucks. I told him you wouldn’t want to come with us.” Tony doesn’t look all that disappointed as he bounces back on his heels.

“Tony’s never been grocery shopping before,” Clint says, stepping beside Steve as they leave the building. He lowers his voice. “He also needs a diversion because Pepper had to unexpectedly fly out to a meeting in London. She asked if I could entertain him until she gets back tomorrow night.”

“And you thought shopping for groceries was the way to go?” Steve watches Thor and Tony walk ahead of them. They’re talking about something that requires big hand gestures that almost hit several passerby in the head, not that that means anything. It could be anything from favorite cookies to the meaning of life.

“It’s Manhattan. You know we’re going to have to go to about four or five places to get everything, so there won’t be enough time for his attention to wander too much.” Clint shrugs. “Besides, everything we bought the other day seems to have disappeared.”

“It’s only been three days.” Steve shakes his head. “You can tell we’ve had a full house. I don’t see where it all goes, though, when delivery is the food of choice for most of them.”

“Nope. That was before a certain captain started cooking delicious stuff all the time. Now, people wait to see if you’re cooking, and I’ve even caught Bruce using the oven the other night.” Clint smiles. “You’re a good influence, Steve Rogers. Much to the ire of delivery people in our neighborhood. I bet they’ll start an anti-blog or something.”

Steve snorts and ducks his head as he grins. “You’re an idiot,” he mutters. “You’re the only one who has stopped eating delivery constantly, and that’s mostly because I make you help me with dinner.”

“You don’t make me. I do it because I enjoy it.” Clint nudges him with his arm. “Besides, it’s fun and there are usually leftovers. When Thor isn’t visiting, at least. Speaking of, it looks like I need to run interference. Tony’s got that ‘I’m causing trouble ha-ha’ smile on his face. You want him or Thor?”

“You.” Steve looks up and makes a face. “But since I can’t choose you or neither, I’ll go with Tony. Thor is playing us half the time, I’ve realized, and that is disconcerting. Yes, you were right about that, so no ‘I told you so’ like a bratty child.”

“I’d rather have you, too,” Clint says, leaning in close and lowering his voice. “Just don’t tell the others because I can’t handle Tony in a competitive mood or muppet-faced Thor right now. By the way, remind me that we’re going to have to plan some payback against Bruce. I found out that he had Thor watch “Babe”, so now I’m being lectured about eating that poor friendly pig every time I even think about bacon.”

Steve barely stifles his laugh. “I did warn you to be alert for retribution after the Hulk and box of Twinkies incident the other day.”

“C’mon. How was I to know that Hulk liked smashing them, not eating them?” Clint laughs as he speeds up to fall beside Thor, who he easily distracts from whatever Tony’s trying to provoke him with this time.

When Tony sees that he’s lost Thor’s attention, he stops walking and waits for Steve to catch up. “Robin Hood interrupted a really good story,” he says. “I didn’t even get to the part about the goat, the Swedish twins, and Rhodey losing his pants.”

“I thought you said it was a good story?” Steve keeps his expression neutral when Tony gives him a suspicious look. He’s learned over the months that it’s easy to be a little sarcastic with Tony as long as he looks serious. Clint’s actually instigated a few conversations back at the tower just to hear Steve ‘get his snark on’, as he calls it, and to see if Tony ever catches on to what he’s actually saying instead of just how he’s saying it.

“It’s a great story. Even better when Rhodey’s around to threaten me if I tell it.” Tony grins. “Not that I’m scared of him. The only ones who actually scare me are Natasha and Clint. Spy assassins are a lot deadlier than military men. If either of them wants to kill us? We’d just go to sleep and never wake up.”

“They’re not going to kill us. Well, you might have to worry more than the rest of us.” Steve isn’t always sure how Tony’s mind works, since he can be such a genius sometimes yet so random at other times. “Besides, Clint isn’t that scary.”

Tony snorts. “Nah, of course you don’t think so, but he’s deadly, Cap. Don’t let those pretty eyes and sheepish smile fool you. You know how smart he is when it comes to planning and fighting or else you wouldn’t have made him your back-up.”

“I’m not fooled, and his appointment as second in command was a mutual decision between Fury and all of us,” Steve reminds him. It isn’t like Tony wanted the responsibility, since he’d been the one to suggest Clint in the first place not even a few hours after that first battle had been over. “We’re all deadly, so it’s fortunate that we’re a team.”

“Being family isn’t automatic loyalty or security.” Tony frowns as they follow Thor and Clint into the cheese shop that’s the only one around with Natasha’s favorite kind. Before Steve can even reply, Tony suddenly smiles. “But that’s the family you’re born with, not the family you choose. We’ve all had the fucked up childhoods, I think, so it’s only fair that we now get to see what the fuss is really all about it.”

Steve watches Tony start poking and touching everything within sight. Clint slaps his hands a few times in between answering questions that Thor is asking. He should probably step forward and help because Tony and Thor together is a little like dealing with curious toddlers, but he’s content to stay out of the way and just watch. Clint handles the men well, and Steve knows without a doubt that he’s already cased the place to determine every exit and risk to them. Tony’s right. Clint is deadly, especially when they’re on a mission, and it’s that intensity and skill that first caught his attention. It’s the whole package, though, that gets Steve all confused and feeling things he’s never really felt before.

When they finally check out, Tony’s handing two bags to Thor and rejoining Steve. “I can’t believe there’s an entire store with nothing but cheese! I always just get this stuff delivered, so I had no idea. Do you think there’s a store with nothing but olives? Pepper loves olives.”

“I don’t know.” Steve doesn’t bother to think about it because Tony’s already got his phone out searching the internet for olive stores. He feels a hand on his bicep and turns to see Clint walking past him. He reaches out to squeeze his shoulder, smiling when Clint grins at him. When he drops his hand, he glances back over to see Tony staring at him. “Did you find one?”

“Hmm?” Tony blinks slowly and his gaze moves quickly from Steve to the others and back again. “Yes. It’s a store with nothing but pickles and olives. I want to go later. Natasha likes those nasty sour pickles so we can get her a barrel or two while we’re there.”

Steve isn’t sure how Tony knows what type of pickles Natasha likes, but he’s supportive of anything that might put her in a good mood. It’s been a couple of weeks since that awkward moment in the gym, and he’s still a little uncomfortable around her because he still doesn’t really understand what happened. She’s been doing some stuff for Fury, at least, so she hasn’t been clinging to Clint so much and, when she’s been around, she hasn’t been glaring at him as often, either.

“I bet you a hundred bucks that Thor starts crying if we see any dead pigs at the butcher shop,” Tony says. “I told Bruce that “Babe” was a bad choice, but he wouldn’t listen to me. I mean, I’m all for avenging the Twinkie Incident, I still can’t get sticky whatever that stuff is in those things out of the wall, but not if it involves bacon. Clint told me he actually found Thor petting a package of the stuff muttering about ‘that’ll do, pig’. Thor’s already slightly unstable, so Bruce shouldn’t be contributing to that even more. He isn’t my favorite right now.”

“You just want me to accept a sucker’s bet so you don’t have to pay Clint out of pocket for this morning’s bet. Also, I think we might need an intervention because you’re betting a lot lately.” Steve puts his hands in the pockets of his jeans and shrugs a shoulder. “When we get home, I’ll try to clean that stain off the wall. There’s no need for retaliation or anything. Clint thought Hulk liked eating them, not, uh, smashing them.”

“Hulk likes to smash everything.” Tony is smirking when Steve glances at him. “And there’s no need to clean the wall. That’s what housecleaning services are for. I’ll be sure to let Clint know that you were willing, though.” He waggles his eyebrows and leers before suddenly stumbling forward. Steve moves quickly and catches him before he can fall. “Damn sidewalk. The city needs to take better care of these streets.”

“I think they do as well as they can,” Steve says. He sees Tony roll his eyes and pull out his phone again. “You know, it’s not easy to keep the maintenance up in a city with this many people. They’re hard working people who are limited by their budget and time.”

A clicking noise stops his lecture, and he sees Tony lowering his phone from where he’d been aiming at the back of Thor and Clint. “What? Clint’s ass is looking mighty fine in those jeans. That twitter account devoted to it will be all over this photo.” Tony grins before snapping another one. “Don’t give me that disappointed look, Rogers. There are thousands of people out there who can only admire it via the sneaky photos that I so generously post for them. You can’t be selfish and keep that amazing thing all to yourself.”

They arrive at the butcher shop before Steve can ask Tony what he means about selfishness and keeping anything to himself. Tony just winks and gives him another leer before following Thor inside. Clint is waiting for him, giving him a curious look and slight smile, so Steve shakes his head and returns the smile as he enters the store ahead of him. This time, they can let Tony deal with Thor while they buy some stuff for dinner the next few nights.