Clint and Natasha have retired from active duty. Maybe they have desk jobs, maybe they run a bar frequented by agents, maybe they've been hired by the private sector or they do another job entirely.

Then the world is threatened.

Suddenly Steve and Tony are at their door, asking if they want to suit up with the Avengers once more.

I substituted Bruce for the sake of imagery! Hope that's okay.

Title: Retirement on a Hero's Budget
Rating: Teen and up (some cursing)
Word Count: 1547

There hasn’t been a plume of smoke in the skies overhead in nearly seven days. A record for a fire season that’s started out this dry and the sort of thing that makes the surrounding towns happy. Too bad it makes for cranky fire teams. The big one is coming. Clint can feel it in his bones.

It’s a wonder Natasha hasn’t been in here complaining about not having anything to do. And by do, she means fight. And by anything, she means fires. She’s taken to fighting fires like a duck takes to water... if a duck enjoys carrying a fifty pound pack up and down a mountain in a hundred degree weather. The only problem about Natasha liking to fight fires is that she doesn’t like waiting around for them. In their old life, there was always a crime being committed. It was just a matter of finding it.

Fire is different. It’s deceptive and vindictive and oh, so patient. A lightning strike up one of these mountains could burn down all the trees in a matter of hours or it might take it days. The flames might leap up into the air for all to see or smolder under a bed of dead needles. Sometimes, it can be fought with water; other times it needs retardant spewed from a helicopter.

Clint loved the challenge of figuring out what kind of beast they were up against. He loved the charts and maps and incomplete data that he was always having to sift through. It was just like staking out a target when he was shooting a bow. The better his information, the better his shot.

“Why Idaho?” Pepper had asked, the only one of the group to finally voice something that sounded like opposition to the plan. They’d only known that he was going into an alternate line of work, not that he was considering this a retirement. “We’ve got a fire crew here in the building. There’re fire crews all over the city. The state, even. You could be-”

But he’d only shook his head. “They’ve got mountains there. It’s hard to fall off a mountain."

More here at AO3 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/902818)

Love this! Perfectly in character for Clint and Natasha to take on jobs as hot shots as retirement.

And of course Natasha's first words to him after the doctor's assessment are “We’ve got choices to make.” Her assurance that they're still partners. Later, his needing to call her first, and Steve and Bruce knowing it.

... scale of one to “oh, shit, we’re all going to die” -- LOL

Any chance you're going to give us the story of the Alaska fires? ;)

Thank you!

I'm half-afraid to say yeah or nay to the continuation but it will go on my list of things that need to be written! It is a shame to come up with the idea of fire bugs and then not use it substantially!

Title: Don't shoot the messengers
Rating: Teen and up
Word count: 2288

*

You might be surprised by what you see, Fury had said, but Tony didn't expect to walk in on an epic fight between two screaming toddlers. Yet that was exactly what he and Steve faced when they went to talk to Barton and Romanoff after four and a half years of not seeing them.

“Come on in,” Romanoff said when she opened the door and Tony was barely able to look at her before she disappeared into the house. She didn't look surprised, which meant that Fury's call probably preceded them. She did look tired and somehow wrong – actually this entire setup didn't feel very right. Tony looked at Steve, who was of course worried and went inside the relatively small house.

And inside was a sight to behold.

“Nicky hit me, daddy!” the first boy yelled.

“No, I didn't! You hit me first!” the second yelled back just as loudly.

There was Barton, standing between two brats who looked identical and were probably about four years old. Tony could do math quite well and concluded that Hawkeye – Black Widow retirement probably corresponded to finding out she was pregnant. If the boys looked like their father (it was rather obvious, Tony thought with a sigh), they could pull the same kind of rage their mother could. Barton had his hands full. Or rather, he had to use his body and all four limbs to separate his sons.


Read more at AO3 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/903538)

So adorable!

Oh, thank you very much! I wanted just that :)

Yes, this is adorable!

Tony's POV is an excellent way to tell the story, and packs a punch with lines like It looked domestic, in such an unreal, ordinary way, that it made Tony do a double take. He had an uneasy feeling about it all, and pushed the thoughts of his parent's impeccable, perfectly polished, empty kitchen out of his mind. And about his nannies and their singing to him.

LOVED the discussion about Natasha being badass even out of the catsuit!

I hope to see more with these kids :)