Early in their partnership, Natasha discovers that Clint is an avid reader.

I LOVE IT.

“There’s only one,” Barton says with an apologetic smile, in answer to her question about a bathroom. “Up the stairs, to your left. Ignore the mess in my room.”

He points above him and it’s only when she heads to the stairs that she notices the room completely open out; the bedroom and bathroom on a mezzanine that gives the front room ceilings two storeys high.

It’s a very Barton apartment, for all that she’s known Barton only about two months.

Natasha takes the stairs two at a time, fully intending to ignore absolutely everything that isn’t the bathroom – she has no desire to see where Barton sleeps, or so she tells herself – but that only works up until she’s faces with the absolute tragedy that is Clint Barton’s bedroom. Or… no. There’s a method, somehow.

It takes her a moment to realise that what she’s seeing is not, in fact, garbage that looks as if it’s blown in off the street. They’re… they’re books. Thousands of them, in the most terrible condition she’s ever seen. Books with the covers missing, books tied together with string because the spines aren’t just cracked, they’re broken, dog-eared books, water damaged books, fucking… bloodstained books.

Natasha stares at them in shock.

They’re piled up against the wall, almost to the ceiling, with not a bookshelf in sight. And the piles teeter, almost fall over, do fall over. There’re piles on the bedside table, piles under the bed. She gingerly pulls back the (very purple) cover of his bed, almost without realising she’s doing it, to fine books in his bed. The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith. It’s missing its back cover and its spine is cracked in at least three places. Next to it lies Moral Combat by Michael Burleigh and The Oxford Handbook of the History of Nationalism. She turns to the books piles on the table; Danubia by Simon Winder, Machiavelli’s The Prince, This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein and… Natasha almost touches it to make sure she’s not imagining it, Carol by Patricia Highsmith. There are Andy McNabbs behind the bedside table, one with a hole in it that makes it look like it was used to stop a bullet. Or maybe Barton used it for archery practice. That’s definitely what Natasha would use Andy McNabb books for.

And there’s The Lord of the Rings. And there’re all seven Harry Potter books. The Master and Margarita, The Defence of the Realm, piles of journal articles about psychology and warfare, about Middle Eastern archaeology, about post-colonial Africa.

“You haven’t fallen into the toilet have you?” Barton calls from downstairs where he’s making the coffee he promised. Natasha starts and calls back a hasty, “No!”

She’d never thought Barton was stupid, you don’t get to be as good at Barton by being stupid, but there are different kinds of clever. Barton’s a tactician and has people-smarts. He must be good at geometry and maths, most snipers are, to a greater or lesser degree.

She finds piles of tatty Arthur Conn Doyles piled up next to the toilet.

But this, this points towards someone who’s been told his whole life that he’s stupid. This points towards someone with curiosity and drive. This points towards someone who wants, always always, to be better; better informed, better prepared, better read.

This points towards someone who needs bookshelves, badly.

Natasha gently touches the cover of A Study in Scarlet and smiles to herself. Clint Barton just became a whole lot more interesting.

Edited 2016-08-22 12:24 pm (UTC)

I've always loved Smart!Clint. Very nice. <3

SO DO I. <3

Ooooooooooh! This is fabulous. And I imagine them as something he's taken in the field and so they get to be a mess but he doesn't care.

That is EXACTLY what as happened. He cares way more about the content than the condition of the books, so people only give him books, they don't lend him books.

I LOVE THIS. Especially Clint reading a lot of non-fiction, I always imagined him reading that.

My headcanon is non-fiction and classic sci-fi. And I don't even know why classic sci-fi because I don't like it...

Reading Clint has always been one of my head canons -- day-long stakeouts, what's an archer to do? There's only so much sudoku a single person can stand!

This was lovely! For some reason I picture Merlin's study in "The Sword in the Stone"...



Edited 2016-08-25 10:41 pm (UTC)

That is pretty close actually...

Oh my, I freaking love this :D I mean, YAY BOOKS, but the description of all of their them, their state, his room, what it says...

This points towards someone who wants, always always, to be better; better informed, better prepared, better read.

This points towards someone who needs bookshelves, badly.

<3

Yay! <3