When Laura asked for the divorce to run off with the family tax accountant, no one could have foreseen that the judge would give sole custody of the kids to Clint.

AKA, single dad Clint. For whatever reason...

So this is... Clint Barton: Single Dad and Clint Barton: Collector of Strays, persuading a young Natasha who's just joined SHIELD that she wants to be collected, with only a passing mention of Laura. Hope you enjoy! <3

Open House

When Natasha lands the jet in the middle of nowhere, Iowa, she seriously considers the possibility that this assignment is a joke. She double checks the GPS coordinates, but they match the ones she was given exactly. She hadn't thought that Nicholas Fury was the type, but she's heard of American hazing rituals and it’s the best explanation she can think of, because surely this isn't where the Director of SHIELD really expects her to meet the best data analyst in the business.

It's a farmhouse with an actual porch swing, like something out of a movie. There's an old car and a minivan parked by a barn. Random items litter the grass and the porch; a ball, a pair of child's shoes, a tricycle lying on its side. The front door is open and the noise escaping from inside sounds mostly like children.

"Have you seen my backpack?" someone shouts from upstairs - a young voice, male, just starting to break.

"Kitchen," a girl shouts back, overlapping with a man asking, "Do you have that form I had to sign?" and the wail of an annoyed small child. A dog barks. There’s a blast of music in a different part of the house followed by two other young people laughing, male and female. “Quentin!”someone complains.

Natasha considers walking away, but she's met contacts in stranger places. It's just they were exactly that: strange places. Not this… advertisement for the American family homestead.

She steps through the door and follows the sound of the man's voice, as he’s the occupant most likely to be her contact and most likely to pose the biggest threat, ending up in the doorway to the kitchen.

The man notices her immediately.

"Guest!" he calls out, continuing to spoon-feed a toddler sat in a highchair even as he alerts the rest of the house to her presence.

He looks to be in his late thirties or early forties, lines creasing the corners of his eyes and bracketing his mouth, wearing jeans and a purple t-shirt. He’s attractive for an older man, enough that if he were a mark she wouldn’t mind fucking him even though she’s been informed that’s ‘not a requirement’ in SHIELD, which she’s aware doesn’t mean that they won’t ask or expect it. He's unarmed, but his build and biceps, along with the awareness of his surroundings, are suspiciously better than average. That, along with the fact he doesn't seem at all surprised to see a stranger in a field suit with a gun holstered on each thigh appear in his house, makes her think that he might be her contact after all.

But then there are all the kids.

Continued on AO3 here

I don't really know what else to say that I haven't said on AO3 - except this was AMAZING!!! And here's what I said on AO3:

I loved every bit of this. From Natasha's Red Room flashbacks and plans; Clint having retired from field work to Big Picture analysis "from a distance" (presumably as a result of the custody order); the community of strays; the military precision of those breakfast and lunch bag arrangements; DAISY and KATE and AMERICA and WANDA (and the nerd I don't know yet but look forward to exploring).

Trust but verify.

The Buddha of broken people.

She wonders what a large family breakfast might be like, or living with kids who aren’t actively fighting to kill each other under orders, or how she might be introduced when Clint lists his collection of strays. (Unspoken: the prospect of living with kids who will be actively fighting without orders, because teenagers.)

Explorig normalcy (ok, relative normalcy) as an option.

... and my favourite theme: Choice

*squeezes fic* - and its mine all mine!!!! THANK YOU!!!! ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

PS And then there was the "what, Laura ran off with the tax accountant?? What?" and then I realize I'd actually written that into the prompt... HA. :P



Edited 2020-09-24 02:05 pm (UTC)

Aww, I didn't expect you to reply here as well as on AO3. I'm so glad you liked it <3