Someone wrote in [community profile] daredevilkink 2016-06-11 04:24 am (UTC)

Fill: Thorns for Flowers 3/4

Fill: Thorns for Flowers 3/4

Before kinkmeme I had not published anything since February of 2014. You guys are actually the best and I plan to de-anon and post on AO3.

Clint didn’t really need to use an arrow with a grappling line, of course. He could have rappelled down from the roof or taken the elevator. Given an excuse, though… the Hydra helicopter was sturdy enough to handle an arrow through the fuselage, and one of the captives was trying to squirm past the NYPD’s perimeter.

It didn’t hurt that there were a couple reporters embedded in the center of the squad of cruisers that caught him looking awesome zip-lining down from the roof, which was sturdy enough to serve as an anchor without more than fifty dollars of property damage. He was personally paying the hospital back later. Hawkeye managed to wink at one of the nicer reporters just before landing, detaching his bow from the line, and swinging it to tap the crawling Hydra agent on the calf all in one motion.

Natasha looked bored, of course, but if he hadn’t looked amazing she would have smirked at him.

When all of the would-be infiltrators were neatly packed in the back of the police cruisers, one per squad car, Clint and Natasha finished chatting with a few of the cops that were fans of the Avengers’ work and made their way back to the debriefing Cap was hosting over by the emergency department.

“Do we know what they were after yet?” Clint asked.

“Not yet. Bruce is on his way, Happy said they’re about five minutes out.” Tony’s voice had an edge to it that even hearing aids could pick up. Stark was still in the suit, which either meant that there was still a threat, he didn’t feel like talking to the press, or Pepper was too sleep-deprived already for him to spend much time with reporters. “They didn’t have time to finish cleaning up before Daredevil interrupted the show, there was some kind of blue… goop,” Tony finished.

The corner of Natasha’s mouth twitched at the clear distaste in Tony’s voice. “Goop, hm?”

“I am a genius, Rushman, but even I have my limits,” Tony retorted. “Besides, this is some kind of gooey Hydra biology experiment, this is all kinds of Bruce’s work.”

The entire team had been happy to keep Bruce well back from the main action. His control was good, now, but having the Hulk loose in a civilian hospital with no special reinforcement to the floors or ceilings… Bruce Banner would take charge of analyzing whatever they had been brewing down in the basement and help look over records to see if any patients in the hospital had been given the wrong medications.

The communicator clicked in their ears again.

Natasha took a sharp turn to her left and stepped into a women’s single-stall restroom. She beckoned Clint in after her after a moment.

Clint let the door close behind him. “Any new threats?”

“Daredevil wasn’t in the stairwell of the ICU when he started moving. He was near the central hub surrounded by an unholy assortment of beeping and alarm chimes,” Tony said. His voice was the closest to a whisper Clint had ever heard out of the man. “I mean, sure, the guy always has his ears on, but he just happens to overhear that Hydra is hitting a hospital and then realizes that the bodybuilder in the white coat is actually working for Hydra? Right after Hydra’s day went south and one of the techs knew that ‘large amounts of blue nonsense’ wasn’t on formulary.”

Clint supposed that he couldn’t really make the claim that Daredevil wasn’t Hydra, not after so many of his hypothetically trustworthy colleagues hadn’t deserved trust, but he just couldn’t see it. Daredevil had an open invitation to spend time with the Avengers off-duty. “He told me that his hearing is good.”

“Possibly. It’s still a bit tidy.” Natasha checked the clips on her pistols and the charge levels for her wrist-tasers that Stark had made more dangerous because Stark was a terrible enabler. “Keep an eye on him, Tony.”

“Will do. Cap thinks I’m still in trouble for that magazine article last week, which is completely false. Pepper forwarded me a link to the article with a smiley-face,” Tony said proudly. “Hammer’s on the PR department’s hit list, insult at will.”

“We’ll keep our eyes open,” Clint promised.

The comms clicked back to open channel. Clint left the ladies’ room and ignored Natasha snickering at him.

Natasha managed to sneak them into the back of a large crowd of people. Cap was talking to a short woman in a red dress and black suit jacket. Beyond Cap’s costume and shield, her outfit stood out amidst a sea of pale blue scrubs and rumpled white coats.

“Chief medical officer,” Natasha said quietly. “Dr. Smith was the one talking with Cap on the phone earlier.”

The pair shook hands, both looking pleased. One of the white-coated doctors blurted out a request for a group picture. Daredevil frowned, of course, but he was keeping away from the crowd and didn’t seem to like people. He wasn’t known for press conferences or sneaking in visits to children’s hospitals.

Natasha chivvied Clint toward the back of the crowd before slipping over to snag Daredevil by the elbow. He startled, badly, and pulled a reflexive hit. Natasha rolled her eyes at the jumpy vigilante. She’d rolled her eyes at Clint for years until he got used to her. “C’mon, picture,” she said. “We saved the day and didn’t break the building, this is the best time to get a little publicity.”

Daredevil conceded, which was the only actual option when Natasha had that grip on his arm. She tugged him over to a not-ideal place, probably to appease to his secrecy complex. The short man in scrubs that had offered to take the picture probably wouldn’t see much of Daredevil past Cap’s shoulders.

Natasha slid into the group on the chief medical officer’s other side, leaving Clint standing behind the doctor. Clint knew that having the hospital’s big boss fully flanked by superheroes was just the kind of press that everybody wanted. Cap jokingly held out his shield and Dr. Smith grabbed it with a broad smile, holding the strap loosely in her hand and mentioning she expected it to be heavier.

Daredevil frowned, again, and had his head cocked at an odd angle that was not going to be flattering in a picture. Who knew, maybe part of hiding his identity was tilting his head over all the time.

The tall doctor that had proposed a picture had nearly tripped over himself when the photographer told him that he’d fit in right next to Cap. He settled his hands in his pockets and fidgeted. The man was flushed, like most people who ended up that close to Cap, but managed a small smile.

Clint saw Daredevil’s posture shift just before the vigilante moved.

“Down!” Daredevil bellowed, actually leaping over Dr. Smith’s head and whipping the shield away from her even as he tackled the tall doctor. Natasha had both her handguns drawn before the two men hit the ground, but Daredevil didn’t pull back to punch the doctor. Clint saw a red-gloved hand snag something out of the doctor’s pocket before he rolled away, stopping with the shield pressed down against the ground beneath the curl of Daredevil’s body.

“Get down,” Cap roared. That left the civilians scrambling back while Natasha trained both guns on the doctor Daredevil had downed.

Something underneath Cap’s shield exploded. The combination of the explosion, the ringing of the vibranium, and the screaming of the crowd left Clint’s ears ringing and his hearing aids screeching with feedback. For once, however, Daredevil was facing straight toward Clint as he pointed roughly toward the nurse who had taken the photograph. “The photographer. He’s Hydra!”

Clint had the photographer down on the ground two seconds later. The guy had been trying to dart back into the crowd as a whole and hadn’t heard Daredevil either. Well, that or Clint’s hand-to-hand was actually impressive when he wasn’t sparring against Cap or Natasha.

From the gun in a holster on the man’s back, Clint knew the man was at least up to something no good, Hydra or not. He turned to Daredevil to ask what the tell had been, now that Clint’s hearing had returned to normal levels, but the man did not look good. Daredevil had gotten off of the shield, but he was crouched in a way that didn’t speak to feeling steady.

“Daredevil?” Clint asked.

The man didn’t react. For a man who maybe had superhuman hearing, that was concerning.

Cap had edged close enough to nudge his shield. There wasn’t a crater beneath it, which Clint would have expected, but there was some kind of sticky blue substance. “I’ll let Bruce handle that, too,” Cap said with a grimace. “We should seal off this room to be sure. Good work, Daredevil.”

Daredevil still wasn’t moving. Clint leaned up, keeping his knee on the maybe-Hydra jerk’s back. “Cap, I think Daredevil’s hearing isn’t back online yet. He was literally on top of the blast.”

Tony clunked up behind Clint. “I’ve got this loser, Hawkeye. Happy’s got a van outside the main doors, get Daredevil back to the Tower.”

Clint deliberately made his way over to Daredevil. The man still wasn’t tracking visually, but he seemed to realize that someone was in range.

Slowly, Daredevil formed one of their hand-signs. It was only a rough approximation, but it was one of the three signals he had managed during their last meeting. Friend?

Clint made the sign for ‘confirmed’ before bumping his hand against Daredevil’s. Daredevil mapped Clint’s hand with light touches, drawing back after finding the shape of the sign. The vigilante was angling his head down, mostly toward their joined hands, but as always his eyes weren’t aimed quite where they should be.

Hawkeye really needed to give the blind guy a little more credit for trying to accommodate his partially-deaf teammate.

Post a comment in response:

If you don't have an account you can create one now.
No Subject Icon Selected
More info about formatting