WHO:Clint & Tony WHEN: (backdated) Late June WHERE: Beach WHAT: Tony's got toys for Clint to try out WARNINGS: Nada STATUS: Complete
Tony sent a cryptic message to Clint. Bring the dog, bring your bow, come alone. Then he gathered his supplies and headed to that dog-friendly beach where Clint liked to take Lucky. It was a beautiful day--not too hot, not too breezy. The conditions were actually quite perfect to try out the new inventions Tony’d put together. Of course, they were much better in the Dreams, but in this world he made do.
So Tony stood on the sand, hands in his pockets, staring out at the waves. He had his sunglasses on, and the bags of supplies were sitting nearby. There were a couple of dogs about a quarter mile down the beach, but other than that he was alone as he waited for Clint to arrive.
Cryptic messages from Stark were… Okay, they were kind of usual, Clint was sort of used to it, if he were honest. At least Stark wasn’t asking for food. It was the ‘bring your dog’ but not his wife thing that was confusing at least.
Either way, Clint had nothing better to do and Kate was working, so why not? Lucky loved the beach anyway, so he was having a whale of a time chasing the waves as they crashed up the shore, and Clint just wandered along until he spotted Stark, not acting shady at all. “You know, anyone else reading my texts would worry about the sketchy dude I was meeting with my dog and bow. Y’really gotta work on that, dude.”
It wasn’t that Tony didn’t want Kate there. Actually, he wouldn’t really have cared if the other Hawkeye joined them--Tony thought she was a pretty good kid, all things told. But it would have lost some of the momentum if Tony hadn’t added the come alone line. It was about style, Clint. Style.
Tony frowned just slightly at that. His eyes were still out over the water instead of turning to his friend when Clint approached. He finally turned. “Who else would be reading your texts?”
“Have you met Natasha?” Snooper that she was. But he hadn’t been at work, wasn’t hanging out with Widow, so it wasn’t actually a big deal either way.
Lucky bound up to Tony, barking happily with his tail wagging, he didn’t care why they were there, he just loved the beach. His attention was quickly rerouted to the ocean off he went to chase some waves. “You’re not dying or anything, right?” Clint came to stop beside Tony, making sure that Lucky didn’t go too far into the ocean.
“Because then I’d have expected to meet at a bar.”
“Touche.” But hey, Tony was now imagining Natasha reading Clint’s text messages from Tony and getting a kick out of it. She’d smirk in that half-smile smirk thing she did so well, and roll her eyes at Tony’s shenanigans.
The dog came up and sniffed at him, and Tony raised an eyebrow. Then he reached a hand down to pat the dog’s head. It wasn’t that Tony didn’t like Lucky--Lucky was a great dog--Tony was just not all that into animals to begin with. Lucky went running off in his dog fashion and Tony turned the look to Clint.
“If I was dying… why would I ask you to bring your bow?” Tony drew a couple of the boomerang arrows he was designing from behind his back to offer to Clint.
Natasha rolled her eyes at everyone, it was her signature expression, it was the half-smirk that meant you knew she was doing it almost affectionately.
“I dunno, maybe you want me---” he was about to end that with ‘to put you outta your misery’, with a nudge and a hopefully not too serious mood set, but then Tony whipped out the arrow and Clint’s attention was officially narrowed.
“Dude,” most of Clint’s arrows were from the dreams, his quiver had come almost fully packed with trick arrows that he’d designed with Stark or Pym of his dream world, or the few he’d managed to engineer and graft himself. “You made me a boomerang arrow?” He was well aware that he got a lot of shit from his team mates over several arrow heads.
The putty one came to mind most often, since he’d stuck Steve with that numerous times. The boomerang one tended to just get exasperated sighs from people. Deadpool seemed to be the only one who got that. At least until it was shown in practice and then it was respected.
“Man, I could kiss you. Again.” He didn’t though, testing the weight of the arrow in his hand, grinning like a kid at Christmas.
“I didn’t think it was a great idea,” Tony said, breaking into a smirk. But he’d done it anyway, so what did that tell you about great ideas? Maybe he thought it was a fantastic idea. At least, it was a place to start. “But I thought you’d like it.”
And the smirk turned into a laugh. “I don’t think your wife would like us locking lips again. But hey, if that’s the payment you want to give me…” Not that Tony would expect or even enjoy being kissed again by Clint.
“Hey, you wanna give it a try?” Tony asked, motioning to the arrows in Clint’s hand. “Maybe I should come up with a tennis ball one. For Lucky.” Though, maybe that sort of thing already existed. Tony didn’t know.
Boomerang Arrows were the best idea, hands down. Clint was ridiculous about his arrows, they were pretty much his pride and joy, he devised a lot of them himself as a kid, just hadn’t been able to really get into the trick arrow design until Tony and Hank started lending their expertise. Twirling the arrow between his fingers, Clint considered Tony’s boredom and the fabrication of arrows. He wasn’t one to complain though.
“No offence, but facial hair doesn’t really work for me.” Mistletoe kissing aside, it wasn’t rightly time for the repeat.
“I think that’s just called a tennis ball, Tony, I throw it, he chases it, and we repeat.” He really didn’t think anyone at the dog park would appreciate him shooting near their dogs. Although he wasn’t about to not test out the boomerang arrow now.
“Mmm. That’s a shame. It’s not going anywhere.” Tony lifted a hand to run over his moustache and goatee. It was iconic, his facial hair. At least, he thought so. Tony was one of those guys who understood his own fame, and relished it. Even if his hair wasn’t iconic, he would say it just because. Maybe it would grow to be so, considering who he was.
“Right, right.” Tony didn’t know much about animals, because he didn’t have any. He didn’t really have time for them. He couldn’t even keep houseplants alive. “All right, give it a go.” he added, motioning once more to the bow in Clint’s hands.
“Our love is just not meant to be,” Clint gave a long sigh, almost hamming it up with a dramatic gesture but opted instead to just roll his eyes.
But that wasn’t what they were here for, Clint was testing out boomerang arrows, because apparently even Tony couldn’t help himself. With a check of the weight and balance of the arrow, making a point in finding some space that wouldn’t result in some kind of law suit for injury by arrowhead, Clint picked somewhere to fire and drew the arrow.
Lucky seemed just as excited, barking and plopping over to watch while Clint released and let the boomerang arrow go, keeping course until it started to swerve and then, “Aw man, it’s getting the angle.” It curved and circled until it was heading back in their direction, keeping on course like a proper boomerang and Clint just grinned like an idiot.
Tony was incredibly interested in how the boomerang thing was going to work. He'd tweaked and tweaked, trying to get the weight right, the balance right… and then Clint let ‘er fly, and it was amazing. It did exactly what it was supposed to do.
“Well then,” Tony was grinning a proud, smug, bastard of a grin, “that went just as expected.”
Clint rolled his eyes as the boomerang arrow curved back, losing a bit of the climb before skimming the water and resting on the incoming waves. Lucky seemed quite happy to treat it like a tennis ball or stick, leaping into the water to grab it between his teeth and trot back towards Clint and Tony.
“Tony’s full of shit, isn’t he?” Bending down to take the arrow from Lucky, giving him a scratch behind the ears and laughing, “But we don’t mind, do we? Cause he’s still makin’ toys.” Lucky barked, as if in agreement, just making Clint laugh again.
Yeah, definitely full of shit, but in a good way.
“I’ve been told,” Tony was addressing the dog now, instead of Clint--though he was careful to make sure that his friend could see his whole face, his lips especially, “that’s the reason my eyes are brown.”
As much as Tony liked the dog, Lucky had just been and/or near in the salty waves. There was sand covering him, too--and Tony wasn’t a big fan of wet dog. The smell was repulsive. But he could still treat the dog as a nice dog. Just without the touching. And hopefully without the shaking and spraying.
“So, you like it?” Tony asked. “I should make a dozen more? Think the little woman wants some for her collection, too?”
By this point they were all full of some kind of shit, Tony just bullshitted better than some. “Dude, definitely, I mean, you can’t not have boomerangs man. They’re a must have.” Even if Clint got those looks, the ones where no one understood just how his mind worked when it came to arrows.
But then, Nat gave him shit about the putty arrows, right up until they saved a mission and then no shit was given. So yeah, “Kate’ll love ‘em.” Maybe, and if not, Clint would just add them to his quiver.
“Sounds like a yes to me.” Tony smirked over at his friend. “And a thank you.” He drew his phone from his pocket and tapped the glass screen with his thumb.
“Yes, Mister Stark?” The voice of Jarvis 2.0 came out of the device. (Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly? It sounded an awful lot like the real-life Jarvis they all knew and loved once upon a time.)
“Remind me to make a dozen more of the boomerang arrows when I get back to the lab.” Tony said, watching the dog running on the beach.
“Of course.” The voice chimed.
Then Tony clicked the screen off and slid the thing back into his pocket. “Well, you have fun now. Say hello to Kate for me.” Job finished, Tony turned to head back to his car, figuring that Clint wanted some time to play with his new toy and his dog.
Lucky was already darting back off towards the water when Tony began his retreat, and Clint figured since they were there it only made sense to play around for a while. “Thanks Stark!” It was sort of yelled as he left, but Clint would probably be a little better about being appreciative when he was done playing around.