You Can't Call It That!

Gossip Killer.

At first he pretended he couldn’t hear them.

He was half around the corner, several feet away from where they were standing next to the water cooler, of all places. Far enough away that he was only getting snippets of their conversation. Far enough away that they probably hadn’t realized that the figure twenty paces down the hall waiting for the elevator, wasn’t just a secretary, or a nameless agent.

They probably hadn’t realized that he was one of the last people they’d want overhearing their conversation.

Which, at that moment, was going a little something like this.

 “…what they’re saying, but I don’t believe a word of it. He’s Hawkeye for fucks sake. He’s had all the training there is, and has more experience than anyone, except maybe Widow.  And he was compromised within seconds?! I say bullshit– it’s a cover.  He turned, and when his side lost, he came crawling back on his belly. Like any SHIELD agent could be brainwashed within seconds like that.”

Taking a deep breath, and loosening the clench of his jaw, their unintended eavesdropper leant back against the wall, reining in his temper and stopping himself from step in.

Because really, it’ll be much better in the long run if Clint never knew he’d heard this.

They could avoid the awkward silences, the not-quite-embarrassment, the angry defensiveness.

The ‘I’m telling you I don’t deserve this. But I know that you think I actually think I might. Maybe I do’.

“I don’t care whether he was brainwashed or not. If he wasn’t, then he’s an evil fuck who needs to be locked down, and if he was…well, who’s to say he’s recovered? Or won’t be affected again. A man in his position, compromised? He got a lot of good people killed that day, and…what if he’s a sleeper, or- ”

They’d all known that the archer would likely receive some flak for the role he’d played in Loki’s attack, willingly or not, but from how this conversation was playing out behind him? The venom and vitriol in the tone, the depth of thought that had gone into the theorising. The assumptions and baseless accusations from people who hadn’t been in any way involved?

This wasn’t the first time these two had discussed this, and likely they weren’t the only ones.

Clint was an adult. A super spy. Perfectly capable of standing up for himself.

“I don’t want anything to do with him. I mean, The Avengers? Do they know they have either a weak-willed, mentally disturbed man, or an evil egomaniac backing a team of the world’s most iconic hero’s? Protecting Captain America’s back, for fucks sake. I mean, yeah he’s a superhuman and all, but a bullet to the head would kill him just as dead. And then there’s the humans on the team. Widow at least has-”.

Clint was also his friend.

Water cooler gossip for the next week would basically just be about why sharing negative opinions of Clint Barton, was a terrible idea, especially when Tony Fucking Stark was standing twenty feet away.

“Do you know what that man did for you? DO YOU?! He fought giant space invading ALIENS, with a fucking Bow and Arrow! That MAN, that human, made of flesh and blood! Not a god, or a superhuman, or a man with a suit of flying armour! He’d have died to save you! And you stupid fucking sacks of shit want to drag him down and destroy him! Why?! Because he was mind-controlled? Not brainwashed or hypnotised– MIND-CONTROLLED, by a GOD, from another UNIVERSE- with fucking MAGIC!! FUCK! I hate Magic!”

And then he’d stormed back down the corridor, smashed the call button for the elevator, and left.

Silence had reigned for several minutes, and then the two gone their separate directions, slinking off down the corridor.