6. Rescued 6

Their first night all together as a family was awkward. Donut was not happy about the dogs; the dogs were very curious about the cat; and Clint just wanted a goddamn minute of sleep. Donut like sleeping next to Clint, but every time she got settled in the curl behind his knees, Bucky would creep up onto the bed and freak her out, which would start Stevie and Dum Dum barking. By three a.m., Clint was close to tears.

At dawn, five minutes into sleep, Clint was woken up by the dogs whining to go out. That was the first moment that Clint actually processed the fact that "out" was 43 floors down and several blocks away. Groaning, he rolled out of bed. Donut was glaring at him accusingly, which he could not really blame her for, and decided that at least if he took the dogs for a walk then she would get some sleep.

He got as far as the first block.

"Steve?" Clint yelled desperately into his phone while the dogs tried to trip him with their leashes. Again.

"Tell me what the problem is. I can have everyone assembled in ten minutes," Steve answered crisply.

"No! No, it's not that. Nothing serious. I'm trying to walk the damn dogs and I need some CRAP!" Clint spun and did a half flip to escape certain death as Dum Dum ran in circles, twisting his leash around Clint's ankles. The few commuters on the sidewalk gave him a wide berth.

"Clint?"

"I need help walking the damn dogs. Get down here!"

"On my way," Steve said and hung up. Less than two minutes later, he walked out of the tower looking clean and immaculate in his jeans and sweatshirt, the first rays of dawn creating a halo of perfection around his blond hair.

"I hate you so much," Clint growled, handing over the leashes for Stevie and Bucky. "You take them, before I kill them."

Steve grinned. "Hey guys! Who wants to work off some steam?"

It was all the warning Clint got before Steve took off at a slow jog, the Cor-mmandos yapping happily in his wake, their short legs pumping like mad to keep up with Steve's long stride. Dum Dum pulled Clint along for the surprise workout, which went on for about three miles before Steve even bothered to break his pace. The dogs were all panting heavily and had slowed down a lot, but they managed to bounce around Clint's feet, which he took as a sign that they still wanted him dead.

"I…I…I need coffee…" Clint whined as Steve walked the dogs around in the grass so they would do their business.

"You can't be winded by that." Steve looked at him in confusion. Clint was getting used to the expression.

"I'm good. Really. Just fucking coffee, okay FUCK!" Clint skipped up as Bucky tried to murder him again by making a lunge for his knees. Steve reached out and grabbed him, laughing, helping Clint get steady on his feet. Clint snarled but didn't think anything of it as they picked up the mess the dogs left behind them and started back to the tower.

It became a nice ritual for the mornings, taking the dogs out for a long, slow jog that always left them exhausted and complacent for the rest of the day. Steve enjoyed it, the dogs were deliriously happy, and Donut actually got some peace and quiet once the Cor-mmandos all passed out in their dog beds.

Clint's blissful ignorance lasted until the following week, when Tony all but threw his coffee mug at Clint's head and Natasha hissed "superhusbands?" at him in passing. Clint bee-lined for his tablet and googled "superhusbands clint barton hawkeye".

By that time, there were already 20 tumblrs and several facebook fanpages devoted to "AmeriHawk," the popular name of Clint's mad, passionate love affair with Captain America. Most of the evidence consisted of bystanders' photographs of Clint and Steve happily walking their "puppy family" together in the early mornings. There were dozens of pictures of varying quality showing Steve picking Clint up to untangle him from the leashes (which happened at least once a day), and photos of them buying each other coffee. One shot had Steve smiling dreamily at the dogs while Clint smirked, and if Clint had not known that they were talking about Pepper at the time even he would have thought they were dating.

Clint locked the dogs out of the bedroom for the rest of the afternoon and cuddled up with Donut, steadfastly not thinking about Phil.