9. Rescued 9

The Cor-mmandos took their role as Donut's honor guard very seriously. The day after Clint and Donut bonded with the dogs was, by Stark Decree, movie night at Avengers Tower (i.e. Wednesday) which had become a set in stone tradition in the whole two months everyone had been there. Clint had never taken Donut because he had been honestly worried about how she would react to Bruce (Hulk), and he had never taken the dogs because he knew exactly how Tony would react to them. Now that he knew Donut and Bruce could get along, he felt it was time to have her join the team as a full-fledged Avenger.

Clint was adjusting the sling (the purple one, because Avenger) when he noticed the dogs gathered around the cat tower where Donut was sitting and frowning out at her domain.

"No, you can't go. Tony hates you guys, you know this." He reached out and plucked Donut up, tucking her into the sling. As he turned to leave, Donut meowerled and in standard troop formation the corgis took up position around Clint.

"No. No!" Clint scooted towards the door, trying not to step on anyone or trip and squash Donut, but the dogs simply scooted with him. "No! I'm not telling you again! No!"

##

"No, absolutely not!" Tony pointed at the dogs as they herded Clint out of the elevator.

"Puppies! Oh my darlings!" Pepper cooed.

"Oh! You brought the puppies! I'll make more popcorn!" Steve spun around and headed back towards the kitchen.

"Hey guys," Bruce waved at the dogs, and they dipped their heads, following the movement. Clint chose to believe that it was not weird or spooky.

"I get the cat." Natasha stated flatly from her lounge chair.

Clint flipped her off. "Maybe later."

"No dogs! Am I talking to myself? No dogs!" Tony stood in the middle of the room, hands on his hips like an angry nanny.

"They won't let me take Donut out by herself. It's a thing." Clint claimed his usual spot on one of the sofas next to Bruce. The Cor-mmandos took up position around his feet.

"Tony, leave them alone. They were bathed yesterday and you aren't allergic." Pepper snapped, coming over to scratch Bucky's head.

"Beasts," Tony mumbled, sitting on the smaller sofa he shared with Pepper.

"You're just jealous because they get more attention than you do," Clint said, smirking at Tony, making a nod to where Pepper was on her knees at his feet to pet the dogs.

Tony's eyes narrowed dangerously but just then Steve walked in carrying three large bowls of popcorn. He passed them around the room, throwing a handful of popcorn on the floor over the sound of Tony's squawks for the dogs to gobble up. How Steve knew that the dogs liked popcorn, Clint did not want to think about.

Halfway through Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Donut squirmed her way out of the sling, walked carefully over Bruce's lap, and jumped down to head towards Natasha. Stevie was on the job in an instant, herding her carefully until she got to Natasha's feet. She stretched up and set her front paws on Natasha's knees and made to jump, although Clint knew she couldn't make it from that position. Before Natasha could lean forward, Stevie stuck his nose under Donut's butt and pushed her up.

"That is the most adorable thing I have ever seen in my life," Bruce said, awestruck, absently petting Dum Dum's head. Clint couldn't argue.

Apparently Natasha was an acceptable guard for Donut (as opposed to Clint, who wasn't jealous about that at all, nope he was not) because the dogs broke up and started meandering around. Stevie courted Pepper, who ignored Tony's grumbling in order to give the corgi too much popcorn, confirming Clint's suspicions that she was the reason Stevie had put on two pounds. Dum Dum and Bucky just made the rounds, and ended up riding the elevator a few times.

"Where do they go?" Tony asked after the movie ended.

"I have no idea. JARVIS supervises." Clint shrugged as Bucky lunged into his lap for petting, taking shameless advantage of the fact that Donut was curled up, upside down and sort-of-mewing happily, on Natasha.

"Traitor," Tony snarled, although there wasn't much heat in it.

"I thought it would be safest for all involved to keep them out of your laboratory, Sir," JARVIS intoned drily. Tony blanched and Pepper giggled. Steve looked up from feeding Dum Dum popcorn to gaze at her longingly. Clint was going to have to talk to the man about "subtle."

"Wouldn't want Dummy or U to get any ideas," Bruce said, his eyes dancing with glee.

Tony groaned.

"Time for ESPN?" Steve asked hopefully. It was a fact that the whole Avengers crew, including Pepper, were sports fanatics, and they all usually ate ice cream and watched ESPN for desert after a long movie.

JARVIS put the channel on as Bruce, Steve and Pepper got up to go serve the ice cream (Clint and Tony had been banished from doing so after just sticking spoons into cartons). But apparently Stevie did not like basketball and started barking at the screen. Donut squirmed into the space between Natasha and the armrest warily, while Bucky and Dum Dum paced nervously.

"Barton! Get your dog to shut up!" Tony yelled.

"Stevie! C'mon, guy, be quiet. It's just TV." Clint walked over and tried to kneel down next to Stevie, but the corgi was genuinely annoyed at the bouncing ball on screen and skittered away, running in a circle around the whole room until he stopped to bark at the TV again. This repeated several times until Clint's temper had enough. "STEVIE! SIT!"

There was a muffled thump from across the room. Clint looked over at the noise to see Captain America sitting on the floor with a bowl of ice cream in his hand and a look of surprise on his face. The spoon had clattered out of the bowl and was still spinning where it landed.

There was a very long moment of complete silence from the whole team before Tony doubled up and started howling with laughter. Within a few moments everyone was laughing, even Natasha, and Steve fell over, holding his sides as he gasped in between guffaws while Pepper cried herself to tears next to him. Bucky and Dum Dum herded Stevie away from the television back to where Donut was poking her head out from the lounge chair seat while the Avengers laughed themselves sick where they had fallen. When Steve got up, he bopped Clint on the head with his spoon.

Clint grinned up at him, still laughing. Things were good. He had a family, despite it being a patchwork of people and dogs and Donut. For the moment, it was enough.