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^{Skye twirled a piece of cotton candy around her forefinger before popping it into her mouth, humming contendedly as it disolved on her tongue. Even if the never ending smell of popcorn got old and there were days when the smell of hotdogs on a roller made her almost want to be sick, she still loved cotton candy.}

^{When he asked when her next show was, she shrugged. “I’m done ‘til we move out.” She explained with an almost dismissive wave of her hand. “I think the last one had a whole six people show up.” Sometimes she wished she could perform more, but really, in the dead of summer, and it was hot, so she wasn’t overly eager.}

^{Her eyes flickered to the darkening sky when Clint’s did, content to watch the sun vanish. Already she could see the tiny pinpricks of stars. She loved the times they stopped farther away from the cities, because it meant they could see more stars, and that they’d be brighter. She loved to watch the sky, which was why she’d taken it’s name. Her gaze didn’t move when his hand grabbed hers, and she threaded her fingers between his without a second thought.}

^{Sure there were moments, large ones even, when the life of a carnie could be miserable, and more than once she’d dreamed of a life a little more normal. In the end though, she wouldn’t give moments like this up for any number of white picket fences or normal days. Nights like this, she was happier than she’d ever been.}

^{Her eyes dropped from the stars to Clint, and her smile grew. With him she was happier than she’d ever been. God did she love him, so much so she didn’t have to words to express it. Instead, she squeezed his hand.}

^{When he asked what she wanted to do, she shrugged at first and didn’t reply. And then, keeping her eyes carefully trained on the sky above them, she decided to be brave. Heart hammering in her chest, she asked, “If… If I tell you, do you promise not to get upset with me?”}

Clint sighed and shook his head, looking over to her. “ More people should be coming to your shows. You’re good. ” Then again, when he did sneak in to watch her, he would see some ‘way too old to be watching a young girl’ old guys, and it always gave him a bad feeling in his gut. It could be a weird situation at times.

Still, she deserved more of a change to show off, prove herself here. While she should be safe from being left behind, both of them were, it wasn’t fair for her to perform so little compared to everyone else.

Clint smiled to himself when he felt her thread her fingers through his, and he squeezed her hand tight in response, taking another bite of cotton candy. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see a few people walking out, the circus slowly but surely winding down for the night. He smiled again and sighed contently. It was always better when there were less people floating around. More freedom to do whatever they wanted.

Clint looked back at Skye again when she didn’t say anything, raising an eyebrow at her curiously. When she got her question out, he sat up a little more and leaned forward, resting his chin on her shoulder as he tilted his head, a smile on his face. “ I could never be upset with you. ” He assured.

And that was true. There wasn’t really anything Skye could do that would really get him upset. Things were… easy with her. Right, even. He was still holding on to her hand, his thumb brushing over her knuckles softly as he watched her, another smile playing on his face as he offered her a bite of his cotton candy while he waited for her answer.

Skye meant so much him, and he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to find the words to explain that, and sometimes he wished he could find away to let her know.

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_{Skye’s shows for the week were over. They weren’t nearly as popular as The Incredible Hawkeye, and therefore only ran about once or twice in a given town. She didn’t mind too much, nine times out of ten the only people who really came to the gymnastics shows were men looking for entertainment cheaper than a strip club. Of course, that hadn’t meant there wasn’t work to be done. She’d helped some of the hands care for the animals and took a few shifts managing games, if only for something to do. And if she picked a few pockets in between each job, well then that was that.} 

_{Still, she managed to pause just long enough to watch Clint perform through a crack in the tent. It didn’t matter how many times she saw him do it, it still took her breath like the first time he’d shown her. How anyone could be simultaneously so intense and nonchalant at the same time was beyond her, and more often than not, she watched him in lieu of the arrow. She knew it’d hit its mark, it always did.} 

_{As the people started to disperse and the mask came off, a smile broke her face. That was the last one of the night, she knew, which meant the rest of the night was theirs. As he started for the cotton candy booth, she slipped between the tents to their meeting spot, sitting up on the bed of one of the trucks used to move the equipment.} 

_{She heard her name before she saw him, and, if possible, her grin grew wider. True, their life wasn’t perfect, but they got nights like tonight, where it was really just them, and really, she couldn’t imagine anything better. So what if they were all each other had? They were all they needed.}

_{“You did good out there Hawkeye,” She greeted him with a laugh, reaching for a cotton candy and scooting over to make room, “But I think a few of the kids were a little disappointed you didn’t shoot the guy.”}

Clint reached the truck, seeing Skye sitting on top of it, the sun setting behind her. He smiled, his eyes never leaving hers as he climbed onto the bed of the truck, plopping down beside her and handing her the treat before pulling a piece of blue fluffy cotton candy off of his own and put it in his mouth, smiling as it dissolved.

“ Why thank you. ” He smirked, turning to toward Skye with a shrug. “ You know, sometimes you just disappoint kids. Can’t help it. We’re not that kind of circus. ” They apparently had to draw the line somewhere. The could steal and cheat people out of money as much as they wanted, but killing someone in front of other people? No of course not. “ When’s your next show? ” He asked, bringing his gaze up for a moment.

Clint leaned back, looking up at the sky as the pink, blue and purple colors filled it, slowly darkening as the sun fell. He looked to his Skye, and he slowly reached over with his free hand to grab hers, gentle as he grabbed it and looked back up.

Sometimes they didn’t really need words. Sometimes just eating cotton candy and holding hands was enough for them around here. And he liked it. He really, really liked it.

Everything with Skye felt like the closest thing to normalcy he’d ever have in his life. And runaway carnies wasn’t normal.

He could hear a muffled call of his name and he rose his eyebrow, but shrugged, figuring it could wait. If anything, someone wanted him to clean his own damn stuff up. instead he focused on Skye and their cotton candy. “ What do you want to do tonight? ”

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This is what Clint’s used to. The smell of popcorn and hot dogs, the uncomfortableness of this stupid purple costume he was made to wear, the bow in his hand with an arrow knocked back. The quietness of the audience, either watching him with real or faked interest. The worker who they but on the target while it spun, trusting that Clint wouldn’t accidentally shoot them.

Oh, the life of a carnie.

Clint watched as the target spun, the person on it smiling wide as arrows just missed their hands and feet by a fraction of an inch, Clint now aiming for the spot above their head as they did another spin. He focused, taking a deep breath and waiting for one more half spin before releasing the arrow.

Thwack.

The arrow missed their head by a hair. Clint smiled, turning to the thinning audience, some clapping coming when the realized he was done. Okay, maybe they didn’t realize he was missing the person on purpose. He could accept that.

Clint’s eyes landed on one of the people clapping, a dark haired man in a suit and sunglasses. Clint raised his eyebrow, wondering if he was hot in that. it was midsummer in Kansas, after all.

Once the crowd started to disperse themselves, Clint pulled off the hot mask of the costume and put the bow in his quiver, ducking under as many people as he could as he ran out of his tent, heading for the cotton candy booth.

Marlene, the gapped tooth woman who operated the machine, just smiled and handed Clint two already made cotton candys and waved him off. It was like a routine.

Finish the show, get cotton candy, find Skye and spend the rest of the night with her. Anything else felt wrong, honestly.

Clint ran from the booth, running to their usual meeting spot. “ Skye! Hey, Skye! ”

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_{She snorted, rolling her eyes. “If you have to call it a tunic to stay secure in your masculinity, then you do whatever you’ve gotta do. I’m just saying. It was a skirt.” She replied with a roll of her eyes.}

_{Maybe it was stupid, or maybe she was incredibly niave, but when his grip tightened on her hand, she relaxed. There may not be a lot of things that Skye trusted about the world, but on that very short list was Clint. She trusted him more than she’d trusted any other human being in her life. If he said it would be okay, she believed it would be.}

_{When he professed his faith in Phil Coulson, she nodded. The name was familiar, and it took her about a second flat to realize where she’d heard it before. “He was the one who came and… recruited you, right?” She cocked her head slightly, forcefully keeping her tone neutral. She remembered hearing the name when she’d gone around, trying in desperate vain to find Clint when he’d disappeared. One of the vendors had said someone had introduced themselves by the name when asking where to find ‘Hawkeye.’}

Clint rolled his eyes too, letting it drop for now. He had this conversation a lot, and he would have many more with her if he had ti prove it was tunic, not a skirt, but right now wasn’t the time.

Clint turned to her when she seemed to know who Phil was. He hadn’t known how many people really did know that he left that day. He knew that, in a close knit troupe like that, word would get out fast, especially to Skye, but he hadn’t expected Phil’s name to get out too. Clint knew Phil had been asking around for him though, so that must have been it. People put two and two together when Clint left.

He wonder for a moment what it was really like when he left. Were people mad at him? How mad? How mad was Skye? Did they curse his name there, like he’d seen them do now and then with others left, usually for a better circus. He suddenly felt like a kid again, wondering what his family thought of him. He had to let that go though. He needed to drop it.

“ Yeah. Yeah, he was. ”

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_{Part of Skye, the part that was very focused on survival, almost wanted to shrink under his gaze. It was only through forcefully telling herself that it was probably just curiosity that she managed not to. It could still all be a trick, his kindness, she supposed, but hoping it to be genuine didn’t mean she had to unilaterally put her guard down.}

_{When she heard his admission, voice quieting, she swallowed. She understood that tone, even if she didn’t know the story behind it. It was an almost-but-not-quite casual brush off, one she was very, very used to giving.}

_{“Hmm. Don’t think I’m putting Waverly on my vacation list either.” She replied with a nod, letting her eyes flick to meet his and offering a think smile of something like understanding. At least, she hoped that was how it came across, Skye wasn’t overly used to being able to understand others.}

_{She gave a laugh that really just came out as more of a huff of air when he apologized, arching an eyebrow at him. “Don’t be.” She replied, shaking her head, “I was planning on running out soon anyway. Going back and forth from fosters to the orphanage every other month gets old fast.” She grimaced, then shrugged. “Thanks to you, at least I have something.” Not a home, not even a job really, but something. Which was more than Skye’d had in a long time.}

Clint smiled as he watched her, laughing a little when she agreed to not putting Waverly on her list. He shrugged in agreement with her, his smile appearing again when she smiled at him, lowering his head to take a sip from his soda, relaxing a little.

He nodded in understanding when she mentioned how moving around sucked. He and Barney got tired of that, and the homes that were just like their old one, fast.Honestly, he was surprised more kids just didn’t run. Maybe because it was rare that they’d get lucky. Though, not many people would think that the circus was lucky, really, but when the options were the streets doing god knows what to survive, maybe having carnies looking out for you wasn’t the worst thing in the world.

“ Hey, you don’t need to thank me. Us runaways, we gotta stick together, don’t we? ” He asked, smile into a smirk and giving her a playful wink as he took another bite of his hot dog. It was true, someone had to look out for her and he could do that. He could make sure she was treated well here, he could help her. He knew he could.

Clint peeked up over the counter of the booth after a few minutes and smiled. “ Hey, when you’re done, they still have some of the games out. Want to go play some? ” He asked, turning around and flashing Skye a wide smile.

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^{“Still not willing to call it a skirt?” She teased, voice as light as she could make it, even if it was a little bit forced in an attempt to lighten the tension.}

^{When he slowed, she watched him closely. She hadn’t figured he’d had any sort of plan or anything, he’d been as surprised to see her as she’d been to see him. She could all but see the wheels turning in his head as he figured out what to do next, could still see the flicker of uncertainty even as he nodded, and twisted her hand in his slightly to link their fingers, squeezing lightly.} 

^{“You trust them, then, your supervising officer.” It wasn’t even slightly a question, just a confirmation and observation. She swallowed and took a breath, reminding herself that while she may not trust SHIELD, she trusted Clint. And she in no way thought he’d lead her into a situation he believed would hurt her. He never had before.}

“It wasn’t a skirt.” His answer was quick, teasing almost to keep up with the lightness in her voice. Help ease the tension a bit. “Tunic is a better word.”

Clint turned to look at Skye, watching her face when he said he would bring her to his supervising officer, and he squeezed her hand in an attempt to assure her. He wouldn’t let anything happen to her. He didn’t think SHIELD would do anything to her — — He’d take her away before he let that happen. He would take Skye anywhere else if he thought she ight be in trouble.

But he trusted SHIELD. He trusted Phil, he trusted Maria, he trusted Nick. They were good people.

“He’s a good man.” Clint nodded, pulling her along to the back door. “Phil Coulson. He’s a good person. I would trust him with my life.” Maybe a little dramatic, but frankly, he would.

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^{Okay, so something in her told Skye that that damn smile shouldn’t still get to her that much after all that time, but knowing that didn’t mean it was true. It still got to her. A lot. Damn.} 

^{She laughed when he admitted that they still called him Hawkeye, though she gave an exaggerated frown when he added that at least he didn’t wear the costume anymore. “Aww, The costume was great though! Purple really is your color.”} 

^{Still, her eyes flicked to every corner of the walls as they made their way through, even as she relaxed to Clint’s presence, a lot of the tension lingered in her frame. “So uh- probably should’ve asked this before, but uhm.. what happens when we get out of here?”}

He gave her a playful eye roll — how quick they were to be falling into old routines, as if he never left — and shook his head. “Purple is, I agree. But the tunic… Maybe that was a little much.” He would go to his grave saying that wasn’t a skirt, no matter what anyone said on the matter.

He kept leading her out of the building, not letting go of her hand, almost like his life depended on her being right there. Like letting go might mean he’d wake up from whatever dream this was. At Skye’s question though, Clint slowed down, nearly stopping. What would happen if he brought her in?

Clint had made clear to them the day he was brought in that he had a friend they had to go back for. But, clearly, it wasn’t top priority, ( maybe he should have fought more ) and now here they were. He was sure that Skye could tell he wasn’t sure, but he just nodded, already thinking of ways how to explain who she was and where he found her and what she was doing her. But he had people he could trust there, and that helped.

“ We go to my supervising officer. ”