So I’ve devoured my way through Provide Me and I’ve been curious to know your background for Clint. His recent quarrel with Cap had me contemplating if I’ll get to see him finding a common ground with and becoming closer to Tony like I’ve seen with Natasha?!
Hello!! Glad to know you’re enjoying it :D
Clint … well, he’s certainly got a few things in common with Tony. Substandard parents and an unconventional childhood being two. Buttt, as much as Natasha can seem the distant ice queen, of the two of them Clint is actually less well-adjusted at the moment.
He’s spent a fair portion of the past few years feeling pretty bitter. His hearing loss is relatively recent, and while he’s mostly over it, it’s still a tough pill to swallow sometimes. He got into a bit of a rut, feeling like life was throwing him one punch after the other (Loki, Coulson, SHIELD, to mention the canon ones alone). Which made it easy to nurse some choice thoughts about rich, attractive, successful, and sometimes seemingly insouciant geniuses.
The events of Provide Me will certainly leave Clint with a different view of Tony; one less disdainful and resentful than before (although those sentiments have always remained relatively buried beneath a mixture of tolerance, respect, gratitude and shared enthusiasm for chaos) (if he seems softer on child-Tony than this would suggest - he’s very much of the opinion that young children should not be blamed for anything, considering that life is mostly outside of their control). However, Clint’s not currently in the right headspace to react to revealed commonality by getting all pally and baring his soul.
So I’d say that Clint will be in a better position to become close to Tony … but I’m not sure he’s up for consciously forming close connections based on anything other than mutual snark at the moment.
Thank you for your question!! x