Chapter Text
It had been a long time since Clint had been confused about something he saw in a battle. On the team, they had a giant green monster, a bio-chemically advanced human, and a man flying around in a metal suit fighting against literal aliens coming from the sky. He thought that nothing weirder could possibly happen, but life just liked proving him wrong. Right now, sitting next to him was someone in an all-black formal suit with a black mask covering their face, and they just kept giving him arrows out of nowhere, or at least nowhere that he could see.
This person hadn’t said anything yet, they just kept giving him arrows after he ran out of arrows in his quiver, and occasionally pointed out something they apparently wanted him to shoot. The arrows seemed almost magical, they were made of white wood with a tip that was midnight black and made of a material he had never seen before in all his time as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, and the fletchings of the arrows were that same deep black, just notably feathers this time. It was only when a chitauri snuck up on him and his arrow dealer and tackled the man in black over the edge that he moved, needing to in order to stay safe.
“Anyone have eyes on a man on black that just fell off from right next to me?” Clint asked the other Avengers, startled because an alien managed to sneak up on him.
“What do you mean?” Tony questioned the archer, obviously confused at the question, “No one was next to you.”
Clint huffed before responding with, “Yes there was, they were giving me arrows after I ran out.”
“Maybe this can be saved till after the portal is closed,” Steve suggested, grunting and obviously not having a good time with his current opponent. With that, Clint didn’t say anything about his new, weird, acquaintance for a while. Cap was right, it could be saved till after the portal was closed. That was, of course, until he saw a black spear lodge itself inside a leviathan. At the time everyone was busy though, Tony was redirecting a nuke into the portal, Natasha was working on closing said portal, and everyone was still very, very busy. Clint was the only person to get a half-decent look at the person who had thrown the spear.
“That’s the guy who was giving me arrows!” Clint exclaimed, glad he wasn’t just hallucinating the person and that they were alive.
“That’s great,” Steve said distractedly, still doing his best to keep the chitauri focused on him. Only later would people realize the significance of this newcomer imply.
After they closed the portal, had Tony safe, and Hulk had flung Loki around like a rag doll, with Loki surrounded by the Avengers, did the rest get to “meet” the man in black. Loki had just jokingly asked the Avengers for the drink he was offered earlier, knowing he wouldn’t be given it, when everyone heard a drink shaker being shaken behind them. Tony turned around and saw someone he had never seen before making themselves at home behind his bar.
“What are you doing?” Tony asked them, to which their only response was to obviously look at the brink shaker in their hands, to the martini glass they had set out a bit ago, and then to where Loki lay prone. Baffled, Tony asked them, “You’re making Loki a drink?” When this new person nodded their head and proceed to pour the drink into the glass everyone was a bit stunned. Why would this person give Loki a drink? Were they on Loki’s side? Steve tensed, ready to fight this person if they were going to try to take Loki. Everyone parted when this new person moved towards Loki, most in some sort of daze and not fully comprehending that they were moving. Even Loki was shocked at this person, someone he had never met before, giving him a drink.
“Why are you giving me this?” Loki asked, skeptical of their intentions. He wasn’t a fan of getting poisoned by a random Midgardian. Everyone got more confused when the person didn’t explain themselves and instead opted to just stare at Loki. Loki obviously didn’t know them, but neither did any of the Avengers, so what was this person doing? What was their plan? Why were they here?
Eventually, after mulling over the possibilities, Loki took the drink from the stranger and took a tentative sip, then another. The drink was rather nice, sweeter than Loki generally preferred his drinks but, overall, it was still good. After a more awkward silence, the person in black trotted over to the closest broom closet before bowing once and then walked into the closet and closed the door behind themself. Clint quickly walked over to the door, opened it, and didn’t find the person inside. None of the Avengers or Asgardians knew what to make of what they had just witnessed. Later, when there were a number of inconsistencies, people saying that Captain America or Iron Man saved them when that person was on another side of the battle, did Fury start to realize a few things: first that the person in black was most likely on their side, and second that this unknown person seemed to only be noticeable when they wanted to be. Natasha and Tony also realized this individually but kept their thoughts of it to themselves. Neither of them wanted to be wrong about this unknown person with unknown abilities.