Getting over Natasha's death even if it had been a year wasn't easy. Clint was still very much not coping. He though didn't let anybody know and would often just carry on and act like nothing was bothering him.
He hated going to bed alone and crying silently till he was asleep. He wasn't much in the mood to get out of bed today. He was thinking of Natasha and how it would have been her birthday today if she hadn't died.

Agent Barton just lay in his bed and closed his eyes. If only SHIELD didn't need him today. He curled up for awhile longer he was about to go back to sleep but he heard a call coming through and he picked it up.
"Agent Barton speaking," He said. "Alright be right down Fury." He gets out of bed after ending the call. Clint then gets ready before making his way to SHIELD HQ when he arrived he went to go and speak with Nick.

"What do you need me for ?" Clint looked at him.

"I think its time for you to have a new partner." Fury knew Clint had refused to since Natasha had died. "id like you to meet Sinead."

The woman that stepped around Fury was a tiny thing, child sized, the only thing that gave away her age was the womanly shape to her slender, tattooed form. Her glacial blue eyes seemed to pierce the soul, pale skin dusted with silver freckles over her shoulders. Long straight black hair fell to the dip in her waist and shone blue in the artificial lights.

She raised a delicate hand from her crossed arms in a little wave of hello and bit down on her lowerlip and shifted all her weight to one foot, making a leather clad hip jut out, black combat boots looked well worn, the black leather starting to grey with use, a black tanktop clung to her torso like a second skin.

“Sin’s never had a partner before Clint so take it easy on her.” Fury sated with his usual one eyed glare.

Great he thought. I have already told him a million times I don't want another partner. Having other partner to his job when he didn't want one, felt like being forced into an arranged marriage,
He had nothing against the women. He was just too emotionally broken.

"Umm Hello, I'm Clint Barton, also known as Hawkeye." He replied. The man was looking at her. He knew that he couldn't be hard on her. He didn't expect her to know much being Fury had appointed her his partner and she was young seeming.
Clint hadn't trained anybody in awhile.

"Yeah ok." He narrowed his eyes at Fury.

“Sinead Erainn.” She replied in a melodic like voice. Not offering her hand to shake or a polite smile. “Huntress.”

When it came to weapons the two were very much a like, Sin liked her bows as well, and though she was pretty handy with a gun she felt like they were far too loud. Her talent was stealth, preferring quieter up close or mid range weapons, like knives, drugs and needles. Not only that but she was skilled in hand to hand as well, but he didn’t know that yet.

SHIELD had sent her on plenty of solo ops before but this was suspicious why now have they decided to partner her up?

Her blue eyes scanned him up and down as she sized him up. One dark eyebrow arched upwards as if she were asking what he wanted to do next. She was supposed to follow his lead from now on anyway.

Clint wasn't sure what to do. It had been awhile. He knew he should at least be nice to her. It wasn't her fault. He sighed deeply. It had been awhile since he had opened up to anybody either.
He had started to lock up all his feelings.

"Alright well I suppose we should try to get to know each other a bit, and you show me what you got fighting wise." He was trying to just think of something to do. Hawkeye knew he should make things less awkward as possible.
He didn't know if things would be the same for him ever again.

" I haven't had a partner since never mind....." He didn't want to talk about it.

Sin wasn’t entirely sure, them getting to know each other was the best of ideas, there was a reason she worked solo after all and it was something hard to keep a secret when you’re cooped up with someone else on a mission.

“I know.” Sin replied about Clint’s past partnership with Natasha. “I’ve been here for the last year in and half, it’s hard to not over hear somethings.”

She nodded though and motioned with a slender arm for him to lead towards the gyms. “Get to know each other...” she mirrored. “So, then, start talking. Tell me the things about yourself you want me to know.” She replied as they started walking.

Of course she knew, sometimes he wished his private life didn't have to be known around the whole of SHIELD. But Natasha had worked for SHIELD too so that was hard, He looked at her. He almost had forgotten she had been there the entire time as he had been too miserable during the past year.
"Guess I have been too miserable to notice you have been here for a little over a year," He was walking by her.
He was thinking for a bit.
Hawkeye didn't honestly know what to tell her about himself.

"Yeah sorry if that is too much, I don't know what else to do, and if we know a bit about each other, It may be less awkward."
He was looking a her. "Well I suppose I have been apart of SHIELD years now, but haven't been with the Avengers as long as that, basically was there when the team first formed to take down Loki." He was quiet for awhile. Clint was never used to talking alot. He was always one to prefer being alone alot of the time.

“I’ve stayed out of most people’s radar so don’t worry too much about it. Stealth is my thing, ya dig?”

“Oh yeah, I heard about that. I arrived just after. Well, coerced actually, but that’s old news. “ She shrugged a little bit making her hair shimmer in the light. “Before this comes up. I’m twenty-five and yes, I know I look a lot younger, but I swear I’m not.” she put her hands up in a submissive fashion.

Tucking her hair behind her ears she wrapped her arms around her stomach as they continued walking. “I’ve mastered many forms of martial arts, western and eastern swordplay...” she stopped, it would seem strange if she had too many skills, right?

"Yeah, Suppose like how I am more of a marksman, " Clint was slightly interested in testing her skills. The rest of him was still unsure.
The archer was looking at her. He thought she seemed a nice enough person. "I normally prefer to be alone, Tasha pulled me out of that a little, but soon as she died I retreated back to being alone mostly."

"MMm I wasn't going to ask about your age." Clint muttered. He listened to her, he seemed amazed that she knew all that.
He wanted to see it in action.

“Oh.” She said. “Well, that’s good. It’s nice to know that you weren’t going to ask that... most people do.” The fair skinned female blushed a rosy red and shot him an embarrassed smile while she rubbed the back of her neck.

They trained long and hard while at the gym and Sin even sported a few new bruises that were certainly well earned on Clint’s part and once they parted ways for the evening Sin sneaked back out through the halls from her rooms on base and to the indoor firing range. The halls were dark thankfully and her footsteps light.

To wind down she decided to shoot her bow. The white rowan wood was enchanted so that it would never break and the horsehair string was the same. Pulling her bow and handmade leather quiver from her modern rugged plastic bow case she got herself ready her hair pulled back into a ponytail so it stayed out of her face as she slung the black quiver across her back, her arrows were a mixture of modern carbon fiber with Styrofoam feathers and others were hand crafted with either stone or bone tips with either black raven’s feathers or just some hawk feathers she had found some year or so back.

One breath... she took stance, two... she knocked and drew an arrow, and three... she let it fly straight into the bull’s eye. The familiar actions soothed her, though it strained one particular bruise between her shoulder blades where her back had hit the ground too hard from sparring with Clint earlier that day.

Trainning with Sinead, Clint realized just how skilled she was. He was impressed with what she already knew though he was sure there was things he could still teach her. The marksman was sure that he could learn things from her as well.

After he was done, he panted. He was a bit bruised as well. It had been a good workout. He nodded to her "Well done' He had told her before they parted ways. He then headed off to shower and relax for a bit.
He wondered what she was doing for the rest of the day.

Clint didn't seem to be as unsure as he was before. He was slowly starting to seem ok with the whole idea. It had been good to train like that. The Hawk was tired now and wanted to go to sleep. But he was sure there was still things that needed doing.

Sin felt positively wound down as she pulled those few arrows she shot off from the targets. So she could replace the paper for the next shooter. Her thoughts wandered toward her new teacher/partner. He seemed better towards the end of their session, lighter of heart even. Maybe all he needed was a little way to relieve some stress himself, what better way than physical exercise?

She seemed to doze off for a second a pale hand with black nail polish partially wrapped round her last arrow before she yanked it out. The dead of night had fallen and the base was quiet at least on the gym floor and she was sure on the living floor as well. Lights were dimmed and shades drawn giving the white halls a very “cliche horror movie” feel.

Like Mothman was going to jump out around the corners or something. Sin scoffed, “Mothman’s got nothin’ on me...” she mused quietly to herself as she began taking the paper targets off the stands and replacing them with new.

Clint was sitting up in his 'Nest' thinking. He knew that there was sill things that needed doing before he would consider her skilled enough to be his partner. But he knew there wasn't far to go with how skilled she was already.
He knew she couldn't replace Natasha, but she would be different and worthy in her own way. Though Barton did not think he could love anybody again. Though being friends with her wouldn't hurt.

He yawned and closed his eyes. He knew there was many times he had dosed off in the 'nest' but he wasn't about to this time.He sighed and decided to pack up for the day and head home. He messaged Sin with his phone.
See you tomorrow, going home - Barton he sent the text and then headed home.

Just as Sin shut her bow case her reasonably “ancient” blackberry type cell phone vibrated in her pocket. Pulling out she gave it a little smile, it was from Barton:

See you tomorrow, going home.

Quickly she responded: See you later, feathers!

Her night had just begun she a little excited skip in her step she went to put her things away and decided to have a little fun off base. The first night out for her since she had gotten coerced into joining this god awful organization. A night of freedom from this place.

A chance to go see the city nightlife, preferably some underground nightlife.

Clint looked at his phone before he went home. He blinked . Feathers? he knew his team always were always giving him other nicknames to do with birds. He just smiled faintly. Feathers was a new nickname really.

The Hawk headed back home and went and had a shower. Clint goes and gets some dinner as well. He was rather tired and didn't want to do the dishes, He decided to leave them till morning.
He goes to bed and he closes his eyes. Clint slept till the next morning. He wakes up in the morning.

So.. Sin might have broken a few protocol’s that night. Like, no magic outside of base or missions. No alcohol if she was going to perform magic or even better no use of enchanted weapons. But, hey what else was she supposed to do? A vampy had her by the neck her silver blade was all she had.

A hand came up to the sterile white bandage that took up half her neck. The old bastard nearly took out a good sized chunk of her stark white skin. Still she cracked her knuckles and did some warm ups before Clint arrived. Her iPod attached to her hip as she blasted some The Letter Black.The heavy rock beat always got her pumped for the day, like headbanging infront of the mirror before she went out to Slipknot.

Clint gets up and gets ready for the day and goes and does the dishes, He knew that he needed to be ready for another training session. He hoped to do more than just train as well today.
He stretched and was thinking.

After he was ready Clint headed down to base. He looked like he hadn't slept well. He had nightmares all night. He wasn't going to let that bother him too much. He stretched and was looking around.
"Ready for the day?" he asked her.

Sin flicked her ponytail over her shoulder and gave him a nod of affirmation. “Yeah, but are you ready for the day? You look worse than a tooth fairy at a jello factory.” She replied fingering the white bandage slightly picking at the medical tape that held it on. “I mean it’s cool if you need a break for a day, you deserve it more than anyone I think.”

Today, she wore a pair of dark purple yoga pants, ratty well worn black chucks and a simple black tanktop. Her artistic tattoo’s looking like they needed some touching up, the ink starting to fade with age. Her blue eyes flicked around a little bit as she sucked in her bottom lip and bit down a little.

Clint was looking at her. "what happened last night?" he saw her fingering the bandage and raised an eyebrow. He knew that would have happened when he had gone home.
He looked at her "Oh... I didn't sleep well, break? You sure you'd be ok with that." He felt like he had to carry on regardless, He hardly ever let being tired stop him.

He sighed and rubbed his head, He could feel a headache coming on and he knew that was from lack of sleep. He was yawning a bit and he looked at her.
"We could spend time doing something else maybe."

Sin’s hand completely covered the bandage. “What? Nothing...”

“Hey, if you need a break I’m not going to complain or argue.” She put her hands up in a submissive gesture. If she were being honest with herself she knew she needed a break as well, being up all night and having half your blood drained took a lot out of someone even as strong and as old as her.

Sin flicked her ponytail back over her shoulder to hide the bandage. “So, Agent Barton what would you rather do instead?” She inquired leaning forward on the balls of her feet while giving him a mischievous smile and clasping her hands behind her back.