Title: When I Get You Alone
Summary: With Tony, Bruce and Steve a little preoccupied, Tasha, Clint and Phil take the time to catch up with Pepper. They say they don't gossip, but that's a lie.
Wordcount: 2032
Pairings: Clint/Coulson, Steve/Bruce/Tony
Year: Six

The nest in the middle of the room was a huge giveaway that one of the occupants of the room was Clint Barton, and Clint was a little bit proud of that. He, Phil, Pepper and Tasha were sprawled out in the comfortable pillow-nest, taking sanctuary in the peace and quiet. They'd gotten used to hanging out as a group when Pepper and Tasha had been together, and as the two girls were still friends they all ended up gravitating together anyway. With Steve and Tony and Bruce still figuring out whatever the hell it was they wanted to be, contacting them wasn't really the best idea; they barely surfaced for classes, let alone socialising. Most of the other Gryffindors in their group were trying to figure out what the hell was going on between Thor and Loki, Darcy was hanging out with Loki, and Bucky, Rhodey and Peggy were doing something with Falsworth and the rest of Bucky's other friends. Clint still found it strange, how their little group tended to splinter off every now and then, but they all still spent plenty of time all together, and things were far less awkward between Jane and Thor by now.

Clint leaned into Phil's hand as it ran through his hair, watching Pepper doing something on her tablet and Tasha absently charming paper butterflies to flutter about and change colours, occasionally transforming into paper daggers and spearing the target on the wall. "It's hard to believe it's February already," he mused, having done a double-take when he'd seen the date that morning. "Feels like the year's barely started."

"Remember how this time last year everyone was going nuts over Valentine's Day?" Pepper remarked with a laugh, glancing up from her work. "I swear, you two were the only ones not freaking out."

"For everyone but us it was their first one properly together," Phil pointed out. Pepper and Tasha had gotten together in late January, and had both agreed they hadn't been together long enough for anything more than a card and some chocolate. "We'd done all our freaking out the year before." Clint snorted, a smile crossing his lips as he remembered the panic he'd been in about their Valentine's date and his present for Phil. But it had turned out great in the end; a quiet walk around the grounds to avoid all the chaos in Hogsmeade, a picnic by the lake, then to Clint's archery room for a lesson that devolved very quickly into making out and both of them coming in their pants.

"Is anyone even doing anything this year?" Tasha queried with raised eyebrows, and Clint shrugged.

"We're staying in for the night, unless Phil is planning a surprise for me," he replied, glancing up at his boyfriend.

"I've claimed this room, but just for movies and video games," Phil confirmed. "And Merlin knows what Tony and Steve have planned for the occasion." Clint frowned in confusion, then realised that of course, Tasha didn't know about Bruce. No one but he, Phil and Pepper knew, other than the three boys themselves.

"Weekend sex marathon, from what Tony last told me," Pepper informed them. "And something about chocolate body paint. I didn't ask." Clint snorted, smirking.

"Isn't that just like, a normal weekend for them?" Phil rolled his eyes, swatting him lightly, but Pepper giggled.

"I don't think anyone else has plans. Peggy's probably doing something with her boyfriend, and Bucky will no doubt be dragged out by whatever girl he has on his arm that week," Pepper continued, finally setting her tablet aside. "And I don't doubt Fandral will have a date."

"I dunno, Sif was talking about keeping them all in that weekend. Supporting Thor in solidarity, or something," Tasha cut in, sending a barrage of paper daggers towards the target. "So it looks like it'll be a quiet weekend all around. Unless you're Stark."

"Oh, Tony's always the exception. But I doubt Steve will be all that quiet either," Pepper added with a smirk, making Clint snicker.

"Well, as fun as it's been discussing our friends' sex lives, I have quidditch practice," Tasha declared, letting her paper butterflies fall to the floor as she got to her feet, wading out of the nest.

"At this time of night? What the hell?" Clint asked, eyebrows raised. It was only an hour until curfew.

"Maria wants us to get used to playing in the dark because the Gryffindor match is so late," she explained, heading around the edge of the nest to lean down and kiss his cheek, then Phil's. "Don't stay up too late, I'll see you all tomorrow."

"Don't break any fingers!" Pepper called after her, a fond smile on her face. Clearly Tasha would never live down breaking four fingers in the last practice before the Gryffindor match.

"She's up to something," Clint declared as soon as the Slytherin girl was gone. Pepper raised an eyebrow at him. "She's sneaking around about something. I don't know what, and I presume she'll tell me eventually, but she's definitely up to something."

"Don't pry into her business," Phil said quietly, a concerned look on his face.

"I won't, I won't. Like I said, I'll wait for her to tell me eventually," the archer assured, kissing Phil's cheek. "So, Pep, what's really going on with Stark and his harem? You have to know, you run his life."

"They've been surprisingly quiet about it, actually," Pepper replied, shrugging. "I went to hang out with them the other night so I could get Tony to look over some research submissions, and they really didn't seem to be much different to how they usually are, which says a lot about them. The only thing unusual was Steve and Bruce were cuddling in Tony's bed without him, and the trash was full of used condoms."

"Ew." Phil snorted at his boyfriend's mutter, amusement in his face. Clint figured he was probably thinking of their own waste paper basket full of condoms. "So they're all definitely screwing? About damn time. Bruce deserves a little love in his life."

"He does, but I can't help but worry," Pepper said, a frown tugging at her lips. "Tony's not exactly great with people."

"Oh, come on; if there's two people in the world he's not going to fuck up with, it's Steve and Bruce," Clint pointed out. "I'm happy for them, and I think they'll be fine. Stop mothering him." He paused, then smirked. "I wonder how it works between them. Like, do they take turns, or what?"

"I really don't think it's any of our business," Phil cut in quickly, sending Clint a pointed look. "Other than accepting it, being supportive and moving on. We don't even know if they're going to be open in front of us all."

"Neither Steve nor Tony will be able to keep their hands off Bruce long enough to keep it a secret from our whole group. They'd slip up within twenty minutes of the next movie night," Pepper remarked, smiling slightly. "They'll be open once they've figured it all out, I'm sure. We just have to be patient." She smiled, giving them both a knowing look as Clint tried and failed to hide how his hand was inching closer to Phil's ass. "And speaking of people who can't keep their hands off each other, I should get going."

"We're not that bad," Clint whined, earning a raised eyebrow from the redhead.

"Clint, I can't even see one of your hands right now, and I know that Phil's other one has been feeling up your thigh for the past ten minutes. I know when I've outstayed my welcome," she replied teasingly, getting to her feet. "Don't stay out too late, boys, it's class in the morning. Just because you're not on duty doesn't mean you can stay out all night," she scolded Phil, moving around the outside of the nest to kiss them both on the cheek, hugging Phil around the shoulders.

"I know, we'll be back before curfew," the older boy promised, hugging back with one arm. "Goodnight, Pepper."

"Night, Pep," Clint added, smiling. When she was gone, Clint turned to his boyfriend, hand heading back to Phil's ass. "We're not as bad as Stark," he maintained stubbornly, and Phil smirked.

"No one is as bad as Stark. But it's still terribly rude to start groping each other in front of friends," he reasoned, not surprised when the nest transformed into a king-sized bed underneath them. They'd found out long ago that trying to have sex in the nest was difficult.

"She's Pepper, it's fine," Clint replied flippantly, a smirk at his lips as he started to tug Phil's t-shirt over his head. Phil helped him, leaning in for a kiss once his chest was bare, hands creeping under Clint's own shirt. "Shame it's too late for us to have our own weekend sex marathon. Maybe next weekend."

"Can't, I'm on duty," Phil replied, pulling Clint's shirt off of him. Clint pouted; prefect duty ruined all of his plans. "I'm sure we'll fit plenty of sex into our Valentine's Day plans," he promised, making the younger Hufflepuff brighten.

"Excellent." He smirked, winking at Phil. "But how about that, huh? Wanna go for a threeway, follow Stark's new trend?" he joked, helping Phil out of his jeans. The taller boy paused, pulling Clint up to face him with an oddly serious expression on his face.

"It's not that I don't believe in being able to love more than one person, because I do, but I personally could never even think about loving anyone as much as I love you, and I don't see the point in adding people to sex just to spice things up a little. I have no need for anyone but you, in both my bed and my heart," he said softly, completely honest. Clint actually felt himself choking up a little, speechless at the intensity of Phil's words. He'd only been joking about the threesome.

"See, things like that are the reason all of our friends are convinced we're going to get married straight after I graduate," he remarked lightly, pressing a kiss to his lips to show he reciprocated everything Phil had said. He was never good with expressing his emotions, but luckily Phil could read him like a book and he very rarely needed to. His boyfriend knew exactly how he felt about him.

"I've already got the ring picked out," Phil retorted with a wink, smirking. Clint blinked, stunned.

"Are you joking? Because sometimes I can't tell when you're joking and when you're not." Not that he ever considered not marrying Phil after graduation, but… he was fifteen. He had two and a half years before graduation. Picking out the ring already was just a little premature.

Phil kissed him again, pushing his own jeans down his hips, and distracted Clint by gripping him through his boxers. "You'll never know," he replied mysteriously, then smirked wider, easing Clint's underwear down his legs. "If you want to have sex, you'd better stop staring and get on with it or we'll have no time for anything but a quickie." Clint grinned wolfishly at the challenge, reaching for the lube and condoms that appeared on the nightstand beside the bed.

"Challenge accepted, gorgeous." As Clint kissed him hard, working on divesting him of his underwear, he mentally talked himself out of searching Phil's stuff the next time he was alone in his boyfriend's dorm room. If Phil did have a ring, he'd rather it stayed a surprise; it wasn't like the older boy was going to give it to him any sooner than his graduation. Having it picked out just meant that he'd seen the perfect one and wanted to keep it safe until it was time. Though… to see the perfect ring, he'd had to have been in a jewellery store to begin with.

Clint shook himself mentally, concentrating more on what Phil was doing with his hands. He didn't want to know whether Phil was joking or not. He could wait a couple of years to find out.