abusive Coulson, oblivious Clint

[meatball42.livejournal.com]

Ugh, this should be so simple, idk why I can't find the right AO3 tags.

Post Avengers, when Tony invites the team to move in with him, he and the others are mildly surprised when Clint is very very neat and tidy and doesn't decorate and sticks to a specific schedule for eating, but they pretty much decide it's trauma/grief/natural quirkiness and move on. After ever-more creepy hints that something is not right, I believe it's Tony and Steve who discover a heavily-notated SHIELD handbook which reveals how Coulson had governed every aspect of his and Clint's home life and convinced him that he deserved to be punished for infractions such as eating outside certain times and decorating incorrectly. Punishments that I can recall included going without food and having a prized bow smashed. Tony, Steve (maybe it was Bruce, but I think Steve) and Natasha are Very Unhappy with this and begin the long process of getting Clint into a better headspace about living arrangements. They agree not to try to convince him that Coulson was abusive because he's already mourning the guy, why make it worse? Pretty sure it ended without any sort of Coulson lives reveal.

Thank you very much, dear fellow fans!

FOUND: Strength of Materials by harcourt