What if... they'd broken up before the blip?

WARNING: HAWKEYE EPISODE 4 SPOILERS [not proof read, v sorry if it's not the best]

Aerus and Yelena. Yelena and Aerus. Together forever. Right?

Well, maybe you're a little wrong... In this universe, the two didn't last two years. In this universe, Aerus was left to fend for their own by Yelena's sudden disappearance. 

The three of them stood on the building's roof, looking over at the apartment. Well, not all of them were looking over at the apartment. Only Clint was actually looking at the apartment, while the other two kinda just stood there, kinda looking like total losers. 

"Do we know what we're doing here?" Aerus finally asked, breaking that long, ongoing silence.

"I don't, hey, maybe Clint knows!" Kate says sarcastically, making Air hold back a laugh as the two looked at the older archer. 

"Something very important to me is pinging inside that apartment." He tells the two of them as he continued to look through the binoculars. "It was stolen from a black market auction. I need it back." He continued. "No lights, no movement." Kate sighed beside them. "This is our chance."

"This would have been much easier if we were on a high rooftop." Kate says to him.

"That's what you think." Clint says, not taking his eyes off of the apartment. 

"Yeah..." Air says. "That's why she said it..."

"Kate, Air, you always wanna prioritize a quick exit over a quick entrance." He teaches the two, making Aerus roll their eyes.

"Thank you, old man, care to elaborate." Air muttered.

"So, when things go sideways, and they usually do, we have extra strategy. That's why I chose this spot." He says. "It's got good sightlines for all my exits." They gave Kate a glance and she nods back at the door, making Air smirk as they both began to slowly, slowly walk away. Unfortunately, they could both still hear him through the coms link. "I think it should take me about three and a half minutes to get in. So, if you two see anything out here, just give me a signal, alright?" There was a moment of silence on the coms as the two left the building. "Kate? Air?" A car's driver shouted at them both as they crossed the street, as calm as possible. "Kate? Kate? Air?"

"There you are." Kate says beside them while Air smirked at how the girl's ignorance could sometimes really show. 

"I told you two you're supposed to be on lookout." He tells the two.

"Yes." Air says. "But, out of the three of us, we're the two who will get distracted by the Christmas lights." They tell him. 

"That's not fair, with both your inabilities to act like a grown-up helps you get your own way." Air smirked in response to what the older man says.

Katie scoffs beside them. "No, it's not. But it is what it is." 

"I need you to use your grappling hook arrow to anchor yourself in, propel down the side of the building to the window, from there Aerus can go in first to check if the coast is clear or not." He says.

"Yeah, love all of that." Kate says to the plan as the two walked towards the building door. "Great plan, just a slight tweak though." 

"Evening, sir." Aerus began towards an elderly man with three grocery bags. He turned to the two of them, a little confused. "Can we help you with your bags?" 

"Oh- uh- thank you-" He handed them one each before opening up the apartment block doors.

"What are you-" Clint began. "No-no-no-" He told them through coms. "No-no- don't engage-"

"You got some celery?" They asked taking a glance in the grocery bag, trying to give an interest to block out Barton in their ear.

"A little Kashi." Kate adds, also looking in her own bag as they both stepped in.

"Pretzels in mine!" Air told her.

"Air... Kate..." Clint begins, trying to get either of their attention. "Where are you?" He asks as the doors close to the elevator.

"Oh relax, we're taking the elevator." She tells him. 

"I'm sorry, what was that?" The man turned to look at Kate as he asked the question. 

"Oh- I- uh- I'm sorry..." She tells him. "I wasn't talking to you..." She chuckles, trying to not make it so awkward in the elevator. There was a moment of silence before she turned back to the man as Air leaned against the elevator wall. "Can I tell you a secret?"

"Please don't do this..." Clint says through coms. The old man nodded. 

"I was talking to an Avenger!" She pulled a face to show how amazing it was while Air had a sudden interest in the floor. "He's in my ear..." 

"Maybe you should stop talking." Clint says to her.

"And Air?" She looks over at them and back to the man. "He's an Avenger, too!" The man didn't seem that bothered. "It's like... we're uh.. all working together." The door opened up and he took both bags from both rather quickly. 

"I'll take this back..." He went to walk out the elevator door. 

"We can help you to the door, no problem..." 

"No, that's all right. I got it from here." He says. 

"Okay, are you sure?" Kate continued. "It's really no problem." Aerus pulled her back from being hit in the face by the closing elevator door while the girl continued on "Alright, you take care now." she tells him as the doors eventually shut. 

The girl and Avenger walked down the corridor towards the appartment, and the younger archer groaned. "What do you do with this giant bow problem?" She asked the man through coms. 

"He has a retractable bow." They tell her as they found the door.

"Oh... that makes sense." Kate said as they both stopped. "Okay, we're at the door." 

Aerus took out a tiny knife from an inside jacket pocket, poking it in the keyhole while Clint spoke through coms. "We're good." 

The door rattled in front of them for a moment before they opened it up, placing the knife back in the pocket and taking out a smaller retractable knife they had. "Do you have a knife for every situation?" Kate asked them quietly, causing them to give her a glare. 

Slowly, they opened up the door to the dark apartment, with Kate's flashlight being the only light source they had. The two stepped in, seeing no problems so far. All looked normal as Kate put the light around all of the apartment. "Okay... living room is all clear." Air says. As the two began to separate from being one behind the other, a light went off in one corner, and then the other. 

"Oh, shit-" Kate took out her arrows, shooting up in the corners with the putty arrows, covering the lights that just continued to flash.

"What was that?" Clint asked as the two looked around, now with guards up, watching each other's back.

"No clue... seemed like strobe lights attached to the wall..." Air told him as they walked slowly, step by step, one by one, through the appartment. 

"What do you mean, strobe lights?" He asked them, as if they could make it any better. 

"I don't know..." They murmur.

Clint thought for a moment before looking back through his binoculars. "Alright, what'd you see?" 

"What're we looking for?" Kate asked as she walked ahead, with Air still glancing around the living area.

"A watch." He said as Aerus slowly followed Kate, not turning their back on the room. "Vintage Rolex." He says. "Belongs to someone we used to work with." Aerus kept quiet as he said that, leaving it to archer to find. 

"Is that the whole story, Clint?" She asked him.

"They've been out of the game a long time, but their identity is still attached to that watch." He says to the two through coms.

"Hmmm... and if the Tracksuits find out about it?" She asks. 

"It would blow their cover. Goodbye, friend." Air says, covering for Barton's answer. After a moment, Kate turned back to Air, of who was still a little unsure. 

"Got the watch." She says, showing it to them before they put it in their pocket. 

"Great..." Clint says to the two. Kate went to move away, but her own torch's light shone on a piece of paper that caught Air's eye. 

"Hold on-" They reached across the desk, taking out a notepad. "Oh shit..." They mutter, with Kate peering over their shoulder. 

"Clint, somebody is taking notes on your family." She told him as they read. 

"What?" 

"Clint Barton, wife Laura, daughter Lila age 14, son Cooper, age 16. Son, Nate." They read out before ripping up said piece of paper. 

"Air.. Kate... get out of there now." Clint told them as they threw the paper behind them somewhere. 

"What? Why?" Kate asked, meanwhile, Air was still processing it all.

"That light's an alarm." Clint says. "It's a silent alarm for people that can't hear..." Kate shone a light on one of the photos, revealing a photo of Maya. 

"Oh, my God." Kate murmured next to Aerus. 

"We need to get out of here..." They say, glancing back at where they'd thrown the piece of paper. 

"That's Maya's appartment." He said, saying the obvious. "All right, I'm coming-" But then suddenly he was cut off, by what sounded like fighting. 

"Clint?" Air called, but got no reply on the coms link. 

"Clint what's going on?" Kate asked, but she didn't get a reply either. Air turned to look at her, but then there was something heard from behind them, causing them to retract their sword, blocking an oncoming fist from Maya. 

Instead, they got kicked to the floor, and Kate didn't have enough time to react to pull an arrow onto the girl, causing a punch to go straight to her face. Kate groaned as Air got up. 

"Maya's here..." Kate told him as they stood up, dodging multiple attacks from Maya. 

"I can see that." Barton says. 

"Why didn't you tell us?" Kate asks, also dodging a punch from Maya. 

"I did, Maya is on the roof with me." Says an exhausted Barton on coms.

"No.." Air says, missing a punch before swerving a knife. "Maya is definitely here." They say as Kate threw a plate towards Maya from her drying rack. 

"Then who the hell am I fighting then?" Clint asked the two of them. A punch came towards Air's face which they just about blocked with their arm before they went in, punching Maya's own face. The punch was strong, but they'd done it a little wrong, causing their own hand to hurt due to it. 

"A little help here wouldn't go a miss." Aerus tells both Kate and Clint as they rolled around on the floor, trying to get away from Maya. The archer went in, but failed miserably, getting kicked over a couch and onto the floor of the living area. 

"Give me a second." Clint tells the two, obviously having issues of his own with whoever he was fighting. "Incoming-" They heard the arrow land on the outside of the apartment, knowing they now had to help Clint also. "Get on the zip line." 

Air threw a knife in Maya's direction as they jumped upwards, which she gladly caught, throwing it towards where Kate sat, trying to get her breath back. Only by centimetres had she missed, but Air hadn't. They went in, punching twice to the face before sweeping the girl to the floor. 

"THE ZIP LINE, NOW." They shouted at Kate, of who really did not need to be told twice. The archer picked up her bow and got out to the balcony, jumping onto the zipline while Air continued to fight the girl. With another kick to the face, Air left quickly, connecting two sword handles together and jumping onto the zipline, not realising that Kate was stuck half way there. "INCOMING." They shouted before kicking the girl in the back with their knee, sending both along to the other building's roof.

But, as they got to the roof, Kate thought of the good decision of trying to kick the masked attacker, which didn't go as planned. Air jumped off immediately, taking the two swords apart as Kate was thrown to the floor. 

"KATE-" They shouted as it happened before the two swords then retracted, and the attacker turned to face them. 

"That hurt..." She said, obviously still okay. As Kate got up, the attacker turned away from Air, pulling a gun onto the younger archer, but Aerus then stood in the way, then Clint, too. 

But, of course, it wasn't chaotic enough. In came Maya, kicking both Air and the masked attacker to the ground, causing them to groan. With a gun of the masked one on the ground, Air was taking no chances, and so was Kate. The archer ran in, kicking the gun down a hole of all the apartments. 

But it seemed they were more than just talented in aim, because they were far from done. A kick to Air's ribs before a punch to the stomach and they had moved onto Clint, but Maya was still kicking around. As she went in to attack, Air blocked with one sword before throwing the other one outwards, with it flying back for it to sweep her off her own feet, onto the floor. The masked one then shot at Air, but it wasn't with a gun. 

A black widow bite. They were sent flying back by it, but as they got rid of it, they looked up, a little in shock. Not by the sudden attack, but by the attack itself. Another black widow. The chances of that were low, really low.

They threw a sword towards the masked widow, while Clint seemed rather busy with Kate who'd gone over the edge. The masked one seemed rather more reluctant to fight Aerus, but she didn't stop. The punch to the face, and then to the side of the ribs seemed to be nothing compared to the kick they did back, sending the widow back quite a bit before Clint then swooped back into action. 

The fighting went on, with Maya never getting off of Clint's back unless Air attacked her, and the masked widow never giving either of the Avengers a break. That was until a sudden explosion occurred, sending all of them back from where they stood. 

The sound was horrible, causing Air's hands to go straight to their ears for a moment due to the high pitched ringing sounds they could hear. The sound was awful, but didn't last too long as they saw Kate get kicked about, landing right over them, causing both of them to groan in pain before standing upwards. 

Kate shot at Maya while Air went towards the widow with Clint, doing all that they could to help. They slashed at the mask with the sword, but no damage seemed to be done, as the widow twisted the sword back, taking control of it and throwing it behind. But, they took that time to their advantage. While she'd thrown the sword, Air reached for the mask, taking it off of the widow. Another widow's bite came their way, causing them to groan as they fell to the ground. 

But they pulled it off quickly, standing up to see the back of a blonde's head. Kate aimed at the widow, but suddenly, Aerus' heart stopped when they got a glance at who it was. 

Yelena Belova. Once the lover of the Avenger, Yelena had seemed to change that much. Other than wanting them all dead. Her hair was noticeably braided the same way Natasha's had been when they'd first met, causing a small smile to play on their face for a moment. 

Only a moment though, because a gun was suddenly pulled out, aimed at their head while Kate had the bow aimed at the widow. 

"You wouldn't." Aerus said, shaking their head as they looked up at their ex-lover. So many thoughts going through their head, yet that's all that would come out of them. 

Yelena shook her head, but neither Kate or Air could tell who it was for. Slowly, Kate lowered her aim, though. And the widow flung a part of a zipline to the roof's floor, before she also flung the gun to the side with a smirk on her face. She then turned, running off the side of the roof in style, getting one last look at Air before she jumped. 

There was a moment of silence on the rooftop as Clint got up from where he was, walking towards the other two. Kate seemed to be in shock, and Air had an indescribable face on display. Were they pissed? Were the lost in thought? Were they angry? Were they hungry? 

"Who was that?" Kate asked, looking down at Aerus, of who was very lost mentally. 

"An assassin." Clint claimed to her. "Kate, you need to go home." 

"I don't think that's your main priority." Kate said, nodding down at Air, of who was muttering one thing under their breath. Repeating the same word over, and over again.

Clint gave her a cautious look but the younger archer moved forward, kneeling down to get closer to Aerus, hearing that one word better. 

"Traitor."

a/n- more what if ideas?