FOOL'S GOLD

❝ Only a fool falls in love ❞

Tensley Ellis was the shyest con man in the world. He worked best while in a large crowd, messing with his cards while stealing wallets and the occasional expensive watch, but he was happiest tucked away in his Seattle apartment with his brothers and kittens. But doing card tricks and playing with his kittens wasn't enough to keep him and his brothers stable and alive, so he had to resort to more shady dealings, which involved more social interaction than he would've liked.

It was because of these shady, less-than-ideal dealings that Tensley was tasked with something simple. Intercept a truck carrying billions of dollars worth of illegal weapons and bring them back. He did this right, he and his brothers would never have to worry about money again. It seemed simple at the time, until he ran into a few problems.

Clint Barton was one of those problems. Still rather new to S.H.I.E.L.D. yet rising quickly through the ranks, he was sent to pick up the exact same shipment of weapons. Instead of weapons, however, he simply found himself face-to-face with a bumbling con artist who threw cards at his face, demanding to know where the shipment was. As it turned out, they weren't the only ones after the score.

That was how Clint and Tensley found themselves chasing after the elusive group, motel hopping and forcing themselves into less than ideal situations filled with pizza, petty arguments, and accidental cuddling. They hadn't signed up for any of it, but they would be lying if they said they hadn't loved every second of it.

But even after everything that had happened and all the time that had passed, things weren't ever going to be fully safe, and as Tensley and Clint find themselves working against the clock to find Tensley's brothers, they begin to wonder if they were foolish to even try to live normal lives. If they were foolish to even choose to fall in love. Foolish to try and be okay.

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CAST

dave franco as tensley ellis

❝ I can't believe I'm already an old cat lady while still in my twenties and a man ❞

boyd holbrook as clint barton

❝ you're more of a disaster than I am, so we're pretty much soulmates ❞

zac efron as harley ellis

❝ considering we all work minimum wage jobs, I'm surprised we still have a home ❞

garrett clayton as vinnie ellis

❝ I'm way too pretty to die at the hands of some criminals that have beef with my brother ❞

[ + additional cast ]
annet mahendru as natasha romanoff
marvel cast as respective characters
hero of hero faceclaims as their respective characters

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STATUS

started: 09.22.18 ; 01.17.21

completed: —

AUTHOR'S NOTE

What's up, ya'll! Welcome back to this fic that only had one chapter up before I decided to rewrite it starting now! I'm not even gonna acknowledge that, because we're here now and we look to the future! So, we're starting over and we're gonna have a great time and I'm actually going to write more than one chapter and actually finish it (I promise this time, I swear)

【 This takes place in my Hero of Heroes series and while you don't need to have read the other fics in the series to understand what is going on, you can if you so wish as characters from this fic may appear in others and vice versa 】

DEDICATED TO:

luminite who is the biggest Clint Barton fan, full stop, and her love for him inspired me to write a fic for him and, even after three years, was still willing to listen to me talk about this fic and helped me understand more about Clint

I hope you stick around!