Clint woke with a sigh, standing from the bed and looking at the time. It was nine twenty seven, and he knew his brother wasn't sleeping this late in the morning. Barney had always been an early bird. Life in the circus did that to him.

Clint padded down the hallways, hearing a frustrated groan and something crashing.

"You okay in here, big brother?" Clint knocked before opening the door.

Barney sat on the bed, muscleless legs folded underneath him. His bloodshot eyes complemented his red hair, which was tousled, sticking out at all angles. He had dried tracks of tears on his cheeks.

His wheelchair lay on it's side across the room, one wheel still spinning slightly.

"It's...it's been ten years." He looked up at Clint. "Ten fucking years."

"I know." Clint took out the purple hearing aides, letting a layer of loud silence wash over him. He turned the purple plastic over in his hands. "Ten years."

Barney sat powerlessly as sixteen year old Clint lay on the ground, screaming at the silence. He had his hands clamped over his useless ears, and he was yelling at the top of his lungs. The neighbors were used to it, sympathetic even.

Clint continued to scream, pounding on the floor and clawing at his ears.

"I can't hear!" He yelled, though it was just garbled sounds that blended together.

Tears streamed down his face and he cried, pulling at his ears.

Barney tried to ease out of the hospital chair to sit next to his brother, falling hard on the floor instead. He took Clint's head into his lap, stroking his hair. Clint continued to scream, sobbing.

"Shh, shh. You're okay. You're okay." He knew Clint couldn't hear him, but he didn't know what else to do.

Clint stopped yelling and looked up at his brother. He tried to sign that it was too loud, but he couldn't remember the movements.

"The quiet is too loud." He tried to say, but it came out more like 'he quit ssta laod'.

Barney just nodded, wiping Clint's tears. "It's going to be okay. We'll get through this."

Barney leaned against Clint.

'Do you remember,' Clint signed. 'The day I got my hearing aides? You and me, we cried like babies.'

Barney chuckled. 'Yeah.'

It was two years after the accident when they could finally afford hearing aides.

Clint sat on the stool, spinning it around while waiting for the doctor to get back.

'Stop that.' Barney signed.

'Fuck you.' Clint stuck his tongue out.

The doctor opened the door, and Barney got back in position to translate.

The doctor pulled out flesh colored aides, explaining what each part did and how to adjust volume and such. Finally she turned to him.

"Let's try them on, shall we?"

Clint nodded, a little excited.

The doctor placed them in his ears, pausing. "You ready?"

'Yes.' He signed.

There was a click in one ear, then a click in the other.

"Can you hear me, little brother?" Barney sat directly in front of him.

Clint gasped. He heard himself gasp. This caused his eyes to well up with tears.

"I can hear you." His voice sounded nothing like it had sounded before he went deaf. It was nasally and barely intelligible.

Barney started to cry as well. He lent forward to hug Clint, and they sat there, squeezing each other.

"I can hear." Clint chanted in utter disbelief. "I can hear."

Even the doctor got a little choked up.

Clint could hear so much. The rush of the air from the vents, his brother's breathing, his own heart pounding in his ears.

He could hear.

Barney sighed, pulling himself to the edge of the bed. 'I'd better go, Kate's gonna wake up soon.'

'No, no. Pietro and I can handle Kate today. Don't feel obligated to do anything, I know how hard today is for you.' Clint grabbed his arm.

'Thanks, Clint. I owe you one.'

•••

Kate knew that December twenty eighth was a hard day for her father. She usually tried her best to stay out of the way and help out a little, but she didn't really know what to expect this year.

For the first six years of her life, she'd lived with her dad and Clint in an old apartment. Clint couldn't hear very well even with the hearing aides, so she grew up speaking sign language and english. She thought about a picture of four year old her riding on Clint's shoulders at the beach. It was on her nightstand.

She wore a frilly pink and white polka dotted bikini type bathing suit and remembered the day very vividly. It was one of her fonder memories.

Clint had been wearing a white t-shirt and blue swim trunks, both garments soaking with seawater. Kate sat on his shoulders, afraid to go in the water. The sand clung to the back of her legs and rubbed on Clint's shirt.

Clint had left his hearing aides at home so they wouldn't get wet, so his speech was extremely off but Kate was used to it. "Come on, Katie. It's not so bad."

She tapped his shoulder twice to alert him to put her down.

'I'm scared.' Her tiny fingers signed. 'What if I get swept away by the water?'

'Would I ever let anything happen to you?'

'No...' She looked down, giggling. 'Can daddy come in the water?'

'I don't know, kiddo. You could ask him.'

She was off in a flash.

She crawled onto Barney's lap. "Daddy, do you wanna come in the water with me?"

"No, honey. Uncle Clint can take you, though." He kissed the top of her head.

"But I want to go in the water with you."

"Sorry, I can't go in, Katie." He roped her black hair into a ponytail. "Go on in with Clint."

"Okay." She pouted, climbing down and running to Clint.

Barney sighed, feeling bad. He really did want to go in and play with her, but unfortunately, he couldn't swim too well after the accident.

Clint took Kate's small hand in his, walking with her into the sea. Her eyes widened at the feel of the sand and the water. She reached down to touch the seashells, a wave splashing up. The waves continued, and Clint grabbed onto Kate so she wouldn't fall.

Kate was calmed by the sounds the water made as is rushed back and forth.

'The sea makes pretty sounds.' She told him.

'I bet it does.' He agreed. 'I don't think we ever came to the beach when I could hear.'

'I'm sorry.'

'It's not your fault.'

Clint splashed some water at her, causing her to shriek and laugh.

There was a small minnow that swam by. Kate knelt down and peered at it. 'What is it?' She signed, not looking away from the fish.

Clint had to speak verbally because she wasn't looking at him. "It's just a tiny minnow."

He was kind of embarrassed by his voice because he sounded like, well, a deaf person. He had trouble enunciating words and gauging if the correct sounds were coming out.

"Minuw." She repeated the incorrect pronunciation.

Clint couldn't tell what she said. 'Repeat that?'

'Minuw?' She signed unsurely.

'Minnow. Sorry that I didn't say it right.' He corrected.

'Not your fault.' She looked at the shore. There were children making sandcastles. 'Wanna make a sandcastle?'

'Sure.'

They came ashore, deciding on a spot not too far from Barney. It was about three feet away from Clint's brother and five from the sea.

The duo scooped the damp sand into a bucket, starting to work. Barney approached, sliding down from the chair to work with them.

'Glad you could join us.' Clint signed sarcastically.

Barney punched him in the shoulder.

Clint threw sand at him and before long they were acting like two year olds, sand in Clint's hair and down Barney's shirt.

They built the biggest fucking sandcastle ever that day, and sand was buried deep in the crevices of Barney's wheelchair for months.