Christmas Shopping
"Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you to step away from that Elsa doll."
Clint has been dancing around his feelings for Pietro for a while. A long while. A 'since Sokovia' while.
The long vigil with Wanda at Pietro's hospital bedside as they waited for him to wake up, the fluttery feeling in his stomach when bluesy eyes had fluttered open and that ridiculous accent had teased "you definitely didn't see this coming". That was just the start and it seems like every day since Clint has been falling progressively further down the rabbit hole.
Learning that Pietro could play the piano beautifully, his long, graceful fingers coaxing the most incredible sound out of Clint's badly tuned, piece of garbage, baby grand.
The day he discovered that Pietro was a sucker for strays and witnessed the usually caustic, grouchy kid gently cradling a mangy cat, crooning soft Sokovian vowels into its fur.
Watching Pietro risk his life every time they stepped into costume, the way he used his speed to save lives and keep people safe.
The way that he looked running around in that skimpy ass costume, muscles moving under his skin in the most unbelievably distracting way.
It's clear to him now that this realisation has been a long time coming.
This is just the final straw, the last piece of the puzzle. The wake up call that Clint has needed to see what's right in front of his face.
And it's all down to an Elsa doll. Because Clint's life is just that ridiculous.
"This is Avengers business, ma'am." Pietro pulls on his best serious face as he assures the Christmas shopper that everything is in hand and that it's really for their own best interest that they put the last Elsa doll back on the shelf and vacate the shop in an orderly manner.
Clint has to bite back his grin, keeping his own game face on as the woman complies and hurries past him muttering about how she always knew that damn Frozen cartoon was the work of evil doers.
Once the woman is out of earshot, Pietro whirls around, grinning and victorious, eyes bright and filled with a love that Clint is not sure how he could possibly have missed before, as he holds out what is quite possibly the last Elsa doll in the entire state of New York for Clint.
"Here," he says, grin faltering ever so slightly as he takes in the thunderstruck look on Clint's face. "This is the right doll, yes? The one that Lila wanted?"
Clint isn't proud of how his voice cracks "yes" or of how frantically he nods his head in ready assurance.
He is, however, very proud of the way he throws caution to the wind at the sight of Pietro's relieved smile, of how he pulls Pietro - who is still holding tightly on to that damn doll - in for a kiss. It's hot and crowded and in the middle of FAO Schwartz on the week before Christmas, camera phones clicking obnoxiously around them, but, as Pietro melts against him, it's the best damn kiss that Clint has ever had.
Clint's been keeping a tight hold on his love for Pietro for far too long now. It really does feel amazing to let it go.