Amateur time
Now
Clint scratches the scar over his shirt “how did you find me?”
“Hydra is gone” Winter says, while he checks the perimeter the room. Not that there’s much to check. The hydra goons are all dead along with the shrine of red skull probably.
Man, Cap would’ve a field day with that one.
“oh shit, for real?” and probably he should have been more pressed by the news or picking up his phone more. Thing is, after the disaster with the bros and the building he really hadn’t had the time for any of it.
“Yes” And then Winter seems to be in another place entirely “I remembered, you. You’re a hell of a shot, Clint” and he touches his shoulder briefly.
Oh man, he hasn’t forgiven himself for that one yet. But this is the way their lives work, they way they both lost each other.
“do you?”
“Yeah, you are incredible” and Clint doesn’t know what to do with that information so he doesn’t say anything for a while. Letting his arms fall limp to their side, when he remembers something.
“Wait, do you remember your name?”
Winter smiles at him. God its breathtaking up close, Clint wants to kiss him “it’s James”
“James” Clint repeats, awed for being trusted with that small fragment of Winter’s life “so, Jimmy-”
“No” James glares at him when he grins, pointing with his metal finger in his chest “no Jimmy”
-
“so” Clint says from his apartment, as James bandages his foot. His new pair of aids are comfortable and blood free. Thank god.
James raises his eyebrow, finishing the bandage.
“this is fucking weird” No more weird than letting the Winter Soldier dispose of Hydra bodies and carrying him bride-style to his apartment, but still.
James gives a sharp laugh, his long hair fluttering behind his ear “you could say that”.
“I mean yeah- fuck I-“
“Clint I- wanted to-“ James pauses, shaking his head “Shit, I’m sorry for barging in here, I should just go” And then he’s moving towards the door. Away from Clint’s life probably forever- and he can’t. He can’t do this again.
“Hey!” Clint says a little too panicked to sound casual, almost falling off the chair “you can stay here you know”
“I’m not safe” James replies but he keeps stealing glances at him from under his eyelashes. He figures an Hydra agent would shit his pants seeing the same, but for Clint it’s kinda cute.
“Really? after getting rid of the bodies and the foot. I would say you’re pretty safe to me”
“Fine” James glares at him for making sense. Probably.
“Fine?” like its not the best news Clint has heard all week.
“I will stay”
Clint tries to hide his grin but fails terribly “you missing some of the tape- okay shutting up now AH-” Clint yelps when James takes his foot with his metal arm.
—
“You can sleep in the bed if you want” Clint sits in the bed and sighs.
“you are injured” Its only a little sprain on his ankle. He’s had worse, but he won’t say it, not after seeing how carefully James cared to wrap it.
“I know, I was there” James flat stare intensifies “I mean, you can sleep here next to me if you want. You will probably feel better glaring at the door from here” And he’s yet again playing with fire, but Clint has never been good at denying things he wants.
“Also, you can have some of my clothes. It can’t be comfortable wearing that many knives”
James sits at the edge of the bed “why are you doing this?”
Isn’t it obvious? I’m an idiot who never forgot about you.
“You came here” seems to be the safest choice words.
James eyes bore into him for a minute “I guess I did” and then he starts to pile up his gear on the floor.
Sleep time get increasingly complicated after that. Clint might’ve miscalculated his own reaction to seeing James undress right in front of him.
He just prays his body doesn’t betray him and tries to undress but the damn sweatshirt won’t cooperate with him getting stuck under his armpits.
“aw no shirt”
But James lifts his sweatshirt in one single motion “there”
“Uff thanks” Clint says in relief, momentarily lost in the blue of James eyes. He licks his lips and watches as James follows the motion and everything is going great until James eyes glance down, at his scar.
Clint feels self conscious enough to put a hand on it immediately “uh, that’s- that’s not what you think”
“Let me see” and that’s not asking really, his eyes are fixed on it. Fuck.
How to explain to a guy, let alone an amnesiac brainwashed assassin that they used to bang.
“please Clint” oh no, those puppy eyes. Goddamn, he is only human.
The touch of his hand makes him gasp. Okay, fuck a sexy man is touching his tummy. Calm down Barton.
“did I?” and there’s heartbreak all over his eyes, oh no.
“yes, but it was totally consensual. I swear-”
“Clint” Because fair, it was his Winter soldier sign call after all.
“I asked you to, in case- in case it made you remember” Clint mentally gives himself a pat in the shoulder for articulating that sentence.
”but, why?” his hand hovers over it, and Clint wishes he would touch it.
Because you could associate your mission with something nice for once.
“post sex clarity” Its what comes out of his fucking mouth instead, god help him “I mean- nut- shit, I mean. I mean yeah” he shuts up when James finally traces the scar.
Clint shudders at the touch “you should probably know I been looking for you-”
James presses his thumb against his lower lip, effectively shutting him up “I know” and then they are kissing.
Clint breaks the kiss first. Letting his hands touch his jaw line. God, he’s perfect and here. He’s finally here with Clint.
“what is it?” James whispers, his hand resting lightly on his knee.
“I need to pick up Macy. You remember the cat right? Because if you don’t it’s totally fine-”
James stares at him.
“what?”
“Clint” How can he express so much with intonation alone, Clint doesn’t know.
“it’s nothing” it’s everything. Clint’s afraid he’s the one having a breakdown.
But James waits.
“I’m just really, really glad you are here” Clint admits, not only because the hydra guys were almost kicking his ass but because he missed the fuck out of him.
And he kinda doesn’t want to let go.
“I’m glad too” James says.
—
Eight months later
He’s half asleep watching a rerun of Dog cops with a bowl of cereal on his lap when the door of his apartment suddenly breaks. Damn not again, he just had that fixed.
“Andrev?” Clint can only gape, as Andrev’s dead face signals a couple of goons.
There’s a moment of stillness before he launches the spoon at the bastard. It bounces off his fat head. He’s totally regretting leaving his bow back at the tower for an upgrade.
“get him!” someone roars.
He throws himself at the edge of the couch where Bucky leaves his knives sometimes, but someone tackles him smashing his head against the coffee table. Clint twists, elbowing back hard until he hears a crunch.
Someone screams. Yeah, having a broken nose sucks.
He vaults over to the kitchen “sorry, it’s definitely broken”. The guy snarls moving forward and Clint smashes his face into the cabinet door. Using spoons as projectiles and the brand new toaster over the fucker’s head when he moves.
Clint is totally kicking ass he swears until he’s down by a taser in the neck.
“down you go” Andrev says, his hat obscuring the half of his face.
Amateur time.
He wakes up tied down to a chair with only his pants remaining and his scar for all the world to see. Great.
Clint blinks a few times, its not really Andrev. You wouldn’t really caught Andrev dead with a fedora, guy knew about style and- well probably murder.
It’s his shit brother smiling down at him. Clint never wondered what happened to him after he joined Shield, seems like he should have.
“Oh, he’s gonna be pissed” Clint mutters, glancing down at his ruined pants. They were James’s favorites.
Made his ass look great apparently.
“oh, I am pissed” Yakov says, misunderstanding.
Not you. He wants to say but his head hurts and it’s not worth the effort.
The goons took him by surprise alright? “didn’t hydra wanted to kill you like a long time ago?”
“they got rid of him, but I was too resourceful to kill” Yakov says somehow proudly.
Talk about having shit brothers.
“Your brother? He was nice I guess” even after all the shit with Barney went down, Andrev never put a hit on him. Maybe because Clint was no one in that time and didn’t care. But still nice of him, he’s still nobody these days so fair game.
He gets punched.
His head is swimming. And his ears start ringing, and goddamn it those were the only last decent pair of hearing aids.
Andrev’s shit brother narrows his eyes, from this close Clint can see his lips moving. It really fucking annoying to lip read under these conditions.
“what?” he asks, and it must have been loud because Yakov startles.
“I asked for the Winter Soldier. Where is he?”
“He left to buy milk” the tragedy is that James really went, turns out you can’t make pannacotta without it but he gets punched in the face for it.
“Aw no, I’m bait?” He whines, wincing when his hearing aid slides out of his ear “but I’m an Avenger man, I’m not supposed to be bait”
“you live with him” Yakov states and fair enough.
“you could have… I don’t know man, knocked?”
Yakov looks back incredulous. Yeah, thats fair. James would probably shoot them on sight.
“I mean, he’s not much of a soldier now. He’s obsessed with youtube” he explains. It wasn’t like James stopped being scary, but sometimes when you bang enough it starts to be hot instead.
“a weapon is to be retrieved, used. I can take care of him, give him purpose”
“No, man listen” God this is annoying “You don’t get it, he’s going to be pissed at you-“
A mew cuts through. Oh my god, no way.
A goon cooes at Macy.
Clint turns sharply “what are you doing here?” he asks his cat.
His fucking cat licks her paw, ignoring the offerings of- he squints a granola bar? you can’t feed that to cats. Right?
“wait, Macy can’t eat sugar you idiot”
Yakov glares at him “Shut up”
“that’s what he said” he giggles. Definitely concussion.
So they both wait. The goons are playing Candy crush by the sounds of it meanwhile Clint starts to wonder what James’s going to think seeing the apartment trashed and probably a little bloody.
His nose itches and he sighs sadly. He can’t scratch it with his hands tied.
But it turns out, he doesn’t need to worry about James picking up the message. A couple of shoots ring out in a quick succession as the goons start to drop, screaming with their knees blown up.
Well, are least they are not dead. Probably not Hydra then.
Yakov yells.
“yeah, they do that too. Usually not that loud though. I have neighbors”
James walks down with his heavy boots, glancing at him “are you hurt?”
“hey” Clint says sweetly, wincing when Yakov puts a gun to his head “I’m bait, nice to meet you”
“throw the weapon soldier and obey” Yakov spats, sweating profusely under his fedora. Really who uses those things nowadays?
The remaining goons point at James but then his cat yawns.
“Oh no way, really?” Clint says his voice high pitched. He’s never seen her do that. Never.
“what?!” Yakov panicked voice breaks.
Macy opens her jaws and swallows the remaining goons.
There is a moment of absolute silence before Yakov drops the weapon and goes running like his ass is on fire. It probably is, Clint can’t really tell when everything is moving.
Clint blinks at Macy. He definitely hit his head too much today.
“Your cat eats people but won’t eat cat food?” James asks, lowering his gun.
“She prefers my culinary preferences”
“Pizza ain’t a culinary preference Clint” James starts cutting the ropes that bind him to the chair.
He touches a cut on his face and sighs “I go away for five minutes-“
“Aw don’t, it hurts. By the way you should probably go. The team must be close by now. Yakov pressed my keychain or something-”
“I will stay” James says resolute.
“alright, but only because I’m passing out and your chest feels nice” and he proceeds to pass the fuck out.
—
Okay this looks bad.
“Oh god, no one is buying the fucking milk” is the first thing out of his mouth somehow, all slurred.
“How are you feeling?”
Nat. Beautiful capable Nat who always buys him the milk he likes.
“Oh Nat hi, sorry for no answering Macy was being a demon and-
“And when were you gonna tell us, the Winter soldier has been living with you for months”
“In July” he answers.
“What?” Nat frowns.
“For Cap’s fake birthday, we were gonna bake a cake and everything”
“Clint- that’s his real birthday”
And the nurse interrupts them “Sir you need-“
“its fine” Clint says at Holly, and blinks again “you stayed”
“Someone needed to make sure you didn’t set your kitchen on fire again” James said, thankfully without armor and wearing his softest purple sweatshirt.
Holly leaves them alone.
“Hi, I’m Bucky”
Clint holds his breath as Nat and James introduce themselves. It feels like a crossover event, pizza and Dog cops at once.
“Nice to meet you, Bucky. It’s Natasha these days”
“Changed names?” he asks because they had the Bucky-talk then, back when James remembered more about his past but was still undecided.
“James didn’t fit me as much nowadays” Bucky says.
And it really doesn’t. Bucky seems to encompass so much more than James but for Clint it was still a long way of getting used to it “fucking weird dude, you old as fuck to be called Bucky”
“Yeah, laugh it up asshole”
“where’s Macy?”
“terrorizing Stark” Nat says, a small crinkle in her eyes.
“hope that eating those assholes didn’t gave her indigestion. Indigestion is a bitch”
“I think she spit them out already” Bucky cringes.
”They are under custody” Nat says for both of them “Steve pulled them out”
“Gross. What about Yakov?” he wonders.
“on the run, but not for long. Tony is looking into it”
“oh, and I bought your milk” Bucky says, putting the carton right beside his bed.
”Oh thank god” he would have thought about that fucking milk all day.
“the frozen pizza can wait until you are cleared”
“oh man, I could kiss you on the mouth” and Bucky smiles brightly, it takes years off his face. His stubble looks nice under the lighting, and maybe Clint is dreaming a little with the drugs floating inside of him.
But he feels so happy to have the two people who mean the world to him there with him when he feels like a sack of shit. And maybe he’s saying this out loud by the way Nat blinks fast like she always does when something gets to her.
“Rest, I will pick up Macy” Nat is leaving, doing her side eye thing. Kissing his cheek. It feels damn great. He sighs contently.
“so, how about that kiss?” Bucky asks him when they are alone, uncharacteristically quiet. It reminds him of those times, those first weeks when they didn’t know how to treat each other-
“you have to do the heavy lifting here” and tries to stand up.
“don’t move, you idiot” the hand on his chest looks very sexy there. And Bucky’s laughing at him.
“aw come on, don’t laugh. I’m on drugs-” and Bucky sweeps his feet from under him with the kiss that follows.
“now, rest. I will be here when you wake up” his lips still tingle. Hot damn.
“alright but don’t be a bitch about it” and Clints is about to fall asleep when he remembers “Bucky?”
“yeah?”
“did Macy-?”
“yeah”
”what the fuck”
“and-“
“sleep Clint”
“yeah but the thing is, I-“
The bed dips on his side ”tell me what”
“I’m crazy about you, like I have lied to everyone about you to keep you safe”
”I know”
“so…”
“I love you too asshole. There” and he peaks him on the cheek. Its damn cute.
Clint eyes flutter closed “and what about-
“Steve is outside, now sleep. Don’t let me call Holly here”
Clint opens one eye “you wouldn’t”
Bucky lifts an unimpressed eyebrow.
“okay now, I’m sleeping see”
“I can clearly see you are not”
Clint opens his eyes, its better to say it now with the drugs in him “I know I asked you to stay, but you don’t have to. If it gets too hard, I understand”
“you are an idiot” Bucky sits next to him, the warm press of his furnace body “If it gets bad I just have to kidnap you”
Clint sighs “you make it sound so easy”
“maybe it is, with the right people”
“sappy” and Bucky smacks him over the head, but he’s gentle about it.