A Revelation
“So how’d it go?”
Sage narrowed her eyes at Natasha. “How did what go?”
“Adeline meeting Sam. How did it go?”
“Are you really asking, or do you want to know how much I’ll tell you because you’ll know how much I’m bullshitting because you were secretly there the whole time?”
“Sage. Really. What kind of a person do you think I am?”
“The kind that is a spy.” Sage raised her eyebrows as if daring Natasha to contradict her.
“Alright. That’s fair.” Natasha looked at her nails studiously, as if considering the colour. Currently, her nails were painted a soft lavendar. “Want me to paint your nails?”
“You just want me to tell you new things about my girlfriend.”
Natasha arched an eyebrow at her. “Isn’t that my role as an aunt/amazing older cousin? Really, I have no idea exactly how we’re supposed to be related in this madhouse, but whatever works, I suppose.”
“Fair enough. Did you get new polish?”
The ginger grinned. “Come on, we’ll go up to my floor. If you ask nicely enough, Clint will let you paint his nails too.”
“Ooh! Let’s go!”
---
“And so, then these two guys, Pasey and Luke, they were walking by, and Pasey goes ‘get a room lesbos’ and so I was like ‘fuck you Pasey,’ ya know? And then-”
“Wait, some fucker at your school said that? Out loud?” Clint looked utterly enraged, which, really, was a very comical look considering the robin’s egg blue that was currently being painted onto his nails.
Sage shrugged, focusing on the tiny brush painting his nails. “That’s just… my school. I mean, it really sucks, but the most you can really do is threaten to do something actually gay, and sometimes that scares them off.”
“And if it doesn’t?”
“I get a detention for pretending to make out with my friend in the hallway, or I block out their bullshit. It depends on my mood.”
Clint and Natasha shared a look over Sage’s head. “And the teachers and faculty don’t do anything about it?”
“Are you kidding? The faculty and staff are even more close minded than the students.”
Clint pulled his hands away and rapidly signed at Natasha. ”We should tell Cap. He could do some assembly on tolerance or something.”
Sage’s brow furrowed. “Not fair. Rude, Clint. Come on!”
He grinned at her and patted her head with the hand that was dry. “We still love you, Sage. Don’t worry.”
“Ruuuuude.”
---
“Cap. We need to talk.”
Steve looked up at the vent above his bed where he and Bucky were currently lying. “Clint, we’ve talked about this. That’s literally the worst place for you to be. Especially right now. It’s midnight!”
“I didn’t realise you went to bed early, sorry grandpas. But seriously. It’s about Sage.” He dropped from the vent and quickly scrambled off of their bed, resolutely not thinking about what he could have landed on and only making eye contact. He was definitely not looking at Captain America’s pecs, nosiree. Goddamn, they were so fit. No! Bad Clint! Sage! “She told me and Tasha today that apparently she’s been dealing with some major homophobia at school. So, Nat and I were thinking. What if America’s golden boy went and gave them a talk about how shitty homophobia is?”
“Clint.” Steve’s voice took on a warning Captain’s Tone.
“No, Stevie. Think about it. He’s got a point.”
“I am not going into a Christian academy with a talk about tolerance and saying ‘hey kids, homophobia is a shitty thing and you shouldn’t do it’. That’s literally going against the entire point I’m trying to make and spitting in their face.”
“Why?”
“It’s a Christian establishment, Clint. I’m not going to walk in, talk about tolerance and then swear. Do you see the issue there?”
“Okay… Maybe. But still!”
“Steve…”
“Look. I’m not saying I won’t think about it. I’ll talk to Pepper, see what we can do, okay? It’s definitely something that needs to be dealt with. Do Tony and Loki know?”
Clint shrugged. “Nat’s going to talk to them now. So if they didn’t, they certainly will. Maybe you and Stark can both go. Give a ‘superheroes accept everyone no matter what’ speech. I would sit through it.”
“Yeah, because you’d be scoping out the little assholes who said that stuff to Sage and shooting spitballs at them, don’t play innocent, Barton.”
Clint grinned and pointed at Bucky. “You’ve got me there.”
“Go away. We’ll deal with this in the morning.”
“Yeah, yeah, I hear ya.” Clint walked toward the elevator, faintly hearing the super soldiers whispering to each others and turning down his hearing aids just as a precaution. They probably wouldn’t try to continue what he’d caught them at the tail end of, but really, one could never be too careful.
---
“She’s WHAT?!”
Natasha nearly rolled her eyes out of her head at Tony’s reaction. Yes, this was a big deal, but honestly. Did he have no decorum? Why had she let Clint go rouse Steve and James again?
Right. Because the last time she’d tried that they’d been fucking each other within an inch of their extended lives. Maybe Stark wasn’t quite so bad.