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It’s something Thanos did to them. They’d thought he was going to kill half of all living things but instead he just uprooted everyone’s marriages and love lives, putting an end to dating as they knew it.
Which sounds like they got off easy - no one even died. But tell that to a woman finding out that her husband of 20 years, whom she has 3 kids with, is actually her sister’s soulmate or to two people who’ve given up everything and everyone for each other to find out that they aren’t soulmates.... To say the natural order was upset was an understatement. The world was reeling and would be for a very long time. No one wants to settle for a maybe when you know the real deal is out there waiting.
Clint doesn’t know exactly how it works, just knows what happens when it works. That when you and your soulmate get close enough for your bodies to sense each other or something - to be touching for long enough, the chemicals have some reaction and you see color. Everywhere. And until you find your soulmate, you see only in greyscale.
You can always tell the newly bonded people because they walk around looking at everything like dopes. Which seems like overkill. They’d all seen color before the Snap. It can’t be that amazing. Clint doesn’t much mind the greyscale. Except purple. He misses purple a lot.
The truth is that he doesn’t really care about seeing rainbows but he does want to be loved by a soulmate. He never thought he’d have that. Someone who won’t leave him and will just love him even though he’s…Clint Barton, professional disaster.
The Snap happened six months ago and since then, he sees only in greyscale so that must mean his soulmate is out there somewhere. It’s reassuring actually. Even if he never finds them, he knows they exist. Somewhere. That somewhere, someone who may not even know him, loves him. That’s kinda neat.
“It’s some kind of evolution thing. Bruce was telling me. Essentially we now all only have half of the chemical we need to see color. The other half - your exact other chemical half - exists in someone else. Which seems like a weird thing for Thanos to put so much effort into but pregnancy rates are already plummeting.” Sam muses, he’s picking the olives off of his pizza because he’s a freak of nature. Who doesn’t like olives?
“Of course they are,” Nat frowns at his olive pile, “why would anyone want to waste time with someone they know for a fact isn’t their soul mate? Both the divorce rate and the suicide rate right now is insanely high too - might have been kinder if he had done something like Snap half of the population away.”
“That’s pretty savage Nat,” Clint mumbles around a mouthful of pizza, “remind me to remove you as my emergency contact. I’m not ready to be Snapped out of my life yet.”
Her eye roll is somehow menacing. He chuckles in response. It’s weird that they aren’t soul mates. They’d never been sexual with each other, both treasuring the close friendship too much to risk it, but she felt like his match in so many ways, she always had. As soon as the scientists-that-be had figured out the Thanos Effect as they’d begun to call it, he had insisted they kiss to make sure.
See, you didn’t just walk past your other half and suddenly see color. Thanos made it difficult on purpose. Touching seemed to be the longest but least involved way. Just holding hands for three hours would do it. Being near enough to smell each other at certain levels of arousal would activate a slow process as well but it still took hours that way. You really needed a few factors working together - like prolonged contact and pheromones together to speed it up.
Which meant kissing was a way to fast track the process because you exchanged fluid chemicals in your spit, your heart rate went up, you began to sweat, released pheromones, all that stuff plus the benefit of being close enough for your lips to touch. The quickest way though, the ultimate fluid and pheromone exchange, was sex. It was all the same stuff as kissing but ramped up to a ten - and that was a freight train to color town according to test subjects. How they got people to test that, he kinda wanted to know.
So Nat had indulged his curiosity and kissed him - for long enough and sloppily enough that his pants were slightly uncomfortable by the time she pulled away. She had smiled sadly at him, shaking her head. They’d laid curled in each other’s arms watching some horrible French film that Nat had picked out, ignoring the occasional tears that slipped down each other’s cheeks.
They didn’t talk about feelings. They’d moved on.
Weirdly, it wasn’t until touch became necessary that people realized how little they’d been doing it before the Thanos Effect. Even the Avengers, saving the world, living in the same compound, sharing the same communal spaces, they didn’t touch skin to skin often enough or long enough to really know.
Until Nat and Steve sparred one morning.
The sweat, the adrenaline, the heart rates. The skin touching skin as they landed hits on each other. And then - they’d known. Everyone had known because everyone had been watching. She’d just finished a roundhouse kick that he had blocked when suddenly he stood straight up. And she had dropped her defenses. He had run his fingers through her hair - it had been a bright vibrant red before the world went gray, his face had gone soft and then they were kissing. Surrounded by the rest of the Avengers. Including Bucky. Steve’s boyfriend.
And that had been...awkward. For everyone. A little heartbreaking too. Clint felt especially bad for them. He knew Cap and Bucky had assumed that their own matches were long dead and they loved each other, had a love that spanned this incredible story across time and the evil that was Hydra so they’d stayed together after the Thanos Effect had been figured out. Accepting that their world would just always be colorless.
He would never admit out loud just how much that had hit him in the feels. To be loved like that and to love someone else like that? He couldn’t imagine.
But now. To say everyone was gobsmacked was an understatement. They were all avoiding each other. Even Tony was keeping quiet. Hoping that those three would figure it out and tell the rest of them how to react.
Clint had spent the night with Natasha. Curled together in her bed like they had hundreds of times. This was the first time she had been the one to cry there though. Clint was heartbroken for her.
“I’d always felt compelled to look at him but I mean, look at him, who isn’t?” She had answered after he’d asked if she’d felt it before it had happened. “And I guess, looking back, there were times I wanted to touch him but I didn’t because we don’t just go around groping people without their consent. Plus - he’s with Bucky.”
“That’s not helpful, Tasha. I want to touch everyone . That doesn’t narrow it down for me at all. I’m gonna miss out on my soulmate because I can’t go around cuddling random people without their consent!” He had groaned and buried his face in her pillow.
She laughed and pushed him onto his back, rolling over to rest her chin on her folded hands on his chest, “No, it’s different. Like it builds. Almost like one of my Widow Bites, every time I was near Steve I felt like a battery being charged or something. Our lives are so full of adrenaline that I didn’t really notice that it was only around him but now...it was always with him. And then in the gym it was like...the world around us shattered and fell away and there was only color and each other. Just being away from him for the last 24 hours has been awful, I can see and feel the gray creeping in on the sides.” This had been when she had cried the hardest.
“Tash - it’s going to work out. I was looking at Bucky when it happened, he seemed - I don’t know - kind of happy for you guys. They’ve been through a lot together, they’ll adjust and be fine.” Clint pushed the loose strands of her hair behind her ears, rubbing her tears away with his thumbs.
“Why were you looking at Bucky?” So shrewd. Always so shrewd.
“Because he’s hot, duh.” Damn it, she wasn’t going to fall for that.
“Huh. Maybe you guys should spar?”
“Shut up. You’re ridiculous. Get off of me and let’s go get ice cream.” And that had been the end of the feelings talk. Hopefully that was enough to last a lifetime because he wasn’t interested in any more of those talks.
Currently, Clint was hiding outside on the outdoor range. Nat had gone to talk to Steve so Clint had come down to the range where he knew he could let himself stop thinking.
Shooting his bow over and over and over like this always felt like a dance where he knew all the steps. Shooting it in battle was a different kind of dance - he loved it. Always being on the edge, the adrenaline, it made his blood sing. But the range was different. It was peaceful, it calmed him, centered him, if he had asked Bruce, Clint would have learned that he was meditating and just didn’t know it.
“Want to get out your hand guns and see who gets high score?” Came Bucky’s voice from two lanes down. “You’d win with a bow and I’d crush you with a long range rifle but I think we’re evenly matched on hand guns. I could use a little competition.”
“Excuse me? There isn’t even an alternate universe where you can shoot anything better than me. Let’s do all three.” His grin is predatory. Clint loves a challenge.
It’s an outdoor range but still a Stark Industries range which means it’s equipped with holo targets and they don’t shoot real bullets or arrows. He has no idea how it works but it’s environmentally friendly and the best part is that it tracks their progress down to the milliseconds.
Clint wins all three but it’s close, way too close, on the rifles.
“That was impressive. I don’t know how I forget just how damn good you are,” Bucky grins over at Clint who’s cleaning and putting away his weapons.
“I’m on a team of actual superheroes. I can’t miss. If I did, I’d be just another guy with a bow.” Clint shrugs, trying not to let on how much that terrifies him. Bucky’s brow furrows like he’s about to say something but Clint cuts him off, “Come on, let’s go watch a bad action movie where they never reload their guns but somehow never run out of bullets.”
Bucky snorts, but follows Clint’s lead. He likes that Clint doesn’t ask about Steve. He doesn’t want to talk about breaking up with his boyfriend of seventy years. It more than sucked. But...it was also kind of a relief. He’s not sure how to feel about everything yet. Or if he’s allowed to feel what he wants to feel.
They eat cold leftover pizza. Clint insists that it’s never too early or too late for pizza, and they sit at opposite ends of the couch, talking trash about the action hero blowing up cars with a handgun. It’s easy, comfortable.
Over six hours later, the credits roll on the third unbelievable installment of the bad action movie trilogy and Clint is slouched in the corner of the couch, he rolls his head to face Bucky, “It’s weird. This has been great. How have we not done this already - shoot, hang out, watch terrible movies together?”
“Guilt.” When Clint raises an eyebrow, Bucky continues, “Can I tell you a secret? A real one. You can’t tell Nat, I know you tell her everything but this is just between us.” Bucky's voice is hushed in the silence of the darkened compound and the late hour.
Clint thinks for a moment, because he does tell Nat everything but he also keeps his word, “Ok, just between us, you have my word.” Bucky obviously needs a friend and this must be something he can’t tell Steve so Clint can’t tell him no.
“Steve was always so heart broken every time I didn’t remember something or reciprocate the way he wanted....that I didn’t protest when he went right back to being my boyfriend.” Clint’s face must convey how shocked he is. “Don’t get me wrong - I love him but not the way he wants me to. The way his Bucky did. I felt trapped more than anything. When the Thanos Effect happened I thought I would get to be free finally and figure out how I fit into the world. But then of course, he wanted to ‘stand by his man’ because he’s Steve and it was the right thing to do.”
Clint doesn’t say anything and Bucky confides, “Nat and that sparring session has been the best thing that’s happened to me since I woke up.”
“Jesus Christ.” Clint breathes.
“I know,“ Bucky turns his body to face Clint, cross legged, two feet of space still separating them, “Steve would never have asked me to stay if he knew that I didn’t want to. But he had already been through so much. And he was so lonely. And he was in love with me, for him - that just happened. I died two days before he went into the ice. For me, it was something that happened to someone I forgot how to be decades ago.”
“So...” Clint feels like he shouldn’t ask but also, it’s kind of important, “you’ve been pretending to be in love with Steve, I assume having sex with him and cuddling - all against your own will? Like a prisoner? Steve was just your new Hydra?”
Bucky blinks against the weight of that, said out loud for the first time, “sort of? No sex and cuddling - I don’t like being touched so we don’t - didn’t - do that. He would put his hand on my arm or shoulder sometimes but we have our own rooms and he still treats me like I’m breakable even though I’ve been pretty much okay since Wakanda. And not pretending to be in love, I just didn’t tell him I wasn’t. I kept hoping it would come back to me - like I’d wake up one day and be in love with him again. But I think it’s gone, just like that version of me is gone.” He’s brought his knees up and is resting his chin on them as he stares at Clint. “I can’t believe you just called Steve Hydra.” He huffs out a laugh.
“Well, consent is kind of my thing. He should have asked and checked in with you. Maybe we all should have checked in on you, we just let Steve do what he thought was right when it came to you….and obviously it was wrong. Are you...ok?” The only light in the room is the soft glow of the tv as it reverts to its menu but it illuminates the concern on Clint’s face.
Bucky’s smile is soft and hopeful, “I am actually. He gets someone to love who loves him back and I get to...go after what I want - maybe? We’ll see. I don’t know.” He laughs nervously and then shakes his head, “Natalia though - I can’t decide if she’s going to destroy him or he’s going to soften her up.”
Taking the hint of the subject change, Clint smirks, “Please! I can’t decide who I’m jealous of,” he wiggles his eyebrows suggestively. “Steve has the stamina of a super soldier but Nat can strangle a man with her thighs.”
He’s so surprised by the look on Clint’s face that Bucky barks out laughter, shrugs one shoulder and says conspiratorially, “I’m a super soldier too and who do you think taught Natalia to strangle men with her thighs?”
Besides the choking noise he’s making in his throat, Clint is speechless. His dick is also now paying rapt attention. His dick has always paid attention to Bucky - that murder glare, those thighs, his side smile every time someone pissed Steve off, not to mention the way he moves and shoots. Like a pissed off jungle cat.
But all those times, Bucky had been off limits. He wasn’t anymore. And suddenly Clint finds himself wondering what exactly the waiting period is for dating new people after breaking up with your boyfriend of 70 years who you’d only been fake dating for the past year and couldn’t remember for the other 69 years.
Before Clint can figure out how to answer without throwing himself into Bucky’s lap, the elevator dings, the doors open and Tony wanders out, he’s probably been in the underground lab for a few days because his hair is sticking up all over the place, muttering to himself and making a beeline for the coffee.
Barnes takes the opportunity to escape. Leaving Clint confused and more than a little turned on.
****
Just inside the doorway to the new single room suite he’s acquired since moving out of Steve’s two bedroom last night, Bucky internally screams. Bucky just flirted. Flirted . With Clint. He can’t even remember the last time he’s done that. 1944 probably. But with Clint . Who he’s been maybe, sort of, secretly swooning over since day one. Not that he swoons. He’s a super soldier for Christ sakes. There’s no swooning. He was the Fist of Hydra. He doesn’t swoon. He doesn’t .
He just admires Clint's shooting skills. And his cocky attitude. And it’s cute that he trips over his shoes. And...oh god damn it.
*****
After two call outs that were all Avengers on deck - one for a natural disaster rescue mission and the other for a bunch of poorly made robots trying to take over Manhattan, it’s clear that the “Steve & Bucky break up situation” is resolved. Instead, they’re all now collectively grossed out by Steve making moon eyes at Nat every time she jumps in to protect him like he’s not basically indestructible. Ugh, soulmates.
Somewhere along the way, the tension has eased and they get back to being a slightly weird family of superheroes.
Well - not all the tension is gone.
Clint has to physically hold onto the doorknob to his suite of rooms to keep from reaching out for Bucky when he walks past on the way to his own rooms. He’s just finished his run and has taken his shirt off at some point so Clint gets an entire eyeful of bare chest, rock hard abs and dark metal arm plates as they shift with his movement.
Jesus Christ.
He goes into the kitchen for coffee after that and finds Nat smirking. How does she always know?
*****
If he knew Bucky better, he’d have known that the plates in his arm were shifting because his arm was both reaching out for Clint and holding itself back.
*****
A few days later Hill calls them all in for a meeting.
“Ok,” she starts, arms crossed across her chest, glaring at everyone at once, “so Steve and Nat? That was quite the shock. How are you people all living together but not coming close enough to jumpstart soulmate bonds?”
“Because when I suggested that we have Avengers orgies after every Assemble call, you and Pepper both made me sign paperwork agreeing to never suggest that again!” Tony exclaims. “Somehow she likes paperwork even more now that the two of you are soulmates.”
Hill ignores him, “we can’t have this happening in the middle of a mission or something and Pepper has informed me that demanding that you all to have sex or kiss or sweat on each other is violating all of the sexual harassment policies.” Her eyes roll, “so, we’re gonna play a little game that I’ve dubbed ‘musical handcuffs.’ We’re going to cuff you off in pairs and after 3 hours, you’ll check your status in with Jarvis, then spend 30 minutes detoxing alone before switching to a new partner. Until you’ve paired up with everyone once - or you find your soulmate. Got it?”
There’s a lot of groaning. And some gloating from Nat and Steve since they don’t have to join in. Smug soulmate couples are even worse, ugh.
The rules are simple, spread out across the compound or in separate rooms, stay touching or close together, if a strenuous activity is consented to and performed by both parties, Jarvis will shorten their shared time by the time they’ve spent sweating or exerting themselves.
Clint has many inappropriate responses for such terminology but before he can voice them, Wanda says “Clint, before you say whatever you’re thinking about saying, please keep in mind that at one point you’ll be handcuffed to me.”
Ew. That is unfair and gross. She is like his baby sister. “You’ve ruined it. Mission accomplished.” He blanches.
She turns her smile on full force.
After that Hill puts up a Powerpoint with a spreadsheet about pair ups and what activities they can do to lessen their time together. Gym, running, sparring, kissing. Sex is actually on the board as an option. Color Clint surprised. He purposefully does not look at Bucky, although he is picturing those thighs just fine in his mind.
With Nat and Steve out that leaves:
Clint
Bruce
Wanda
Sam
Tony
Bucky
Vision was, you know, not human so he didn’t have pheromones. And Thor was off world so he was excused. Who knew where Scott was. No one ever did.
Hill comes over with the first set of cuffs, she makes a beeline for Clint who’s sitting next to Bruce. Clint thinks briefly about escaping the cuffs but he’d just end up cuffed to someone else. Might as well get it over with.
Clint lifts up their linked arms and addresses the room, “blanket statement, I hate being restrained so I’m offering sex as a quick option to everyone - except Wanda.”
“As soon as you’re handcuffed to a partner, you may go. Your time has already started.” Hill doesn’t even bat an eyelash at Clint’s outburst. She’s used to him at this point.
“You hate being restrained?” Bruce tilts his head at Clint, twinkle in his eye, clearly hiding a smile, “Huh. I would have thought that was something you were into.”
Struck speechless, Clint stares at him open mouthed. From across the room, Bucky snorts a laugh, Wanda says “ew no.” Cackling, Sam, pulls Tony up by their handcuffed arms and pushes him out the door as Tony’s asking Clint for his kink list highlights.
For the next two hours Bruce and Clint maneuver around each other, cutting veggies and meat for Bruce’s famous curry. Making sure their arms touch as much as possible. After haggling for several minutes about how to use the rest of their time - Clint suggested cuddling, Bruce suggested sudoku - they agree that Clint will sit on the couch to prep some arrows while Bruce sits next to him to read, allowing his arm to be jostled but making sure their legs are pressed together.
When the timer sounds, Clint is out of his cuff in record time. They have 30 minutes of free time to be spent far away from other people so Clint climbs into his rafter. There’s really no structural need for them, Tony had a few installed in good observational spots all over the compound just for Clint. He sees better from a distance.
He groans when his 30 minutes are up and climbs down to go see who’s up next. Wanda. He already knows he and Wanda aren’t soulmates, they’re both very tactile and often hold hands during movies. He can think of worse ways to spend three hours though.
They decide to watch a movie but Bucky and Tony are already in the communal living room playing Mario Kart so they watch in the lounge area for his suite. It’s nice actually. Like hanging out with the sweet but snarky little sister he never had.
“What will you do when someone takes you up on the sex offer?” She questions, as “Legend” with Tim Curry is just getting started.
“Bang one out. What’s a little sex between friends?” Clint drawls, sounding way more cocky than he feels.
“What if you get Tony as a partner before Bucky? Because you know he’s gonna ask.” She’s sitting cross legged on the couch, holding his hand on her bent knee. He’s got his bare feet propped up on the coffee table.
He doesn’t bother to deny what she is so clearly implying. “Am I that obvious? Do you think Bucky knows?”
“I think Bucky would like to do more than ‘bang one out’ with you and you’ll ruin it if you have sex with Tony just for bravados sake.” Wise beyond her years this girl.
Sighing, Clint squeezes her knee under his hand, “he’s just gotten out of being a prisoner of war for 70 years and then found out that the guy he loves is someone else’s soul mate. Pretty sure I’m not even on his radar right now.”
“Oh man, wouldn’t it be helpful if one of us had magical powers,” she deadpans.
“Smartass kid.” He wants to ask her what she knows but that would be an invasion of privacy and he knows that Wanda tries hard not to read them. Her powers are weird, kind of all consuming. She just....knows things sometimes.
Two and a half hours later she is cursing in Sokovian and dragging Clint out of his rooms. “What a stupid, stupid girl! ‘Only virgins can touch a unicorn!’ Blah blah. She killed it! She is a stupid girl! Purity has nothing to do with our bodies and everything to do with our minds. She was never pure of heart! Why are all the movies from the 80s that you insist are “iconic” always about stupid girls making stupid choices?”
“I concede. You are correct. I’d only ever seen the theatrical release and the nerds say the director's cut is better but now we know - it’s just longer and everyone is even more unlikeable. But...” He slips out of his cuff as the timer sounds, “it took us right up until the end of the session! I’m out!” And he escapes to his rafter again for 30 minutes of solitude.
The thing is.
If he’s honest with himself... he’s a little scared. Finding out that he and Nat were not soul mates had really sucked. Even just platonically.
After Thanos, Bucky had come back with them from Wakanda. Shuri had cleared the words out of his mind and helped him repair a lot of his memories but since then Bucky & Steve had done everything together, Steve barely let Bucky out of his sight. They ran together, went to the gym together, came to meals and movie nights together. Sure Bucky talked to everyone but Steve was always there.
The day on the range and the movie night had been the only time Clint had spent time with Bucky without other people. Bucky had lived here for six months and Clint barely knew him.
Being forced to test for a bond just felt like such an intrusion. Because if he was honest, he wanted to make out with Bucky and he hadn’t even had time to process that Bucky might want to make out with him too. Couldn’t they just like, go out for coffee and get to know each other like normal people?
“I’m not having sex with you Barton, we can cuddle though. Come down, you’re next for me.” Sam’s voice drifts up to intrude on his thoughts.
“I’m not really in the mood for banging one out anyway, Falcon. Cuddling sounds pretty great though. Want to watch a Disney movie?” Clint walks across the beam and then somersaults down onto the floor near Sam.
“Show off.” Sam rolls his eyes and claps the cuff onto Clint’s wrist.
They end up spooning on the couch, Clint as the big spoon and watching Robin Hood. After the movie is over, Sam mentions that Clint’s been pretty quiet for once and asks if he wants to talk.
Resting his chin up on Sam’s bicep so he can look down at him, Cint wrestles out, “I just…don’t think that we should be forcing Bucky into this with everything that just happened with Steve. Like what if one of us is his soulmate? He goes from being enslaved for 70 years with Hydra, to being in a relationship with Steve to being in a relationship with a soul mate he might not even want? How is that fair to him?”
“Those are all very good points. And he could have brought them up with Hill if he had a problem. Is this really about him - or is this about you?” Sam’s got his counselor face on and Clint should have kept his mouth shut.
Groaning, Clint ducks back down and buries his face between Sam’s shoulder blades. “Both. I do believe all of those things for him. But I also…just wanted to hang out with him. Get to know him, get coffee, watch him laugh at my jokes and then see what happened next. What if we are soul mates but he …doesn’t want me? I’d rather never know who my soulmate is then have them tell me that even a chemically perfect reaction isn’t enough to make them love me.” He’s burrowed deep into Sam’s back at this point and never plans on coming out again.
“You can still do all of those things, it’ll just be with the knowledge that after the coffee and the getting to know him that you already fit together. And if you don’t bond, then you know that you can relax around each other and just be great friends. Or still date, nothing says you can’t date someone who isn’t your soulmate.” He can already tell he’s going to have a Clint shaped bruise in the middle of his back but this is the longest that Clint has had an emotional discussion since he's met him.
“Yes, that’s just what he needs. A second non soulmate that could leave him for their true soulmate at the drop of a hat. This is too much 'feelings' talk. I hate it.” Clint slips free of the cuff - how the hell did he do that? - and climbs over the back of the couch just as Jarvis informs them that their time is up since they've been skin to skin for so long. Sweet. He’s out.
Sam is still trying to talk to him when Clint turns to look directly at him, pulls his hearing aids out of his ears and then drops them in their charging dish. He watches as Sam rolls off the couch, gives his disappointed-in-you face, flips him the bird and stalks out.
Clint decides that he needs to shower just for something to do. Maybe if the water is hot enough he can wash the feelings away. After toweling off, he pulls on a pair of jogger sweats that he knows are purple because he bought them before the Snap, doesn’t bother with a shirt and flops down on his unmade bed.
He gets woken up by someone gently kicking his bare foot with their bare toes. Could have been 10 minutes or 2 hours. He has no idea but he needs coffee. Stat. Grabbing his hearing aids off of the nightstand, he mumbles about the coffee, slips the offered handcuff onto his wrist and because groggy Clint is also honest Clint, he slides his hand into Bucky’s and pulls him along. Putting in his aids one handed as he goes.
He starts the coffee maker and leans his head on his hand to watch it quickly drip. Then he downs half a cup while it is still scalding. He finishes the second half a little slower. Bucky declines a cup but Clint’s brain reboots and he is good to go.
“What do you want to do? There’s not much left on my list. I’ve watched a movie, made dinner, fixed arrows, cuddled...you know what that leaves?” Clint wiggles his eyebrows suggestively but then winks in a way that shows he is mostly kidding. Maybe.
“I...was thinking - dancing? I haven’t danced with a partner since the 40s and I hear you’re pretty good.” Bucky pulls out his phone and brings a playlist up. It’s an eclectic mix of the last 100 years of dance music. “It’s sort of like sex and since you’ve already got your shirt off, I can take mine off and then we’re skin to skin….”
Clint feels his lips part as he releases a breath. Oh yeah. He is very down for that. Play it cool, Barton. “Ok. I’m game. Shirt off.”
Bucky slides it up and over until it gets caught around the handcuff. Clint has the cuff opened and reclosed before Bucky can see how the hell he has done it. Clint winks. Bucky smiles and shakes his head, plugs his phone into the speaker, pushes shuffle and then grins as a big band swing song comes on.
They grapple for the lead for about 20 seconds before Clint concedes. He doesn’t know how to dance to this anyway. Besides formal ballroom stuff with Nat on missions, he really only knows how to grind up on a stranger in a club. Hopefully one of those songs comes on next and he can show off his moves.
Not even halfway through the first song Clint realizes that the history books got it right. Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes likes to dance. And he’s good at it. He swings Clint back and forth, even managing to spin him under their handcuffed arms. Pulling him close and maintaining eye contact long enough that Clint finds himself blushing several times.
The next several songs range from modern dance songs to 50s doo wop and before long they’re both sweaty and laughing. Everyone else has slowly come in to watch and then started dancing in their pairs as well, though separated into far corners to keep their pheromones to themselves (at Jarvis’ insistence).
An hour in, Clint finally gets the club song he was after, and something has changed between them. He can feel it, they’re both charged up with it but sort of stepping around it as well. He closes his eyes against the static energy and turns around to playfully back his ass up against Bucky’s front, slotting their hips together, “Is this okay?” he asks more softly than he intends over his shoulder.
When Bucky nods, Clint takes their handcuffed hands and places them on his own right hip. He reaches his other hand back and grips Bucky’s waist to hold him in place while he rolls his hips with the music, grinding back against Bucky.
Tilting his head back on Bucky’s shoulder, Clint rests his back against Bucky’s naked chest, sweaty skin touching from shoulders to waist. They grind to the thrum of the music, skin sliding, the heat of their bodies radiating like tendrils of visible heat signatures.
At some point, Bucky must have taken hold of Clint’s other hip with his metal hand because he’s squeezing it gently as he rolls his own hips against Clint’s ass. Clint has danced in clubs like this plenty of times but he has never felt like this while he did it. It’s intense, it’s sexy as hell. Clint laughs, low and throaty and turns his head to the side, he can feel the heat from Bucky’s breath against his jawline, his eyes are still squeezed shut and he says, “I thought you didn’t like to be touched.”
Way too caught up for a verbal response, Bucky bites his lower lip and then moves his hands from Clint’s hips to across his stomach, fingers splayed just above the waistband of his joggers. Bucky’s breaths are ragged and hot against the side of Clint’s throat. The music thrums, their heartbeats thud heavily against each other, back to front, and just when Clint thinks they’ll both burst into flame, the club song fades into a slow song.
Etta James “At Last.”
Clint can't bear to look yet so he keeps his eyes squeezed shut as he slides his hand out of the handcuff, turns in Bucky’s arms and snakes his own arms around Bucky’s waist.
At last
My love has come along
He ducks his head in close, to the place where Bucky’s shoulder meets his neck. Bucky does the same on the other side.
My lonely days are over
And life is like a song
Oh, yeah, yeah
It’s so intense, everything feels like so much, Clint thinks that he might explode from it, He’s unsure if it’s shades of gray he’s afraid to still see or beautiful vibrant color again.
At last
The skies above are blue
This is what a lighting bolt must feel like. An electric charge inside of him.
My heart was wrapped up in clover
Clint shifts his head so that their temples and cheeks are pressing together side to side, their breathing has slowed down but is still ragged, their feet are still stepping right and left while they sway gently to the soft soulful music. Neither taking the lead this time.
The night I looked at you
I found a dream that I could speak to
Every time Clint takes a breath he can smell the unique smell of Bucky Barnes, old fashioned pomade for his pretty hipster hair, gun oil and just.....Bucky. It’s driving him insane but also welcoming him home.
A dream that I can call my own
Clint slides one hand up Bucky’s chest, up to his neck, burying his fingers in the short hair at the nape of his neck. “Talk to me Barnes, what do you want?” He licks his lips but keeps his eyes closed, his temple now pressed against Bucky’s even though it means he’s leaning down just a bit. He needs Bucky to know that he has a choice, here and always.
I found a thrill to press my cheek to
A thrill that I've never known (oh, yeah, yeah)
“I want to dance with you again, I want to beat your high score on the range. Next time we watch a movie, I want to lay my head on your chest so I can feel your heartbeat against my cheek. I want to stop pretending that I’m not looking at your arms every chance I get. I want to kiss you. And I want to not care if I get to see it all in color or not. But also…..I really want it to be you and I’m afraid to open my eyes and find out that it’s not.” Bucky has moved his hand up to Clint’s jaw and their foreheads are touching, eyes still clenched shut. The rest of the room, the compound and maybe the world has fallen silent. They’re still swaying to Etta but she’s finishing up.
You smiled, you smiled
Oh and then the spell was cast
“Me too. On three, okay?” Clint whispers so close to Bucky’s mouth that he can almost taste the words. “One, two, three-”
And here we are in Heaven
For you are mine at last
Etta’s last words settle between them as the song fades away.
“Wow. Your eyes are so blue,” Bucky whispers against Clint’s smiling lips.