Inktober Day 4: Compliment (based on this prompt list) Pairing: StarkSpangledWinterHawk (shown: Stucky) Length: ~850 words Summary: Steve and Bucky is worried about Clint, so they ask Kate's help. @akira-of-the-twilight
Kate was grabbed by her upper arm and yanked into a cleaning supply closet without any warning.
"Eeek, what the--?!" she shrieked, but Bucky's metal palm on her mouth stopped her protests.
"Hi Kate", Steve grinned. "We need to talk."
Bucky removed his hand, and the younger Hawkeye stared at them with total disbelief. "Here?", she managed to say. Okay, a supply closet in the Avengers Tower was bigger than her whole room back at Clint's shitty apartment, but still it felt crowded with two beefy supersoldiers inside. "What are you doing here? You know I'm not against porn in general, but please, I'm not into ones starring my family!", she stressed, a little exasperated. If the two wanted some alone time from their other two boyfriends (AKA Rich Idiot and Miserable Idiot), that was totally their business. Kate preferred blissed ignorace.
"Nothing like that", Cap (AKA Idiot With A Cool Shield) reassured her quickly. "It's about your dad."
Kate scrunched her nose. "Birdbrain is not my dad."
"Okay, your guardian-mentor-landlord-whatever", Bucky (for now codenamed Traitor Idiot in Kate's labelling system) corrected, but he had no patience for finer details. "You ever noticed how bad is Clint with compliments?"
Kate stared at them again. For one, what the hell. For two, did they really dragged her into a closet to talk about this? And for three, it was nonsense. "What on earth are you talking about? Clint is always complimenting people. I'm pretty sure that was the only reason he wasn't fired from SHIELD back in the days. The interns loved him too much and would have rebelled against his leave."
Bucky snickered, but nodded in agreement.
"No, you misunderstood", Cap said softly. "We know this. But did you notice that Clint never takes well the compliments when he gets them?"
Kate wanted to answer immediately, but Bucky talked sooner."Yesterday he saved the whole mission by spotting the undercover agents, but when Steve acknowleged it, he said it was just the advance of his position, nothing to do with him."
"Or that time when he helped Tony out and then he ran out of the room when we tried to..."
"And with Natasha, if you remember that time..."
They both interrupted each other mid-sentence while asseverating their truth, and Kate frowned more and more, because... actually, they were right.
"And when we compared his ass to Tony's..."
"Okay, that will be enough", she said quickly. She had to draw the line somewhere. Having three badass Uncle was great, but she really didn't need the mental images of their actual love life if she wanted to keep her sanity. God knows it was a tough project sometimes around them. (It was top secret that she sometimes actually found their open affection cute.)
"He always belittles himself and his efforts and deflects it if someone tries to praise him", Bucky pulled out their shared conclusion.
"I got the point", Kate repeated himself. "What do you want me to do with it?"
The two supersoldier exchanged a look. "We want you to join us in our mission."
A huge smile appeared on Kate's face. Fucking finally! She hated that she wasn't allowed on any Avengers mission, saying she's 'too young'. She was sixteen and already an even better sharpshooter than Clint, for fuck's sake!
"Absolutely", she agreed immediately.
"We have to bath Clint in praise and compliments until he learns to receive and believe them", Steve announced ceremonially.
Kate's stomach dropped. "WHAAAT?", she shrieked again, and barely registered Bucky's laugh through her utter horror.
"Don't try to fool us, we know you love him, and just act the opposite."
Kate crossed her arms in front of her. "I'm a teenager, it's kinda in my job description to hate him."
"Maybe, but you don't." Steve's smile was so soft and gentle that it almost melted Kate's heart. Almost. And then Bucky had to give him a deep and passionate kiss. With tongue and all. Kate closed her eyes and gave them fifteen seconds.
"Ugh, guys, I'm still here", she reminded them after the time was up. Their mouth separated with a smacky sound. "Disgusting", Kate murmured quietly to herself.
"No, it's really not", Steve chuckled. (Kate contemplated for a moment to rename him Little Shit in her mental database.) "So, will you help us, please?"
"What about Tony?" Kate had to ask.
"He's himself, he will do fine without us asking him specifically..."
"You mean he can't keep a secret for his life and would go straight to Clint with the problem?"
"You said it, not us", Bucky grinned again.
Kate sighed. "Fuck you, Captain America." Bucky's palm flew to Steve's face before he could say the word language. Kate appreciated the gesture, and sighed again. "Okay, okay, mission accepted. Objective: praise Clint more often. Got it."
Bucky kissed her cheek. "Thank you, Katie."
"Yeah, thanks", Steve agreed with a bright smile.
Kate pointed to them before she left the closet. "You owe me so much!"
"We know", Bucky grinned back, and Steve closed the door. Kate didn't ask what will they do inside together, she fled as quick as possible.