Prompt 12 for Winterhawk please? :)
We dated in high school but then you moved away but now you’re back in town. Winterhawk.
My baaaabies.
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Hey you. It’s Bucky. – JB
I know, weirdly texting you outta the blue after not talking to you for a few years but I’m back in town and I ran into Natasha and she mentioned you. – JB
I was wondering if you wanted to catch up? Go out for a drink or two. Feel free to say no. – JB
Just let me know, don’t leave me hanging. – JB
“What the hell,” Clint breathed, shoving his phone into Natasha’s face with a frustrated look on his. She just raised an eyebrow at him and shrugged her shoulders. Universal language in Natasha-speak for not my problem. “You told him about me?! You know we broke up years ago.”
“He asked about you,” she sighed, leaning back into her chair so it balanced on two legs. “He was curious, fluttering around the subject of you. And, Barton, I know you still pine after him and don’t sit here and lie to me and tell me otherwise.”
Clint grunted as he sat back on his own chair, looking down at the text messages again. His thumbs trembled, hovering over the letters, unsure of what to say. Natasha was right. They’d broken up on mutual terms, so Bucky could go to college in California and be with his family and Clint could stay in Brooklyn and do God knows what.
The thing was, he did still pine after this man. Like really wanted him. He’d tried dating a few guys and gals here and there but nothing felt the same. He wasn’t comparing them to James at all, it just never reached that level of happiness and trust he had with this man.
“Besides, Clint, he still wants you too. I didn’t tell him anything, I left that up to you.”
Somehow, Clint both loved and hated Natasha for that fact. He just looked up at her with soft, blue eyes and sighed, typing back a quick message.
Sounds great. Meet you at Luke’s at 10? - CB
An almost instant reply and one that shouldn’t’ had made his heart leap, but it did. Great. Can’t wait to see you again and tell you about my metal arm. – JB
--
Turns out, they’d both changed over the five years since high school graduation. Bucky had graduated within two years of college and spent the last three in the military. The military wasn’t his top choice and he despised it to a point but it was a constant check he could send back to his baby sister after their parents had died.
Clint sympathized with the man, he really did. He knew how much the man begrudgingly had to swallow his pride in other to join the military to help raise his baby sister. That wasn’t fair on him at all, but that was James alright. One to step up to the plate and do what needs to be done, no matter the cost. Long as the decision was the right one. He was a firm believer in doing the wrong thing for the right reason.
Three years in the military, four tours, and all Sargeant James Barnes got to come home with was a missing metal arm, severe PTSD, a distrust of closed-off spaces and loud noises, and no help from the government what so ever. That’s why he came back to Brooklyn, still just as loud as California but Becca was out here in college, so he could stay with her. And Natasha had taken up the man’s case to get the back pay he was owed for disability.
“Top it off, Nat got in me in contact with the Starks? They’re the leading minds behinds robotic prosthetics and I’m sorta their test dummy.” Bucky picked up his left hand and let the soft lights of the dingy bar shine on it, wiggling his fingers in Clint’s direction. “Works like a charm, if you ask me. Sorta gets stuck sometimes and if it gets wet, I gotta spend a while drying the gears, but for first-timers it’s amazing. Surgery wasn’t that bad either, connecting it to my nerves and all. I can even feel with it, but it's not the same as with my flesh hand, just a metal thing to tell me something is hot or cold.”
Clint was in awe of it, really. He watched the gears move to accommodate the fingers moving, plates shifting one over the other to help the digits move. He reached out to touch it, finding it smooth, all along except for his palm where it was ridged. “Beautiful,” he breathed, his cheeks flushing as he became fully aware he was still holding onto his hand and jerked his hand back. “S-sorry, it looks…good.”
“Yeah, it does, doesn’t it?” Bucky had let his hair grow out, says it made him feel different from before where he had to keep it properly trimmed and off his collar. It felt like breaking the rules that still lingered on his mind, the beard too. Natasha must’ve helped him braid his hair just because there’s no way this man was that elegant with his hair. “So, what about you? What’s happened to you? You’ve…changed. In a good way! Not bad!”
Clint laughed, just because he’d never seen Bucky so flustered before. The man’s cheeks grew a darker red at the laugh, turning to drain the beer before he could say anything else. “Come on, Buck, I know I’m different. I just…uh didn’t know how to say that to you? Or anyone, hell even myself.”
Bucky just cocked his brow and let his eyes roam over the tall, muscular figure that was now Clint Barton. He admired the way the man start to flush the brightest shade of pink. “Well, I’m glad that you did, buddy. You look amazing.”
“Yeah, well when your hate for yourself starts to manifest into an obsession in the gym and bow and arrows…” Clint shrugged, clearing his throat. “The full names Clint Francis Barton now. I got it officially changed last summer, been on hormones for over two years now.”
“Well, I gotta say, you look so much happier now.” His metal arm threw over Clint’s shoulder and squeezed him tightly to his chest. “Like you’ve really blossomed. You’re not hiding yourself or snapping at people. You’ve really come a long way, Clint. I think the name suits you better but not Francis, we’re finding you something better.”
“You are not. Barney helped me pick out that name!” Clint pouted, but still not moving against Bucky’s chest. He was still a good few inches taller than him and yet laying on his chest felt like home. Thankfully Bucky was never one to throw a fit when it came to dating people taller than him.
“Nahhh, who cares what Barney picked out? It doesn’t fit you.” Bucky barely got to move out of the way before Barney, their bartender for the evening threw a soiled rag at his face.
“I do!” The Barton brothers both said at once, making the veteran pause before laughing.
“Alright, alright. The name stays. Geez. Francis.”
This is the first time Clint’s laughed like this in weeks, months even. He’s happier around Bucky, surer, more confident now that he knew Bucky wasn’t going to be against him coming out. Not that the thought he would, but that fear was there, always on the surface. It’s one thing that made him stop talking to Bucky, that what if…
Because Bucky’s opinion, Clint quickly found out as the night waned on and they got deeper into their drinks, the man’s opinion still meant everything to him.
“Wanna go back to my place?” Clint mused, face flushed from the alcohol, and jerking his chin towards the door. “Just moved in. We could break the bed in.”
Bucky snorted behind his hand, rolling his eyes. “You’re so terrible at flirting.”
“Wait is that a yes?” Clint had never looked more adorable to this man then confused, the way his nose scrunched up.
Instead of answering, Bucky leaned closer and just brushed his lips over Clint’s, the blonde smiling against his lips.
That was a yes.