[ buckshot is my bread, and I'll drink whiskey instead of water ] [ OPEN ]

[nailsthetarget]

WHO: nailsthetarget and YOU
WHAT: Clint healing. Crankily.
WHERE: Fratvengers house
WHEN: anytime after Clint gets back
WARNINGS: Clint
SUMMARY: The Fratvengers couch has been taken over by a huge, angry archer. Good luck getting the remote back.

Comments

/braces for impact

[touchmyflagpole]

Hawkeye is a mystery to Steve. He knows that he's technically Clint Barton, but he can't figure out how to make this grizzled veteran of a man mesh with the cocky young buck who'd signed all the Avengers up to an online dating service. With that in mind, Steve hadn't been purposefully avoiding Clint, but he'd certainly done his best not to run into him.

He probably could have gone on doing that for ages, but when he'd come down for a late night snack, he'd noticed the flickering light of the TV and realized that Clint was sitting there, injured and alone, and the guilt started gnawing at his insides.

So, armed with a glass of milk and a stack of cookies, Steve Rogers resolutely sits himself down on the couch.

"Want one?"

[nailsthetarget]

Clint, on the other hand, has been purposefully avoiding Steve. In his universe, he tolerated the guy---barely. They came from similar stock---pulled in by the government to serve their land of the free and home of the brave, whittled down and built back up until they'd passed muster. The difference was, Clint made no bones about the fact that he was a killer, and Cap wrapped all his nastiness up in self-righteousness and the cloak of the red, white and blue. They did the same jobs, oftentimes the same way, but Steve made it very clear that his convictions made him a superior beast

[touchmyflagpole]

Well, Steve isn't going to insist. He sets the plate down between the both of them, though, both as an invitation for Clint to help himself and as a buffer to create the illusion of personal space.

And then he's not quite sure what to do. He knows nothing at all about this Clint, except that he probably shoots a bow really well and that he's beat up badly enough that Steve winces internally whenever he gets a good look at him. And now that he's thought of that, he can't help but ask, "How are you healing up?"

Which is better than sitting there in awkward silence, but only barely.

Since when did he become so bad at talking to people?

[nailsthetarget]

Clint had always kind of been bad at talking to people. At least, he'd been bad about it when he had to talk to people that he couldn't speak freely around. He was known for being a foul, mouthy SOB, and he earned that notoriety honestly.

The whole thing felt unspeakably awkward. He tried to soldier on through it.

"Yeah. Slowly but surely. Shit sucks, but that's life. Not all of us can be super soldiers."

[touchmyflagpole]

"I'm sorry. You're a brave man and you don't..."

Steve trails off, finding that the words he was about to say sound hollow and fake. Talking to Bucky and Toro and Rikki has been bringing back memories of the war. He has said variations of the tired old phrases to dozens of men in dozens of hospitals. "You don't deserve this." "Soldier on, that's a good man." "Your country appreciates your sacrifice."

Clint deserves better than that.

Steve scrubs his hands over his face, pulls his fingers through his hair and wonders if he looks as tired as he feels.

"I'm sorry."

This wasn't how things were supposed to be.