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Brothers in Arms	By : trudyw000 Category: Marvel Verse Movies > Avengers, The Views: 2932 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel, the Avengers or Avengers Assemble. I make no money from this work.

Chapter List
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Brothers in Arms - Chapter 4
Steve woke slowly revelling in the novelty of it. All his life, but even more so since the super soldier transformation, he'd only slept soundly when he felt completely safe. It was strange however what his brain defined as safe, in 1943 in a cave on a frozen mountainside in occupied France with his first team around him he had slept like a baby. Seventy years later in a city of 8 million he hadn't had had a single night of decent sleep since he first awoke in this time. At least not until now.
As he lay there, still luxuriating in the heavy sleepiness that retained its hold on his body and mind he knew that he wasn't alone and he wondered if he was still dreaming, he must be dreaming, he'd never shared a bed with anyone in his entire life. His arms constricted briefly, hugging the dream body to him. Slowly his brain began to take notice, cataloguing the person sleeping in his arms. Short hair tickled his bicep from the head resting upon it, soft breath warm on his forearm. Broad shoulders were pressed back against his chest and his other arm lay across narrow hips, his hand curled over well-defined abs, his legs pressed against strongly muscled thighs as they lay spooned together.
Slowly a thought began to niggle at the back of his mind, something was off about this dream. He'd dreamt before of nights with Peggy in his arms, soft, feminine, petite, dwarfed by his own massive frame. This was different and he found he relished the size and strength of the muscular form in his arms. Suddenly all sleepiness left him as he snapped fully awake, this was no dream, this was... A man.
Over years of bolting awake at the first sign of trouble he'd trained himself to remain motionless on waking so as not to alert possible enemies to his change of state. Now, suddenly awake and alert, every muscle tensed as he carefully opened one eyelid, just a sliver and took in his surroundings, the cramped space, the opulent furnishings, Stark's quarters, and there sleeping in his arms was Clint Barton. He remembered now, the worry of the previous day, Clint going missing, searching high and low for the wayward archer, finding him, filthy and tear streaked in the bowels of the mighty ship, then back to Stark's rooms where he learned that apparently he could still get at least tipsy given enough of a beverage brewed solely for the personal use of the King of the ancient Gods of Asgard.
Steve opened his eyes and tried to relax, neither Clint nor Tony had seen anything unusual in Clint asking him to stay the night before. It must be just another thing to get used to in this modern world he found himself in. But he couldn't help wondering, after all he'd seen no other sign that two men sharing a bed was the norm and both Clint and Tony had been pretty drunk the night before. What's more neither one was exactly the poster boy for normal even in the best of circumstances.
Slowly he started to straighten his legs, attempting to disengage their bodies without waking the sleeping archer. That was when he realised his mistake, he'd forgotten that Clint was also a master spy. He'd thought the smaller man was asleep but as soon as he tried to move a subtle change in the feel of the body in his arms alerted him to the fact that Clint was in fact wide awake, and may have been for some time.
With Steve's legs no longer spooned up behind his own it was easy for Clint to turn in the loose hold of the arms encircling him and moments later he settled into position facing Steve. With a tentative smile he offered a sleepy "Hi."
"Hi," Steve replied, he wanted to say more but the movements of Clint's body against his as the other man turned had alerted him to a serious problem. Where the archer now lay his slightly bent legs rested just inches away from the burning erection currently straining the stitching of the black jeans that Steve still wore from the night before.
"Thank you," Clint murmured, and at the puzzled silence that followed he clarified, "for staying last night."
"No problem" Steve struggled slightly to keep his voice even, it was showing an alarming inclination to rise in pitch as the sleepy archer shifted his position slightly. The other man was so close now that Steve was surprised Clint couldn't feel the intense heat radiating from his groin.
Taking a deep breath and bringing his knees up a little to try to create some space Steve tried again, "Look, I know one night of drunken confidences isn't going to put everything back to the way it was before," he paused, "But if you need to talk then we're all here for you, we all want to help." He thought for a moment, "of course I'd probably steer clear of Tony or Thor for anything deep and meaningful, but Banner seems to be a good man and I know you and Tasha are close."
"Yeah Banner's a cool guy and me and Tasha, we're close, but I'm not sure I could talk to her about this, she's had her own shit to deal with, ya' know?"
"But surely you and she..." Steve broke off uncertain how to continue.
Clint just frowned, "she and I," he paused "what?"
"Well I just thought you and Tasha were together." Steve finished in a rush.
Clint stared in surprise, "Me and Tasha," he gave a little laugh but stopped abruptly when he felt Steve starting to pull back, "sorry, I didn't mean too..."
At the apology Steve hesitated for a moment before settling back into his previous position with Clint held loosely in the circle of his arms. He hated to hear Clint sounding so tentative, so uncertain, it wasn't natural, he'd read countless mission reports from the SHEILD archives and one thing Clint always was, was certain. He might be right, he might be wrong, but whatever choice he made he committed to it one hundred percent.
Feeling Steve settle back into place Clint continued to talk "we were together for a while, but that was over a long time ago. We just, we found that we were better friends than lovers. We knew too much of each other's past. She knows every skeleton in my closet, and I know all of hers." Clint searched the dark, wishing he could see Steve's face, see if Steve understood.
Although Steve couldn't see Clint any better than Clint could see him in the dark windowless room he knew that Clint needed something from him. He wasn't sure he did know exactly what Clint meant but he thought he understood how hard it could be to be in a relationship where both parties knew all the other's dirty secrets. It could either make everything so easy, or make it so impossibly hard. Apparently for Clint and Tasha it had been the latter so he nodded slightly and Clint seemed satisfied with that. "She's still my best friend, she's like my big sister and there are some things you just can't tell your sister, no matter how much you love her, how much you know she'd understand. You just... don't!"
"Of course, but there's still Bruce and," Steve took a breath, hating to bring the man's name up, "Fury will have people who you could talk to."
"And, if I wanted to talk to you?" Clint asked the question shyly.
Something unfamiliar swelled within Steve at the vulnerability revealed by the question and without thinking his arms tightened, drawing the younger man close and he dropped a chaste kiss on the top of Clint's head.
Suddenly Steve realised what he had done, panic overtook him and planting his free hand on Clint's shoulder he pushed backwards, scrambling away he practically fell off the edge of the bed. He leapt to his feet, apologies dripping from his lips, "Sorry, that was... Sorry, I have to...Sorry" he reached for the door handle and yanking it open fled from the room. In the outer room Tony was just pulling on a clean t-shirt as Steve pushed past him heading for the door. Tony only had time to notice the blush flaming Steve's cheeks and the other man was gone with only a "Sorry, gotta go!" thrown over his shoulder as he left.
With a wry chuckle Tony headed for the bedroom to see what had had the super soldier running for the hills. Popping his head through the doorway he saw Clint sitting up in the bed looking a little shell-shocked.
"What was that?" Tony asked with a soft laugh, "you didn't try and make out with Mr Repressed on the first date did you?"
"No, nothing like that" Clint answered before he realised that Tony was joking, "Fuck you Tony! Some of us don't need to jump everything that moves, we can stick with those who are actually interested in us!" Scrubbing his hands through his, already messy, hair, Clint swung his legs over the edge of the bed and sat there with his head in his hands.
"You don't think Steve's interested in you?" Tony just stood in the doorway, wondering whether Clint would actually talk to him, at least the archer was showing signs of life, he hadn't sworn at anyone in days.
"We were just talking," his voice was quiet, muffled, Clint hadn't raised his head so the words were directed downwards into his lap and Tony had to strain to hear them.
Stepping forward Tony sat down beside Clint on the bed, "I don't know what you two were talking about but he was undoubtedly 'interested'." His inference was clear causing Clint to direct a quizzical glance sideways at the playboy billionaire whose one-track mind was definitely showing.
"Surely you saw the impressive tent in his jeans as he scrammed out of here, either he'd pocketed Mjolnir or he was very pleased to see someone," Tony paused for dramatic effect, "and it wasn't me" he said, ruefully rubbing his shoulder where the super soldier had pushed by him.
Actually Clint hadn't seen anything of the sort, there were no windows in the crew quarters of the Helicarrier and they hadn't turned the light on so even now the only light in the room was that which streamed through the open doorway. Clint could feel hope bubbling up in his chest, he wanted to believe Tony, he truly did but how could he, "Everyone throws morning wood from time to time Tony, you of all people must know that." he threw back.
"Hey, it's up to you, believe me, don't believe me but he spent 7 hours yesterday scouring this ship looking for you, he makes sure to drag you to the mess hall and feed you at least once a day and he's been known to drag the Widow away from whatever she's doing and have her put you to bed so that you get at least some sleep. Now something is clearly bothering him, don't you think you have a duty to see if you can help, even if it is only as a friend!" Tony finished his rant wondering just where all of that had come from, after all it was none of his business whether Clint and Steve got together or not, he wasn't running a match-making service here.
Clint just stared at him as if he'd grown a second head, "Are you feeling alright?" he asked reaching out to lay a hand on the billionaire's forehead but Tony swatted him away.
"Hey, hands off. I'm not the one just sat here whilst the star spangled dreamboat runs off who knows where."
"Star span...." Clint glared at Tony, "What's gotten into you? Why are you so sure either one of us is gay, and even if we were what makes you think I'd be into Steve or he'd be into me?"
"Oh come on Clint, quite apart from the uniform, I mean come on, 'the star spangled man with a plan', whose bright idea was that. Sorry, beside the point, the point is, you asked him to stay last night and he hopped into bed with barely a second thought!"
"So?"
"Well, if it had been me, or pretty much anyone else on the team we'd probably have taken the chair!" and Tony pointed to the comfortable armchair next to the head of the bed, the only other piece of furniture in the room.
The way Clint stared at the chair you'd have thought it was about to bite him, "Oh," was all he could manage.
"Yes, Oh!" Tony laughed, "it's no big deal, if I wasn't with Pepper I'd happily take a run at either one of you." he admitted cheerfully. "So, are you going to tell me what happened to send Steve running out of here this morning?"
"It was nothing, we were talking and then, Steve kissed me," Clint ran a hand over the spot, a slightly dopey expression coming over his face as he remembered the feel of it.
"He kissed you!" Tony's surprise was obvious.
"On the top of the head, it was nothing." Clint reiterated.
"It didn't look like nothing from the way he lit out of here." Tony stared out of the door after the super soldier, "you do realise that back when he got frozen homosexuality was still a crime, if they weren't trying to lock homosexuals up they were trying to cure them. I think you need to find Steve and have a serious talk with him, he's probably freaking out right about now!"
"Shit!" Clint stood, suddenly full of purpose, "sorry, gotta go" unconsciously imitating the words that Steve had used earlier he left the room breaking into a run as soon as he hit the corridor outside Tony's quarters.
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As Steve left Tony's rooms he had headed automatically for his own quarters. Before he got there however he realised that if Clint were to come looking for him then that would probably be the first place he'd look. Slowing his pace he continued walking down the, thankfully empty, corridor. He had to get away from the well-travelled areas, he didn't know what time it was, probably quite early judging by the lack of people but that would change and he needed to get a certain problem dealt with before then.
He tried to think of anything that might help cool his ardour but every image he conjured up, Clint managed to finagle his way into it. He imagined standing under a cold shower, but Clint appeared beside him, naked and wet with the spray glistening on his hair and eyelashes. He thought back to the beatings he had taken in the back streets of Brooklyn, before the super soldier transformation, but Clint was there with his bow to defend him. He let that one play for a moment or two hoping that the indignity of having to be protected would fix the problem but he simply ended up focusing on the way the muscles of the archer's arm flexed as he wielded his chosen weapon so that didn't help.
Paying attention to his surroundings once again Steve realised that his steps had brought him unconsciously to the gym. It was natural enough, when not helping with the repairs or mother-henning his team he often spent time down here with the punching bag or sparring if he could get a partner. Bypassing the gym itself he headed straight to the locker rooms, breathing a sigh of relief when his luck held out and he made it there unseen.
Grabbing a towel from the pile by the door he held it strategically in front of himself feeling a little less self-conscious with that protection in place. Making his way back towards the showers he passed two damp SHIELD agents who had obviously just finished showering and dressing after an early morning workout. His stomach flip-flopped sickeningly as he realised that if he had gotten there just seconds later he would probably have met the two on their way out as he was coming in, before he had had a chance to pick up the flimsy protection of the towel. He swallowed convulsively as he nodded a greeting to the two men, finally passing into the relative safety of the shower room.
Finding the place empty he quickly stripped down folding his clothes neatly on the bench seat as he did so and keeping alert for the sounds of anyone approaching. Finally naked he hurried into one of the shower stalls pulling the curtain closed behind him. Turning on the water he gave the temperature control a vicious twist to the right, setting the flow to icy cold.
Standing there he hung his head and allowed the freezing water to flow across his shoulders and down his back. Staring down at the white shower tray he concentrated on the feeling of the needle sharp spray across his back and the sight of the water streaming down the drain. Every time Clint's face tried to intrude on his vision he rearranged the features into the expression of scorn or disgust that he felt sure the archer would have been wearing had he had the nerve to look back over his shoulder as he had fled that morning.
Eventually the combination of the cold water and of fiercely controlling his thoughts worked and he was able to turn off the flow and step out, shivering but blissfully flaccid at last.
Towelling himself down roughly he thought about where he could spend the day. He refused to consider it hiding, he just needed to keep out of the way for a little while. Once dry he briskly pulled his clothes from last night back on and throwing the used towel in the hamper supplied he headed out, nodding to the two SHIELD agents he passed in the doorway.
The two agents had just finished a fairly gruelling workout and they were both looking forward to a hot shower before the start of their bridge shift. Seeing wet foot-prints leading out of one of the stalls the younger man quickly turned that shower on. He might be a SHIELD agent, tasked with keeping the world safe for the masses below who often had no idea of the dangers out there, but that didn't mean he was immune to a little hero worship, especially when faced with a genuine super-hero. He quickly stripped down and then leapt into the stall recently vacated by Captain America, straight under the stream of water only to leap out again with a howl as the freezing cold spray hit his exercise warmed skin.
"What the hell!" he shouted and peering in he saw that the temperature was turned right down. Reaching gingerly past the icy water he swiftly jerked the dial up to maximum and pulled back. It was only then he turned to see his friend laughing at him, "What!" he demanded angrily.
"These super hero types, the cold showers help maintain muscle definition" the other agent barely managed to retain a straight face whilst he fed the line to his star-struck and rather gullible partner. 'Let's see how long it takes him to figure out that's bullshit he thought to himself.
Steve left the locker room and headed down to one of the gaping holes in the hull of the helicarrier where he was sure to encounter one of the work crews. There were safer places needing repair but unfortunately the attackers had known their target well and so the largest holes marked attacks on many of the vital systems which needed urgent attention. Steve tended not to join a regular crew as he never knew how much time he would be able to devote to the repair effort before being dragged away on Avengers business. Instead he roamed around helping out where he could and that was his plan for today. He hoped that by spending as little time in one place as possible he could keep out of Clint's way.
Steve never had learned much in the way of DIY skills, the work of the plumber, electrician, carpenter or builder's mate was a mystery to him. Before the transformation he'd been too puny for anyone to consider it worth trying to teach him and after he'd been busy with other things. So he wasn't much help with the skilled labour needed to repair the flying marvel that was the helicarrier, but when it came to brute force he had few equals and his natural humility saw no shame in performing the grunt work if that enabled the skilled workers to perform their tasks quicker. His morning flew past in an endless stream of holding panels in place here, ripping off damaged plating there, forcing fused nuts and bolts and generally putting his muscle to good use.
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Brothers in Arms