WHO: Clint Barton (616) & Bucky Barnes (MCU) WHAT: Talking and not talking. We could talk or not talk forever. And still find things to not talk about. WHERE: Starting outside of COFFEE, we'll see where they end up WHEN: Thursday evening, after closing time. RATING: It's them, there will likely be some swears.
It seemed that this was a time for difficult conversations. Bucky had been having them regularly lately and it seemed he still had at least one more. In his quest for needing to learn from his past mistakes, he was trying to be inherently honest about his feelings when they involved other people and his heart. It was a conflicting mesh between selfless and selfish, with him knowing and not expecting things to change as a result but also revealing his feelings and emotions toward another because it was something he needed to do might not always be the best decision. He figured, even at the risk of making things complicated, at the very least he thought that hearing that someone cared about you wasn't the worst thing in the world. He hoped Clint would think so anyway.
Going into this, he didn't expect anything. Just like with Natasha, he just needed to put his cards out on the table and let them lie. If anything ever came from it, then that was fine. And if not, at least Bucky could say with good conscious that he'd opened up to the people he cared for so much. If it didn't work out, it wouldn't be because of the same reasons things hadn't worked out with Steve. He couldn't make that mistake again, certainly not twice more.
Things with Clint had been fun. They made each other laugh, they got the other's humor and wit. Clint had been someone Bucky thought of a lot. In the rare instances he went out, he'd thought about how it'd be nice to run into him. He'd gone to COFFEE a number of times and purposely ignored the centaur on the wall but definitely not Clint. The casual flirting? That was one of the most refreshing things in the world to Bucky. It made him feel like himself. The Bucky who used to flirt with just about any person with a pulse. When they were around each other, Bucky didn't have to think about the past, or shoulder the weight of his guilt. It was a clean slate with Clint. He just felt like a person again.
On a more serious note, he also had come to learn that Clint was someone he could depend on if the situation really called for it. That night, when he left Pancho's so upset about his confrontation with Tony Stark, Clint had been the one who found him, who knew how to handle it without really handling it at all but still somehow making Bucky feel better. Not just better, but good again. Bucky cared about him, he liked him. He liked what they'd struck up together because it was so normal and real and not complicated. At least, it used to not be complicated. It was heavily complicated now but that wasn't anyone's fault. No one could help how they felt about a person. That wasn't how feelings worked. Clint and Natasha loved each other. And Bucky was very, very happy for them. But he still needed to talk to Clint about it all. He owed Clint his honesty, about what he'd told Natasha and about what he felt in his heart for him, too.
Bucky was never quite sure when COFFEE was closed, but he went at a time that kind of made sense and walked inside. "I'm gonna be one of those assholes who shows up when you're cleaning for the night to order the most complicated drink imaginable," he said as he approached.