Sam Wilson does what Steve does - (justslower) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2017-03-06 19:06:00 |
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Entry tags: | !closed, !completed gdoc, !log, ~2017 march, ~25 points, ~~clint barton (madeyoulook), ~~sam wilson (justslower) |
Who: Clint Barton and Sam Wilson
What: A Couple of Birds Walk Into a Bar…
When: sometime last week
Where: Lou’s
Warnings: nah
Status: Closed/completed gdoc
Clint didn’t go out drinking very often. Not after the naked New Years Eve chaos, all though he kind of wished he remembered hugging a few people while he’d been sans clothing. That should have been hilarious. He’d seen the videos and he’d looked so happy. But, it was still a performance he didn’t need to repeat…for everyone’s sake.
That wasn’t to say he didn’t enjoy a beer now and then, go out to a bar to people watch. Definitely not to look for a hook up or a date. He was still kind of ignoring the advice Nat had given him. Resisting it, was more likely.
Tonight, he had a dark corner at Lou’s which gave him the perfect vantage to see a familiar face walk in. A smirk lifted one corner of his lips then he stopped a passing waitress to give her a new order. That done, he made his way through the crowd to plunk himself down at Sam’s table.
“Hey, handsome,” he said in that dry humor of his. “Buy a bird a drink?” Of course then the waitress brought a pitcher of good beer and a mug for Sam.
***
Sam wasn’t looking for anything in particular when he decided to head to Lou’s for the evening and he smiled when Clint joined him. “Well, now, how can I possibly turn down an offer like that?” he asked.
They didn’t know each other very well, but Sam appreciated that Clint had come out of retirement to help them and he felt bad that the other man was locked up and stuck away from his family with them. He couldn’t even imagine how difficult it was for him to be here away from them again.
“What brings you out here this evening?” he asked.
***
Sam had been on Cap’s side when all of the crap went down. That had been enough for Clint. He read the profile on him after what happened in DC. Sam was one of the good guys in more definitions than one. The world...any world...didn’t have enough of those.
“Well, y’know,” Clint said as he put his feet up on a chair across from him. “The usual. Finding ways to pass the time while I’m locked up in this gilded cage.” He took a drink of his beer. “At least this one has internet and cable tv. Y’know, if Rogers hadn’t busted us out I’d say this was some evolved Stark Industries cell to keep us pacified.”
He chuckled that concept off even if it was scarily possible. “How are you settling in?”
***
“It’s not too bad,” Sam said. “Definitely better than prison.” Or being a fugitive. Although he did shudder slightly at Clint’s thought. He wouldn’t put something like this past Stark.
He poured himself a beer and took a long drink. “Took in a kid named Kurt. He’s blue and can teleport.”
***
Clint noticed the shudder, smirked into his beer then shrugged. “I mean, it just makes sense. He’d been here before. Made that casino with a lab in it. Who’s to say he didn’t make all of this, equiped it with stuff to keep us busy then put all of us criminals here when we became a pain in his ass?” God he loved doing this sometimes.
“Blue and can teleport,” Clint mused. Interesting. And what did it say about their lives that the blue teleport thing didn’t make him blink? “Well, I guess everyone’s got to have a hobby but are you ready to handle a kid?”
***
If Steve hadn’t been here before Tony, Sam would absolutely buy that theory. “The only flaw in that logic is that he didn’t show up here until almost a year after the whole thing started,” Sam said. “At least from what I can tell.” He supposed it was possible that the billionaire had managed to conceal his presence, but that definitely wasn’t Stark’s style.
“He’s seventeen,” Sam said. “So it’s not like he needs a lot of care. Just food and money, mostly.”
***
“So he showed up, saw how it all worked then harnessed it for his own ends.” Clint looked dead serious about it, but the fact was he was enjoying smack talking Tony. It was a nice release. “It’s not like he hasn’t done similar shit before.”
Then he about choked on his beer. Clint had to cough/laugh for a few moments before he could speak. “Obviously you don’t remember what it was like to be a seventeen year old guy. Add being blue and teleporting to the usual teenage boy crap and you have a job, my friend.”
***
Sam hadn’t been a teenager for a long time and his memories of war and fighting with the Avengers were far more prevalent in his mind. Still, he shrugged. “I’m pretty sure I can handle it,” he said. “He’s a good kid. Asked if we could home school since the kids are making fun of him though.”
Something that Sam did not feel equipped to handle by any stretch and was hoping he could tap into the extended network he knew in town for some help. “He does have a teacher here from home who’s offered to help with that.”
***
“Kids suck,” Clint groused. “Seriously. High school is like a proving ground for terrorist activity. How you make it through dictates what list you get put on after graduation. Screw the SATs.” He took a drink as if toasting his assessment.
“At least he has a support system between you and this guy from his home.” Clint meant every word of that. If he didn’t have Nat, Pietro, Rogers and a host of others he’d have lost his mind by now. More than he already had.
***
“Yeah, there are a few other people from his world here. Some of them know him, some don’t, but they all seem to have a bond regardless,” Sam said. It made sense, given that they all had something special about them and knew what it was like to be different.
He took another drink of his beer. This place seemed to collect those who were considered misfits back home. It was an interesting facet to consider, if Sam was the research type. He was content to leave that to Banner and the other science geeks though. “He also went on a date recently.”
***
“A date!” Clint turned a mildly surprised look at Sam. “Wow. How’d that go?” He wasn’t surprised because the kid was blue. He was surprised because the kid was seventeen. Clint remembered wanting to go on a date with someone at seventeen. It took him longer than he’d been here to build up the nerve to ask the girl out.
***
Sam chuckled. “I guess it went okay. The girl is kind of… out there. At least from what I’ve seen of her on the network. But as long as he’s having fun and not doing stupid shit…”
They hadn’t had the safe sex talk yet and Sam knew he probably should, just in case, since he didn’t know if anyone had bothered to have that conversation with Kurt yet. It would be awkward, but he didn’t want to be irresponsible.
***
“Yeah,” Clint said. “I have the corner market on stupid shit and I protect my interests ruthlessly.” He smirked for the oblique reference to his New Year’s Eve antics. That really had been epic.
“What do you think of Rogers being married?” It had happened under the influence of this town’s whims, but Clint liked to think he knew Steve. He wouldn’t walk away from the marriage any more than he’d walk away from what he felt was the right fight.
***
“I think it’s good for him,” Sam said. “I haven’t spent much time with Veronica, but she seems like a good match for him. Reminds me a little of Sharon Carter without all the weird emotional baggage.”
He was in favor of anything that meant his friend was happy.
***
Clint’s brow lifted as he chuckled. “Not a fan of Sharon, are you?” He had his own opinion on the matter, but mostly it centered on Steve not doing right by the SHIELD agent since it would never be certain that his interest in her didn’t stem from his closeness to her aunt.
But he had his own opinion about the marriage too. He just hadn’t offered to anyone yet.
***
Sam shrugged. “Sharon’s fine. She was a big help to us during all that mess. I just think it’s kind of weird that Steve is interested in her since she’s Peggy’s niece.” Before finding out that piece of information at the funeral, he’d been fully in favor of Steve asking out the pretty blonde agent.
“What do you think? You’ve been here longer than I have.” Which meant he’d seen more of the weirdness the town had to offer.
***
Clint’s brows lifted for Sam echoing his own thoughts. He was glad he wasn’t the only one to see it. His lips tightened as he sighed through his nose. “Fury had a reason for putting Sharon on Rogers. The obvious reason was who she was related to, anticipating loyalty to the job beyond duty.” Clint had sussed that out for himself. “It wouldn’t surprise me if part of his reasoning was how Rogers would react when he found out who she really was. Strikes me as odd, though, that he didn’t find that out until after Peggy died. What else sticks out is that Sharon herself didn’t tell him, and Rogers still went there.” Steve didn’t like lies. He liked omissions even worse.
“Not my business, though.” He grimaced before taking a drink. “As for this marriage, he’ll stick it out. He likes her well enough. Maybe even loves her. It’s stupid fast for him to be at this stage, but he wouldn’t let the town’s whacky shit dictate his decisions. He’ll do right by her even if it hurts him.”
***
“Yeah, I thought that was a little weird too,” Sam admitted. “We didn’t know until she got up to speak at the funeral.”
That was still a surreal moment, though not as surreal as sitting in the car watching Steve kiss her was. He shook his head and finished his drink before pouring another one. “I think he’s happy. That’s really all that matters.” At least it was all that mattered to Sam. “Seems like this place is good for a lot of people that way.”
***
“You want insight on that?” Clint gave Sam a dead serious look. “Corner Hill. She works for the Avengers, but she’s Fury’s right hand.” There was a reason why Clint liked Hill, but kept her at a distance. They were friends, almost as close as he and Nat were, but she knew too much. Followed Fury’s say so too easily.
He nodded to the final point about Rogers and touched his mug to Sam’s before drinking to that. “Is it, though?” Clint had to ask. Yeah, a lot of people had made lives for themselves, seemed happy, but there were others that weren’t so happy. It was just easier to see the smiles.
***
From what Sam could see, people were happy. He’d been skeptical at first, but after being here a few months, it was obvious that Wanda, Bruce and Nat, and Steve had really settled in and made lives here for themselves. Hell, even Barnes seemed to be doing well, not that he would ever admit to thinking that.
“Guess it’s all a matter of perspective,” Sam said. “I mean, it’s better than being a fugitive, far as I’m concerned. I can understand why it might not be the same for you though.”
***
“Oooh, no,” Clint said with a smile as he wagged a finger at Sam. “Don’t use me as an example. I have a choice in being happy here same as everyone else.” And he’d still like to put a cherry bomb in Nat’s mailbox for giving him that minor kick in the pants. “I’m just saying that sure, there are examples of how this place can be a good thing, but at what cost? That kid you’re taking care of? Is his life better? People go home, learn more about their lives there then come back, but their friends and family here haven’t progressed along with them. It takes a toll. Happiness isn’t that simple, my friend, and the moment it seems to be is the moment you need to look up for the bomb about to drop on your head.”
***
“Well, at least that’s something we’re used to, right?” Sam asked ruefully. He signaled the bartender to bring them another pitcher of beer. “Waiting for the other shoe to drop.” It was part and parcel of being an Avenger.
He grinned and poured them both refills. “Enough philosophizing. Let’s drink.”
***
It was part of being an Avenger, sure, but it was also the reason for the Avengers to exist in the first place. Laura knew that, accepted it and encouraged Clint. She’d said more than once that they needed him.
“Best plan I’ve heard in a while,” Clint said with a return smile. He recognized when someone had had enough of his observations, and went with the drop in subject. It adaptability was what made him a good agent.
He took a drink then bipped Sam in the arm with the back of his hand. “Say. Have you seen the video from New Year’s Eve?” He didn’t bother to wait for an answer since he had the incriminating video of him saved to his phone. It was going to be a fun night.