I'll Be Strong
Summary: Bucky knew the whole "damsel in distress" game better than anyone else because his damsel in distress was always Clint. Clint never feels as if he's strong enough so he trains harder and even more than before so he can't be weak. Now, Bucky is the one in trouble, along with the rest of the Avengers, and it's up to Clint to save them. Winterhawk
I'll Be Strong
This had to happen at least once every two weeks. Tony had come to make bets on what day Clint would get kidnapped. He made a bet with Bruce that Clint would get taken on a Wednesday and he was wrong. It was actually on a Tuesday this time. Bruce knew he shouldn't be making bets because his friend being taken was no joking matter but it did happen entirely too often.
This week, a man calling himself Leader had taken Clint to draw out the Winter Soldier. The Avengers had found a note stabbed into the door of their tower by a knife, instructing Bucky to meet him at an abandoned building so they could fight, the victor would claim Clint as their prize. No one was surprised when Tony had managed to get a video call on with the man who kidnapped Clint.
Bucky's eyes went cold as he went into Winter Soldier mode. He wasn't too happy that his lover was chained standing to a wall and a knife was at his throat, probably because of a sassy or sarcastic remark he had made. Clint was the best in situations like these. He could annoy his captors to death and withstand any amount of torture they bestowed upon him. Any torture they made in mind could not compare to his remarks and ability to endure pain.
A man with a long scar coming down the middle of his face walked in front of the camera and smirked as he spoke, "Ah, the Avengers and the Winter Soldier, what a lovely surprise. I assume you got my note, hm? I know that this pain in the neck means a great deal to all of you, but he means the most to you, doesn't he, Soldier?" Bucky refused to show any emotion at that comment.
"None of you mentioned the great Hawkeye is deaf."
Everyone's eyes went wide for a split second before all glaring at him. Leader chuckled to himself before holding up Clint's hearing aids and crushing them. Clint lolled his head around as much as he could with the knife being at his throat before groaning, "Hey, Stark, I need to ask a favor. My aids sort of got crushed so if you could be a dear and help me make a new pair, that would be just great. Thanks, buddy."
Tony smiled and shook his head at his friend's words. The man holding the knife to his neck pressed the blade against his neck, drawing a bit of blood from doing so. Clint's eyes shifted to the corner of his eye to look at the man as he said, "Stop trying to show off for your leader, anyone can make a person bleed. We all know he thinks I'm more attractive than you so stand down."
The man growled and just as he was going to say something back, Leader held up a hand. The other man instantly removed the knife and stepped aside. Leader stood in front of Clint and caressed his cheek but pulled his hand back after Clint bit his hand when it came too close to his mouth. For punishment, Clint was backhanded. Clint felt a bruise coming but asked with a grin, "Still think I'm pretty with a bruise on my face?"
"You'd look prettier with my-"
Tony coughed, causing the man to stop saying whatever dirty things he was planning to do to Clint. Leader turned his attention towards the camera as he moved closer to it while saying, "Do we have an agreement, Winter Soldier? I will give your lover back if you meet me at the location written on the note. If you bring any of the Avengers with you, I will kill the hawk in front of you. Do we have an understanding?"
"Yes. But he is not to be harmed after this."
"I will agree to that… until then, Soldier…"
The screen went black and that's when Natasha kneeled down in front of him whispering, "When are we leaving tonight?" He stood up and walked past her, wanting to get ready for tonight but Thor stood in his way. The god looked down at him and stated, "The hawk is our friend and we would like to help you in bringing him home. I insist that you let us come with you."
Bucky gave an irritated look at the god's words before hissing, "Clint is my responsibility. It's my fault he got taken so I'm going to bring him back. Clint is my mission." Before anyone could say anything, Bucky had slipped past Thor and was walking down to his shared room. He locked the door behind him and began getting everything he needed to bring back his lover. Leader wouldn't know what hit him.
That night, Bucky escaped from the tower and ran to the abandoned building. As soon as he stepped foot in the building, all the lights came on. He pulled up his mask when he saw Clint on his knees, hands cuffed behind his back and he was sporting a black eye. Clint's eyes met with his lover's and realized he wasn't looking at James "Bucky" Barnes anymore, but the Winter Soldier.
Bucky was instantly surrounded by five men, all pointing guns at him. Normally, Clint would be yelling at Bucky to leave or trying to make a deal with whoever had taken him but Clint's eyes went to the floor. He looked defeated and it helped build rage within the Winter Soldier. Before anyone could say anything, the Avengers came in through the windows, glass shattering everywhere.
During the Avengers' entrance, Bucky managed to knock out all of the men surrounding him as if it was nothing. More men came out and that's when the brawl happened. As the Avengers kept the men at bay, Bucky chased after the man who was now dragging Clint out of the building. Leader was trying to make his escape when a bullet came in contact with his back, sending him and Clint to the ground.
Bucky brought the gun to the back of Leader's head and growled, "You were dead the moment you took what belongs to me." And in a second, Leader was dead from a bullet to the back of the head. Bucky ripped off Clint's handcuffs as if it was nothing and lifted his smaller lover onto his feet. He put a hand under Clint's chin, forcing him to look into his eyes, but Clint still looked defeated.
He pulled down his mask and looked the archer up and down, scanning him for more injuries but found none. Clint tried to focus on Bucky's lips when he asked, "Did he hurt you? Are you okay?" Normally, Clint would be in Bucky's arms thanking him or telling him he was so sorry but this time he wasn't. He shook his head at his taller lover and moved the hand from under his chin so that they were just holding hands.
Something was wrong with Clint Barton and Bucky was determined to fix it. The next day, Bucky woke up to an empty bed. He stumbled out and into the kitchen, asking everyone if they knew where Clint was. Natasha sighed before she answered him, "He's been at the range since three this morning but JARVIS says he's in the gym now probably beating up one of Steve's punching bags."
He nodded to her in thanks before heading off towards the gym. Like Natasha said, Clint was in the gym going at the punching bag. It was clear that Clint was working on his technique but now he was trying to force more power into his attacks. Bucky took a mental note on the fact that the bandages covering Clint's hands were red, most likely from going too hard at the bag for too long.
"Are you going to beat that thing up all day or are you going to eat breakfast?"
Clint refused to stop but huffed out, "I'll eat later, Buck…" The soldier let out a deep breath before walking out of the gym. He knew better than to talk to Clint when he was this way. This normally only happened after a mission gone wrong and Clint felt as though he was in the wrong. Bucky went back to their room and sat down on the bed. He ran his fingers through his hair before thinking, he just needs some time to cool off… yeah, time is all he needs…
But time wasn't all he needed. Two months went by and Clint wasn't getting better. He spent nearly all his time in the gym or at the range. But now, when he would go to the gym, Clint would spar with Natasha. She never took it easy on him and apparently, that's what he wanted. Bucky would patch him up after their spars and he could almost swear he could head Clint mumbling about something but it was too quiet for him to hear.
Bucky decided that Clint needed a break, he needed to relax but also do something less straining. So, he took Clint and dropped him off at a gym that was giving yoga lessons. Clint gave Bucky a quick kiss before heading into the building. Bucky had a good feeling about today but it all went straight to hell as soon as he got back to the tower.
When Clint got back after yoga, the tower was too quiet for his liking. He walked into the kitchen to find a note stabbed into the counter. He picked it up and read, I have your friends… if you ever want to see them again you'll meet me at the location written on the wall… I left you behind for a reason, Hawkeye… you're weak… you'll never succeed… you're so dependent on you lover… but it will be fun watching you die… -X
Clint crumpled the note and threw it to the ground. He changed into his Hawkeye uniform and read the location on the wall. He grabbed his bow and arrows and was off to save his friends. When he reached his destination, he noticed it was the same as the building where he was taken two months ago. Leader couldn't still be alive, not after that shot to the head but someone else must be calling the shots now.
As soon as he stepped foot in the building, the lights were on. His friends and lover were caged in the corner, clearly the metal was too strong for any of them to break and Bruce Banner was unconscious. A man stepped out and Clint glared at him, realizing that the man who took his friends was the man who held the knife to his throat two months ago. This was X.
X snapped his fingers and the next thing Clint knew, he was surrounded by so many men, each of them holding a gun. Clint looked around at everyone and snapped his glove on. He wasn't Clint Barton anymore. He couldn't be Clint Barton now. He was Hawkeye now. It was time for him to be strong and show everyone what he had accomplished during those months of intense training. He wasn't going to be weak this time.
He looked at X and then at his caged friends, wondering why the soldiers hadn't tried to break the bars. X looked at the cage and then back at Clint before explaining with a smirk, "They can't break their way through this time. You see, I finally found a metal that withstand even the strength of two super soldiers and the rest of the misfit gang. Only I can open the cage with this…" X held up a little metal remote and waved it at Hawkeye.
"Alright, men, just shoot him."
"You're a coward. Fighting with guns instead of taking me on."
"Is that what you want?"
"Well, I needed new people to train against anyways."
X looked at his men and nodded towards them, giving them the signal to drop their guns. When the guns were on the ground, Clint placed his bow and arrows on the ground as well before getting into his battle stance. Bucky and Natasha were about to protest to Clint taking them all on but they were cut off by Clint saying softly yet with determination, "This time, I'm going to save you guys… I won't be weak this time… I'll be strong…"
X snapped his fingers and that's when all the soldiers ran at him, but Clint quickly jumped over all of them, forcing them to come at him one by one or two by two. One of them ran at him and tried to punch Clint, but he ducked and kicked the man in the stomach, sending him back into another soldier. Another one came at Clint but this time, the Avenger grabbed his fist and swung them around and threw him at the man trying to get up from last time.
Realizing going at Clint one on one wasn't working, they decided to attack in twos. One of them ran and kept Clint busy while another one tried to come at him from behind. Just when the man from behind was about to attack, he found himself being kicked to the ground. The man looked up at Clint from the ground, how did he even know he was coming? The man growled and stood up to try again.
This time, he was going to go after Clint's legs. He got down low and went for a sweep of the legs when Clint jumped and did a back flip kick that kicked the man in front of him so hard that when Clint was flipping, he landed on the soldier who tried to sweep Clint's legs. When the flip was completed, Hawkeye was standing on top of the man he had kicked, glaring at anyone else who had the balls to take him on.
The Avengers just stood there dumbfounded, how was something like that even possible? Some of X's soldiers ran out after that but two more came after Clint, determined to be the one to take him down. One of them ran at Clint head on and the archer merely jumped over him but during the jump, Clint grabbed the man's shoulders and threw him into the man running in for the second attack.
Alright, so two weren't working, so they decided to try three. The three soldiers had Clint surrounded, smirking as they thought he couldn't stop them this time. One man even got so confident that they were going to stop him that he smirked, "How are you going to get your way out of this one, Hawkeye? We've got you surrounded so get ready to know pain, little birdy."
"Want to see a cartwheel?"
Before anyone could say anything, Clint did a perfect cartwheel and kicked the man in the face, sending him falling to the ground with a thud. Clint faced the other two and asked with a smirk, "Who wants to see a back hand spring?" The two men looked at each other before they looked back at Hawkeye. He grinned and ran forward, one man went to sweep the legs but Clint jumped over him and did a back hand spring kick to the other man's face.
The last man standing looked at Hawkeye, they had underestimated this one. Clint walked over to him and jumped around a little, as if he was getting ready for a boxing match. The other guy looked at him as if he was crazy until he got a punch to the face, knocking him into reality. He looked at Clint and went to punch but it was dodged and he received a punch to the face again and then one to the stomach.
As he went down after the hit to the stomach, he got a knee to the head, sending him back up for a kick hat sent him to the wall. Clint straightened up and looked around the room for anyone else brave enough to fight him but there were none. X pulled out a gun and shot at Hawkeye, but he quickly jumped out of the way. He glared at X, "I thought we had an agreement of no guns, coward."
"You should know that villains don't fight fair. This is the end of the line, hawk, no more tricks."
"That's what you think…"
"Oh really? You can do gymnastics, box, and shoot arrows. What else can you possibly do?"
"Twerk."
Everything just went silent after that. Everyone just looked at each other. X lowered his gun and laughed, just laughed. When he calmed down, he asked with an amused look on his face, "Would you mind showing us? I really just need to see this." Clint shrugged and stated, "I'll need some music to twerk to. Pull out your phone and get me something good, you know?" X nodded and pulled out his phone to find a song.
Suddenly, trumpets blasted on his phone and in the room. Clint instantly knew the song and got down before he started twerking as the ladies in the song sang, "Give it to me, I'm worth it. Baby, I'm worth it. Uh-huh, I'm worth it. Gimme, gimme, I'm worth it. Give it to me, I'm worth it. Baby, I'm worth it. Uh-huh, I'm worth it. Gimme, gimme, I'm worith it." Everyone's mouths dropped, especially Bucky's.
X turned the music off and that's when Clint shot up and got back into Hawkeye mode. X put his phone away and pointed the gun at the man before him. He sighed before he said sadly, "It's a shame I'm going to have to kill you. You would have had so much promise as a professional male twerker one day, but alas, you will have to die today in front of your friends. This is the end. Goodbye, Hawkeye."
He fired the gun but Clint avoided it, X growled in frustration before shooting at him again. He missed again, but what he didn't realize was that each time he shot at Clint, the archer was moving closer to him. He kept shooting and missing until Clint was standing right in front of him. He went to shoot him when he realized he was out of bullets. Clint smirked and punched him, causing the man to fall to the ground.
Clint jumped on him and once he did, the wrestle for who would be on top began. They rolled around on the ground, punching and clawing at each other. Both were bloody and bruised but neither of them were done with the other yet. X pulled out a knife and held it to Clint's neck, pinning him to the ground underneath him. Clint thrashed and tried to squirm out but it wasn't working.
Bucky was being held back by Natasha as X hissed at the Avenger, "You've always been the weak link on the team and you know it, don't you? Let's go through the Avengers, shall we? We have two super soldiers, a green raging monster who is also a scientist, a man in a robotic suit who is also a genius, a genetically altered deadly assassin woman, and then there's you. All you do is shoot some arrows. There's nothing special about you… and you know it, don't you?"
Everyone in the cage gasped as they saw Clint stop struggling against X. The man smirked as he went on, "Oh, did I hit a nerve? Well, then this is going to hit even more when I bring up good ole brother and father." Clint's eyes widened and started to fight back a little more when X continued, "I know your father was an abusive alcoholic and he took it all out on you and your own brother tried to have you arrested and kill you. Now, they're all dead and you killed Barney."
Clint refused to look at anyone as X just kept breaking him down, "I know all about you, Clint Barton. You're weak and you've always been weak. You know what you did when Thor's brother Loki came here and took you under his wing. You killed those people in Germany and some SHIELD agents, too. Did it make you feel good killing them? You're pathetic. You couldn't even break free from Loki… or did you even want to break free? You must have liked-"
"ENOUGH! Leave him alone!"
Bucky was banging on the cage, hating every moment of watching Clint start to give up. X laughed darkly before pressing the knife close enough to draw blood. He grinned like a madman as he said, "Good ole Winter Soldier stepping in for his weak little hawk again. I hope you get a good look, Soldier, because you're about to see the demise of your weak little lover… you were never going to be strong enough to save him… now die!"
Just as he was going to slit Clint's throat, the archer managed to knee X in the balls. X cried out in pain, allowing Clint to switch their positions and be the one holding the knife. X struggled against Clint but he was stronger now, able to hold him down without a problem. Clint pressed the knife against X's throat and smirked, "My past has shaped who I am today and I'm stronger because of it. You know, it will feel good to kill you…"
"Caw, caw, mother fucker."
And then, X's throat was slashed and he was dead in seconds. Clint sighed and threw the knife aside before snatching the remote from X's pocket. He stood up and walked over to the cage, pressing the button and releasing his friends and lover. By now, Bruce had woken up and was now joining his friends in hugging Clint for saving them. When they let go, Bucky was the only one still holding on to him.
Clint looked into Bucky's eyes and smiled as the soldier wrapped his arms around Clint's waist and twirled him around, earning a laugh from the archer. When Clint was placed on the ground, those strong arms didn't remove themselves from his waist, if anything they held onto him tighter as Bucky smiled, "I am so proud of you, beautiful. You saved me and everyone else… thank you."
Their friends smiled and watched as their friends had their moment together. They knew them enough to give them some space after something like this. Natasha was smiling with her eyes soft and focused on Clint, she was so proud of him for never giving up. Tony had a small smile on his face, happy and relieved that his best friend was going to more chipper and sassy around the house now.
Steve just crossed his arms and let out a happy sigh that turned into a smile, Clint Barton would have been one hell of a soldier back in his time. Thor was grinning, not even trying to hide his happiness and thankfulness for the archer. Bruce was just wondering how he got there. He was grateful he was saved but he didn't even realize that he had gotten kidnapped but he figured that if everyone else was smiling, he should be, too.
Clint wrapped his arms around his lover's neck as they finally leaned in and kissed. It was passionate and they poured everything they had into it. When they pulled away, they whispered to each other, "I love you." Which caused them both to smile at each other since they rarely even said that to each other, they preferred actions over words. Tony smirked, as he thought it was a perfect time to ask a question that had been on his mind.
"Where'd you learn how to twerk, Legolas?"
AND DONE! I know it's short but that's what I was aiming for here. I wanted to make Clint look a little badass after making him seem all weak but then I wanted to make him twerk because I feel like he could be a boss twerker… anyways, I'm sorry if there are any mistakes or anything but this is my very first Avengers fic so please be nice! I want to write more Avengers fics so I'll hopefully be coming out with more soon! Thanks for reading!
By the way, the song I used for Clint to twerk to was "Worth It" by Fifth Harmony featuring Kid Ink!
Don't forget to favorite, follow, and review! And happy summer everyone!