A/N: My mind produced this in about an hour. So it's kind of a crack fic. Written for WinterHawk Week 2015 Day 1 - Love at first sight. Enjoy!
Red, Green, Fall
Clint had never believed in love at first sight. All the times it had gone to shit when he had actually tried to establish a relationship had made him lose the belief that there's such a thing as love at first sight, butterflies in his stomach and anything else of that soppy stuff.
So when he walks down the road, dodging the other people constantly getting in his way, running about buying roses and presents for their loved ones (Valentine's Day only being a few hours away), Clint decides to be happy with his singlehood and enjoy the 14th February as just another normal guy, perhaps go out with his friends, do something nice, grant himself a treat. He puts a smile on his face and it feels right, not the slightest bit fake and he thinks he can actually enjoy the evening. Head held high Clint doesn't pay attention to the red traffic light and just walks on straight ahead to cross the street when he hears tyres screeching and he stumbles to a halt, head snapping to his side where a car has stopped inches away from the spot he's standing on. His eyes flicker from the front of the car to his feet and then back up, shock still having his body under control, rooted to the ground, rendering him completely unable to move. His ears neither register the click of the door at the driver's side being opened nor the steps on the asphalt as the owner of the vehicle comes over to him. (Blame it on his hearing aids. Fail to function properly for a couple of weeks now, and Nat is tired of screaming at him. He really needs to get them checked.) Clint doesn't even notice that his mouth is hanging slightly open until there's a soft weight applied to his shoulder and he slowly glances up.
The man in front of him is looking worried, shoulders bent slightly and eyes searching for something in Clint's features.
"Hey, you okay?"
Clint hurries to pick his jaw back up again from the ground and clams his mouth shut.
The man isn't mad. He should be considering that a bloke too daft to heed flashing traffic warning signs just ran straight onto the street and into his car.
No. Instead, his voice is gentle, tone laced with genuine worry and why is it that Clint can't seem to think straight?
Shock. Definitely. He's still in shock, his mind trying to process the recent rather speedy events.
When he blinks in confusion and looks up the man is still standing there, and his mind stops and then rolls back to the thought over and over again like a broken record.
He's… he's beautiful.
It needs the way back home, a shower, and a steaming cup of tea to make Clint finally realise that he just fell very hard. He's never crashed to the ground at such speed. Well, he's never been knocked over by a dashing driver.
He did run into a car before.
Bucky always wanted to meet his one true love by accident, he always wanted it to be love at first sight because no matter how soppy this sounded and no bloody matter how hard all of his friends laughed at him for merely mentioning it, he liked the idea of it.
Not that he meant accident literally.
So when he's standing on that street that leads onto one of the numerous giant crossroads of Brooklyn, he's not prepared at all. Not for those blue eyes that look at him in utter disbelief and confusion and not for his heart skipping a beat because the man in front of him looks like a surprised, beat puppy which is just terribly endearing.
Positive side of the medal, he's pretty sure he's just met the love of his life. Negative side, said man's simply left him standing there on the street, running off to who knows where.
Natasha laughs at him. (Now that he's finally got his hearing aids repaired, the sound is rather loud in his poor ears.)
"You stumbled into him?" The laughter bubbles out of her mouth, scrambling the words into mush and Clint wonders if his aids are adjusted correctly.
Well, his car, to be precise. As far as the man is concerned, fell would be the adequate description of Clint's (figurative) movements.
Clint didn't want to tell Nat right away because he knew she'd do what she's pretty good at – laugh at him. But when he sat there on the sofa staring at the opposite wall, cold tea in hands, the ring of the doorbell came simultaneously with the realisation that Clint doesn't know who the lad is, doesn't have his number, and, even worse (is this even possible?) he's left him without even saying so much as thank you for sparing his goddamn life.
Probably Nat is right to laugh at him. He's a fool. An enamoured fool. Which is even worse.
Turns out Steve knows the guy!
When Clint told Natasha the last thing he wanted to achieve was to trigger an avalanche of ridicule crushing down on him. He's crushed enough for one day.
Anyway, Steve calls Nat because he's bored and on his way home from work and because he's got some story to tell and then Nat is almost falling over with laughter and of course Clint wants to know what the hell is so funny. When Nat tells him – between gasps of breath and fits of giggling – he just wants to facepalm himself. Hard.
Apparently, Steve narrates innocently, his best friend (why hasn't Clint even met Steve Roger's best mate when he knows the aforementioned man since he can't remember when?) had a rather strange encounter today because a man practically ran into his car as he was driving and he almost knocked him over.
Of bloody course Nat can't keep it to herself so she tells Steve who this certain someone is and they laugh together at poor, lonely Clint who's only wish is for the ground to open up and swallow him right now.
Then Steve has the most crackbrained idea Clint's ever heard but of course his objections get brushed off and next thing he knows is Natasha dragging him down several roads and up the staircase to Steve's apartment.
Where he meets car-crash man.
Who turns out to go by the name of Bucky.
Steve introduces them and the two men have to endure another hearty round of laugher before Clint can duck away and hide in a corner.
Nothing manages to lure him out of there until…
"Hey, you."
Clint's eyes flicker upwards and he's quick to shove his hands into his pockets in hope of hiding the trembling and he's pretty sure his voice isn't even audible when he sheepishly returns the greeting. "Hey."
Bucky's smile has him falling all over again and then they get to know each other properly.
The day is getting weirder by the second and the end of it finds Clint sharing sweet kisses and shy smiles with a man he met merely four hours ago.