A/N: This doesn't fit in any of my anthologies. I've never written deaf Clint, for one thing. This is Bucky and Clint watching the Paralympics show that I was watching last week. It's the broadcast that started at 10 p.m. March 15 California time, so 1 a.m. March 16 in New York. Clint's coming in about 2 hours into the show. You'll see why I thought of Bucky when I watched it.

Paralympic Sympathy

Clint Barton came into the Tower recreation room and found James Buchanan Barnes munching on popcorn and intently watching a commercial about children wanting to be athletes.

"What'cha watching?" Clint asked, sitting beside Bucky where he could reach the enormous bowl of popcorn.

"The Paralympics," Bucky answered.

Clint thought about the competition for disabled athletes — adaptive sports, that was the current term. The man who was hard of hearing could understand why his one-armed friend was interested.

Anyway, it was sports. Clint loved sports of any kind. "Wasn't this live from Korea? So, like midnight here?"

"One a.m.," Bucky answered. "Jarvis taped it for me because he thought I'd be interested." The commercials ended and the Paralympics logo came on the screen. Bucky sat forward. "They should be coming up on biathlon."

"Ooh, shooting. I'm in," Clint said.

This was the men's sitting biathlon. Men with missing or disabled lower limbs poled sleds along the course. Then they would flop over and, with the sleds still fastened on behind them, shot prone, hitting five targets — or trying to. If they missed a target, a one-minute penalty would be added to the competitors time. American Dan Cnossen was contending for the lead, just a few seconds behind the leader from Germany. And, despite the wind blowing snow across the course, he shot clean! But a few minutes later, so did the German. It was a timed race. They didn't go head-to-head, so the viewers just had to depend on the announcers for updates.

"I can see why you like this," Clint said. The two snipers could admire good shooting in tricky conditions.

Bucky snorted. "You should have seen a couple days ago, when the visually impaired athletes raced biathlon," he said with a smirk.

"Visually ... blind athletes?" Clint was incredulous. "Blind people with guns?"

"Don't be ableist," Bucky chided.

"How do you even know that word," Clint grumbled.

"It was awesome," Bucky said. "They had laser rifles and headphones that gave off a tone as they lined up the shot. When the tone steadied, they fired. It was kind of shrill, might have made your hearing aids freak out."

"I'll have to look for a replay," Clint said. "Think Cnossen can win?"

"Maybe. He was a Navy SEAL. They're pretty tough. The women's race was earlier. American Oksana Masters won the silver. Both she and Cnossen already have gold medals in other races. They both have a bunch of medals this year. We've won more medals in Nordic sports in the Paralympics than we ever have in the Olympics."

"We have the best disabled athletes," the deaf man joked, nudging his friend's prosthetic arm. Bucky "nudged" him back hard enough to knock Clint over on the couch. The archer laughed.

The two Avengers watched as Cnossen took the silver medal.

"That was good," Clint said, leaning back.

"That's not even what I'm waiting to see," Bucky said.

Clint sat forward again. "What's coming up?"

"Something called snowboarding banked slalom. They ran the first heat before the biathlon. It's best of three runs."

Clint was baffled. "You like snowboarding?"

Bucky shrugged. "I am the Winter Soldier."

Clint shoved Bucky hard, but the super soldier just swayed a tiny bit, mostly to pacify his non-powered friend.

"There's an athlete I like in the Upper Limb Division," Bucky explained with a shrug.

"Snowboarders with missing arms?" Clint asked for clarification.

"Or arms or hands handicapped in some way, so it's hard for them to balance," Bucky explained. "They also have two classifications for disabled lower limbs, depending on how handicapped they are."

The athletes were inspiring. One Australian had lost his left arm and right hand to a great white shark attack. That made Clint shiver.

Bucky sat up. "Here's my guy. JBM they call him."

"But he's not an American," Clint protested, seeing the flag logo beside the name. "He's a Brit!"

"I know."

And then Clint heard the announcer give the competitor's full name. "No way."

"Yep, James Barnes-Miller," James Barnes said. "How could I not root for him?"

"Well, I'm rooting for the American," Clint decided, and he cheered Mike Minor on.

The men's runs alternated with the women's.

"Oh, Amy Purdy, I remember her from 'Dancing with the Stars'," Clint said.

"You watch 'Dancing with the Stars'?" Bucky said skeptically.

"Doesn't everyone? Haven't you seen how little those girls wear? In words you might understand old timer, hubba hubba!"

Bucky rolled his eyes, listening to the announcer talk about how Purdy, the only double leg amputee, had to adjust her prosthetics as well as her equipment for the changing snow conditions.

"She had the same problem on 'Dancing'," Clint said. "She needed different feet to dance the jive than she did to dance a waltz."

"Different feet?"

"Now who's being an ableist," Clint replied.

Despite his U-S-A chanting, Clint did groan sympathetically when JBM fell on his third run, which guaranteed he wouldn't win a medal.

Then Bucky joined Clint in rooting for Mike Minor, who won the gold. "And it's mike drop for Minor!" the announcer declared.

Clint rolled off the couch, he was laughing so hard.

A/N: The show is all true. I took notes.
No idea when I'll be able to finish another story. RL is kicking my butt. I know where the next chapter of T-Shirt is going, but haven't had time to type.