Notes: TBD.
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"Why do you hide your soulmark?" Bucky is looking at the cuff Clint wears around his right wrist, his newly made arm picking unconsciously at the sleeve of his own shirt. Covering soulmarks with long sleeves isn't uncommon, but the broad cuff Clint wears goes beyond that.
Clint's used to the question. It's not common, not as common as it used to be before he started hiding it, but he still gets asked it every once in a while. No matter how many times he's asked it and been disappointed Clint still feels his heart pick up the pace when Steve's buddy asks it curiously. He can almost feel those words that are etched into his skin and there's a small, wistful voice in his mind thinking, 'Maybe, this time will be different.'
He squashes that thought as best he can and shrugs.
"Bad habit I picked up in the circus, I guess," Clint tosses out one of the dozen excuses he has already prepared. Watching Bucky's face very closely out of habit more than hope.
Bucky blinks once and Clint already feels that hopeful thought dying away once again. "What?"
"The circus," Clint leans up against a wall and gives the man a show worthy smile as he mimes pulling a shot. "Thought it'd be a good idea to join the circus when I was a kid. Learned all I needed to know there about being the Amazing Hawkeye, best marksman in the world!"
Clint chuckles because his voice raised at the end their unconsciously imitating the barkers. It's also a blatant lie. The circus started his learning, he only learned the important things latter when his life depended on it.
"That's not-" Bucky breaks off with a frown and then sits up. Clint almost chides him to stay down like the doctors who brought him out of the freezer had warned him to. If Steve were in the room and not getting the run down from the docs outside, Clint knows he would've pushed the man back down. Clint's not Steve though and Bucky seems more than steady enough as he sits up and turns to let his legs hang off the bed. The new arm fumbles a little but Bucky pulls his right sleeve up to expose the line of words that is his own soulmark, and the dying hope rekindles as Clint leans forward.
Bad habit I picked up in the circus, I guess. Slants across Bucky's wrist and Clint feels really stupid when he says, "Oh." He stares for a moment before reaching down to undo his cuff and show his own mark.
"You got asked that a lot," Bucky states quietly and reaches out with his flesh hand to touch the skin under the question he'd just asked.
"Like you wouldn't believe," Clint says with a short laugh. Elation wars with logic inside him because he's found his soulmate and his soulmate is the Winter Soldier. Complicated doesn't even begin to describe it, but the light touch of the man's finger to his skin is almost addicting.
That gets a short bark of laughter out of Bucky and when he looks up Clint sees more than a little shock and wariness there. It's nice to know they're both on the same page. Clint steps back when the door swings open and Steve comes in. Bucky seems a little relieved though he still looks over at Clint through the rest of the day.
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