Chapter 14 - Trust Issues

Clint could only stare at Bucky in shock. Bucky? Loved him? How was that possible? Bucky shifted his weight before sighing and dragging the archer in for a hug. Still too stunned to think right, Clint moved with the pressure and found himself wrapped up in warmth. Unsure what exactly to do next, Clint just kind of stood there. After maybe a minute, Clint shifted his arms and returned the hug.

"What do we do now?" Clint whispered a moment later. Bucky pulled away and the hug broke. They looked in each other's eyes, curious what the other was thinking.

"I... Honestly, if this was any other time I'd want to take you out for a date," Bucky mumbled. Clint frowned.

"Why can't you?"

"I... The..." Bucky trailed off. It took Clint an extra second before he realized what Bucky was trying to say. It was like what the others had said in the dining room. What if Bucky was forcing or even influencing Clint's choice? Clint winced. Good reason to not get together as of right now. But, if it was never fixed... They'd never be able to date. The archer couldn't help but whine at that knowledge. They had just admitted their feelings for each other, only to realize they could do anything about it. Clint could only blame Hydra.

"Buck, just know this," Clint started. Bucky furrowed his brow. "I loved you before this whole control thingy. You can't change my feelings on that."

"But I could force you to do other things," Bucky exhaled so softly that Clint nearly missed him speaking. Clint whined again. There was no defeating this cause Bucky was right. An accidental wording could make it that Clint had to obey what Bucky was saying. "I don't want that Clint."

"I know, it's fine," Clint agreed before pulling Bucky into a hug. They stayed that way for a little while before Clint pulled away. He then licked his lips, staring at Bucky. "Can I just do one thing?"

"What?" Bucky got out seconds before Clint leaned in and lightly pressed his lips against Bucky's. The Sergeant sharply gasped before leaning forward, deepening the kiss just slightly. His hands twitched nervously as he mentally debating grabbing Clint. It was solved when Clint grabbed him, holding themselves together. When they eventually had to pull away from each other, both men found themselves whimpering at the loss of contact. "That was-"

"Intense," Clint breathed. Bucky chuckled.

"Dangerous," he continued. Clint smirked. "Now we know what we're missing."

"But, I figure if I instigate it, you won't have to worry about it. You'll know it's pure me," Clint suggested. Bucky snorted and shook his head. He still couldn't take that risk. Clint sighed. "Worth a shot."

"Thanks," the soldier replied. Clint nodded and they resumed walking through the garden. It was serene there. Near peace and quite. No one but each other around. If they weren't ignoring it, they could have technically called it their 'first date.' But they couldn't think in those terms until Clint was free. They ended up walking through the garden for most of the rest of the day in order to avoid Sam and Wanda. T'Challa had walked by at one point with his mother. Other then looking at them a nodding a greeting, the king said nothing to them. Apparently the conversation from before was over. Just before it got too dark, Clint and Bucky felt their stomachs grumble. They hadn't eaten since lunch. Sheepishly, they traded looks.

"Best we go back inside and get some food," Clint stated. Bucky nodded. It was going to be uncomfortable for both of them when they got to the dining room, but at least this time the only person outside of the workers was Okoye. She looked up from her meal to see them walk in. Clint waved a hand at her before heading right over to the table to get food. Bucky paused and only moved after Okoye nodded her head to him first in greeting. Sighing, Bucky nodded back and headed to get food himself. With their food chosen, they headed over to the table and sat down together, across from Okoye who had returned to her food.

"I heard there was an argument earlier," she commented as Clint began digging into his food. Bucky, who only had just put something on his fork, stilled. Beside him, Clint half choked on his food. Okoye didn't even bother looking up. "I can see their concern but also their lack of trust over your choices."

"It's fine. Settled," Clint coughed out. Bucky lowered his fork down onto his plate and began staring at the food. Once again his appetite was being ruined. Not that his body was really going to allow that. He needed to eat but he just couldn't do it now. "We know what we're doing."

"If it were anyone else in this situation, I would argue on the side of your friends. But, with it being the two of you, I trust your judgments," Okoye informed. Bucky frowned.

"You hardly know us," he grumbled. Okoye shrugged, finally looking up to stare at them.

"I may not know either of you personally but that is not to say I cannot see your judgments would be wise in this situation you have found yourselves trapped in," she explained. Bucky turned to look at Clint but the archer had simply nodded and went back to eating his food. "I know neither of you would take advantage of the other."

"Thank you," Bucky whispered as Okoye stood up from the table. She looked at him before giving him a soft smile and a nod even as she gather the remains of her plate and headed off. Silence descended on the duo. A moment after Okoye left, Bucky was finally able to dig into his food. They both had gotten through nearly all their food when Sam suddenly appeared and dropped into the seat Okoye had been sitting in. Both men tensed.

"Look, I just wanna say I'm sorry," Sam started before Clint could demand he not speak. Bucky gripped his fork a bit to hard and he felt the metal bend slightly. Apparently the silver wear wasn't made from Vibranium "I should have trusted you both."

"Should have?" Clint repeated, his gaze turning angry and deadly as he focused on Sam. The air-man winced.

"I do trust you both," Sam fixed. Clint huffed. "I just want to make sure your okay. I know both of you have had issues like this in the past."

"Bucky controlling me is nothing like Loki, so I, for one, am doing peachy keen," Clint retorted, dropping his fork to his plate. Bucky was slightly surprised to see the archer's metal fork was bent slightly out of shape. Not enough for one to really notice unless they were looking for it.

"I'm not saying it is!" Sam called, raising his hands up in defense as if Clint was going to take a swing at him. Which, given how tensely Clint was sitting, Bucky figured it was a high likely hood.

"Then we have nothing to talk about," Clint snarled. Sam frowned and glanced at Bucky. The soldier sighed.

"I'm worried about accidentally telling him to do something, but otherwise... I guess all I can do is trust Clint," the Sergeant admitted. Sam nodded. It wasn't really an answer he had been looking for, but it was good enough for now. He had to trust that Clint and Bucky actually knew what they were doing. "This doesn't mean we aren't going to give up looking for a way to end this. But, we'll adjust. It's new."

"I get that. Just wanted to make sure you were both okay," Sam clarified. Bucky traded a look with Clint before nodding.

"We're okay."

Nearly a month passed with Clint and Bucky adjusting to the fact that Bucky held power of the archer. Wanda had taken to hanging out around them, mostly to see how they were handling things. Sam went back to trying to find bases with T'Challa. Outside of a few accidents in which Bucky 'told' Clint to get him some food or drink, he hadn't really ordered Clint around. And when he did by accident, Clint was quick to laugh it off rather than letting Bucky feel guilty about it. Not that it really stopped Bucky from it but Clint wasn't going to add any issues on top. Sides, the archer knew Bucky was doing it by mistake.

"Any leads yet?" Clint asked, walking into the 'office' that T'Challa had been allowing Sam to use in an effort to find out if they could get their hands on the book that made the stupid conditioning. Sam looked up at him before shaking his head. The archer huffed. "It's been a month. I think Hydra might have just stopped."

"This is Hydra. They never stop," Bucky growled, walking in behind Clint. Sam snorted before rubbing a hand across his face.

"I don't really know what to do, or even how to look for this thing. It's... It's basically no where in any of the systems that we can access," Sam groaned making Bucky snort.

"You honestly think that a written object that basically describes how Hydra made the Winter Soldier was going to be hidden in their systems?" the Sergeant wondered. Sam tilted his head to the side. "Or are you talking about the LMD warehouse?"

"Both. But, mostly the LMD thing. We can't even find where they're being made," Sam replied, turning around to look at the map in front of him. Clint moved closer to look it over. "I figured there must be some clue here but, I can't find it."

"Look, Sam. Trying to find these things are hard. Hydra will try hiding things by just using different names. Think about it, I was called Asset, Soldat, and Winter Soldier depending on what handler I had. I'm betting each mission I did was underneath those names but a mission under Soldat might not be under Winter Soldier," Bucky explained. Sam shifted and thunked his head down onto the table.

"I'm trying everything," the air-man nearly whined.

"Did you look here?" Clint asked, pointing to a place in California. Sam's head snapped up.

"What?" Clint shrugged.

"Red Worm. An old S.H.I.E.L.D processing and quarantine facility. Coulson never used it cause Hydra technically knows about it. It's large enough and has enough security measures to lock down if a LMD gets out or someone tries to get in," Clint described. Sam's eyes narrowed at the point before shifting the image in closer to where Clint was pointing. With each zoom, Clint shifted his finger to better focus on the base until finally the image was of a rather large warehouse. One almost rivaling the size of the warehouse turned Compound that Tony... Had.

"Seems legit," Sam muttered, looking the image over closely. "I think I can." Shifting over, Sam hit a small button on the table and the image quickly turned into a heat scanner. Inside the building seemed to have only five bodies. But that wasn't to say there wasn't more. "You sure this could be it?"

"LMDs don't give off a heat signature when offline. Once activated, they are nearly completely human," Clint informed. Sam looked over to him with a raised eyebrow.

"Nearly?" he questioned. Bucky even hummed his own questioning sound. Clint shrugged, not truly understanding when R&D had told him about it on a day he had been bored and on stand down. They had actually seemed really pleased that he was interested rather than the normal upset that Intel or a few other departments were when the archer stopped by.

"Something about them being... I don't know. It was along time ago that they tried explaining it all to me. I just know they don't let off heat until they are activated," Clint moaned, raising a hand to his face and sharply rubbing it. Bucky sighed and placed a hand on the archer's shoulder.

"It's okay. It's more than we had a few minutes ago," Bucky soothed. Clint nodded but still wished he had better details to give. "Now we can go scout the place out."

"Uh..." Sam retorted, biting the bottom of his lip. The noise made the snipers look over to him. It took a second, but once he understood, Sam watched as Clint's eyes darkened and narrowed.

"Are you for real?" he snarled. Sam sighed.

"Clint-"

"No. Don't fucking 'Clint' me," the archer snapped. Bucky raised an eyebrow as he looked back and forth between the duo. "It's fucking ridiculous to leave us behind on this!"

"Clint-"

"You are likely going to storm a warehouse with, who knows how many, LMDs and not bring your two strongest fighters?" Bucky incredulously demanded. Sam closed his eyes, wishing that he didn't have to argue with them. "When Stevie used to do it, it pissed me off. But I stood down because he was going, Hulk was going and Thor was going. Three heavy hitters. Right now it'd be you, Wanda, and T'Challa."

"I'm gonna call in Rhodes, Scott and Hope," Sam replied. Clint barked a quick laugh.

"And if they are all busy?" Sam slowly shook his head, unable to believe he was yet again arguing with them.

"T'Challa will allow some of his people to come help."

"How many people? Cause with that size of a warehouse, likely the minimum amount of LMDs you'd face is around a hundred. And that's baring they didn't make LMDs of Steve, or Natasha, or Clint. All of whom Hydra had access to at one point in time. Hell, what if they have a LMD of Hulk!?" Bucky cried, slowly getting louder as he went. Clint stepped back, watching as his ex-superior officer was yelling at their 'higher up.' He hadn't seen Bucky this mad since the war. Which, given the amount time the duo spent together after Clint returned to normal time, it wasn't all that often that Clint had an opportunity to see Bucky's anger.

"If they had LMDs of Steve, Natasha, or Hulk, they'd use them by now!" Sam answered back. Clint frowned, almost wanting to complain that Sam didn't think Hydra would use a LMD of himself. "We need to-"

"Think! You can't just leave your heavy hitters behind!" Bucky growled. Sam sighed.

"The same heavy hitters that are on Hydra's capture list? That when left behind are safe in Wakanda? Or how about the one who can be controlled right now by any Hydra agent that demands he do something?" Sam roared back. Clint paled. It was true that Bucky had ordered Clint to follow no one's orders but his own. But, they hadn't been able to test it. Wasn't like they had a Hydra agent laying about that already knew the trigger words. And no way would they give one the words if they didn't know it.

"You can't-"

"Bucky! I'm not going to bring you two. Deal with it!" Sam shouted. Bucky let out an angered rumble before spinning on his heel and storming out of the office. For a few seconds, Sam just breathed heavily as he tried to calm himself down and Clint could only stand there and watch, unsure what he should do. When the seconds ended and Sam seemed calm, he looked to Clint. "You got anything to say?"

"Uh. Honestly. Bucky has a point," Clint started and when Sam opened his mouth to argue, Clint raised his hand up in a show of stopping him. Sam frowned but didn't speak. "I also see your point. It wouldn't do to have either of us taken while on the mission. But, what if Hydra is still lurking around Wakanda?"

"They aren't-"

"T'Challa told us, I know. But, he also had said that before and we see how well that went for me," Clint countered. Sam winced. "I'm not saying we should go or that we should stay behind. Both options have a high likely hood of the two of us being captured. The main question is... Where would we be more useful?"

And with that said, Clint turned and walked out of the room. It was the same type of thing he used to say to Steve when the Captain tried to keep someone safe in a situation like this. For both options, there was a 50/50 chance of it backfiring on all of them. So, why not just use Bucky and himself? That way, the others had a possible chance of Hydra not fully getting a hold of them. Or if Hydra did, they'd have a higher chance of being able to find them. Clint sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. Thank god he wasn't a leader. Even when he 'joined' the army in his early S.H.I.E.L.D career...

"Aww, history, no," Clint whined to himself. It was Peggy Carter who had gotten him on the army mission and she personally made sure that he got sent in as a Corporal. At the time, Fury and his handler (Sandiago or something) hadn't understood why Peggy wanted that specific rank. But it didn't matter. It worked. And for some reason, the American government decided to take Clint's role in S.H.I.E.L.D as army service as well and so Fury would randomly hand the archer new uniforms, medals, and the like as his rank increased. Supposedly, Clint had been three months away from turning into a First Lieutenant. Without S.H.I.E.L.D, Clint wasn't technically working with a group that could raise his rank anymore. So, unless he went back to the army, Clint wouldn't move up. Not that it mattered all that much to Clint.

I might wanna change my posting date to Saturday... Either that or edit the chapters Thursday cause apparently my body refuses to allow me to sleep on Thursday nights. So, there may be more mistakes than usual.

Darius has gotten a major attitude on him lately. Demands things, hardly speaks respectfully, and when he doesn't get his way causes a bigger fit than we've seen before the attitude issue. Mostly, he just reminds me of a spoiled rotten child that has had everything in life go his way. And I admit to a lot of that being my fault as I wanted to spoil him a bit after Clint but now... I'm having a hard time fixing not only him but myself as well. Really doesn't help that he has recently learned that when Mommy is typing and if I annoy her enough she'll put good things on TV. *sigh* Oh well.