TW's for general mentions of blood and violence etc

Dzheyms-James in Russian

/

Bucky dove to the floor, cursing and rolling to narrowly avoid getting ran through.

Whatever the hell these bastards were, they sure loved their big pointy sticks.

Oh, and to make matters even better, they could literally climb the buildings.

They were like a twisted version of the Spider kid Tony had introduced them too, needing nothing but themselves to shimmy up buildings and attack.

Tony had done what he did best and took to the skies with Rhodey, who by pure chance had been at the Tower when the mission had been called in.

Shield was scrambling to gather the others but Wanda was MIA, Sam was laid up with a fractured ankle and Peter was...Peter shouldn't be anywhere near this shit storm but he'd probably show up soon anyways.

Clint and Thor had taken to the tops of building, both doing their own thing and stopping the creatures before they reached their destination.

The Hulk moved from building to building, smashing anything that escaped Hawkeye's arrows or Thor's lightning.

That left Bucky, Steve and Natasha on the ground, unusually the least busy of the pack.

These aliens seemed obsessed with the buildings and the people trapped inside.

They had Shield teams in a good chunk of the buildings, shooting at anything that managed to get inside.

But whatever the creatures needed the humans for, it clearly wasn't good.

So it was the ground teams job to try and stop the aliens from getting up the buildings in the first place.

But these animals could jump high and literally stick to the fucking brick, so they were having a near on impossible go of it.

Bucky touched his comms. "Guys this isn't working. We're not stopping anything from down here."

"We need lifts, either to the tops of the buildings or inside." Steve tilted his head towards the sky.

A crackle of static then, "I'm coming down. Better be ready." Tony flew quickly through the air, landing beside Bucky and grabbing both his shoulders before shooting back up.

Bucky was placed on top of a near building and then Tony was flying off to take Steve and Natasha.

Bucky was immediately in the middle of it finally, and from his vantage point, was managing to do a whole lot more damage than on the ground.

Even if he did a feel a little woozy as he stepped to the ledge of the building. Heights weren't exactly his idea of a good time.

He wasn't sure how long the fight had been going on when he heard a strangled cry to his right, and it wasn't coming from the comms.

He finished with the body he'd been holding and looked over at the next building.

Sandy hair and a discarded bow caught his gaze through the sun rays shining off the windows of opposite buildings.

Bucky cursed as he saw one of the creatures on top of Clint, the first of hundreds to finally get the drop on the hawk.

It happened in seconds; Clint's knife sliding through the creatures skin, the howl of an animal in pain, a roll of bodies as Clint fought to get the creature off.

Hitting the edge of the building and Clint kicking the alien off, clambering to his knees, back against the sheer drop of the building.

The creature lunging at him, both swinging backwards, losing their balance and tumbling over the edge of the building.

Bucky was moving before he even knew what was happening.

He slid the grappling hook from its position in his suit, firing it across to the other building.

In less than twenty seconds, Bucky was careening over to the side Barton had fallen, praying.

That he hadn't lost his grip, that he wouldn't be looking over the ledge to find his broken body on the floor.

"Clint?" Bucky rushed over, noticing the one hand gripping to the ledge of the building.

A soft grunt in response as Bucky looked over the edge.

Clint was hanging on for dear life, knuckles white, face twisted, panic in his eyes.

Bucky immediately jammed his feet into the ground, kneeling and lowering his metal hand into the air.

"The arm you're not using, very carefully reach up. Take my hand. I'll get you up, Clint."

The archer fought the urge to look down. He loved heights but not like this, never like this.

As Clint lifted his arm from his side, his teeth gritted at the pain in his hand from holding up his entire body weight.

It became clear very quickly that Clint's grip was slipping by the second and that every movement he had when lifting his arm, sent more pressure through his fingers.

Bucky had a split second to decide because Clint was slipping and in just a few seconds, he would be falling.

Bucky leaned over the ledge, metal hand wrapping around the material of his suit.

It was risky; the suit could tear and Barton would fall. But he was falling either way.

Fingers firmly entangled in the material, Bucky pulled up and backwards quickly.

He fell back and thank the lord, Barton fell on top of him.

Both exhaled shakily and it took a good minute for Clint to catch his breath enough to roll off Bucky and sit up.

"Jesus, that was way too close. Thanks." The blonde flexed his fingers, wincing. He would be feeling that for a while.

"Of course. Just do us a favour and stay away from the ledge." Bucky shook his head.

Clint had the grace to look a little embarrassed. "Well, we both know that's not gonna happen." He grinned, panic over as he reached for his bow.

"Now, c'mon, we have asshole aliens to stop."

...

Clint wasn't put out at the least as he explained his near death experience later that evening.

Tony, Bruce, Clint, Natasha, Bucky, Steve, Thor and Rhodey sat around the main living room of the tower, beers or whiskies in hand as they wound down after the day.

Natasha had her arm around Clint, her eyes dark. When he finished the account of the near fall, she smacked him around the ear. "You're an idiot, Clint, I swear to god if you pull a stunt like that again." She hissed.

Clint laughed, but did flush a little. "No promises, babe."

Natasha just tutted and gripped him a little tighter, looking over to where Bucky sat.

"Thank you, Dzheyms." Her fingers trailed through Clint's hair. "I owe you."

"You never owe me, Natalia. I'm just glad I got to the clumsy idiot before he fell." He smiled.

"Hey! I'm right here." Clint grumbled, but smiled too.

The fact Bucky was calling him an idiot was actually a good sign; it meant the man saw himself as part of the team instead of just a tag along.

Steve sat beside Bucky and he couldn't have looked prouder, his arm slung around Bucky's shoulder as his metal hand rested on Steve's thigh, without him even realising it.

The blonde leaned forward, muttering quiet enough for just Bucky to hear. "I think you're amazing." He pressed a kiss to the underside of his jaw and Bucky hummed, tilting his head back.

"Really?" He murmured. "Why don't you show me how amazing?"

Steve cleared his throat, a light flush across his cheeks. "Well, excuse me everyone, Bucky and I are gonna call it a night."

Bucky was full of love and pride in himself and as Steve took his metal hand in his, he barely noticed that the man usually took his other hand.

...

Later that night, laying on top of the blankets with Steve, Bucky let the hand trail over warm skin for just a moment before closing his eyes.