"Tell Me"

2012

'Would you like to come with me, Mister Barton?' was on Clint's skin. 'Gladly, soon as we're dressed more comfortably' was on his.

Clint knew that Phil was alive. His mark had turned grey for a few days, and Clint had mourned losing his soulmate. But then the mark returned to black, and he just knew that Phil was somehow alive again. The words were the same, the writing unchanged. He had lost his level status at SHIELD temporarily, and he couldn't find any records. He and Phil had kept their relationship platonic for practical reasons, and never recorded it anywhere, let alone bonded. It was too dangerous in their line of work. They kept their soulmarks covered, and…

And Clint really wished that he'd pushed for a bond. Then he could've found Phil. But instead he waited, hoping that Phil would choose to contact him.

In the meantime, he would wait for his other soulmate, the one who could've taken his mind off Phil, maybe even convinced him to allow a three-way bond. As with all good things in Clint's life, however, he would have a long wait.

2015

It was better to ignore Stark's invitations to live in his tower. Sure, it'd be more comfortable than surviving on the streets, but Clint had done it before. He hadn't really bonded with his other team-mates last time – Natasha didn't count; she was already like a sister to him – and he worked best with minimal partners. Stark Tower was conspicuous, and he needed to keep away. HYDRA had eyes out for him; he was notoriously loyal to Phil and Natasha, and since they weren't HYDRA, that meant that Clint sure as hell wasn't. Like he'd have any interest in being one of those bastards.

So he kept on the down-low, maintaining the minimum contact required to keep Natasha Romanov happy, and keeping his ear to the ground for any news of Phil. She hadn't heard anything, and the relevant documentation had gone missing soon after she made SHIELD records public. Someone had jumped onto it quickly enough, and Stark hadn't made copies of any of the files before they disappeared.

Clint had dyed his hair and grown a beard. He was just glad his bow folded down into a compact case, kept in the single backpack he took around the city to make people think that was all he had. It was close enough to the truth, his hidey-hole a small one.

He was nearing it when someone burst out of the darkness which, what, how was that even possible? Clint was never not alert! He was slammed against the side of a metal fire escape, and grunted. He reached out, ready to retaliate, when his right hand came in contact with a metal arm, and he noticed his attacker's face.

"I shot you once."

"Clearly it didn't stick," Clint replied. Please let Barnes have remembered his soulmark, and what it meant…

His eyes widened. "Those words…"

"Are tattooed on you somewhere? Yours are here." He raised his shirt and showed off the four words twining around his side, just below the scar from a glancing bullet wound.

"Where I shot you?" Barnes asked, tracing the words. Clint shivered; it wasn't even the cold metal hand.

"Probably," he said. "That'd be about right. I've been shot a lot, but that's the first time anyone's actually said those words to me."

"Do you have others?"

"I have a second soulmark, yeah. He's… I don't know whether he's dead or alive, because the words went grey for nearly a week, but they're black now."

"I cannot remember whether mine—"

"Wouldn't be surprised," Clint said. "Mind backing off a couple of steps? Kind of an awkward angle for my neck here."

"Of course." Barnes moved back, and his eyes widened. "I hurt you."

"Not the first time, but hey, not like you meant to." He stuck out his hand. "Clint Barton. Former SHIELD agent. Actual SHIELD, not HYDRA."

"Good."

"And you're Bucky Barnes. The Winter Soldier."

"I hate that name."

"Uh… which one?"

"Call me Barnes."

"Not James?" He shook his head. "Okay, Barnes. Come back to my place? I can tell you about our third. And you can tell me what was with the ambush. Did someone send you or something?"

"I recognised you from the information. I am trying to weed out all of HYDRA."

Clint slung an arm around his waist, and was relieved that Barnes allowed it. "If Phil is alive, I'll bet he's doing the same. Meanwhile, how d'you feel about hiding out in the country? I've been looking at this farm…"

Barnes frowned as Clint continued to steer him back to the safe place. "You're not pushing me to go to… Steve?"

"I'm gonna try my hardest only to do what you think is best. Unless I think the plan's crap, in which case I'm gonna say so."

It was one of those days. Phil spilt coffee on the tie he was planning to wear with his favourite shirt; he'd burnt his toast as a consequence, and had to change clothes between bites of blackened bread with nothing on it. It turned out the female members of the team were all having women's problems at the same time, which meant a sullen silent May, a snappish Simmons, and a sulky Skye. Mack was pestering him again to be able to work on Lola, and Fitz was looking more hangdog than usual while his boyfriend obsessed over Phil's car.

Those were the good parts of the day. The bad happened when they had to make an emergency trip to Harlem.

"No Hulk this time," Phil said, pushing his shades further up his nose. "Hopefully we'll leave the place fairly intact."

"Got it," Skye said. "No quakes."

"But we need Quake, as always."

"Gee, thanks."

Why people thought that menstruation only affected women, Phil never knew. It made Skye nearly impossible to work with. On the plus side, May was fiercer, and Simmons had actually scared a couple of people into being even more productive than usual. That one of them came crying to him lessened the positive effect. When one of the Koenigs came crying to him as well, that made Phil's day a tiny bit worse.

Children, all of them. Except May. And possibly Fitz, who sometimes did an excellent impression of a fussy old man.

"Comms on," Phil said. "Let's get going."

There was gunfire. As soon as funny things started showing up on the radar, JARVIS had alerted the others, and a call to assemble was sent out. Clint received it, and dragged Barnes along with him.

"Observe from the shadows if you want," he said. "But I'm needed, and you don't like being apart from me." Barnes shook his head. "Hey, if you can hide from me, you can hide from almost anyone."

"I will stay silent until I'm needed."

First thing that Clint noticed when he arrived before the rest of the Avengers? He noticed Melinda May.

"The hell are you doing here?" he said, joining her in beating up a group of stiffs.

"Could ask you the same question," she said.

"Didn't you hear? I only get invited to the best parties."

"You've missed some pretty great parties, then," she replied. She stayed silent as they continued around the site, taking down some familiar faces. Sometimes Clint thought that mythology was right; cut off one head, two more grow in its place. Shit, it seemed never-ending, the number of HYDRA agents.

But they weren't all HYDRA. Some wore army greens, which was just wrong. But they were clearly on the wrong side, so Clint forced himself to take them down. Chances were they'd been brainwashed, so he kept it to knocking them out and tying them up. But HYDRA and ex-SHIELD? They were dead, and he was gonna make sure of it.

Phil saw Clint, and it was Fitz who had to save him from being beheaded.

"Sir!"

"I'm okay. Thanks, Fitz. Let's just get you to that bomb, okay?"

"Sir, you're needed out there," Mack said. "I'll get Turbo to the IED. May's been training me up—"

"Okay. Go ahead. I'll cover your backs from here."

"Get going down there, sir," Fitz said, gesturing to the courtyard.

"Not until I know you're relatively safe. You and Mack are the only ones who can disable the remaining bomb."

Rolling his eyes, Fitz led Mack through the building until they were out of sight, following the path that Simmons was relaying on the comms. Once Phil was fairly certain of their safety, he leapt down the stairs to join his team on the ground. He'd lost sight of Clint again, and had to force his mind back to the fight or else risk losing his head. Some of these guys fought with bayonets, and he almost wished he could afford Wade Wilson.

Almost.

"We've got incoming," Skye said over the comms. "Avengers in t-minus twenty seconds."

"Hawkeye's already here," Phil said through gritted teeth. "Saw him about five minutes ago."

"Is that why you nearly died?" Fitz asked.

"Can't say I blame you for being distracted. I mean, those arms…"

"Yes, Skye, we all know about Clint's arms," Phil said. Not that he had many memories of them, not the kind of memories he would've liked.

"Do you want to take cover?" May said.

"More important things to do."

He beat off another couple of assailants, making for gardening implements left by whoever had been working on the topiary. The hose was dripping a bit of water, so that could help. The shears looked sharp. There was… there was a motorised hedge trimmer.

"Result," he murmured, picking it up. He pulled the cord, and the machine roared to life.

Unfortunately, while it had its uses, it was also damn noisy. By the time the Avengers arrived, Phil had his hands more full than before. He soon found himself with the Black Widow fighting alongside him.

"You'll explain later," she said sharply.

"Clint's been here awhile. Where were the rest of you?"

"He's here?"

"You haven't seen him?"

"Not in months."

Phil swore, abandoning the hedge trimmer when it ran out of fuel. With Bruce Banner joining Fitz and Mack to dismantle the explosive device, and with the others on ground or in the sky, it was finished pretty quickly. Phil knew he should've contacted them before, but Stark had very publicly cut ties with SHIELD after HYDRA was exposed. They wouldn't have liked being lied to, and Clint's mark was probably gone, so it was just easier…

He sighed, and went to meet up with his team.

"Coulson."

"Shit. Bakshi."

Their former prisoner ran out at Phil. He dodged the attack, and heard a shout in the distance, along with May calling for his location.

Something sped from the side, ramming into Bakshi and tackling him to the ground. There was a sickening crunch and Bakshi's head was at a horrific angle. Nothing Phil hadn't seen before, but it'd happened a lot faster than normal, and he stared as the Winter Soldier got to his feet and faced Phil.

"Thanks for having my back there," he said, straightening his tie.

"The least I could do for someone who means so much to him," the soldier said. Phil's heart damn near stopped.

"What?" he said.

"You're Phil Coulson." He held out a hand, and Phil shook it dazedly. "I'm James Barnes, but I prefer Barnes."

"Whatever you like," Phil said. He went to disconnect his comm. unit, when something barrelled into his side.

"You asshole!"

Then he had his arms full of archer, who was also attached to his mouth. Phil couldn't deny himself a taste of what he'd always wanted, and let Clint kiss him for a minute.

"You should've called soon as you could," Clint mumbled into his mouth.

"I thought it didn't matter. I thought your mark would've disappeared."

"Just faded for a few days. Please tell me you weren't actually dead those few days."

Phil looked away. "I can't do that."

Barnes cleared his throat, and Phil looked up at him as he moved closer.

"The three of us are soulmates," he said. Phil blinked.

"So we are," he said, letting Clint go. "I've… that was the first time we've—"

"I know. Clint's told me all about you."

"Bucky?" Steve said, staring at him as he jogged up to them.

"I prefer Barnes," he repeated.

"DC, what's going on?"

"Won't be long, Skye," Phil said. "We have to debrief."

"Only wanna debrief with you and Barnes," Clint said with a leer. Phil arched an eyebrow.

"Since we were all involved in the battle, that would be highly illogical," he said.

"Not the kinda debrief I had in mind."

"If it would not be moving too fast for you," Barnes said, looking at Phil from beneath his eyelashes. The classic doe-eyed look. Extremely unfair.

"Later," he said. "I need something to eat and drink before I have the energy to even think about that."

I'm just saying. RIP Leonard Nimoy.

Okay, I'll give you the answer now. A couple of chapters ago, Steve said that Fury 'had gone about as far as he could go', which is a reference to "Kansas City" from the musical Oklahoma. "Everythin's up-to-date in Kansas City. They've gone about as fer as they can go…" Hugh Jackman has been in Oklahoma, so Wolverine, and there's a clip on Youtube somewhere of RDJ singing a bit from "Kansas City" (and dancing), so Iron Man.

Please review, everyone! Ship requested by Jenjenjennifer.