Chapter 9 – Will You Dance?

"Remember to come by the booth later to get your homecoming tickets," Steve reminded his five friends as they walked down the hallway.

Clint sighed. "I can't believe you volunteered to man the Homecoming booth."

Tony chuckled. "I can. Barnes is in charge of the committee this year, Stevie was going to jump at the chance to fraternise some more."

Steve raised an eyebrow. "Fraternise? Is that what I'm doing? If anything I'm assisting your anarchy, Tony. You really think I haven't gotten any school secrets out of this? Guys are surprisingly loose-lipped when they're getting laid. Not that any of you would know."

"Hey," Thor protested, "Jane and I have sex."

"Dreams and fantasies don't count, Thor," Clint pointed out. "Only actual real sex."

"And what would you know about it?" Thor shot back playfully.

Clint shrugged. "Me and Lefty here have a great deal of experience."

Natasha wrinkled her nose. "I thought you were less primitive than the rest of the school. At least there's still Bruce."

Bruce chuckled lightly. "Oh, I think about sex more often than not. I just have a filter."

Tony slung his arm around Natasha. "See, Nat? Boys are simple creatures, we're not much more evolved than when we were first created. Sure some of us fuck men now and we don't own our wives, but all in all we're not that much more advanced than the early cavemen."

"Apparently not," Natasha scowled, removing Tony's arm.

"Anyway," Steve interjected, "let me know how many tickets you guys are getting and I'll put them away."

"Two for me," Thor said proudly.

"Just one for me," Natasha admitted.

"Me too," Clint said a little sheepishly.

Tony and Bruce nodded their affirmations for the same.

Steve smiled. "I'll put away seven for us. This just means we can tear up the dancefloor as friends."

"Tear up the dancefloor?" Tony raised an eyebrow.

"Does Virginia not want to come?" Steve teased.

"Her name is Pepper." Tony folded his arms.

"I respect and appreciate the pun, but it's too easy."

"I recant my mocking," Tony muttered bitterly.

They teased each other all the way into first period, not an unusual occurrence for the six.

Lunch saw the most convenient set of coincidences Clint had ever seen.

Steve was stationed at the Homecoming booth with Daisy Johnson all lunch period.

Tony, unsurprisingly, had detention with Vice Principal Coulson for hacking the PA system to produce a series of flatulence. Clint thought it was funny, but the VP hadn't shared the rest of the school's humour.

Bruce was spending lunch in the Bio lab, making up for the work he had missed when the rest of the gang sans Steve had ditched for some food.

Thor had decided to leave campus with Jane to officially ask her to Homecoming, which Clint thought was pretty romantic. Thor really knew how to lay it all out there.

And Clint was going to take a page out of his book.

Clint leaned back in his seat, looking over at Natasha with a smile. "I kinda like how quiet it is without the rest of them around."

"Tony, you mean?"

"I didn't say it, you did," Clint held up his hands. "We rarely spend time just the two of us."

"Clint, we got waffles like...recently," Natasha reminded him.

"Oh yeah. They were good."

"But you're right. There's a nice quiet today."

Clint breathed in deeply. It was now or never, he guessed. He thought of the odds, then remembering that Steve had somehow fallen into an affair with his English teacher, Clint could ask out his best friend.

"You wanna go to the dance together?"

Natasha frowned. "Clint, we're already going together. You're my ride."

Clint chuckled. "Right. Yeah. But like...do you wanna go as...my...date?"

Natasha's mouth fell open.

"Oh god," Clint stammered. "Forget I said anything, that was dumb, I'm going to go and throw my head into a box of glass now."

Natasha smiled. "Clint, sit down. You just caught me off guard. I'd...really like to go with you."

"You would?"

"Yes, dummy," Natasha laughed. "I just thought you were into someone else."

Clint frowned. "Really? I haven't talked about Maria for like a year."

Natasha bit her lip. "I thought you might have had a little thing for...well, Steve."

Clint blushed a deep red. "Steve?"

Natasha shrugged. "I got a feeling, I can't explain it."

"When he was dressing for his date?"

Natasha's silence said it all.

"There might be a chance that I'm confused. With four cute guys around all the time, it gets confusing sometimes. But I know that I want to go with you. Steve's like a brother to me."

"A brother who you've fantasised about banging?" Natasha winked, leaning on her hand.

Clint gaped. "Maybe not a brother, then. I mean, you've seen him, it's hard not to think about that with him. But I don't want that to cloud the way I see you, Nat. That's why I broke formation and attacked Sam the other day. It hurt knowing that he got a chance with you and he blew it, hurting you in the process."

"Clint..."

"No, let me say this. I wouldn't waste my shot like that, Nat. I see you, you know, I see how amazing you are. I know that I can't use my words like Steve or Bruce or even Thor, but I'm smart enough to know what a good thing I could have here. I'm not going to fuck it up."

Natasha smiled brightly, even blushing a little bit. "I didn't think that you would. Also, you seem pretty good with words to me. How about after the dance we go and get some food?"

Clint grinned widely. "Sounds good to me. God, I never thought that this would happen."

"You discount yourself too much, Clint. You're a great-looking guy, we've been friends pretty much our whole lives, you're a catch, Barton."

Clint was falsely smug. "I know it."

"You're such a dork," Natasha rolled her eyes.

"A dork you agreed to go out with," he reminded her.

Clint was glad for the levity, the opportunity to ask her out. With the others constantly circling, it was hard to find the time. But the time had been found, the day seized and Clint Barton was on top of the world.

The end of the day approached quickly.

Steve had manned the booth during his free periods. Clint had walked by hand in hand with Natasha to collect their tickets. Steve had been initially shocked but admitted his prior knowledge of the union to Natasha. He wished them well always and both seemed innocently giddy about the new arrangement.

Tony and Bruce came together, suggesting that Steve join them for their stag plans. Preparation would happen altogether with the six of them at Bruce's house until Thor left to pick up Jane, and Clint and Natasha travelled to the dance as a pair. Steve gladly agreed, although he longed to make plans with Bucky. Though this was what he had gotten himself into dating his teacher. He wouldn't be able to do any of the stuff he wanted to. Not that it really bothered him, he didn't clamour for the typical high school experience. He wanted out, partly to be able to date his teacher without either of them getting into trouble for it.

At the end of the day, Bucky did swing by to collect the money from the ticket sales. Nobody else was around, so he stayed around to chat for a little bit before he had to hand the money to Principal Fury.

"How'd we do?"

Steve smiled. "Sold every ticket. Seniors are surprisingly excited for their last Homecoming. I didn't know ritualistic traditions were so important to people these days."

"Not everyone is embarking upon a dalliance with their English teacher."

Steve shrugged. "That one might be just me. Unless you're keeping a big secret."

"It's just you, Steve. Nobody else could capture my attention like you did."

"I wish we could dance together at Homecoming."

"Me too," Bucky admitted. "If I thought for even a second that there's a way that we could pull it off, I'd risk it. But there's never an excuse for a student and a teacher dancing together."

"I'll come hang out with you, though. Chaperoning must get boring sometimes."

Bucky nodded. "It does. I'll mostly be watching you, if you can ignore the creepy elements of that statement. I'm interested in everything about you. The way you move, the way you talk, the way you hold yourself." Bucky leaned down further. "I'm still trying to figure you out, Rogers."

"I'm not that complex," Steve replied swiftly. "I like books and dating my English teacher. That's all there is to it."

Bucky shook his head. "You've got a way about you. You're insanely charming, but your lack of awareness of that very thing makes you irresistibly adorable."

Steve shifted in his seat. "Keep going..."

"I've noticed that you're very well-liked, but people are intimidated by you. Not by you physically, but intellectually. You're beyond most students that go here and they think you'll judge them."

"You get all this from just watching me?"

Bucky winked. "You're not the only one who's perceptive. But most of all, you're desired, Steve."

"D-Desired?"

"People want you. They look at you adoringly, even in English class, which you don't recognise because you're too busy looking at me or with your nose inside a book."

"I don't think that's true," Steve stammered, blushing.

"Face it, Rogers. You're a hot piece of ass and people want to bang you."

Steve leered up at Bucky, even though he was level with his crotch. "That's too bad. You're the only one who gets to bang my ass."

As they gazed into each other's eyes, neither of them noticed the shadow lingering around the corner.