Chapter Text
Clint felt like he was back to square 1 with Bucky. Last night the android had been friendly, social almost. He had seemed to get along well with America, as anticipated since they were both androids. But he seemed to be shutting Clint out. He had just been looking out the window as the self-driving car drove them to their latest crime scene.
“Are you uh.” Clint faltered when Bucky whirled to look at him. “Are you ok? You just seem….off.”
“I came up with new errors in my system when I ran a diagnostic this morning.” Bucky said softly.
“Oh…?” Clint said, not really sure what that meant. “Do you have to like. Uh. Go in for maintenance?”
“No.” Bucky’s LED was flashing and his fist twitched in an oddly human manner. “It just means I have new uh. Feelings.”
“Aw feelings, no.” Clint said empathetically. “That sounds rough.”
Bucky just nodded.
“Well.” Clint himself wasn’t the most emotionally literate. “I’m uh. Here for you? Fuck that wasn’t supposed to be a question. I know we’re not really like, more than work friends but.”
“IT’S YOU.” Bucky blurted, his LED flashing red and he immediately flushed blue. “You caused my instabilities.” He looked like he was pouting.
Clint just barked a laugh. “Excuse me?”
“My feelings towards you have caused these instabilities.”
“I- What?” Clint took another drink of his coffee.
Bucky just sighed, like he wasn’t the one being cryptic. “We will discuss this later.”
The car was slowing down in front of a convenience store that had been the site of an armed robbery. Bucky bolted out like he couldn’t wait to get to the routine of finding evidence. With his advanced reconstruction programming, they were able to accumulate evidence quickly and find the suspect’s address. Bucky’s neural network allowed them to gain a warrant immediately and before they knew it, they had the suspect in custody.
“Well, that was easy.” Clint said. “Maybe you are good to have around, Buckaroo.”
Bucky’s face flushed blue and his LED flashed. “Thank you detective.”
Clint bumped him with his strong shoulder, watching as the Android continued to blush and his LED cycled wildly. “Hey. Wanna continue what we were talking about?”
“Not really.” Bucky pouted. It sounded like his cooling systems were working hard like an old laptop that was overheating.
“Would you want to if I told you I feel the same way?” Clint asked softly, looking straight ahead and his own cheeks pinking a bit.
Bucky’s mouth opened a bit in shock but he closed it quickly. “But- But you hate androids…”
“
Hated.
” Clint said, swallowing hard and meeting the steely grey eyes. “You really uh. You turned me around, Buck.”
Bucky tilted his head to the side a bit and his LED was swirling like he was having difficulty processing this information. “May I kiss you, detective?”
“We’re at work.”
“Is that a no?”
“Nah it’s a ‘go for it’.” Clint grinned and met him halfway.