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It was a standard mission briefing, one of the kind that Steve had led many, many times. He would learn the objective, work out a plan, inform his team - in this instance that meant Clint, a few SHIELD agents, and Bucky - of aforementioned plan, they’d go do the thing, debrief, and then go home. It was a simple plan this time. One that Bucky and the rest of the team could tell would be effective but that didn’t necessarily mean that Bucky liked it. In fact, he thought it was an incredibly dumb plan as it was based around Steve doing something as risky as all hell to attract attention and then basically throwing himself at the enemy. No one was saying anything against it though, just glancing at each other. He hadn’t been back all that long but Bucky had quickly come to understand that no one called Captain America out on his dumb shit in this century.
“No”.
Steve broke off from his briefing and looked over at Bucky. “No what?”
“No, we’re not doing it that way. It’s dumb and stupid and you’re an ass for suggesting it.”
Everyone except Bucky and Clint, who just stood there wide eyed and biting his lip to keep from smiling, edged away from the table somewhat as Steve stared at Bucky for a long moment. “Yes, we are. It’s my op. I’m in charge,” Steve said simply then turned his attention back to the tablet in front of him to enlarge another section of the map displayed on it.
Bucky wasn’t to be so easily dismissed though. “Well, y’see, technically, you’re not. Barton is the ranking officer in the room. So we don’t have to do what you say. Captain.”
“Aw, hell no. Keep me out of this.” Clint threw his hands up in surrender and tried to move away from the table but Bucky wrapped his metal arm firmly around Clint’s shoulders to keep him close,
Bucky’s eyebrow raised at Steve’s dubious expression. “What, did you think he just went straight from the circus into Shield? Oh no. Our boy here was a Major in Spec Ops. A Major, Steve. That means he outranks you.”
Clint shook his head and began trying to pry Bucky’s fingers away from his shoulder. “No, really, B. ‘S’okay. I don’t….”
Bucky ignored the interruption and carried on glaring at Steve. “Come to think of it, I outrank you too. 'Cause, y'know, I earned my stripes and didn’t get handed some bullshit made up chorus line officer rank by some dumb asshole senator.”
The rest of the team took a massive step back from the table while Clint… All Clint could really do was whisper a resigned fuck my life and give up struggling against Bucky’s arm.
Steve and Bucky continued to glare at each other for a few moments longer in the tense silence that filled the room until Steve suddenly broke out in a grin and laughed. “Alright, jerk.” He reached down to shove the tablet towards Bucky. “Let’s see what ya got.”