Work Text:
He was nervous he had to admit. Steve had invited him over to Avengers Tower and it was the first time to meet the rest of the team. He already knew Natasha and of course Steve but to meet Tony Stark was another story. He'd seen that man in TV for crying out loud so yes, he was nervous.
Everything in the tower, even the flower pots in the entrance hall, seemed to cost more than the whole furnishing of his apartment. He didn't dare to touch anything and Steve grinned evilly at him. How people could think that this man was innocent and a nice guy was beyond him. Since he got to know Steve he realized that he was a bucket of sass and snark.
“Welcome to our secret lair,” Steve said as soon as they left the elevator. He gestured around a huge living room. And it was really, really huge. It was way bigger than his whole apartment.
Sam whistled and looked around. There was a billiard table and a huge bar and an enormous couch with an equally enormous TV in front of it. Two people, a man and a woman, sat on the couch and played a computer game but Sam only saw their backs.
“Natasha, Sam is here,” Steve said and the red-haired woman raised a hand for a second and waved. And then the blond man whooped and punched the air.
“Take that, bitch!” He shouted and the woman punched his shoulder. “Ouch,” he yelped but then he put his controller aside, rose and turned around with a broad grin on his face.
“And that's Clint,” Steve introduced but Sam already stared at the man in front of him open-mouthed.
“James?” He blurted. Steve frowned and looked from Clint to Sam and back.
“Holy shit! Sanborn? Is that you?” Clint walked around the couch, grabbed Sam and hugged him. Sam was stunned but then he patted the other man's back.
“Uhm...” Natasha looked at the two of them.
“You know each other?” Steve asked when they parted. Clint grinned like a loon.
“Oh yes, you can say that,” he nodded and Sam nodded as well.
“But I don't go by the name Sanborn any longer. It's the name of my ex-wife and I use my old name again,” he said and then he held his hand out and grinned. “Sam Wilson.”
“Sam?” Clint asked and Sam groaned theatrically.
“I've told you that my dad was a huge Star Trek fan? My complete name is James Tiberius Samuel Wilson. Back then I thought JT sounded cool,” Sam admitted. “But I guess William James wasn't your real name, right?”
“It's a long story. To put it in a nutshell, I tried to hide from SHIELD and a few other guys and I thought the army was the right place.”
“So,” Steve drawled and looked at the two men again. “You know each other already,” he stated.
“We met in Iraq,” Sam said and looked at Will... Clint again. He looked good, the death wish he had had back then was gone.
“In Iraq?” Steve burst out, his eyes wide as saucers.
“This son of a bitch was the most talented bomb disposal expert I had to work with,” Sam said. Clint ducked his head. “And he brought all of us to the verge of death more than once,” Sam added then.
Clint nodded, scratched the back of his neck before he gestured at the couch behind him and they followed him to sit down.
“I'm sorry, JT... I mean, Sam. I... I was a little self-destructive at that time,” Clint admitted.
“A little? That's quite an understatement,” Sam said, his brows raised. “You took off your suit and went to disarm a bomb that could blast a whole block to Jesus! You shot Owen!”
“Yeah, sorry about that. Are you still in contact with Eldridge?”
“Actually, yes. He finally managed to get over his problems, has married and has three kids. He's a private investigator now,” Sam explained.
“Who's Owen?” Steve wanted to know and Clint sighed.
“He was in our unit and...”
“... and you shot at him?” Natasha asked now.
“Aren't you supposed to be the best shot in the world?” Sam cocked his head.
“I had to get the guy behind Eldridge or all of us would've died,” Clint shrugged.
“He was in therapy for more than two years,” Sam stated and Clint swallowed.
“Like I said, I'm sorry,” he repeated. Sam nodded and looked at his fingers for a long moment before he looked up at him again.
“You still have that box?” He asked and a small grin appeared around his lips.
“Yeah,” Clint grinned too and Natasha raised her brow.
“He knows about your box?”
“Box? What box?” Steve was confused. Clint nodded, rose and left the room only to come back a few minutes later with a box in his hand but it wasn't the same box he had had in Iraq. It was bigger now. Sam's brows hit his hairline. Clint sat down again after he gave it to Sam to look in.
“Stuff that almost killed me,” Clint said and sat down again. Steve paled and looked over Sam's shoulder when he opened the box.
The detonator from that huge bomb from the UN Building in Baghdad was still there, he spotted it immediately. But there were other things, too. More detonators, the tips of a few knives and arrows, bullets, a syringe, some stuff he couldn't identify but since he knew that Clint was in the Battle of New York and there were aliens he didn't want to know all the details.
“That's...” Steve started and stared incredulously in the box Sam still held in his hand.
“... quite some shit,” Sam finished the sentence. Steve looked at him and opened his mouth but then he just shook his head.
When they were quiet for some time Clint finally cleared his throat and looked at Sam. “So, you are divorced?” He asked and Sam nodded.
“Yeah. Didn't work out,” he said and then he looked up. “She didn't want children,” he explained.
“I'm sorry, J... Sam,” Clint said. He knew that he had wanted children – a son – so badly.
“What about you? What happened to your girlfriend slash wife slash not-exactly-ex-wife?”
Clint snorted. “Yeah, well. She's gone, too. Turned out that the boy wasn't mine and she's together with her ex now.”
“Guess we both didn't get what we wanted.” Sam smiled. But Clint only shrugged.
“Well, every cloud has a silver lining,” he said and when Sam raised his brow Clint held up his left hand and he could see a wedding band around his ring finger. “I met my husband here at SHIELD.”
“Congratulations,” Sam grinned now. “So, you're married again. Am I going to meet him?”
“He has his own team and flies around a lot but as soon as he's here again, I'll introduce you. Promised.”
“I have a question, Clint,” Steve interrupted them. “You said you joined the army to hide from SHIELD and other guys but...” He bit his lip and seemed to deliberate. “Why the BDU?”
Clint grinned. “Where would you search for a guy with perfect aim?” He asked then.
“In a sniper unit,” Steve said and shrugged and then it hit him. “Oh!”
“Exactly,” Clint said with a smirk.
“Okay, and what happens now?” Sam wanted to know.
“What do you mean?” Clint asked and looked confused at him and then at Steve.
“What do you mean?” Natasha said at the same moment.
“I mean...” Sam gestured with his finger between him and Clint. “The last time was...”
“Sam, back then, back in Iraq I was in a very destructive phase of my life. I didn't care at all if I survived or whom I take with me. And if Nick hadn't found me I'd be dead. I'm sorry for hurting you and Owen, I've been an asshole. But I have Phil now and...” He stopped and looked at Natasha.
“It's true. You should've seen him before he finally asked Phil for a date.” She rolled her eyes.
“Okay,” Sam said and nodded slowly. He looked at his hands.
“Are we good?” Clint asked. Sam closed the box and gave it back to Clint.
“Yeah, we're good,” he said and smiled.
“That's good,” Steve threw in. “Because Sam will help me to find... to find Bucky.”
“Oh,” Clint looked at Natasha but she only shrugged. “Okay, then. I... I'm glad to have met you again, Sam. And welcome in the team.”