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Bucky jerks back on instinct when an arrow flies past his face, so close he'd swear the fletching tickled his nose. “Clint, sweetheart, whatcha doing?” he protests. “You're cutting it a little close.”
Clint doesn't answer Bucky's question. The radio is far from silent, but nothing has been heard from the archer for a good five minutes. While that isn't a long time by some standards, while they're on a mission, it's longer than Bucky is comfortable with. Especially when it's his boyfriend that isn't replying. Usually Clint can get himself out of trouble pretty well, but they've been trying to take Loki down for hours now.
“Hey, Hawkguy,” Tony pipes up. “Radio check, our darling little archer.” Under normal circumstances, that would get him a bunch of complaining from Clint, but nothing happens this time.
“Guys, I'm gonna check out his last position,” Bucky informs the others.
“I could use a little help first if you've got the time,” Steve says, grunting. There's a faint sound of combat in the background, not that it's easy to distinguish the noises of his fight from the one that Bucky is in the middle of.
“Just a minute, Cap.” Bucky's having a hard time hurting these people as little as possible. Plenty of them have weapons, and he's not too willing to get himself hurt to avoid injuring someone else. Still, as STRIKE Team Delta knows firsthand, 'cognitive recalibration' works pretty well. Although Bucky has to be careful to keep an eye on his strength, that's usually the best course. The victims that remain conscious are disorganized and aggressive if approached, but don't go looking for trouble.
Once Bucky knocks out two of the people attacking him and leaves the third wandering in a circle, he runs for Cap's location. While he doesn't wear a mask any more, he let Tony make him a new set of goggles with a Jarvis-run HUD that shows him where the team is on a map of the city. It only takes him a couple minutes to get to Steve, and they handle the riot that's starting to break out. After taking down the few people who are under Loki's control, they have the satisfaction of seeing the rest scatter without prompting.
“Want me to come with you?” Steve asks.
“That would be great,” Bucky agrees, already on the move toward Clint's beacon. Steve falls into step behind him, keeping an eye on his six as they move as quickly as possible. Clint's apparently on top of a building, and the two of them take the stairs rather than trusting the elevator. Even if the building hadn't suffered a little damage, the two of them were probably almost as fast, and Bucky would rather run a few flights of stairs than be stuck standing in a box.
Getting up on the roof doesn't take too long, and once they're up there, they settle into a system of sign language rather than speaking. There's a minimal noise level up here, since it's mostly just street sounds drifting up. As they survey the roof, however, they pick up on voices and the slight clink of movement and equipment. It seems like most of the talking is in a two-way conversation. Bucky's muscles tense when he recognizes Loki's voice; he's never met the demigod but he's seen footage of him from the last Battle of New York. He freezes when he hears Clint's voice as well. Judging by the way Steve jerked to a stop, he heard the archer as well.
Bucky falls back a few steps and crouches down by an air conditioning unit. He can't panic if he's going to get Clint back to safety. And he can't make any mistakes if they're both going to escape alive. Once he gets Clint away from Loki, they're both going straight back to the Tower. The others won without him last time and they can do the same again. Clint will need him more than the team will, especially if Loki has already forced him to hurt or kill people. Ever since they became more than friends, he made it clear that if they went into the field together, Clint would be his priority over the team's mission, so it will be no surprise to the team.
Steve joins him. “Plan?” he asks quietly.
“I don't know, I can't mess this up, I can't. Clint can't even help us get him out. This is gonna kill him.” Bucky knows that he sounds like he's panicking a little, and he is. Just a couple weeks ago, Clint had a nightmare about what Loki did to him in the last battle. And Bucky can't imagine what this will do to him.
“Hey, calm down,” Steve tells him. “We're gonna get him out and he's gonna be okay. Clint's gonna get through this, but you have to keep it together so you can help him get to safety, and then so you can help him survive whatever Loki made him do. Okay?”
“Okay. Yeah. I can do this, Steve, I'm just scared for him.”
“Gotta keep that out of your mind for now. You can't think about how you feel. Have to focus on making Clint safe before you get emotional. Can you do that for Clint?”
“For Clint, yeah,” Bucky agrees. “Let's do this.” They start working out a plan, even though the info they have is severely limited. Once they have things hashed out as much as they can, they split up, so they'll be going toward each other with Loki and whoever is with him between them. Stark equipped them with tranq darts that will put anyone out within a minute, unless they're demigods or supersoldiers. While they won't work on Loki, they'll work on whoever he might be using. As of yet, they don't know if the darts will count as cognitive recalibration, but it's better than having to fight off a teammate.
Steve whistles sharply and Bucky starts shooting. He didn't have much of a chance to check things out, but his sniper skills and Winter Soldier training make sure he doesn't hit anyone that he isn't supposed to. Loki stands with his arms crossed, seemingly a little irritated over having lost his bodyguard but also unconcerned with the way things are going.
“Agent Barton,” Loki says calmly. Clint turns to look at him from where he's standing on the ledge of the roof, his eyes an unnatural blue as they sweep over Bucky's form without recognition. Both supersoldiers stiffen, unwilling to risk injuring Clint by shooting him; if he falls the wrong way, he'll plummet three stories to the pavement. “If I am injured in any way, you will kill yourself.”
“No!” Bucky yells in protest. “Clint, don't, please.”
“Winter Soldier,” Loki murmurs. “Nothing compared to the anger of Bucky Barnes, I imagine. Gotten a little too attached to my pet, Sergeant Barnes?”
“Clint isn't yours. He'll never be yours. Please. Just let him go. Let him go home.”
“I'm afraid you don't have much to offer me that could entice me to such a course of action.”
“You can have me. Let Clint go, give me your word that you'll leave him alone, and I'll take his place.”
“Enticing,” Loki murmurs. “But I think I'll have to refuse. You're a tiny bit too strong for me to make sure I have a hold on you. Agent Barton. Relieve Sergeant Barnes of his life.”
Bucky's eyes widen in panic, but it's for Clint rather than himself. If Clint murders his boyfriend while being controlled by Loki, it will destroy him. “Clint, don't, please. I don't want you to do that to yourself. You can fight him. Baby, you're so damn strong. Just come back to me.”
For a second, Clint hesitates, but then his eyes lose a bit of their focus and he raises his bow. Bucky barely manages to duck out of the way, and the next shot pings off his metal arm. He rolls to the side and Clint's next arrow sparks off the concrete bare inches from his face. Even though they've trained together plenty of times, Clint has never tried to shoot Bucky, even with fake arrows. It's obvious to someone who knows him so well that he's starting to get a little frustrated, even if Loki's mind control doesn't leave much in the way of personal preference.
One of Clint's arrows catches Bucky's sleeve, and the head deploys prongs that trap it against the floor. By the time that Bucky's free of it, Clint is practically on top of him, and Bucky's only halfway to his feet when the archer body slams him. They roll across the roof half a dozen times before Bucky gets the upper hand, pinning Clint to the concrete. Clint's furious, doing his best to get out from under the dark-haired soldier, but Bucky's having none of it.
“Clint, please,” Bucky pants. The archer was only halfway healed from a concussion, so knocking him out or tranquilizing him could be dangerous. Bucky tries to talk him down but it isn't working well. Until Loki releases him, Clint isn't going to listen to a word he says. Even though Bucky knows that, he can't help trying, because the very last thing he wants is to have to hurt Clint. Steve is doing his best to fight Loki, but the jets of blue light/energy/whatever is coming dangerously close to hitting one of the unconscious bodies or Bucky or Clint whenever Steve deflects it with his shield. It's obvious that their attempt at defeating Loki isn't working.
“Steve, cover Clint,” Bucky yells. He rolls to the side, blocking a blow that almost crushed his throat, and gets to his feet. At the sudden change in plans, he hears Steve make a noise of protest behind him, but this is literally the only thing that's come to mind and he has to act on it. There's a clang of metal on vibranium behind him, and he knows that Steve is occupying Clint.
Loki tries to shoot him several times, but Bucky manages to avoid him. When he gets close enough for hand-to-hand combat, Loki drops the point of the staff and pulls a knife. Bucky wraps his hand around the blade, wincing at the sting of pain, and punches Loki full in the face with his metal hand. It would have been more logical to do it the other way around, but Bucky's furious and wants to do as much damage to Loki as quickly as he can.
And it's obvious that the demigod wasn't expecting the attack. He's yelping like a cat whose tail got stepped on, and Bucky is taking pleasure in it. Loki's knife is still held out of the way, and he can't get the leverage to bring his staff to bear on him. While he's unable to jab Bucky and put him under control to get him to stop, the supersoldier is doing his best to flatten his face out. Eventually Bucky manages to get the knife away from him, and he turns his attention to separating Loki from his staff. If he loses the hand too, well, Bucky won't exactly find it within himself to care.
“Bucky, stop,” Steve yells behind him. “It's Clint, Bucky, stop!”
The words bring him to a halt, and Bucky shoves Loki away from him as he turns. Steve had been keeping the archer busy, but what if he'd tried to follow through on the god's order to self-destruct? He sees Steve kneeling with the archer's head in his lap, Clint's chest heaving as he gasps for breath. Bucky crosses the roof in a few huge steps and drops to his knees at his side.
“You okay? Hey, baby, talk to me. Please.”
Clint's eyes open and he offers Bucky a shaky smile. “What's a handsome fella like you doin' in a place like this?” he asks, his voice a little hoarse.
“Hey, babe, don't try to talk too much. Just tell me where it hurts.”
“Jus' about ev'rywhere. But I didn' hurt m'self.”
“When you punched Loki, it broke the control,” Steve tells Bucky. “Clint's okay.”
As if to prove the point, Clint is now sitting up and making grabby hands at his boyfriend. Bucky reaches for him blindly and tugs him close, putting an arm around his waist and curling a hand around the back of his head. Now that his boyfriend is out of danger, Bucky's shaking and fighting back tears. Clint's holding him as tightly as he can manage, holding one arm close against his chest like it was injured but fisting his other hand in the back of Bucky's shirt.
“I got you,” Bucky reassures him, massaging Clint's scalp with his fingertips. “Steve, get the demigod contained.” He turned his comms unit back on. “Winter Soldier, status of Hawkeye and Loki now confirmed. Cap and I have the staff too. Anyone around that can get us back to the Tower?”
“Flying in,” Tony informs them. “Jarvis, call in the Quinjet to Cap and Winter's location. Team, how's it going?”
“Everyone stopped a couple minutes ago,” Natasha reports. “What happened?”
“Loki had Clint compromised,” Bucky explains. “I punched him in the face.” A moment of silence follows.
“What,” Tony states.
“Clint was compromised so I punched Loki in the face,” Bucky explains.
“Huh, okay. We'll have to remember that.”
“Iron Man, what's the status on the Quinjet?” Steve asks.
“Just a couple minutes. I'll superimpose the countdown on Winter's glasses so you guys don't get surprised.”
“Thanks,” Bucky says. He's still got Clint tightly wrapped up in his arms, but Steve doesn't care and Loki is still fairly out of it. As they wait for the Quinjet to arrive, he pats Clint down for injuries and keeps up a running commentary of reassurances and endearments but otherwise stays silent. Clint doesn't seem up to talking anyway, at least not yet.
Once the Quinjet arrives, Steve and the team stay with Loki in the back. Clint and Bucky take the pilot and autopilot seats, respectively, even though Jarvis is going to be going back to the Tower on autopilot. Bucky keeps talking and Clint seems to be okay with that. When they make it back to the Tower, Bucky keeps Clint in the cockpit until Jarvis lets them know that Loki is contained in the floor built especially for that purpose.
They make it back to their floor before Clint breaks down, throwing his arms tightly around Bucky's shoulders and sobbing. Bucky had him divest most of his tac gear while they were still in the Quinjet and had done the same, so at least they aren't totally uncomfortable. Clint cries in his embrace for at least half an hour before quieting. When he does, Bucky guides him to the bedroom and sits him down on the bed before getting the rest of his clothes off.
After a quick shower, Bucky gets him into a hoodie and sweatpants. It takes a minute to get him into bed, but once he's under several blankets and has Bucky wrapped around him, he seems to relax a tiny bit. Bucky knows how hard it is on him. Plus, it's not likely to get better for a while. Clint's always been afraid of Loki coming back and getting him under control again, but he doesn't have the empty or flat look in his eyes that Bucky's seen in people who have shot someone. That's a small bonus.
“Hey,” Bucky murmurs. “I love you. No matter what happened with Loki, this time or the last one.”
“I love you too,” Clint replies quietly.
That's all they say for the rest of the night. Bucky doesn't mind. In the morning, he greets the blond with a kiss and a cup of coffee, and Clint offers a smile. As of now, things aren't too different from a typical morning, but they'll change later. For now, though, Bucky is happy and content to just have Clint back with him. With the way that Clint burrows into his hug, making a sleepy little noise of happiness, he thinks that maybe the archer feels the same.