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“Did you sleep last night?”
Bucky shook his head as he mixed the cake mix, avoiding looking at Kate. Kate was sitting up on the counter, head tilted as she stared at him.
“You look like you should have.”
“Probably should have.”
“So why didn’t you?”
Bucky put down the bowl, turning to get more chocolate out of the fridge. When he turned back, Kate a finger in her mouth.
“I told you not to do that,” he muttered as he added the chocolate to the mix. Kate shrugged a shoulder.
“You know that’s why I’m here. Answer the question.”
Bucky sighed, watching the chocolate disappear into the cake mix.
“Do you know what happened?”
“Parts of it. Not cleared to know the whole story, but Clint let a couple of things slip.”
Bucky nodded. “Yeah, trust me. You don’t want the whole story. Every time I closed my eyes last night,” Bucky paused, shaking his head. “I needed to watch Clint, prove to my head that he was alive. Couldn’t sleep.”
Kate nodded. “I get that. You needed the reminder that the disaster was alive. You still look tired though.”
Bucky resumed mixing the batter, giving Kate a smile. “Yeah, it won’t go away anytime soon.”
“Well then, it’s a good thing that I’m here to make sure that you don’t collapse in the batter.”
“Kate, you’re here to eat the batter.”
“Same thing.”
~~~
“You know, I would have thought that I’d be able to do who I want on my own birthday,” Clint grumbled while glaring at his hand of cards. He was sitting up on the couch, across from Tony. Lucky was asleep under the table.
“Don’t you mean what you want?” Tony asked, pushing forward poker chips.
Clint shrugged, matching Tony’s bet. “I know what I said. You’re bluffing.”
Tony smiled as he revealed a full house. Clint smiled wider as he lay down a Royal flush.
Tony narrowed his eyes as Clint collected his chips. “That’s not possible.”
“It’s called skill Stark.”
“No, it’s literally not possible.”
“You counting cards again?”
“You know, I am. Which is why I know you’re cheating too.”
Clint smiled innocently at Tony. “Whatever do you mean?”
Natasha came to the table, shaking her head as she put down three cups of water. “Come on Stark, don’t tell me you let Clint fool you.”
Tony avoided her eyes as he shuffled the deck. Clint held out his hand, and Natasha obliged his want of a fist bump.
~~~
“I had a plan,” Bucky spoke as he helped Clint to the elevator. “For today. We’d stay at the apartment, be in bed til noon, take Lucky for a walk, then come to the tower for pizza and a movie.”
“Sounds awesome, we should’ve done that.”
Bucky turned to glare at Clint, but shook his head when he was met with a beaming smile. Clint leant over to kiss Bucky’s cheek.
“It’s fine Bucky. I didn’t mind spending the day here. Won a lot of favours off of Stark.”
“I’m pretty sure that those are all invalid, considering that you cheated.”
“I’m shocked that you would accuse me of cheating.”
“I’m shocked that you would try and convince me that you weren’t.”
Clint laughed, before he stopped walking, causing Bucky to turn with a raised eyebrow.
Clint shrugged. “I’m tired. Give me a lift?”
Bucky rolled his eyes, but obliged.
~~~
“What is this?” Kate called out as the elevator doors opened, revealing Clint on Bucky’s back. “You think just because it’s your birthday you don’t have to walk?”
“Oh ha ha,” Clint grumbled as Bucky helped him to his feet. “When you break your leg, we’ll see how much you feel like walking around on it.”
“Don’t be mean to Kate,” Bucky called over his shoulder as he walked to the kitchen. “At least, not until you have the cake.”
“There’s cake?”
“He spends the whole day reminding me that it’s his birthday,” Tony shakes his head as he takes a seat across from Clint. “And then questions the existence of a cake.”
“The cake is a lie,” Clint and Natasha said at the same time, causing the pair to laugh, and Tony to shake his head at the pair.
Any more conversation was stopped when Kate brought out the cake. Round, chocolate, and purple.
“It looks amazing,” Clint smiled up at Kate, who pointed behind her.
“I’d love to take credit, but I’d hate to get on his bad side more.”
Clint turned his head to watch Bucky walk over, lighter in hand to light the candles.
“It looks great,” Clint offered Bucky a wide smile. Bucky sat down beside Clint, lighting the single candle on the cake.
“When I asked Kate how many candles to put on, she said a lot.”
“Because you’re old.”
“So I left it at one,” Bucky shrugged, gesturing to the cake. “Happy birthday Clint.”
“Happy birthday,” was chorused as Clint blew out the candle.
“Thank you. Where’s the knife?”
Clint held out a hand; Bucky produced a knife from…
“Where’d the knife come from?” Clint asked, and Bucky shrugged.
“Just cut the cake Barton,” Kate said. Clint rolled his eyes, but put the knife into the cake, revealing a melted chocolate layer inside.
“Awesome,” Clint turned to Bucky, giving him a kiss. “Thank you. And thank you everyone, I’m sure you’re only here for the cake.”
“Pretty much, yep,” Kate smiled, holding out a plate. “Come on Barton!”
~~~
Clint had meant to help clean up, he really did. Kept mentioning it while eating the ( so amazing, oh man Bucky should make this every day. Twice a day even ) cake. Mentioned it before the film began.
Except Clint fell asleep twenty minutes into the film, Bucky’s lap acting as a pillow. Clint opened his eyes to a dark room, with only the two of them.
“Where’d everyone go?”
Bucky ran a hand through Clint’s head, his metal hand out of Clint’s sight. “Go back to sleep.”
“Can’t tell me what to do. It’s my birthday.”
Bucky laughed as Clint struggled to keep his eyes open. “Not anymore. It’s two am on not your birthday.”
“Aww, birthday, no,” Clint mumbled as he fell back asleep. Bucky smiled, stopping the recording on his phone.
He created a new message:
[just woke up. Kate wins]
He only had to wait ten seconds for a reply.
Hawkeye: [aww yeah, take that losers]
Stark: [whose idea was it to bet on how long barton would sleep?]
Hawkeye: [pretty sure it was you]
Romanoff: [pretty sure it’s too early for this]
Hawkeye: [sorry]
Stark: [sorry]
Romanoff: [thank you]
Bucky shook his head as he put aside his phone, focusing his attention back on his sleeping archer.