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You burst into my life from out of nowhere
And now I can’t imagine you not being around
The way your hair defies all laws of nature
Within your gaze I am able to drown
But that would be a shame
For you bring me such joy
You pretend to be anything but
Trying to keep away from all the world
From your life I’ll never be cut.
“Alright, stop there,” Bucky held up his hand, shaking his head.
Clint looked up from his guitar, raising an eyebrow at the man across from him. “That bad?”
Bucky burst out laughing. Clint’s bottom lip pushed out slightly.
“Really? That’s your reaction?”
“Sorry, sorry,” Bucky wiped his eyes, offering Clint a smile. “Just incredibly sappy, ‘s all.”
“That was the point,” Clint looked back at his guitar, picking at the strings.
Bucky watched Clint for a moment, before he reached out for his own guitar, and began playing. Clint immediately looked up.
Once upon a time, I knew where I was headin’
Out on a lonely road, nobody ‘round but me
No time for others, protectin’ ‘em from me
Protectin’ me from The path I’m dreadin’
I couldn’t, I wouldn’t, I didn’t wanna change
I had my mind all made
With no way for it to sway
Thought I knew how far it could range
At this, Bucky looked up at Clint, looking into his eyes as he continued playing
Then I met ya, and it hit me like a train
I didn’t have hafta face the world alone
By your side, I don’t dare frown
And the joy don’t hafta feign
Ya stumbled inta my life
I didn’t get any warnin’
Now I eagerly await every mornin’
To see your antics cause me strife.
“ My antics?” Clint asked, hand on his chest in mock outrage. Bucky shrugged as he put his guitar back in it’s case.
“They are pretty strife inducing.”
Clint nodded, conceding the point, before poking a finger in Bucky’s chest. “And you said my song was sappy.”
“Ah, you see, that’s the beauty of music,” Bucky waved a hand as if painting a rainbow in the air. “You can turn sap into a great song just by changing the key and tempo.”
“Alright, fine. Whatever. Wanna go play out in the courtyard?”
Bucky blinked back at Clint. “What?”
“Yeah, you and me, our guitars, fresh air.”
“And everyone else from the academy staring at us.”
Clint put down his guitar, leaning his arms on Bucky’s legs so that he was looking up into his eyes. “Come on Bucky, what’s the worst that can happen?”
Bucky raised an incredulous eyebrow at Clint. “Do you really want me to answer that? Cause given that it’s you and me? There’s a lot that could happen.”
“Come on, have a little faith.”
Bucky laughed at that. “Oh, I have a little. That’s what got me into trouble last time.”
Clint sat up a little more, tilting his head to the side. “I didn’t think you cared about getting into trouble?”
“I don’t. I care about you getting into trouble though.”
“Aww, you’re too good to me. Don’t worry- this plan will work brilliantly.”
Bucky shook his head as he chose to put his faith in Clint Barton.
“Thank you.”
“Oh, I would hold off on that.” Bucky reached out a hand to run through Clint’s hair. “There’s still a million ways this can end badly for us.”
Clint leant forward and kissed Bucky’s cheek. “Not a million, surely.”
“Maybe a hundred.”
“I can live with that.”
~~~
“Don’t say it Barnes,” Clint glared down at Bucky.
Bucky focused his attention on the job at hand, not looking at Clint.
“’What’s the worst that can happen? He says,”’ Bucky says, doing his best impression of Clint.” ‘Don’t worry’ he says. ‘This will work brilliantly’ he says.”
Clint sighed, using his forearm to push his hair out of his face. “To be fair, when I suggested an impromptu gig, I didn’t expect Fury to show up and yell at us to stop.”
Bucky paused, looking up at Clint incredulously. “I think he was yelling at us because our impromptu gig turned into an impromptu makeout session.”
Clint shrugged, getting back to work. “Probably. Totally worth it though.”
Bucky rolled his eyes as he also returned to work. “Yes, I am sure that we will both enjoy having to clean out Stark’s cheese fridge for the next month.”
“…Yeah, okay. That’s gonna suck.”
“Hey you two, less talk, more scrubbing.”
The pair turned to give Tony a matching pair of glares. Tony smiled, waving at them.
“Hey, I’m not the ones who decided to make out in front of Fury.” Tony shook his head as he looked at his phone. “Hey, the video of your performance is now up to two thousand views. And the one Jan took is just as high. Pretty sure there’s a version from Nat as well, though I haven’t found it yet.”
“How?” Clint turned around, hands on his hips. “Those were posted to the private server. Only students are able to watch it.”
“And only students have,” Tony shrugged, standing up and putting his phone back in his pocket. “It’s quite popular. We haven’t had a scandal like this since those Brits ‘invaded’.” Tony even used finger quotes.
Clint shook his head as he returned to scrubbing out the fridge.
“They need to get a life,” Bucky grumbled, before calling out louder. “What do you even leave in here Stark? It smells terrible.”
“This is the old cheese fridge.” Tony scratched his head, avoiding looking at the pair. “I… may not have cleaned it out when I transferred fridges.”
“You transferred fridges a month ago…” Clint trailed off, looking at Bucky in horror.
Bucky stood up, and the pair turned horrified expressions on Tony.
Tony held up his hands in surrender. “I’m sorry?”
Bucky raised an eyebrow at Clint, who nodded. The pair turned to Tony, and drew back their arms to throw their sponges.
“Guys, come on,” Tony pleaded. When a pair of arms drew back in unison, Tony turned and ran out of the Tower, both Clint and Bucky chasing after him.
“STEVE!” Tony yelled as he jumped off the Tower, rockets firing to allow him to land safely in the middle of the Quad..
“What’s wrong?” Steve asked, coming over from where he had been dancing at the club.
Tony pointed up at the Tower, where Steve could see Clint and Bucky staring down at Tony.
“What did you do?” Steve asked Tony, who held up his hands.
“Didn’t do anything.” When Steve crossed his arms over his chest, Tony deflated. “Remember how their punishment from Fury was to clean out the cheese fridge?”
“Yes?” Steve didn’t like where this was going.
“Well, I may have, accidently of course, I would never do this on purpose-”
Steve reached out and put a hand on Tony’s shoulder. “Tony.”
Tony took a deep breath, before looking at Steve. “They were cleaning the old fridge.”
“The old…” Steve shook his head. “Tony, that’s been sitting there for a month . How could you do that?”
“Fury said that the punishment should fit the crime.”
“Didn’t realising public displays of affection were banned.”
“They’re not,” Tony put his hands around Steve’s neck. “However, when you have an audience filming your guitar duo, and then you turn it into a public display of affection that borders on public indecency? Well, Fury does have his limits.”
“Oh, I am aware,” Steve looked up at the Tower, before stepping away from Tony.
“Wha-” Tony was interrupted when he was hit by a pair of sponges. He whirled around, gauntlet raised, to fiind no one behind him. He turned back to Steve. “You could warn a guy next time.”
“I could,” Steve shrugged. “But it was funny.”
“Go back to dancing then,” Tony waved a hand over his shoulder as he powered his rockets. “I’ve got a pair of troublemakers to catch.”
“We’re still on for tonight right?” Steve called out as Tony flew up to the Tower.
“Course. See you at eight, if you’re finished dancing,” Tony turned to land on the Tower. “He’s always dancing. Never stops. Maybe I should take up dancing.”
“That’d be a sight,” Tony turned, only the sight of silver hinting at the direction that Bucky ran.
“That’s it. JARVIS, lock the Tower down and give me heat tracking.”
“I’m afraid that those functions have been disabled, sir.”
“What?” Tony turned, and heard the echoes of laughter. “I’m gonna find you two!”
“Keep telling yourself that!”
Tony didn’t find them; he gave up in time to meet Steve, who had (to the amazement of Tony) finished dancing in time.
Tony swore to Steve that he had searched the entire Tower, had even restarted the sensors. Steve had nodded along, not mentioning the fact that he had seen Clint and Bucky making their way to the dorms earlier.