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Chocolate. It had to be chocolate.
Clint and Bucky were… it wasn’t dating , not really. They were friends, they saw each other more than once in two months.
Friends. With the potential for more. Maybe.
In the two months since meeting Steve and Becca and Charlie, Clint had seen Bucky at least once a week. Every time, it was for coffee.
Their entire relationship seemed to revolve around coffee, a fact that neither of them seemed to mind. In the two months, Clint had discovered that he looked forward to seeing Bucky, and missed them when they couldn’t meet.
Clint had learnt many things about Bucky;
The way Bucky liked their coffee ( sweet , way too sweet. Just like Bucky ).
The way Bucky smiled when they were happy ( small and secretive, like every smile was just for them ).
The way Bucky would never impose on Clint, but could not hide the way they positively beamed when they saw Clint ( as if me being in their life makes it better. Me ! Clint Barton, human disaster, makes someone happy . Who would have thought it ).
And Clint would be lying if he said that seeing Bucky didn’t make him happy, if seeing Bucky wasn’t the highlight of Clint’s week.
“Earth to Barton!”
Clint blinked, shaking his head. Kate was giving him a (very unimpressed) look across the table. “What?”
“You’re thinking.”
“That a crime now?”
“When we’re in the middle of scheduling next term’s classes? Yes, yes it is. What’s got you thinking so hard?” Kate picked up her pen, pointing it at Clint. “Bucky, right?”
“What?” Clint frowned at Kate. “What makes you say that?”
“Who else?” Kate threw up her hands, shaking her head. “Who else would have you distracted like this? You ask them out yet?”
“No,” Clint shook his head, picking up his coffee cup. “We’re friends.”
“Uh huh,” Kate leant back in her chair, picking up her own cup of coffee and staring at Clint.
Clint looked down at his coffee, sighing. “So maybe I’ve been thinking about asking them out on a date.”
“And you haven’t because…”
“Because,” Clint sighed, still staring at his coffee. “Because we’re friends, and it’s great Kate. I don’t want to lose that.”
“But what if you don’t lose it? The way you talk about Bucky, I’d be amazed if they don’t feel the same way about you.”
“But what if I’ve been reading this all wrong?”
“Only one way to find out.”
Clint looked up at Kate, giving her a smile. “How’d you get so smart? You’re a kid.”
Kate shrugged. “Compared to you, everyone is smart.”
“Ouch.”
“So,” Kate put down her coffee cup, leaning on the table. “Next time you see Bucky?”
“I’m going to ask them out.”
“So is this when I tell you that you are out of chocolate?”
“Really?”
“You promised chocolate, and you’ve failed to deliver.”
Clint drained the rest of his coffee, before getting up and walking to the door. “Be back in ten.”
“You’re the best Clint!”
“You just remember this when I roster you on for extra shifts!” Clint called out before leaving the apartment.
~
There was a grocery store not a block from Clint’s apartment. Nice and cheap, none of that overpriced stuff, and open twenty four seven. Perfect for when he inevitably forgot to buy food.
And one last block of chocolate.
Just as Clint reached out for the chocolate, another hand reached out for it. Clint blinked at it, before turning to it’s owner, ready to fight whoever he had to for the last chocolate.
“Bucky?”
Bucky lowered their hand, smiling at Clint. “Hey Clint, what are you doing here?”
“Getting chocolate. Never seen you here before.”
“Yeah, I normally do my shopping… late.”
“That explains it.”
“Yeah.” Clint stared at Bucky, the conversation with Kate from earlier running through his head.
“You okay Clint?”
Clint refocused on Bucky, who had a worried expression on their face. Clint nodded, probably nodded too much.
“Yeah, yeah, just… got something to ask you.”
“Okay,” Bucky waved their hand. “I’m listening.”
“Yeah,” Clint took a deep breath, before holding up his hands. “Okay, so I want to ask if you’d like to go out with me?”
Bucky blinked, looking confused. “We’re going out on Saturday?”
“Yeah, yeah, but… like a date ?”
“Oh,” Bucky looked down at their feet, and Clint scrambled to fix the situation.
“Listen, I like our friendship. It’s amazing, and I’d never want to do anything to jeopardise it. And I’d never want to make you feel uncomfortable, but I would like the opportunity to go on a date with you. And maybe we discover that it’s wrong, and we’ll go back to being friends. But maybe-”
“Clint,” Bucky reached out, putting their hand on Clint’s shoulder. “Clint, breathe. That was a lot of words in not a lot of time. But I think the answer is yes.”
“Yes?” clint echoed, staring at Bucky with wide eyes.
“Yes Clint, I’d like to go on a date with you.”
“Just like that?”
Bucky did that small smile of theirs, the one that Clint liked so much. “So I might have been about to ask you out the next time I saw you.”
“Really?”
Bucky nodded. “Yeah, Steve kind of pointed out some things to me, so I said that the next time I saw you, I’d ask you out. But you beat me to it.”
“I promised Kate that I’d ask you out the next time I saw you.”
Bucky laughed. “So I guess I should be thanking Kate.”
“And I should thank Steve?”
Bucky shook their head. “Oh, don’t do that, his head is big enough as it is.”
Clint joined in Bucky’s laughter.
“So I’m actually on my way to work,” Bucky eventually broke the laughter, letting go of Clint’s shoulder. “I should probably go.”
“Yeah,” Clint agreed. “I was just here for…” Clint turned to the chocolate, which had disappeared. “No…”
“Where’d it go?” Bucky looked around confusedly.
“Guess someone came and got it while we were having our revelation,” Clint jokingly said. Bucky smiled in agreement.
“Guess so. Saturday?”
“It’s a date.” Really Barton? How cheesy can you get?
Bucky bit their lip, trying to hold back their laughter. “Wow, did not expect that from you.”
“Might as well get used to it. I’ll text you the details?”
“I look forward to it.”
~
“Where’s my chocolate?” Kate asked when Clint returned empty handed from his shopping expedition.
Clint walked around behind Kate’s chair, leaning forward to wrap her up in a hug. “Thank you Katie Kate.”
“Not that I don’t appreciate it,” Kate said, reaching up to pat Clint’s arm. “But what did I do?”
Clint rested his head on hers, closing his eyes. “Ran into Bucky.”
“You asked them out?”
“They said yes. We’re going on a date on Saturday.”
“I suppose that is a reasonable excuse to not have the chocolate. Well done Barton.” Kate then patted the table. “Ready to finish the schedules?”
“Do we have to? Can’t I just bask in this happiness for a little longer?”
“No boss man, we gotta finish.”
Clint groaned as he let go of Kate, returning to his chair. “Alright, what did you get done without me?”