Chapter Text
Chapter 37 "Three Assasins for the Price of One"
Playlist "Then He Kissed Me" - The Crystals
Clint didn’t blame James for the look he was currently giving him. It was fucking with his head big time trying to think about James and Bucky being the same person and since James was currently standing naked in front of him, Clint was speechless..
Once Clint had picked the lock on that awful collar, James had immediately turned human.
The transformation had been breathtaking. There had been a purple glow around Bucky as soon as the collar came off, causing the metal plates in his front left leg to whirr as the magic weaved through it. It didn’t feel like good magic. There was just something dark in the aura and Clint could tell the change had to hurt. The animal form changed abruptly from fur to flesh and claws to human limbs too quickly to be anything other than excruciatingly painful.
Witnessing it had left Clint mystified as he gaped at James like a complete idiot.
“Stop staring at me,” James grumbled.
Clint shook himself out of his stupor and wiggled out of his long coat. He handed it to James who quickly put it on and thankfully it was big enough to cover everything. Clint still had his pants and shirt at least. He would be cold, but that wasn’t high on his list of concerns.
“So, yes. I’m a werelion,” James said as he found a hidden knife in Clint’s coat and started to play with it. “I’ve been meaning to tell you, but I wasn’t ready.”
Clint’s mouth opened but he still couldn’t form any actual words. A lack of coffee, pain meds, and witnessing a lion’s transformation into a man had short-circuited his brain.
James gestured at Clint’s casted arm. “Is your arm going to be okay like that?”
“Yeah,” Clint finally said with a nod. “For now.”
“First chance I get I’ll grab some asshole’s pants and give you back this jacket.”
“You have a metal arm,” Clint said dumbly. “Am I the last to know what you are?”
“ Who I am,” James said sharply. “It’s a long story. Let’s just say I got on the wrong side of a witch in Russia while Natasha, Brock, and I were running away from Hydra.”
Clint scrubbed his good hand over his face. He will never understand how he missed all the clues. “I’ve been sleeping with the Winter Soldier … a ghost , holy shit. God, Steve is really going to have an aneurysm.”
“Yes,” James said patiently. “Can we play twenty questions later? We need to get out of this container. I promise I’ll tell you everything — I’m not a danger to you and I’m in control of my mind right now. I’m not him anymore… the Winter Soldier. I’m not him,” James said so earnestly that Clint couldn’t help but believe him.
Should he believe James though? How compromised was he? This had all gotten by him. God, what the hell, Phil was going to chew him out, lock him up, and throw away the key.
“Later,” Clint said with a nod as he pulled himself together with every ounce of inner strength he could muster. “Later, we are going to talk about this. I’m not sure getting out of this thing is going to help, though. I think we’re at sea.”
“Yeah, I can tell,” James said dryly. “Maybe we can find a lifeboat.”
“I have to find Yelena first,” Clint said. “I’m not leaving without her.”
James winced. “She may not want to come with us.”
“She will,” Clint said firmly. “So, how strong are you? Like Steve level strong? Er… I guess you don’t really know —”
“Let’s not talk about Steve right now,” James said and Clint could see a deep sadness in James’s eyes. “But yeah, the strength is basically the same. I can crush the lock on the door no problem.”
Steve Rogers was just another issue they’d have to unpack if they made it home alive, but it really wasn’t that shocking that James was aware of what Steve had become. He wanted to comfort James, but there wasn’t time for that, so he just nodded at the door. “That should work.”
James used his metal hand and just squeezed a little bit, bending the lock mechanism so that it gave way enough that they were able to shove the door open. They were indeed at sea, sailing on slightly choppy waters at night. There were stacks and stacks of shipping containers, piled high on the deck. They were lucky that the sound of the ocean waves as they crashed against the edge of the ship gave them all the cover they needed.
“You good?” James glanced over at Clint. “You look like you’re gonna throw up or something.”
“I’ll be fine, just really could use my meds. Let’s find Yelena,” Clint said and he had to close his eyes for a second when his arm throbbed. He would just have to fight through the pain. “Let’s head toward the bow.”
They crept past a few rows of containers before they found a door that led to the inside of the ship. After taking out a couple of guards, James had clothes to put on and they both had guns. Clint had no idea how they’d find Yelena on this massive ship, but he wasn’t going to entertain leaving without her.
“Relax,” James said softly. “I can hear better than most people. I was waiting until we were inside so I could focus on where I heard voices coming from. It’s part of being both a super soldier and a—” he paused, looking away from Clint with a small sigh. “Lion.”
It made sense, because Steve’s hearing was extremely sensitive too, but Steve definitely couldn’t turn into a lion. Clint’s brain couldn’t seem to process that he had fallen, and fallen hard , for a lycanthrope. He kept trying to focus on the mission at hand but it was difficult.“That’s… yeah, that’s going to help a lot. Good.”
James gave Clint a sorrowful look. “Clint, I had been meaning to tell you, I swear. I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. Let’s just deal with this first, okay?” Clint said, reaching out to touch James’s wrist. “When we have time, you can tell me everything. We have something pretty good going here, right? I’m not going anywhere.”
“You swear you’re not going to disappear on me?” James asked, sounding uncharacteristically vulnerable.
“Hell no,” Clint said firmly before he raised his hand and loosely grasped the back of James’s neck. “Worst case, I’ll lose you to Cap’s smothering when he finds out you’re alive. You’re the best thing that’s happened to me in a long time and we might not know each other too well yet, but we’re going to figure this all out together.”
James let out an audible sigh of relief before tensing and holding one finger against his lips. “Okay, I can hear two female voices below us. Definitely Russian.”
They moved quickly, intercepting a few more hydra agents along the way, and acquired a couple of weapons. “They’re like cockroaches,” James grumbled and wiped blood from his borrowed knife onto his pants.
“Ugh, you’re not kidding,” Clint whispered back.
“I think you forget something, Clint.” Yelena was suddenly at the end of the hallway, holding up their weapons. She sounded annoyed. .
Clint’s eyes widened in surprise and he hurried toward Yelena. Leave it to her to rescue herself. “We were trying to find you!” “
“I escaped from Sharon, she was using us to get him,”Yelena said and nodded in James’s direction.. “Unfortunately we’re in the middle of the Atlantic, helicopters are on the way with more agents, and a storm is coming in.”
“Wonderful,” Clint said dryly. He could hug her. “How did you get free?” He took their weapons happily and handed James his.
“I’m a widow, it takes more than what she did to keep me down, but we go now, yes? Swim if we have to? Hi,” Yelena said, looking at James warily. “You hurt my friend, I kill you.”
“Not planning on it,” James said with a frown, looking offended.
“I feel like we’re ignoring the fact that we’re about to be under attack,” Clint cut in. “How the hell are we going to get off this thing?”
“One problem at a time, Clint.” Yelena looked back and forth between Clint and James. “You know your boyfriend is the Winter Soldier, yes?”
Clint frowned. “Well, now I do.”
“How’d you miss the arm?” Yelena asked and her face gave away how much of an idiot she thought Clint was.
James squirmed a bit and Clint threw up his hands. “It’s complicated!” Clint said. “Now’s not the time for this, we need a plan to get out of here.”
“He’s very good at killing,” Yelena said casually with a shrug. “Probably have the best three assassins in the world right here.”
“She’s got a point, I wouldn’t worry about getting off this thing,” James said with a cocky grin.
“I mean, you’re not wrong but I’m down an arm,” Clint said, lifting his casted arm.
“Stop being pussy, you can manage with one arm,” Yelena said and smirked when James scowled. “What, is funny! Besides… I know you, don’t you remember me?”
“Don’t remember a lot. Hydra wiped my brain too many times,” James sighed. He quickly checked his guns and tucked a few away in his stolen clothes.
“Wait, what?” Clint asked. He turned and put his hand on James’s bicep. He needed a point of contact, an anchor, because the entire situation was overwhelming “Do you remember Steve? Cap’s going to freak out if you don’t. Wait, is that why you didn’t try to find him? Because if that’s why, you’re an ass. He would’ve accepted you no matter what.”
“Yes and no, it’s complicated. Come on! We got trouble incoming.”
They rushed back up to the main deck and Clint knew he could’ve avoided a lot of this mess if he hadn’t tried to go in with just Yelena, but dwelling on the past wasn’t going to help any of them in the moment. He was not going to let Hydra capture Bucky — James — again.
Lucky for them, it looked like backup had arrived..
To Be Continued...