Hawkeye: Agony

Horizons

'Can you see them?'
'We're looking at the same pool of water, here. Can you?' Barnes said as he shot my brother a look.
'Well I thought you might have had some other bionic powers. Like maybe a robot eye?'
He was being sarcastic, but that didn't mean it sat any better.
'I'll throw you off of this sheet of metal if you don't stop staring at my arm and search the water...' Barnes growled into the ocean.

In that moment the ocean lit up red and Wanda came flailing to the surface.
'Clint..!' She strangled out loud as both men had started to pull her onto the metal raft.

Without a second thought, Barnes flung himself into a dive, vanishing between the specs of fading magic on the waves. Reaching out with his metal arm to fight any debris in his way.

**

I woke up with a sharp pain on my chest, and a rush of water racing through my lungs. Before I knew it, there was another sharp stab, rhythmically charged to the last. Bucky was trying to open my airways, so I coughed hard so that my assailant knew to stop. When I opened my eyes, he was there, ready to do the mouth-to-mouth part of CPR, and we both just stared for a second before I couldn't hold back another cough of water.

I saw his mouth form a chuckle as he sat backwards, moving the wet hair out of his face.
I reached my hand up to my ears where I felt the two sodden pieces of plastic. Probably water logged and broken. Oh joy. I'm deaf again.

I took them out and threw them aside to show everyone that they were useless: but the force I used made me wince. My chest hurt. Maybe Bucky had been a bit too rough.

If you've been keeping track, there is now: A really old broken rib, a bent leg, deep bruises caking my body, deafness, and chronic mental illnesses. The latter of which, definitely set off when I realised that I didn't dream my dead brother showing up, or an exploding ship.

The pain and fear settled slowly in my eyes, and I saw Bucky shuffle himself away a little. Does he think he hurt me? I mean he may have made my rib hurt more but..
"It's okay," I muttered, as I sat upright.
But he stood up and went to go and help Wanda remove the final ties off of her prison uniform.

I watched him move away until two large boots blocked the scene. I looked up at Barney which told him to crouch down.
'Keep away from them,' he signed.
'What..? Why?' I tried to say, but it came out as a mutter that was still shushed.
'Sign,' he gave me an expression as if to silently sigh, 'Because they got you into this mess. Right?'
'They're friends,' I tried to look stern, but my body was hurting. Keeping myself sat upright without hands was painful enough, let alone talking with them. And then to accuse my friends? Wanda was only trying to save me.
'He almost got you and an entire apartment building killed.'

I paused in thought for a moment, which I think made Barney happy, but I responded, 'Well the world thinks we're all dead. So we should stay dead together..'
For a quick moment, I saw some anger flicker into Barney's aqua eyes, as if the ocean went dark. He grabbed my wrists tightly to stop me from signing anymore and just growled a, 'No.'

The other two looked over and I was staring up at him.
'Barney..?' I whispered, which made him look my face over and let go.
'...I'm sorry. You okay?' His eyes were bright again but worried.
I gave him a small nod, not really wanting to use my wrists again anyway.
'Okay. ...Okay.' He looked a little wavered, as if he didn't know what he'd done.

'There's a 'copter coming. Some Avengers friend of all of yours. You should keep an eye out.'
He looked back at me and smiled, 'You're the one with the best eyesight.'
He wasn't really signing when the majority could hear, just every occasional word.
It was a bit difficult to understand his country mannerisms in lipread too.

As if from a habit in the prison, I looked to Bucky for a translation, and when Bucky slowly mouthed 'Look out for a chopper,' and I understood him, Barney's darkness seemed to creep in a little more.
Was it jealousy then?
It seemed deeper.

But either way, we sat on our metal sheet of shipwreck, with myself on one end, Barnes and Wanda on another; with Barney between like a divide.
I didn't pay much attention to the skies. There was a lot to think about now.
We all need to hide, but also what had we missed? Were the other Avengers treated okay? What happened to my children all of this time..?
Had I let them down again?

'It's here!' Barney shouted as he stood up and waved at the clouds.
The raft shaking on a wave snapped me out of my thoughts, and I looked up. Wincing as I pushed myself onto my feet. I realised I hadn't stood yet.
Whilst Barney was guiding in the helicopter, I felt the pain of my leg overwhelm me and my eyes closed with an imbalance.

A firm hand caught me and kept me steady. As I raised my head, I saw Bucky behind me, keeping my legs just off of the ground.
'Thank you ...' I muttered, as a small part of me didn't want my brother to hear.
He just smiled weakly and tied me to a harness to be lifted into the helicopter.
'I heard him earlier. It's okay,' he smiled and waved for me to get sent up.
He's a super soldier. Of course he had. Barney should have known, or maybe he did.

He was the next onboard, choosing to sit with me. Once everyone was safely out of the water, Barney waved to the pilot.
'Alright that's everyone. Time to go.'
My eyes moved from his lips to the leather back of the chair. The red hair hidden behind headphones.
' 'Tasha..?' I muttered.
The chair spun so that I could see her lips, 'You don't know how glad I am that you're alive... Idiot.'

I moved quickly away from Barney, almost leaping into the seat next to Natasha. "Almost" being the word, had leaping not hurt so much.
I hugged her gently, to silently tell her that I was hurting, 'I missed you too.'
Natasha smiled a little weary and then motioned to the controls with a little nod, 'Want to take over?'

Anyone else at this point would think she was crazy, but she knew me so well. Flying let me focus, and do something useful in the silence, instead of sitting in pain and thinking about everything that was about to happen. The destination was already set.
I nodded and swapped places with her, much to the dismay of my brother, who's protest fell on... literal deaf ears.

Bucky chose to look impressed.
'He can fly?' He muttered in awe to Natasha as she climbed into the back with the others.
'Oh yeah. We've both been taught a lot of stupid things, but he's a pretty talented guy. He can do lots of impressive things.' Natasha smirked a little at him, then thought, 'I guess you used to want to be a pilot?'
'Hm maybe a bit,' Bucky thought, 'I just thought they were impressive: the bird and it's pilot. Never really considered doing it myself.'
He turned his head to continue watching me fly the jet.
'Why what else can he do?'
'He speaks every language, spoken and unspoken. He can do rapid math. Fly through space, I can't do that. Hm.. I'm pretty sure he once ran 360 miles without stopping... But that one's just a rumour.'

Barney made a small scoffing sound, 'That kid did'n' even go to school. How'd he learn all that when he didn't know what two plus two is?'
Natasha smirked, 'You don't know that much about him, do you?'
The boys both stared, confused and curious.
'Well, before all this happened, he was SHIELD's Super Soldier.'