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“Will! Will, can you hear me?”
William Brandt opened his eyes, winced, and promptly shut them again. “Easy, easy,” the familiar voice said. “Hang on a sec.” Hands helped him upright. Something wet – it had better be water – splashed over his face. “There, try again.”
Water or otherwise, the eye-opening thing worked a lot better the second time. Will squinted into the face just above his, similar enough to his own that it might as well have been a mirror. He’d been afraid of that. “What are you doing here, Clint?”
Clint Barton frowned in annoyance. “Rescuing you, of course.” He moved out of Will’s line of sight and started fiddling with something – oh, the handcuffs, yes, that was very appreciated. He’d honestly forgotten they were there for a second. Funny how extended captivity tended to screw with your physical perceptions.
And speaking of – “I figured that out,” he said patiently. “But why are you here and not my IMF team?”
“Oh, they’re here too,” Clint said cheerfully as the handcuffs came off with a clink. “Tony gave them a ride. But they were gonna take another two days to find you if we’d left them to their own devices, and I really didn’t think you’d want to be here that long.”
“No,” Will agreed automatically, then frowned. “Wait, two days?”
“According to our estimates,” Clint said. He caught Will’s look and shrugged. “Hey, you’re the team analyst. Who’s gonna do that when you’re the one who needs finding?”
“Ethan?” Will suggested pointedly as Clint started rubbing his wrists. The tingle of blood returning to his fingers was unfortunately familiar, though that didn’t make the sensation any more comfortable.
“Hah,” Clint replied. Apparently he was assured that Will was still in one piece, because he transitioned smoothly from worried to teasing. “And speaking of Ethan. Are you two together yet? Have you told him about your enormous crush on him? Because if not I’m thinking I’ll have to get involved – ”
“Hi, Ethan!” Will interrupted loudly. The head of the IMF team had appeared in the doorway and was rushing over with a concerned look on his face. And yeah, Will very much hoped that that bespoke a romantic interest, but it didn’t stop him from using his newfound circulation to poke Clint deliberately into silence.
“Are you okay?” Ethan demanded.
“Fine,” Will reassured him. He heard the rustle of Clint rising to his feet behind him. “Clint found me,” he started to explain, then stopped at Ethan’s look.
Ethan was blinking in surprise, eyes flicking back and forth from one to the other. After a moment he asked, “Are you twins?”
Clint stared at him. “Are we twins.”
Will covered his face with his hands.
“Will, what kind of – he wants to know are we twins. ”
“Lay off him,” Will muttered. “He’s had a rough couple of years.”
Clint gave Will an unimpressed look. “Were they the kind of rough that includes multiple concussions? Because otherwise – “
“I’m sure he was just making polite conversation,” Phil Coulson’s voice floated over, followed a moment later by the man himself picking his way carefully over – huh, rubble. Will was pretty sure there had used to be a wall there, but whatever.
“And who are you?” Ethan demanded, looking more whiplashed by the moment.
“Agent Coulson.” Phil offered a hand, which Ethan shook dazedly. “SHIELD.”
“Coulson?” Ethan’s jaw dropped. “As in Cambodia? Belarus? Milan? ”
Phil looked mildly impressed. “You know about Milan?”
“Hah!” Clint crowed, and got halfway through jabbing Will in the side before he remembered Will had spent the last five hours being tortured by terrorists and pulling the blow. “I win.”
“It’s not a competition,” Will hissed.
“Win what?” Ethan asked.
Clint smirked. “My boyfriend is a badder ass than Will’s boyfriend.”
Will turned a shade of bright crimson previously reserved for flowering plants. “Ethan’s not my boyfriend.”
“Yet,” Clint said in delight, watching the way Ethan coughed and shuffled his feet.
“And Coulson isn’t your boyfriend anymore either,” Will finished, looking murderous.
“Oh, did you… er… break up?” Ethan asked, trying and failing to look like he knew what was going on.
“Quite the opposite,” Phil smiled, waving his left hand gently. The lighting in the warehouse wasn’t very good, but the plain gold band sparkled regardless.
“Congratulations,” Ethan said after a moment. He looked like he wished the floor would just open up and swallow him. “I think I’ll just, er…”
“William! ” a familiar voice called.
Will blanched. “You didn’t,” he said to Clint acusingly.
“Of course I did!” Clint protested. “What, I look crazy to you? You know what James would do to me if I didn’t tell him!”
“Oh my god,” Will said faintly.
“Who’s James?” Ethan asked warily, looking very much like he wished he didn’t actually want to know.
“Our older brother,” Clint answered.
“He’s a little… extreme,” Will said in resignation. He caught Ethan’s look and sighed. “Believe it or not, Ethan, I’m the one in this family with the safe, boring, normal job.”
“He really is,” Clint said gleefully.
Outside…
“So it’s agreed,” M said calmly. “I’ll have the paperwork transferred to your office by the end of the day.”
“And we’ll have the artifacts transported to yours,” Captain America answered.
“Under heavy guard, please. We don’t want them to fall into the wrong hands.”
He nodded. “We’ll send an Avenger.”
“Good.”
They smiled at each other, business concluded.
“Are you going to be in New York yourself anytime soon?” Steve asked.
“I’ve a conference next month. I’ll ring you up.” Peggy patted him on the arm. “You still owe me a dance.”