Increasingly Painful and Incredibly Close

12.0

"Hm. Should we just let Tony handle the guest list?" Clint sat back, stretching.

Pietro scoffed. "Want... half the... population... at wedding, yes?"

The archer groaned. "Gonna write an invite to my brother, he's probably a no-show off the bat though."

"If the past... eight years... of never meeting... him... are anything... to go by." The younger smirked teasingly.

After lots of writing, sending out invites in physical copies and e-invites, they were finally finished. What Clint didn't expect was for his phone to ring merely hours later as they lounged in the living room watching competitive baking shows. It was an unknown number, but Clint answered anyway.

"Hello?" He twirled Pietro's hair, the smaller laid on the couch with his head in his lover's lap.

"Guess what?" A voice Clint hadn't heard in years, nearly a decade.

"Barney?" He felt a shock run down his spine, a knot in his stomach.

"No, doofus. Anyway, what's this with you sending an invite to my email? Kinda tacky."

"Yeah, wanted to give people as much notice as we could, it's kinda a rushed thing." He switched to scratching up and down the sokovian's back.

"Aw, man. Did you get someone pregnant?" A small chuckle through the line.

"No, it's- you've been gone a long time, Barn. You missed a lot." His tone grew serious, dark and gravelly. "Are you in town? I think it'd just be best if we could meet up."

"Shit. Yeah, I'm like thirty minutes from the tower. You sound serious, Clint. Is this serious?"

"Yeah, it's serious. Joe's Coffee Shop. Gimme an hour."

"Alright, lil bro. See you then." The line went dead.

●●●

Forty five minutes later, the couple was sat in the small coffee joint. Pietro was dressed comfortably, in a grey sweater and blue fuzzy sweatpants. Clint watched through the large window next to the booth.

"Shit, there he is. I'm gonna go meet him outside, honey. Do you need anything?"

After his fiance's negative reply, he got up to stand outside under the awning. There he saw his brother, walking with a forearm crutch from their run in with the tracksuits, dressed in a green hoodie and ragged jeans. "Hey, kid."

"Yo, Barn. So he's inside, but I wanted to talk to you first." Clint ran his fingers up and down his thigh.

Barney waved him off. "C'mon dude, I'm not gonna be an ass-"

"It's not about that. The wedding is short notice because he's dying." The younger brother's gaze was fixed on his shoes. "There's something, it's... it's his motor neurons. Fucking can't even breathe on his own anymore."

Chancing a look up to the elder, he saw something rare in his eyes. Sympathy.

"Christ, Clint. That's a fucking raw deal."

"Yeah. Just, don't be weird, okay? He's really cool when you get to know him." The archer smiled, leading his brother in.

The older brother stopped in his tracks when he saw the ill man. He watched his younger brother approach him, kissing his cheek lightly and whispering something. He gestured his brother over. "Barney, this is Pietro."

Barney began to stick out a hand before catching himself. He muttered under his breath, slapping a hand over his face. "Fuck. Sorry, I'm sorry."

He didn't expect to thin man to laugh, Clint following suit. "Dude, your face."

"Shit, I was sure I blew it." The redhead sat across from the blonde.

"Pietro has to joke about the fact that he's dying, like, every five seconds. It takes more than that to offend him."

The younger of the couple just gave a lopsided smile, slowly murmuring something Barney didn't catch. The other just chuckled. "He asked if you're still coming to the wedding after knowing I'm marrying a cripple."

"Be kinda hypocritical if I didn't." He held up a crutch.

A waitress came and set two cups of coffee on the table. Barney opened his mouth to call for a third before Clint interrupted. As he spoke he stirred an obscene amount of cream and sugar into the coffee. "Nah, we're gonna share. Piet can't swallow too well anymore so it's mostly just tastes for him now."

"Huh, makes sense. So you two, you been a thing since Sokovia? I saw y'all together on the news."

"Made it offical a bit after that. We both had some stuff to recover from before we started with labels." Clint dipped a shallow spoon in the coffee, giving his lover a taste of the coffee and turning to gently wipe the corner of his mouth.

Barney was transfixed. This man had changed his brother for the better, softened the rough edges childhood had left on him. "How long have ya'll been a thing then?"

"Just coming up on eight years in a few months." Pietro let out a weak, raspy cough as his partner spoke. Barney looked at him in alarm, but the archer was already on it. He was tipping the other's head back, brushing hair from his face and wiping a small stream of saliva from his mouth. "You good, baby?"

"Am... fine." The younger's cheeks flushed under the new person's gaze.

"He's good. Swallowing's been a big struggle right now, but we got it." Clint gave a half smile. "But yeah, eight years. Feels like yesterday this punk was pestering me until I'd take him on a proper date."

The older brother smiled genuinely at that. "Well, I'm glad to finally get caught up... I missed you, kid."

"You're the one that went AWOL, dude. You always know where I am." Clint held his partner's hand. It was odd, seeing his little brother with someone so vulnerable. He'd grown up a lot over the years.

"Yeah, sorry. I had shit to take care of." Barney huffed as his brother rolled his eyes.

"So what about you? I think Speedy deserves all those embarrassing stories about you I've held out on over the years." The archer grinned, looking to Pietro as he spoke. "Like the time with the peanut butter-"

"Don't you fucking dare, I swear I'll tell him about that time with Sasha from the circus." The elder threatened lightly.

Clint put a hand to his chest with a gasp. "You wouldn't."

Pietro gave a smirk. "Mh, want to... hear both."

His lover looked at him, playfully horrified. "Babe, you're supposed to take my side!"

"Am dying... not allowed... to be mad... at me." The sokovian teased. He could tell Barney couldn't understand his speech, so he looked at Clint as he spoke. The blonde groaned.

He looked at his brother, sighing. "He pulled the dying card, we have to embarrass ourselves for his amusement now."

"Okay, but I get to go first."