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Tony was the one who put it into words.
“You should compliment Clint more,” Tony told him.
The instruction was an aside, as most of Tony’s focus was on the hologram that was dancing in front of his vision. Bucky was used to it, these random tidbits that Tony tossed out. They weren’t really a conversation unless Bucky wanted to make it one.
And this one, Bucky did.
“You think I don’t appreciate our boyfriend enough?” Bucky kept his voice neutral. He was fine with feedback - he used to go on dates, sure, but nothing ever held steady. This relationship with Tony and Clint was his longest and most serious to date, and if Bucky was misstepping then he wanted to know.
“Hmm, what?” Tony did a double-take as Bucky pulled Tony’s focus out of what he was working on.
“You think I’m takin’ Clint for granted?”
Okay, so maybe Bucky was a little hurt that Tony thought he wasn’t appreciating Clint enough.
Tony’s eyes went wide with surprise. “No, no, I just - I think he likes it. Doesn’t hear it enough.”
Bucky frowned and watched Tony’s fingers twitch.
“Neither do you,” Bucky answered back casually.
Tony’s grin was quick and the little laugh he tacked on genuine humor. Bucky relaxed. They were having the conversation he thought they were having - about Clint, nothing else. Tony was prone to multiple meanings and layers buried into phrases, and even though that was rare for when Tony was spouting off information while he was also working, Bucky wanted to be sure.
“Thanks, Snowflake.” Tony winked. “You too, even. I just mean, for Clint, I think -” Tony hesitated, trying to pick his words carefully.
Tony’s hesitance was a curious byproduct of when they’d solidified their relationship.
Before the three of them had agreed that they could call each other boyfriends - Bucky had felt that he was on shaky ground. He wasn’t sure what he was allowed, or what was too much. There were invisible lines that he couldn’t cross or else he’d risk everything. When they declared their poly relationship, Bucky had relaxed into the surety of knowing.
Tony, however, sometimes seemed the opposite. Now there was something for Tony to break.
Bucky and Clint were working on it. And now Bucky and Tony were working on something for Clint.
Rather than be suspicious about what Clint and Tony might be working on behind Bucky’s back, he was actually looking forward to it. Double-teamed in the best way, and every plan so far had been about making sure they were all comfortable and confident in their relationship.
And sometimes planning pranks for Steve and Sam, because of course.
“I know what you mean,” Bucky said to save Tony from finding the words. “I think. You talkin’ about that little shiver he gets, when you tell him he did somethin’ good?”
“Yeah.” Tony’s grin stretched wide. “That’s exactly it.”
There was a tone in Tony’s voice, a tone that verged on the edge of Tony’s deep bedroom voice. Bucky opened his mouth to ask, but then Clint dashed into the workshop, cackling.
Clint held a bowl of cookies above his head like it was the winning trophy of a sports match.
“Lockdown, lockdown!” Clint called.
“Don’t you dare!” Steve shouted as he hurtled down the stairs to the workshop.
“JARVIS,” Tony said, and they all laughed as Steve pounded on the glass door that was now unable to be opened.
Sam came rushing down the stairs next, and stood next to Steve with his hands on his hips.
“Gentlemen, I give you the spoils of my conquest,” Clint said with an elaborate bow as he offered the bowl to Bucky.
Bucky grinned and swiped a cookie. “They’re still warm!”
“Fresh from the oven,” Clint confirmed and then danced over to Tony.
Bucky took a bite, grinning smugly as Steve glared at him.
“Excellent swiping there, Birdie,” Tony said as he took a cookie.
“Yeah, this is great. Thank you,” Bucky chimed in.
“It absolutely was.” Clint stuffed an entire handful of cookies into his mouth and then grinned, his cheeks bulging.
Clint didn’t shiver at the compliment, but that was okay. Bucky would keep an eye out in the future, since Clint did so many good things.
Except, Bucky was finding it harder to get Clint to accept praise than he’d thought. A ‘nice shot’ during a mission only had Clint brushing it off with a joke.
“Don’t get jealous, Terminator. Keep practicing and one day you too can be an excellent marksman.”
A ‘good work out there’ after a tough mission only got a self-deprecating reply about falling off the roof.
“Yeah, like I totally didn’t biff it or anything and fall three stories, thanks for the reminder. Oh, actually, any chance I could get a massage? Like, a naked one. You can be naked or I can be naked or we both could be naked, or wait, no, I vote all three - ”
“I don’t want to hear it,” Sam had interrupted as he covered his ears. “Someone make them stop.”
Steve had sighed. “Guys.”
Bucky thanked Clint for bringing him a cup of coffee, even when Clint had proceeded to keep the rest of the pot for himself, and only gotten an eyebrow raise. He’d told Clint that he looked great, all dressed up for the latest PR interview, and Clint had grimaced and promptly tried to wipe mustard on his shirt.
What was it that Bucky had said, the last time that he’d gotten Clint to shiver with a compliment?
“Hey, I saw what you did.” Tony’s voice was low and warm, and Bucky only heard it because of his enhanced senses.
Tony was talking to Clint, who had sprawled across their laps on the couch. The mission had been short but intense, and after clean-up of the area and then themselves and team dinner, Bucky was beat. He was falling asleep where he was sitting.
But Tony was leaning down and whispering to Clint.
“I didn’t do anything -”
Tony tugged on Clint’s hair. Bucky’s gaze was arrested on that motion, on the way that Clint’s body tensed and then relaxed on top of him.
“You did. I saw it, how you got that lost shot off. You took a hit, but you saved that boy’s life. And I’m telling you, you did good.”
Bucky wanted to melt at that dark liquid tone at Tony’s voice, and Tony wasn’t even talking to him.
“Whatever, just the job -”
Tony covered Clint’s mouth. “No, it wasn’t.”
Tony didn’t argue further, and he kept his hand over Clint’s mouth to prevent any further protest.
Clint shivered. He tried to hide it by pretending to wiggle into a new position, but Bucky felt it.
Bucky bit his lip. So that’s how he needed to do it, huh?
Bucky got his chance at the end of a press conference, one that had the entire team sitting along a table and fielding questions for the journalists. Bucky never had to say much, since most reporters focused on Tony and Steve, or Thor when the god was around, but his presence was still required.
He kept himself entertained by picking out where he would put a sniper’s nest and the order he would take out the journalists. He wouldn’t take them all out, just his least favorites.
And there was one asshole who gunned for the top of the list.
He came after Tony, like the assholes always did, asking about the similarities between those who had old Stark Industries weapons and now seemed to have Avenger knockoffs and throwing out implications.
Tony wasn’t the problem, actually. Tony could deflect random asshole questions with a snide comment and a laugh and end the issue. The problem was always Steve. Steve who took it as an affront that anyone would think that Tony Stark was dealing Avengers weapons under the table. Steve who would die rather than let someone insult one of his best friends, Steve who had no issue dragging out the whole affair and making another spectacle because -
Clint broke in with a joke about people trying to copy his stick and string since the Paleolithic era.
The crowd laughed, Tony moved the conversation along, and the issue was just a blip in the overall conference.
When the Avengers got back to the Tower, Bucky wrapped his arm around Clint’s waist and held him back.
“Hey,” Bucky said, low in Clint’s ear. His metal arm was the one around Clint, and he slipped his metal fingers up under Clint’s shirt until he could ghost them along warm skin. “Nice job back there.”
“I don’t know what -”
Bucky pinched Clint, who yelped instead of finishing his sentence.
“No. I saw it.”
“Me making a fool of myself?” Clint snorted. “Do that all the time.”
Bucky licked his lips and hoped his words were the right ones.
“You did it to keep the idea of Tony sellin’ our stuff out of the headlines, not like that tiff with Steve was going to do. So I’m sayin’ good job.”
Bucky wondered whether he should cover Clint’s mouth, like Tony did, but then Clint did a full body shiver against Bucky.
“Fuck, it’s cold -”
Bucky grinned in success and ran his hand higher up Clint’s chest. “You want us to warm you up, baby doll?”
“Take it somewhere else, you two!” Steve called out from ahead, not far enough away from his enhanced senses.
“Uh, excuse you, it’s us three,” Tony said as he cut back through the team toward them. “I definitely want to be involved if Steve is blushing like that.”
“He’s gettin’ old. I didn’t even say anythin’ that bad.”
“Just needing you two to warm me up, is all,” Clint said as he tugged Tony in.
Tony raised his eyebrows, even as he plastered himself to Clint’s front. Clint fell back against Bucky with an ‘oof’ of surprise.
“Poor Clint has been shiverin’ up a storm,” Bucky said, voice low.
Tony grinned. “Ah, I see. Our poor penguin.”
Clint laughed. “That’s fucking terrible.”
“What? Cold bird, penguin, it totally works. Doesn’t it work, Bucky-bear?”
“Kiss him and shut him up,” Bucky said to Clint.
Tony squawked in protest, but that was covered up by Clint’s mouth. Bucky chuckled into the back of Clint’s shoulder at the terrible, messy kiss, and he hugged his boyfriends to him tightly.
Steve bellowed down the hallway. “I said get a room!”