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“Hawkeye, how are you?”
“Just Clint is fine, Cap. And I’m doing as well as can be expected. I was mind-controlled into fighting my friends and woke up to find that people had died because of me. That’s not something you just get over, but I’ve been seeing a therapist.”
“That’s good to hear. I might not quite understand the whole alien mind-control thing, but I’ve had to deal with guilt over my friend’s death before. So I know it’s not something you just get over. I still seeing Bucky falling over and over again in my dreams and wake up shouting his name. It may have been 70 years ago, but for me it only just happened.”
“That’s rough, bro. It might not be the same, but trauma is trauma, and we’ve both had plenty of it.” Clint paused for a secon then asked, “was there anything else you wanted?”
“Oh, yeah,” Steve replied, his face losing a little of the downcast look it had gotten. “I was just curious how you knew I was Muslim…”
“I’ve travelled a lot, especially since I started working fofr SHIELD, and I’ve known a lot of people. I recognized the pattern after a minute; I’ve seen enough people prepare for prayer to be familiar with it. I’ve even done it myself a few times.”
“Really?”
“SHIELD mission somewhere in Africa, I think. We joined in prayers with our informant while we were there. I’m not particularly religious, but it was kind of nice. There was something calming about it. And I got to work on my Arabic.”
“You speak Arabic?”
“I can get by, but I’m nowhere near fluent.”
“Well, would you mind helping me practice? Maybe we can both get better.”
“Yeah. I can help you out.” Clint started laughing and continued, “I can’t believe this is my life. I’m gonna be teaching Captain America Arabic.”
“You’re not teaching me. I already know Arabic. I’m just a little rusty.”
“Yeah, yeah. But that doesn’t change the fact that Captain America asked for my help.”
Steve groaned and wondered if he might regret that decision before too long. But he still smiled at Clint’s antics because it meant that Clint really was doing better and that Steve maybe actually had a friend in this century.