Up Here - Blog Posts

@slashmultiverse Daily Pride Prompt Day 6: Voyage

@julybreakbingo Prompt: Pirate AU

Up Here

Clint was standing in the crow's nest, leaning into Bucky’s embrace and watching into the distance. He let his gaze wander over the open sea.

Up here, where he was alone and could see for miles and miles, surrounded only by water and wind, he felt truly free and truly like himself.

Under him, the crew was busy. People were cleaning the planks, working on the sails, or fixing the damage the last fight had caused. Men were running around, yelling, and working loudly.

But up here, everything was quiet.

Clint’s hearing had never been the best, but after years of cannon fire and taking a few too many hits, he was barely able to understand human speech anymore.

But that didn’t matter up here.

Up here, everything was quiet anyway.

Up here, everything that mattered was how far he could see and how early he could make out land or other ships.

There was a reason Clint was the one sitting in the crow’s nest. It was the same reason they called him Hawkeye.

Clint had always had phenomenal eyesight.

And that was everything that mattered up here.

Clint looked down for a moment. He saw the chaos and all the other sailors working.

Sometimes, he thought back to the days he spent running around, cleaning, or fixing stuff. It had been good days, full of excitement and other people.

Still, he preferred being up here.

Up here, he met few people.

Sometimes Bucky would join him when the chaos between the others got too much for him or when he felt lonely.

But most times, Clint was alone up here.

On long travels, Clint could spend days up here.

Only climbing down to fulfil basic human needs or when he saw a ship they wanted to fight.

Otherwise, he would stay up here, being visited by Bucky every once in a while but spending most of the time on his own.

Up here, everything he had was wind and weather, and the open sea.

That was everything he needed up here.

Up here, Clint felt safe.

And being up here meant to be free.

Being up here was what being a pirate meant to Clint.

Can also be found here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/47701165