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“Guys,” Steve called from the other side of the abandoned space colony. “I think I’m high.” He stared at his hand, flipping it from one side to the other and Tony had never seen his eyes so wide. “Am I floating? Because I think I’m floating.”
In two quick strides, Clint breached the doorway to the Laboratory and Tony watched as he stopped short. His body jolted, as if struck with an electric shot. His bow fell from his hand as his whole body collapsed. Steve, despite his higher than average state, still managed to reach out and catch him before he fell.
“Whoa,” Clint said, curling his head into Steve. “This...this is something else.”
“Agent,” Coulson’s voice broke through the comm unit. “Report.”
“Phiiiil." Clint smiled and pushed away from Steve. Finding his balance as he wandered around the alien space colony’s Laboratory.
He had left his bow and arrow behind.
Tony looked towards Natasha, able to have a nonverbal conversation with her despite the Iron Man suit. And it was settled, no one else would enter the Lab.
“I feel so great right now. The lab’s full of all these vials of colors and bubbles, and out the window you can see a freaking waterfall, Phil. A waterfall. Well, not water. A somethingfall. Stark could tell me the exact chemical breakdown, I’m sure. But I don’t care because it’s purple Phil, purple.”
“Clint,” Phil tried to interrupt, but Steve had begun nodding next to Clint, a grin wide across his face as he pointed out more beautiful things around them because apparently when Captain America and Hawkeye got high in outer space, it was with the kind of drug that unleashed unabashed joy. Like herding kittens.
Phil sounded exasperated over the comm unit and now Bucky had tried to join in, mostly to tell Steve to stop winking at him like a loon.
This was a mess. They had to evacuate two overjoyed superheroes out of their happy box, all without entering themselves.
“Sir,” Clint continued. “You know at the center of this planet there’s a giant tree right?”
“Yes, Agent, now if-”
“These lights, they circle around the tree like little stars and it was like walking through the universe.”
“I’m sure it was, Agent.” Coulson was on the other side of the atmosphere, floating in orbit around their current expedition and still, he was the best one of them to direct Clint out of this situation.
“Buck, come ‘ere.” Steve reached out his arm, it drooped under the weight of his intoxicated state. But his wide, wet eyes were effective. The gaze wasn’t even directed at Tony, and still he felt compelled to stagger towards it.
“Not a good idea, Stevie.” Bucky voice was gruff in reply, but calm and certain. “Why don’t you come over here to me?”
“Okay,” he agreed easily, wobbling over the threshold of the Laboratory. As soon as he passed through it, he stumbled. It was just a short double step but Bucky was by his side, centering Steve who was shaking his head. The smile fell from his face first, his expression sobering.
“You okay?,” Bucky asked the question they all wondered.
“Yea.” He nodded. “It just sorta…went away.”
“Agent, leave the room.” Outside a Laboratory window, something that Tony couldn’t see exploded into light. Clint turned to it, eyes wide with awe.
“It’s so beau--”
“Clint,” Phil insisted.
“Hawkeye,” Steve ordered.
The light spilled over Clint’s features and he started to spin in it, a twirl reminiscent of a child in a field. “It’s,” he spun, “so,” and spun again, “beautiful.” And then it went black and Clint stood in the darkness. “Whoa guys,” his whispered, voice almost sober. “I’m pretty sure that meteor just spoke to me, as it landed next to the big tree thing.”
“Yea,” Tony asked. “And what did it say?”
“Hi.”
“High? Like, you were higher than a kite?”
“Hi. Like hello.” Clint tilted his head, eyes still focused on the window. “Guys, this planet is weird.”
.