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“Thanks, Hawkeye,” Peg says, wrapping an arm around Hawk’s waist. “You’re a treasure, you know that?”
He grins to himself, before looking down at her. “Are you kidding? I’ll take an evening with you over studying any day. And besides, it’s not your fault BJ was busy.”
“He’s much too protective, sending you along to look after me,” Peggy says, rolling her eyes in exasperated fondness and it makes Hawk’s heart skip a beat (and he hates himself for it). Looking down at Peggy in her blue and gold striped scarf, snowflakes melting in her hair, talking away excitedly, she’s never looked more beautiful in the year he’s known her. God, he really shouldn’t feel this way about his best friend. Especially not when she’s dating his other best friend.
Who he’s also in love with.
It’s... a bit complicated (Hawkeye’s life thrives on complication).
She finally notices that he’s not listening. “You’re being uncharacteristically silent there, Ben Franklin. Was it really so terrible, spending an evening with me?”
“It was the opposite of terrible,” he tells her honestly, the two of them coming to a stop in front of BJ’s dorm room. “I’d do it again and again, and you know it. Call me a sucker for a pretty face.”
She stands up on her tiptoes to press a kiss to her cheek. “You’re sweet,” she tells him. When she pulls away, she looks up at him. “What’s wrong, Hawkeye?”
“Look, Peggy... I know how things are with you and BJ and I would never want to get in the way of that, but tonight... I want to give you something.”
Something stupid and sentimental that you may hate me for.
“Okay,” she says. “But only if it’s in the form of a goat sacrifice. You and BJ aren’t the only ones with finals coming up you know.”
He bursts out laughing, the noise loud in the quiet hallway. “You’re a rare bird, Peggy Jane,” he tells her, and revels in the grin she gives him (in case it’s the last one). Before he can talk himself out of it, he cups her face in his hands, leaning in and kissing her, soft and tender and bittersweet. It’s a one-off, he knows that, he loves his best friends more than anything and never wants to hurt them, but God, this is worth it, especially when she kisses him back, melting into him with a sigh and a smile against his lips, and he’s kissing Peggy fucking Hayden.
“I thought I heard Hawk laugh-,” Peggy stumbles as the door swings open, and Hawkeye pulls away.
The world seems to stop in its tracks, as BJ takes in the incriminating scene.
Peggy stares up at Hawk, wide-eyed and breathless, and steps out of the line of fire, her face oddly blank but her cheeks still pink, as BJ walks into the hallway.
Hawkeye swallows hard as he turns to BJ, his internal organs tying themselves into knots that would impress a sailor. Hawk can’t read the expression on BJ’s face, and that scares him more than anything. The idea of losing both of his friends in one night is almost enough to bring him to his knees.
“Beej,” he says, and his voice shakes. “Beej, I’m- I’m so sorry, I- it was all me, I kissed her, so go ahead-”
But instead of what Hawk expects to happen, instead of BJ shouting or hitting him, BJ steps forward and pulls Hawkeye into a furious, marvelous, wonderfully confusing kiss. He’s all brute strength and fire, tangling his hands in Hawk’s hair, and shoving his thigh between Hawk’s legs in a way that makes him go weak at the knees. Hawk is confused beyond belief, but so dizzy with want and need and oh god this is really happening that he can’t really bring himself to mind. The feeling of BJ’s body against his, warm and solid and strong, BJ nipping at Hawk’s lip as they kiss, BJ tugging at strands of Hawk’s hair, it’s all too good and too much. And yet there’s a tenderness to the way they kiss, a gentleness that Hawk doesn’t understand.
When BJ finally pulls away, there’s a look of triumph on his face, like he’s wanted to do that forever, and all Hawk can do is look breathlessly between him and Peggy, confused and aroused and completely speechless, wondering if it’s somehow possible to keep both of them. After a few beats of absolute silence, Peggy smirks at him.
“You broke him, BJ,” Peggy murmurs, nudging her boyfriend, and BJ grins.
“I’ve wanted to do that since the first day we met,” he says softly, brushing a thumb along Hawk’s jawline. Hawk whimpers, and BJ’s smile grows wider. “Since before I even knew your name.”
“And I’ve been waiting for you to kiss me since Thanksgiving,” Peggy chimes in. “Took you long enough, darling.”
“You- you-,” Hawk stutters, at last finding his voice.
“Who are you calling a you-you?” Peggy asks, giggling, and Hawk stares between her and BJ again, overwhelmed, his mind racing with questions and reeling from revelations, and he’s certain his head is about to start spinning.
“How did you know?” he asks finally.
“You’re not subtle, Hawkeye darling,” Peggy tells him, straightening out his scarf, her voice light and teasing
“But I can’t- we can’t,” he tries. “The two of you-,”
“Have been waiting for you to figure it out,” BJ finishes patiently, before shaking his head fondly. “Idiot.”
“You mean I get to... to keep both of you?” He’s thrown, completely lost, because when he’d fallen in love with both of his best friends, he had never expected this outcome, never in his wildest dreams imagined this. “You never said anything.”
“We didn’t know if it was what you wanted,” BJ says. “We wanted to let you make the first move.”
“We love you, Hawkeye,” Peggy says. “Is it so hard to believe?”
“Yes,” is the immediate answer. “It’s me.”
“It’s you. It’s us,” BJ says, leaning and kissing him again, soft and slow. “All of us.”
And Hawkeye grins at last, staring between his two best friends, and then Peggy sighs. “Well don’t just stand there grinning like an idiot, say something!”
“I love you,” he says, and it slips out easily (and it should, he’s been rehearsing in the mirror for months). “This is absolutely fucking crazy, and I don't care, because I love you.”
Peggy laughs and wraps her arms around Hawk, and then BJ is hugging him too, the three of them sinking to the floor of the hallway, a tangle of laughter and kisses and gangly limbs and scarves, and Hawkeye isn’t sure of anything except this: he’s the luckiest kid on the planet.