“Natasha…”
It came quiet from Clint’s lips as he was turning in his bed - well, more the couch in his office in which he’d fallen asleep. He hadn’t seen her in way too long, hadn’t hugged her.
He hadn’t felt the warmth of her skin or the softness of her locks in a long time and it made him dream of her. Just her, nothing bad, nothing good, nothing sexual. Just her and him, talking, fighting, spending time.Which was all he’d ever gotten from her. He just wanted to be with her. Forever, if she’d let him. His thoughts were so occupied that he was even mumbling her name in his sleep, the want, the need to have her close almost unbearable.
He needed her like the air he was breathing and knowing that she was out there, somewhere not even SHIELD knew, made him hurt so much that his dreams were the only place he could run to.
Because he was with her.
Natasha’s awoken by the news Clint’s asking for her. She’s never turned that function on Jarvis off, despite her escape. Being in the city, she finds herself making her way half asleep to his office. She worries for him, as she refuses to do for everyone else, and she has to know that he’s okay.
When she awakens in the dead of night, it’s Clint she sees. Cold, remote, entangled in the web of Loki’s making and so far from her reach. Not the man who’d held out his hand to her, pulled her from the wreckage that would have compiled her life’s work.
The office is cool, quiet, and it makes her chest clench to see Clint this way. He’s never asleep and vulnerable when she sees him outside of their missions - on mission, it’s a different story, where he’s the only person she’ll fall asleep next to.
It’s been too long since she was back here - and she knows that they’ll believe her to be a traitor now, but she could never refuse Clint what he asked for - and she finds herself unable to walk away as she’d intended. Instead, she walks over to the sofa, stroking her finger along his cheek before taking a deep breath. In doing this, she’s choosing to stop running once more.
Yet, as she moulds her back to his familiar shape, guiding his arm over her waist, she feels secure for the first time in far too long.
bannerandbarton reblogged this from inheritorofmemories and added:
Clint looks at her, he’s not that big of a mind, really, but he understands a lot. And so he understands what she’s...
inheritorofmemories reblogged this from bannerandbarton and added:
Natasha rests her hands on his chest, fingers twitching slightly with the need to make him understand - well, that and...