“I’m here,” Natasha tells him softly, stroking her fingers over his forearm. This is weakness, right here in this moment, and yet she can’t break away. She made the decision to come back to him (always to him, not to SHIELD, who would sell her out without a second thought) and she’d known then just what it meant. That she wasn’t coming back to the agent, but to the man.
She welcomes the tightness of his grip, her hands slipping finally down to cover his around her. She can’t turn around, not quite yet. She can hear the emotion in his voice, and it’s too private. She’ll allow him this moment while she adjusts to the leaden weight of the guilt in her stomach. How could she ever have left him?
“Clint, I’m…” Sorry? Back for good? Never leaving you again? “Here. Right here.”
Clint’s grip didn’t tighten any more as he held onto the woman, biting his lower lip to hold his emotions back, this weakness coming from him that he wasn’t used to. He sighed quietly, opening his eyes, looking into the darkness, but she was still here. It wasn’t just another dream.
Natasha was here and she was talking to him, she was saying his name and it had never sounded so good in his ears. The archer buried his face on her shoulder, in her hair, holding her close, feeling the warm hands on his arm.
“Don’t go away..”, he whispered quietly against her warmth, his eyes closed again, the scent in his nose bringing him back down again, calming down now.
“Natasha…”
Natasha turns at the whisper, her hands resting on his chest as she examines him once more. “I won’t,” she promises - because, for now, she’s staying until the dark crescents around his eyes have receded at least a little.
She’s never had this before, someone needing her as he does right now, and she’s more content than she possibly should be to be back in his arms again. Burying her face in his shoulder, her fingers curl slightly in the front of his shirt. “Clint, they'lll… they’ll come for me.” The words are soft, almost inaudible, but she can’t keep them in.
No matter how much she wants to simply stay here with him, unbothered by the passing of time.
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...