Post-Canon: New Zealand, with Clint - Vacation

[redintheledger]

Natasha has a beach cottage, a damn comfortable couch, and a book (Japanese, all magical realism and folklore). There is also a glass of wine on the coffee table, a cushion underneath her head, and a Russian metal a cappella band on the stereo.

She is feeling decadent.

Moderately decadent, anyway; it's not as if she and Clint have pulled one of their 'let's book out the honeymoon suite' stunts. This is a perfectly nice, perfectly modest little cottage they've rented, and she's feeling relaxed enough that she only has a knife strapped to her shin underneath her jeans.

All she is really missing is a Clint, but she's not going to actively worry about him unless he doesn't turn up in the next hour.

Comments

[hasthehighground]

Clint lets out a shaky breath, and closes his eyes.



"He thought it was funny, I think."

What he doesn't say: I thought it was funny.

His jaw is tight.

"I'm sorry."

[redintheledger]

She relaxes back into the couch, leans against it to look at him. It's a less distancing stance that the pause she'd had before, and she's well aware of it.

The solidity of the couch also feels safe.

"I...was surprised at the amount of information given," she says, slowly, "not that...he compelled you to do it. You were giving intel on the enemy.





I was using my own history anyway. And...us. When he told me."

[hasthehighground]

She's right, he was. It still sticks in his throat that SHIELD was the enemy. That when Coulson died, he and Clint weren't even fighting on the same side.

Still, her admission makes him smile very slightly. "Confused the bastard, did you?"

[redintheledger]

Her smile is cold, vicious. "Oh, yes. He thought he had me in pieces, and he told me exactly what I needed."

It hadn't, in the end, done much good, but the sudden confusion on Loki's face is a memory to warm her.

The smile fades, though, and she glances down.

"He did. Have me in pieces. I...you can't lie to a trickster, so. I let him get to me.





You asked me what he did to me. Do you want to know?"

[hasthehighground]

He moves his leg, so it's pressing lightly against hers.

"If you tell," he says, "I'll listen."

[redintheledger]

She looks up at him, focuses on his face.

"He told me how he'd kill you.





That, he'd...make you kill me first. In ways only you'd know how to make it the worst.

Then...he'd release you, so you'd know what you did.

Then he, said, that's when he'd kill you.






So. I had to stop him."

[hasthehighground]

"Nat," he says, and his throat is dry.

Thank you isn't really something that happens, between them. It's too big and obvious and important to ever be spoken. So he doesn't say it.

He remembers wanting her dead, wanting her hurt, to please Loki.

He nods acknowledgement, dropping his eyes.

[redintheledger]

"And," she says, "we did. We stopped him.

We kicked his ass."

[hasthehighground]

"Banner," Clint clarifies, smirking suddenly, "kicked his ass. We just wiped out his army."

[redintheledger]

She holds up her finger. "Uh-uh, I tricked him, and I shut down his portal. That definitely counts as taking part in the ass-kicking.



But I'll be nice, and say that it was a group effort."

[hasthehighground]

Clint knows Natasha's try to make him laugh, but he laughs anyway. (She's good at it.)

"You're very generous."

[redintheledger]

"I am. I've even left you some of the crackers."

[hasthehighground]

"... My crackers," he reminds her, with a fake hurt look. He grins and snags one, dunking it.

[redintheledger]

"Then I will have to steal them, and....hold them hostage," she says, shifting her bent knee on the couch so it's leaning against his thigh.

[hasthehighground]

"Yeah?" he asks, "What're you bargaining for?"

[redintheledger]

"I have the remote control for a night."

[hasthehighground]

Clint's breath hisses out.

"We're defining night from 1800 to midnight, right?"

[redintheledger]

"Mmm, I'll be gracious and say 'yes'."

[hasthehighground]

"Deal.

"I'm going to regret this if we spend all night watching Iron Chef."

But he's already taken several more crackers, so.

[redintheledger]

"Clint. Would I do that to you?"

[hasthehighground]

Clint eyes her for a moment. "Are you going to tell me you're all caught up?"

[redintheledger]

"You know how when you haven't seen things for a long time you forget them, and it's like watching them brand new all over again," is what she says, eyes sliding away as she nibbles a cracker.

Innocently.

Waves of innocent rolling off her.

[hasthehighground]

"Suuure, Romanoff."

Yeah, Clint's not super amused or anything.

"What're you thinking, for dinner?"

[redintheledger]

She blinks at him.

"I hadn't thought that far ahead.



Take-out, though."

Just to optimize her remote time.

[hasthehighground]

Well, that option's down.

"'Kay," he says, grabbing the remote.