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]

"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.

[redintheledger]

"Oh, that's not fair."

[hasthehighground]

"I've got almost two hours!" Clint says, offended. "How is that not fair?"

The menu is showing basically nothing good so far.

[redintheledger]

"It just...is," she says, sinking further into the couch in an apparent sulk.

An apparent sulk that ends up wit her shifting everything so she can sulk while resting her head against his arm.




"Is anything on at four in New Zealand?"

[hasthehighground]

"Not sure," he says, thoughtful. "We did come here because it's boring."

Beautiful, has awesome places to hike/explore some caves, maybe sail. But boring, for their lives. (Boring is nice.)

"Oh, hey," he says, "Die Hard?"

[redintheledger]

She had been thinking about seducing, curling her hand over his inner thigh and whispering things they could do to pass the time until the remote comes into her control, but her hands pauses on his knee.

Explosions.

Violence.

No mind-control.

"Excellent suggestion."

[hasthehighground]

Well, it's Die Hard.

The movie itself is watched in fairly complete silence (except for some mocking of the terrorists and the guy who tries very poorly to negotiate with them) because, unlike G.I. Joe, it is in fact a fantastic movie.