A Matter of Importance

Author: BlackFox12

Rating: R

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the movie The Avengers and I'm not making any money from this fic

Warning(s): Spoilers; slight AU

Verse/Setting: Before the battle with Loki, after he escapes

Hawkeye lay back, staring up at the ceiling with his hands behind his head. He'd been thinking quite deeply about everything that had happened, but it wasn't only that bothering him. He knew he was a skilled fighter, but when he thought about the rest of the group that made up the Avengers – all of the individual skills they each brought into it – he couldn't see a place where he fit in. He wasn't needed and therefore, there seemed to be no point in him staying here.

It wasn't that Hawkeye felt sorry for himself or anything like that. He was looking at it from the most logical point of view. Natasha had a similar skill set to him and some people might even have said she was better than him. Hawkeye felt they were evenly matched, which meant that only one of them was needed on the team. And he felt Natasha was not only needed more than him, she probably needed it more too. She hadn't been the one brainwashed by a war criminal, after all. Hawkeye could still remember how it had felt... how cold he'd been inside.

The coldness was gone now, but the effects of it were still there.

There wasn't much point in postponing it any longer. Hawkeye had been feeling like he was hovering on the edge for a while now, knowing that he could either step forward and become fully a part of the team... or step back and leave.

But Hawkeye felt like he'd already made his decision. He could leave the ship without trouble, since it was currently docked for repairs. He got up off the mattress and retrieved his bow and arrows, putting them away safely before he slipped out of the room.

Hawkeye often counted in his head rather than allow himself to feel anything that might distract him from his purpose and now was no exception. He reached twenty-nine in his head before realising there was someone behind him. He might be on the ship, but he'd seen first-hand how easy it was to break into a place when someone was determined enough. He turned sharply on his heel, notching an arrow to his bow and aiming it.

"Where are you going?" Thor asked.

"Does it matter?" Hawkeye asked, lowering his bow but not putting it back yet. He could understand everyone else, even Steve. But Thor was from a different world altogether and though Hawkeye knew they could count him among their allies, he still wasn't sure what to make of this man whose brother had abused his power and desired to rule as little more than a tyrant.

"It matters if you're choosing to leave permanently."

Hawkeye shrugged. "You are a well-rounded team. You don't need two people with similar skill sets."

Thor shook his head. "There is no limit to how many can be in this group. We have sore need of everyone. By leaving, you risk doing more harm than good."

"I was weak enough to be brainwashed into becoming a slave," Hawkeye said shortly. "I am not needed – and I will not allow myself to become a danger again." He turned back, unwilling to admit out loud just how unsettled he was by how easily he'd been enslaved.

"You remind me of him... my brother."

Hawkeye turned back and when he spoke, he struggled to keep a level tone. "Someone who would willingly force others to do my dirty work?"

"My brother was not always like this," Thor said quietly. "He has done a great many bad things, but I cannot believe that he is truly evil. And I cannot believe there is no hope for him. But it wasn't that I was referring to – more your stubborn insistence on doing what you think is the right thing, even if no one else believes it is so."

"Stubborn is often a word used to describe me," Hawkeye agreed. "But you're wrong about this not being the right choice. I'm not needed here, so I will go where I am needed." He started to turn away, but paused when he felt his wrist taken in an iron grip. He looked down at Thor's hand around his wrist and then up at him. "Let go of me." He tested the grip, but found unbreakable.

"I think not." Thor had a determined look on his face. "If I cannot get through to you with words, then perhaps there is another way I can get through."

"What do you mean?" Hawkeye didn't like the note of uncertainty in his own voice.

Instead of answering with words, Thor used his grip on Hawkeye to begin pulling him along behind him. Hawkeye struggled again to pull his hand free, but it worked about as well as it had the first time and eventually, he just sighed and gave up, feeling a pit of dread beginning to form in his stomach as he realised they were headed to Thor's room. He wasn't even sure why. What could Thor possibly do to him? Even if he punched him, Hawkeye had been in plenty of fights before – and he'd lost more than once. He was used to that sort of pain.

And it didn't matter what happened. Hawkeye couldn't conceive of something being enough to convince him that he was needed... and after Thor got whatever this was out of his system, Hawkeye had every intention of following through with his departure.

Reaching his room, Thor reached out with his free hand and opened the door, stepping inside and pulling Hawkeye gently behind him before closing the door. Trying to hide just how nervous he was, he looked around the room, noticing that it was coloured indigo. Apart from the colour, though, the room didn't look much different to his own.

It took Hawkeye only a second to realise that Thor was tugging him over to the bed and, alarmed, he began trying to pull back, feeling panic rise inside as he realised he couldn't halt Thor's movement even a little. He'd not been punished in this way since he was a child, but he knew full well what it meant when someone was heading over to sit down somewhere private and dragging another person along behind them. "Stop it!"

"As I said... if I cannot talk you into staying, I will simply have to employ other methods of persuasion." Thor reached the bed and sat down, pulling Hawkeye over to stand in front of him. He pulled the bow free of Hawkeye's unresisting grip and placed it on the bed next to him, then removed the quiver and put that next to the bow.

Hawkeye had no idea why he wasn't trying to resist harder as he was pulled round to Thor's side and then forward across the demigod's lap. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, wondering if he wasn't resisting because a part of him really didn't want to leave... and needed an excuse to stay; a reason for him to be needed.

Thor settled Hawkeye and he felt his stomach drop as the demigod patted his back a few times before his hand moved slightly lower and fell in a hard, heavy swat against Hawkeye's backside.

Unable to help himself, Hawkeye gasped at the strength of the swat as pain blossomed in his bottom. He then gritted his teeth, determined not to make any more sounds. It didn't work too well, though, as the smacks fell hard and heavy, heating up his bottom and the tops of his thighs within moments.

Hawkeye groaned and clenched his fists in the blankets on the bed to stop himself from reaching back. Thor didn't speak as he continued swatting hard, the smacks echoing all around the room and making Hawkeye's face burn as he wondered how the sound was going to carry outside the room. He imagined everyone would be able to hear the spanking and his own quiet gasps of pain as they passed.

Within a few moments, though, Hawkeye wasn't worried about the sounds. Thor shifted him forward slightly and Hawkeye jerked a little as the hard hand began swatting unerringly on the creases between his bottom and thighs. They were the most sensitive areas and it didn't take long for Hawkeye to feel the tears blurring his eyes. "I get it!" he said, voice rising slightly in pitch.

"Do you? You are both needed and wanted here – and it's time you stopped blaming yourself for what you did under the control of my brother. Would you blame Lady Natasha if she was taken and forced to do things she didn't want to by Loki?" Thor continued to spank hard as he spoke.

Hawkeye winced. "Of course not!" he replied, horrified to realise he was crying full force now, choking over his own words.

"Then you will give up on this foolishness. And if you try to leave again, I will simply do a repeat of this lesson." Thor landed one final swat and then stopped, relaxing his grip on Hawkeye.

Carefully, Hawkeye pushed himself up, wincing at the ache in his backside and resisting the urge to reach back and rub, instead retrieving his weapons, feeling much better to have them back in his hands. "Are you going to do that to your brother?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Because I can't imagine even he will be able to carry on misbehaving after a trip over your knee."

The End

Prompt: Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Elements: 29, indigo, edge