A/N: Response to an LJ prompt: "Loki has a whip." This is a minifill, but I like Loki having a whip, so I might write a full version someday.
Clint was on guard. Loki was plotting, something with maps and diagrams, something complicated. He'd been at it all day.
Around midnight he said: "Barton." Didn't raise his voice, didn't need to.
Clint stepped up to the desk. "Yes sir?"
"Need to borrow you for a minute, sorry. I'm feeling a little stressed."
"No problem." And it really was no problem. He felt completely peaceful. "What do you need?"
"See over there – on that hook by the door? Go get it."
Clint went to the hook and it was a whip. Loki's magic is pretty fantastic, he realized, because he felt completely peaceful about this too.
Months later, Clint was in therapy. Ordered by Fury, nudged by the team, whatever. They made him talk about things. He cooperated, mostly to reassure himself that he really wasn't all that traumatized, but there were one or two things he just never happened to mention.
The whip was number one. He had never gotten hard during a whipping, which he supposed was something to be thankful for – at least Loki hadn't managed to turn him into a kinky freak. He had enjoyed it, though. Right from the start, from the first light snap of leather on skin, right up to the end, when he was hitting hard enough to make Loki cry.
Do you want a few more, sir? I think you're good for at least another dozen. Loki would cling to the doorway and gasp No I can't, and Clint would talk him through it, steady and pitiless. He had a good eye, a deft touch. He gave such a stellar beating he could earn a god's gratitude.
He was proud of that, he was, but still those were nights he would never ever talk about. The trust. The surrender. The dark lines on pale skin.
When they finally caught Loki, after he'd simmered down and had his drink and been fitted with bizarro magic handcuffs, there was one moment where their eyes locked and Loki's mocking half-smile disappeared.
"Barton: thank you for your service," Loki said. Everyone else thought it was meant to be a dig.
The End.