your devils and your deeds
rating: PG-13
characters: Clint Barton/Natasha Romanoff
summary: No one, no thing, will take him from her a second time.
author's note: Title and bracketing text from A Case of You by Tori Amos. Written for the impromptu kissing fest at be_compromised, the LJ Clint/Natasha community.
I met a woman, she had a mouth like yours / She knew your devils and your deeds
"Goddamn it Barton," she snaps, and cracks her forehead into his. The next thing he knows his legs are buckling, hers slipping from around his waist to straddle him when he sags to the floor. Her eyes are inches from his as he tries to focus, to hold onto the fleeting consciousness of Clint Barton while blue edges his vision. There's an anger in her eyes he recognizes, that he knows would part the seas and shake the earth, and that's important, that means something, that's -
The truth? A cool voice whispers. It doesn't matter.
She sees the change in his face, his gaze, the realization registering through a haze of color and distant command.
"You're mine," she tells him, "mine," and kisses the corner of his eye, the edge of his lips, more bite than not, brutal and unforgiving - and then her mouth slides against his, furious and possessive and so very Natasha that Clint sinks into the feeling like it can hold him to reality. A siren song still winds through his thoughts, alien and awesome and tempting, but all the powers she possesses are nothing against the touch and the taste and the heart of the woman he loves.
"Tasha," he whispers into her mouth, and she makes a sound that could be heartache as the fingers gripping his hair tighten. When she pulls away, releasing her hold on him, he misses her before she's gone.
"I thought I had lost you again," she says as she runs her thumb tentatively, almost apologetically, along his bleeding lower lip. His breath hitches, as much a reaction to her touch as to the Tesseract's, and he finds himself seeking her eye contact, her gaze, driven to let her see the truth.
"I couldn't leave you if I wanted to."
It's barely enough of a joke to make her laugh, sadness where that terrible rage had been, and Clint remembers what had been so important.
He leans into her to brush a kiss against the twist of her mouth. She exhales, breath warm against his skin, as he holds onto her and the knowledge that the Tesseract had tried to steal away.
For him. Against monsters and magic and maybe the most powerful artifact in creation, she would tear the world apart for him.
She would tear him apart, for him.
"Thank you," he murmurs, and the taste of blood and Natasha lingers in his mouth.
And she said, "Go to him, stay with him / But be prepared to bleed."