Two chapters within such a short time? I must love you guys a lot! Read. Enjoy. Review.

I don't own Avengers. Weirdly, I didn't acquire the rights in the last six hours... :P

Chapter 14-Shots in the Dark

"I'm sorry, Clint. This isn't how it's supposed to be."

I don't know what made me stop. I don't know why I froze, lifted my hands in surrender, and closed my eyes in defeat. I had every chance in the world to fight back and at least try to save my own skin. But for what? I'd be dead sooner or later.

So here I stand, before the one person that I ever really trusted, with a gun trained on my forehead. Her face is calm, professional, emotionless, but her eyes are a raging storm. Natasha doesn't want to shoot me, but she has to. She's done it countless times, what is one more kill for her? And I see it in her eyes, that it's time. Time for me to die, time for her to break her own heart.

But it never comes.

There is only a gentle hiss in the air, no crack of a gunshot, no instant peace on impact, only a soft gasp and a thud. And then the crack and the pain, but not life-ending, not even life-threatening. Just a little blood, a bullet buried in my arm instead of my skull.

I open my eyes and see Natasha on her knees in the road, an arrow buried in the skin above her knee. She is looking at me in hurt shock, like she wasn't the one that shot me a minute ago, like I betrayed her. I turn around to see where the arrow came from and see Loki standing beside the car, holding my bow.

Did you really think that I would let her kill you, Clint?

I just look at him for a moment before saying, "I trust you less than I trust the woman with the gun."

Natasha looks between us. "So Fury was right. You are still being possessed by Loki." But then her eyes become glazed and frozen, and Loki is staring intently at her. I wait in silence for several minutes. When she shakes free, she gasps and looks up at me through watery eyes. At first, I think the tears are from the pain, but when she speaks, I'm not so sure. "Clint... I'm so sorry. You've been suffering so much and... And I'm sorry." She drops her gun and looks at me pleadingly. "Clint. Come home. Please, I can help you."

I don't look back at her. I leave her there, to spite her, to punish her, because I am sure that she will survive, I don't know which. But I get back in the car and drive away, leaving her silhouetted against the blinding headlights of her SHIELD car.

You're injured, Clint.

"Shut up. I know. We can stop and fix it later."

I drive for another hour, until the pain is too much. I pull into a parking lot and turn off the engine. Loki wrinkles his nose at the building that we're parked in front of, but he knows better than to say anything.

Let me see your arm, Loki orders, reaching his hands out to grab my elbow and pull it towards the light coming from the flickering light of the hotel sign. He pulls the bullet out as I clench my teeth. I should have done this an hour ago.

"But it'll be fine, right?" I panic.

Yes. He does something to it, something magic, before releasing my arm. Now if only I could do that for myself. He has gone once again from murderous monster to heartbroken, lonely, pained child, looking at me helplessly through his vicious, permanent gag.

I don't even shake my head at him anymore. I can't muster enough disgust to justify the action after a night like this. For the time being, we're on the same side. It's temporary, and we both know it, but the alliance is there, and it's genuine this time.

When we're sitting-well, he's sitting, I've collapsed on to an already collapsing bed- in our run down hotel room, I ask him how much it hurts.

It's torture, Clint. Every second of every minute in agonizing, miserable pain. Pain that I can't even express without causing myself more pain. I cannot even breathe without my wounds reopening and bleeding. There is one thing that I know, one thing that I absolutely trust myself with, and I can't ever do it again. Do you know how hard that is? To know that you can never do what you know best again? To know that you will never eat or drink again? To know that you will slowly, much slower than it would be for a human, but inevitably waste away? My own family, the only people that might ever love me, did this with the knowledge that I could never even take away my punishment.

I sit up slowly. "You can't touch the stitches, can you?" Loki shakes his head. I stand up and stand in front of him. "Can I?" I don't wait for his permission, I reach out and touch the rough black thread with one finger. He winces, but that's it. There's no shock, nothing stopping me. I pull a knife from my pocket, but before I can snap it open, I freeze.

You don't trust me.

"You know I don't. I don't even know what I'm thinking." I put the knife back and step away from his still frame. He nods slowly before looking away.

Go to sleep, Clint. I won't do anything destructive tonight.

And for some reason, I completely trust him.