So, one of my readers, Rossi's Lil Devil, asked me ages ago to write more scenes with Femme Loki and Clint interacting. This might not be what you're looking for, but you know the old saying… be careful what you wish for!
This chapter's theme song is "Change" by Churchill, because I'm obsessed with it at the moment, and it's funny here. XD
Chapter 39: The Storm
Natasha raised her hand to knock on Loki's door, when it opened. She frowned, confused.
"I was watching for you," she said by way of explanation, but Natasha didn't know what that meant. The windows all looked out on the courtyard.
"You wanted to talk?" she said instead.
Loki rolled her eyes and turned, leaving Natasha to close the door and follow her. "A couple weeks ago I found a box of things in with His clothes," she explained in a sarcastically chipper voice. "Mementos, I guess. I thought it would be a nice gesture to preserve one of the flowers He gave me and put it in there."
By this time they had reached Loki's bedroom. Natasha noticed that a few changes had been made. A poster of a movie villain with the word "kneel" hung on one wall, and for unknown reasons there was a curly-cue mustache drawn on the ceiling above the bed.
"Well guess what I found?" Loki asked, shoving a small wooden box into her hand.
Natasha opened it cautiously, not sure what she would find. Inside was a collection of odd items, a spent shell, a zip tie that had been cut, a movie ticket stub. But on top of these, carefully folded, was a green thong. She instantly recognized it as the one she had worn the night before.
"What makes you think this is mine?" she asked casually.
Loki scoffed. "Oh, come on. It's not mine, I can't stand them. Who else would it belong to?"
Natasha tried to think of a plausible answer, and came up blank. She sighed and sat on the bed.
Loki threw her hands up in the air. "What the hell were you thinking?!"
She gave her a sarcastic look. "Loki, this is what I do-" she started.
"Oh, no, don't try that either. If this was business you'd never tell me," she argued.
Natasha ran a hand through her hair, stalling to come up with an explanation when she wasn't entirely sure why she had done it herself.
Suddenly, Loki stilled, frowning at her. "It's a little early in the year for turtlenecks, don't you think?" she murmured, suspicious. She pulled down the edge of Natasha's collar tentatively, revealing the rest of what she had glimpsed.
Natasha watched Loki's expression carefully, seeing the same mix of horror and fascination she had the night before. "It's okay," she began.
"No it's not," she took one of Natasha's wrists and pushed back the cuff to find more bruises.
"Well it's good to see you two agree on something," she joked.
Loki looked back up, confused.
"He doesn't know his own strength," she explained.
Loki swallowed, and sat on the bed next to Natasha slowly. She bit her lip.
"What?"
"I'm jealous," she admitted.
"Of which one of us?" Natasha frowned.
Loki shook her head. "I'm not sure."
Natasha looked down at the box of stolen mementos still in her lap. She picked up the zip tie, studying it. Suddenly she frowned. "Loki, this is from Poland."
"So?" she frowned.
Natasha looked at the other objects. "And this is from London," she pointed to the shell. "These are all things that you took, except for the last one,"
"No I didn't," Loki's frown deepened. "I didn't put anything in that box," she argued.
She shook her head. "But Loki, you vanished them."
Loki looked very confused.
Suddenly, Natasha's cell phone beeped. She pulled it out of her pocket, in case it was something from SHIELD. It was a text from Clint, and it was short.
We need to talk. Now.
"Oh shit," Natasha breathed. "Clint knows."
"What? How?!"
"I don't know," Natasha tried to think.
"Wait..." Loki's eyes widened. "I think Tony knows. He was grinning like an idiot at me when I showed up. Maybe He tried to lie to him..."
"And he told Clint?"
"He wouldn't! ...would he?" Loki asked. "I thought he was my friend..." she grumbled.
"Well, whatever the case, I have to go handle this before Clint goes ballistic," Natasha sighed and stood.
"Wait," Loki caught her arm, and pulled back her sleeve again. "I can't heal them, I never had any talent at healing magic. But I can hide them for you."
Natasha nodded, and watched as Loki passed her hand over the marks, leaving her skin clear and unblemished. She repeated the motion over her other wrist and neck. "Thanks," Natasha muttered, suddenly feeling awkward. Had she ruined her friendship with this Loki by letting the other one in?
"No problem," Loki sighed. "And we don't have to talk about it. I guess it's none of my business," she stared down at her feet.
"No, it is. I just don't know if I can explain it to you," she put a hand on her shoulder.
Loki laughed. "Well then good luck explaining it to Clint."
Her cell phone beeped again; another text from Clint.
On my way.
Natasha sighed, squeezed Loki's shoulder, and left.
She had just barely enough time to change into a less suspicious outfit when Clint banged on her door. She took her time answering it, reassuring herself that she wouldn't let him get her worked up. When she opened the door he said nothing, just standing there out of breath. She stared at him a moment and then sighed, moving out of his way and effectively letting him in.
She sat on the couch, and he walked in slowly, shutting the door behind him. "Why?" he asked in a hoarse voice.
"Is it so hard to believe that I'm attracted to him?" she asked.
"Yes, Natasha. I find it very difficult to understand how you could let a monster like that touch you..." he began.
"Really?" she interrupted. "Because I don't know if you looked lately, but that's kind of my job description."
Clint sighed and collapsed on the couch next to her. "And if this were a mission, I would understand. I mean, I've seen the video of you and him chatting on the helicarrier. You had him wrapped around your finger."
"Well maybe I like that feeling," she said defensively.
He felt his temper rising to the surface again. "Look, I know I have no say in who you choose to see, but did it have to be him? After all he did to us? To me? To Phil?"
"So he's done bad things," she agreed. "Some of them pretty horrible. That doesn't mean he's always going to be a bad person. You're the one who taught me that."
Clint frowned. "Is that what this is about? You're trying to pay it forward, do the same for him as I did for you?"
She folded her arms. "Wasn't my intention, but you bring up a valid point."
"This is different, Tasha. Phil was our friend," he argued.
"Did I ever tell you about my first crush?" she asked suddenly.
He thought a moment. "That doesn't count, they made you-"
Natasha shook her head, silencing him. "I told you they put us in a room, gave us knives, and said only one of us could come out. Obviously, it was me. What I didn't tell you is what Karl did. He laid his knife on the floor, saying that he wouldn't do it. He launched into this speech about how love could conquer everything, and that they couldn't make us do it."
"What happened?" he asked softly. He hated learning about the awful things the Red Room had done to Natasha, but knew that every one she told him was a step in the right direction for her.
"While he was talking, I looked at my knife, then back to him. I wondered how I ever could have been such an idiot to like him. The look of surprise on his face when I stuck it in his throat..." she trailed off. "It was so funny, I laughed."
Clint swallowed. "It's still not the same, Natasha. They raised you to be a killer, brainwashed you and molded you in their own image. He was born to a life of privilege."
She shook her head. "That doesn't always mean better, Clint. He's got a lot of history behind him, even more than I do. We can't know-" she started to stand up from the couch.
"I don't want to know!" he argued, grabbing her wrist and stopping her.
She winced.
Clint saw it, and frowned, looking down at her wrist in his hands. She looked so delicate and fine-boned, but he knew she was tougher than most. There were no bruises, but that didn't mean much with her. "Did he hurt you?" he asked, his voice so quiet she almost couldn't hear it.
"No," she lied.
He stared at her, and she held his gaze unfalteringly. This was her one tell, he knew. She never broke eye contact when she lied.
"I'm gonna kill him," he said, deathly calm.
"Clint..." Natasha started.
He stood, storming to the door. "I am going to fucking kill him!"
"Clint, wait," she warned. "He's gone," she argued, chasing him across the hallway.
"When I went to Fury, he pulled up your trackers, and both of them were in his room," he argued.
"You told Fury?" Natasha asked, exasperated.
Clint didn't bother to knock, wrenching open the unlocked door. Femme Loki stood in the middle of the living room, facing them.
"Hi," she said softly.
Clint cussed.
"Sorry to disappoint," she joked.
He stepped in to the room, calming. Natasha followed, sending her a sympathetic look.
"Lie," Clint ordered.
"No," she replied quietly. Before he could protest, she held up a hand. "I know you want me to change so you can take a swing at Him, but Natasha did the same thing yesterday, and look how that turned out."
He rolled his eyes. "No offense," he glanced at Natasha, "but I think I'm fairly immune to your charms."
Loki tried to hide a smile. "That's not what I meant. If every time He does something he shouldn't you ask me to switch, we're kind of rewarding him for it. It is my turn, and even if my raison d'être is cleaning up his messes, I still have a right to my time here. If you want to say something to Him, fine. Go ahead. He'll get the message."
Clint fumed a few moments longer, then crossed his arms, resigned. "Fine. I see what you mean. Well then here's the message: if you ever touch her again, I will personally eviscerate you."
"Hey," Natasha warned.
Loki crossed her arms as well. "Not that I disagree with you, but why, exactly, do you think you have a say in it? She left you. I wasn't aware exes had a say in their successors," she jabbed.
Clint laughed. "Why do you assume she dumped me?"
She blinked a moment. "Because I respect your intelligence?" she guessed.
He shook his head, and looked to Natasha.
She shrugged. "We both decided to end it, it wasn't working. It was compromising our work as a team, and..." she looked to Clint.
"And it was like mope-fest 2010. She was used to a kind of lifestyle that my SHIELD earnings don't really allow, and I needed someone more..."
"Cheerful?" Natasha suggested.
He laughed. "Yeah, so we decided to be friends." He turned back to Loki. "Why the hell am I telling you this?"
Loki shrugged. "I have that effect on people. Look, I get that you're pissed at him, and at the moment I am too. Well, I say if he's going to ally himself with Jane against me, we can team up against Him."
Clint frowned, ignoring Natasha as she rolled her eyes. "How?"
"On Monday, when He returns, go to the gym. He'll be there, and you can extract your pound of flesh," she proposed.
"No holds barred sparring?" Clint had to admit he liked the sound of that. "What makes you think he'll hold up his end of the deal?"
"He has to. If he doesn't I'll..." she paused, glancing at Natasha. "I'll make out with Thor in front of Jane."
Natasha raised an eyebrow. "And how exactly are you going to manage that?"
Loki crossed her arms. "I have my ways," she said coyly.
"She does, actually," Clint admitted.
Loki's jaw dropped. "I can't believe it! I can't believe Tony told you-"
Clint held up his hands. "Whoa, slow down. What does Tony have to do with this? He didn't tell me anything. I just meant... Before... you... showed me things." He ran a hand through his hair nervously.
"Oh," Loki said softly. "I don't remember... What did I show you?" she frowned.
Clint looked at Natasha a long moment. "What would happen to her if I failed."
Loki blanched. "Oh gods..." she sat on the couch.
Natasha frowned. "Wait, if Tony didn't tell you, how did you know...?"
Clint rolled his eyes. "I found the flowers in your office. The 'half my kingdom' comment tipped me off."
"You heard that?" Natasha looked pained.
"We were in constant radio contact, Tasha, of course I heard it. Which reminds me. Say for a minute we forget the fact that this guy tried to take over the world, killed our good friend, and called you nasty names. He still makes jokes about paying you for your 'services' and..." he stopped, unable to say it.
"Rape?" Natasha asked. Clint looked as if he had been struck, Loki as if she might faint. "What, we're just going to pretend that's not what we're talking about? Alright, yes, I noticed. He has a phenomenally dark sense of humor, not to mention bad taste, but they're just jokes. It doesn't mean he actually wants to..." she trailed off as they both gave her the same incredulous look.
"You think so? You saw the way he looked at those photos from Poland. How do you know he doesn't want to do that to you? Because I've had a front-row seat to some of his favorite fantasies, and he seemed pretty keen on the idea at the time," Clint said in a low, dangerous voice.
Natasha looked to Loki. "Is that true?"
Loki swallowed. "I think that was mostly to freak you out," she started.
"Well it worked," Clint growled.
"But it is possible that at a certain low point... He might have..." she looked more pained with every word.
"See?!" Clint demanded. "Who knows how many times he's-"
"No," Loki said firmly, her strength returning. "I never. I can't speak for how He is now, but in the past I would never have done such a thing."
"She's right," Natasha piped up. "I asked Thor about it."
Loki made a face. "You asked Thor if I-"
"He mentioned Sigyn, in Poland. I wanted to hear the whole story," she explained.
"What's Sigyn?" Clint asked.
Loki flopped back on the couch, staring at the ceiling for a long moment. "The worst thing I have ever done to a woman," she said cryptically.
Clint looked to Natasha for an explanation. She shrugged. "Thor made it sound like she was a real bitch, and honestly had it coming,"
Loki laughed humorlessly. "You could say that."
Clint shook his head. "That still doesn't rule out the other issue."
Loki sat up, glaring at him. "Look, I didn't earn the nickname 'silver-tongued' for nothing, you know. You might find it hard to believe, but I never had any trouble finding companionship."
"Being a prince has its benefits?" Clint asked sarcastically. "And you never paid any of them?"
Loki frowned, crossing her arms defensively. "In Asgard, it's considered polite to send a gift within the week. I admit it's possible some approached me with that in mind, but that's their business, not mine."
"And that's what the flowers were?" Natasha asked.
Loki threw up her hands. "How should I know? I have no idea what's going on half the time here, you know. I can tell you all you want about how it was before the split, but now... your guess is as good as mine."
Clint put his hands on his hips and looked to Natasha.
She sighed. "Look, I know you guys are just trying to look out for me, and I appreciate it. But I can take care of myself."
He softened, relenting. "I know, Tasha. I just don't get what you see in him."
Natasha looked from him to Loki, thinking. "Do you remember how it was, just before a mission?" she asked him quietly.
He smiled a little, remembering. "Yeah. You were a real freak for danger," he admitted.
She stared at him a moment, making him consider his words. He closed his eyes and sighed deeply. "Ok, I guess I can see that." He looked back at Loki. "But I'm sure going to enjoy kicking the shit out of him on Monday."
Loki nodded. "Any parting shots?" she asked.
He raised an eyebrow. "You don't mind?"
She shrugged. "Better than switching."
He thought about it a moment, then walked over to Loki, putting his face close to hers and speaking so quietly that Natasha couldn't hear. "Don't let the screaming fool you, asshole. She's the finest actress in the world."
Loki raised an eyebrow. "Oh, and how can you tell?"
He grinned, almost a leer. "She bites her lip when she really digs it."
Loki blinked for a moment, a smile spreading across her face. She started to laugh.
"What's so funny?" he demanded,
"I don't know," she shook her head, still laughing. "I just find that terribly amusing."
Clint glared at her a moment longer, and then stormed out of the apartment, slamming the door.
A/N: Man, this chapter was a bitch to write. It takes a lot of effort to make Clint not kill Loki on a regular basis, lol.
On Saturday, check in for more Clint and Chapter 40: The Silver Lining. Reviews, as always, are my muse's bread and butter!
