➸ Colours of My World by thiswilldrivemecrazy

Warnings: none 
Characters: Clint, Natasha 
Genres: romance, alternate universe | Smut: none 
Word count: 2428 | Status: work in progress

My comment: AU where everything is black and white until you meet your soulmate. My favourite AU tbh, pity this story isn’t finished, I really hope the author intends to continue writing it!

Clint lives in a black and white world. It makes things easier, really. Targets are sharper, and he knows how things work. Stuck on a mission in the depths of Russia in winter, he knows everything is pretty much black and white anyway, until he glances down his binoculars at his target. He’s memorized her face, so he knows it’s the right person, but no-one had thought to mention her hair colour, or the brilliant green of her eyes, standing out starkly against the black and white of the terrain. He’s mesmerized by the colours and knows that he cannot take the shot. He won’t be the one to put her down. Instead, he stows his weapon, and starts to move towards her. He knows she’s dangerous, and he just has to hope she’s not going to see him as a target.
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➸ Caught by execution_empress

Warnings: none 
Characters: Clint, Natasha
Genres: romance, alternate universe | Smut: no
Word count: 1989 | Status: complete

My comment:  A cute mermaid!Natasha and circus archer!Clint AU :)

Working in the circus, Clint’s seen a lot of sideshow attractions. He’s seen them come and go, some staying for years while others only last a season. He’s seen those that are real and those that are fake. Usually those that are real weren’t as interesting as the phony ones.The phony ones all mimick fantasy creatures. Unicorns and baby dragons. Satyrs and centaurs. There were even a few that pretended to be merpeople.
It was easy to see why Clint wasn’t impressed with the new attraction.
She only travels by tank, which Clint thinks is ridiculous. He hears her protest over the bathing suit top she needs to wear until a few good points make her put it on (reluctantly, of course). Her tail, though it looks life-like, is something she constantly wears. He wonders when she ever leaves her tank or how she even goes to the bathroom in that thing. There are a few scales on her skin and a fin on her back and he admires the details, as well as make-up work, that went into her design.
He’s not fooled though. He still thinks it’s all an act.
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➸ Pick-up Lines and Mistletoe by dauntlessblackhawk (ff.net)

Warnings: none 
Characters: Clint, Natasha, Barney Barton
Genres: humour, romance | Smut: no
Word count: 1335 | Status: complete

My comment: Short and sweet Clintasha AU one-shot just in time for Christmas!

When Clint Barton was a kid, he never really celebrated Christmas. Every other house in his neighbourhood would be beautifully decorated with red and green lights, with grand Christmas trees that sat in corners of living rooms, and stockings that hung neatly above warm fireplaces. But his house was always dark and gloomy. Clint lost his mother when he was five and his brother, Barney, six. Their father was the one who had driven her to the edge of insanity, which was what made her end her own life, leaving two sons (who were too young, really) to fend for themselves. Their father drank, a lot. He gambled, often. Every time he lost money from gambling (which happened really frequently), he’d get himself drunk and start hurling heavy objects towards the brothers.
That was an everyday occurrence until the day Barney turned fifteen. Barney had been unwrapping his only birthday present (something Clint got him that’s really not worth mentioning) when they heard two clear raps on their front door. 
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➸ Shelterby SugarFey

Warnings: none 
Characters: Clint, Natasha
Genres: humour | Smut: no
Word count: 1384 | Status: complete

My comment: Short and cute fic starring Lucky and Liho from the comics! And of course, our favourite assassin couple. If you love the characterisation of 616!Clint or 616!Natasha, this is the perfect fic for you ;)

It’s been a long week and Lucky is pawing at the door, so Clint ignores the gathering clouds on the horizon and takes Lucky out for a long run.
It seems like a great idea, just him and his dog, the stresses of the world drowned out by the music blaring through the special sport headphones Kate gave him for Christmas. At least, it’s a great idea until Lucky spots a sleek black cat sunning itself on the sidewalk like it owns the place.
“Aw, cat,” is all Clint has time to say, and then Lucky is off.
The cat hisses and shoots around the corner, Lucky following behind. Swearing, Clint tries to run behind them, dodging confused tourists and angry locals. He collides with a shopper and nearly sends her bags flying.
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➸ Know Thyself by eiluned

Warnings: none 
Characters: Clint, Natasha
Genres: hurt/comfort | Smut: no
Word count: 1583 | Status: complete

My comment: Clint helps Natasha find herself after ‘The Winter Soldier’. Beautiful.

He found her.
He always found her, and it was a source of both frustration and relief. She could never just disappear because he would root her out, could never be completely alone because he was always a step behind her.
It took her years to realize that she didn’t actually want to be completely alone.
But this time was a little different. It wasn’t fear that made her disappear, though fear would probably be the smartest emotion she could feel. Or, it was fear, but not because her identity was blown wide open. It was fear that she wasn’t good enough. That she wasn’t trustworthy enough, and she needed to hide for a while, to lick her wounds and figure out how the hell she was going to face the world again, who she would be when she emerged from this cocoon.
For someone who could make herself into literally anyone, Natasha really didn’t know who she actually was deep inside.
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➸ Hymn of the End by Mockingjay34 (ff.net)

Warnings: none 
Characters: Clint, Natasha
Genres: angst | Smut: no
Word count: 473 | Status: complete

My comment:  It’s short, it’s brutal, it’s beautiful.

Clint, surprisingly, was a religious man. 
He went to church, prayed over his meals, read the bible. He had God and believed Jesus was his savior. He believed someone could help redeem him from his past. Only the people who he let in knew. He wasn’t a very open man.
Natasha, not so surprisingly, is not a religious woman.
She never went to church, never thanked any higher power, never cracked open a bible. She doesn’t believe there is anything else. She doesn’t believe it’s possible for anyone to save her. Everyone knows this. But she isn’t a very open woman regardless.
“I just don’t get it,” Natasha would say.
“You have to put your faith somewhere,” Clint would answer.
“I put mine in a bullet.”
“Yeah, but even a gun can misfire.”
And they left it at that.
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➸ Icarus (In My Veins) by shadows of a dream (ff.net)

Warnings: none 
Characters: Clint, Natasha
Genres: angst | Smut: no 
Word count: 1781 | Status: complete

My comment:  A story of Clint’s past and how the Black Widow who never loved him back, was his light at the end of his tunnel of sorrows and despairs. 

The twin graves are cleanly craved of sheer white stone, their edges smooth beneath Clint Barton’s shaking hands. Eyes leaking, he lays a bundle of mismatched flowers between the headstones. He swallows a sob as he traces the engravings of their names (in his heart, they will always only be Mother and Father). 
When he tips his head back to the sky and looses a shriek - such an awful, barbaric sound - the sky is idyllic, blue and cloudless. The sun turns the edges of his vision red, red, red, and as more tears come (from the heat or his sorrow, and don’t they both burn just the same?), he vows he’ll catch the light someday, and maybe it doesn’t make sense, but he’s only an (orphaned) child, after all.
Clint screams until his throat is raw. As he turns away from the graves, he repeats his promise to himself (to rise and rise until he catches the light that laughs at his plight, that shines above such pitiable mortality,) a silent swear.
It is the quiet things that kill. 
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➸ Rivers and Roads by shtuff (ff.net)

Warnings: none 
Characters: Clint, Natasha
Genres: angst, hurt/comfort | Smut: no 
Word count: 4798 | Status: complete

My comment: It’s gonna hurt, but you’ll love it. A very beautifully written piece of work.

Two days after everything came so terribly close to ending, Clint asks for a leave of absence. Fury looks at him, sees everything he’s so desperately trying to hide, and nods. He tries not to show how thankful he is for understanding – tries to preserve a little bit of his dignity as he turns and walks away, fighting the urge to run with every marching step. 
He throws things in a suitcase without really looking at them – too wrapped up in the need to get out and away before he drowns in the guilt and the blood that refuses to come off his hands.
There’s a sound in the doorway and he turns to see Natasha with a bag over her shoulder and determination written across her face. 
“No,” he says, trying to sound firm but only managing tired.
“Yes, ” she replies and her eyes spark with a familiar fire that tells him he has no hope of winning.
So he sighs and nods and ignores the rush of relief he feels and knowing he won’t be alone.
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➸ Between the shadow and the soul by viverella

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Characters: Clint, Natasha, Steve Rogers
Genres: angst, hurt/comfort | Smut: no
Word count: 11924 | Status: complete

My comment: A beautifully written piece on the development of their relationship. Highly recommended!

Clint Barton learns fairly quickly that Natasha Romanov is one person he may never quite be able to figure out (it doesn’t stop him from trying though, either because he’s stupid or he likes torturing himself or both).
So when he asks Natasha, “Do you know what it’s like to be unmade?”
And she replies, “You know that I do.”
All Clint can think is, No, no I don’t, because he’s been working and fighting alongside her for years now and if he’s learned anything, it’s that she’s the most difficult person to know anything about that he’s ever met.
Clint learns the way her body works before he learns how she thinks, learns the feel of her soft skin, the exact placement of all her scars from bullets and knives and worse accumulated from a long, long career as a killer, the quiet stutter of her breath when she comes apart entirely beneath him. He learns that she talks in her sleep in tense Russian before he knows which of the skeletons in her closet make the ridge of her brow furrow and her teeth clench. He knows the sensation of her heel at his throat and her fist in his gut, but not why sudden movements when she’s sick can put her on edge for hours.
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➸ Stay With Me by angel-death-dealer (ff.net)

Warnings: none
Characters: Clint, Natasha, Mcu!Avengers 
Genres: angst, hurt/comfort | Smut: no
Word count: 7816 | Status: complete

My comment: It’s gonna hurt, but you’ll love it. The writing is beautiful and they’re all so in character. One of my all-time favourite Clintasha fics that includes the Avengers gang. Not one of those cliche Clint-takes-a-bullet-for-Natasha-and-they-make-love fics.

In hindsight, it was ridiculously suspicious how easy things had become. Four guns to eleven, so to speak; the four belonging to Black Widow, Hawkeye, Captain America and Iron Man. It was a Sunday, and the job had been a last minute call in for intel interception, and Fury simply didn’t want to wait until the intel had been passed and they had a more stable location. No, they were sent to the cliche warehouse in the middle of the meat-packing district and tasked with taking out both groups, securing the intel and bringing in the leaders of each group. Now, seven men lay on the ground with their arms above their heads as they waited for their back up team to arrive and transport them back to SHIELD base.
Tony was standing over them, hands extended with repulsors glowing ready as a constant an very real threat that they could end up like one of their four dead buddies if they attempted to move. Beside him, Steve was there with his shoulders thrown back at full height, ever the leader, and though he wouldn’t admit it, ever trying to remind Tony that in the field, he was in charge.
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➸ enough to go by by sweetwatersong (ff.net)

Warnings: self harm, smoking
Characters: Clint, Natasha 
Genres: angst, hurt/comfort | Smut: no
Word count: 1490 | Status: complete

My comment: This fic is going to kill you but you’ll love it. One of my favourite Clintasha fics ever. Exquisitely written.

Clint picks up the habit in the aftermath of New York, the rush of nicotine nothing compared to the steadiness of his hands as he pulls out the first cigarette, cups it against the fall wing and breathes life into it. There is something so simple about the minute flame, controllably, touchable, erasable; on, off, on again with the flick of a switch. Bright against the dimness in the alleys, bright and warm within his curved hands, steady hands, hands that shake no more.
She finds him leaning up against the corner of the apartment building, feeling relaxed for the first time in days – weeks, if he’s honest, months if he can admit it, and really the lie of normalcy is the only thing he can cling to Th the moment so no, he’s not honest, not about that. He exhales a stream of smoke, watching her with the cigarette low against his side; watches, waits, for her reaction, for her expression.
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➸ you are the only exception by bittervoid

Warnings: none 
Characters: Clint, Natasha 
Genres: hurt/comfort, angst | Smut: no
Word count: 1461 | Status: complete

My comment: A take on the development of Clint and Natasha’s relationship. 

The blood seeps from splintered knuckles—
It hurts, bones brittle and snapped so easily like a fence panel, but it’s nothing she hasn’t had before. Burst vessels in her eye, a broken leg or ribs shaped into a new cage by someone’s boot; most at a younger age, at her most vulnerable and just learning the trade of an assassin, most done by her creator.
She hisses as the bandages press against raw skin, split open by how hard she’d punched her target, and doesn’t look up when she senses Clint hovering at the door. She knows his arms are crossed, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.
‘Who pissed you off this time?’

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