maggins:

He was silent for a long moment, before his eyes grew wide. “Is that…me?”

Belle bit her lip hard. “I—I was just…i-it was only a character study,” she stammered, leaning back and wringing her hands in her apron where she stood. “I thought it might help me develop my skill if I…I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you, I d-didn’t expect you to—”

“I’m not offended,” he said quietly, and Belle could tell he was sincere. He continued to stare at the portrait, a small smile growing over his face before he looked back up at her. “Do you really think I would have looked like that?”

➥ chapter 9 of “Mirrors” , by @greensearcher

nathanielbarton:

Chapter 10 of Great Inaudible Feelings by invisibledaemon (citizenscully)

He was really frustrated now, with her or with the world she wasn’t sure – probably both. 

“I don’t care about my soulmark, I don’t care. I’ll have the fucking thing surgically removed. I just want you.”

His eyes were pleading, hands fisted at his side. He looked desperate to get closer to her but gave her space, for which she was grateful. She couldn’t say what she knew she had to say if he was in her space. It was difficult enough as it was. He was so tempting.

He was offering exactly what she had been afraid to admit to herself she wanted. But she couldn’t do that to him. Because yes, they would be happy for a while, for weeks or months if she was lucky. But eventually he would meet his soulmate. And whatever he’d feel for that person would have to be stronger than what he felt for her, even though her own feelings for him were so strong she felt as though she were choking on them. Then he’d either leave her for his soulmate or stay with her out of obligation and grow to resent her.

She could not live with either option.

nathanielbarton:

Worth It  by shadesfalcon

… as she turned through the door frame, she skittered to jump back into the bathroom again and slammed the door, locking it quickly. There was someone sitting in her room. She hadn’t had the time to see their face, but they’d been perched on the bed and hadn’t appeared particularly concerned with her almost-entrance into the room. She spun around, yanking the faucet on the tub to switch to the shower-head and turned it to spray water onto the floor. She pulled the hairdryer out of the wall and climbed into the protective porcelain of the tub, ready to throw it into the pooling water. Thank god for old hotels. Modern ground fault interrupters made this kind of thing impossible.

Her handgun was laid out on the bed, right next to the intruder, so at least he was armed. She cursed herself for the lapse in judgment and vowed to wear her leg sheaths into the shower in the future. They were waterproof anyway.

“Natasha,” the man spoke from behind the door, just as she wrapped her fingers around the switch on the hairdryer. She huffed in surprise, and seriously considered using the appliance to brain her room’s occupant, instead.

“Clint?” she asked through her teeth. “What the hell?”

“If I come in, are you going to kill me?”

“Yes.”

teandcrackers:

“Out of the Woods” by enigma731

Natasha sets down her mug and turns to face him more completely, a little tendril of concern unfolding in the pit of her stomach. “What are you trying to ask, Clint?”

“What are we doing?” he repeats, sitting up and pulling his boxers back on, the movement letting him avoid her eyes. “You’re my partner. You’re–You’re my best friend.”

“Do you want to stop?” she asks, wondering whether she’s miscalculated, whether she’s crossed a line when he wasn’t ready. “This doesn’t have to happen again, if it’s not what you want.”

“No,” says Clint, and there’s a sincerity in the word that she believes, though she still can’t quite read what he’s thinking.

nathanielbarton:

but the silence spoke volumes by andibeth82 (isjustprogress)

Because she loves Clint, and she knows Clint loves her. But I love you was final, and it was simple, and it was reserved for Laura. Don’t die out there was casual, and it was less formal, and it was reserved for Natasha, or for Clint, depending on who was suiting up for the day. It’s one more distinction that Natasha knows will forever separate the two women Clint’s chosen to include in the most important parts of his life.

nathanielbarton:

A Little Hell by enigma731

“You’re filthy,” says Natasha, pulling away to pour more antiseptic onto gauze and handing it to him.

Clint sighs, quickly cleaning the rest of the blood off his face and arms. Natasha packs up the kid because she needs to move, needs to keep the empty gnawing feeling in the pit of her stomach at bay. She crosses the room, shoves the kit back into the drawer with more force than necessary. She’s being irrational, she knows, ought to shake this off and be grateful the world’s still in one piece. It isn’t even about Banner, really–It’s about the fact that somehow she feels more alone than ever, surrounded by her teammates.

➸ 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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bucky-thevampireslayer:

Nat had stuck to her conditions. A check in every forty eight hours. And in between she texted him. Sometimes once, sometimes a dozen times. Everything from what she had for dinner to mission reports. She’d been working with Steve Rogers since Clint had taken his leave of absence and seemed to enjoy tormenting the man.

Their timezones were nearly antipodal, and had the phone off during the day when he was hunting. But there was an overlap during what was nighttime for him, and morning for her. Often they’d talk. He still missed her every day.

Sometimes he didn’t answer and she kept up the patter on her own. She never nagged, though, and never commented on when he did reply. Just went along as if it was a normal conversation. It added a certain steadiness and normalcy to his life in the bush.

Someday, he’d figure out how to tell her what she meant to him.

Chapter 11 of Between the Shadow and the Soul, by NyxEtoile and OlivesAwl

➸ Salt Water by eiluned

Warnings: none 
Characters: Clint, Natasha
Genres: smut, angst | Smut: yes
Word count: 4348 | Status: complete

My comment:  Basically porn without plot.

His skin tastes like salt water.
She starts at his hipbone and traces the trails of ocean that slipped down his tanned flesh, lapping up the salt. She explores every ridge of muscle in his flat stomach, loves the strength of use and hard work she can feel there. He is strong because he fights, not because he vainly lifts weights. He is strong and flexible, and she wants to twist him into knots of pleasure.
It was a close quarters mission. They were holed up together in a goddamn shack on a beach in Nicaragua, tracking a drug cartel, and close quarters with her when it had been a good goddamn long while since Clint had gotten laid meant that he was about to claw down the fucking walls.
And Natasha, in her typically uncanny way, could read it in him.
He plunged into the Caribbean, but the water was too warm to cool him off, to quench the hot lust that kindled in his body at the sight of her. He thought she had gone into the jungle to check their cameras, but when he burst into the shack clad in just his wet boxer-briefs, she looked up at him from the book she was reading.
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➸ Playing House by chez_amanda

Warnings: none 
Characters: Clint, Natasha
Genres: angst | Smut: yes
Word count: 8825 | Status: complete

My comment:  An undercover mission as a couple makes our two favourite assassins confront their own feelings

Of all the things that Natasha Romanoff had been asked to do for a mission, being a housewife had to be the weirdest. There wasn’t any doubt in her mind that she couldn’t, but her domestic skills had never really come into play in her work with S.H.I.E.L.D. In order to fit into her cover and the conservative gated community where she and Clint were headed, Natasha had to buy a new wardrobe. She wasn’t one for sweater sets, but from the intel in her mission folder, the women in this community did not do worn jeans and fitted t-shirts. There was now a considerable amount of beige and pastel in her closet.
Natasha hated beige.
Clint didn’t seemed thrilled about the polo shirt and chinos he was wearing either. Every couple of seconds, he fidgeted with the collar or shifted in his seat and Natasha tried not to laugh. Tactical gear was perfectly fine, but a pair of khaki pants and a collared shirt made him uncomfortable. She looked out the window at the desert thousands of miles below as she ran through her cover’s facts once again.
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➸ Criminals by eiluned

Warnings: none 
Characters: Clint, Natasha
Genres: angst (?), alternate universe | Smut: yes
Word count: 1469 | Status: complete

My comment:  A Clintasha partners-in-crime AU 

Mexico was nice. Clint leaned back in his beach chair and rubbed at the scar on his leg; it ached despite the hot sun. But he liked Mexico, and he liked the sight of Natasha in a white bikini swaying across the sand, margarita in hand and red hair blowing in the breeze.
They started out as rivals, two assassins working for the same boss, and there was only room for one hitman at the top. Much to their mutual annoyance, they ended up on the same job, both given the assignment probably in the hope that one would kill the other. They killed the mark together, because it was that or die trying to finish the job separately.
Clint found Natasha in his bed that night, naked and seductive, and he knew she was there to kill him. He fucked her anyway, pinned her to the bed and fucked her until she screamed, and then she took her turn, tying his hands to the headboard and blowing his mind.
After that night, they decided they worked well together, in bed and out of it. He was the guns and she was the brains. She was a beautiful distraction and he never missed a shot. They stole from the best, traded in secrets, killed for the highest bidder.
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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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