Ah, the feels, I got them :) This was lovely, very in character I think and paced just right. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you! I'm glad you liked it!

Oh awkward assassins. Glad Natasha was willing to fight for it and Clint was willing to trust himself and her.

I love your reaction to the plant and pet thing.

"The plant. It must be talking to you. That’s the only way to have a relationship. Two people in the same headspace, having a conversation. That’s how a relationship starts."

That was totally my reaction (except less eloquent, less Natasha and more profane) to the movie. How is a plant a substitute for a relationship? Silly therapist.

My main reason for loving the movie was Alan Tudyk. Everything else was pretty silly. There is something to taking care of a plant, though. Of course, you shouldn't be forced into taking one just because you think it's going to fix you.

I liked having the roles almost reversed. Here was the guy who has it all together and has this pretty great life and he's the one who needs to have therapy and it's the girl who's come out of some pretty bad stuff and had her head messed with who's got the answers to life and love and everything.

But Clint needs words and Natasha needs actions and they both do that for the other. Also, I like the idea that Fury could read the writing on the wall nearly immediately and send Clint to therapy just to slow him down.

Thanks for reading! I'm glad you liked it!

I noticed the reversal, nice. Also sneaky Fury is my favorite Fury.

Alan Tudyk is so great in everything I've seen him in. He's in a Knight's Tale, which is also on Netflix.

I love him in everything he's ever been in! That man could stand around in a flour sack and I'd be laughing hysterically!

'You're the plant.'

Loved this.

I also loved the way Natasha was so aware of Clint, and even though she was working through her own issues, was so defensive and... argh, just lovely.

And the way Clint let her into his world, piece by piece. The feels. THE FEELS.

Well done!

*grins* I love that exasperated thought of his that finally got a voice when he was pushed to his limit.

I'm glad you liked it! Thank you!

I LOVE THIS SO DAMN MUCH! OH MY HEART, THANK YOU! It takes the silliness of 28 days and that whole idea of a plant and a pet preparing you for a relationship, plus the silliness of a SHIELD life, and combines it with the serious feels behind 28 days (although I think the film failed to show them well) and the serious feels of Clint and Natasha's backgrounds and present. The result is wonderful :D

I don't know why, but the setting time-wise was a surprise to me and fits perfectly - that here we have Clint not only wrestling with whether or not he could have a relationship with Natasha, but that being tied up with whether or not he could be a partner to her, that those things are distinct...yet another case of lives being more complicated and unique that can be solved with something so ridiculous as 'keep a plant alive'. The complexities of living and of relationships, how intertwined people and situations and things can be, was missing from 28 days and is absolutely present in this fic :D

The dialogue and their interactions are PERFECT! Oh my heart, so much giggling over the plant dialogue - "What's your obession with my plant?" "Does it talk back to you?" "You can't water my damn plant, Romanov" - and so many feels for the way they are together. And Natasha's voice in this is made of win. We get to learn so much about her in this, and who better to show how complicated life and just being is than this Natasha, who struggles with finding a self and a place to stand at SHIELD?

The love is for children conversation! The a plant is not relationship subsitute conversation! Sudden onset of Fury! Which cracked me up, especially “I was too busy taking care of a plant, sir. On your orders, if I remember correctly.” Bwahaha!

I love, love, LOVE that Natasha wants to help Clint to take care of the plant and Clint is 'NO, because the plant is YOU and you can't help me look after you! YOU can't help me have a relationship with YOU!' but yes, yes she can, Clint. And she does <3

Thank you so much! I'm glad you liked it!

This started out being something else entirely and being in more of a post-movie type setting where he realizes he wants to take their relationship even further but needs help getting there. It was only after I realized that I wanted to use this as a vehicle for making my own "Love is for Children" explanation story that I discovered that Natasha needed to be more innocent of him. They needed to know less of each other to be able to get that out in the open. It felt like something they would talk about early on and classify with each other right from the beginning.

And then the plant just sort of wove all the scenes together and gave them a purpose! I think (and I'm not sure if it came out) that Natasha was actually jealous of him for having a plant. It was something that normal people had in their rooms and she, especially at this early stage of finding her place, wanted to know what normal felt like.

This was actually so very much fun to write! You always have the best ideas! So many times, when I go back to find the original idea to link to it, I'm always surprised that I wrote another one of your ideas but I don't think I should be surprised at all! I may take your idea in a very different direction than you anticipated but I I love the frame that you lay out!

Edited 2012-09-27 06:52 am (UTC)

It was full of fun and feels; I loved it!

I think this time setting ended up working really well. I guess the journey of the plant to pet to relationship is one of discovery, and Clint is at the start of that, and then it's mirrored by the start of a far more realistic thing with Natasha. And yes, their silent exchanges in the film, it seems like by that point they've already aired a lot of things already, the way they read each other so well.

I read it as Natasha maybe being jealous of Clint having a plant, or rather jealous of the fact that he's been told to get one - like she has all these bad things in her past that are just as bad as Clint, so how come they think he's salvagable, that he gets a plant, and no such thing is suggested to her? But I think Fury giving her SHIELD Agent status, getting her into a team, is his 'plant' for her maybe :) I definitely read it as Natasha being jealous that he won't share the plant with her, won't let her take care of it when he can't, when he's let her in so far that she even knows and has driven in, and then gets to drive Maggie - Maggie yes, plant no lol.

I really don't care where people take ideas that I throw out :) I always have too many ideas, but I'm a terrible person at actually getting around to using them, or finishing if I start. Getting to share them gets them out of my head, lets me let go of the things, and if other people find them useful and make wonderful creative things from them then I am happy like woah. All 'wow, I sparked that' :D Feel free to use as many of my ideas as you like ;)