Author Note: um, I also kind of filled my own prompt of He likes to look (to see that it’s her). She likes to be touched (to know that it’s him). Oops.


Eyes Wide


He likes to see her, and that doesn’t just mean watching. As hot as it is when she fucks herself on her fingers, eyes hooded and wearing nothing but a wicked, wicked smile while he sits there with broken ribs or drugged up to his eyeballs or otherwise incapable of joining in… Yeah, it’s hot (and mean, and you’d think he’d learn to avoid being injured more often by now with that kind of incentive), but he likes to see, needs to, and there’s a difference.

When she breathes damp against his neck, tightens her thighs around his waist, and shakes beneath his hands, he can feel that her body appreciates the attention, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that she’s enjoying herself.

It’s rare that Natasha slips away into bad memories during sex, but it can happen. Less rare, but still unusual, are the times that she falls into work mode; sex as rote, as a means to an end, as part of someone else’s life that she’s pretending to live. More common are the days when she forgets herself because she’s concentrating on him, because she finds it more natural to give pleasure than to receive it, because it’s taken her a long time to see sex as something that can be fun, as something that she can want.

And when it comes to wanting, none of that is on Clint’s list. He likes the people he loves to be safe. He likes his partners to enjoy themselves. He likes it when he gets to make them feel so much that they can’t think about reciprocating.

His sight has always been his sharpest sense, but when he had his hearing it was easier to read people, especially when blood headed south and brain functions became somewhat difficult. Now, with his hearing imperfect even when he wears his aids and with touch unreliable, Clint needs to see. He needs to see her.

After the incident (and it isn’t an accident, because accidents are things that aren’t self-inflicted and Clint is a SHIELD Agent and an Avenger, so he can’t really be said to have accidents anymore, but he doesn’t regret it, he won’t) Natasha grows her hair long and starts tying it back before they have sex. She makes sure that she’s always facing him. Sometimes, when he hasn’t managed to pleasure her enough to make her forget, she’s deliberately louder.

For her part, Natasha likes to be touched, needs to be. She says it’s grounding and she doesn’t say much else about it but Clint always makes sure that nakedness involves touching. Even when he can’t join in, when he’s wearing comfy clothes and bandages and she’s wearing that wicked smile, even then he reaches out a hand and rests it on the bare skin of her knee.

After she places her hand, still wet and he can smell her (and he really needs to work on the not being injured thing), on top of his. He taps Morse code messages against her skin (want and not fair and love you), his eyes fixed on their fingers as she laces them together.

Hah, that IS kinda evil but in a good way. Just lovely.

Just a little bit ;) Glad you liked it!

This is just perfect! I love the connection you create with them touching, watching. It's very intimate and so them! *sighs happily*

Thank you! I'm glad you like it :D And thank you for prodding me into writing a Clint hearing loss fic, because I've wanted to for ages and never had an angle on it :)

Love love.

<3

oh god this was mean IN THE BEST WAY. And now I'm turned on. Also gorgeous, beautiful exploration of this prompt. I'm in love. <3

Heehee, glad you enjoyed it :D