Rating/Warnings: PG13; Clint had a bad childhood, trouble sleeping

Author Note: I filled it, yay :) SPOILERS for Pacific Rim (but not for the ending). Pre Clint/Natasha (because Natasha isn’t there yet. I blame the new Black Widow comics for this turn of events)


got your back (you can finally fight the hurricane)

Clint’s arm is warm around her shoulders and Natasha snuggles closer as on the screen Mako Mori watches Raleigh fight Chuck Hansen when he won’t apologise to her. Men, Natasha thinks fondly, as Clint’s head drifts backwards to rest against the sofa and he starts snoring softly, can be such idiots.

She can’t count the number of times that Clint has asked her if she’d like to watch a movie or a TV show with him. The couch in his apartment is a favoured spot, but they’ve crashed in rec rooms at various SHIELD sites, curled up in beds with a laptop, surfed channels on televisions in hospital rooms, and took over one of admittedly many entertainment rooms in Tony’s tower. And yet every single time Clint falls asleep. Every time.

American popular culture says a guy asking a girl to watch a film is probably a come on and if he then falls asleep on her she ought to be offended. Since Natasha thinks popular culture is often a poor measure of reality, and doesn’t want her partner and friend coming on to her anyway, this doesn’t bother her in the slightest. She did, however, used to wonder if it meant something was, well, not quite right.

Then she’d asked him. After he’d managed to fall asleep mere minutes into an opening scene that consisted of surround sound explosions.

Natasha loves watching Clint try to explain things. Descriptions he’s excellent at; explanations not so much. If he’s given the time to construct something in writing he generally comes up with something reasonable, but the rest of the time it ranges from ‘I know this looks bad’ to ‘because boomerangs’ with a whole lot of ‘um’ in between. She’d never tell him, but it’s really amusing. Especially when it’s Coulson or Kate that he’s trying to explain something to.

God alone knows what he said to the higher-ups when he brought her in that persuaded SHIELD to take a chance on her.

So when Clint had ducked his head and flushed across his cheekbones before he’d even begun to explain away his sleeping habit Natasha had straightened her face in preparation to ward off laughter. That was one explanation that hadn’t been amusing though.

Her friend had grown up constantly watching his parents so that he’d know when to hide, watching circus shows so he’d know his cues, watching audiences that he had to please, watching through a sniper’s scope to know when to kill, watching so many things to know when and how to act that watching movies and television, not reality TV or the news but entertainment that he doesn’t have to pay attention to and can do nothing about, is relaxing. Having a reason to sit still that doesn’t require action switches his brain off. It’s one of the few things that helps him to sleep.

Another is Natasha watching his back.

Pair the two together and he’s out like a light.

It’s flattering really, as long as she doesn’t think too much about why he might have so much trouble sleeping. She doesn’t want to ask, not when asking seems to get her answers that are so personal. It’s none of her business.

Although it does bug her that he misses out on all of the endings.

So she catches him up, over comm lines, in safe houses, in hospitals, on flights, when they’re waiting to be called into Coulson’s office. She tells him about fight sequences and they get exasperated about their failings. She relays the jokes that she didn’t get and watches him try to explain them to her. She gives him every ending and he never seems sorry that he slept through it.

There is this one show though that Clint is determined to see all the way through. He falls asleep five minutes into an episode, twenty on a bad day, so he’s watching it in intervals whilst Natasha can quote along with each episode before they move onto the next one.

Some days it seems like everyone watches that show. SHIELD Agents and Avengers alike will joke about it. They’ll overhear civilians talking about it in coffee shops. Once it was even on the news.

Clint complains about spoilers and won’t let anyone ‘spoil’ him for episodes that he hasn’t seen, even though they’ve yet to finish even season two. Natasha humours him. She never tells him the endings or talks about anything past the point where he dozed off. And she pretends not to see him smiling when she joins in conversations about it.

Not that she’ll ever understand the appeal of Dog Cops. She’s more of a cat person herself.

Next to her Clint shifts restlessly and mutters something that she doesn’t quite catch. She reaches across his chest, takes his free hand in hers, and lets them come to rest on his chest, where she can feel his heart beat slow as he calms back down. His breathing deepens.

On the television screen Mako and Raleigh kick ass in a Jaeger.

Awww. This is adorable. Also Clint and explanations are a very funny combo. :P

Glad you enjoyed :D 'Because boomerangs', seriously Clint?

Awwww!! Love the nods to the Hawkeye comics!

Glad you liked it :) Ha, appropriate icon is appropriate ;D

I'm really trying to imagine what his arguments for keeping her were when she joined SHIELD... and failing. Oh, Clint. And I love how he's simply - her friend. That they have this comfort and contentment and simple moments without needing the entanglements of romance, especially in a Valentine's Day promptathon. :)

Her recountings of plot twists are particularly sly, I would imagine.

I torn between him being all rambley but not defending himself at all, or being all quiet and 'I know I screwed up, but please' with puppy dog eyes. (Meanwhile Fury has already figured out all the angles, how he can use the situation and Natasha to his advantage, and evaluated all the risks, and things could be worse, but he's still gonna make Clint squirm. Which is why Coulson is giving him the eyebrow, but he's stood behind Clint and Clint can't see him, so that's fine.)

It was nice to be able to a friends first type piece :) and I imagine Natasha has great fun with film retellings! Glad you enjoyed :D

Hehehe, all the feels, perfect mix! And as Sneaky said, Clint and explanations are always fun :D

Thanking you! Glad you enjoyed :D

I really like this. :)

Thanking you :)

This is so totally adorable.

Glad you enjoyed :)