Oooh, that's a good point about pulling on fic too; I do tend to revert to canon if I haven't developed a strong headcanon, and at the beginning I didn't know what I wanted to pull into my interpretation of Clint so I just read and passed by everything. Now, though... hmm.

I can imagine how hard that would be! It sounds interesting to write without having that over-arching author's perspective, though, to be just as lost as Clint because he's lost too.

What helps with Natasha, for me, is that you can always come at her from a different angle, a different background, a different viewpoint. And yet for whatever reason, Clint isn't that malleable for me. I know what he does, just not why, and he doesn't let me but every in once and a while.