She wears it because she's in a bad mood at having to be PA to a narcissistic womaniser who undresses her with his eyes and doesn't recognise the danger when Romanoff reacts instead of Rushman. She wears it because she was woken up at two in the morning with a promotion, and had to leave Clint alone in her bed when he wasn't supposed to be there to begin with. She wears the dress as a lucky charm because a little luck would be nice; she wears it because only a woman who knows what she wants would wear that shade, and she needs to borrow that certainty for a while. She wears it as an act of rebellion against all of the neutral-toned bullshit she's had to put up with for months, and she's fairly certain that Stark just sees it as an attempt to get his attention.
She's a fan of pink, in general. She's a fan of red and orange, and she's very much a fan of yellow. Yellow is the colour of the sundress she wears after Stark and Banner are other peoples' problems. She has bruises on her arms from rubble, but she lets her hair dry as it pleases, pulls on a dress the colour of daffodils at full bloom, and threads her fingers with Clint’s as they stroll through the San Diego Zoo as though they don't have a care in the world.
She wears yellow after defeating the Chitauri, too. Yellow and brown and orange with her blue jeans. The jeans are (casual, off-duty, no need to impress) jeans, but her yellow jacket says something, too. It's a cheerful colour, marigolds and sunbursts after a storm. It's subtler than the red she was tempted to wear, because a statement of I am alive written in the hue of blood might have been too much of a dare.
Colours, after all, are codes that a prince like Loki would be able to read.
She escapes to New Zealand with Clint, and she buys an off-season dress that is all the shades of the rainbow. It's a pretty thing, long with an uneven, layered hem that flutters against her legs; it's colourful and sleeveless and a bit too summer for the autumn beach where they are recovering. Her solution is to pull on her red knee-high boots and steal Clint's hoodie (purple, faded with age and wear), and then challenge him to race to keep warm.
In a few weeks, they'll go back and she will pull on the black uniform of an office-worker, and she'll break out her burgundy platforms and the matching blouse. There will be funerals, and out of respect for the dead she will wear the blacks, navys, and mauves.
But for now she's running in a rainbow dress, and her heart is beating.
FIC: as a badge of a beating heart (PG) 2/2
She's a fan of pink, in general. She's a fan of red and orange, and she's very much a fan of yellow. Yellow is the colour of the sundress she wears after Stark and Banner are other peoples' problems. She has bruises on her arms from rubble, but she lets her hair dry as it pleases, pulls on a dress the colour of daffodils at full bloom, and threads her fingers with Clint’s as they stroll through the San Diego Zoo as though they don't have a care in the world.
She wears yellow after defeating the Chitauri, too. Yellow and brown and orange with her blue jeans. The jeans are (casual, off-duty, no need to impress) jeans, but her yellow jacket says something, too. It's a cheerful colour, marigolds and sunbursts after a storm. It's subtler than the red she was tempted to wear, because a statement of I am alive written in the hue of blood might have been too much of a dare.
Colours, after all, are codes that a prince like Loki would be able to read.
She escapes to New Zealand with Clint, and she buys an off-season dress that is all the shades of the rainbow. It's a pretty thing, long with an uneven, layered hem that flutters against her legs; it's colourful and sleeveless and a bit too summer for the autumn beach where they are recovering. Her solution is to pull on her red knee-high boots and steal Clint's hoodie (purple, faded with age and wear), and then challenge him to race to keep warm.
In a few weeks, they'll go back and she will pull on the black uniform of an office-worker, and she'll break out her burgundy platforms and the matching blouse. There will be funerals, and out of respect for the dead she will wear the blacks, navys, and mauves.
But for now she's running in a rainbow dress, and her heart is beating.