Annnnnnnnnnd I'm just going to jump in here and agree with you all over the place. I've always seen movie!Clint/renner!clint as the scary silent dude in the corner with the big fucking knife. Natasha is deadly, no doubt, but she's the the scalpel to his sledgehammer-- and he's also the backup if carnage is the order of the day. I see their spy/assassin roles as very different from each other (not that they don't have shared skill sets, but we're talking preferences here).
Re: FIC: softly she carries me (rated R for language)