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Bobbi Morse ([personal profile] mockingbirdy) wrote2024-04-26 03:02 pm
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[personal profile] westcoasts 2024-06-01 08:35 pm (UTC)(link)
( in recent years, they've been better at hook-ups than they have been anything else, simply because it didn't mean trying to untangle the mess of their emotions, the mess thay they'd managed to make of what they are to each other. in theory, it should be simple, but in practice, it's anything but, and sometimes clint thinks they used up all their simplicity in the early days, when they'd jumped from knowing each other to jumping each other to getting married.

not everything that'd happened since then has been their fault, not really. some of it's just part and parcel of the job, the lifestyle, but none of it's anything either of them are willing to give up. it'd taken clint longer than he'd like to admit that bobbi had sacrificed just as much, if not more than he had for her life. after all, he hadn't really had anything when he'd become an avenger, didn't really have anyone else even now, at least not anyone that isn't a part of that life already.

bobbi did, once upon a time. )


I know. ( or at least, he knows that he's one of the only people that bobbi lets hold her like this. he doesn't know if it's about the quality of his hugs or if it's about him, but the difference doesn't much matter. ) But there's a couch over there— ( he turns his head in lieu of indicating with a hand. ) If you get tired of standing near my door.
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[personal profile] westcoasts 2024-06-01 09:21 pm (UTC)(link)
( in almost but not quite every relationship, it's clint who's the needy one, who's clingy and overly familiar. it's not often that the roles are reversed, not often that clint gets to experience the other side of it, which mostly means that when it happens, when it's bobbi, it hits that little bit harder. equally, it means that when it's the status quo, when it's business as usual, clint doesn't think anything of it. it doesn't strike him as weird or unusual when bobbi frees herself from his embrace, doesn't quite look up at him, and tells him (lies) that she likes his door — even as she pulls him over to his sofa.

he steps around her to slide onto the sofa first, stretched out enough to pull her alongside him. he ignores the quiet voice that says he could probably fall asleep with her resting against him, ignores that it'd probably be the best night's sleep he'd had in the entire month he's been here. )


The door's nice, but I promise this is nicer.
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[personal profile] westcoasts 2024-06-02 11:57 am (UTC)(link)
( is this as nice as it is because they don't let themselves do this very often? their life has always been excitement and drama after excitement and drama, with rare moments of normality interspersed.

thanks for having me, she says, and he laughs. it's a sudden exhale, a short exclamation from his chest that says the comment's taken him by surprise and that he's unsure whether she means for now, or for—. no, she means for now, because anything else would be him reading into it. making up stories. )


I can never say no to you, Bobbi-bird. ( a murmur, sat somewhere between present and distracted. it's not as true as he wants it to be — they've both been ugly to each other, none of it far enough in the past for it to be forgiven and smoothed over in all the ways they both want to. but it is still true, and they both know it's true in the worst ways, too. for now, he's choosing not to acknowledge that, choosing not to put it into words, and he hopes that bobbi will do the same. thinks she will, because why else would she be here?

(no, he knows why. she's here because he's him and she's her. they're awkward at times, painful reminders of their own mistakes, but they're mistakes they've experienced together. they're not having to reconsider who they are in the face of someone who knows them-but-different — a different past, a different set of relationships, a different set of mistakes.)

he shifts his weight, shifts bobbi with him because the couch isn't large enough for him to move without moving her too, and he rests one hand against her hair. he's quiet for a second, then two, and then apropos seemingly nothing — except it's not because it's where this whole evening had started — he says— )
Hey, you wanna know something funny? ( funny as in funny, not ha-ha funny. or, maybe a little ha-ha funny because it's absurd. ) Apparently the other Clint was SHIELD before he was an Avenger.
Edited 2024-06-02 11:57 (UTC)
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[personal profile] westcoasts 2024-06-02 06:00 pm (UTC)(link)
No. She wasn't. I—. ( he halts himself. he knows it's not news to bobbi that he has a habit of putting his foot in his mouth, and he knows that she knows he's argued with their nat more than once — sometimes his fault, the result of clint's emotions and perspective getting in the way of things.

but crucially, bobbi knows how he's felt about shield, about all of that, even when he's worked adjacent and alongside any number of acronym-based agencies. it's never thrilled him, and he's never been shy about expressing just where they can shove any expectations that involve crossing clint's carefully drawn lines, even if he's stumbled over them here and there. )
Might've been indelicate in expressing my opinion of SHIELD. ( he hadn't quite meant it how nat had interpreted it, but that's nothing new, clint barton not articulating himself especially well. )

I dunno if she was more upset about that or the fact that I was judging myself.

( and that's not touching on the "killed as ronin" bombshell she'd dropped. )
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[personal profile] westcoasts 2024-06-02 07:34 pm (UTC)(link)
( he turns his head into her hand, his lips curling up into a small, involuntary small as she runs her fingers through his hair. it's nice and just for a moment, he finds himself almost wishing he still had the slightly longer hair he'd had a while ago. he doesn't doubt that bobbi would — if the roles were reversed and someone turned up talking shit about her, any version of her, clint knows charming would be about the last thing he'd be.

they might have their difficulties, their disagreements, but they're also uniquely, intimately familiar with each other's flaws — not that it'd change anything. he knows that bobbi would defend him even if she disagreed, even if she thought he was an asshole. she'd defend him, and then she'd give him shit in private, just like she's done a thousand times before.

it's more than what he's ever deserved — getting called out in public a couple more times would've served him right. wouldn't have necessarily changed his mind, but it might have tempered him a little. )


—You saying I deserve to get punched in the face?
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[personal profile] westcoasts 2024-06-02 08:44 pm (UTC)(link)
( he shifts a little under her weight, both her physical weight and the weight of her answer. there's a lot of him that wants this to stay a light conversation, cosy and familiar, one that sticks to how important they still are to one another because they've danced around it enough times. they both know they still care about each other, even if clint would say it's inconvenient, even if he'd say it'd be easier if she didn't still care about him because it'd make the amount of times he's fucked up since they broke up (again, and again) a little easier to deal with.

he hums, then, thoughts sliding a little sideways at her answer, and he tells her, idle and a little distracted— )
I'd be just as happy to watch you punching them, Birdie. ( because she's hot and she can be terrifying, and she's hot when she's terrifying.

—but how does he say he hadn't been able to shut his mouth when natasha had said (not)he'd dressed as ronin, had run around killing? it's not like it's out of the realm of possibility, not like he doesn't know what he'd be capable of doing if circumstances were just wrong enough. not like he doesn't know what he'd planned on doing when he'd run off to confront norman osborn. what he'd do if anyone, anything hurt bobbi. it's not that skrulls don't count (they do), it's that he knows he'd have done the same thing if it hadn't been skrulls.

so he doesn't. )


—Even though I don't think I'd be waiting to ask your permission.
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[personal profile] westcoasts 2024-06-03 12:08 pm (UTC)(link)
( not just when she punches people, he thinks, but he hums in agreement to her statement nevertheless. she's not wrong, is she? )

Yeah, and I like it when you put on a show.

( bucky had mentioned steve, had mentioned how he hadn't been sure if he was from bucky's world or a different one which, now that clint's met a couple of their counterparts, he think it probably speaks to bucky and steve as being from the same-or-similar worlds. there were aspects of natasha that were the same as far as appearances went, but she'd been (a lot) shorter. the hair had been similar, but there's a lot of people out there with red hair, and it's not the sort of thing to hinge recognising a whole entire person on.

if steve looked familiar enough to bucky to recognise on sight, that probably meant something.

(whatever.)

she's not wrong, though — her response earns a laugh. it's vague and it's unhelpful, and it's exactly the sort of thing that bobbi would get amusement out of, especially with someone like steve. he can't blame her for giving him shit, he'd do exactly the same thing—. )


How'd he take that?
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[personal profile] westcoasts 2024-06-03 05:02 pm (UTC)(link)
( for a few moments, he's not really listening to her. sure, the words are there and they half-register — concern, multiple, hulks — but his attention is more on her, the shape of her mouth as she speaks, the feeling of her voice, the warmth of her breath. )

You'll give the old man a heart attack if you ask that and he's not. ( a pause, lingering and contemplative. that whole PERIOD OF TIME hadn't been especially fun, but— ) So when you do it, you've gotta promise to only do it when I'm around to see it, please.

( because it's a slightly better topic than, say, bruce or cho. given everything. )
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[personal profile] westcoasts 2024-06-03 05:33 pm (UTC)(link)
( he knows, ultimately, that neither of them are likely going to be the ones to broach that whole topic. even if sharon wasn't here, it's not what clint would lead with, and now he's met nat, it's definitely not what clint would lead with. at this point, he's not sure what he'd start with, if the myriad of differences are anything to go by.

maybe it's a conversation just better not had at all.
(he knows that's not true.)
(but he knows enough, too, to not expect anything.)

it's autopilot, then — more-or-less, at any rate — that has him sliding back on the sofa to sit not quite up, but enough to be looking down at bobbi more than he had. )
—Mm? ( light, questioning, teasing. ) Who's this 'we', Birdie?