Guns are for Wussies

616 CLINT BARTON INDIE & PAN-FANDOM. PROSE & NOVELLA PREFERRED. READ RULES & ABOUT BEFORE INTERACTING.

[arrowslinger]

codenamemockingbird

                                        Bobbi inched forward, just enough to close the gap between them, lips tucked into a seemingly serious glower before her expression dropped and a small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. ❛ You look your age. ❜ She gently scrubbed her palms over the stubble peppering his jaw line. ❛ You’ve always had a baby face. Couldn’t stay 29 forever. ❜

❛  Yeah, guess it has to happen at SOME point.  ❜  HE TUCKS HIS hand over hers & pulls her fingers to his palm, gentle as a harpist’s tunings. His thumb bumbles over her knuckles & he looks up at her, lip corners pinched to a stubbly smile.  ❛  Can you even imagine us RETIRED? I think I’d open a dojo                                    always wanted a dojo.  ❜

[arrowslinger]

venomblasting

Behind the yellow lenses of her glasses, Jessica’s eyes squinted into slits. “Clint—” She started, as she usually did. “We’re always breaking the law. Don’t try and justify it any other way. So, what is it this time, huh?”

❛  STRETCHING,  ❜  HE SAYS AGAIN, as if humming an idle rhyme, the lull of it bumbling off his lips ; as if it’s slipped between them ONCE or TWICE before.  ❛  Relax, it’s BOILERPLATE: break and enter, grab a couple incriminating docs, get the hell out. Easy !  ❜

[arrowslinger]

codenamemockingbird

                      She barely canted her head to the side, occupied with her own exasperation at the state of his sink and the ever increasing pile of dishes and utensils. Flipping a tea towel over her shoulder, jut of her hip banking against a cupboard, she screwed her mouth up, eyes squinting at the flush of salt and pepper dotting his jaw. ❛ Beards are in, right? ❜ Flat of her tongue clacked against her palette before her mouth split into a wide grin. ❛ It doesn’t look bad. ❜

❛  Okay. But does it make me look OLD ?   ❜  HE TAPS HIS thumb to the shallow cleft beneath his lip. He feels it in his BONES: the bruises of age, 40 years in RUST ; now in the EARTHWORK of his chin, his cheek, the mirror’s streaked reflection. When did the ticks & tocks of his life become so tiger stark, so STRIKING ?  ❛  I FEEL old.  ❜

[arrowslinger]

❛  I’m not BREAKING the law, just . . . ❜  HE LOOKS AT her as though invoking a CURSE or some blessing, concentration strumming nicks between his brows in his rustle for the right word. & when he finds it, it POPS off his tongue, firecracker snap.  ❛  ———–STRETCHING it. Like we  A L L  do.  ❜  ———– @venomblasting

[demonicvulcan]

person: but it’s canon

me: yes, but it’s very badly written, so we ignore it

[arrowslinger]

                              ❛  Hey, Birdie. You think I should SHAVE ?   ❜  HIS THUMB TRACKS down his chin & the feathery turnings of his untrimmed beard poke its tip like spindles. Locks of gray, grown from ash & age, crowd most around his lip & then pepper out, darken down his cheek & along his throat’s rivulet. His mouth corkscrews to a moue & his glance trots to her. He watches her from the tenterhooks, expectant ; as if she holds all the galaxy’s secrets behind those pink lips.  ———– @codenamemockingbird

[arrowslinger]

               WHERE WOULD I BE IF I WASN’T AN AVENGER ? I DON’T EVEN WANT TO                THINK ABOUT IT.  O K A Y,  I JUST THOUGHT ABOUT IT. I’D BE IN JAIL .

INDEPENDENT CLINT BARTON. 616 ONLY. EST. SEPT 2012. RE-EST. MAY 2016.

[venomblasting-blog]

“Yet sometimes, it can always fall flat.”

[arrowslinger]

“Sometimes and always are antonyms, doll.”

[codenamemockingbirdmoved]

        Her eyes were caught somewhere between the snowy landscape and the light coating of dust peppering a pile of books, coloring the covers a pale grey. She palmed her own mug of coffee, letting the heat leach from the ceramic. She’d never been a winter girl, but she’d grown to appreciate the seasons. San Diego had hot, warm, and tepid - occasionally mildly cool.

            “ I think we’re both aging, Hawk. Nothing feels like it               did five or ten years ago. Everything is moving too               quickly. ”

[arrowslinger]

          A smile, light and subtle against the shadow of stubble that stretches from cheek to chin, fills his lips. He pushes a tendril of tawny blond hair from his brow takes in a great gulp of a sigh. 

“Sure seems that way. Feels like just   yesterday we were leading the WCA,   putting the smack on Osborn, fighting   my brother...”

           He swerves his eyes away from the window and they fall on her. She doesn’t look any older, at least not to him. She’s still the beautiful, lionhearted woman with the silky laugh and smooth smile that he fell in love with years ago.

“No rest for the world-saving weary, huh?”

[venomblasting-blog]

"Don’t push it, Circus boy."

[arrowslinger]

“Why not? I can push it pretty hard.”

[heroforhollywood-archive-deacti]

     brandon’s used to it now; well, he’s always been      used to it. always wanted it. craved it — the attention.      the flashing lights and the screaming. he’s always      wanted it and now that he has it, he can happily say      that he’s satisfied. now, he just needs to maintain it.

     the avenger gives clint a crooked grin, all smiles in      the face of fame.

               ❝ me? a spice girl? don’t tease me.                   i could totally rock that life. ❞

[arrowslinger]

“Ha! Should've been around when   ol' Steve was the man of the hour."

          A nostalgic smile fills Clint's face and spills into his voice. A chuckle threatens to rupture from his throat, but by some godly power, he's able to dissuade it with a toss of his head.

“Oh, man. He hated it, absolutely   hated it. They had commercials,   posters, Happy Meal toys----   there was safari Cap, beach Cap,   paraglide Cap. I had the whole   collection."

[venomblasting-blog]

"The shades? I thought you’d notice, the, y’know. Drastic change in symbol and outfit.”

[arrowslinger]

“How 'bout you give me a twirl   then? So I can get the full view."

[arrowslinger]

[ codenamemockingbird ]

          He's staring out the window, watching the globs of wet snow, melted by the evening sun's steady warmth, drip off tree branches. He admires the snowscape with one hand tucked in his pocket and the other gripping a warm cup of coffee.

“Think I'm getting old, Birdie. Never feels   like it, but then you turn around and it's   tomorrow... and yesterday was the good   ol' days."

[venomblasting-blog]

Okay: be honest.      Like it?

Figured it was time for a change, no?

[arrowslinger]

“It's a good look for you, Drew.   I especially dig the shades."

[arrowslinger]

[ girlshavesharpteeth ]

          The pain comes over him like flame creeping through tinder. Over the years, the periwinkle shading of his eyes had faded gradually to the color of shadow on snow. Now the blues and purples of a fresh bruise color his face from forehead to nose. 

“----anybody hurt? Widow?”

[arrowslinger]

[ heroforhollywood ]

          Bright camera flashes strike like sheet lightning, and the thunder of shouts and howls rumbles as loud as the strongest storm's. There was once a time when Clint sought the spotlight, reveled in the attention that was companion to being an Avenger. The slanted smile that crosses his face-- even when the paparazzi is far behind them-- promises that part of him still does.

“Damn, kiddo---- press is on you   like black on a bowling ball.   ...Geez, wish I was the man of the   hour! You get any bigger, they'll   make you an honorary Spice Girl.”

[arrowslinger]

          There's a burst of knocks as his curled fingers rap against her door. A paper bag is tucked loose against the crook of his arm, and it rustles like dry leaves on the sidewalk when he knocks again---- no reply. He looks underfoot and sees a long stretch of light slipping out from under the door. He leans close.

“Kate? Kate, it's me. Your creepy   neighbor with the really fat cat said   he saw you go in here, so I know   you're there. Plus your lights are   on.”