(your muse delivers beatings to mine) –> ( x )
Blood dripped from a split lip. He enjoyed the feeling. Wait, no-- “enjoy” was wrong. You didn’t enjoy pain, not in the sense everyone assumed. You just.. enjoyed the rush, the release, the sensations that surrounded the pain. You didn’t even have to be hurt to feel the adrenaline, and it wasn’t the same as any old injury.
Someone else’s fist, or knife, or.. (not guns, those were too final, those were too difficult to roll out from under once the metal buried itself in flesh).. it was why he was found in the center of drunken bar brawls so often, why casual encounters might turn into bloody knuckles if he had enough to drink and knew he wouldn’t go too far. He might feel guilt to be using another that way, but they were usually equally drunk, equally looking for something to let them run.
This was different. There was an unspoken agreement, and Clint couldn’t even remember how they came to it. But it was one of the meetings he looked forward to most. One of the highest points he could anticipate, because in no way would it end with energy capped or sleep starved.
No, after a brawl with Edgar, he could expect to sleep without dreams or otherwise the night after. Collapsing in exhaustion. Too tired to even think.
That’s what he looked forward to most.