Honestly? Because I feel robbed af and while Fraction was good, I feel (at least Barney-wise) that it came out of left field. We go from Blindspot which honestly had such raw emotion to him in the Dark Avengers (and still pretty clearly holding a grudge against Clint) to Fraction where....yeah, his life is still shit but he’s ‘back to normal’ from everything that happened to him and he and his brother are fine? There was really no explanation whatsoever and I want to build more off an arc that was just kind of left in the dust.

THERE IS THIS VERY DISTINCT, VERY NAGGING, VERY IMPORTANT URGE TO JUST CHUCK SOMETHING AT BARNEY’S HEAD. anything. big, small, very solid or not, just something. might be a pebble. might be a car. who knows. whatever it would be, it most likely couldn’t make it worse anyways. not with two idiots called Barton sitting on the pavement, one of them already bleeding and bruising up for the heck of it. little brother shouldn’t save the older one’s ass. doesn’t sit right with the whole point of the universe somehow, and yet it’s happened. again. Clint still can’t handle the idea that out of the two of them, he might be the one who’s got more of a grip on things. and that’s saying something, considering that most days he’s only holding on with one pinkie.

“yeah, I can tell. you know how I can tell?” he vaguely gestures to all of Barney, sitting there, looking like shit. what level of dumbass is it when one’s fully aware that sometimes backing down ain’t such a bad idea but then proceeds to not do that anyways? gotta be something genetic. no other explanation. speaking of levels           it’s gotta be top-shelf dumbass to still care for a brother who’s abandoned one’s ass more than once already. “you know you should get to a hospital, right?” and still Barney most likely wouldn’t. more genetics. damn that unfortunate science.

Shit, he hurt like hell. Probably should be dead, should’ve been dead a long time ago really, but a certain brother had INTERVENED. Barney wasn’t sure whether to call it the best timing ever or perhaps the worst. Part of him wanted to actually laugh at the idea of dragging himself to a hospital but there was a bigger part that knew it’d hurt like HELL to even muster up the air to chuckle. They’d only have questions to ask and he wasn’t big on the whole ANSWERS part.   ❝    You’re the one that got in the middle of it. I was doin’ fine.    ❞    Bullshit and they both knew it; maybe if he had learned to BACK DOWN a long time ago, they wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place. Or maybe one or both of them would be dead already if they weren’t both infected with the fighting spirit. One of them just happened to be more of a ‘HERO’ than the other when it came to putting that spirit and skills into action.

As someone who has spent her fair share of time on the business end of someone else’s slaps, Grace knows for certain that sometimes words and looks and even thoughts can feel worse than blows. She knows she crossed a line, knows she probably hurt him. This was inevitable. They’ve been playing with fire, tip-toeing around one another’s loyalties, for way too long. Shame burns at the back of her throat as soon as the words leave her mouth, and she’s about to take them back, she really is, only he’s too fast.

Her mouth closes so fast her teeth click together, eyes forced wide so she doesn’t cry and prove him right. The worst thing is, she even cries when she’s pissed, not just hurt, and right now she’s both.

“I AM soft, you piece of shit,” she hisses. There isn’t anything within reach she can throw at him, or she would. “If I didn’t stay soft after all the shit I’ve been through, I’d just be alone and fucking miserable like you. I’ve been nothing but nice to you, I’ve given you a place to sleep when you were in trouble, I heard you out when you could have been a psychopath murder, and I LIKE YOU, so why do you keep coming around? Why do you answer my calls? You think soft is weak, find somewhere else to sleep. How’s that for soft?”

He had to bite back a bitter laugh, seal it in his throat and choke it out before it surfaced. Brick by brick, that wall was being rebuilt, with every syllable that left both of their mouths. Maybe it was time to pack it in and MOVE ON, he was somewhat good at that even if a grudge might remain. What would she know about him anyways?   ❝    Who ever said I’m MISERABLE, huh? Ever think about how I might like being alone? Not all of us need to cling to everyone around us, like you apparently do. Even to someone that might be a ‘psychopath murderer’ like you put it.    ❞    He didn’t need nor want to be PSYCHOANALYZED by anyone, especially her. Clearly opening up to her had been a mistake in the first place.

Barney moved then, going to grab his bag of essentials and crossbow. She wanted him out? Fine, he could crash at some cheap motel and fly under the radar there. It wasn’t like he didn’t have ANY other options. Barney made some good pay by doing jobs, this had become more of both a convenience and some sort of ENJOYMENT for him. Testing the waters of what it might be like to have some normalcy but he should’ve known better.

Normalcy wasn’t the hand he was dealt since he had been born.