#claura

No, not weird, and fit perfectly, I feel @paperairplanesopenwindows might appreciate your request too. Thank you for this one, I needed it.

Day 8 for Clintasha Advent and a day for Clint/Nat/Laura

.

The car is parked, and Laura waits with happy anticipation.

She’s home.

She’s okay.

Relief floods her as she waits for the door to open.

She has news, she made Clint promise that she could be the one to tell her.

Auntie Nat, he’d grinned, and she’d laughed, touching her stomach delicately.

The door doesn’t open though.

Not in the first minute, or five and Laura’s worry grows.

Taking a step forward, then another, nothing changes as she approaches the car.

Natasha is inside, she can see her silhouette, a dark mass against the sunset.

Two more steps forward and she opens the passenger door.

Natasha regards her.

“Are you okay?” Laura asks.

Natasha looks forward, not answering the question.

That’s a no, Laura thinks.

Visibly, she looks okay.

But sometimes the wounds lay deeper, more than wounded flesh, more than broken bones.

Those are the wounds Laura worries more about.

The wounds that haven’t healed, the ones that come up that she can’t do anything about.

“I’m sitting with my disappointment.”

Natasha announces.

“Sitting with my anger.”

Laura sits down and closes the door.

“How… is that going?”

Natasha says silent for a moment.

“I hate the past,” she decides.

“Hate that through no fault of my own, I’m made to live with the fallout of other people’s decisions.”

Laura has no words.

“But there’s nothing I can do about it, so for now, I’ll sit here in my anger and sadness and disappointment and try not let it encompass me.”

Laura nods.

She reaches across and takes Natasha’s hand.

Relief, in the way she holds it back and doesn’t push away.

They sit there for hours.

The world goes dark, and Natasha doesn’t talk.

Laura looks steadfastly ahead as Natasha’s tears fall silently.

“I wish it was easier to be alive,” Natasha whispers sadly.

“I wish that for you too,” Laura whispers back.

Moments pass.

“I’m ready.”

When Laura looks at her, her face is schooled, no remnants of the tears she shed, and looks like herself.

Masked.

Laura opens the door and climbs out.

She’s relieved that Natasha follows suit.

She rounds the car and meets her.

The hug she gives holds all her strength, all her love for her friend and she hopes that it seeps into Natasha’s bones.

MiniFemSlashFeb2025 Day 8: I want you to… Leave Me (by @astrobookwormsinger)

The kindest thing to do is to walk away. For her safety, for her life, he has to walk away.

Staying away is harder than it should be. Staying close, staying forever, that's easier.

[Claura, from that time they broke up and it sucked for everyone involved to that time they got married. Timeline is '94 to '05]. Warnings for language, injury, non-explicit sex, more injury, Natasha being a teenager, Clint being haunted by his job and having sleep disorders and hints of suicidal ideation, some angst and plenty of fluff. 39k, 3 chapters.

For a moment, he stands and watches her. She’s sniffling, shoulders hunched against the ache in her neck, and he wants to tell her to just get both, there will always be room in the freezer.

Instead, what he says is, ‘marry me.’

She tuts at him, as if he’s told a(nother) lame joke. But then he doesn’t say anything more, and she raises her head to look at him. Her nose is red, her lips chapped, her eyes puffy. She looks like shit, and he’ll be lucky he doesn’t have to carry her home. She’s fucking beautiful and he licks his lips, swallows.

‘I mean it,’ he says, ‘marry me.’

And then, because it’s him, and because it’s her, and because this is what they are, he puts the baskets down, reaches into his inside coat pocket, and he pulls out a box and throws it to her.

part one

blow a kiss ; fire a gun (ao3) - daredoll M, 12k

Summary: First day on the job and she gets handed a train wreck; you could say that Laura Mitchell’s hard work hasn’t exactly paid off in the way she expected it to. Still, she’s read the SHIELD handbook at least eight times by now so she’s sure she can more than handle some upstart carnie with a bow kink who somehow managed to beat her training score without even going through the academy.

Spoiler Alert: she’s wrong.

Distraction (ao3) - woamx G, 875

Summary: Clint gets a phone call right before having to go out on the field with his teammates.

Five Years in a Blink (ao3) - Gnb_rules M, 3k

Summary: Laura knows the world has changed in the past five years, and in the days after she and the kids return from The Blip, she realizes that she needs to learn how much of her husband has changed as well. Clint/Laura, post Endgame. Mentions of a very loving and deep but platonic Clintasha friendship. Please see tags for more info/warnings.

here is my hand that will not harm you (ao3) - andibeth82 T, 18k

Summary: It starts the day they assign him to Laura Morse.

It starts as something he wants nothing to do with.

And then, it becomes something more.

I'm Not Going Anywhere (ao3) - aberrations_reality T, 3k

Summary: They swore they were going to take it slow. They did. They really did. But Clint has always been terrible at planning; has always had the worst timing. At this point it was probably a curse. So it only made sense that the second he pulled out the ring the window shattered in a spray of bullets and glass.

Never far from home (ao3) - RedBatons T, 112k

Summary: Clint is crazy. Laura already knew this. But this time, Clint was seriously out of his mind crazy. He had one job, to kill the deadliest assassin known to man. And then he decides to keep her like a lost puppy found on the streets. But Laura trusts Clint. The Black Widow, not so much. A story about Laura and Nat's friendship over the years.

One thing, and three people that Laura loves (a non exclusive list) (ao3) - Maia_saura G, 1k

Summary: Laura loved math. She had loved math since the second grade. Other than an intense but ill-advised fling with theoretical physics right before the start of her graduate program, she and math had shared a rewarding and monogamous relationship.

Reconnecting (The Reclamation Remix) (ao3) - Huntress79 M, 2k

Summary: Sometimes, Laura thinks she has two babies instead of just one - her husband’s lingering trauma from his latest mission makes life at the farm not exactly easier, for no one. Until one night, it does. Or: how Clint and Laura overcome trauma and reconnect with each other.

she sees better from a distance (ao3) - andibeth82 T, 8k

Summary: This is the story everyone knows: Clint Barton is SHIELD’s best sniper. Laura Barton is the simple girl who fell into his life and learned to deal with aliens and spies; with secrets and firearms and security.

In this story, Laura Martinelli is SHIELD’s best sniper. Clint Barton is the man she falls in love with, and he’s never even heard of SHIELD.

Sleep Number Rule (ao3) - RecessiveJean T, 7k

Summary: Farm or not, Clint always had a firm policy against bringing home strays.

Well.

Firm ish.

The Ghost of Christmas Past (ao3) - mitchpell T, 28k

Summary: Clint takes his children to New York City to see Rogers: The Musical.

The Girl at the Circus (ao3) - Hogwartswonderland N/R, 3k

Summary: At the beginning of their partnership, Clint told Natasha a story of a beautiful acrobat nicknamed Rapunzel and how he fell in love with her. Five years later Natasha still doesn't know how the story ends. Well, until now. Otherwise the story of how Natasha met Clint's family for the first time.

This little light (ao3) - Builder G, 1k

Summary: “Daaaad!”

The complaint has Clint turning on his heel.  “What now?”

He looks at the coffee pot still in his hand and wonders what the fuck he did with his mug.  And more urgently, how the fuck is he going to get the coffee into his body without it.

we belong to those who live (ao3) - daughterofrohan G, 2k

Summary: The absurdity of the fact that he’s crying in his kitchen with the assassin sister of his dead assassin best friend who was hired to kill him and has only just recently decided not to do it after all almost makes Clint laugh.

You're Here Where You Should Be (ao3) - paperairplanesopenwindows T, 1k

Summary: Summary/Prompt Used: Natasha’s first Christmas with the Bartons + Clint and Laura’s first Christmas with Cooper doesn’t go exactly as planned + (an itty bitty little bit of) If love is for children, then so is Christmas. Clint’s determined to convince Natasha otherwise.

you were more than just a short time (ao3) - mayadrinkswater G, 2k

Summary: laura barton is all-too-familiar with the antics of her husband and his best friend. they always, even in the most serious and near-fatal of missions, come back with a good story. they've perfected their ability to recall them, too, in a near perfect push-and-pull that almost seems rehearsed even though laura knows that it isn't. laura never expected to miss it so much.

or

"You'll have to go through me"

When he saw the cars driving up to his farm Clint’s mouth went painfully dry. He knew what it meant. They wanted one of his kids. 

“Laura!” he yelled. “Hide the kids!” 

Laura looked out of the window, saw the cars,too, and hurried away. After the war, when the New Order was established, every district had to send fifty children to the capital where they were raised and educated to become Elite, the administration of the New Order. Every person recognized the cars that came to drag the children away from their families. That was the day Clint built a secret bunker under one of the barns. Laura would bring the kids to it and hide there with them. No one would find them. 

Clint grabbed his bow and a quiver filled with arrows and waited for them. 

The three cars stopped in front of him and he nocked an arrow and aimed at the one guy that looked like the big cheese. 

“Not a step further!” he growled and saw that the other men wanted to reach for their guns. “And you, keep your fingers where I can see them!” 

“Mr. Barton,” the big cheese said and raised both ads to show that they were empty. “Your daughter Lila is designated as Elite.” 

“No!” Clint snarled. 

“Mr. Barton, listen to reason. It is…” the man said again and stopped when Clint shot an arrow only one inch before his feet into the ground, nocked an arrow in the next moment and aimed at him again. 

“The next one goes through your brain,” he growled. 

“Mr. Barton,” the man said and cocked his head. “You will hand over your daughter or you will have to face the consequences.” 

“If you want to get to my children you’ll have to go through me,” Clint snapped. 

“Well, if it’s that what you…” the man started but Clint interrupted him.

“But let me tell you about my time with the Avengers,” he said. “And let me assure you, I’m still the world's best marksman!” 

“Is that so?” the man started to grin and gestured at his men. “Grabbed him. And then get the girl.”