Deviant

“You’re the strangest drunk I’ve ever met, by far,” Clint said as he half-carried, half-led Lilith along the sidewalk.

Lilith just flashed him a hazy smile, her head of black hair resting on his shoulder as they stumbled along. He had one strong arm wrapped about her waist to support her while the other was free for now.

Reaching up with one hand, she ran a finger over a scar on the side of his face. He flinched slightly, surprised by her actions, which caused her to laugh softly. After a moment, a grin stretched his face and he shook his head slightly.

“And I don’t know what possessed you to get drunk so far away from the hotel you’re staying in,” he added in, still grinning crookedly.

“Didn’t start that way,” Lilith slurred, grinning again as she watched him.

“You’re supposed to bar hop towards your hotel, not away from it,” he teased.

Lilith just let out a giggle before tapping the side of her nose. Clint, watching her from the corner of his eyes, shook his head but didn’t let his grin drop. As they made their closer into the heart of Budapest, and closer to her hotel, they talked more. Or, rather, Clint talked and Lilith made drunken remarks that made no sense most of the time.

She wasn’t, however, actually drunk. It was easy enough to fake and it took more than just a few drinks to get her drunk. She just needed to smell like she’d had more than enough alcohol for the night. And get enough of a buzz to make stupid comments.

“You smell nice,” she giggled, turning into his chest as he came to a stop at a crosswalk.

“You smell like Jack Daniels,” he returned, his chest rumbling slightly as he spoke. “And you’re very touchy feely.”

Lilith barely kept the smart ass remark on the tip of her tongue from slipping out. But she did. He carefully unwound her from his chest so that he could lead her across the street before the lights changed again. Lilith wrapped her arm around his waist, blue eyes glancing around as they approached the entrance to the hotel.

“Just so you know, I find it a little odd that you’re staying in the same hotel that I’m going to go,” Clint murmured, pulling her close again as she started to lag behind.

“It’s a coinci…coinky…coin…” Lilith faked stumbling over the word, her face twisting slightly as she tried to pronounce it.

Clint just chuckled softly, his chest reverberating against her skin where she was leaned against it. Lilith’s eyes closed, her head resting back against his shoulder as they walked. The grip on her body was adjusted once more, becoming more supportive than it had been a few moments ago.

“Hey, don’t pass out on me,” Clint said, holding her firmly, “we’re almost there.”

Lilith made a soft, incoherent noise as her eyes closed and her head rested on his shoulder. They stopped for a moment and then she was no longer standing. He carried her inside the hotel, his steps quick but not uneven. She liked the smooth way he walked.

“Eyes open, eyes open,” he murmured, calloused hands cupping her face once he’d sat her down on the floor of the elevator.

Her head pulled back slightly, her eyes opening widely for a few seconds before she managed to focus on his face. Clint was watching her, blue eyes concerned. At least, she wasn’t sure how concerned he was. He was faking being a nice guy just like she was faking being drunk. But it was a fun game. She wondered who’d find out about who first.

“Can you tell me what floor you’re on?” Clint asked.

Lilith nodded and mumbled, “penthouse.”

She didn’t miss the way his eyes narrowed ever so slightly before he stood, turning to the panel of buttons along the wall. A smirk flitted across her face, disappearing quickly before he could turn back around. She watched him as he pressed the button before turning back to where she was propped against the elevator wall. He crouched back down, calloused fingers brushing her dark hair out of her face.

Her blue eyes, half-hidden behind her eyelids, rose to meet the clear, steady blue of Clint’s eyes. Without warning, she leaned forward, lips pressing to his. To his credit, he didn’t jerk back in surprise and he didn’t freeze in terror. There was a moment’s hesitation and then he was kissing her back, soft lips molding to her full ones.

“This is interesting.”

Lilith jumped, jerking back in actual surprise. Mammon leaned against the frame of the elevator, watching as Clint backed up quickly. Clint, after all, had a cover to keep. Lilith, however, covered her surprise with a drunken smile.

“Jimmy,” she smiled, arms lifting in his direction.

“Your ‘brother’,” Mammon smirked a little, “won’t be happy that you wandered off, got drunk and found a new friend.”

He leaned down, strong hands grasping her hands so he could pull her to her feet. Lilith wobbled slightly, lips parting in a smile as she leaned against him. Mammon just shook his head slightly, lips still quirked in his smirk as she righted her on her feet. He helped her from the elevator, handing her off to someone that would get her to her room.

With Clint out of sight and Lilith being out of his sight, she let a smirk curl her own lips as Mammon sent her a wink. Turning, she made her way down the hallway of the penthouse, blue eyes melting into their familiar ruby red color. One of the doors opened and Apollyon stepped out, her mate’s ruby eyes turning chocolate brown as he turned.

“Hello, little sister,” he smirked as they approached.

“Hey big brother,” Lilith purred as she passed him, turning and watching as he made his way down the hall.

She turned around again before coming to a stop once she reached the room her mate had just left. Stepping inside, Lilith let the door close after her while she slid the jacket from her shoulders. The black leather, smelling faintly of alcohol, cigarette smoke and various colognes, was dumped unceremoniously on a chair in the corner of the room.

Lilith crossed the room to where several suitcases lay. She unzipped one before dumping the carefully folded clothes onto the floor without a second glance. Her fingers slid along the lining of the bag until she found a small tear. Hooking her finger inside it, she tugged and the lining tore away to reveal a manila folder.

Her nails, painted a glimmering purple, scooped up the file from the suitcase and thumbed it open. The file was several pages thick, various Post-it notes and paper clips stuck all over the place. She dropped into a chair by the window, feet resting on a foot stool as she thumbed her way through the file of collected information on Clint Barton.

This was her business in Budapest. Lilith was looking to have fun and cause a little mayhem if at all possible. Especially when she really wanted to rub her mate’s skin the wrong way, just to liven things up a little.

Her mate’s business in Budapest was to take care of some loose ends that were threatening to cause some problems. The information she’d dug up on his various loose ends were sitting in files on the bed. This file on Barton was hers, a little secret that she’d kept from her mate. The potential amount of trouble that she held in her hands was very worthwhile in her opinion.

Lilith had purposely lied about Barton and told her mate that he wasn’t a threat. In reality, he was, potentially, a very costly, expensive threat. If, and when, he got to be too big of an expense, he would be taken care of. For now, he was just a business associate.

And while her mate took care of business with Barton, Lilith skimmed over his file and made a few phone calls. She flipped through the pages, lifting and turning them where the stapling called for it. A picture of a redhead with the name ‘Natasha Romanoff’ underneath came up towards the second half of the file.

Lilith’s eyebrows rose, only slightly impressed, as she continued reading over the file. Much of his time was spent in the company of the redhead, countless missions successfully completed when they worked in tandem. It was impressive, but only slightly. There was enough in it to suggest that there was more to their relationship than a platonic partnership. But men were always only men.

Closing the file, she stood and tossed it into the fireplace before shoving the discarded clothes back where they went as the flames chewed through the paper. As she left the room, her ruby eyes flashed blue again while she made her way back to the elevator. She dug her phone out, pressing a button and bringing it to her ear as she leaned against the shiny wall.

“Have a car at the front entrance when I get there.”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Sipping from the wine glass, Lilith’s blue eyes flicked to the door as the lock clicked out of place. After a moment, the heavy door was pushed inwards. She lowered the glass from her lips, licking away the last drops of wine her lips as she did so. Clint, standing in the doorway, didn’t look entirely surprised to see her there.

“I figured the being a drunk was a lie,” he said as he closed the door. “It was a good lie.”

“Just like your name being Phil is a lie?” Lilith asked, head cocking to the side.

“Just like your husband being your brother is a lie,” Clint nodded, shrugging his jacket off.

Lilith smiled, her lips parting to reveal her white teeth. The room was mostly dark, the only light coming from the streetlights down on the street below. But she could feel Clint’s eyes on her, watching her though she made no move except to raise the wine glass to her lips.

“Something like that anyways,” she murmured, eyes never leaving his form.

If he heard, Clint didn’t show any signs that he had. Instead, he was removing the gun tucked into the back of his pants. Her head tilted, eyes following him as he crouched down and slid a knife from the inside of his boot.

“You going to stare at me all night?” he asked without looking up. “Or are you going to do something?”

“What would you prefer I do?” Lilith returned, still watching.

“First, tell me if you’ve blown my cover.”

“Your secret is safe with me,” she smiled, uncrossing her legs as she did so.

“Second, tell me why you’re here and why you haven’t blown my cover.”

“I haven’t blown your cover because I like you.”

His eyebrows rose slightly as he looked at her. She watched the way his blue eyes glanced around the hotel room as if he expected the others to appear, guns at the ready. She also noticed the way he had his gun still in his dominant hand, the knife in the other.

“It’s just you and I here, no one else,” Lilith shrugged, amused. “Don’t believe me?”

“Well, you’ve lied to me twice in one evening,” Clint returned, blue eyes meeting hers.

“And you’ve only lied once. It’s your move, Clint,” she murmured with a wicked smirk.

After a moment, she noticed the way his muscles began to relax. He didn’t set down either of the weapons but he did walk over and drape himself across the chair across from hers. His blue eyes still watched her though, unblinking and surprisingly bright in the dark.

“With a guy like that, I can’t see why you wouldn’t like someone else,” he muttered finally.

Lilith smiled a little before taking another sip of wine. “He has many redeeming, likeable qualities. But my interests wander and differ from time to time. I like to have some variety in my life.”

“And he’s the jealous, territorial type, isn’t he?” Clint asked, leaning back against the chair.

“Extremely so,” Lilith replied. “He doesn’t like it when anyone else touches his toys.”

“And you left your hotel room to come…here? After that whole incident in the elevator, you know as well as I do that he’s going to expect me to be wherever you aren’t. And if you’re missing…well, one of us is fucked,” Clint snorted with a shake of his head. “Not in the preferable, pleasurable way either.”

“He won’t interfere. He owes me a few,” she shrugged. “What? You want me to call him and tell him that I’m flying to Paris because I don’t like Budapest?”

“It’d make me sleep a little more comfortably tonight.”

Lilith’s lips quirked slightly at the corners but she said nothing. Leaving over, she picked up her phone from the coffee table and dialed the number. For a moment her thumb hovered over the call button before she did it press it and then the speaker phone as well.

“Are you just going to run off and do as you please from now on?”

“Hello to you too,” Lilith smirked. “No, I don’t like Budapest. I’m going to Paris.”

“To shop?”

“Probably, so I’ll see you at home in a few days?”

After saying good-bye, Lilith hung up and tossed the phone onto the nearby couch. Clint glanced at the phone for a moment, as if thinking it might explode, before looking back to her face. Lilith set the wine glass down, leaving the quarter inch red liquid in the bottom untouched.

“Enjoy sleeping comfortably,” she murmured before standing.

Lilith brushed her hair back as she made her way around the various pieces of furniture. She was well aware of the fact that he was following her. And it was only confirmed when he caught her arm, surprisingly gentle, and turned her back to face him.

Barefoot, she was shorter than him by several inches. And she was short enough that she found herself angling her head back slightly to be able to meet his gaze. The hand on her arm loosened, slipping lower to cup the curve of her hip before she found her back pressed against the wall and his lips against hers.

Her hands rose, sliding over the hard muscles hidden beneath his t-shirt, to cup his face. The hand on her hip pulled her close, holding her body as close as possible to his, while the other hand rose to rest along her neck. His thumb slid over her cheek, the hand on her neck not letting her pull back as he kissed her.

Lilith’s hands slid down to Clint’s shoulders, pulling him down more to her level so that she was stretching up as much. In response, the hand gripping her hip shifted, lifting her from the floor. Her dress was forced up around her hips as Lilith’s slender legs wrapped about his hips.

Somehow, they ended up on the floor of the bedroom rather than on the bed. Lilith’s black dress lay discarded on the floor by her head. Clint’s t-shirt lay somewhere down by their feet. Her blue eyes were shut, her body arched ever so slightly as his lips trailed over the taut skin of her stomach.

His lips left her skin for a moment and her blue eyes opened before she found herself face to face with Clint. Their breathing was more ragged than it had been a few minutes ago, their chests rising and falling in an uneven rhythm. With her blue eyes never leaving Clint’s bright eyes, she leaned up and kissed him, lips catching and holding his firmly.