Hold Me like You Held onto Life

Clint went to settle down for the night. His head ached terribly from Natasha smacking him, wait, cognitive calibrating him. He lay down and groaned, curling up with his head in his hands. The amount of headaches he'd had since he'd been smacked around the head was insane. He curled up in his nest before jerking upright upon a scream. Clint tilted his head, curiously listening into the silence. The scream came again, more high-pitched this time. Clint dived out of his nest and ran outside, following the continued noise. Strangely, no one else was coming to find the source. What if it was Natasha? Or Tony? He sped up and spun around the corner.

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Clint stared a the cage which held Loki, watching the God tossing and turning, screaming as he held his head. He was obviously asleep. He grit his teeth, hesitating, but went over, opening the cage and walking in, wrapping his arms around Loki to stop him thrashing around and potentially hurting himself. The screaming stopped almost instantly and Loki seemed to calm down. Clint blinked at Loki but lay down, holding Loki whilst he slept.

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Clint sighed and lay there, watching Loki sleep. His eyes were flickering slightly were his eyes were moving beneath closed lids; his eyelashes were spread evenly over his pale cheeks; his lips were parted slightly as his cold breath pressed against Clint's neck. His chest rose and fell gracefully. Way too gracefully. How could a man so evil look so... Pure and innocent? But maybe... Was he evil? He'd seen how those green eyes flickered blue, much like his own when he had been under the influence of the Tesseract. Could he be under a stronger influence himself? Clint shrugged and sighed, a large yawn escaping his lips. He lay down and let his heavy eyes fall closed before he slipped into a deep, dream-less sleep.

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Loki elbowed Clint harshly in the ribs and he jerked awake, grabbing his ribs in pain.

"What the hell was that for?"

"Why are you here?"

Loki's eyes flared with anger, confusion and curiosity.

"You were having some kind of night terror. I was stopping you from harming yourself whilst you were thrashing about."

He looked down.

"You did that why?"

"I guess I didn't want you to hurt yourself."

"You care about me?"

"Stupidly... Yes."

A faint pink blush spread over Loki's cheeks as he looked down at the ground.

"After everything I did to you... Why?"

"I have no clue."

Loki looked up at Clint and leant forward before the younger stood sharply.

"I have to go. I don't want to be fired for being seen as being 'romantic' with you."

He left quickly and rushed back to his room, collapsing on his bed with a choked sob. What the hell had he done last night?

~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~

Over the next few weeks, Clint found himself heading straight to Loki's cell, the moment he knew Fury would be asleep. He had looped the camera footage to a video of Loki sleeping peacefully. If anyone knew, they never said anything.

Loki lay on Clint's chest, happily snuggling down as he settled to sleep. This had become a routine that both men found comforting. Loki peered up at Clint, restless. He hadn't been able to drop off as quickly as he usually did in the evenings. Questions burned in his mind and had been for the past week or so.

"Clinton... Why do you do this?"

"Do what?"

"Lie to everyone, lay and hold me during the night?"

"It seems to keep you calm; saves you from getting hurt."

Clint shrugged.

"And it's Clint. Not Clinton. God, I hate that name."

"I do apologize, Clint."

He nodded to let him know he accepted it and they lay in silence. Thoughts ran through Clint's mind; the same thoughts spinning around Loki's own, tormented mind. They looked into each other's eyes before slowly moving towards each other. Moments before their lips meet, the door opened and they jumped apart. Clint's heart dropped upon seeing Fury standing there.

"Barton, my office. Now."