so intimately rearranged

[agent_hill]

Maria didn't question it anymore, having Clint sleep next to her. It was something they had fallen into, first when they'd started having sex, but now sometimes they just slept. It felt good, to hold him close, to have his heart beat and steady breathing as simple lullaby. He comforted her when she felt like she was going to start tearing her hair

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[genuinepleasure]

His sleeping patterns were always wonky even before the incident with Loki. Before he started sleeping with Maria he usually took two sleeping pills and was out like a light without any nightmares. When he started up with Maria it became incredibly difficult to pop sleeping pills in her presence and have to explain them off as nothing. He chose to not have to deal with that. He tried to sleep and hope that the nightmares wouldn't come. A few nights he had actually gotten lucky and nothing happened. Clint was either too tired or worn out to even have the nightmares.

Tonight was different though. Tonight was just sleep and it took him a while before he even passed out. The nightmare came immediately. He was on the helicarrier, but it wasn't the same. It was dark and it was dirty. He was seeing oily shapes moving through the darkness and advancing on his position. There was a coldness in the air. He could see his own breath. It was hard to really place what was happening. He had his firearm out and was navigating his way through a maze on the helicarrier.

In reality? He had gotten out of the bed he was sharing with Maria. He had found his sidearm and was standing in the middle of her quarters. The weapon was aimed and his eyes were open. He wasn't moving, but he looked to be sweating profusely.

[agent_hill]

Maria was vaguely aware of the movement next to her, groaning softly as she stretched. It took her a moment to realize that Clint had left the bed. She sighed and settled back in, assuming he needed to use the restroom or something similar. Only when she didn't hear any other movement, she noticed something was off.

"Clint?" she called, rolling over to try and find him. She squinted, rubbing her eyes and pushing herself up a little. She found him in the middle of the room with his gun pointed into open air. "Clint!"

She sprung into action, finding her gun on the bedside table and rolled out of bed. her first instinct was that if Clint felt the need to have his gun, she had better damn well be ready. "What is it, Clint? What do you see?"

[genuinepleasure]

They were swirling around him now. They were closing in and fast. There was no escaping them. They needed to be prepared for the event that things rushed them and took them out. They were fast and they were the enemy. They were things that Clint felt the need to kill. His hands were shaking from the coldness in his dream and he felt like he was going to freeze up at any moment. Just completely turn to ice.

Clint spun around when he heard Maria's voice. He didn't register her as Maria though. He just saw a blurred face. Nothing registered with him in this sleep state. His face looked wild though. It didn't have that glint in his eyes or that slight smile happening. He looked genuinely terrified. He was afraid of everything around him right now. He felt like his heart was going to beat out of his chest.

His gun was pointed directly at her. His hands were shaking and he was panicked. "They're closing in." The oily shapes were starting to get faces. Some of them belonged to the men and women that he had killed in his raid on the helicarrier in Loki's name. "We gotta take 'em out."

[agent_hill]

He was scaring her. Scaring the living daylights out of her, honestly. He was shaking and breathing hard and Maria didn't know why. It wasn't until he'd turned the gun on her that she realized that there was something really wrong with him.

She stepped forward and pushed his gun-arm up, aiming it away from her, a small panic rising up in her. This was like when he'd been taken, almost. All over again.

"Jesus Clint, what's going on?" she pleaded, not pulling away from him. She tried to knock the gun out of his hand. She could see now that it wasn't exactly the same. Clint had never been this shaken while under Loki's influence. In fact, she wasn't sure if she'd ever seen Clint like this.

[genuinepleasure]

As soon as she moved in on him his body tensed up. His hold on the sidearm tightened and his mind raced to process if she was friend or foe. She made the decision for him when she tried to knock the gun from his hand. She was obviously a foe in this right now. Her voice was mutating into something dark. Her shape was getting more oily. He was going to have to put her down if he was going to get out of this alive.

One hand let go of weapon and gripped her wrist roughly. He twisted it away from him and broke her grip on his arm. He lifted his knee upwards to put it into her ribs. He was hoping to take her out quickly so that he could go back to his original task of ridding himself of these enemies. He couldn't let them advance too quickly. In the back of his mind he kept praying for his bow and arrow.

[agent_hill]

Maria hadn't been expecting the knee to her ribs and she bent over, gasping as she took it. She looked up at him with wide eyes, immediately going for his gun again. She had to disarm him before he could do any real damage.

"Clint, snap out of it," she hissed at him, knowing it wouldn't do any good. She twisted his arm around to try and loosen his grasp. She didn't want to hurt him, despite the bruise that she was surely developing on her side. She'd had worse. But Clint was obviously in some kind of dream state and she wanted to try and pull him from it as gently as possible.

[genuinepleasure]

When has gentle ever worked with Clint Barton? He was anything but subtle so gentle probably wasn't going to cut it in this situation, Agent Hill. Then again the right touch from the right person could help. Right now though he was just seeing her as a threat. A threat that needed to be put down. She went for his gun again and he grunted. This was going to be more difficult than he anticipated. He was half curious as to where his backup was right now.

Her speech was gargled again, but it sounded like a growl of sorts. It was terrifying. Clint groaned when she twisted his arm. He fired one shot off wildly, but there was a click. Weapon jam. Shit. He let go of the gun immediately and brought his free hand up. He slammed that elbow into the side of Maria's face and threw his entire body weight on top of her.

[agent_hill]

Maria panicked when she heard the click from the gun, relief immediately flooding her when she realized it had jammed. One last twist and the gun was thankfully out of his hand. But before she could take any more action, his elbow caught the side of her face. She was down and Clint's familiar weight was on top of her.

She let out a strangled grunt, realizing that nice wasn't going to cut it. That was okay, she could play dirty if she had to. All that mattered was bringing Clint out of this. She wrapped her legs around his middle and rolled, attempting to flip their positions so she could pin his arms to the floor. "Clint, wake up. It's me, it's Maria."

[genuinepleasure]

She succeeded in turning the tables. She rolled Clint over and his back hit the ground. His arms were pinned, but that had never stopped Clint before. Her words took on a familiar accent and the oily splotches that had taken her form were forming into a face. It didn't belong to Maria. It didn't belong to an ally at all. It was Loki. The familiar dark glint in his eyes. He was holding him down and that sent Clint into a sort of panic. Not again.

Clint was fairly flexible from his old circus days. He managed to get one hand free and that was all he really needed. His hand shot up and caught her around the neck. He used the momentum to turn the tables and get back on top. He shifted his weight and put his knee into Maria's neck forcing her fer head to turn to look at the wall. "No."

[agent_hill]

Maria watched as Clint stared back at her. Hope began to rise in her when he started looking at her like he recognized her. She nodded, trying to encourage that. But then his gaze turned stony and she quickly found herself on her back once again.

She gasped for air, trying to buck him off. "Clint-!" she cried, panicking. He was cutting off the flow of blood to her head and she started to see little lights that indicated she would soon be out cold. She couldn't let that happen. She pulled her legs up in one last desperate move and tried to get a lock around him so she could pull him down to the ground, off of her neck.

[genuinepleasure]

If not for that last ditch effort she might have been unconscious. She was successful in hooking her legs around him and getting him off her. Clint rolled away from her and hit the legs of a side table to stop. He wasn't hurt, but his head was starting to point. He felt an icy cold cutting through his body. The pain was spreading throughout his body. He could see Loki above him with his staff pointed at his chest.

In his head Clint kicked the man's staff from his hands, but in reality he was just swinging wildly at air. He flipped up onto his feet and readied himself for another battle with the man. He wasn't going to be his puppet again. The coldness was creeping down into his toes, but he would beat him before it completely consumed him.

[agent_hill]

Maria gaped at him from her seat in front of the bed. Whatever this nightmare was that Clint was having, it wasn't normal. She tried to think back on the incident reports from when Clint was under Loki's control. How had Natasha gotten him out of it? Blow to the head.

Her eyes shot to one of the pistols on the floor and she reached for it, silent as she stood up behind him. She didn't want to catch his attention again. She took a deep breath and mentally apologized to him before bringing the but of the gun down hard on the back of his head.

[genuinepleasure]

In Clint's mind he was going toe to toe with Loki. He wasn't going to let the man take over his very existence again. He was going to fight him until his very last breath. He would make Loki kill him before he let him have control like that. He blamed himself for letting Loki take the reigns. He should have done more. He could have done more. This was his fault. His doing. Loki was going to pay.

He was reaching up to block the man when Maria got to her feet. He didn't even hear her approach. He did go down hard from the blow to the back of his head. He hit the ground hard and didn't move. He was out cold from that. His mind went clear. No more oily shapes and no more Loki. No more taunting and most of all--no more fear.

[agent_hill]

"Oh god," Maria gasped, falling to the floor next to him. Now that the immediate danger had passed, the fear started settling in. Whatever this was, it was obviously some remnant from his time with Loki. The demi-god who she had let get away with Clint and Dr. Selvig. If she had only just tried harder, perhaps this would never have happened.

She drew a shaky breath and bent over Clint, pushing his hair back and running her hands over his face. She bent to kiss the corner of his mouth. "Clint... Clint, please... Please be alright."

[genuinepleasure]

Despite the overwhelming fact that he had just had a mental battle with a demi-god who wasn't even on Earth anymore Clint was still happy to be waking up to someone actually kissing him. To be quite honest it was hard for him to remember what exactly just happened anyways. It was gonna take a moment or two before he pinpointed what the hell had just happened to him. One thing Clint did acknowledge was the fact that his head was pounding and his limbs felt extremely sore.

His eyes opened slowly and he tried to focus in the darkness on the form hovering over him. Her face started to come into view and Clint smiled a little. "What's going on? Did I kick you in my sleep?" It still hadn't hit him that he had just gone through a rather violent nightmare. It would take a moment or two before the memory shook loose and he was back to that guilty stage.

[agent_hill]

Maria let out a gasp in relief and immediately clutched herself to Clint's chest, squeezing her eyes shut. How dare he do that to her, scare her like that. She thought that he would never come back again.

She didn't care about the pain in her side, or the bruise forming on her neck, she just cared that he was awake and his old self again. She didn't know whether to kick him or kiss him. "Something like that," she said quietly, listening intently to his heartbeat. It didn't sound like it had calmed down completely yet.