Fic: It's the Wrong Word (love) Rating: PG (1/3)cybermathwitchAugust 9 2012, 01:22:40 UTC
So... it didn't go quite where I'd intended, but stays with the spirit of the prompt, I think. :)
*****
they had already abandoned those traditional roles to create ones drawn loosely along lines from ages past. Roles and relationships forged in blood and dependence, in comradeship and battle. A form of love if one chose to look at it that way. But love as defined by older standards. Standards that modern society had forgotten how to measure and primitive society had never used when referring to male and female...
Yet how could he ever explain... That love and friendship had merged with comradeship and oath-bound duty to form a new creation that - for lack of a better word - he called partner?
It's Steve (of course it's Steve) who ends up... not cornering him, because Clint really doesn't think he sought him out to deliberately ask the question, but Steve's the one who brings it up. Nat's already gone to her room, armed with the round of the painkillers Banner had pressed on her and a singular intention to have a long hot shower followed by eight hours of uninterrupted sleep. It's her usual routine and Clint knows when he's supposed to step in to play his part (not for another hour yet, at least.)
Steve's still wandering around the common floor because he doesn't sleep much these days. He jokes about being through with naps and having had enough sleep for several lifetimes but several of them suspect the truth is he's afraid of what will happen when he wakes up. If he'll lose more time, more people, more of his already mixed-up life. Since it doesn't seem to be affecting his field performance, they've all let it slide by mutual, unspoken consent.
He gets pensive though. Everyone also knows that sticking around after about eleven p.m. opens you up to the possibility of all kinds of deep, probing questions about life, the universe, and all the things he's still trying to figure out. You might end up trying to explain the differences between Star Wars and Star Trek, or you might end up at a loss trying to help him work through the horror of the Vietnam War.
Tonight, his questions hit a lot closer to home.
That makes it easier to find answers for him, and harder to give him the answers he wants. Because he wants honesty, but there's an answer he's predisposed to expect and he mistakes that for truth, like so many people do.
"How can you stand it?" is the question that he asks Clint.
*****
they had already abandoned those traditional roles to create ones drawn loosely along lines from ages past. Roles and relationships forged in blood and dependence, in comradeship and battle. A form of love if one chose to look at it that way. But love as defined by older standards. Standards that modern society had forgotten how to measure and primitive society had never used when referring to male and female...
Yet how could he ever explain... That love and friendship had merged with comradeship and oath-bound duty to form a new creation that - for lack of a better word - he called partner?
~Found by Wintersong
*****
It's Steve (of course it's Steve) who ends up... not cornering him, because Clint really doesn't think he sought him out to deliberately ask the question, but Steve's the one who brings it up. Nat's already gone to her room, armed with the round of the painkillers Banner had pressed on her and a singular intention to have a long hot shower followed by eight hours of uninterrupted sleep. It's her usual routine and Clint knows when he's supposed to step in to play his part (not for another hour yet, at least.)
Steve's still wandering around the common floor because he doesn't sleep much these days. He jokes about being through with naps and having had enough sleep for several lifetimes but several of them suspect the truth is he's afraid of what will happen when he wakes up. If he'll lose more time, more people, more of his already mixed-up life. Since it doesn't seem to be affecting his field performance, they've all let it slide by mutual, unspoken consent.
He gets pensive though. Everyone also knows that sticking around after about eleven p.m. opens you up to the possibility of all kinds of deep, probing questions about life, the universe, and all the things he's still trying to figure out. You might end up trying to explain the differences between Star Wars and Star Trek, or you might end up at a loss trying to help him work through the horror of the Vietnam War.
Tonight, his questions hit a lot closer to home.
That makes it easier to find answers for him, and harder to give him the answers he wants. Because he wants honesty, but there's an answer he's predisposed to expect and he mistakes that for truth, like so many people do.
"How can you stand it?" is the question that he asks Clint.
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