Re: FIC: from among the dead, PG-13 (noir AU) no warnings (2/2)workerbee73August 19 2012, 21:41:33 UTC
Eighteenth century Russian. Brass overlaid with gold. Three rubies and three pearl drops to match and not at all the sort of jewelry a legal secretary could afford. Not the sort anyone could afford who didn’t filch it from a museum or have a wing named after them. He knew it well, had seen it grace the neck of a 19th century Russian princess in a portrait the likeness of which was burned into his brain.
He’s also seen it around the neck of a dead woman on the night they’d first met.
Natalie-Natalia-turned in his arms; she hadn’t noticed the subtle shift in his breathing, hadn’t noticed the hardness that crept into his eyes. “I do have you now, don’t I?” she asked, her voice searching and the tiniest bit hesitant. She didn’t give him a chance to answer, just captured his lips instead.
The kiss was fierce and desperate and when she pulled away he let himself notice the sadness in her face; a permanent expression that had taken up residence the day he'd asked her to be someone else. He pulled her tight against him, fingered the clasp of the necklace as he stared at the two of them in the mirror, trying to slow down his spinning head enough to think clearly.
“Where do you want to go tonight?” she whispered, nipping lightly at his ear. "Or, we could always stay in..." she suggested as her lips began to trace a path down to his own.
Clint pulled back, running calloused fingers over her cheeks, across lips, down the delicate column of her throat until they traced along the damning evidence around her neck. His smile was predatory.
“I think we should go for a drive.”
***
One year before…
“It’s a simple operation. We know you’ve been on SHIELD’s radar for quite a while, and we know they’ve made a couple of attempts already.”
“Amateurs,” she said.
“That was just a warm-up; don’t underestimate them. They have impressive resources.”
“So what’s the mission?”
Drakov slid a file across the table. “It’s all in there.”
She skimmed through the first page. “Are you serious?” Granted it was a stupid question, since the man never joked. She rephrased. “How could this possibly work?”
“There’s some very specific intel we want, and we know that they’ve been tracking you. Now we think we have an opportunity to capitalize on that. We’ve laid the groundwork, set the trap. Now it’s up to you to provide the hook.”
She skimmed through a few more pages. “This will never work. A civilian maybe, but a trained operat-”
“I have analysts to plan this out; you are merely the tool to accomplish the ends. Don’t make the mistake of trying to think for yourself.”
She bit down her retort and eyed him warily.
“And just to add a bit of incentive to the mix,” Ivan continued, “If you succeed, you are free.”
“Free?” she repeated the word as if she had never heard it before.
“Free to go, free to leave, no longer under the auspices of the program-however you’d like to define it. You’re 23 now and starting to become a liability. It’s this or… something far messier.”
She couldn’t think of a thing to say for a full two minutes. “You’d just… let me go?”
Ivan shrugged. “It’s not like you’ve ever been privy to that many secrets, and we’ve taken great pains to wipe the rest away,” he gestured casually to the faint needle marks on her arm. “Should you make any trouble, we can always put you down. But yes, free. So long as you successfully complete this mission.”
She looked back down at the file. Suddenly the pieces of paper held more than just an objective. “You said I was the hook,” she continued. “Who’s the mark?”
Her handler slid another file across the table. In was a photograph and a name, and she stared down at both.
She looked back up at Drakov. “A sniper?”
“With a weakness for beautiful women.”
She looked back down at the photograph, studied the dossier underneath it. Assassin, marksman, senior field agent. Kill rate: 97%. If this was the key to her freedom, so be it.
Re: FIC: from among the dead, PG-13 (noir AU) no warnings (2/2)workerbee73August 19 2012, 22:18:32 UTC
Dude, there is so much angst here. Like, even the angst has angst. I'm glad my twisty brain meets with your approval though.
Gah, I really don't want to get bogged down in a big ole multi-chapter thing, and this would take a lot of plotting and scheming. But we'll see. You know that offer always works both ways, right? Should you ever want to dip your toe in this verse you're more than welcome. In fact,I would strongly encourage it; I suspect you'd write it even better than me. ;)
Re: FIC: from among the dead, PG-13 (noir AU) no warnings (2/2)workerbee73August 19 2012, 22:34:19 UTC
My enablement skill are legend, as are yours.
My brain hurts even trying to plot this thing out. I have no idea how they got to this point, other than it's so,so tragic and wrong and all the unhappy things. And the fact that they fell is love is just an unfortunate complication for everyone. But it's so beautiful and tragic that it's kind of fun to ponder.
OMG collegeAU! What's going to happen with those crazy kids? Are they even emotionally capable of falling in love or are they just two highly functioning sociopaths who happen to have found each other? (which I guess if you think about it could kind of be its own love story...)
Re: FIC: from among the dead, PG-13 (noir AU) no warnings (2/2)workerbee73August 20 2012, 03:15:02 UTC
Yay! I'm glad you liked! (and dude, I don't even know how this ends. i mean, i know the way the film ends, but i dunno if i can go there-- hence why this might be a oneshot.)
They do, bless 'em. Oh the tragedy. The delicious tragedy.
Re: FIC: from among the dead, PG-13 (noir AU) no warnings (2/2)sugar_feyAugust 20 2012, 01:52:58 UTC
OMG.
*is dead*
I have so many thoughts running through my head right now. Is it all just an act to her? Does Clint let her live? Does he love her? Does she love him? TELL ME!
I love noir AUs, especially for these two, so this was PERFECT.
Her hair was pulled back, just the way he liked it, and there was hardly a trace of makeup on her except for just a hint around the eyes-his preference as well. Same with the shoes and the clothes, same with everything about her. Always the same.
I know it's AU, but hello, headcanon! In my headcanon Clint always had a weakness for the 1940s femme fatale or pinup look, and Natasha knows and takes full advantage of this fact. Because she can wear it to perfection.
The kiss was fierce and desperate and when she pulled away he let himself notice the sadness in her face; a permanent expression that had taken up residence the day he'd asked her to be someone else.
Wait, what? He asked her to be someone else? TELL ME!
You’re 23 now and starting to become a liability. It’s this or… something far messier.”
Re: FIC: from among the dead, PG-13 (noir AU) no warnings (2/2)workerbee73August 20 2012, 02:55:08 UTC
Okay so the best way to explain what going on here is basically that I've shamelessly ripped off the plot of the movie Vertigo (all-time best film ever btw, at least in my pea-brain opinion). You can find a great synopsis of the film here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertigo_(film)
In my version, the Red Room wants SHIELD info and knows they've sent Hawkeye to kill her, but they've given her orders to seduce him instead, make him fall for her, make him trust her-- and she succeeds only too well. So well in fact that he does fall in love with her but she ends up falling for him too.
But a mission is a mission and freedom is freedom and so she completes it and betrays him and fakes her own death in the process (it's all part of the setup to get away).
Clint of course thinks she's dead and he's heartbroken and completely messed up in the head and SHIELD puts him on indefinite leave b/c he's so fucked up after this mission (he had believed he could save her, get her to defect, come back with him, etc.) So when he finally gets his act together enough to function, fast-forward six months and he meets a girl named Natalie Rushman who bears a striking resemblance to his long-lost love. And of course Natalie is Natalia and she knows she should run the minute she sees him but she can't b/c she loves him too, only the tragedy is that he's fallen in love with the image of who she was before and he can't love who she is now. So he asks her to physically transform into looking like the woman he once loved and is still obsessed with and she agrees, and it's like 8,000 different kinds of fucked up and tormented--and of course at the time, he doesn't realize it's the same woman until he's sees the necklace (the scene I've written here)-- she made the mistake of keeping the necklace that was a part of the original hoax. (And of course she made the mistake of keeping the necklace for sentimental reasons b/c she loves him too and also, hello? Tragic doomed love.)
(and yes, similar to the film I have a whole backstory about the act that she puts on about the RR supposedly brainwashing her to believe that she's a 19th century mad Russian princess as a trigger/story for why she'd want to take her own life...)
AND OMG, THIS COMMENT HAS GOTTEN WAY OUT OF HAND. Whew. Well that was way more than you anted to know. Long story short? Plot of Vertigo coopted into C/N land. O_o
Re: FIC: from among the dead, PG-13 (noir AU) no warnings (2/2)workerbee73August 20 2012, 17:28:23 UTC
Hey you! I'm glad you liked it! :D You know my ridiculous devotion to that film; I had always wanted to work it to somehow fit pilots but it never felt right. With assassins though, I think we may have found a match...
And you're in luck, b/c I think Bob's contemplating a follow-up as soon as she's done playing in dirtybadwrong student/professor AU land! Woo! :D
He’s also seen it around the neck of a dead woman on the night they’d first met.
Natalie-Natalia-turned in his arms; she hadn’t noticed the subtle shift in his breathing, hadn’t noticed the hardness that crept into his eyes. “I do have you now, don’t I?” she asked, her voice searching and the tiniest bit hesitant. She didn’t give him a chance to answer, just captured his lips instead.
The kiss was fierce and desperate and when she pulled away he let himself notice the sadness in her face; a permanent expression that had taken up residence the day he'd asked her to be someone else. He pulled her tight against him, fingered the clasp of the necklace as he stared at the two of them in the mirror, trying to slow down his spinning head enough to think clearly.
“Where do you want to go tonight?” she whispered, nipping lightly at his ear. "Or, we could always stay in..." she suggested as her lips began to trace a path down to his own.
Clint pulled back, running calloused fingers over her cheeks, across lips, down the delicate column of her throat until they traced along the damning evidence around her neck. His smile was predatory.
“I think we should go for a drive.”
***
One year before…
“It’s a simple operation. We know you’ve been on SHIELD’s radar for quite a while, and we know they’ve made a couple of attempts already.”
“Amateurs,” she said.
“That was just a warm-up; don’t underestimate them. They have impressive resources.”
“So what’s the mission?”
Drakov slid a file across the table. “It’s all in there.”
She skimmed through the first page. “Are you serious?” Granted it was a stupid question, since the man never joked. She rephrased. “How could this possibly work?”
“There’s some very specific intel we want, and we know that they’ve been tracking you. Now we think we have an opportunity to capitalize on that. We’ve laid the groundwork, set the trap. Now it’s up to you to provide the hook.”
She skimmed through a few more pages. “This will never work. A civilian maybe, but a trained operat-”
“I have analysts to plan this out; you are merely the tool to accomplish the ends. Don’t make the mistake of trying to think for yourself.”
She bit down her retort and eyed him warily.
“And just to add a bit of incentive to the mix,” Ivan continued, “If you succeed, you are free.”
“Free?” she repeated the word as if she had never heard it before.
“Free to go, free to leave, no longer under the auspices of the program-however you’d like to define it. You’re 23 now and starting to become a liability. It’s this or… something far messier.”
She couldn’t think of a thing to say for a full two minutes. “You’d just… let me go?”
Ivan shrugged. “It’s not like you’ve ever been privy to that many secrets, and we’ve taken great pains to wipe the rest away,” he gestured casually to the faint needle marks on her arm. “Should you make any trouble, we can always put you down. But yes, free. So long as you successfully complete this mission.”
She looked back down at the file. Suddenly the pieces of paper held more than just an objective. “You said I was the hook,” she continued. “Who’s the mark?”
Her handler slid another file across the table. In was a photograph and a name, and she stared down at both.
She looked back up at Drakov. “A sniper?”
“With a weakness for beautiful women.”
She looked back down at the photograph, studied the dossier underneath it. Assassin, marksman, senior field agent. Kill rate: 97%. If this was the key to her freedom, so be it.
"So, Natalia, do we have your cooperation?"
She looked up and smiled. “When do I start?”
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Gah, I really don't want to get bogged down in a big ole multi-chapter thing, and this would take a lot of plotting and scheming. But we'll see. You know that offer always works both ways, right? Should you ever want to dip your toe in this verse you're more than welcome. In fact,I would strongly encourage it; I suspect you'd write it even better than me. ;)
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
My brain hurts even trying to plot this thing out. I have no idea how they got to this point, other than it's so,so tragic and wrong and all the unhappy things. And the fact that they fell is love is just an unfortunate complication for everyone. But it's so beautiful and tragic that it's kind of fun to ponder.
OMG collegeAU! What's going to happen with those crazy kids? Are they even emotionally capable of falling in love or are they just two highly functioning sociopaths who happen to have found each other? (which I guess if you think about it could kind of be its own love story...)
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**SEAL CLAPS**
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Poor Tasha. Poor Clint. They have more issues than the New York Times.
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They do, bless 'em. Oh the tragedy. The delicious tragedy.
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*is dead*
I have so many thoughts running through my head right now. Is it all just an act to her? Does Clint let her live? Does he love her? Does she love him? TELL ME!
I love noir AUs, especially for these two, so this was PERFECT.
Her hair was pulled back, just the way he liked it, and there was hardly a trace of makeup on her except for just a hint around the eyes-his preference as well. Same with the shoes and the clothes, same with everything about her. Always the same.
I know it's AU, but hello, headcanon! In my headcanon Clint always had a weakness for the 1940s femme fatale or pinup look, and Natasha knows and takes full advantage of this fact. Because she can wear it to perfection.
The kiss was fierce and desperate and when she pulled away he let himself notice the sadness in her face; a permanent expression that had taken up residence the day he'd asked her to be someone else.
Wait, what? He asked her to be someone else? TELL ME!
You’re 23 now and starting to become a liability. It’s this or… something far messier.”
For some reason this gave me chills.
I love all of this! THE FEELS. SUCH FEELS.
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In my version, the Red Room wants SHIELD info and knows they've sent Hawkeye to kill her, but they've given her orders to seduce him instead, make him fall for her, make him trust her-- and she succeeds only too well. So well in fact that he does fall in love with her but she ends up falling for him too.
But a mission is a mission and freedom is freedom and so she completes it and betrays him and fakes her own death in the process (it's all part of the setup to get away).
Clint of course thinks she's dead and he's heartbroken and completely messed up in the head and SHIELD puts him on indefinite leave b/c he's so fucked up after this mission (he had believed he could save her, get her to defect, come back with him, etc.) So when he finally gets his act together enough to function, fast-forward six months and he meets a girl named Natalie Rushman who bears a striking resemblance to his long-lost love. And of course Natalie is Natalia and she knows she should run the minute she sees him but she can't b/c she loves him too, only the tragedy is that he's fallen in love with the image of who she was before and he can't love who she is now. So he asks her to physically transform into looking like the woman he once loved and is still obsessed with and she agrees, and it's like 8,000 different kinds of fucked up and tormented--and of course at the time, he doesn't realize it's the same woman until he's sees the necklace (the scene I've written here)-- she made the mistake of keeping the necklace that was a part of the original hoax. (And of course she made the mistake of keeping the necklace for sentimental reasons b/c she loves him too and also, hello? Tragic doomed love.)
(and yes, similar to the film I have a whole backstory about the act that she puts on about the RR supposedly brainwashing her to believe that she's a 19th century mad Russian princess as a trigger/story for why she'd want to take her own life...)
AND OMG, THIS COMMENT HAS GOTTEN WAY OUT OF HAND. Whew. Well that was way more than you anted to know. Long story short? Plot of Vertigo coopted into C/N land. O_o
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As always, I love your Clint and Nat...
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And you're in luck, b/c I think Bob's contemplating a follow-up as soon as she's done playing in dirtybadwrong student/professor AU land! Woo! :D
Thanks, bb. I'm so glad the characters worked. :)
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