((How could I resist such a request? You totally made my night *loves on*))
She sat at the dusty table in kitchen of their rundown safehouse, her jaw clenched tightly against the discomfort. Clint knelt on the floor beside her, his attention fixed on the wound in her leg. He had used a topical anesthetic to reduce the pain, but she still felt the tongs as he’d removed the bullet, the prick of the needle as he made each precise stitch. It didn’t hurt, really, not compared to so many other injuries in the past, and he couldn’t have been more gentle.
How many times had they been in this position: one of them injured while they other fixed them up? It seemed their life was built on pain and adrenaline, and those quiet moments in between, the ones they managed to steal together.
Our life, she thought. Huh. Not ‘their lives”, but life, singular. She hadn’t really thought about it before, how she no longer saw them as separate. When she thought of her future now, she always saw him there by her side.
Watching his careful attentions, the way his long lashes brushed his dirt stained cheek when he blinked, his lips slightly parted as he breathed, and found herself speaking without thinking. “We should get married,” she said. “I think we’ll like it.”
The moment that followed was painfully silent and she regretted the words instantly before she really took in the scene. It wasn’t that he was ignoring her words, or didn’t know how to respond; the fact was that he hadn’t responded at all, hadn’t indicated he’d even heard her. “Clint?”
She touched his shoulder lightly and he looked up, concern in his eyes even as he raised his brows in question. Noting the confused look on her face he clicked in and tapped his ear. Battery died, he signed. You okay?
Nodding, she brushed a hand through his hair and leaned down to kiss him softly before letting him finish his work. She could have asked him again, but her stomach fluttered too much and she told herself the moment had passed. Maybe it would come again some day, and maybe by then they would have more than stolen moments between pain and adrenaline.
