code_blue | (no subject)

Downtime. The phrase seemed almost alien to Natasha, who spent most of her time working in some way or another. When she wasn’t on a job, she was usually preparing for another job, in what seemed like an endless cycle of work, work, and even more work. It was a cycle that had started when she was a child, and, when it came down to it, she liked it. What was it people did with their time off, anyway? Sit around idly, perfectly content to do absolutely nothing? It was a concept that she didn’t understand.

Every once in a while, though, it was nice, she supposed. She still wasn’t exactly sure what to do with herself, but the people around her always managed to come up with something, so it wasn’t a waste. It could actually be fun. As long as it didn’t last too long, anyway. And sometimes, after a mission, it really was good just to spend some time winding down with a friend before getting ready to go out and save the world again.

She’d never admit it out loud (for fear of feeding his ego), but Barton was her favorite person to spend time with outside of work. There was just something about him that managed to get her to loosen up every time, and, at times, that was something she sorely needed. This was why, after returning to base from a classified mission to a classified location, she found himself at his door, knocking.

Threaded | Flat

For Clint’s part, he wasn’t exactly the most social creature. Most of his missions were solo fare, sometimes only seeing whoever was relieving him from surveillance duty in the run of the day, so he was used to solitude. That wasn’t to say that he didn’t enjoy the company of others when he had downtime to spare, but when it came to working he preferred to do his own thing, go his own way.

Sometimes even he was still surprised that he had accepted the position as part of the Avengers Initiative. It wasn’t really his stye, but after everything that had happened he couldn’t quite bring himself to refuse. Somehow he hadn’t wanted to say no.

Sitting in his room, the chair half facing the wall where he had one foot propped, he was just doing some reading when he heard the knock at his door. The corner of his mouth slowly curving up in a smirk, he finished his paragraph before setting the book aside and getting up to answer. He knew who would be on the other side before he even opened it.

“Business or pleasure?” he quipped, grinning at Natasha as he opened the door. 