mental link;

[cognitived]

PRACTICAL if we're gonna win this one, some of us might have to lose it.	RESILIENT do you know what it's like to be unmade?
SKILLED if i miss, it means im just another dude with a bow.	DETERMINED this is monsters and magic and nothing we were ever trained for.

( CODE BY WHAMBAM )

Comments

[cognitived]

[ His heart beats, quickening the longer Clint is freed from the shadowy realm. Like this, with Sam's palm smoothed over sternum, Clint can breathe. Fear ebbs, recrimination heating Clint's blood for a minute more before he nods.

They know, yeah, it's true. This is no secret, no surprise -- Clint's got red in his ledger that years as a superhero could never wash away. He's spent decades in the shadows, figures that one day they shadows would try to consume him if he wasn't wary. It's almost amusing, in an ironic sort of way. As it is, Clint scrubs a hand over his brow, fingertips still chilled, and sighs. ]

( Yeah, yeah. )

[ Softly, but the way Clint's mind flickers with the edges of planning for the next time is obvious. How soon? The shadows slumber in his blood, sup on the marrow of his bones. Calling, calling. He wants to sink back into the shadows, push his limits -- but he knows better. ]

( We're done for today though. )

[sizeofyourbaggage]

[ He reaches out without really thinking about it to take Clint's hand in his free one, lips curling into a tiny smirk as he huffs warm air over Clint's fingertips before he laces their fingers together.

His fingers curl into Clint's shirt at the shadows he can feel flickering at Clint's mind, unbidden, and the wings that form his mental shield at its highest level of defense stretch out, wrapping around Clint's mind. Like he can shelter them both from the shadows, like the soft gleam of golden light that glints of the feathers can keep them at bay. ]

( You're damn right we are. )

[ He doesn't have to say it for Clint to know how much Sam isn't willing to risk losing him. They're in each other's heads enough for it to be obvious - and it's not just that, not just that they've become so entangled in each other's minds that it's hard for Sam to pull them apart. It's that Clint is one of the few people he trusts here, the one who knows him the best.

But Sam also knows Clint, knows that he won't be satisfied until he's pushing his limits again. ]

( Maybe tomorrow. )