The Gilded Arrow | Hawkeye X Male!reader |

Stay Buried

He'd been doing it again, having one of his fits and spiraling. It got harder and harder to watch each time, helping him would only hurt you but you couldn't bear to just stand behind and watch. Standing in front of the door to his office the room felt like it was closing in on itself, getting darker the only way out was to open the door. As you want to open it the door begins to creep open itself, James was delivered and frantically handling some books and papers.

"James...it's late you should get some rest." You spoke without knowing.

He kept his focus on the papers, either not noticing you or wanting to. "Please, I know this is important but you're going to hurt yourself," You were pleading at this point.

His head turned slowly, moving with an eeriness and he just struck you with a glare "Yes very important," he said. The door behind you shut as he began to walk closer to you, the closer he got the easier it was to see his gaunt face. He had his bloodshot eyes that once were a vibrant blue lay a desolate gray, the room began to crawl with sounds of wind rushing. "You're clueless huh, you can't even grasp what I'm trying to do for you, for us." He backed you up against the door towering over you, it seemed like he was growing with each word.

James got louder and bigger "Useless, stupid, ignorant moron, you can't love me as I love you." He shouted insult after insult, each word seeming to take away your breath. Tears built up and when you'd try to stop him your words failed to come out, your "I love you" nearly vanished with the wind. As you felt yourself drawing your last breaths you woke up, breathless and sitting Mika on your chest.

"Everything alright babe?" called Clint who was in the kitchen cooking.

You wanted to tell him no, you wanted to talk with him about it but had no idea what kind of conversation that would be. 'Hey, husband of mine I had a weird dream about my psychotic cultist ex who also showed up at our house yesterday? yeah sounds dumb' you thought. "uhm yeah, Just a weird dream." you said as you got up and went into the kitchen.

Clint was cooking up a storm, he's not the best person to leave in a kitchen unattended but he was much better than you so it was appreciated. "About what?" he said. Sitting on one of the island stools you watched him "Nothing special really, just a dream where you remembered to wear your hearing aids" you joked. He smiled "That's odd cause I've got them on right now," he said, gesturing to his ears.

Clint finished cooking and fixed you up a plate along with giving Mika some of her own food to eat, he said it would be unfair for the both of us to eat without her. He made your favorite, it spilled divine "So how was your meeting?" you said as you took a bite into your meal.

"It was odd, I feel like whatever we're feeling is just mocking us."

You were right it tasted great "What do you mean? I thought you were scooping out an organization at first."

Clint paused for a second thinking about what to say "Well yes but I only said 'organization' because I know your stance on the c-word," He cleared his throat "We're chasing down a cult based on ancient magic that plans on unleashing something dangerous." He fast, hoping you wouldn't catch every word and just forget it.

You now have stopped eating and looked at him "Hm...sounds like a job for Stephen, no?"

"Yes and no," He said with haste.

Your face was scrunched in confusion "What do you mean 'yes and no'?"

He got up with his plate and headed to the sink. "I think it's best we do not talk about this, I'd rather you not start to worry." He washed his plate and came behind you leaving you with a kiss "Love ya, I'm gonna go pass out now".

'"I'd rather you not start to worry" my ass' you thought as you sat at the table alone finishing up your meal, bitter bites of delight.

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A/N: This chapter would've been longer but I want to keep this short, a maximum of 800 words per chapter, Although I already broke that rule as necessary but not as much here.