Imagine If You Assembled The Avengers: Volume 2

Close Your Eyes Part 7: Clint Barton

Song: "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" (Stevie Wonder)

Like a fool I went and stayed too long

Now I'm wondering if your love's still strong

Oo baby, here I am,

Signed, sealed delivered,

I'm yours

"Excuse me, miss? Would you care to dance, maybe?" Clint asked shyly, knowing that your answer would likely be no, but he held his hand out anyway, hoping that the beautiful girl he worked up the courage to approach would take it.

"I'd love to."

"Seriously?" he gasped, a wide smile spreading across his lips at the revelation of what he just heard. "I mean...great!" He excitedly took your hand and led you onto the small dance floor to the enthusiastic cheers and encouragement of Steve, Nat, and Tony from the bar. When he turned to you, his cheeks were a bright red, feeling a little embarrassed by the fuss being made over him. "Sorry about those guys," he nodded back towards them, "they shouldn't be let outside."

"It's fine, Clint, don't worry."

"Great, thanks...wait," he stopped, "you know who I am? I haven't said my name yet...have I?"

"I know exactly who you are, Barton. I've had my eye on you for a while now." You released his hand and spun with a laugh, swaying to the music as he wrapped his arm around your waist to join you. "If you look over there, you'll see Tony paying up. He bet that you wouldn't have the nerve to ask."

"So you're all in on this then," he paused, still smiling and looking at you intently with warm eyes. "Hey, fine by me. I'm the only real winner here, anyway."

Then that time I went and said goodbye

Now I'm back and not ashamed to cry

Oo baby, here I am,

Signed, sealed delivered,

I'm yours

"Will you dance with me, (Y/N)?"

"No. You can't just come back and beg for forgiveness with a dance...and those eyes looking at me like that...Clint, no," you stammered, trying to hold your resolve to not fold, pushing his hands away. He had hurt you one too many times, choosing work over you without so much as a thought to what it was doing to you. You were done living in this kind of pain every time he walked out of your apartment to go on a mission that never guaranteed his return to you.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, taking another step closer, though you took one back. "I didn't think. I've never had someone care before."

"Well you do now. Or you did, Clint."

"You don't anymore, (Y/N)?" he asked sadly, with a new desperation in his voice. "Do you really not care about me?" He was looking at you with those soft eyes again, just has he did that very first night, knowing that it was your weakness. He stepped forward again and tried to reach for you, and this time you allowed it.

"Of course I do," you sighed, feeling your body relax with his touch. "I'm just mad, Clint. You don't stop to think what this does to me."

"I promise, I'll never forget." His arm slid around your waist and pulled you to him as he began to slowly sway back and forth, "dance with me?" His eyes closed at the feeling of you finally agreeing and leaning into him, wrapping your arms around him with a squeeze and resting your head against his chest. "That's yours," he whispered, pressing a kiss against your hair.

"What is?"

"My heart. Only yours."

I've done alot of foolish things

That I really didn't mean

Hey, hey, yea, yea, didn't I, oh baby

Seen alot of things in this old world

When I touched them they did nothing, girl

Oo baby, here I am, signed, sealed delivered,

I'm yours

"Don't step on the dress, Barton," you laughed aloud, trying to hold on as he spun you around the dance floor with the entire team and all of your family watching, cheering you and your new husband on.

"Wouldn't dream of it, baby!"

The day had felt like it had gone on forever, yet you didn't want it to end. The noise of your guests and the beat of the music filled your senses, but the look on Clint's face as he watched you was all that you needed to make the day perfect. As you danced to the same song as your first time at that little bar, your mind flashed back to the look on his face then, and it was the same. His excitement to be next to you had never diminished, and you feared that the day might come when he wouldn't look at you that way anymore.

"Get out of your head, (Y/N)!" he called out over the music. "I can see those gears spinning!"

"But I'm thinking about you!"

"Oh!" he laughed so loud that it was now all you could hear, and the glimmer in his eyes practically lit the room around you. "Then by all means, get back to it!"

Here I am baby,

Oh, you've got the future in your hand

I've done alot of foolish things

That I really didn't mean

I could be a broken man but here I am

Oo baby, here I am, signed, sealed delivered,

I'm yours

"Come here, honey," Sam said gently, wrapping his arms around you, which you returned in kind. "I've got you." He began to sway slowly, comforting you though there was no sound around you other than the quiet calls of the occasional bird flying overhead or the low hum of tears from Natasha as she stood at your side with her hand softly against your back.

Sam had the terrible job of telling you what had happened that day, and that the jet had returned with one less soul aboard. He cried as he told you, as he was now, and he held you as you screamed for Clint and crumbled to the unforgiving floor of the hangar bay in front of him. He promised you then and there to never let you go, just as he had promised Clint when he asked with his final words.

"I'm sorry, (Y/N)," Natasha choked out through her broken breaths, "I'm so sorry."

"Keep dancing with me, Sam, please," you whispered, tightening your grip on him, clutching the loose material of his shirt in your hands. You felt as if you were to let go, you would fall into nothing, and he was the only thing holding you to the ground. The music of your first song had been playing through your mind since that day, and you knew there was only one way to silence it; you had to start letting go.

"Just dance with me."