Imagine If You Assembled the Avengers: Volume 1

Can't Be Fixed (Barton x reader)

Based on the song "Arms" by Christina Perri

I never thought that you would be the one to hold my heart

But you came around and you knocked me off the ground from the start

You put your arms around me

And I believe that it's easier for you to let me go

You put your arms around me and I'm home

"Why are women so hard to figure out?" Clint groaned, resting his head on the kitchen table on top of his crossed arms, his posture looking completely defeated.

Steve stopped mid-chew and looked at him, clearly and completely confused. "Are you afking meef?" he asked, with a mouth full of cereal threatening to spill.

"Do you see anyone else here?"

The Captain looked around the room as he finished chewing, completing with a forced swallow and returning to looking at Clint with confusion. "No, but you ask me of all people? I have a less than stellar track record with the ladies. At least you have a girlfriend."

"Had...a girlfriend."

Steve leaned back in his chair and set his bowl down on the table, the room now holding a silence so uncomfortable that the sound of his spoon hitting the side of it resonated around them. He took a deep breath and waited for Barton to say any more, but when he didn't, he finally broke the quiet with a single word.

"Again?"

How many times will you let me change my mind and turn around?

I can't decide if I'll let you save my life or if I'll drown

I hope that you see right through my walls

I hope that you catch me 'cause I'm already falling

I'll never let our love get so close

You put your arms around me and I'm home

The world is coming down on me and I can't find a reason to be loved

I never wanna leave you but I can't make you bleed if I'm alone

Dating Clint was exactly as you imagined it would be from the day that Natasha had introduced you to him. Sure, she had talked him up, making him sound like the world's perfect boyfriend, but she really wasn't far off. It was an easy friendship that didn't take long to develop into love, but your own fears of how to be in a relationship kept getting in the way. You had been hurt too many times and it clouded your attempts at happiness, with your last attempt before Clint being much more traumatic than any others.

"Was this argument any different than the last one?" Maria asked, handing you a glass of wine, though you only pushed it away. "Or any different than the last hundred?"

"Smartass," you scoffed, "don't you think I know how this looks? When I say 'it's not him, it's me', I mean it. I screw these things up, no matter how good they are for me. He's better off just moving on once and for all."

She sat herself down at the table across from you, gently swirling her glass in her hands, careful to not allow the dark red liquid to spill over the rim. Several minutes had passed with her watching you, maybe waiting for you to say something, or maybe waiting to know what to say, but the silence was grating on the both of you.

"Maria, just say what you want to say. I can take it."

She cleared her throat and took a long drink from her glass, setting it down and waiting for a moment again before she spoke. She looked at you until you finally relented and met her gaze, making it clear that she wanted you to hold it. "(Y/N), have you ever thought that maybe the reason you keep going back to him is because that's where you're supposed to be?"