The Hug Meme

[semimeme]

HUG MEME

 

- Put up a thread with your character, fandom, and any prefs (if applicable) and wait for someone to tag in with hugs!

- Go to other threads, either pick the number you want or go to RNG.

 

1. Friendly hug - this person is your good pal, and you just wanna give them a fond squeeze to let them know.

2. Romantic hug - you just want to be closer, so wrap your arms around them, maybe rub their back some...

3. Bear hug - maybe you haven't seen them in a while, so how about a giant hug that lifts them off their feet

4. Hug from behind - surprise them, guess who?! or maybe they're having a bad day, cheer them up.

5. Awkward hug - maybe it's on accident, but whatever the case is, you can't help but feel a little nervous about hugging them.

6. Reluctant hug - whoever this person is, you have to hug them, better make it quick!

7. "I'm sorry!" hug - actions speak louder than words, will this person get the message?

8. Give a little extra hug - give them a kiss with it, cheek, shoulder nuzzle, whatever - but let the hug linger a little!

9. Don't WANT a hug - make them see sense! Cling, and don't let go for anything oohcookiegimme! - if you're the hugged, try to get loose. Or maybe you'll give in!

10. Random or other kind of hug - pick the choice you like best, or make up your own!

Comments

7

[ledgerinred]

[Apologies weren't really their style, though when a serious fuck up happened, sometimes they were due.]

Clint, you know I didn't meant for that to happen.

[Natasha frowned and moved toward him slowly, unsure if he'd accept her company at the moment. Though she was willing to try and make amends. Carefully she set a hand on his shoulder, testing the waters.]

[broken_arrow]

[Clint stood on the roof overlooking the city, his face set in a permanent frown. He heard her approaching even before she spoke but didn't acknowledge her]

I know. You never do.

[He tensed under her touch but otherwise didn't move]

[ledgerinred]

[Natasha couldn't afford to take his feelings into consideration when she was on a mission. She just couldn't.

It was only after the fact that her gut tore itself into pieces.]

It was what I had to do. [She still couldn't bring herself to say the words. Though her hand slid slowly along his shoulder until it reached the back of his neck. She trembled a little as she turned her body into his.]

Please.

[broken_arrow]

[Their job often didn't leave room for feelings, but they weren't that easy to turn off]

I know.

[He still stood stock still as she pressed close to him until her quiet plea made him let out a shuddering breath and sag against her slightly, though he didn't yet return the embrace]

[ledgerinred]

[She wrapped her free arm around him tightly. Pulling his head down to her shoulder. Not an inch of contact would be wasted.]

I will fix it. I promise. [Whether she was promising him, or herself, that wasn't altogether clear. Natasha's fingers curled up into his hair, she would make herself the entire world to him, if she could.]

Just don't- don't walk away from me. [It was begging, as pure and simple as that. She begged him not to leave.]

[broken_arrow]

Part of him wanted to pull away but he didn’t have the strength. He let her move him, mold him to her, and only when she curled her fingers in his hair, pulling his head down to rest on her shoulder, did he give in and turn his face inward, burying it in her neck.

“I couldn’t if I tried,” Clint admitted. Raising one arm his fingers just ghosted along her waist, still hesitant to give himself over completely. He could never walk away from her, that much was true, but he could try to hold his ground.

Try and fail; he knew the outcome already.

[ledgerinred]

The cold truth was that she already knew it too.

Natasha didn't mean to be the hard hearted bitch that used her skills at manipulation on the one closest to her. It just wasn't a switch she could turn off at will. Coupled with the only honest motivation she ever had, to pay him back for everything he'd ever done for her. She was the most real she could ever be right now.

That might not be enough.

"I love you." It hurt to say it, only because she couldn't stop herself. The expression of love was just another tool in the spy's possession. Natasha couldn't even be sure if it was a truth in itself. At least she knew it wasn't a lie.

The worst part was that she knew it wouldn't help him to hear it. He couldn't believe her.

[broken_arrow]

Those words, those three little words, made his heart positively ache. Did she have any idea how badly he wanted to believe them? Did she know how much he wanted to hear her say those words to him and know them to be true? It was the thing he wanted most from her, and the one thing he was sure she could never really give him.

Still, he found himself giving in further, one arm sliding around her waist as he chuckled bitterly against her neck. “Don’t,” he said simply. He knew that, to her, those words were just another weapon in her arsenal, they didn’t really mean anything, and the ugly truth was that she didn’t need to say them to get him to give in; he would eventually give in without them like he always did.

[ledgerinred]

She closed her eyes as she held him. It was a luxury that Natasha rarely allowed herself. To be unaware of one's own surrounding at all times was to court disaster.

The sensation of the breeze and Clint were all that she was aware of. Natasha would go home with him tonight, if he wanted that. The desire to connect with him and share something good outweighed any hesitations. "Are we going to be okay?"

It was the only thing that she couldn't predict.

[broken_arrow]

It was an honest question, and one he didn’t know how to answer this time. Each time something like this happened he felt another piece of his heart break. How long until there was nothing left? How long until it was shattered beyond repair? He should say no, tell her what he wanted, what he needed to make this work, and if she couldn’t concede then he should walk away.

“We always are,” he kept with the resigned answers instead, his other arm encircling her waist as he finally pulled her to him, holding her tightly.

[ledgerinred]

That idea had some appeal. Natasha liked to pretend that if he asked her to make it work for real, she'd say yes. It was a fantasy that could almost work. After all, the thing she feared most was the day he would finally walk away from her.

Sensing that he needed her not to say anything else, Natasha pressed her mouth down against his shoulder.

[broken_arrow]

For a long while he just held clung to her, breathing her in, the only sound that of their hearts beating together. When he finally broke the silence it was after a deep breath that he let out slowly.

"When I say it I actually mean it, you know." His voice was quiet, muffled against her skin.

[ledgerinred]

"I know."

A burning tear slipped down the corner of her nose and surprised Natasha almost speechless. She hadn't realized that she could still actually cry, and not just summon it at will.

"I want to, do you know that?" She want's to be able to say those words and mean them. If only that was enough to count for something.

[broken_arrow]

He didn’t know that, because while they had an uncanny, silent understanding regarding many things when it came to each other, this one he couldn’t quite get. He knew how she had used the words in the past, that maybe they had stopped having any true meaning to her, but shouldn’t he be different? Maybe he was just fooling himself.

“Then why can’t you?” It was probably a conversation they should have sitting down, face to face, but it was just easier not having to look at her, and he just... didn’t want to let her go, not now that she was in his arms.

[ledgerinred]

"Plausible deniability."

The answer came to her with a wry kind of clarity. "If it's the truth, it can be used against me." Which, was really more of a technicality than anything else. Anyone with the kind of detailed intelligence on her would know that Clint was a weak point in her armor.

"..even if I couldn't say it- " Natasha could feel it. She just didn't know if she could make him understand that.

[broken_arrow]

His reaction to her words was to scoff. It was just such a ‘spy’ answer; even when she wasn’t on the job she couldn’t shake the mentality. “It could be used against you whether it was true or not so long as someone believes it.”

The worst part was that there was a part of him that understood; as much as he hated it, there was a part of him that got it because he got her.

“What? You can show it?” his words sounded cold, bitter. Slackening his hold on her he ran one hand up her back, fisting the material of her jacket in his hand as he slouched his shoulders and moved his head to rest against her collarbone. “You can lie just as well with your body as you can with your words.”

[ledgerinred]

He was right, but the point was that she was the 'someone' that was most dangerous to herself.

"Don't." Natasha stiffens a little. She's used to being called a whore or worse. The men that she tricks have fewer manners when they find out she's won.

She doesn't like it when Clint says anything like that. It makes her want to hurt him in return. Or in this case, the hurting him was a bit preemptive.

"Because you have a funny way of proving you're not interested in that." The verbal strike came out unbidden from her mouth. She had a funny way with apologies, it seemed.

[broken_arrow]

Clint regretted the words even as he said them, but he was hurt and lashing out and he couldn’t seem to stop himself. He knew it wasn’t true, at least when it pertained to him. Maybe she didn’t love him, maybe she never would, but she did care a lot about him, more than anyone else ever had in his life. She protected him, fought with him, fought for him, and that should have been enough. Most days it was. Most days he didn’t care if she said those three overused words or not because it didn’t matter, because what they had was so much more than that. But on the rare occasion such as this one, when sometime happened to make him doubt everything, it just made everything so much harder to deal with.

He flinched at her words, a movement she would have felt considering how close they were, and for a moment his whole body stiffened.

“Because I want you,” he said after a moment. “I just... I want all of you.”

[ledgerinred]

Natasha did feel his reaction, and she pushed back physically. Moving to break the contact between them. Her expression is half furious and half stone. Which is pretty much everything she's made up of anyway.

"You need to grow up, Clint." The words were harsher than the tone she said them in.

She isn't sure exactly why she's got it in for him tonight of all nights. Her intention had only been to fix what had gone wrong with them, not to drive a wedge further in.

[broken_arrow]

Her reaction was quick and violent and Clint stumbled back a step. He immediately felt the loss of her warmth, of the contact, and while he looked almost bewildered for a moment, the anger quickly took over. He didn’t know what her problem was tonight, usually they could get past these incidents easy enough, but this was different, much harsher than normal. She wasn’t made of stone, no matter how hard she might try to convince people she was. He knew her softness, her compassion. She might have hid it away but it was there; he just wasn’t sure where it was at this moment.

“You’re the one that needs to grow up,” he said, the anger in his voice the only thing keeping him from sounding like a petulant child. “Not everyone is out to get you, and love doesn’t have to be a weakness someone will just exploit!”