Perfect by Sinope (R)

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

Fandom: AVENGERS
Pairing: Clint Barton/Phil Coulson, Clint Barton/Darcy Lewis (background)
Length: 8271 words
Author on LJ: eponis
Author Website: Author's AO3 page
Why this must be read:

Let's start with the author's summary:

"But you were at least interested in men, right?"
In which Loki left Clint with an extra gift, and everything is perfect, right up until it isn't.

That's the part I'm leaving outside the cut, apart from saying "this is extremely smart and it should be read, but please read the author's warnings if you think you might need them!"

For the rest - i.e., if you want to be spoiled - click here:

So...there's a trope in slash fic which goes by the following initials: WNGWJLEO (We're Not Gay, We Just Love Each Other"), in which two straight-identified, same sex characters fall in love with each other without any change in their general sexual orientation. This does, of course, happen in real life, but nothing like as ridiculously often as it seems to happen in fanfic.

Sinope's story is, as she notes in the tags, a subversion of that trope, because while Clint Barton is entirely straight-identified (Phil is gay in this story), Loki's mind control left him unexpectedly open to a sexual/romantic relationship with Coulson, and so a relationship begins, with Clint being none the wiser.

And then the spell is removed.

Many of us would like to live in a world where love and attraction have nothing to do with our potential partners' chromosomes or our own social conditioning, but for a lot of people, those things are anything but insignificant.

Are they obstacles we can't get past? Read "Perfect" and see.

Perfect