Yeah, so I stopped procrastinating posting this.

Title: Spare Me Over Another Year
Fandom: The Avengers
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Clint/Natasha, Clint/Bobbi
Wordcount: 9324
Warnings: Character deaths (see notes), canon and world typical violence
Disclaimer: Watch me as I write fiction about fiction. All recognisable characters are property of Marvel and Disney.
Beta: The wonderful shenshen77, who has been ridiculously helpful once again. Also thanks to alphaflyer and inkvoices, who are great to bounce ideas off.
Notes: This started out as a sort of American Gods/The Book Thief/Avengers fusion, with a bit of Sandman thrown in. But then it turned into something else, though those elements can still be seen if you look hard enough. Death in this is similar to death as seen in Sandman/American Gods. So they die, but they don’t die.

Inspired by a prompt from _samalander which I saw in the be_compromised Secret Santa 2013; in her time as a reaper, Natasha has collected a lot of souls. She's never fallen in love with one before. For _samalander (obviously) but also inkvoices, who’s wanted an American Gods fusion ever since my prompt at the 2012 Summer Promptathon, and also my friend Jenna, to whom I gave this story as a (late) Christmas present.

Title from O Death as sung by Jen Titus. Lyric from Wake Up by Arcade Fire.

With my lighting bolts a-glowing
I can see where I am going to be
When the reaper
[S]he reaches
And touches
My hand