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I. Eros - romantic love
“Flowers and heart-shaped boxes and things we’re all too young to know.”
Natasha stepped off the helicopter, standing still for a moment, letting the wind breathe through her hair, unspooling it in long ribbons of red backlit by the fading sun, and she was covered in dirt, spattered with dried, flaking blood; there was gunpowder under her fingernails; she probably hadn’t showered in days and there were days and times when she had looked prettier, more elegant, more like what beautiful was supposed to be, and yet here she was, vicious and dirty and human and triumphant and Clint couldn’t breathe for how goddamn beautiful she was.
II. Storge - familial love
“It’s full of charts and facts and figures and instructions for dancing”
Kate flung herself at the first person to open the door, shouting: “I’m free! I’m free, I’m eighteen and free!” as Matt caught her and spun her around in circles until they were both dizzy and breathless and he was setting her down and Clint was crushing her in a second hug and bellowing “Congratulations!” while Foggy cheered and Natasha laughed, soft and restrained but no less genuine for it because Katie-Kate was eighteen and free and had come home anyway.
III. Philia - friendly love
“Some of it is transcendental – some of it is just really dumb”
Matt stepped through the window from the fire escape, an explanation already on his lips; “Mom and Clint are away on missions and Kate’s off with friends and my apartment’s too damn quiet,” but his words just made Foggy laugh and shake his head because, “Awesome, you can make dinner, I was totally going to make Hamburger Helper and watch Love it or List It like a sad, lonely old man, ” and Matt hates everything about Hamburger Helper but he doesn’t mind HGTV for some unfathomable reason and sometimes you just don’t want to be alone.
IV. Agape - unconditional love
“The book of love is long and boring, and written very long ago.”
Matt doesn’t think Natasha knows how to cry, but when she hugged him tight and whispered “Congratulations, Polygraph” in Russian in his ear at every single one of his graduations; high school, undergrad, law school, her face was a little wet and she smelled ever so faintly of salt and smiles.