After SHIELD had collapsed, Natasha had showed up at Clint's apartment and forced him onto the road with her. They didn't stay in a town for more than a week and used brand new aliases every time. Clint always found an archery range and snuck in after hours to practice trick shots without drawing suspicion. Sometimes when an indoor range wasn't available, he'd take a burlap sack he carried for that exact purpose and stuff it with anything he could find to make a target. Sometimes Natasha sat and watched, other times she was out pickpocketing people for or hustling poker for money.
Clint pulled himself up in the tree branch and unstrapped his bow from his shoulders. Drawing back the bow, he lined up his shot. As the arrow flew and knocked over his target, he swore softly and began climbing down from the tree. As he was setting the target back up, Natasha walked into the strip of forest Clint had been using. He pulled the arrow out of the target gently and cleaned the grass clippings off the arrowhead. He sighed in frustration and looked to Natasha.
"Problem?" she asked.
"Just missing when my target didn't fall over after every shot," Clint laughed. Natasha smiled and shook her head slightly.
"Are you sure we can't go back to Stark?" Clint asked. Natasha shook her head sympathetically. Clint tilted his head back to look at the stars.
"Remember how after New York, you asked me to teach you how to shoot a bow?" Clint asked suddenly.
"Not really, but I've gotten hit in the head a few times since then," Natasha admitted.
"You were trying to get me back in the swing of things, get me back to work. Then well, then all hell broke loose," Clint explained, "I can teach you now if you want." Natasha paused in shock for a moment before agreeing. Clint paced out about forty feet from the target and motioned for Natasha to join him.
Clint handed Natasha the bow and she immediately grabbed it with the exact grip she had seen Clint use hundreds of times. She grabbed an arrow out of the quiver on his back and knocked it. Pulling the string back, she leveled the bow, aimed and fired. The arrow flew into the ground next to the stump the target was sitting on. Natasha huffed in annoyance as Clint stifled a laugh.
"Alright, c'mere," Clint requested as he came up behind Natasha. He handed her another arrow which she knocked and pulled back. Clint put his hand on top of hers on the bow and guided her hand that had three fingers curled around the string. Miniscule adjustments aligned the arrow.
"And release," Clint advised. Natasha uncurled her fingers and the arrow flew into the middle of the target.
"Nice!" Clint exclaimed. Gently, he turned Natasha around to face him and grinned at her expression. She was glaring silently at him.
"What?" Clint asked.
"You did all the work, I can do it myself," Natasha stated as she took an arrow from Clint's quiver, drew back and shot at the target. It hit lower than the one Clint had assisted with but it was on the target nonetheless.
"Don't expect recoil, there is none, you're dropping your arm after you release, keep it up until the arrow hits the target," Clint advised. He handed Natasha another arrow and she tried again, coming within inches of the one Clint had helped with. Clint cheered and Natasha clamped a hand over his mouth.
"There are people camping near here so I would advise that in case you just disturbed any of them, we pack up and move somewhere else," she explained softy. Clint nodded and began retrieving the arrows while Natasha spread the contents of the target around and threw the empty sack over her shoulder. Natasha led Clint to the road where she had parked their stolen car of the month and ushered him in. She hopped up in the drivers seat and once Clint was seated kissed him lightly on the lips.
"Thanks for that, even if my memory of asking for the lesson is fuzzy," Natasha smiled.
