She narrowly missed his punch while her emotions was running wild. They were friends, best of friends, they used to fight for the right thing together but nobody knows what's right anymore. She knew he was following her, she brought him to this abandoned building to get him off her trail. She tried to go on fighting, cause she was fighting for Steve and her partner wasn't, instead he was fighting for the other team. She can't call him out on it though cause he made a choice and she just made a different one. That was what he saved her for, so she could make her own choices.
"That's not the Tasha I know." As he succesfully knocked her off her stance without much effort.
"Shit, I deserved that" she thought as his eyes bore into her green ones. "You don't get to call me that anymore Barton" her voice cold.
Natasha tried to get him off, but he weighed a ton and he knew better than to let the Black Widow even have an inch of leverage. He was using his weight to his advantage. She tried to use her Widow's bite but Clint managed to dodge it and he did something she would never expect him to. He started choking her.
"We're still friends right?" she asked quietly.
"Depends on how hard you hit me" Clint challenged.
Challenge accepted Barton, she punched his sides since he freed her hands when he decided to choke her. "I wasn't trained to let my emotions get better of me" Natasha told herself. Clint managed to get back on his feet quickly enough, but when she was about to land another punch on him, "I guess we're still friends Romanoff, take care of yourself will you? Cut this old man some slack." He smirked before he took off.
She couldn't miss it, she's a spy and he knew she wouldn't. She grabbed the envelope he managed to slip between her suit and her belt. This was why he was following her, he knew she wasn't going to lead him to anything. She ripped it open, and there was a Budapest post card scribbled with Clint's surprisingly neat handwriting at the back.
To my dearest Spider,
I wish I could show that girl I found all those years ago that she always had a heart. Do you miss me tasha? Who wouldn't miss this incredibly endearing Marksman, right? There there, stop rolling your eyes. I miss you tasha. I miss holding you. We may be on different sides, we may be fighting for different things but what I've said all these years still stands tasha. We'll get through this, all of us will. To be honest, I don't know what I'm fighting for anymore tasha. Nobody gets me like you, and I miss having you Partner. You seem to know what you're fighting for, and I couldn't be happier for you. I love you tasha, you're everything to me.
"I know you're still here, Clint" she growled
"I'll go with the fact we're now on first name basis again and ignore that you're pissed" Clint slipped back into the room. "You know tasha, the next time someone slips a postcard maybe you'd want to say thank you? I mean-"
"You don't get to do this Clint. You don't get to come wading back into my life when I tried so hard to forget that you're on the other team! Why do you always come back? I can't deal with this Clint. We chose this for ourselves, we should live with the consequences. We can't have this and fight on different sides. That's not what I signed up for." She shot back without looking at him.
"What did you sign up for then tasha? To kill me?" his voice low.
"No. You know I'd never do that to you. Your blood will never be on my hands Clint. Besides, who was the one trying to kill me just a moment ago. Hypocrite."
"So you're throwing it all away?! You're throwing whatever we had?! That's not fair tasha!"
"When was life ever fair? When was life on our side? You can't expect me to have you and be on the other side. You know that, you always knew when we picked our sides. So you don't get to say I'm not being fair, we're both as much to blame." Natasha's voice cracking.
Clint took a step closer, "It's not worth it. This isn't worth it. This war isn't worth me losing you tasha."
"There's something a whole lot bigger than us Clint. We can't-"
"So after all this, what then? After we're done with this war, what happens then tasha? After all that we're still friends right?" Clint threw back her question.
Natasha's face went blank and Clint could no longer read her. He knew what was coming, he was about to speak to the Black Widow instead. Natasha's way of running, protecting herself. "No, you're NOT running from this." Clint raised his voice.
"There's nothing more to talk about Barton." She said curtly.
"You know there's more. You know what you're doing tasha. I can't do this anymore. I can't keep fighting you. Let me in tasha." Clint's voice was breaking.
"We're still friends." And with that she took off.