Clint Barton was sitting in the cafeteria of the SHIELD base biting on a sandwich. He was kind of bored, he had really nothing to do. He was thinking about going to the shooting range, or having a good spar with his partner, Natasha Romanoff.
He smiled a bit. Everyone thought there was something between them, but there was nothing besides partnership and friendship. Of course Tasha was a beautiful woman and a deadly one and that was kind of a turn on, but Clint never tried to pursue a romantic relationship with her. Well, that wasn't entirely truth, he thought about it once and even asked her out, but she said no and he hasn't tried or thought about it since.
Maybe it was for the better. It could complicate things, that was for sure. And they both knew it and never spoke of the one time Clint asked Natasha out.
He finished his sandwich, got up and threw the thin foil in the trash bin.
As he was walking the halls of the base, his comm link buzzed gently and he heard Phil Coulson's voice in his ear.
"Barton, come in."
He brought his hand to his ear and touched his ear piece to answer.
"Hey, Phil. What's up?"
"Come see me in my office."
Clint grimaced a little. He wanted to go shoot.
"What's this about?"
"An agent who just passed the field exams, but could use a little help. Get here asap."
"On my way."
And with that said, Clint changed his course for Phil's office.
Agent Phil Coulson has been his and Natasha's handler for quite some time. He was outgoing and kind of goofy, especially geeking out on Captain America (he had a trading cards collection to prove that), but it took some time to see that. He was always calm and collected, knew what to say, when to say it and how to react in situations.
Clint thought they couldn't have assigned them a better handler than Coulson.
He finally came to the door of Phil's office and knocked twice.
He waited until he heard Phil say "Come in" from the other side of the door.
Clint got in and closed the door behind him. Phil got up from his chair and stood at the left side of his desk.
A young woman sitting in one of the chairs opposite the desk stood up as well.
Coulson shook Clint's hand.
"Good to see you, Clint."
"Yeah, you too, Phil."
Clint's eyes fell on the woman. She had captivating green-blue eyes, shiny blonde hair that fell on her back just beneath her shoulder blades. A cute and a little shy smirk was playing on her lips. She was dressed in blue jeans and a simple plain black t-shirt with the SHIELD insignia on the left breast.
Phil watched Clint observe her for a second and then he introduced them.
"Clint, this is Agent Barbara Morse. Barbara, this is Clint Barton."
She took Clint's hand and shook it.
"Nice to meet you. Agent Coulson told me quite a lot about you. I'm looking forward to training with you."
Clint nodded.
"Welcome to SHIELD." He told her.
"Thanks."
Phil cleared his throat a little and they turned their attention to him.
"That would be all, Clint show her around the base and you start training tomorrow."
"Alright. See you, Phil." Clint said and turned to leave.
Barbara nodded her head a bit to Phil.
"Agent Coulson."
He gave her an approving nod and with that she turned as well and followed Clint out of the office.
They were walking in silence until Clint spoke.
"So you trained under Coulson and Hill, right?"
"Yes. They are very good at what they do."
Clint nodded.
"The best commanding agents SHIELD has. They're also Fury's right hand man and woman."
The silence fell between them again. Clint noticed that she kept up with his pace with ease, she wasn't breathing hard or anything.
They came to the cafeteria Clint had been eating in earlier.
"So, Barbara." He halted himself. "Can I call you Barbara?" he asked her. "I'm not one for formalities. You can call me Clint if you like."
She gave him a that beautiful shy smile again and pushed a stray of her hair behind her right ear.
"Yeah. You can call me Bobbi, actually."
Clint smiled as well.
"Okay, Bobbi. This is where we eat. If you walk through that door on the left, there's the agents' lounge. We go there just to hang out and stuff."
He continued the tour, showing her the entire ground floor and stating that above them there was just director Fury's office and the briefing room.
They came to the stairs that led both up and down and started to descent to the lower levels.
When they came to the first sub floor, Clint led her through a rather big set of doors to the training area.
"So." He said and clapped his hands together. "This is where we have fun. Shooting range, hand to hand, sparing, cardio. Everything. Even a swimming pool."
Bobbi nodded quite amused.
"Really nice."
A smirk appeared on Clint's face.
"Yeah. Common, I'll show you to your room."
As they were on their way back, Bobbi noticed another staircase, spiral and metal, that went even further down.
"Where does that lead?" she asked Clint.
"That's the detention level. Holding cells and interrogation rooms. It's Natasha's playground."
"Natasha as in …"
"Yes, Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow." He didn't let her finish.
She looked like she was thinking whether to say something or not.
Clint encouraged her.
"If you wanna say something, go ahead, I'm not gon' bite you."
"It's nothing, just…I heard it was you who brought her in against orders."
He smiled.
"Well, yes. And she proofed to be an asset. That all?"
She just nodded her head.
"Okay. I'll show you your room now, common."
