Set during the events of "Iron Man 2", this is the back story of what happened when Natasha wasn't with Stark, what happened after the fight with Rhoades, and how Clint got to New Mexico. Serious hints to a previous mission mishap. Disclaimer: all characters belong to Marvel/Disney.
Malibu
Chapter 1
As she was returning to "Natalie's" apartment after a really lousy day at Stark Industries, Natasha mused on how she was really starting to hate Malibu. No, scratch that, she was really starting to hate Stark. Since when did a spy of her caliber get assigned protective detail? She felt bad for him, but he was truly insufferable. What Pepper saw in him, she doesn't know.
As she shuffled through the dark apartment, she noticed it. The table was laid out with a pizza box, a six pack of beer, and what looked like a mini flashlight set on its end to resemble a candle. "hmm, speaking of insufferable", she thought.
Obviously not seeing him the living room of the smallish flat, she took her time walking to the bedroom.
He was there, lying upside down off the bed, reading a book. He pretended to ignore her. She smiled despite herself. Leaning against the door frame with a mock disapproving look, she only let a few seconds pass before giving in.
"Is it better upside down?" she asked.
Her tease drew a smirk and Clint flipped up off up the bed, crossing the distance between them in 2 steps.
"Why don't you come find out", he propositioned, softly pulling her arms toward him.
Natasha rolled her eyes and glided back to the kitchen table, intent on finding the beer. Clint followed like a puppy. She opened two bottles, jabbed one in his direction, and took a long drink of hers. Clint took a drink, set the bottle on the table, adopted his typical straight military posture, and waited for the scolding that was about to come. His snarky maneuver was not lost on her. Any other time and Natasha would have taken the opening to harass him in an instant. But tonight, she was just too tired and too happy to see him.
Striding to the couch and dropping into it with a sigh; she gave Clint the glance he was waiting for.
"Come sit with me?" she asked almost sweetly. Well, sweetly for her anyway.
Never one to waste time, Clint plopped down beside her, giving her a big grin. She put her head on his shoulder.
"How's it doing?" she asked, nodding to the other shoulder.
"It's good. I should be cleared by medical in few days".
"I'm glad." She said, leaning into his good shoulder a little tighter.
It had been a month since the accident and the surgery, and Clint was relieved that Natasha was finally not mad at him anymore. The one who got hurt was the one who was in trouble – at least in Clint and Natasha's world anyway. He contemplated his next words carefully. If he asked about the current mission, she'd think he was trying to avoid the obvious. If he went straight to their last mission, she'd think he wanted to fight. Clint hadn't broken about dozen SHIELD rules to get here, just to fight.
"Want some pizza? He offered.
She shrugged. He could read the meaning of even her tiniest movements. She was really saying "I just want to sit with you.
Sitting, he could handle.
After a few minutes, it seemed safe enough to talk.
"So, what's it like babysitting a billionaire", he started, nonchalantly. "Champaign and caviar, and all that?"
"He's dying of palladium poisoning."
"Well that sucks."
"Yeah, but I don't want to talk about him."
"ugh oh, dangerous territory, fall back", he thought. Back to sitting still with his mouth shut.
"Dam", his head was killing him and just wanted to take his aids out. But, he thought about how incredibly much his didn't want to have think about that subject right now. He'd stick with the headache for a little while longer.
"Clint?"
"Yeah?"
"You can kiss me now."
Clint obliged, pulling her into an embrace, slowly, deliberately, kissing her softly on the mouth.
She pulled back, not out of rejection, but of contentment, laying her head on his good shoulder again.
"Clint?"
"Yeah?"
"If you were dying, what would you do? I mean what would you spend your time doing?"
He took a deep breath , "Well, guess if I had time then I would do whatever I wanted to do, with whoever I wanted to do it with," he said leaning into her.
She smiled, her eyes still closed. "Isn't that what we're doing right now?"
"That's cause all us are dying, Nat. We're always dying and we just need to learn to our best with the time we've got left."
She swallowed hard and hugged him tight. He leaned his head back and just held her in that position for as long as she would let him. After a few minutes, her grip loosened and she relaxed into him.
"All done talking about death?" he ventured.
Natasha nodded and started caressing his torso softly. At this point, he really wasn't sure which way the evening was going to go. Then, her caresses became a little more obvious. Maybe it's going to go ok after all, he thought.
"Natasha", he whispered softly in her ear.
She left his side to sit on his lap, straddling him, and leaned in for another kiss. She sat up, about to find a slightly more comfortable position. After all, she planned on being here a while. He took that second to stretch his neck back, closing his eyes. When Clint sat up again, Natasha had her palm out, fingers wiggling, in the "hand them over motion". Busted. As quickly as only a sniper could do, he slipped the aids out and into his pocket without comment. She smiled and returned to kissing him. Clint closed his eyes, so the only sensations he had was of the woman he loved sitting on his lap, kissing him.