So this was asked on Tumblr, about why I always have the line 'I've got first watch' and realised it's because this entire fic was written around it. So while I'm in between fics I'll randomly add chapters to it!
Enjoy!
Disclaimer; I disclaim, ok? Go read my other stories to see the more creative disclaimers!
The way she moved startled him. No human can move with such fluidity, such grace, yet in such a threatening way all at once. No human could jump so easily, could land so softly, could take a man out within a second and be onto the next before their baby toe even hit the ground.
No human could beat his eyes, yet here she was.
It made releasing the arrow all the more difficult.
The string was pulled, the arrow locked, shoulders in position, but still his fingers wouldn't move when commanded.
He shouldn't have been sent to kill her. The Black Widow was legendary, she was someone who was feared throughout the world, especially by his employers. Otherwise, a hit wouldn't have been called. Otherwise the great marksman Hawkeye wouldn't have been sent in specifically for this job.
She couldn't be taken out. Anyone as skilled as her, anyone as deathly as her, anyone who could beat his eye like she could was too valuable an asset to be taken down just because some idiots in the higher circles got a little spooked.
His fingers listened when she took out another man, they released the arrow, and it found the skull of it's target.
He could see her flinch as one of the fifteen men who were attacking her in the alleyway crumpled dead before her own eyes, but he didn't see much else because he had jumped from his position on the rooftop to join in her fight. If he was taking her in, it was going to be alive, and it was going to be unharmed, and it was going to be after one hell of a fight.
As he fell from the building, he released another arrow and sent another falling to the ground just as she did the same with a quick snap of the neck. The men didn't know what was happening, that much was evident to Clint more so than who they were or why they were after her. So the confusion of the situation meant that picking off the attackers was a simple task for the two master assassins.
A smirk spread across his face when the last one was taken down by the Widow, for a moment she hunched over with her hands on her knees to catch a bit of a breath. She knew he wasn't a threat before he even knew, otherwise he'd either be dead or unconscious right about now.
The bow found it's place slung over his back by the quiver of arrows as he slowly approached her.
"About time you made an appearance." She sighed, standing up straight as he drew closer. She started fixing her long red hair into a messy bun, causing him to raise an eyebrow. Did she really think that little of him to not even consider him dangerous? "You've been tailing me for three days."
"Am I really that obvious?" He asked with a slight pout, all professionalism thrown out the window. He didn't want to be professional, he didn't want to be a killer right now. He wanted her to come with him, willingly. And the only way he went with Coulson all those years ago was by knowing he had a friend in the man.
"When you're in bingo books around the world marked as 'See and you're already dead' you're easy to spot." She shrugged. He noticed she didn't even have a scratch on her from the fight. Hell, she was examining her nails and he couldn't make out a single flake missing from the red paint. She was good. "So what did I do to upset the great Hawkeye?"
"Took out more men than I did." He frowned, looking around the pile of bodies to see he only took down 5 of the 15. He caught her eye in time to see a hint of amusement flaring before her mask hid it once more. "Besides that, it's my employers that are having problems with you. But seeing you in action makes me think you'd be better to us alive than dead."
"Work with Americans? Pfft." Something in Russian followed, and the way she scoffed and smirked at the same time made him think it wasn't the nicest of comments about them.
There was a glint behind her in a building just outside of the alley that caught his eye and made him frown. It was slight, but it was there, blinding him for a fraction of a second and he knew nothing natural would be shiny enough to reflect the setting sun so well.
He moved on instinct, knowing what was coming before anything else could be said between the pair. It was a barrel, just beginning to poke itself out of the second story window, and there was no time to warn her properly.
"Get down!" He yelled quickly, in an instant pushing her to the side before pulling his bow and nocking an arrow. He let it fly the moment he heard the gunshot.
He knew it hit his mark, but the world around him went black before he could confirm it.
"I had to give you some drugs."
That would explain why he couldn't really move, and why he was struggling to open his eyes. But his mind was in a panic, he couldn't place the voice, couldn't place where he was without sight. He struggled, and soon enough the adrenaline allowed him to open his eyes and find a red head above him.
Blurry, he couldn't make anything out, but he knew this person.
A sharp pain in his side made a scream escape his throat and his thoughts to become lost. She was killing him. That was the only explanation for this pain.
"Hawk, relax." She sounded so serious, so stern. His body just tensed at the tone. "I have to get this bullet out if there's any chance of us getting out of here."
"Easy!" He hissed with a little jump, but she held him down with a tighter grip and continued yanking. She was definitely trying to kill him!
"Your backup wouldn't stop yammering so I called them for help. I need you alive to tell them that I didn't do this to you. So stop being a baby and let me help you!"
Alot of cursing from both sides, alot of trying to act manly but nearly crying from pain from his side, and a bit of vodka on her side later and the bullet was out.
He was exhausted and in pain. Black dots were dancing across his vision and bile was beginning to rise in his throat. But there was no way he could rest. Not with someone who could kill him being his only protection.
"All done." She said quietly as she wrapped the still bleeding hole up in some gauze. That was going to be hell to heal!
The warm room mixed with the drugs still in his system had his eyes betraying him, they were starting to shut, and he had to jump himself awake a few times to keep watch.
There were people after her, someone tried kill her, and he killed enough of them to put himself on the hit list too. He had to keep watch. He had to stay alive. And she'd kill him if he slipped unconscious.
One time he jolted, she was beside him on the floor, kneeling down and running a hand through his hair. He was her only chance of surviving, and she knew that just as much as he did. There was no way she'd let him die. Because doing so would mean the second the Strike team got here she'd be killed.
"Relax." She said softly, soothingly, a voice which definitely didn't match the Black Widow in the file. "Sleep. You need it. I've got first watch, ok?"
She's got first watch..
Ever so slightly he nodded, and his eyes fell closed once more.
He made the right call not killing her.
She wasn't a deadly Black Widow at all.
She was just like him.
