She held him close, reveled in his warmth, reassured herself she was still there.
He killed, countless blank faces, sniped and shot and hit to protect her. Only her.
She seduced, trailed milk white fingers up faces, poisoned and lied and assassinated quietly in the dead of night. For him.
Both broken (do you know what it is to be unmade), hiding away love (love is for children), looking for the next time they can gaze upon the other.
They aren't pretty. It isn't high-life-adrenaline-guns-gadgets-dresses. It's dirty-corruption-killing-fucking-terror. That's their life. Each mission, they come back to each other, and touch.
They've never had sex. Not because they can't biologically, not because they don't want to, not because they don't love each other.
Well.
He remembers no-arousal, confusion, terror, and fucking until he's raw. He remembers pain and fear and being used, one person after another. He remembers gags and sweat and sour breath and leather. He remembers passing out, and waking up to -it- still going.
She remembers disgust, shame, fear, and pretending to love it. She remembers pressure and lives at stake and dirty old men fucking her. She remembers heels and guns and tobacco teeth and hairy bellies. She remembers killing each one, and crying over the ones she loved.
"Clint."
"Yeah?"
"Don't you ever do that again. Ever. Do you understand me?"
Her voice was ice and spikes barricaded to hide fear.
He gave a wet laugh.
"Don't know if I'll get the chance."
He pulled through. Eventually. He kept the bullet scar (she traced it every time they touched) and promised never to do it again.
They kissed.
"I thought you said you don't love." he asked.
"No, I said love is for children." she replied.
"What's the difference?"
"I'm a child."
He laughed.
It wasn't enough. He stared in disbelief because no one- no one should(can) kill the Black Widow. He doesn't understand. Her skin is pale, and blood is seeping out of the hole in her head. He is shaking, and there is no sound. The Black Widow cannot have emotion. The Black Widow never dies. The Black Widow never takes a bullet for her lover.
He's right. The Black Widow doesn't. Natasha Romanoff does.
The rest of the Avengers find his body the next day. He'd shot himself with her favorite gun.