It's their third month living at the tower and so far it's been comfortable and quiet and peaceful. There's no wars or alien attack and Natasha and Clint are both free to go on missions whenever it's requested. It comes as a surpise one night when someone finally questions their elusive and secretive past, so personal that not even the director of shield knew the full truth.
"Where did you two meet?" Stark asks as he flings himself down on the sofa.
London.
Berlin.
They both answer simultaneously and then frown which causes even more interest from Stark. "Do tell." He teases.
"Why the sudden interest Tony?" Clint asks quietly.
Iron man shrugs, "I was just thinking about the fact you're so...pal-y, bordering on friends with benefits. I want to know how it all came about and I know it would be easy for me to hack into SHIELD but I figure none of that's the truth anyway, you might as well share."
Natasha and Clint share a look of aprehension as they remember that evening in Rome (not London or Berlin) where the first met, the mission where he was sent to kill her...
10 years earlier...
The first time he sees her in person, not just some hologram projection at SHIELD is when she thinks she's alone and nobody is watching. He's hidden high up, Clint sees better from a distance and she doesn't realise he's watching her. She's come from a mission and leaves a trail of blood behind her as she walks.
He'd heard a shot ring out 5 minutes earlier and assumes she was the target, but her shooter didn't make it out alive. She looks worn down and young. So young it makes him question if this woman really is the Black Widow, who's been in the game for over a decade, murdering anyone her organisation tells her to, regardless of consequence.
She slumps against the wall and he hears her breath, inhaling and exhaling the cold winter air. She looks up towards the star filled sky and closes her eyes, almost as if she's wishing it can all be over. He's so far away but his equipment is state of the art and Clint sees something that shocks him.
She begins to cry. His bow loosens again and he thinks. He knows she a manipulator, an assassin, but she's alone and has nothing to prove. She's crying silently in the night and he can't kill her because it's wrong. Coulson's going to kill him.
It takes days for them to agree to letting her live. He's to bring her in to SHIELD, to be questioned, assessed and used for their purpose. It's harsh, but at least she'll be alive and safer than she is. He watches her for days, not letting the Russian out of his sight in fear of her disappearing once more. In those days he sees her fear, senses it more than anything.
There's a day when she's walking the streets late at night, slowly and cautiously yet calm when suddenly she must have seen something or heard a sound because her face changes and her eyes go wide and she runs so fast. He's only ever seen people run that fast if they're going to die.
By the seventh day he finds out who's after her but it's too late. It's his final day of surveillance and it's almost time to bring her in but something changes in her and it's scary. The scared girl is hidden under more make up than he's ever seen her wear, her clothes more provocative and deadly looking than ever. She knows someone is after her and she knows it's going to happen soon. No more scared little girl. She's the Black Widow.
As the days falls into night he begins to realise that her clothes are different. He's seen her in greens and blues and even yellow but today everything is black. Death, she knows death is coming for her.
Then it's too late for him to react. He can only hear the gunshot and her scream before his arrow is searching for a target.
A few seconds later it finds one, a man dressed in dark clothes stood just feet from the Widow, holding the gun out. But then he's dead on the ground, an arrow through his heart and Clint is scaling the building, getting down to the ground. To her.
She's lying so still and for a moment he thinks he's already to late, she's dead. But then her fists clench and she looks towards him, noticing the SHIELD agent for the first time. Her words are weak.
"Please, I'm dying, give me that at least, no more torture, let me die." She's bitter and angry but he hears the relief in her voice.
He's on his knees controlling the blood with his hands from the wound in her stomach and she's confused.
Clint speaks, "I'm going to ask you something. If you could change what you've done, make it better, would you?"
She thinks, "I never wanted to be like this, they did this to me." Her teeth are stained red. It's the truth, he knows it is.
He sighs and calls Coulson, "I need a med team now, immediate extraction required."
Coulson speaks from the other end, "5 minutes out Clint, are you injured?" His handler is calm.
"No, the widow, she's down, she needs medics."
"Im coming as fast as I can. Didn't under estimate her even if she's injured, she's a dangerous woman."
He looks back towards her and sees her eyes are closed and he panics and shakes her roughly, "Hey! I saved your life, don't die now."
She smiles, "You don't want me to die because you want intel. You're going to torture and interrogate me for information that you're never found to get."
He shakes his head, "No, I want to help you, as much as the Black Widow finds hard to believe."
It's silent as the blood stops flowing so much and she relaxes slightly. "My names Natalia, it was, Natalia, it isn't now, they took that from me."
"Do you want to be Natalia?"
"No, my name is bad, I'm a bad person. I just want a name that isn't a spider."
Clint thinks of the social worker he had when his dad died, she was a young woman with red hair and green eyes and looked just like the Russian spy. Her name was Natasha, he always thought it was a pretty name.
"Natasha, you can be Natasha."
"I like that." She whispers.
Her eyes drift close and the next time she awakes she's in a strange room, handcuffed to a bed with a man watching her intently. He doesn't smile, but he doesn't frown when he sees she awake. Instead he stands and walks closer. "Hi Natasha." He says.
"Where am I?" She asks, bewildered and confused.
"Youre at SHIELD, in the medical bay, they saved your life. You're safe."
She could cry she's that relieved but she doesn't because the Black Widow is strong and powerful and with emotion. Her face stays blank until Clint leaves to get her some water,
Then the tears begin to fall because she's Natasha, and she feels. She feels everything...
Present Day...
She frowns at Clint with aprehension, she doesn't want to tell the story, it was so personal. It was theirs.
The archer finally responds to Tony, "We met in Budapest, 2006, I was sent to kill her but we can all see how that ended up."
Natasha visibly relaxes when she realises Clint hasn't told Tony their most important and treasured memory, instead he's told a partial truth. They had been in Budapest, but that was much later one when they had already began strike team delta. They were on the same team that time.
"Why didn't you kill her, I mean if I didn't know spidey here, I would probably just kill her because she seems mean."
"Thanks Tony." Natasha says sarcastically.
Tony smiles and looks back to Clint, "What made you change your mind about shooting her?"
Clint looks Natasha slowly in the eyes, "When I looked at her I saw humanity, I realised that she wasn't the person everybody assumed she was. There was still hope."
"Deep for once bird brain." Tony jokes.
"Also, she offered to sleep with me in exchange for her life." The archer says seriously. Tonys eyes widen.
Natasha smiles and throws a knife into the wall next to Clint's head.
End.