So close! He thought as his arrow missed her by an inch as she ran around the corner of a building. He ran after her again picking up his arrow that had bounced off of the brick wall. He cursed slightly to himself as the tip was damaged slightly from the impact. He looked up at the buildings that enclosed the alley he was chasing the Black Widow through. He was angry at himself for not having taken refuge up top rather than having to chase a master assassin through the streets of Budapest. He sighed but continued to run down a side alley that he thought Widow had gone down.

As he was turning down the side alley, a tail of orangey red hair barely caught his eye and he smiled at how close he was to his target. The Black Widow had been a target of S.H.I.E.L.D. for a few months now, but she had managed to evade every single agent that they sent after her. Clint was their last hope, and he was not going to fail like the others had.

He rounded the corner that she had only a minute earlier and found it a dead end. He looked up around him trying to find where she had tried escaping to, and found her clinging to a fire escape she was halfway up. Clint groaned and took out an arrow with an explosive tip on it. He nocked the arrow and took aim hitting a ledge above her causing the portion of fire escape she was clinging to, to fall which sent her tumbling a few feet from him.

'Too easy.' He thought to himself.

She flipped her long red curly hair out of her face and looked at him. A small gash on her forehead was bleeding a little bit but she didn't seem to care. She spoke quickly into her com in a language Clint didn't understand. Her tone was frantic and scared and she was trying to catch her breath. A jumbled reply came back and it clearly didn't bring good news. Her face drained of practically all color and she started pleading with the voice. She shouted a few times but no voice answered her. She took her com out and threw it across the alley, hitting a brick wall and breaking.

She looked up at Clint and slowly stood up. She seemed to be trembling and Clint was a slightly confused. Why was a notorious assassin cowering in front of him? Was it just an act to unnerve him? He held his bow in the same place not wavering. He could shoot her any time, so why wasn't he. Why was he giving her potential time to run?

The knife that she had in her hand fell to the ground with a clatter and she had a scared look on her face. He thought he saw a tear at the edge of her eye which unnerved him quite a lot more than the trembling had.

Reluctanly he lowered his bow and looked at her in the eyes. He stepped closer to her and it almost appeared that she stepped back trying to avoid him. He noticed this and spoke up more gently than he probably should have with a master assassin.

"What's your official name Widow?" He asked as nicely as he dared.

"Natasha R-Romanoff…" she tried to sound professional but he could tell that she was scared.

"Well Tasha, I'm not going to hurt you. You're remarkable you know and I think S.H.I.E.L.D. would be lucky to have you."

Natasha who was avoiding Clint's eyes looked up hesitantly. He wondered slightly why she was so afraid of him.

"How do you know?" She asked quietly.

"Are you kidding me? Anyone would be lucky to have you. With S.H.I.E.L.D. you'll always have backup that won't abandon you and a safe place to stay."

"Wi-will you be on my team?" He cracked a smile but she quickly tried to back pedal. "I just mean that, you won't be fighting against me?"

Clint continued to smile at Natasha whose face started burning. "Yes, you won't be fighting against me. And if you really want to be on my team I'm sure that can be arranged."

A small snort escaped her lips and she quickly turned away to wipe away what he assumed were tears. She turned back to him and nodded. "Okay…"

Clint spoke into his own com and told whoever was in charge of that mission was had just occurred. He nodded and looked back at Natasha and smiled. "If you're willing to change your ways they would love to consider you. Are you okay with that Tasha?"

She looked a little stunned and nodded, probably relieved to be able to stop running finally. Clint walked over to her and took her hands. "You're safe now Natasha, you've never been safer."

She nodded not attempting to wipe the tears that were falling from her eyes now. Clint pulled her into a hug as two agents in S.H.I.E.L.D. uniforms came into the alley and took Natasha in handcuffs as a precaution. She accepted this fact, and was just relieved to be done running.

Author's notes:

I really like to think this is how Clint recruited Natasha.

I also really like to believe that Clint is one of the only people agility wise that she is generally afraid of. Maybe it is just the fact that he never misses a target and that he could kill her easily from a distance more accurately than she could with a gun.

I don't know, I just really like the idea, hence why she seems so upset and afraid of Clint here.

If you liked this story, favorite it, review it, and maybe you could watch out for more fanfictions like this coming from me in the future.