Hawkeye

Watching & Waiting

Author's Note: My stories can be read as standalones, but if you like this one then please check out my other Avengers fanfics. Clint, Natasha, and the rest of the team will all appear in my current ongoing story, Avengers: Worlds Apart. I hope you'll come by and give it a look.

Also, please let me know what you think. I read every review, and I'd really appreciate your honest feedback!

Clint Barton zoomed in with his binoculars. He could see a young man through a hotel window in the distance. The target walked behind a wall, before he reappeared through another window on the other side of the room. "He's taking something out of the safe," Clint said.

The target was a twenty-five-year-old by the name of Brendan Sinclair. Brendan's father was a man with many connections. Some of those business associates had just popped up on SHIELD's radar several days ago. Clint was reasonably sure that the old man was dirty. He hadn't yet made a call on Brendan though. All Clint had on the boy was that he had flown from London to Monaco every Friday for the last two months, and that he had stayed at the same hotel each time.

"Can you see it?" Natasha asked. She was sitting at the desk near the window of Clint's hotel room with nothing to do. Natasha didn't pack binoculars very often, and Clint hadn't expected her to when he had called her over to join him on such short notice.

"Not really."

Brendan kneeled in front of the safe with his back to the window. He cupped the invisible object in his hands, carefully looking it over. Clint wanted him to turn around. But when Brendan finally did, he quickly slipped the object into his pocket before he walked over to his window. There he looked out for a few seconds, turning his head from side-to-side before he pulled the curtains shut.

"Damn it," Clint said under his breath. He lowered his binoculars and turned to Natasha. "He closed the curtains. Can't see a thing now." Clint had hoped to finish this mission quickly. There really wasn't a need for two agents such as them to be there, working on something like this all night. He and Natasha could be doing so much more together.

"We can go in for a closer look," Natasha said.

"Nah. Let's stay here for a while."

"Fine. I can take over if you want."

Clint handed over the binoculars. He watched as Natasha brushed her hair back and looked out the window. Natasha scanned the hotel windows before she looked down to watch the exits.

The hotel had a restaurant on the ground floor with an outdoor dining area. The tables outside were well spaced apart, and the area was lined with neatly trimmed little trees. Everyone there was well dressed. It seemed like a good, safe place to conduct business without being easily overheard. Or to eat and spend the night, of course.

Clint had looked over the whole place a while ago. Surveillance was one of his specialties, and it was something that he had usually taken very seriously. However, his heart just wasn't into it that night.

His eyes drifted from the window to Natasha's fingers. They lingered there for a while, before they moved on to her lips and finally to her brow.

When he had last seen her more than a month ago, those parts of her had been covered with blood. Clint had wanted to pound the guy who had done that to her. He would have, had she not done so herself.

"Listen, Tasha. I wanna tell you something."

"Hold on."

"Listen –"

"Brendan just walked out the front door. Came out dressed in his best suit." She stopped talking as she leaned forward, trying to concentrate. "He's up to something."

"How can you tell?"

"Because he keeps mouthing the same words," Natasha said. "Like he's preparing himself."

"You're pretty observant."

"Not like you are." She tilted her head slightly. "His chauffeur just arrived."

Clint sighed. "You think we should follow him?

"No. He'll be back."

"How do you know?" Clint asked.

"Because he just pulled one of the restaurant workers aside...Okay, he's leaving now." Natasha put the binoculars down and turned back to Clint.

He looked her in the eye for several seconds before he said anything. "You had me worried last week."

"You mean when you kept calling and I didn't pick up?"

"Yeah."

"I told you," Natasha said. "I was undercover in Vitali's place."

"All night?"

"I had to sleep over. It was for the job."

Clint ran his hand through his hair as he looked down. "Do our jobs ever bother you?"

"I'm alright, Clint. I wouldn't have gone if I wasn't fine with it."

"So, um, what'd you think of him?"

Natasha smiled. "The guy's a total narcissist. He's obsessed with the way everything looks. Real insecure."

"Whiny, right?"

"Kinda. He's no wimp though. That man has seen the darker side of things."

"Hmm. Must have been awful."

"Well, he wasn't ugly or anything," Natasha said. "He did have a lot of scars on his back though."

"You mean like here?" Clint asked as he turned and pointed at the middle of his back.

"Lower."

"Ugh. Real turn off, huh?"

Natasha shrugged, before she picked up the binoculars and looked out the window again. They were on a job, after all.

"We could be down there together," Clint said.

"I think we're good where we are. It's safe here. This was your plan, remember? You wanted this distance."

"I did, didn't I? God...I don't know what I want anymore." Clint sat there in silence for the next few minutes. He could only watch her and wait for another opportunity to take action.

"Hey, Brendan's back. He's got a girl with him."

"He does?"

"Yeah. She looks a bit uneasy though. Like she wasn't expecting the fancy restaurant."

"Can you see their table?" Clint asked.

"He's not taking her to a table. No, they're walking to the middle..." She shifted the binoculars as she tracked their movement. "Oh wow. The guy just got down on his knee."

"Really?"

Natasha laughed out loud. "You've gotta see this. He hired a band to come out and everything." She turned and offered the binoculars to Clint.

"I'm good," he said as he put his hand up. He would rather see Natasha get such a kick out of things.

She turned back to the window and leaned forward, completely enthralled by the spectacle. "He's making a whole speech down there."

"Is it working?"

"Don't know...she's kind of hard to read."

"That's how it is sometimes."

Natasha continued to smile as she watched. "She, she's crying."

"She say yes?"

"Not yet. The guy's still on his knee. He's talking like he really wants to convince her."

"It's got to be working, right?" Clint asked.

"No. The musicians are looking at each other now...Okay, that's it. The girl just ran off."

"What?!"

"Yeah. Just turned around and went for the nearest taxi."

"Huh...Guess you can't fault the guy for trying."

"Are you kidding me?" Natasha said as she turned around. She seemed amused. "God, you really should've seen it. That was the corniest thing I've ever seen."

"You really think so."

Natasha laughed. "It was. I'd shoot you if I ever saw you like that."

"Yeah, I believe you," he said. "What didn't you like, exactly?'"

"The knee. The speech. Pouring out his heart to her." She grinned as she shook her head. "All of it. I'm so glad that wasn't me down there."

Clint leaned against the wall and lowered his head. "Hmm. Imagine what that'd be like."

Natasha looked out with the binoculars again. "Brendan seems real torn up about this. Don't think he's gonna try anything else tonight."

"It's not his night."

Several long, quiet minutes passed before Natasha finally lowered the binoculars for the last time. "Okay, looks clean to me." She set the binoculars down on the desk, before she reached over and nudged his arm. "Come on."

He slowly raised his head to look at her. "We done here?"

"I think so," Natasha said. "Let's eat after I unpack. Then maybe we can have some fun tonight. Nothing serious."

"Nah," Clint said as he left the wall and walked toward the bed. "I'm beat. Think I'll just turn in for the night."

"You sure about that?"

"Yeah...I'm getting up there in age. Can't keep messing around like that."

Natasha giggled, before she made her way toward the corner where she had dumped her luggage. She stopped halfway there. "You know, working undercover gets me up close to all sorts of people. Lots of creeps and bad guys. It's fun leading them on, but I just can't be myself most of the time. Not like I can around you."

"This right here is who we are. It's what we've got."

She smiled at him. "It's nice to be around you, Clint. Glad you're not all weird like that guy down there."

"Come on," Clint said. "It wasn't that bad."

"You're right, it was kinda fun to watch. It's different when it's not happening to you."

Clint nodded as he forced a smile.

"Wish all of our missions were like this," Natasha said. "I'm real glad you brought me out here tonight."

"Yeah." Clint said. "Me too."

The End.