Well, I was kind of in the mood to write some more Clintasha stuff; a bit more angsty than the first one (but that might just be cause I'm feeling a bit under-the-weather). Enjoy!
Disclaimers: I do not own the Avengers (no matter how much I wish that I do) and all characters belong to Marvel!
From her; it might just be a casual brush of her hand over his shoulder when she passed by, or perhaps a playful nudge to his leg with her foot under the table at some (very, very boring) formal event, accompanied by a swift wink and an upward twitch of her lips (a bit too small to be classified as a smile).
From him; maybe it was purposely bumping into her in the hallway when they passed by (not very often, seeing that they were practically joined at the hip for most of the day), or a comforting hug in one of their rooms when she had just woken up in the middle of the night from a terrible nightmare.
Their little touches throughout the day most certainly didn't go unnoticed by their teammates (who were never brave enough to take up the subject with one SHIELD agent, let alone both), but they didn't mind because they knew that the Avengers wouldn't tell on their comrades to SHEILD (after all, what loyalty did the others owe the agency now?). So they picked up on the habit in the Tower, where no one even batted an eyelid when they found their resident assassins together in the living room, going over their paperwork together with Natasha laying across the full length of the sofa, her head in Clint's lap while they discussed subjects ranging from 'should this guy rewrite his report? it's utter shit.' to 'blueberries are way better than strawberries, Clint! don't you dare argue with me!'.
The Avengers quickly learned not to question the two assassins' topics of discussion or their odd habits of what Tony labelled 'clingy' (only when the scary assassins weren't around) and everyone else called 'cute' (again, only when Clint and Natasha weren't in the general vicinity).
Both of them knew that fraternisation was most definitely frowned upon, but not entirely against the rules at SHIELD, and even though Clint and Natasha were aware that they wouldn't really be breaking any regulations, neither of them wanted to risk the partnership that they both valued so much - Strike Team Delta; one of the most infamous and the most formidable of all of SHEILD's teams.
Strike Team Delta couldn't afford be broken up just because of a stupid accusation that the two agents that made up the team were fraternising with each other.
'Til death do us part.
We really are 'married to the job', Clint remembered thinking once and the memory left a bitter taste of regret in his mouth. But he pushed the emotion aside (just as Natasha was wont to do every morning, unbeknownst to her Hawk) and reminded himself that it was all worth it, just to make sure that she was safe. After all, neither of them would never truly trust anyone else but themselves with the safety of their partner and that was okay. They were used to living like this; so close, but so far away.
So, they made do with their casual touches in public, the little gestures of affection to one another, and hoped to whatever higher being there was out there that it would be enough for them.
I hope you liked this one and review & favourite please! x