Disclaimer: I do not own any Marvel charaters. If I did, there would be a Budapest movie already.
Natasha was bored, like, super bored. She has just come back from a mission with the one and only Mr. I work best on my own bloody hell Clint Barton, and in her opinion the mission had gone so perfectly that she at least deserved a proper shower instead of the freaking paper work.
And just for her amusement, Coulson was gone to who-know-where, left her on her own with her freaking useless partner when it came to mission report. She glanced up, catching him throwing another paper ball to the recycle bin, grinning like a complete idiot. Frowning, Natasha wondered if she would go insane after a while working for SHIELD. Clearly Barton did, and who the heck knew who else. Thinking about that definitetly made her question her decision joining SHIELD eight months ago.
A bar of chocolate flew across the table, and landed perfectly on Natasha's lap. The red hair assassin eyed it suspiciously for a brief moment before glaring at the marksman, who shrugged innocently.
"It's chocolate" - He said after a while watching her glare at the bar - "And it doesn't bite you." - He received another deadly glare.
"I know what it is." - She hissed - "I'm not as dumb as you. I just don't see the reason why you gave it to me."
Clint rolled his eyes. - "Really Nat? Even a kid knows what it is for. Unless you forgot what date today it."
" February 14th" - Natasha replied smoothly - " And I do know what it means to some kids" - She emphasised the word, looking directly to her partner. Clint snorted.
"Yeah, you don't really have to go over again the whole love is for children speech, y' know, 'cause I accidentally learned it by heart after your non-stop repeating it."
"Oh did I annoy you?" - She mocked. Clint snorted again - "I didn't know I was annoying the mighty Hawkeye then!"
"Stop being such a meanie and eat the damn chocolate. I bought it for you." - Clint grumbled.
"Didn't you steal it from Sitwell?" - Natasha smirked, quirking her eyebrows - " 'cause I heard him babbling about his stolen chocolate less than twenty minutes ago."
"No I did not!" - Clint exclaimed, pretending to look hurt. She glanced at him disapprovingly - " Fine, I did. Happy? It's easier than going to the store. So are you going to eat or not?"
"Do you order me to, Hawkeye?" - The assassin wrinkled her nose - " 'cause I won't."
"What's so wrong with you and presents?" - Clint exclaimed frustratedly. - " It' the fifteenth time Natasha. At the very least you have to have a favourite day in year."
"No I don't." - It's Natasha's turn to exclaim - " And by now you can stop pretending to care for me too. I know you hate working with me as much as I do. This is nothing more than your punishment for bringing me back. Soon enough you will get rid of me, then do whatever you want to do with your bloody hell arrows. I don't care! But now you can leave me alone, because neither of us is the talking type, and because your faking is miserable. And to answer your question, yes, I do have a problem with presents!"
Clint gasped, clearly shocked. Natasha, seeming to be satisfied with her speech, turned back to her paper work. Fifteen minutes of heavy silence passed, until once again it was broken by Clint.
Natasha looked up from her work as Clint stood up loudly, reaching for the bar of chocolate - which was thrown to the middle of the table during their arguement. He broke it into two and threw her a half.
"I told you I wouldn't..." - She was about to protest, clearly annoyed when he reached out and shut her up with his finger on her lips. His blue eyes met her green ones, and for a brief moment, Natasha totally forgot what she was about to say.
Clint slowly took a bite of his chocolate, still looking at her. Natasha made a mental note to give him a mental check if they continued to work together.
"If you are trying to tell me how good it tastes then well done, it didn't work." - She said darkly, getting rid of his hand. - "Shoo... I still have work to finish."
"Nat" - He said quietly, his serious tone made her look up at him again - "Sorry."
She frowned. Clearly she had underestimated his insanity.
"I'm sorry." - Clint quickly continued as if he was afraid she would interrupt him - "for making you think that I'm faking all of this caring you and whatsoever." - He chuckled - "But the point is, Nat, I didn't fake all of those things. I do care for you, as a partner, a friend. It's just... I don't know how to express that. I'm not close to anyone else but you and Coulson, maybe Fury too. So maybe that's the reason why you thought I'm faking, because, wow, I'm really terrible at those caring thing. And you're right, this is a punishment, which I would never regret, because working with you is beyond wonderful. This partnership," - He sighed - "is something I'm not willingly giving up. But if you hate working with me so, I'll tell Fury. There is no need me troubling you when you can work better alone."
Still shocked at what she has just heard, Natasha stared at Clint as he made his way out of the office. It took her a few seconds to realize what he was going to do, and then panic hit her for no reason.
"Clint wait!" - She called, running after the marksman.
Clint turned around, surprising. Dang, what was she about to say again?
"I'm sorry too." - Natasha gasped. Was she crazy? She wasn't going to say so - " For saying so. I was just stressed out and... yeah well bored to dead in this office. And then you mentioned about presents. I don't like them, it's a complicated thing I don't want to recall. And our partnership, I'm sorry, I really didn't mean so. You so far are the only one I know and kind of trust around here. I mean... well... I think I still want to work with you."
Clint quirked his eyebrows up in confusion. Great then he was going to think she was insane too. Natasha waited impatiently for his reply, and then...
"Chocolate?"
Natasha breathed out a sigh of relief. He was still so Clint, grinning from ear to ear. She rolled her eyes. "I'm not eating the half you had biten.''
"Sure you aren't." - He chuckled, walking back to the office with her. - "So you trust me, huh?"
"Kind of" - Natasha repeated darkly. Clint raised his hand up in surrender.
"So I take that you won't tell me about the gift problem, huh?" - She shrugged - "About your favourite day in year?"
Natasha frowned. - "No I don't have one.''
"What!?" - Exclaimed Clint - "You don't know how much you have missed. I'll fix this, and your problem with presents too. How about this? We'll start from taking February 14th as your first favourite day in year. Deal?"
Natasha almost choked. - "What? Valentine day?"
"Yeah" - Clint was wearing his goofy grin again, though he insisted that was his smug grin. - "We can change it back later. But now... we have already have roses here," - He pointed to the vase near the window - "Chocolate" - "He winked, Natasha rolled her eyes again. - "Some music." - He pulled out his phone and started to play 'Begin Again' of Taylor Swift. -" Basically that's enough, because I have no idea what else it would be. Might ask Coulson later. So you enjoy this?"
Natasha shrugged, surprisingly she did enjoy this with him, though she would never admit it out loud. However, Clint clearly took it as a yes.
"Then it's settled." - He grinned - "Natasha's first favourite day is Valentine day."
Natasha smiled, nuzzling up with the warmth beside her. It was so sweet, she wanted it to last forever.
"Hey babe" - Clint's whisper breathed against her fresh skin - "What did you dream about?"
"Our first Valentine day." - She smiled wider, opening her eyes to met his blue ones - "It's still my favourite."
"I know" - He chuckled - "Mine too."- He kissed her forehead - "Now sleep. I'll keep you safe."
"Always." - She mumbled, drifting back to sleep.
"Always" - He agreed.
