Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel comics or characters or movies, and am making no money off of this fic.
AN: Written for the October 31st Whumptober prompt: showdown.
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In the End (It's Come to This) by luvsanime02
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Somehow, Clint Barton's not surprised that the situation has come to this. In the back of his mind, he's been waiting for this moment for years, through all of their little games and pretending. And now it's finally coming to an end.
Clint stands on one side of the roof, and the Black Widow, a teenager, stands on the opposite side, and both of them wait for the other one to be the first to blink. There's a gun in each of their hands, and it's a regular western showdown, a race to see who can get off the first bullet.
He's not using his bow. He can't for this. If Clint uses his bow right now, he'll never pick it back up again.
"Fancy meeting you here," he calls out, like this is just another mission, another meeting like any other. It's not, though, for both of them. Clint's been given new orders, and she obviously has been too, and he doesn't know why they both tried to delude themselves for so long.
Their association was always going to wind up like this eventually.
Her eyes don't betray a damn thing. Dead eyes, like when he first saw her. Clint clenches his jaw, and watches her eyes catch the movement.
What is she thinking right now? Is she as tired as he is? What was she told before coming here? Clint doesn't imagine that she has any family left for her handlers to threaten. What could they be holding over her head, if she fails to kill him?
Clint's got an ex-wife. He has relatives, some with kids. He has a boss who has told him in clear terms that either this one girl dies, or all of them do. His choice.
This young girl standing in front of him is a trained assassin. There shouldn't be any choice to make. But she hasn't pulled the trigger yet, either, and Clint…
He can't. Damn him and damn her, because the whole world's doing it anyway, but he can't bring himself to try and kill her.
"I've decided that I like Natasha," she says finally, and Clint feels the air in his lungs freeze.
To anyone else listening in, and Clint knows that between her people and his, there are a lot of them listening in right now, her words are random and meaningless. To Clint, they're the best and the worst words that he's ever heard.
He's been calling her that for years now. Natasha, and not Natalia, because Natalia is someone else, and she's been ignoring his new name for her for just as long as he's been using it, and for her to say that now, for her to finally accept the name that Clint gave her…
She's not going to shoot him, either.
It's a shared realization and a silent goodbye as they stare into each other's eyes, and her expression doesn't change when she lifts her gun and presses the barrel against her own temple. Clint mirrors her actions, and there's yelling nearby, people running towards them both, but no one's close enough to stop them in time, and the edges of Natasha's lips lift up in one last, soft smile right before they both pull the triggers.