*Ding Dong*
Clint Barton reluctantly tore his attention from the game, hauled himself to his feet, and headed towards the door.
"Just a second." He called as he dug through a drawer for cash to pay the pizza guy.
"So that's $12.50 right?" He asked as he opened the door to his apartment, his attention on counting out change. He extended his hands to exchange the money for his dinner and blinked in surprise. "You aren't a pizza."
Natasha smiled but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "Nice to see you too Clint. Can I come in?"
Clint stepped back to let her by, "Oh yeah, of course. Can I get you a drink? I still have some of that vodka you like." He shut and locked the door before heading towards his tiny kitchen.
Natasha followed and perched awkwardly on a bar stool, idly fiddling with her ring. "No thanks, I uh, well I'll explain later."
Clint narrowed his gaze, Natasha never turned down vodka and she never fidgeted. "What's wrong?"
Natasha smiled nervously, "Uh, there's not really an easy way to say this so I guess I'll just come right out with it. I'm pregnant."
Clint nearly dropped the beer he'd just taken from the fridge, those were not words he ever imagined coming from Natasha Romanoff. "You, you're," he stuttered, "Uh, that's great Nat, I'm really happy for you. What did Alexei say? Is he excited to be a dad?" Clint popped the top from his drink and took a seat, after a shock like that he needed both.
"He uh," her laugh was bitter, "he told me it was him or the kid, that I couldn't have both."
Clint bit back a curse, he'd never been Alexei's biggest fan but he'd thought the guy had a bit more class than that. "What did you tell him?"
"I threw the newspaper at him, told him to check the listings because he was going to be needing a new place to stay." Natasha gave him a mischievous smile, "He's totally gonna have a black eye."
Clint chuckled, Natasha certainly did have good aim, with just about anything.
"But it wasn't just the baby Clint, it was that he would act like that, give me an ultimatum." Her expression was a mix of disbelief and hurt. "He wouldn't even discuss it with me. Aren't couples supposed to do that? Aren't they supposed to be willing to listen to each other and compromise, but he wouldn't even try."
Natasha sniffed and Clint realized she was crying, this presented two problems; one Natasha didn't cry, at least not in front of him, and two he didn't know what to do with tears.
"Maybe I should just do it Clint, I'm not cut out to be a mom. I couldn't keep a cactus alive Clint! A freaking cactus! How am I supposed to take care of a kid? And how on earth am I supposed to do it all by myself?" She wiped the tears from her face roughly, new ones quickly replacing them. "Alexei and I had something good together, why should I just give it up over one argument?"
Clint took her hands gently in one of his and used the other to tilt her face up to look him in the eye. "Hey, listen to me okay? I am with you in this, one way or another, so I just have one question for you; do you want this baby? Don't worry about Alexei or any of that, just think about what you really want. Okay?"
Natasha nodded.
"So, do you want this baby?"
Natasha smiled, "Yeah, I do."
The side of Clint's mouth quirked up in a grin, "Then it looks like we're having a baby."
"We?" Natasha smiles softly.
Clint squeezed her hand, "Yeah, we."