Alright, here it is! The winning story from the poll last week! Thank you to everyone who voted. If you didn't vote for this one, don't worry. Off to the Races and my untitled Prohibition Era AU story will get written eventually. Anyways, here we go! Enjoy!

Disclaimer (which I always forget to put it on here. Whoops): I do not own The Avengers. They belong to Marvel.


If there was one thing Natasha Romanoff was scared of, it was being compromised. The moment she received the call that Clint had been compromised because of Loki, she was compromised herself. Her feeling for her partner since she joined SHIELD had gotten in the way and she had promised herself that that would never happen. Unfortunately, it did, but she vowed that it would never happen again.

That's why, following the Battle of New York against Loki, she had steered clear of Clint Barton. She couldn't lose her focus. She couldn't lose her grip on who she was. She believed love was for children, and it was going to stay that way.

She knew it was cold and cruel, but she and Clint had been in situations similar to this before. One of them would pull some sort of stupid yet clever stunt during a mission that would jeopardize their cover. When the mission was deemed a success, they would return to SHIELD headquarters and avoid each other until the next mission. It wasn't unusual. It was just a routine.

But deep down, Natasha knew she was avoiding Clint Barton because of what Loki did to him. The fact that Clint had revealed her deepest, darkest secrets to Loki while he was under his control had absolutely terrified her. Loki had threatened to have Clint kill her in every way she feared and just when she was about to die, he would release Clint from his control to let him see his handiwork before Loki split his skull.

And that's what did her in. That's what compromised her completely. All of her training was out the window because of an archer from Iowa. An archer from Iowa that unmistakably had her heart. But he could never know that, and he would never know that. There were too many risks to being in love so that's why Natasha constantly told herself that love was for children and that's the way it was going to stay.

Until that day when everything changed.


Two weeks. It had been two weeks since the Battle of New York against Loki and everything seemed to be back to normal with the exception of Natasha ignoring Clint. Every time she saw him coming down the hallway towards her on the helicarrier, she made sure to go the other way. If they were at Avengers Tower (formerly Stark Tower), she made sure to keep her distance when they were in the same room.

Clint knew she was avoiding him and he was perfectly fine with that. He knew she must've been afraid of him after what happened with Loki. He saw the footage between the two of them from the helicarrier. The fact that Clint had revealed her deepest and darkest secrets to Loki that she had confided to Clint in confidence was the ultimate betrayal, even if Clint had absolutely no control of his own body.

However, after two weeks passed, he knew something was wrong. Natasha never went more than two weeks without talking to him. He knew this had to be serious and he wanted to know what was going on with her. She was his best friend and he had hoped that no matter what was going on with her, she would talk to him about it.

As he set out to find Natasha on the vast helicarrier, he hoped she wouldn't run away from him again. He noticed she would be doing that as of recently and she had never done that when she would give him the silent treatment in the past. Normally she would just walk right past him and shoot him a dirty look before continuing on her path.

"Agent Barton!" Clint heard Director Fury's voice boom from behind him. Clint spun around to see the director of SHIELD walking towards him with a determined look on his face and a manila folder in his hand.

"Sir?" Clint choked out nervously. Was this the end of his career at SHIELD? After being compromised by Loki, was Fury finally letting him go?

Fury came to a half in front of Clint and silently handed him the manila folder. Clint stared at it with a confused expression before hesitantly taking it in his own hands.

"Your next assignment. Rome. Alessandro Bosco, an Italian arms dealer, is developing nuclear weapons deep in the catacombs of Rome and we need you to take him down," Fury explained.

Clint flipped through the information in the manila folder as he skimmed the details of the mission. So Fury wasn't firing him for being compromised by Loki. Clint Barton still had his job.

"You leave in three hours from the flight deck. It's an in and out mission. It should only take a week," Fury said.

"Only take a week?" Clint asked as he raised his head to look at Fury. "Taking down a nuclear arms developer is going to take a week by myself?"

"Do you believe you're incapable of doing this mission by yourself, Agent Barton?" Fury asked condescendingly.

"No, sir," Clint said quickly. "It's fine. I can handle it."

"Good. Remember, you leave in three hours from the flight deck," Fury said before brushing past Clint and continuing down the hall. Once Director Fury was out of sight, Clint started to walk back in the direction where he came from as he continued to look through the mission file. Now that he read it over, it did seem pretty simple. All he would need to do is take out Bosco's henchmen to draw out Bosco. Then from there, Clint could take him out as well.

But when Clint had questioned the solo mission, he was really wondering why Natasha wasn't coming with him. Did she request to not go on the mission with him? Were they even still partners? They barely felt like friends right now so it was perfectly valid to think they weren't even partner anymore.

Clint closed the manila folder containing the mission's information and continued down the hall to find Natasha. He didn't need to look far and wide because there was only one place he could find her and it was the most obvious place. His nest.


Clint climbed to the top of the rafters and sure enough, Natasha was sitting up there, her vibrant red hair sticking out like a sore thumb against the dim light. Clint knew she could hear him and yet she didn't acknowledge his presence. Without saying a word to her, he sat down next to her, dangling his legs over the edge just like she was. They sat in silence for what felt like an eternity before Clint decided to be the one to break the silence.

"So, I've got my first mission since the Battle of New York coming up," Clint said nervously.

"Hmmm," Natasha hummed, her eyes focused forward. "Where to?"

Clint was taken aback that she had actually managed to talk to him. It had been two weeks since she'd heard her voice. "Oh, umm, Rome. An arms dealer is developing nuclear weapons in the catacombs."

"Sounds dangerous," she deadpanned.

"Sounds like fun," Clint said with a smirk. He turned his head to look at her and she was still facing forward. He just wanted her to acknowledge the fact that he was sitting next to her. He wanted her to look at him or just say something to him other than a couple words.

"Look, Nat," Clint said as he faced forward. "I don't know what I did to deserve the silent treatment but I'm leaving in less than three hours and I kind of don't want to leave with tension between us."

Natasha didn't answer and Clint rolled his eyes. Of all the times for her to act like a brooding teenager, it had to be now. Clint always thought he'd be the one to be all pouty and brooding but apparently Natasha had a penchant for it.

"I told you," she whispered suddenly. "I told you before the Battle of New York. I've been compromised. Loki got under my skin, and I let him." However, it wasn't Loki who had gotten under her skin. It was the man that was sitting right next to her. Loki just happened to step it up to the next level. "I can't get past it. I don't know why but I can't."

Clint nodded his head in understanding. It was strange that Natasha Romanoff couldn't get past something Loki had said. Clint would've fought. Despite being under complete control, he would've used every ounce of energy to fight Loki's control. He would never let himself hurt his best friend. He would never let it happen.

"Nat…" Clint trailed off. He did blame himself at first, but constant reassurance from Fury and his teammates had him slightly convinced that it wasn't his fault. It was Loki, even though it was Clint's expertise that did the deed. "Are you scared of me?"

That certainly grabbed her attention because her head whipped to the side to face Clint. His eyes met with her panicked ones. "Clint, no, of course not," Natasha said.

"Don't lie to me, Tasha."

"I'm not lying," she said firmly. Clint always knew when she was lying so she really had to control her voice in this situation. Yes, she was scared of him. She was scared of the feelings she had for him.

Clint sighed as he focused his gaze forward again. "I have to leave soon. I just hope you'll come see me before I leave." With that, Clint got up from his perch and made his way down from the rafters, leaving Natasha to drown in her angst.


She was being cruel, but then again, they didn't call her the Black Widow for nothing. But Clint Barton was her best friend and she was treating him the way she treated him the day he brought her into SHIELD. She was distant, cold, and a total bitch. But it's been years since Clint made a different call and she's warmed up to him. No, she has more than warmed up to him.

Natasha checked the time on her watch as she realized it was around the time Clint was due for departure for his mission. She had to, at the very least, apologize. She wasn't going to run after him and admit her feelings for him. That was such a romantic comedy cliché and Natasha wasn't one to do that. She had to make things right.

Natasha slowly stood up and then carefully climbed down from the rafters. She walked through the helicarrier's hallowed halls at a brisk pace as she made her way to the aircraft hangar. There was no way they'd allow her on the flight deck unless she had special clearance – which she didn't – but maybe she could catch Clint in time before he boarded his flight.

Her brisk pace became a fast-walk as she realized she was nowhere near the aircraft hangar. She needed to get there before he left, and she was really cutting it close. She was so damn stubborn. That was her problem.

By the time Natasha reached the aircraft hangar, she had been sprinting and she was out of breath. She burst into the vast room as she searched frantically for Clint. She needed to apologize. He couldn't leave without him knowing she was sorry for giving him the silent treatment. He couldn't leave without him knowing she was sorry in general. He needed to know.

"Agent Romanoff, can I help you?" asked one of the SHIELD agents that worked in the aircraft hangar.

"Where is Agent Barton? I need to speak with him," she said breathlessly.

"I believe he is boarding his flight," the SHIELD agent said.

Oh shit, Natasha cussed in her head. She bolted for the flight deck. To hell with having special clearance, she needed to talk to her partner and she needed to talk to him now.

"Agent Romanoff, you can't go out there!" she heard one of the SHIELD agents call after her but she ignored them. She ran full speed towards the flight deck. She reached the flight deck and shielded her eyes from the blinding sun. When her eyes focused, she saw a single Quinjet getting ready for take-off. Watching in shock and complete numbness, she watched as the Quinjet fired up the engines and sped up, taking off into the air.

She would bet her partnership that Clint Barton was on that Quinjet.


Hope you guys are just as excited as I am for another crazy Clintasha/Blackhawk adventure. I usually do AU's but I can't wait to take Clint and Natasha on this crazy journey!

If you read my other fic Never Let Me Go, I am going to keep the poll for Clint and Natasha's daughter's name up until Thursday. So if you would like, go ahead and put your vote in.

Anyways, reviews are very much appreciated so please leave me a lovely review to let me know what you think of the first chapter.