"You're going to leave for Bangkok tomorrow aren't you?" He asks her as he starts to clean up.

"mhm" She answers as she takes another bite.

"Then will you stay here tonight?"

She paused chewing her food deliberately slower allowing her a few more seconds to not only consider her answer but also the implications of Clint's question. They had been dating for the past few months now; well there version of dating anyways(they hadn't actually gone out on a date outside of a mission that required them to act like a love sick couple). But that didn't bother either of them dating was for people who didn't know each other. And they knew each other better than anybody.

How could they not after being partners for the past 5 years she knew just about everything there was to know about him, just like he did with her. And being partners for for so long meant that at some point or another they slept at each others apartments. So what was it about tonight that made it so different from all those other nights?

It obviously didn't escape her that this was the first time he'd asked her to stay the night. It was common knowledge between the two that if either of them were too tired to make it back to their own place(or just plain lazy as was Clint's case 80% of the time.) that the couch was open. But tonight his question and her subsequent answer would mean something.

He wasn't just asking her to stay the night he was asking her if she was ready for this; ready for a real relationship. and was she truly ready? Half of her felt it was screaming yes! That this is something she needed…no wanted to have her whole life. Somebody to lean on and watch her back and just be there for her without having to worry if they'd turn on her, somebody to love and accept her ledger and all. But the other half of her was shouting at her to stop! Stop while she's ahead, she's a spy and former assassin having a relationship this real and this personal it went against her very nature people like her they don't get to fall in love.

They weren't worthy of it. Love was something, only saved for a child. (And she had stopped being a child ages ago.) Or so she had been taught; with Clint she felt something she hadn't felt in a long time. Was it love? She didn't know. But what she did know was that she never wanted to stop feeling what she felt when she was with him. She would do whatever it took to hold onto this feeling of….love or whatever the hell it was. With that in mind she knows her answer.

"Will you be here when i wake up?" She finally responds.
"you know that i will."

The soft smile that graces her face at his answer tells him all he needed to know.

A/N: i'd really love it if you could leave a review. this was just something i wrote spur of the moment and was based off of a gifset by avengers-in-love on tumblr.