Being a hired killing machine, Natasha wasn't the type to need a man to make her feel happy. Since she wasn't the best at showing her feelings, no one actually knew about her interest in Barton. Having a partner was still somewhat new to her. 6 years ago, Coulson had insisted she get a partner. Initially, she didn't want a partner, and thought she worked best alone. After a while, she had gotten used to having a shadow, and Barton was a pretty efficient shadow. Barton always had her back, and never got in her way. So she was starting to think that having him as a partner wasn't so bad.
When they were in the gym, training and fighting hard, it got intense. She wasn't sure at first how easy he would be to take down, and she underestimated him the first time. He was a skilled man, and put up a good fight, but still she beat him in the end. Fighting each other was a great work out for the both of them. They fought hard, not saying a word in the concentrated state they were both in, and afterwards the winner would buy drinks at the bar down the street. This was often Natasha, which made Barton only fight more aggressively each time.
In the mornings, she would make the coffee for the team, but delivered Barton his own cup while the rest got up to get theirs. Her small smiles at Barton were not effective and seemingly pointless. Pepper seemed to notice the small signs after a couple of weeks and talked to her after one of their irregular early morning sparring sessions before breakfast. These sessions were mostly on the days when one of them was leaving that day.
One morning, Pepper walked into the kitchen while Natasha was making tea. "Natasha, hey."
"Hi" Natasha replied simply.
"So. Barton, huh?" Pepper was not interested in small talk. She was very curious about this and dove right into that topic of conversation.
Natasha was taken aback by Pepper's bold question, and wondered if anyone else had figured her out. "What?"
"Is there anything between you two?"
"Not at all. We're partners. Anything other than that would be unprofessional." Natasha's expression remained neutral. She was good at putting on a façade, and in her line of work it was regularly necessary.
"Maybe. But I'm sure Fury wouldn't mind if it didn't get in the way of your missions. And if there is something, I assure you Tony wouldn't find out, I wont tell him anything. You can talk to me about it." Pepper meant it, and really wanted to know if something sneaky was happening between the master spies.
"There is nothing between us. And there wont be." Natasha was desperate to keep this secret. She trusted Pepper to keep quiet, but didn't want to share with anyone until she thought it through for herself.
"Okay. Well let me know if you ever want to talk about it. Or about anything." she knew that Natasha had an opinion, but she wouldn't talk about it, so Pepper let it go and went back upstairs to deal with press and paparazzi issues, that the team often had.
"Sure" Natasha said to the empty kitchen. Glad to be alone with her thoughts again, she sat down and drank her tea while staring off into the window.
Natasha was left to think about how to hide her affection from everyone but Barton. And to decide if she wanted to approach Barton about it. Pepper was trustworthy, but Natasha wasn't a trusting person. The only person she really trusted was her fellow assassin. Agent Clint Barton.