Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to The Avengers, Marvel Comics, or their characters. This is a non-profit fanfiction written for pure enjoyment. Enjoy.
Author's Note: Alright, so. This is my third fanfiction (yes I'm counting), and it will be another oneshot. I have some more, longer fanfictions I want to write but when I don't think my skill is all there yet. I'm still kind of working it out, and I thought Hawkeye was a really underrated character. Negative, or positive feel free to leave a review.
Clint "Hawkeye" Barton had to do some hard things in his life. Learning archery was no cake walk, certainly mastering it wasn't either. Being recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D. may have been one of the best things to happen to him, but it wasn't the easiest. The missions he went on weren't the easiest either.
One of the hardest things Clint had to do was face himself in the mirror, second to only facing Natasha.
Granted, Natasha (a.k.a. Black Widow) was a big girl and she could take care of herself. Calling herself Black Widow, and becoming an assassin had its danger, but Clint never thought it would be because of him.
She was always telling him that it wasn't his fault, and that she forgave him, but she didn't think that he was listening. Truth be told, he wasn't. Hawkeye and Black Widow worked perfectly together on the field, but Clint couldn't bring himself to face Natasha. He was purposely dodging her calls, avoiding her in the elevator by taking the stairs, and she was starting to notice.
Clint sighed, holding onto the bottom of the sink. His thoughts started to drift to Natasha, and the damage he inflicted on her. The image of her bruises were fresh in his mind. "You have heart," words of Loki, wrang in his ears.
His heart-rate began to pick up as he thought of Natasha. His chest started to feel constricted and it was harder to breathe. This wasn't the first time it happened, he just needed a minute.
A knock on the door startled him.
"Just a minute," he yelled, louder than he meant. All he wanted was a minute, alone. There wasn't another knock.
Funny, he thought sarcastically. The great Hawkeye startled by a knock on the door. He let the water run over his hands, splashing some in his face before turning it off. He emerged from the bathroom and pushed past the person waiting, not bothering to even see who it was.
Agent Natasha Romanoff sat cross-legged in a chair in front of S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury. She waited patiently for the Director to start their conversation.
"How are you, Natasha?" The Director started the conversation light.
She replied with one word; "Fine". Natasha wasn't dumb. This isn't why he called her into his office.
"How is Agent Barton?" He asked.
The redhead huffed. She knew it was going to be about this. "He's fine."
"The truth, Agent Romanoff." Director Nick Fury stared into her with his one eye. Even being a super-spy it still gave her the chills.
"The truth," Natasha started. "The truth is that Agent Barton is doing perfectly well. His work in the field hasn't slacked off, not in one area."
The Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. folded his arms. "S.H.I.E.L.D. isn't only worried about how well you perform in the field, but how you perform in day-to-day life. Seeing as how he attacked his own partner, director, and lost his handler, we're worried about how this affects him as a man, not an agent."
"He was under some form of mind-control!" Natasha had raised her voice, something uncommon of her. This was something only a few people in the world would experience, and most of them didn't live to tell about it.
Director Nick Fury was aware that Agent Clint Barton would never willingly attack his own people. Especially not Natasha. Nick always thought a part of Clint was always in there seeing as how he didn't kill either of them. "I know, Natasha. unfortunately the board doesn't see it that way." He sighed. "He's been avoiding writing his reports, and he is denying any form of therapy. They want to know if they should reassign him, or drop him all together. I need the truth from you agent, so I have something to give to the board."
A coi smile edged at the Director's lips. "I'm going to ask you one more time how Clint is, for the report, and I will just assume the next words out of your mouth are the truth."
Later that night Clint had stumbled into their room. It was late, but Natasha was waiting for him on the couch.
With out stretched arms she welcomed him 'home', if you could call a S.H.I.E.L.D. rented apartment home.
He sat down next to her, doing his best to avoid eye contact. She simply just pulled him into her arms so that his head was resting on her shoulder.
The loss of their handler Phil Coulsen weighed heavy on him, but Clint also shouldered the pain of hurting the only person close to him, Natasha.
After a while of just sitting in their poorly lit apartment, Clint was the first one to break the ice.
"I did this to you.." He mumbled, looking at her bruises.
"No," Natasha cooed. "Loki did." There was an obvious displeasure of saying "Loki", like it left a bad after taste in her mouth.
"You have heart," It wrang in his ears again. He heard it clear as day.
There was some more silence, but she filled it with humming softly to drown out his thoughts. After a while she came up with something.
"The director called me into his office today."
"Oh?" Clint asked wearily. "What did he want?"
Natasha bit her bottom lip for a second, a nasty habit of hers. "He was asking about you. Said the board wanted a report on you."
"What did you say?" Clint asked, grasping the cushion under them. Natasha wasn't the only one he was dodging, but she was the only one he would see at the end of the day.
"The truth," she smiled lightly pulling him back with her onto the couch. "I told them that you were doing fine, and that you wanted a raise."
Clint smiled lightly.
For the rest of the night Natasha played with his hair, and humming, gently lulling him into sleep, and then her soon after.
Author's Note: Well, this completes another one-shot of mine. Thank you for stopping to read. I have some more ideas, with more than one chapter, but right now I'm just trying to figure out my style. I could probably do one more Avenger's fic (ClintxNatasha of course), but the idea is way over used so if I did I would it would be after I have written my other ones.