Clintasha Oneshot: A Childish Show
A/N: Hello everyone, thanks for checking out my first story! This is a Clintasha one shot based off of both my own love for wrestling, as well as me realizing that one of our favorite assassins probably secretly loved it. Thus, this story was born! Anyway, please leave a review. If I get enough outcry to actually do the epilogue fight between Steve and Natasha with her trying to act like a wrestler, I would not be opposed. But now, without further delay!
"Yes!" Came a cry from down the hall, causing Natasha to snap her eyes open and look around wildly, her hand slipping under her pillow to palm her pistol that she always slept with. She waited quietly for the sound to happen again, but it didn't. She moved her leg back gently feeling for Clint's side of the bed and found it empty and cold. That cold shot up her leg to her heart as worry and fear swept through her. Where was Clint?
She slowly brought the pistol out from behind her pillow and slipped out of bed onto the carpeted floor of their shared bedroom. She knew she had heard something and she was going to find out what it was. But first things first, she needed to find Clint and regroup, or perform a rescue. She was used to that man getting in all sorts of trouble without her, part of the reason she had agreed to move in with him this past weekend.
She silently swung the door open; she found a light coming down the hall. Someone was in the kitchen or the living room. She was still getting used to the layout of the house. It seemed to be flickering, was the TV on? She crept forward and began to hear what sounded like fighting and a roar that kept happening. She didn't feel anything in her senses that would indicate being watched or that there was danger around this particular corner, but she kept her finger on the trigger of her pistol to be sure. As she kept going slowly down the hall her nose began picking up the distinct smell of butter, was that popcorn?
"Oh, C'mon! You can't be serious!" Someone was whisper yelling, she recognized her partner's voice immediately, and then she heard a scream of agony, and rounded the corner immediately, eyes searching for whoever was doing this to her Clint.
Her gun trained on the only figure in the room, it was Clint. As soon as she rounded the corner with her gun he jumped, letting out a yelp and sending his bowl of popcorn flying. She stared at him, confused then took in his face that looked embarrassed. She turned to see what he had been so guiltily watching without her. She was expecting some porno movie and being able to laugh in his face about how foolish he was. She was surprised when all she found was… was he watching professional wrestling?
She stared at the screen for a second or two. It was paused on a man, who was decently attractive in Natasha's humble opinion, diving off the top rope onto a man twice his size. She looked back at Clint not knowing what to say. She furrowed her eyebrows; her body language conveying all the confusion her voice couldn't.
Clint had the decency to look even more sheepish under her gaze, "Don't laugh." He warned half-heartedly.
She sat down on the couch next to him, still not speaking, letting him stew in the silence. She put her elbows on her knees and her chin on her palms, giving him her undivided attention.
He rolled his eyes at her taunting. "Me and my brother used to watch it whenever it was on TV. That's how we first learned to fight. Or whatever you want to call diving elbows and spears. I've never really stopped watching it since, sure I'd miss some on missions, but I always came back to it. It makes my life make sense in a way… Never mind, I sound stupid." His eyes showed some vulnerability that she had only seen once or twice. After all, he rarely talked about his childhood, even with her.
She thought carefully what to do or say next, leaning back into the couch, her earlier adrenaline having woken her up. She turned her head to the TV, not acknowledging his piercing grey eyes. After a few moments she looked at him, her bright green eyes stabbing back at his.
"Are you going to hit play or just sit here?" She said in her usual tone of indifference. Even though she knew that he knew that she knew, it was her version of not pushing and accepting this new thing about him, as they had done for each countless times. She could feel his soft smile, full of affection and thanks, from her spot at the end of the couch. He pointed the remote at the TV and pressed play.
She watched with him for the rest of the show. She was amused how he was holding back cheering for his favorites because she was there. But when she was actually watching the show, and not Clint's facial expressions, she felt her heart lurch at the heights they dove from, and the songs they came out to, and how the crowd was so excited by these larger than life personalities. She slowly found herself getting dragged in to this show's clutches.
It got to the last match of the night, and in the closing moments the obvious bad guy cheated to the win, and Natasha was furious. She stood up abruptly, her red curls flying at her movement.
"He can't do that!" She looked in disbelief as the bad guy's hands were raised as the new champion. She looked back at Clint in anger, "They have to have a do over!" Clint was sitting watching her with wide confused eyes, before developing a smirk.
"There's always next week." He said somewhat lamely. It's the best he could do as far as consoling his angry assassin girlfriend.
"What!? We have to wait a week!?" She was fired up so much at this point as the bad guy continued to gloat to the fans.
"Yeah, welcome to my world." He said chuckling. He looked at her as she stood there cursing in Russian at the TV.
After the show had gone off the air, they turned the TV off and readied themselves to go back to their bedroom to get some actual sleep. Clint crawled in bed, turning on his side to watch Natasha crawl in after him and fall into his arms.
Natasha laid there for a while in silence, she could feel Clint's breathing on her back, and his lack of steady breaths indicated he was still awake.
"Need to get something off your chest, Hawkeye?" She didn't turn and look at him, having eyes on him was likely to make him clam up.
"I wasn't always good. I wasn't always an Avenger or an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. I was into some bad stuff. I would be what they call a heel in wrestling terms. The bad guy. But you know that already." He let out a shuddering breath on her neck before continuing, "When Coulson found me he told me something. He said, 'Clint, no matter how deep you are in the dark, you just need someone to believe in you, which makes you believe in yourself. And, after that, more people will fall in line until they are all cheering for you.'"
He pulled her hip towards him telling her to roll over; she obliged him and saw his face, more serious than usual. He said each word slowly as if still contemplating what to say, his blonde hair sticking up a bit from where he was laying in bed.
"It reminded me of growing up watching wrestling. How the bad guys could become good and redeem themselves. Of course, there's the flip side of that coin, but I didn't focus on that so much at the time." He chuckled a little bit. "So in a way, I wouldn't be the man I am today without watching that childish show. I know it's fake, but it just… its nice to know that in the end the good guys keep fighting until they win. It… it inspires me, I guess." He trailed off at the end and winced, like he hadn't finished his argument well enough.
Natasha sat there stunned into silence, not sure quite what to say. She figured it was just a way to cool off for him, a little indulgence that she could accept, but having such a deep reasoning behind it was… wow. That childish show even inspiring him to be the agent and Avenger he was today from such a young age. And she'd be lying if she said it didn't apply to her as well in his description. Clint had been the only one to believe in her at first. She was a heel and he inspired her to become good, now she had a whole team behind her for support. It made a lot of sense.
Clint seemed to tilt his head in thought, he took a breath an added, "I suppose if I wasn't the man I am, because of that stupid fake show, I wouldn't have met you, brought you back, and fell in love with you."
Natasha's heart beat a little quicker, warmth growing in her chest. Usually she cracked a joke to break these kinds of tensions, but in all honesty she was stunned into silence. Clint "Hawkeye" Barton had left the Black Widow speechless.
After a period of long silence, seeming to take it as judgment from her, he rolled away from her, "Sorry, that's stupid. I mean it's all fake and those moves would never even work in our line of work, and the phony personalities…" He trailed off again.
Natasha was still struggling with his words and letting them sink in. She closed her eyes and sucked in a breath. She needed to say something. He was being so sweet and while she didn't normally go out of her way to show affection, she wouldn't let him get used to it, she felt this was a proper time to show something.
"Oh those moves would work. At least for me." She said, still looking in his direction. She felt him tense next to her and turns back over, looking at her with wide eyes, some mirth behind them again.
"What would Ol' Stars and Stripes say if his second in command was speaking such foolish language?" He teased her.
She smirked at him with challenging glare; "He would say nothing after I beat him with those moves." Her confidence rolled off in waves.
Every week from then on, Natasha was just as excited as Clint to get home and watch their show. Each week, one of them would make popcorn and flip on the channel. Both would scream at the TV until their voices were hoarse. Natasha using some very choice Russian language when things didn't go her way.
And when Steve found them both in the gym sparring, well more like goofing off with their favorite wrestler's finishing moves, he had scolded them. Just as Clint said he would. And Natasha kicked his ass. Just as Natasha said she would. Clint smiled on, making sure he had her theme music ready when she was done. Just like they agreed they would.
The End
Thanks for reading guys! My next project after this story will be Clintasha song fics. I've got an entire playlist lined up for this purpose and it grows everyday. If you see another ship on my profile you enjoy I do take requests for one shots of them. See you next time!