Hi guys! So, this is a one-shot of a Clint-X-Natasha Christmas special! Hope you like it and hope you have a lovely holiday! :)
Enjoy and thanks for reading! ^_^
Please comment/review and let me know what you think of it, I'd really appreciate it, thanks! :)
I OWN NOTHING; I DO NOT OWN THE AVENGERS.
"All I Want For Christmas"
. . .
"Absolutely not." Natasha says as she keeps her back to Clint as she pours herself a cup of coffee.
Clint, who is sitting at the small table in the kitchen, frowns and folds his arms across his chest, but wincing when he does. "And why not? C'mon, Nat, please?"
Rolling her eyes, Natasha turns around to face him, her eyebrow raised and an annoyed look on her pale face. "You're joking, Barton, right?"
"I don't see what's the big deal! Do you have any idea how boring it is to just sit here and do nothing all day and all night?" Clint complains as he taps his fingers on the table, "Why won't you let me do this?"
"Oh, I don't know," She starts sarcastically, "maybe because- oh! That's right. You just got shot in abdomen less than a week ago."
Clint rolls his eyes, "You're point?"
"My point is," She glares at him as she pauses to sip her coffee, "you're too injured still to be running around putting up trees, decorating, Christmas shopping, and whatever else you plan on doing!"
"Nope, I don't buy it." He simply says, shrugging his shoulders as he takes a sip of his own hot cup of coffee that Natasha gave him a few moments ago.
"Don't buy what exactly?" She asks as she jumps up to sit on the kitchen counter. Her eyebrow is raised as she gives him a questioning look.
Clint stays silent for a minute as his eyes move away from hers to stare blankly at the plain, white wall. He knows what he wants to say, but he's not sure exactly how to say it. He can feel her eyes on him and he sighs, looking back at her, "You never had a Christmas before, have you?"
Natasha stares at him, saying nothing. Her hands curl up into tight fists by her sides and her body tenses as old memories replay in her head. It takes her a few moments, but she eventually answers his waiting question. "No."
He thought so. She had a rough past and she was never really close with people before. She never had friends or family around her; she's been alone her entire life. He's the first person she actually allowed herself to be close with and that alone took her long enough to let him in. He nods his head slowly, "That's why I want to do this."
"I don't need some special Christmas, Clint. I have you and I'm fine just curling up beside you on the couch and watching T.V. all day. I don't need any presents under a Christmas tree or any lights hanging around the apartment. I don't need any of it. I never had any of that my entire life and I survived without it. I don't need it now just like I didn't need it before." Then with that, Natasha hops off the counter and walks out of the room with her coffee mug in her hand.
Clint sighs and runs his hand through his hair, his eyes shifting to stare out the window. Snow is falling from the sky, covering the ground completely as ice forms around the window.
It's early morning Christmas Eve and Natasha has to leave for a quick mission and would be back tomorrow morning on Christmas day. Neither of them were so happy at first with the news, but Natasha assured him it was fine and she'd be back early the next morning.
Clint stands up slowly and ignores his aching muscles and the burn his still healing wound gives him as he moves. He bites back a groan and slowly limps to the living room to sit himself down on the black, leather couch.
A few minutes later, Natasha walks back into the living room with a bag over her shoulder. She runs her hand through her red hair and smiles at him, "I'll be back later, okay?"
"You're leaving now?" He asks with his eyebrows furrowed together as he sees her dressed in her usual SHIELD uniform.
"Yeah, the sooner I leave, the sooner I'll be back." She shrugs and kneels down beside the couch so she's eye level with him. She cocks her head to the side and runs her fingers through his soft hair. She stares right into his eyes, keeping her face only inches from his, "Promise me you'll stay on this couch and rest."
"Natasha-" He goes to protest, but she stops him when she presses her lips against his. They both smile into the kiss and when she pulls away, she rests her forehead against his. "Promise me."
He sighs, but nods his head, "Okay, okay. I…" He stares at her, not wanting to make a promise he already has full intentions of breaking. She rolls her eyes at him and lightly whacks his arm, "Clint!"
"Fine! I promise I will not leave his apartment and do anything that would hurt me." He says with a grin, but she shakes her head, catching onto what he is trying to do.
"Nuh-uh, promise me you will not leave this couch unless you have to either use the bathroom, or go to the kitchen to make you something to eat. Got that?" She says with a laugh as he pouts.
Rolling his eyes at her, he nods his head slowly with a frown on his face, "Fine. I promise to not leave the couch unless I have to use the bathroom or eat. Happy?"
"Very." She grins and kisses him again before standing up and waving his goodbye, "This Christmas to me is just like every other Christmas. Nothing special except for you here with me this time, alright? You don't have to worry about making it all nice."
He doesn't respond to her so she just sighs and opens the front door to their apartment, "Love you, be back by morning."
"Stay safe." He says as he watches her head out the door, "Love you too." When she shuts the door, he waits about a half an hour before rolling his eyes, muttering to himself, "Like hell I am going to just sit here until she gets back bored out of my mind."
Clint grabs his laptop and pulls out his phone, dialing a number and pressing his cell phone to his ear as he begins typing away on his laptop.
. . .
When Clint hears a knock on the door, he quickly gets off the couch and rushes to the door. He swings it open, but then heads right back to the couch, sitting down and waiting for the person to head inside his apartment.
"Um, hello? Barton, do you plan on helping me here or am I supposed to carry this myself?" Maria Hill's voice calls behind a giant tree as she begins pushing it into the apartment.
"I'd love to help, Hill, but I kind of… can't." He sighs, remembering his promise to Natasha. "You got everything I asked, right?"
Maria's head pops up to glare at Clint before rolling her eyes and nodding her head. "Yes, I got everything." She closes the door behind her once she gets the tree in and then places it on the floor. She raises an eyebrow at him and places her hands on her hips, "And you cannot help me because?"
Maria walks over to the couch and hangs him a small, black box, which he slips into his sweater pocket. He sighs and rubs the back of his neck, "I promised Nat I wouldn't leave this couch." He shrugs his shoulder, "Remember about less than a week ago during that mission we were on I got shot right in the abdomen in Barcelona?"
"Yes, I remember. Why?" She asks as her eyebrow slightly goes up at his question.
"Natasha made me promise I would stay on this couch all day and not move until she gets back tomorrow morning after her mission. Maria, she never had a Christmas before… I want to do this. I want to make this Christmas special for her, but after promising her I wouldn't get off the couch unless I have to use the bathroom, I need your help." Clint says with a small smile, "Can you help me?"
"When you say help," She begins, "does that mean you lay back and I do everything or what?"
"Well, I can help put up the decorations and everything. I just need to stay on the couch." He says and Maria can see in his eyes that he has an idea and a way around Natasha's promise.
"Okay, what's your idea exactly?" She questions as she walks back out of the apartment to grab the boxes she left out there while she put them down to drag in the tree.
"I can always move the couch around the apartment and work that way. So that way I didn't leave the couch and I'm still helping decorate the apartment for Nat." Clint says with a grin, "What do you say, you'll help?"
Maria stares at him as she rethinks this in her head. After a minute of silence between them, she sighs, "She really never had a Christmas before?"
He shakes his head, looking down at his hands, "Nope. No friends, no family, no celebrating holidays; nothing." He looks back up at Maria, "I want to make this special for her. I want her to always remember this and make this her first, real Christmas."
Sighing, Maria smiles a sad smile at him and shrugs her shoulders, "Alright then, Barton, where do you want to start decorating?"
. . .
It's three in the morning on Christmas day and Natasha drops her bag right beside the door as she pulls out her key from her jacket pocket. Her eyes are barely open; she's so tired.
She puts the key into the lock and turns it to the right, unlocking the door and placing the key back in her jacket pocket. A yawn escapes her lips as she bends down to pick up her bag before pushing the apartment door open.
Looking down as she enters, she walks into the apartment and shuts the door behind her. When she turns around and looks up, her bag falls out of her hand and her mouth falls open. Her eyes widen as she stares at the room, her mind trying to understand what's going on.
"What the…?" She mumbles as she stares at the bright lights that are tapped around the windows; two stockings hanging above the fireplace. Her eyes immediately lock with the large Christmas tree that is in the center of the living room, decorated with beautiful ornaments and colorful lights.
Clint smiles at her and it takes her a second to tear her eye s away from all the Christmas decorations and look at the man she has fallen in love with who is lying on the couch with a grin on his face.
She shakes her head as she walks over to him, smiling, "What is all of this?"
"This," He begins with a crooked grin, "is a bunch of Christmas decorations and lights." His fingers find her hand and they lace through her fingers, connecting their hands together. He sees her eyebrows knit together and before she can ask the question he knows she's dying to ask, he cuts her off, "And to answer your question, no, I did not break the promise."
"Oh please," She laughs, "you're saying you managed to do all of this by yourself without leaving the couch? I'm sure you didn't have to pee that much. There's no way you had to get up this many times to be able to decorate the apartment like this."
Clint kisses her hand gently and smiles up at her, "Maria Hill actually helped me get everything set up. I never left the couch, she just pushed the couch all around this apartment so I could help decorate."
Letting out a laugh, Natasha shakes her head, raising her eyebrow, "You're joking."
"Yeah, she wasn't so happy with me by the end of the day. I promised her once I'm feeling better to do whatever paperwork she has to do." Clint chuckles, "It's worth it though. When you walked in, your face dropped; I never seen you so surprised."
"I love the lights… they're beautiful, Clint. Red, green, blue, multicolor, I love them all. And the ornaments on the tree are… wow." She laughs, not knowing what to say.
Clint raises an eyebrow at her and teasingly asks, "Oh, is the Black Widow for once actually speechless?"
Natasha hits him in the arm and kisses his lips passionately. She smiles into the kiss and wraps her arms around his neck as she sits down on the couch beside him. Muttering in between kisses, she says, "I love it. Thank you."
He pulls away from her and pushes a lock of her hair behind her ear, smiling at her, "I wanted to make this holiday special for you. I wanted you to actually enjoy yourself. I don't want you to see holidays as just any other days. I wanted to do this for you and I'm so glad you liked it."
"It's all wonderful. I can't believe you went through all of this trouble. You should have been resting!" She grins as he kisses her forehead.
"You deserve to be happy, Tasha, and I want you to know you're not alone… not anymore. I'm always going to be here for you. I love you so much. You're my best friend, my partner… you're the woman I love; the woman I fell in love with and I don't plan on ever letting you go."
He kisses her and whispers in her ear, "Merry Christmas."
Natasha tries to hold in her tears, but she can't. She smiles at him as a single tear runs down her cheek. She shakes her head, "I didn't even get you a present, Barton!"
He laughs, "I don't need a present, Nat. You gave me everything I could ever possibly need. You're all I want for Christmas. You're all I want in this world." He kisses her again and smile s against her lips, "Although… I did get you something."
She gasps and pulls away from him, her eyes wide and her eyebrows pushed together, "What are you talking about? You didn't have to get me anything. I didn't get you anything and you just said how I was the only thing you-"
He kisses her to stop her from talking as his hand slips into his sweater pocket and pulls out a small, square, black box. He pulls away from the kiss with a grin, "This is a bit something different. Just… open this."
Clint hands her the box and she stares at it for a few moments, debating whether she should open it or not. Her slender fingers touch the box and she places it on her lap, staring down at it with sparkling eyes. A part of her as an idea what it is, but the other part of her doesn't believe it could be it.
He watches her hesitate and he holds his breath as she slowly slides he box open. Immediately a gasp escapes her lips as her hands fly up to cover her mouth as her eyes widen.
In the box, there lays a beautiful, perfect size, shining diamond ring; it's the most beautiful thing Natasha has ever seen. She shakes her head as her eyes begin to water at the beautiful piece of jewelry.
He takes her hand in his and he manages a small smile as his own eyes begin to tear, "I told you so many times before, Natasha, I love you. I'll always love you. It may be soon and you don't even have to give me an answer now. I just want you to know, I' m not going anywhere. I'll always be with you, by your side, whether it's lovers, partners, friends; no matter what, got that? I want to spend the rest of my life with you and only you, Nat."
She wipes her eyes with the back of her hand and she slowly looks up at him. Her eyes lock with his and she can't help, but allow the corners of her lips to curve up, forming a wide, beautiful smile. "I honestly don't know what to say."
Natasha takes a deep breath and she looks back down at the diamond ring. Before she can say anything, Clint asks the words that leave her breathless. "Will you marry me, Natasha Romanoff?"
She closes her eyes and holds back the sobs that want to leave her body so badly. She only laughs as she opens her eyes to smile widely at him. Grinning, she nods her head and climbs into his lap, "Of course I'll marry you, Agent Clint Barton. I love you."
He smiles the widest smile he has ever smiled and pulls her tightly into his arms, holding her body tightly against his own. He presses his lips against his own as his hands get lost in her hair. He smiles against her lips and pulls apart, "I love you so much."
They usually don't need to express themselves through words, since they know each other perfectly, but he feels like he has to tell her. He loves hearing himself say those three, simple words that mean so much. He does love her and although he can easily show her how he feels instead of plainly saying it, he decides to do both.
Natasha looks up at the ceiling with a raised eyebrow and a small laugh, "Is that a mistletoe above us, Clint?"
He grins at her and nods his head, "Yup it is. I actually managed to put that up there without falling off the couch or ripping my stitches."
Natasha shakes her head at him and laughs, "That's a good thing. Now, I think you should kiss me, wouldn't you say?"
"I believe that is what the mistletoe represents." Clint laughs before pressing his lips once more against his now fiancé.
Agent Romanoff has to admit, this has to be the best Christmas she has ever had- her only Christmas she ever really had, but she couldn't think of a better way to spend the holiday than with her now future husband in their apartment next to their Christmas tree.
She loves him and he loves her; they're a perfect match and they don't need any wrapped gifts to have a good holiday; all they want really is each other and they can't be any happier.
All they want for Christmas is each other and that's exactly what they got; that kind of present is more treasured than any other presents they can think of and will last the rest of their lives.
