Throughout the Black Widow's life she had never experienced true love, not until she had met Hawkeye.

A few months after joining S.H.I.E.L.D. she began to warm up to the archer, after all he was the one who gave her the choice of joining S.H.I.E.L.D. instead of him having to kill her like he was originally ordered to do by Fury. At first because of her training in the red room she trusted nobody. She was constantly calculating how many ways she could kill each person and how many ways she could escape each new room she entered -Not that she doesn't do that to this day, she stills has trust issues but has now learnt to open up to people, not falsely for missions like before.

To Clint she was his partner and so much more.

When he first met her he had seen a glimpse of hope in her eyes, a new brighter future another chance per say, like him an assassin for hire. Except she wasn't, she was dangerous not to say that Clint wasn't dangerous because that would be a lie.

But the widow was a cold blooded killer, yet she had such rare beauty that could snap your neck in heartbeat and not just physically but mentally too. Like many spies, she was a living nightmare that was dressed like a daydream. Despite all of this Clint still loved her, cared for her as if she was his.

He took her under his wing, guided her, helped her become whole again almost like a normal girl (except she was fluent in over sixteen languages, able to throw knives with precision as well as an expert in many hand to hand combat styles...the list goes on and on). But it didn't matter because Clint found the key to unlock her, she shared almost everything with him trusting that he would keep it secret and if even the tiniest bit of information slipped out of his mouth he knew she would kill him, but it went both ways as he told Natasha almost everything about his dark past.

Many agents thought the two wouldn't get along because of their training and what they had been through, but time and time again they were proven wrong by the assassins' unconditional love and affection for each other. Natasha took Clint's love for her in a brotherly way which broke the archer's heart, for he loved her far beyond family. She was his lover. Even though he felt that way towards Natasha he never confessed his love to her, afraid of what the consequences might be if he did.

To the average person being around their crush was hell but for Clint being around Nat was a thousand times worse as they were constantly fighting together on missions never knowing if it was their last battle. He always had to restrain himself when it came to her, knowing that they were always being watched by Fury as well as what she was capable of doing on her own the moment she sensed something was out of place.

The Widow too had a secret of her own, for she also loved Clint far more than a brother. She wanted to love him till the end of time. But her experiences of letting someone see beneath her mask were forced. People had done things to her, terrible things touched her in ways she could never forget and the worst thing about it was that she was powerless. Forced into submission without a choice, with no one to save her she was forced to live with those memories forever. Yet Clint had helped her, helped her see the light, that there was always a choice, always another way. For that she was forever grateful, but somehow she sensed something was wrong with Clint, like he was missing something or someone.

Like she was, except he was broken, shattered into a million tiny pieces. And yet he had hidden it so well that it almost went past her undetected, not until their last talk, where he asked her "Do you love me?"

From which she had replied with "Of course Clint, you're like a brother to me." That was when she realised...What had she done? In fact what had she been thinking to say such a stupid thing, until she remembered her walls, her fort. It was her protection, against feelings, against love...