Clint poked his head into the apartment, looking for Natasha. Ok, she wasn't in the living room, perfect. That meant he would have a few more minutes before she killed him. Clint placed the box he was holding on the coffee table, and then placed his jacket over the top of the box. That should give him at least another few seconds before she found out what he had brought home, and before she began yelling at him.
"Hey, your back. Did you get dinner?" Natasha was standing in the door between the living room, and very small kitchen. Her eyes focused instantly on the jacket covered box, and Clint winced. She moved towards it. "Woah, big box! Did you get Chinese food? I'm starving." Natasha moved to lift the jacket, and Clint moved to stop her. "Aaaah no,actually forgot about getting dinner, got a bit distracted. Should we go out now to eat? Like, right now?" Clint pulled the box away, and Natasha yanked it back. "What? You went out just to get us food, and you were gone like two hours. What's in the box Barton?" Clint pulled the box from her hands, and he stood up to move it away. "It's nothing Romanoff! Just ignore it, come on, let's go eat!" But Natasha couldn't be distracted. She was half amused, half irritated that her partner was holding out on her. She leapt to grab the box from Clint's hands, and he lifted it up above his head. Natasha was about to tackle Barton to the ground, 'when a muffled noise came from the box. It sounded like a very excited, very high pitched bark.
The two assassins froze, Clint smiled nervously, Natasha's eyes narrowed. "Oh, Barton you did not buy a dog…." Clint lowered the box, but still didn't move the jacket off of the top. "Romanoff, I didn't buy a dog, I promise." She interrupted him, "Then you found one! Barton, we can't keep a dog!" Clint took a deep breathe and braced himself before revealing just how much of a mistake he had made. "I did not find a dog, Romanoff! Um, I kind of found three dogs. Well, puppies." Sure enough, suddenly three sets of excited puppy dog eyes were staring up at the Black Widow.
Natasha backed away, wishing she had ignored the box and accepted Clint's offer to go get some food. "Clint! No! We've talked about this, we can not have pets with our line of work! Remember when you tried to keep that cat? And we kept going on long missions, and every time we came back it ignored us because it hated us for leaving? It held grudges against us! It pooped in your shoes! It scratched up your bow! It shed hair, ALL over my clothes. Then the petsitter let the damn thing escape, and we never saw it again. Do you remember any of that?" Clint opened his mouth to object that a dog was different from a cat, but Natasha had more to say. "And remember the time you thought a fish tank could be a great pet for you? And then without warning we got sent to Egypt for a month, and we came back to an algae infested tank full of belly up fish? We had to move, Barton! The entire apartment reeked of rotten seafood! Nothing could fix it! What do you think a dog would smell like if we left it for a month Clint!? Probably worse!" Clint got a word in edgewise now, "Ok, to be fair I thought those were the kind of fish that lived off of that seaweed and mold stuff. I thought they could take care of themselves! And maybe I forgot about them. But this is a dog! How can I forget a dog?"
Natasha snorted, "How could you forget to close the top of a tarantula cage!? Do you remember that? When you kept complaining you didn't have a pet, and came home with a spider the size of your hand? And you were trying to get it to play with you, and then decided to go google if you could teach a tarantula tricks. And left, the lid, of the tank, off." Clint guiltily focused his eyes back on the puppies, letting one of them chew on his hand. "Um…. Ok, that was kind of bad…" Natasha snorted. "Yeah, it could have been a whole lot better if you had told me you had bought a tarantula, before I found it in my PURSE. In a meeting with Hill, and Fury! Do you know how awful that was!? Have you ever thrown a tarantula onto a table surrounded by a half dozen of Shield's top agents!?" Clint was trying very hard not to smirk now, he had heard this story many times, and knew maybe he shouldn't find it funny. But it always made him smile.
"No, I have never thrown a tarantula onto a table surrounded by Shield's top agents. What happened?" Natasha rolled her eyes. "It turned them into a bunch of idiotic mindless babies, who acted like I had just pulled the pin on a grenade. So I had to kill it" Tasha failed to mention that she had been one of the people to react like something of a mindless baby. Ok, she had been more than surprised to reach into a purse for her phone, and come out holding a tarantula. Maybe it had only been a natural reaction for her to unload an entire round from her gun into the poor arachnid. Or maybe, as she claimed, she had killed the spider so that the weaker agents would stop screaming.
Clint had placed the box on the table, and was now holding one of the puppies out to his partner. "Nat! Ok! We know I have not had the best track record for pets. But these are dogs! Cute, adorable dogs! I am not going to forget about them, or think they can live off of the mold in their cage. They won't hate us if we go on long missions, and can't come back for a while. And I certainly hope that if one of them ends up in your purse without your knowledge, that you won't shoot it out of panic."
Natasha ignored the dog Clint was holding out to her. "I did not panic. I just…. Had to shoot that spider because everyone else was freaking out. It had to be done." She narrowed her eyes at him, daring him to say otherwise. Clint kept his mouth shut, and again held the dog out, hoping his partner would take it, and fall in love with the tiny puppy.
For a second he thought she was going to walk away, or ignore the small dog. So he spoke up. "Some guy was trying to sell them on the street Nat, and he was not being very nice to them. They were just playing around, and one of them started chewing on his nasty old sneakers, And he kicked it. Do you blame me for rescuing them? And look at how skinny they are, they're obviously undernourished. They need us Nat! I had to save them!" Clint held the tiny dog in his hands, it was wagging it's tail excitedly. Two sets of puppy dog eyes gazed at Natasha- One set from the dog, the second from her partner.
Yipping noises came from the box, and Clint reached down to grab another dog. "Tash, trust me, these dogs need us! Don't you want to help them? I promise we can find them a home once they are strong enough!" Natasha wanted to refuse. Insist Clint drop the dogs off at a vet, or a shelter or something. Say that this was a stupid idea, and that they didn't have time for this. But she was reminded too much of when she had needed someone, and Barton had taken her in. Plus, why not admit it? Clint looked too adorable holding those dogs for her to turn him down.
So, the Black Widow leaned forward, gave Clint a quick kiss on the lips, and picked up the last dog in the box. "Ok. We can keep them for a couple weeks, or until we get called on for a mission. And once they are strong enough, they are finding new homes. Deal?" Beaming, Clint nodded. "Ok, but I wan't to make a deal that if you fall in love with any of these adorable little puppies, we have to keep them, ok Nat?"
The puppy was trying to bite the Black Widow's hand, and lick her face at the same time. She smirked at Clint, and scratched the dogs ears. "Oh please, love is for children. I am not falling in love with any more dumb dogs."She leaned forward, and gave him a second kiss. "Loving one is more than enough."