"Agent Barton, this is agent Romanoff. I have a situation."
This should never have happened. It was outrageous, stupid and most of all, practically impossible. Natasha had a mission to finish, was about to go undercover with the local drug dealers to get to their boss and this was going to royally screw with that plan. Most of all, Clint was her back up on this mission and he was going to think of this as hilarious.
"What is it, Nat?"
Natasha sighed as she almost didn't want to admit it. Why on earth did this have to happen to her and not to some rookie that didn't pay attention?
"Somebody stole my wallet."
She heard him snicker on the other side and had the urge to throw a pebble at him, even though she couldn't throw that far. The bloody bastard always had to think it was funny when she screwed up. She was about to complain about how he should take this seriously when he spoke.
"I think I know who did. You know, I do keep an eye out." Natasha sighed and took a quick look around, wondering if he had just seen that person. "She's not here anymore," Clint's voice interrupted her search. "She must be a couple blocks away now. Pretty darn good pickpocket if she managed to steal your wallet without you even noticing it."
Natasha was fed up with this, with whoever the thief was. "Who am I looking for?" She needed that wallet back, as it contained the piece of paper that was going to get her into that damn organisation.
"Blonde hair, grey eyes, cute face. Look down."
Look down, what did that have to mean? Natasha looked down but there was nothing of significance there.
"Clint, if you're fucking with me, I will come over there and murder you instead of our mark." There was a chuckle from the other side of the line, and Natasha was prepared to do exactly what she had threatened to, but Clint's words stopped her.
"Tash, calm down. The pickpocket you're looking for can't be older than twelve. You'll have to look down because otherwise, you're not even going to notice her."
"What?!" She got pickpocketed by a kid? By now, she was completely ignoring the fact that Clint was laughing at her and started to search for the damn thief. If it hadn't been a damn kid, she would've broken the person's wrist, but now that would be frowned upon.
It took them a couple of hours to track the thief down and they ended up in one of the worst areas of the city, where there was a constant threat of someone bashing your head in. Clint was still on the roofs, making sure that he could see the surroundings in case something funky would happen.
"Okay, another turn right. Just..." There was a sense of hesitance in Clint's voice, and Natasha wondered why. "Just approach her carefully, okay? She seems to be able to run at any moment, and unlike with the regular thugs, I'm not going to shoot her foot just to slow her down."
Natasha turned around the corner and noticed the young girl counting money she had collected, a small pile of wallets next to her. When the blonde thief noticed a presence near, she looked up, eyes wide and cautious, already shifting so she could run away quickly.
"Tash." Clint warned her through the earcoms. "Show her you're not here to hurt her. Crouch down to eye level and smile. For god's sake, the smile is important."
Natasha did exactly that, smiling softly and crouching down, not yet telling the girl why she was here. For a moment, she wondered why Clint knew exactly what to do, especially since it seemed to work somewhat. That was something to ask him on a later moment.
"Who are you, then?" she asked, looking into the frightened eyes of the girl.
The thief stayed silent for a little while, checking her money again as if Natasha wasn't even there. Natasha was about to say something again when Clint told her to stay quiet and give her time. With a huff, she closed her mouth again.
"Parker," the girl eventually said, and Natasha breathed out a soft sigh. Okay, it seemed like all she had to be was very patient.
"And where do you live, Parker?" A young girl out on the streets, pickpocketing people and apparently being really good at it... Natasha feared the worst. When Parker didn't answer her question, she just moved on, not wanting to press her.
She turned around for a moment, looking over to where Clint was standing. She could really use him down there...
As if he heard her thoughts, he responded immediately.
"I'm not coming down. Too many people might mean she'll get uncomfortable. You're doing fine." Natasha was about to turn back when he interrupted her again. "Get your wallet and... leave."
There it was again, the hesitance in Clint's voice, as if he didn't want to leave Parker here. There was a dejavu moment for Natasha, but she couldn't quite pinpoint what exactly she had seen or heard before. After shaking that thought off, the redhead turned to Parker again.
"I don't know if you noticed, but I believe you have my wallet between those too." When the thief started looking more on guard, she immediately added: "I'm not going to call anyone or get the cops, I just really need it back. You can even keep the money."
At the mention that she could keep the money, the young thief found Natasha's wallet – apparently still knowing which one she stole from whom – and tossed it to her. Natasha caught it with an appreciative smile, nodded and turned around to leave.
Only when she was a couple of blocks away, she realized what had been going on with Clint, and why she had been reluctant to leave herself.
"She reminded you of me," Natasha bluntly said as she made her way over to the safehouse she had meant to enter in the first place. Clint didn't respond to that, not until Natasha had added a stern "Clint".
"Yeah. She does. Also recognized some other things, but she didn't look like she has a loving family..."
"... or a family at all," Natasha finished and sighed. "There's tons of orphans out there... We can't save them all."
Again, no answer from Clint. Natasha took this as a sign to just continue with the mission and forget about the girl. She seemed to be doing fine, anyway.