Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize below. Characters and some lines are property of Marvel and and whoever owns the rights to "Notorious" because despite my searching I cannot find out who you are.
Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoy and that you'll review! (Italics are flashbacks. Regular font is present time.)
IMPORTANT NOTE! For anyone who was reading We'll Always Have Budapest, the story has been deleted and published as one shots. I have a hard time focussing on one story and just didn't have enough time to keep up with the whole story. Each one is titled under the name of the movie as part of a "We'll Always Have Budapest" universe/arch. Thanks for your support.
"I have no regrets. I wouldn't have lived my life the way I did if I was going to worry about what people were going to say." –Ingrid Bergman
This fog is really getting to me, Natasha thinks, the world swirling around her. The agent's head pounds and all she wants, all she wants in the whole entire world, is to be able to go back to sleep. But she can't. Her brain won't let her fall back into the blissful oblivion of her dreams. There is something she's supposed to remember. But her head hurts. Her body feels like it weighs a million pounds. The richly decorated room spins around her. Where am I? She thinks hard for what feels like an eternity before she remembers: Rio. I'm in Rio. With Sebastian. Married to Sebastian. "Oh, just please let me go back to sleep," Natasha moans, her thoughts finally finding their way out her mouth.
"No. Stay with me, Tasha."
Now she remembers why she can't go back to sleep.
They're in Miami, on a short break after a grueling mission from SHIELD. They've been celebrating good news from Fury, by the time their done with their drinks they can't even remember which horrendous person they've arrested in the past two years has finally been put behind bars. After all, names aren't important to them. They use fake ones, and real ones, and ones that are in code, and nick names, and all sorts of things, but at the end of the day, they still know who they are.
"My car's outside," Natasha says, walking briskly out of the room. (He still doesn't realize that I can't get drunk.)
"Naturally," Clint replies, helping her get her coat on. (So, he's not drunk either. Probably "due to his superior self-restraint." Yeah, right!)
"Very funny, Dev."
"Who?"
"Just a character from an old movie. You won't have seen it."
"Try me."
"I already did."
"And?"
"You failed. You didn't call me Alicia."
"Oh well. We'll watch it tomorrow."
"Then maybe you'll finally get all my jokes, Clint."
"I hope that day never comes."
"Honestly? Me neither." And Natasha tried not to laugh as he ties a piece of fabric (Is that his scarf?) around her waist.
Clint. That's why she can't go back to sleep. Something to do with Clint. Clint and Sebastian. And a mission. There has to be a mission. Why else would Clint be trying to have her tell him what happened? Natasha moans as she pushes her red hair out of her eyes. Wake up, Natasha, she thinks. You have to wake up. You have to tell him what happened.
"Are you even listening, Agent Barton?"
"Yes, Director Fury."
"We have a mission for you."
"But you said we wouldn't have anything," Clint protests.
"Something has come up."
"Something always comes up."
"I'm sending someone with all your information now."
The note on top of the file simply reads: Ever been to Rio?
"Help me get my coat?" Natasha murmurs. As Clint rummages in the closet, she begins to tell her story.
It all starts out simple enough, though Natasha supposes that's what they all say. They eat a fancy lunch in Rio. They enjoy each other's company. Nothing out of the ordinary, but if there are enough "nothing out of the ordinary's" in a row, they are bound to eventually become something extraordinary. And that's what happens in Rio. One moment, she and Clint are discussing how much she has changed since he first met her all those years ago and suddenly, without any warning from the other, they're kissing. It's a magnificent kiss. One that Natasha knows she will remember for the rest of her life. It's just the right mixture of passion and sweetness, of roughness and gentleness. She is glad for the feel of his lips on hers.
It escalates from there. A whole 24 hours of bliss. The feel of being completely and utterly in love flows through Natasha's veins and she hopes beyond hope that it will never, ever leave. But it does and at the end of the night all she is left with is a burned chicken and a pair of red roses that now belong to nobody.
"It's Sebastian. He knows. He knows who I am. I'm sorry Clint. I'm sorry I wasn't all that you wanted me to be."
"I haven't seen Alexander Sebastian in eight years!" Natasha shouts at Clint.
Clint has finally found Natasha's coat, but already she is beginning to fall back asleep. "Keep talking. Don't stop talking, Nat. Stay with me."
"He wants me to marry him," Natasha says it with no tribulation, no quavering in her voice because if there is any hint of reluctance to marry Alexander Sebastian, Fury will know all about what Natasha feels for Clint and their partnership will be over.
Sebastian is an interesting man. Not particularly kind or cruel. Not a knight in shining armor, but not a villain. He is simply a man who has had the misfortune to believe in something not in line with the United States government and to fall in love with a woman who happened to be a spy for the very government that he is fighting.
Natasha and Clint have been sent to Rio to find out what a certain Alexander Sebastian and an odd group of scientists are planning. The mission is fundamentally simple: Sebastian used to harbor quite the crush for Natasha. All she has to do is get close enough to him to learn his plans. She had done it a million times before. But never with the knowledge that Clint felt the same way she felt with him. Never has she been asked to kiss another man knowing what Clint's lips feel like on hers.
"Then marry him."
"It all fell apart at the party," Natasha chokes out before falling back onto the bed, exhausted.
She is reaching to take a sip of the tea that rests on her bedside table when Clint reaches out and stops her hand hissing "Don't drink that! He's poisoning you, can't you tell?"
They're married. The wedding is beautiful and Clint is not in attendance. Natasha has never been more miserable.
"Why did you kiss me?"
"Why do you think, Natasha?"
"I was hoping you would tell me."
"Is that what you want?"
"Yes."
Sebastian is walking down the stairs. He is going to find them, with the odd sand from his wine bottle still covering their hands and all the evidence that they have worked so hard to collect will be for nothing. So Clint does the only thing he can. He pulls Natasha out into the cold air, away from the wine cellar where they have found the evidence needed to get Natasha out of this mission and bring her home, and he kisses her. He kisses her as a man desperate to feel the lips of the one woman he loves once more. He kisses her like she is a married woman. Sebastian doesn't fail to notice the man from America kissing his wife.
"Please tell me, Clint!"
"Why does it matter? It won't stop whatever poison Sebastian has given you! Knowing why I kissed to won't keep you alive!"
"How do you know?"
"Because if telling you why I kissed you would save your life, I would have told you long ago."
"I knew her before you, loved her before you, only I'm not as lucky as you..." Clint says calmly to Sebastian before leaving Natasha in alone with her husband.
"Knowing will save my life."
"What makes you think that, Natasha."
"Because I know that I live for the moments when I think you might tell me you love me."
Natasha is still sleeping when Sebastian whispers to his mother "I am married to an American agent." And they hatch a plan to slowly poison Natasha with something in her tea.
"I love you."
"Say it again. It keeps me awake."
"I love you, Nat."
He lifts her as if she is the most precious thing in the world and carries her down the stairs, away from Sebastian, and into the car waiting to bring her to the hospital. His heart never skips a beat or races for fear. Not when it looks like they may not escapes Sebastian's household, even with his help. Not when a group of evil men with the hopes of killing every person in the United States of America stare them down and say that maybe it is not wise to move Natasha, if she is so ill. Clint's heart certainly doesn't react when Sebastian states that he has never been afraid to die and Clint, Natasha barely breathing in his arms. responds "You've got your chance, here and now." Clint feels no guilt when he hears Eric Mathis, one of the men working with Sebastian say "Alex, will you come in, please? I wish to talk to you." No, Clint doesn't feel anything but Natasha's arms around him and her head on his shoulder as they drive away and leave Alexander Sebastian behind to die.
Natasha is still pretending to be drunk. She knows nothing of the mission that is coming. Of the kisses that she and her long-time partner will share. Nothing of the heartbreak she will feel as she marries another man she doesn't care for. Natasha knows none of this. All she sees and feels and cares about is the rush of driving faster and more recklessly than she should.
"What does the speedometer say?" Natasha asks.
"65," Clint responds.
"I want to make it 80 and wipe that grin off your face. I don't like men that grin at me," she volleys right back.
Sitting in the hospital, barely able to hold her head up because of the poison still rushing through her blood, Natasha smiles faintly. He still hasn't seen Notorious has he? Clint still doesn't know that our story is just like some Hitchcock film from 1946. He's Cary Grant. I'm Ingrid Bergman.
"Don't ever leave me, Clint."
"You'll never get rid of me again."
"Never tried to." He picks her up and starts to carry her out of the room.
"Agents Romanoff and Barton, there is something we need you to do in Casablanca."
"We are protected by the enormity of your stupidity, for a time, Sebastian."
Author's Note: So I spent about an hour getting my formatting all pretty so that this story would be really easy to follow, what with all the dialogue and flashbacks. Then it didn't copy over. So let me know if this story is really hard to understand in a comment and I'll do my best to fix it. On the other hand, I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. I absolutely love the movie "Notorious", which this is based on. I highly suggest that you try and see it. It's a great story and wonderfully filmed. I normally don't use this much dialogue in a story, so any constructive criticism about it (or any part of the story) would be greatly appreciated. I hope you enjoyed and thank you for your time.
Have an amazing day,
-When In Doubt, Smile