This is the first fanfic I've ever submitted on here so please be gentle!
She was pissed. Infuriated even. But mostly, enraged. She had to hear the news from the quabbling little interns in the cafeteria. Of all the people in the world and surrounding worlds, she had to find out from them. Even then, they didn't exactly say it to her directly. She had merely overheard them. But when she did, it was like a chain reaction of bad things.
When the news hit her ears, she tightened her angry, trembling hands around her coffee mug. Shards of the porcelain cup embedded themselves in her palms and hot coffee sprayed around her in a shower of scalding liquid.
The initial shock of the news had made her numb, not even allowing her to feel anything outside of her own turmoil of a mind. But when she came back to reality, she had to grit her teeth from crying out it pain and rage.
She didn't know what hurt worse; the pain of the cuts on her palms and the burns inflicted by her coffee or the news she just received that her partner, Clint Barton, the man she longed for with all her heart, was getting married.
She didn't know what she disliked more; the simple fact that she loved him but he wanted someone else or that they were partners and he didn't even tell her anything about liking a girl.
Probably the first of the two. But that's besides the point at this moment. Blood was dripping from her palms, leaving a small pool of the crimson liquid on the ground before her feet. The interns only stared at her curiously and eyed the growing mess of blood with frightened interest.
"Are you alright, Miss Romanoff?" one of the interns managed to stammer. They all knew that this woman, this assassin, was dangerous and could become easily pissed off. They knew they had to tread carefully around her presence.
But her cry of anger and her breaking the mug with her bare hands made them all stand perfectly in place, praying to whatever god they worship to let them live to see the next day.
"I'm...just peachy." Natasha hissed through her clenched teeth. She muttered some profanity in her native tongue and then trekked out to find the hospital wing. She knew she had to get her hands fixed up and healed as quickly as possible. Injured hands never served anyone well in hand-to-hand combat, now did it?
The burns would be fine though once ice was on them so she didn't worry about that. Once she made it to the infirmary, she sat down on one of the beds and waited for a nurse or doctor to help her. A petite, female nurse came in with some burn cream and gauze within moments.
The nurse smiled meekly. She felt incredibly intimidated by Natasha. But she knew she had a job to do so she began with removing any leftover shards from the mug. Only a few were still in and once they were out, the nurse proceeded to wrap the cut hands.
After that task was done, she let Natasha apply the burn cream where it was necessary. It stung like crazy at first and Natasha had to bite back the bile rising in the back of her throat, but slowly, the soothing feeling of the cream started to take effect.
Once she was done, she thanked the nurse and headed back out the door. She needed to talk to someone to confirm what she heard. Her mind immediately went to Tony Stark. As much as she hated to admit it, the bastard knew everything there is to know about everything around here. He would surely know if it was true or not. It also helped that him and Clint seemed to get along pretty well.
As she searched for the egotistical genius, she ran into an out of breathe Steve. He stopped in front of her, hands holding onto his bent knees, trying desperately to catch his breathe again. Once he did, he stood straight and looked down at Natasha. He tried saying something to her, but his previous shortness of breathe seemed to cut the words off.
"What?" Natasha asked after a few annoyed seconds. She hated when people tried saying something to her that was incoherent. She shot him a lethal glare and with that look from Natasha, Steve looked slightly taken aback.
"Are you mad?" Steve asked curiously. There was a hint of confusion in his voice but Natasha didn't seem to notice. "What's it look like?" she snapped venomously. He was really starting to tick her off. "Clint hasn't told you about the engagement then?" Steve asked shocked. "No. He didn't." Natasha nearly yelled. He looked around uncomfortably and then started running again.
Natasha huffed in annoyance and continued with her quest to find Tony. Steve pretty much confirmed what the interns said, but she still wanted to hear what Tony said. Maybe Steve had gotten the wrong information too. As she entered Stark's lab,she was met with taunting grey eyes and silent, brooding green ones.
Tony and Bruce looked at Natasha unperturbed by her sudden entrance. "Ah, what brings you to our neck of the woods, Miss Romanoff?" Tony asked smoothly.
Natasha took a deep breathe before she answered. "I want to know if it's true." Natasha spat out like it was foul tasting. "True? What's true? That the earth is round? That Columbus didn't actually discover America? That America was first to land on the moon? Or that Steve secretly fantasizes about you but is too chicken shit to admit it?" Tony fired off rapidly.
With each question asked, Natasha became more angered, but that dissipated quickly when she heard the last question. "What?" she asked incredulously. "What?" Bruce added to Natasha's reaction. "Nothing. What do you want to know?" Tony said not even batting an eye at the looks of pure shock on Natasha's and Bruce's faces.
Natasha forced herself to snap out of her reverie and return to her mission at hand. "Is it true Clint is engaged?" Natasha forced out. Oh god, she sounded so desperate. But she had to know. She just had too. She waited for Tony's reply with impatience and worry. He was staying silent for longer than she liked.
"Yes. Didn't you already know?" Tony asked taking a peek at the clock in the room. Natasha followed his gaze and saw that it read 1:23pm. She looked back at Tony confused. Why was he looking at the clock? Tony smiled coyly at the confused female assassin.
"She's a real beauty. She must be a C-cup at least if not a D-cup. She has this perfect hour-glass shape and her ass just looks so..." Tony was saying but was cut short by the door sliding open. Everyone turned to see the dark, brooding archer enter.
He looked around the room silently looking for Tony when he spotted Natasha on the other side of the glass room. "Nat. I've been looking for you." the archer said slowly.
He motioned with his eyes for Tony and Bruce to leave. Both crossed the room in an awkward silence and when Tony passed the brooding archer, he winked knowingly. "Have fun, Legolas." Tony teased before following Bruce out the door.
Once the door slid shut, Clint turned to talk to Natasha. His eyes were cast down for a split second before he looked fully into her eyes. "So you've heard?" Clint asked disappointed. "Yeah. I had to find out from some interns, Clint. Interns!" Natasha said dramatically, pushing past Clint while she was at it.
She walked over to one of the tables and leaned against it for support. She took a big breathe before looking at Clint again. She was definitely pissed now.
"So, who is it?" Natasha asked after a few silent seconds. Clint gave his partner his signature smirk. "You mean you don't know?" Clint said almost hopefully. Natasha just scowled at him and shook her head. "No, Clint. Please. Enlighten me as to who this girl might be." Natasha said. She was so ready to tear someones head off now.
Before Clint could say anything though, Natasha added,"If it's that Mockingbird chick I won't be afraid to hurt you." Clint laughed and shook his head. "No. It's someone you know though. She's strong, clever, and the most beautiful woman I've ever seen." Clint whispered pretending to be dreamy and entranced by a far off image.
Natasha huffed angrily and cast her eyes down. She wanted to scream a certain three words at him, but she knew that saying anything to him now would only make things worse for everyone. "Oh. I bet she is." Natasha whispered with contempt for the lucky girl. But she knew she had to be nice.
"She's perfect. I can't live without her." Clint said smiling down at Natasha. The female assassin looked up at her partner and smiled weakly. "Cool." she whispered. It was all she could say now. "So, I have a question." Clint said slightly nervous now.
Natasha looked at him curiously and nodded her head. "What is it?" Natasha asked, almost afraid of the answer. Did he want her to be a bridesmaid? That would just make it so much worse for her. Clint took her hand into his and kissed it lightly as he knelt down.
"Will you marry me?"
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