Nat wasn't sure how she got into bed but she woke up wrapped in her blankets with the sun streaming in. After getting up and walking outside she saw Clint's door was shut and there was a faint sound of snoring behind the door. Carefully and quietly walking downstairs she decided it was high time to call Steve.

SHIELD had provided both of them with two high tech phones that Stark had designed but she didn't want them tracing it or even the possibility of it. Other than that there was only 1 telephone in the house and it was one of the old 80s looking telephones that were connected to the wall. Sliding down the stairs in one swift movement she ducked into the kitchen and called Steve by his cell phone number that wasn't his SHIELDs. They both personally bought 2 crappy $30 phones that had those limited minutes so they could contact each other. Clicking in the numbers she waited as the phone rang. It rang and rang and rang and for a second she feared that he had gotten rid of it. Suddenly the tone stopped and she heard breath on the other side of the phone.

"Wonder whether having, isn't it?" Nat automatically said into the phone.

"Yes, but I always carry an umbrella." She heard Steve respond back. "Ok good it's you Nat." Steve had taught her a code that he used back in his old army days, although he would never tell her what it was used for back then.

"Yeah, sorry I didn't get in touch earlier. It's been an adjustment." She quickly explained for her absence.

"Sam here," he agreed. "Sam and I are still laying low longer than I would have liked."

"So are you going after him?"

"Packing up right now, this town is a really odd. Everyone thinks we're gay- not that there's anything wrong with that…"

"Steve-" she interrupted him.

"Sorry. But we're going to find the files and see where they held him. I think it's somewhere in just outside of DC."

"It would have to be," she agreed. "His main target area was DC and he showed up relatively quickly. I would say someplace that is mostly isolated but has access to science and medical instruments." She pondered for a second. "Maybe something by the bay?"

"That's our best lead so far." Nat heard the zipping of a back in the background. She also heard a slight creak in the stairs which indicated that Clint was up. "I haven't been able to get to a computer to see any of SHIELDs files."

"You can go to a Mac store like we did when we tracked down the army base." She informed him. "I'm guessing that you know how to get in."

"You forget who you're talking to." He sassed. People always assumed that Steve a perfect reputation and was a good child and said nothing out of turn, but when you got to know him he loosened up and got sassy and smart with you- Nat didn't mind it.

"Right, I have to go, keep me posted?" she asked quickly.

"Can't keep any promises. But I'll do my best." He answered.

"You always do- bye." He returned the farewell and she hung up the phone. "You can come down now Clint." She spat. She waited for a few seconds before she heard the creaking stairs and his loud footsteps coming down.

"That was Steve?" Clint asked going to the fridge and pulling out the carton of milk, taking a swig of it. "How's he doing? I haven't talked to him since before you and him… went on your mission and brought down SHIELD or whatever."

"He's doing fine, he's out searching for Bucky." Nat quickly said.

"Bucky?"

Pausing for a moment Nat wasn't sure if she should tell Clint, but partners always needed to be honest. "The Winter Soldier."

"Him?!" Clint was in front of her now holding her shoulders. "The one who shot you? You let Steve go after him?" Clint was obviously against Steve's mission to find his childhood friend.

"But it's his childhood friend. He's brainwashed into killing those people, into shooting me. It wasn't him." Nat explained. "I was like him…" The kitchen filled with silence as both of them reminisced to the day Clint decided not to kill her and take her into SHIELD instead- giving her a new life. "He needs to save him."

"Then I know the feeling," Clint looked like he was back in time to when he actually brought Nat back to SHIELD and how absolute havoc it was. When Clint saved her and brought her back she remembered not being able to stay in a room with anyone but Clint. He was the one who brought her food, kept her company and gave her anything she needed. She was a feral animal that even today many SHIELD agents looked down upon even though she proved herself time and time again. "Then I support him." He finally decided.

"Great." Nat wasn't sure how she felt about this situation.

"Nat about last night," Clint started.

"Don't- we both said some stuff last night that we really didn't mean. We're partners right? We've been through hell and back- it's gonna take a lot more than a couple of harsh words to break us apart." Nat wanted things not to be more strenuous than they already were.

"You got that right." Clint laughed and pulled her into a side hug. Nat smiled and accepted the hug. "Anyways," he suddenly let go and scratched the back of his head. "Shall we continue faking our lives?"

"As always, my lovely husband." She smiled and sarcastically remarked. Clint gave a nervous laughed leaned up against the fridge. She was a little concerned how quickly they resolved the matter but she pushed those feelings aside and decided to enjoy the company of her best friend.

The next weeks went by without an interruption. Nat would get a call or two from Steve keeping her updated at least once a week, he even talked to Clint once or twice. She had started her job and so had Clint- he actually enjoyed being an athletic director and getting to see how much better he was than all the high school students.

"Clint you know your 8 years older than them right?" Nat would say when he got boastful.

"Are you kidding? I was twice the athlete they are when I was a senior." He would laugh.

While teaching dancing Nat discovered that she is actually a caring person towards children- or most of them at least. They all were well mannered children who would listen to her and she would rarely ever have to get cross with them. There were a few that challenged her when she got there but she quickly put them in their place.

As weeks were dragging on and Natasha soon started to get antsy- she had never been out of action for this long unless it was for an injury or something. This had been one of the only times in her life were she got to actually feel like a normal person and not some world known assassin who didn't just leak the secrets to the most secret government agency in the world.

Her relationship with Clint also seemed at ease, besides their first scuffle a couple of weeks ago they had been good. Going into town they acted like a nice wedded couple and at home they acted like two goofy best friends. Nat had never been happier in her life, and that very feeling scared the living shit out of her.

Waking up one day she saw out the window that it was a lazy overcast day; she silently thanked the world that it was Saturday and she and Clint got the day off to just relax. She got up and grabbed one of the few loose t-shirts she had bought since their stay here. Walking downstairs her nose was invaded with the smell of pancakes and bacon, in a food induced trace she walked downstairs and saw Clint in front of the stove having trouble cooking.

"What are you doing?" Nat laughed and tapped Clint on the shoulder.

"Oh!" Clint was surprised and turned to the side to reveal brown pancakes and bacon that was a little too crisp. "I attempted to make Sam's amazing pancakes, and it didn't really go as planned."

"And I actually had faith in you," Nat sarcastically pouted. Clint took the bacon off, put it on a plate and attempted to save what he could. He laughed silently to himself and took a bite of the tough meat.

"Do you think this is what regular people's lives are like?" He asked as he chewed.

"Maybe, although I feel like it would have the lack of knowledge about everything evil out there, aliens, Hydra, terrorist." As soon as she said it, Nat wished she could take it back, it had accidentally made the mood very morbid.

"Yeah, wouldn't that be an easy life." Clint swallowed and stared at the ground.

"How was it?" Nat suddenly questioned him. Confused Clint looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "I mean a life before all of this- you had one. You've told me you had one." Nat wanted to know a life outside of killing and being scared for your life all the time.

"I mean it wasn't much of a life," Clint started. "From what I do remember it was okay… there were ups and downs. I guess a pro was that you were ignorant, god I wish I could go back to that. You didn't know about all the evil out there; sure you heard about serial killers and shooters- but Nat, they are just child's play to what we've seen. I remember when Barney and I got roped into becoming part of the circus there were so many people who would tell us stories about their lives. Barney and I heard so much, both good and bad and that was our first reality- that's what I remember. Of course the cons are being totally oblivious to what the dangers are actually were. People go through their lives thinking they have control of it when they really don't- and that's the scariest thing to me." Clint didn't look at Natasha and just stared out the window. "Although it was nice to have the circus and Barney for a part of my life, but this is my life now- and it's almost impossible to change it."

"You know we have to back, right Clint? This is just for a while until Maria tells us otherwise." Nat didn't want him to get comfortable, and she was angry at herself for feeling that way. Clint didn't answer her and continued to look out of the window- it was raining now.

"You know we could do it; disappear." Clint reminded her of the time they tried to. "I mean we've nearly done it before."

"You know we can't do that." She sighed.

"But why not?" anger started trickling into his voice. "I mean haven't we've saved the world enough? Haven't given up enough to that other people could live happy? I mean we've both been shot, poisoned, tortured, nearly on the brink of death. You've fallen off cliffs that should have killed you Natasha; I've had my mind taken over by some runaway evil prince and forced to kill our own! We have been through double for what this line of duty calls for." His chest heaved. "And we don't know when SHIELD is going to be up and running or if it ever will, we don't know if it's ever going to be like it was before. I'm sick of someone else always giving me orders, I've been taking them since I was boy and now… we have a chance to make our own lives here and do what we want to do. If you think about we are the only 2 Avengers that really don't have a life outside of our line of duty. Stark is up and coming with the best clean energy science and create, plus he has Pepper. Thor is spending time with Jane- taking her to Asgard and such. Steve is trying to find Bucky along with Sam; and Bruce is trying to make a world a better place and keep his condition under control. What do we have?" Clint yelled through the house.

Nat stared at him and swore he saw tears in his eyes, she knew part of him was right. Nat had always been a killer and really didn't know anything outside of being secretive and undercover; Clint had always had his life decisions made for him. First it was Barney who decided what they should do after their parents died, and now it was SHIELD. (Technically they used the term 'recruited' but you really didn't have much of a choice).

"I'm just so tired, if someone doesn't kill me first exhaustion will." Clint walked over to her. Nat stared at Clint not knowing how to react. She was divided- half of her wanted to run away with him and not have to worry about killing anyone every again, but the other half, her rational half, was telling her that if she didn't stay and keep the world safe, who would?

"Clint," she began. Looking at him she saw how the job had taken a toll on him. His eyes were gaunt with purple bags under them, the lines on his face were sharp and deep- he was a young man and the world already threw him around like a rag doll. "I'm sorry the world sucks." It was the only thing she could think of.

Clint gave a weak chuckle and smiled at her. "I am too. It just seems so useless sometimes, we do all this good in the world; save lives, kill bad guys, make the world safe and it turns out that our own agency has one of the worst followings in it that's been there since World War 2? I mean it's kind of depressing."

"There has to be good in your life right? Your farm, that's a plus," Nat tried to make him feel better. Clint rarely got this emotional and when he did Nat knew it was severe and hard for him. Her mind suddenly went blank and something took over her- she went and hugged Clint. SHIELD always thought of Nat as an emotionless killer, which would be an advantage sometimes, but her one weak spot was Clint and he needed her right now.

"Think of something happy Clint." Nat mumbled into his shirt.

"Yeah ok…" he tightened his arms around her. "I think I can manage that."

Sorry if you didn't like this chapter, I had to make it a little touchy-feely; I'll pick up the action in the next one i promise :)