A week in the hospital was already driving her mad.
She hated the antiseptic smell of the rooms, the clean white walls and the fact that she wasn't allowed to leave.
She could deal with the smell and the numb pain coming from her wounds, but boredom was something completely uncalled for. She hated the antsy feeling; the prickle on her skin from not moving around was more than irritating. She groaned, leaning back and staring at the ceiling once more, counting the cracks again.
"Hey Natasha," a knock came from the door. She turned around to see Steve, walking towards her with a small bag in his hand. "I brought you some fresh fruit, you know, if you want it," he grinned, setting it down on the small table. "I thought you'd like something different for a change and hospital food isn't exactly the best, you know what I mean?" he chuckled, running his hand through his hair.
"Hey Steve," she greeted. The rest of the team often took turns visiting her. The day before, Tony had brought a box of cookies shaped as spiders. If she had a knife in her hand, she wouldn't have hesitated before driving it through his arm. The truth is, even though her name was the Black Widow, she hated spiders with a passion.
It had taken half an hour to finally kick him out of the room.
"How are you, Natasha?" Steve asked, plopping down on the chair next to her bed. Out of the rest of the Avengers, Steve was the easiest to get along with. He wasn't loud, like Thor, or aggravating like Tony. Bruce was in the same boat, preferring to keep quiet and stick to his work. It was just the Hulk she was a little wary of.
Steve was definitely the easiest to get along with.
"I hate being stuck in this room, but the arm's feeling better," she sighed, sitting up. Out of habit, she turned towards the door, expecting to see Clint.
"He still hasn't come to see you, has he?" Steve sighed. It wasn't a question, more of a statement. She nodded, her eyes clouded with worry. Was he still angry at her? Perhaps Fury had sent him on a mission. Maybe he no longer wanted to be her partner? Under her calm demeanor, she was almost panicking.
"How is he?" she asked in a softer voice.
"He's fine, but he's been… avoiding the lot of us. He leaves pretty early, and he says he has paper work to do, and he comes back much later than he used to. Do you think he drinks or something? He doesn't look drunk when he comes back though." Steve answered, looking slightly worried as well.
He was lying to them. He would never go early to do something as trivial as paperwork. He was terrible at it, and Fury knew that. Why would he have paperwork assigned to him?
"Are you sure he's not on any missions or anything?" she asked disbelievingly.
"I'm positive he's still around. I just saw him this morning!" Steve exclaimed. "I'll go see if I can get Tony to have a word with him," he promised.
He hesitated. "I thought he'd be the first one to see you, actually. Did something happen between you two?" he asked curiously.
"We argued before I went into the mission," she said plaintively. "He said I was being reckless so I went without him," she admitted, a blush seeping into her cheeks.
"Didn't you say you were being a 'little' careless the day before? That doesn't seem like a little to me," Steve replied, amusement evident in his voice. "Anyways, Clint doesn't seem like someone who would ignore you when he was angry. I mean he really likes you, doesn't he?"
She gave him a strange look.
"I mean, you know. As partners, you guys do all these missions together, you know," Steve stuttered, his face turning bright red. "I meant that you guys care about each other's backs and uh-"
"I know what you meant, Captain," she smirked, watching the tomato-red complexion spread across her teammate's face.
She knew completely. After years of working with Clint, one thing she had picked up was how easily he would forgive and forget. There were multiple times where agents would mess up something big, and he would still trust them with another job. He rarely ratted anyone out, and after a lecture, he'd go back to business.
She was confused. He used to visit her when she was in the hospital, no matter what. If he was willing to forgive blundering idiots at S.H.I.E.L.D, why wasn't he here to see his partner?
Author's note: oh gosh I'm so sorry it's so late! I planned to upload it earlier, but I have a bunch of summer classes, internship, fostering a dog, etc. to worry about, and I wanted to look it over, but I didn't really have time to do so. If there are mistakes, tell me! I'll try to update faster, I'm really sorry. Well anyway. Read and Review, as usual. I love you guys, thanks for being patient with me!