A/N So it appears I have permanent writers block since I never really start a story having a solid idea of where it's going, but the reviews have told me that they turn out pretty well.
Sorry it took longer to put this chapter up, I've been hanging out with friends a lot lately an haven't had a lot of time to sit down and type this out.
Remember that there's always a few month's gap between chapters :)
"Strike Team Delta, report to Director Fury's office." Following the directions of the intercom voice, Clint left the cafeteria and Natasha left the gym, reluctantly. Clint caught up to Natasha in the crowded hallway and as soon as he was about to grab her arm from behind, she turned around and stopped walking, almost making him knock into her.
"What made you think that sneaking up on me is good idea, Barton?" She said with a raised eyebrow.
"Well I figured if you killed me, I wouldn't have to go to this meeting, Romanoff."
Natasha just rolled her eyes in response and began walking towards Fury's office. Clint hurried after her, trying to make small talk to calm her down after being interrupted during one of her favorite parts of the day.
"I still can't believe they named us Strike Team Delta. I mean, why can't we just be us?" He started.
"I don't know, Clint. I doubt anyone but Fury knows." Natasha responded as the two walked in the door to Fury's office. Much to their surprise, Coulson, Hill, and Fury were all in the room, with the Council on the screens. Both Natasha and Clint quickly took in their surroundings, which were unusual to say the least, and one of the council members broke the tense silence, speaking directly to Clint and Natasha.
"Fury has told us that you two are his most successful team, and also the top solo agents at SHEILD." Here she took a pause. "We don't believe that this can be so. How an archer and an ex-Russian can be the best on their own, let alone work together, is a foreign concept to me. Let's hope you can prove us wrong."
And with that, the screens went black, leaving the five agents to themselves. After no one had said anything regarding what the council had said, Clint shifted his weight and began.
"What was that all about, Director? 'Let's hope you can prove us wrong'? What was she talking about?"
"Well Agent Barton," Fury started, "You and Agent Romanoff here are being sent on three very high-profile missions."
"Three missions at the same time? Fury, I know you like to torture us but don't you think that's a little much?" Clint responded.
"Three separate missions, Agent Barton." Fury clarified. "You will be sent to Argentina to take out the assassin that has been assigned to kill President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Agent Romanoff here is being sent to Ireland to take out the leader of the newly founded Irish version of the Red Room." The whole room tensed as they gauged Natasha's reaction to the assignment.
Fury took a long pause before telling them the third mission they were being sent on so Clint gave him an impatient look, which Natasha copied a few seconds later.
"After your mission is complete Barton, you will be heading to Budapest. There is a rebel situation that we have been monitoring for quite some time now, and we want you to be there when it erupts. Agent Romanoff will join you once she has made sure that Seamus Aherne is dead, along with his organization. You two will be able to contact each other the entire time, even while on separate missions, so you will know when the other is ready to head to Budapest. Now, Agents, get your asses out of my office and memorize everything about your missions." Fury said as he waved his hand towards the best team at SHEILD.
Clint and Natasha both nodded and as soon as they were about to leave the room, Fury spoke again.
"And Agents?" He said, making the two turn to look at him again. "Remember that the council is watching. Don't fuck this up."
"Yes sir." Clint said, and he and Natasha went to his room to read up on their missions.
"So Fury actually likes us huh?" Clint said to break the silence between them.
"The council said that he told them we were the best, not that he likes us, Barton." Natasha said curtly without looking up from one of her files.
"So you don't think he likes us?" Clint responded with a fake pout on his lips.
"No, I don't."
"What's with you and thinking people don't like us?" Clint asked seriously.
Natasha looked up from her file with a bland look on her face, letting him know that he already knows the answer. "They may like you, but all my life I've been trained to kill. I had friends once, but Petrovitch made me take their lives as part of my training. My past doesn't really allow for likable traits." She returned her attention back to the file, hoping Clint would get the message that she didn't want to talk about it.
"So you don't think you have friends here?" Obviously Clint either didn't get the message, or was too stupid to care.
"No, Barton, I don't." Natasha said in a tone that successfully ended the conversation. "Now keep going over your files, wheels up in thirty for you."
Clint Barton was currently in Argentina, searching a crowd of people for an assassin that was trained to not be spotted. It was like finding a needle in a haystack. Good thing that's what Clint did for a living. His mission was much easier than Natasha's, and he would probably be almost done with his by the time she would have barely started hers. He never let his mind wander when he was in the field, but today he was thinking about how Natasha was sent to take down a Red Room-like organization. He knew that on the outside she said she was fine with it, 'It's just another mission, Barton.', she had said to him, but he couldn't help the images of their infamous fight in the hallway creep into his mind.
Natasha Romanoff was refreshing herself on Irish. She hadn't spoken the language much since she joined SHEILD, and very rarely even before then. The mission was to infiltrate the new 'agency' as a trainer. Her red hair and pale skin made her a perfect candidate for this mission. She had to be mean and tough-skinned, and merciless. Good thing she never stopped being that way. She would be maybe two days into her assignment when Clint would be sent to Budapest. Things there were getting worse, and he would have to be there by himself without her to save his ass for a least four days. She felt a pang of something when she thought about her partner being alone in a city that was falling to pieces. Sure she was concerned for his safety, he was her partner after all, but this felt different. 'Get yourself together Natasha, stop worrying about his feelings. He may be annoying, but he's not stupid. Keep this professional.' She told herself, not allowing her brain to go through all the possibilities of what could happen to him if she weren't there by his side.
Two days later, Clint had gotten his target and was on his way to Budapest. Argentina was a clean mission; get in, eliminate, get out. He had spoken to Natasha briefly earlier that day and she said that her mission was going better than she had planned, but she was never really an optimist to begin with so better was to be expected. She was already on good terms with Seamus Aherne and was ready to take down the organization within the next few days.
Clint's first few hours of surveillance were relatively uneventful, a street fight here, a heated discussion there, nothing to worry about. He was told that not much happened during the day, because the rebels didn't want to be identified and arrested by the government. Clint went from rooftop to rooftop, observing the city and getting generally acquainted with the layout. Being alone without much to do, his mind drifted around different topics ranging from the mission, to the council, to Fury, and finally, to Natasha. He wondered what she was doing in this exact moment. Was she off torturing adolescents, or getting on Aherne's good side, which Clint knew meant more than she led on. He felt a tinge of something that he wouldn't let himself believe was jealousy at the thought of Natasha flirting with a target.
That night, he went back to the safe house and methodically went over what he needed to do before Natasha caught up to him. He stared at the pages for so long that he eventually dozed off. He awoke suddenly and sat straight up. It took him a moment to realize that the room he was in wasn't the circus that he dreamt about. His past haunted him, and he would never let himself forget what he had to do to save all those people so many years ago. Despite the eerie feeling he had from his nightmare, he had a bad feeling about this mission. Both he and Natasha were coming straight form other missions, and wouldn't be able to prepare as they usually would. The rebels were quiet for now, but as Fury said, there is no way they're going to stay that way for very long. Clint just hoped that Natasha would be there with him when they did.
"Again!" Natasha shouted at the thirteen year old assassin-to-be in front of her. "You are weak for your age. I could have killed you at age six." She played this part almost too well, mimicking her trainers from the Red Room. She became the trainer that everyone hated to work with. She worked them to the bone, making them bleed nearly everyday. She hated it. She hated that she had to become exactly who she had escaped from a year and a half ago.
That night, she was going to Seamus Aherne's room to finish her assignment. She had already sent the children to the SHIELD agents that had been waiting for them, and the rest of the people had been arrested. Aherne most likely knew about the fallout of his organization, but Natasha had pretended to be away for the day, so he didn't know it was her. She was just down the hall from his door when she got a call.
"Romanoff, finish your assignment now. You're needed in Budapest. There's a plane a half mile out from your current location. Be there in twenty." After Coulson hung up from the impromptu phone call, Natasha sighed and walked the rest of the way to kill her target.
Aherne put up more of a fight than Natasha had expected, and she was almost caught off guard. Almost. She tried to reach for one of the many knives that she had hidden on her body, but Aherne pulled out a knife faster and went to cut her throat. She dodged the swipe quickly, and defected the blow to her right shoulder. She kicked him in the chest, knocking him back a few feet and distracting him for a moment. She took this moment to grab a knife and run towards him with the unmatched speed and ferocity that no one ever lived to talk about. She drove the knife deep into his chest, not killing him instantly, but he would die soon enough. Unfortunately, she had to stay there until he did. She was forced to watch the life drain out of his eyes, keeping a finger on his pulse until his heart beat no more. Only then did she run to get her things and sprint the half mile to the plane that would take her to the city that was going to pieces.
"You look like shit, Nat." Clint stated, instead of a 'hey, what's up?' or a 'how'd your mission go?'
"Thanks, Barton." She said sarcastically. "This city isn't looking much better." She motioned toward the scene taking place on the street below.
"No, it has sufficiently gone to hell Romanoff." He lightly bumped her shoulder with his own, which made her take a sharp breath through her teeth. "Jesus, Natasha, you have to patch that up before we start trying to fix this mess."
"It's fine, Barton. It's just a scratch." She said, unwilling to admit that the Irishman had gotten a hit in on her.
"It's not fine. It's still bleeding. When did you finish your mission? An hour ago? You need to bandage that before you lose anymore blood."
"I'm fine." She said sternly, wishing he would turn his attention back to the revolution going on below them.
"Fine then, if you won't take care of your shoulder, I will." He said definitively. After cleaned the gash with anesthetic, he had to cut her uniform a bit more to be able to properly bandage the wound. Whether it was intentional or not, he let his fingers gently grace her pale skin, letting them linger there while he made sure the bandage wasn't going to come off easily.
Natasha had always been good at distracting herself from pain, but when Clint's calloused fingers grazed her tender skin, her mind nearly stopped. As soon as she realized that he left his hand on her shoulder, she quickly moved aside.
"What intel have you gathered about the rebels?" She asked, killing any thoughts that may have distracted the two of them from the task at hand.
"That guy there on the wall is the leader of the rebels, and most of the others are ignorant brutes that were recruited for their strength." He turned towards another street and continued. "That line of people is the local government trying, and failing, to control the oncoming force. We're here to take out the leader and anyone else who may get in the way."
"Alright. I'll head down while you take out the leader with your weapon of choice." She said while making a face at his bow and arrow. "Meet me down there and we'll start hacking through the remaining rebels on this street." Her sudden change to cold impressed Clint, but also made him worry that she was just going to ignore her shoulder and get even more hurt down there.
"You sure you're okay by yourself for a bit?" He asked warily.
Natasha shot him a warning look that told him to stop worrying about her. "I've fought with worse." She turned and slid gracefully down the ladder into the alley below, quickly taking down two burly men.
Clint brought an arrow around from his quiver and set it on his bow, stretching it and aiming, compensating for windage. He waited for a moment when none of the rebels were looking at their leader, and let the arrow noiselessly fly through the air to the heart of the man. He quickly slid down a ladder on the opposite side of the building and joined Natasha in the street. They both fought their way to the center where they then stood back to back and covered each other's weak points in combat. What seemed like an endless line of men kept coming after them. They were mostly engaged in hand to hand, but whenever they got the chance, Natasha would fire her Glock and Clint would shoot an arrow at an oncoming attacker.
When the crowd was thinned pretty well, Natasha broke away from Clint and began to fight with one of the largest men she's ever seen. She got a few good hits in, but when she went to kick him in the chest, he caught her foot and flipped her over, making her land on her injured shoulder. Clint took notice of the situation, took out a gun, and shot the men he was battling with. He walked over to a now standing Natasha pushed her away from them, turning to face the man who hurt her. They began a duel of unequal strength. The man was big, yes, but Clint was more agile than him, and knew exactly where to hit every time. The two didn't let up for a short while and another man joined in. Natasha saw that Clint was getting more and more tired as the seconds dragged on so she decided that since she didn't have her Widow Bites on her, she would use her legs to finish the job. She ran at one of the men, using Clint as a ramp when he ducked a blow, and wrapped her legs around the man's neck, twisting his head sharply causing him to fall to the ground. Clint quickly shot the other man while he was stunned by the sight of Natasha's attack.
"That's the last of them." Clint said as he turned to Natasha to make sure she was okay. He looked at her shoulder and pointed. "You're bleeding again."
"I know." She replied. "Let's just get back to the safe house and let Coulson and Fury know that we're done here."
"Or we could tell them later..." Clint turned to Natasha once they were in the alley outside the safe house.
"And do what until then, Barton." Natasha said in a dry tone, not really wanting to know what her partner was thinking.
"I'd like to be your friend Natasha, that is, if you'll let me." The words said one thing, his eyes said another.
"We'll see." Natasha replied, but didn't break their intense eye contact. Suddenly, almost the exact same thoughts rushed into their minds.
Sure they've kissed before, they've had to portray a couple on countless missions, but none of the kisses meant anything. They were stage kisses, planned out to the very second so the right people would see them at the right time. Each of them wanted to know what a real kiss would be like, because even the fake kisses were good, but both of them knew that nothing good could come of it.
Natasha broke eye contact and quickly glanced down at Clint's lips, and he took that as an invitation. Natasha figured that he would do that as soon as she thought about looking at his lips, but she didn't stop him. He not-so-gently pushed her up against a wall and trapped her there with his hands on the wall on either side of her head. They both knew they were breaking SHIELD's code with what they were about to do, but they already broke enough rules over their lifetimes, so one more shouldn't hurt, especially if no one ever found out.
Clint seemed to be hesitating slightly, so Natasha took charge and claimed his lips with hers, snaking her arms around the back of his neck. Their mouths fought for dominance, since neither of them were really the submissive type. Clint let his arms reach down around her back, arching her body further into his. The kiss was heated and spur of the moment, but also deep and passionate, something that neither of them had felt in a long time, if ever. Her full lips worked in perfect time with his, and for a minute, they were lost in each other, in their own little world.
The need for oxygen soon outweighed the feeling of the kiss and Natasha pulled away, taking in blissful oxygen. After a moment, Clint was still breathing hard, but managed one word.
"Wow." He said in between rapid breaths.
Natasha shook her head and huffed. "Fuck you Barton." She said with the smallest hint of a smile as she walked away from her partner.
"I don't think you really mean that Romanoff!" Clint called after her. Neither of them wanted to address what just happened between them, but they couldn't get it off their minds either.
Friends indeed.
A/N I'm actually super happy about this chapter, it took a different turn then I started out with, but they all do really.
What do you think is going to happen with them now? Happily ever after? LOLZ NO. They're spy/assassin/shadows that work for a super secret organization, nothing is happy ever after.
Please review and such!
P.S. It seems I like writing multi-layered missions that turn out to be super long. OH WELL.
