Alright, got the next chapter here for you guys! I hope you like it. Enjoy!
When Clint came to, he knew that he was bound to the chair once again. Yelena definitely hadn't tied his hands with ropes again because Clint couldn't be trusted with rope. Instead, the rope had been replaced with zip ties. Clint knew it was zip ties because they were digging into his raw skin from the rope burns.
From smacking his head on the stone floor, Clint had a headache that literally felt like his head was going to split in two. Every muscle in his body ached and he felt like he was going to hurl now more than ever, and there literally wasn't a thing in his stomach to throw up.
On top of it all, Clint could feel the familiar sting of the gunshot wound in his right shoulder. He knew that Yelena was at least considerate enough to pull the bullet out because Clint couldn't feel it when he moved. But the bitch was letting Clint suffer by keeping the wound open. Awesome.
"Sorry about the zip ties. Can't exactly trust you with ropes anymore," Yelena said.
"Figures," Clint grumbled as she tried to wiggle into a comfortable position. Yelena hadn't exactly placed him on the chair properly.
"I must say though, I did expect you to contact your little spider," Yelena said.
"Yeah, well, you thought wrong," Clint groaned as the gunshot wound in his shoulder stung with the slightest movement.
"It's a shame," she mused. "I mean, I suppose that's why I thought you'd contact her. She'll never know how you feel about her."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Clint said as he brushed off Yelena's comment. However, she was right. Clint had deep feelings for Natasha but he was good at hiding them. He knew that it could jeopardize their friendship or even their partnership if he let her know how he really felt about her.
But Natasha was Natasha. He knew that if he told her, she probably wouldn't reciprocate the feelings. In fact, there was a huge chance that she wouldn't. So Clint was perfectly fine with bottling up his feelings for Natasha. But how Yelena knew, he wasn't sure.
"Oh you know exactly what I'm talking about," Yelena purred as she took a step forward towards Clint. She kept walking forward but she tapped away on her tablet before turning it around to show footage of Clint and Natasha on a mission from early on in their partnership. It was a mission in Johannesburg where they had to play husband and wife, and it was also the mission that Clint had first started developing feelings for Natasha.
They had played their roles with perfection. They were so perfect that Clint had begun to believe that it was real. Even though they were putting on an act, Clint had seen Natasha for who she really was. She wasn't the brainwashed killing machine produced by the Red Room. She was the scared little girl who had survived a fire in which her biological parents perished.
Every kiss, every touch, made Clint fall even more in love with her, but of course he never told her. As far as he knew, he never would. But as he watched the video footage of their mission in Johannesburg, he noticed something. It was something he noticed in Natasha. Her body language, the way she looked at him, and the overall protectiveness. Clint didn't want to get his hopes up but maybe, just maybe, Natasha felt something for him too.
"Or how about this one?" Yelena said as she slid her finger across the screen to reveal more video footage, but of their mission in Prague where they had to play husband and wife yet again.
"Or this one," Yelena said as she slid her finger across the screen to reveal video footage of their mission in Hong Kong from two years ago. Once again, they had played husband and wife.
"But this one," Yelena said as she turned the tablet to face her. "This one is my personal favorite."
Yelena turned the tablet back around so that it faced Clint and what he saw was the mission in Budapest. That was the last time they had played husband and wife on a mission. It was also the mission Natasha nearly died. She had been shot five times during a fight; three of the bullets had been lodged in her chest. Natasha hadn't remembered a thing, so that's why Clint had poured his heart out to her while she was unconscious after her surgery. It was why Clint and Natasha remembered Budapest differently.
"So you see why I wasn't stupid enough to kill you," Yelena taunted Clint. "At least, not yet, because killing her in front of you is going to make this all the more interesting."
Clint swallowed nervously as he watched Yelena walk out of the room. Normally when she made threats, Clint would yell at her in hopes that she would get wound up and come back to punish him. But it never worked so Clint didn't find any reason to do it this time around. He just sat in the silence hoping Tony had given Natasha his message.
Natasha burst through her hotel room door – not even bothering to properly close it – and headed to her bag on the floor. She dug through it until she was able to retrieve her catsuit, which she pulled out once she had grabbed a handful of fabric. Quickly, she changed out of her civilian's clothes before slipping into her catsuit. When everything was adjusted and zipped up, she took a quick glance at Bosco's ID to memorize the address. And then, she was out the door in a flash.
Natasha opted to take the stairs instead of the elevator so she could remain as inconspicuous as possible. She reached the first floor of the stairwell and slipped out the emergency exit door, disabling the alarm before she even opened the door. The moment she stepped onto the streets of Rome, she stuck to the shadows of alleyways and buildings as she made her way across the city to Bosco's condo.
It was a long walk but she finally made it to Bosco's condo a little after sundown. The condo was dark except for a small light on in the kitchen. Natasha slunk around in the shadows to scope out the place before carefully opening the window so she could slip inside.
The condo was clean and well-kept with a living room and a kitchen. Up the stairs, Natasha assumed were at least two bedrooms and a bathroom. The condo looked like it hadn't been lived in for days but Natasha just hoped Bosco came back to look for his wallet.
While Natasha awaited Bosco's return, she roamed around the condo. It hardly looked like someone actually lived there. There weren't any pictures of family members or friends. There were no small trinkets or memorabilia. There was nothing in the condo to give an insight as to what kind of man Bosco was. Then again, Natasha didn't expect a nuclear arms dealer to have any sort of sympathy towards putting out pictures of family and friends.
Just then, Natasha heard the click of a key unlocking the front door and she quickly ducked for cover. She couldn't quite reveal herself immediately. As much as she wanted to take the guy down and drill him for information, she didn't want to spook him. He was a nuclear arms dealer after all. There was no telling what kind of weapons he would have on his person.
Natasha ducked into a closet – keeping the door cracked open slightly – just as the front door swung open. Bosco stepped into the dimly lit living room, flicking on the light switch to flood the room with light. He was muttering to himself in Italian as he started to tear apart the entire living room. He flipped over couch cushions, pillows, and he even lifted the couch to check under there. Just as Natasha had hoped, he was searching for his wallet.
"Son of a bitch!" Bosco cussed in English under his breath. After he had made a mess of the living room, he wandered into the kitchen and started banging around in there. Natasha quietly slipped out of the closet before peeking around the corner to see Bosco's back facing her. He was digging around in a drawer of utensils, haphazardly tossing them this way and that.
"Fucking red head!" he cussed. "Must've pick-pocketed my wallet."
"Oh, that was your wallet?" Natasha announced innocently.
Bosco whipped around just in time for Natasha to cross the room and grab him by the throat. She pushed him so that he was bent backwards over the counter. Bosco looked at her with frantic eyes as his breathing quickened to force air into his airways.
"We need to have a little chat," Natasha said before knocking him unconscious with a blow to the head.
"So, what exactly is going on?" Steve said as he sat down on the couch in the living room of Tony's penthouse at Avengers Tower.
"Romanoff and Barton are in trouble," Tony said as he paced the floor. "Well, Romanoff doesn't know she's in trouble. I was supposed to tell her and she can't handle this alone so we're going in to help her."
"Wouldn't that just piss her off?" Bruce asked.
"Most likely," Tony said with a shrug of his shoulders. "Thor's on his way so when he gets here, we're suiting up and heading to Rome."
"Not so fast, Stark."
Tony stopped his pacing and looked up to the elevator to see Director Fury stepping into the room. Steve and Bruce whipped around and locked eyes with the one-eyed director of SHIELD before they turned back around to nervously look at Tony. Director Fury glared at Tony as he crossed the room to stand directly in front of Tony.
"Tell me, Stark. Why was the rescue mission for Agent Barton cancelled and Agent Romanoff is now suddenly missing?" Fury asked condescendingly.
Tony gulped nervously and then glanced over at Bruce and Steve, who were doing the same thing. Clearly aiding Natasha was going to have to wait.
Uh oh, things are getting heated. Clint has feelings for Natasha too. Natasha found Bosco. And Fury has Tony cornered.
For those of you reading my The Town fic, it should be posted later today. I got called into work so it will be posted later than I planned. I have most of it done though. All I have to do is finish it when I get off of work, which will either be 8:00 or 10:00. Who knows? They wouldn't exactly tell me. That's my job for you.
As always, thank you for adding this to your favorites, signing up for alerts, and reviewing. Reviews are very much appreciated and they motivate me to write so please leave me a lovely review to let me know what you think!
