Pretty pleased with the timing of when I got this chapter out. I'm starting to think the characters are a bit OOC but you can be the judge of that. By the way, if any of you are interested, this is my tumblr url.
Tumblr url : missingthetarget
Also, it is 3:45am now, when I am finishing editting this, so if there are any mistakes blame it on that. Reviews are very welcome, and give me energy to write. Tell me what you think of this chapter, or any ideas for it. Thank you for all the lovely reviews I have so far, I can help but smile when I read them. Other than that, enjoy this chapter.
Natasha sat cross legged on her bed at Avengers Tower. A stunned silence had washed over her. Unsure of what she had just heard, her fingers skimmed over the laptop buttons and she pressed play again.
"Your insane. Literally. You said you only spoke a few times, and you were already planning to elope? Your plan, which was awful, and would have never of worked, would have failed anyway, with one little fact. Natasha didn't like you. She would never, in a million years, like someone like you. And save her from SHIELD? SHIELD already saved her from types of people like you, and we'd do it again."
The well known sound of Clint's voice ran through her head phones and coursed through her mind. She missed talking to him, when they weren't shouting. Pulling her knees to her chest and holding them tightly, she listened more intently.
"And while she, according to you, would never like me, I think it's clear she doesn't like you either. I was there, watching, when she told you to get out. Did it hurt? Being shut out, when you were trying to protect her? She wouldn't shut me out, never."
Cameron's voice was the one that spoke this time. Hatred boiled in side of her. He was so delusional to think that she had seen anything in him other than arrogance and ignorance. So full of himself that he couldn't see the truth in anything. Or maybe he was just literally insane.
"Shut up! You know nothing about Natasha, nothing!"
Clint's voice was full of rage, and even though it was her second time hearing it, her heart still jumped at the anger in his tone. It sounded like Natasha was the most important thing to him. Too bad he didn't act like it now.
Natasha sighed and put her laptop away. Tugging the earphones out of her ears, she laid back against her pillow and stared at the ceiling. Right now, after a what had been the first calm day she'd experienced in a while (until Clint returned, that is) she just wanted to sleep. But pictures of her previous partner plagued her mind.
And while she wanted sleep, she wanted Clint too. She wanted his comforting smell of aftershave and coffee. She wanted him to wrap his arms around her and hold her tight. But mostly she just wanted to talk to him again. To talk to him like nothing was wrong, and to laugh and joke. But she'd given him a choice. To come and see her when he had figured out what he wanted. That was up to him.
So instead of seeing him, she stared, eyes open, towards the ceiling waiting for sleep to take over her. She wasn't sure when, but at some point she did fall asleep.
When Natasha woke up, sunlight was pouring through gaps in the curtains. It was probably what had woke her in the first place, but it felt nice on her face. She tried closing her eyes and drifting back to sleep, but as always with Natasha, when she was awake, she was awake.
She pulled herself reluctantly, out of the warm nest of blankets on her bed, and dragged herself towards the bathroom. She stripped out of her T-shirt and turned the shower on nearly full heat. The whole bathroom steamed up, but it gave her a head a fresh and clean feeling. Natasha was unsure of how long she had spent in there, but it was long enough for all the shampoo and soap to drift down the drain.
After dressing in light grey sweat pants and a white T-shirt, she made her way down to the communal kitchen. To her surprise, it was empty apart from Steve, who was sipping a coffee while reading a newspaper. Then she realised that it was around half past seven in the morning, and that no body else in the tower would be up, apart from her and the soldier.
"Morning Cap'." Natasha spoke first, mono tone, while pouring her own coffee. She was pretty sure everybody had heard her arguing with Clint the night before. That was embarrassing.
"Hey Nat. Sleep well?" Steve mused, folding the paper and putting it on the counter. Natasha shook her head. "I'm not surprised. What happened with Clint still on your mind?"
Natasha smirked. "Yeah, I guess you could say that. I told him I was done waiting around. Finished with letting him make an idiot out of me." She cupped her coffee mug in her hands, grateful for the warmth of it.
Before Steve could reply, foot steps from down the corridor sounded. They both turned to look at the door. Max entered, wearing just a rather large T-shirt. It wasn't her's, Natasha could tell that much. In fact, that shirt did look familiar. She was sure it had been one of Steve's.
Turning away from Max to look at Steve, she couldn't stop from raising an eyebrow. "Really Steve? Really?" She said sarcastically.
"No!" Steve blushed furiously. "She didn't have anything to sleep in, so I lent her a T-shirt. I would have asked to borrow some stuff from you, but you and Clint had already ... y'know."
Natasha didn't know whether to laugh, or turn and give Max the death stare. These were her friends. She'd already taken her partner, and basically her job, seeing as Natasha seemed to be being called in less and less lately. But these were her best friends, her new home and her life. If Max infiltrated that, Natasha would have nothing left.
So, after thinking it through thoroughly, she turned and gave Max the death stare. "Oooh, someone's icy this morning. Any chance that could be because of the lover's tiff last night?" Max teased.
That stumped Natasha. She'd only met Max a couple of times, but that wasn't the Max that she remembered. Max had seemed kind, and thoughtful, although not afraid to get what she wanted. Now she just seemed like a bitch. What could of happened between when they last met, and now, to make her act so different? That was okay, Natasha thought, she was good at handling bitches.
"No, but someone's not wearing much this morning. A lame attempt to impress our Captain?" She emphasized the word our. "It won't work. I think he has better taste."
"Natasha!" Steve look horrified, but Natasha turned and smiled at him. "That was completely unnecessary." He looked disappointed in her, which, on any other morning it would hurt, but now she just wanted to rip into Max.
"What was unnecessary?" Pepper Potts asked, walking into the room. She hadn't seen Pepper in a while, she was a very busy women, but also a great friend. "Hi Nat, Steve." She smiled at them, and then turned to Max. "And you are?" Her voice was polite, but firm.
"I'm Max, Clint's new partner." Pepper looked over to Natasha, who deliberately turned to Max, and retreated back into death stare mode. A signal that this was not a friend. Well, not to Natasha at least.
Pepper held out her hand and Max took it, then smiled sweetly. "Oh, pleasure to meet you." Pepper's business voice was evident.
"Yeah, you too. I think you'll be seeing much more of me lately." Max turned slightly and grinned at Natasha. Annoying was not a strong enough word for this girl.
Pepper smiled weakly back. "Really? Oh well, I guess that's a good thing. I mean you have a lot to learn." The smile fell from Max's face, and simultaneously, one grew on Natasha.
"A lot to learn about what?" She still sounded sickly sweet and polite, but her face was less kind now.
"Well, you are taking over from the best, aren't you? I think I remember Coulson saying something like, Natasha was the best SHIELD has to offer?" Pepper still smiled, and walked around to stand next to Natasha. "Oh, with Clint of course. A least that makes up for where some areas are ... lacking in your new team."
"That's enough." Steve said from the back of the room, where he was standing with his arms crossed. "Come on Max, I think it's time you headed back to SHIELD. As for you two," He turned to look at Natasha and Pepper, but Pepper was perfectly at holding her own. Steve backed off with one look. "Natasha, just meet me in the gym in half an hour."
Natasha nodded and Steve and Max left the room. Natasha and Pepper sat down at the table, waiting for about all of two seconds, before the dissolved into laughter. "Well, she seems like a bitch." Pepper said afterwards.
"I don't understand. I didn't like her from the beginning, as I'm sure you probably guessed. But I saw her last night, and she seemed kinda nice. And now, she's acting all high and mighty. It's like something happened to change her over night. A sudden ego boost and now she's amazing." Natasha shook her head. It didn't make any sense.
"That was Steve's T-shirt right?" Pepper asked, while taking out her pinned up, strawberry blonde locks. "Do you think they ... well, y'know?" She asked smiling. For Natasha, Pepper was the only person she ever gossiped to. But it just came naturally in moments like this.
"He said they didn't. But it would make sense. If you sleep with Captain America, you're obviously going to feel a little self riotous. I'll ask him about it later. Maybe the inner cow just worked it's way out last night." Natasha smirked.
Clint didn't know what to do with himself. He was up and awake, but he didn't want to leave his floor incase he ran into Natasha. It was around half eight, and he wasn't sure who would be up. None the less, he eventually decided to go down to Tony and Bruce's lab, in hopes of finding some company there.
Which he did. After managing to avoid Natasha on the way down the the labs, he typed in the password and walked forwards. As well as being a place to work, Tony's labs were open to anybody.
Tony was sitting at a metal desk, tinkering with something Clint wasn't quite sure he understood. Bruce was sitting, not to far away, looking through a microscope. He was sitting on a wheely chair, and kept pushing himself between two desks, one with the microscope and another with a notebook that he kept scribbling notes down in. To Clint's surprise, there was a third person in the room. Loki sat in the corner of room, on a ledge poking out of the wall. He was reading poetry.
"Hey." Clint said as a casual greeting. Only Bruce looked up, and he smiled. Loki just ignored him, and Tony muttered a 'hey' before spewing some science stuff to Bruce. Who replied with just more science stuff.
"So you screwed up last night, huh?" Tony asked, after he'd put down what he was doing, and wiping his greasy hands on a towel. He gestured for Clint to sit down.
Clint took the seat and nodded. "Yeah, pretty much." He paused. "I want to see her and I want to talk to her, but I don't know how, or what to say." Clint put his head on the workbench. He was just surprised Natasha didn't hate him yet.
"Just say you're sorry and that's all your fault. That's what all women want to hear, right?" Tony gestured with a tool in his hand and Bruce shook his head, smirking.
"Not Natasha." Loki said from the corner. It hadn't looked like he'd even been paying attention to their conversation, but was looked confused when the three other men turned to face him. "She's not nearly as simple or naive as other women." He continued to read.
"Since when have you called her Natasha? And since when did you know Natasha like you're best friends?" Clint knew he sounded bitter, but he couldn't help it. He was annoyed, mostly at himself, and he didn't need a self-riotous god messing him around.
"What else am I to call her? And anyone who has had a conversation of any length with her would know that she isn't as impressionable and dimwitted as most Midguardian women." Loki rolled his eyes.
"Look, Clint, we get you're upset. Just don't take it out on us. Why don't you go and talk to her?" Bruce got up and walked over to a mini fridge in the corner. He reached in and grabbed a bottle of mineral water.
Clint put his head in his hands again. "What would I even say? 'Tasha, I'm sorry for being an asshole. I'm sorry for leading you on into thinking I'm ready for a relationship, when I'm actually I'm not ready.' I'm not sorry though. Because I don't even think she's ready either. We both don't know what we want. Hell, I don't even know what I feel, let alone what she does!" He hit his fist against the table.
"Easy." Tony said, without looking up from what he was doing. "You care for her, and she cares for you, but you guys don't even know if it could be more, because it was never okay for you guys to be more than partners. I say, let the tension go, and just let what happens, happen."
"Well it sounds like it makes sense when you put it like that." Clint closed his eyes in a lame attempt to clear his head. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm gonna go and talk to - "
He was cut off by the shrill beeping coming from his SHIELD phone. He rolled his eyes and signaled for them to be quiet and business like. Not that it meant anything to Tony. "Agent Barton." He answered.
"Agent Coulson. We need you in, now. We've located Dr. Stella Norman's smaller facility. Although we're still unsure of Dr. Orkel's where-abouts, our aim is to capture Dr. Norman and interrogate her." Coulson's voice was cool and steady, though Clint could hear the urgency in his voice.
"Sure thing, Coulson. I'll be there in fifteen minutes." Clint gestured to the guys that he had to go, and started to walk out.
"Wait, Barton. There's one more thing." Clint paused by the door, confused. The other men in the room looked equally as puzzled. "This mission is vital and has to run smoothly. You'll be working with Agent Romanoff for this one."
Natasha got to the training room before Steve, and took the opportunity to have a go at the punching bag, and generally take out all her issues on it.
Bam. One hit, and another. Left, right, double left. There wasn't much reasoning to her punches, or tactic, but she was hitting hard. She was thankful she took the time to wrap her hands before hand or her knuckles would be torn about. They were hurting anyway.
One for Max, she hit it. One for Clint being an ass. One for Cameron being a dick about her. One for Fury for splitting her and Clint up in the first place. One for -
"Ahem." Steve was leaning against the side of the door, smiling at her efforts against the bag. She may not have been a super soldier, but she was strong, and quick. "Doing good, Nat." She stopped, and breathing heavily walked over to her water bottle. She took a long sip.
"It's just ... relieving some tension." Natasha shrugged. "I take it you didn't me here to just train?" She asked. Steve shook his head.
"No, no really." He walked over towards one of the benches in the room, and gestured for her to sit next to him. "All of this, it's really taken a toll, hasn't it?" He clasped his hands together.
Natasha smirked. "If by, 'all of this' you mean, my life at the moment, then yes. It has. But I'll be fine soon enough. Everything just needs to get back to being relatively normal." She took an elastic band from her wrist and tied up her hair, in a short ponytail.
"And by 'everything' you mean, you and Clint." It wasn't a question but a statement. It seemed all the Avengers knew about her and Clint. Part of her felt annoyed. It wasn't any of their business, and the less people to know the better. On the other hand, apart from Tony, she couldn't recall discussing it with anyone else, yet they all knew anyway. So it was either Tony was a rather large gossip, Clint had told them all, or that's the way good friends were. They didn't need anyone to tell them. After only having experienced that with one person in her life, having people she was this close to in a wider circle was strange. But she liked it.
"Yes. That is precisely what I mean. It doesn't even have to go back to strictly normal, I just want a conversation where one of us isn't screaming." She paused and there was an awkward silence. "Steve? Can I ask you something?"
Steve looked puzzled, but smiled anyway. "Sure, go ahead." Natasha bit her lip. She was quite sure she would regret asking this. Although the look on Steve's face might have just been worth it.
"Did you sleep with Max?" She asked, completely straight faced.
"Did I what? No, I told you this morning, no I didn't." Steve was a light shade of pink, the colour just dusted on his cheeks. "I think she might have wanted to. You know I'm quite an oblivious guy, but I think she was dropping hints. I felt uncomfortable, so I gave her a T-shirt and told her I needed a good night's sleep."
Natasha bit the insides on her cheeks to keep from laughing, and thankfully, it succeeded. "Good. I mean, I don't know if you've noticed or not, but I don't particularly like her." Steve chuckled.
"Yeah, I kinda picked up on that this morning." He stopped. "Just don't go too harsh on her. I have a feeling she's been through a bit recently." Natasha raised an eyebrow.
"She's been through a bit recently? She's been through a bit recently? Steve, I was split from my partner, then got an asshole as a new one, then shot, then kidnapped, then tortured, then attacked in my own home, and now I'm in an argument with my best friend." She smiled, if only to show Steve she wasn't being entirely serious and moody.
"Well, we can't all be as tough as you now, can we?" He laughed again, and the sound was infectious, soon echoing through Natasha as well.
There was a knock on the training room door and both of their head's snapped up. Before Natasha or Steve could do anything, Clint stepped inside the room. "Clint." Natasha said. It wasn't a greeting, more out of surprise then anything else.
"Hey, sorry, but it's important." His voice was rough, and Natasha could tell that it was, whatever it was, important. Not just to him, but to her too. "SHIELD have found Dr. Norman, Stella. They're sending us in to get her."
Natasha froze, even though she hadn't made an attempt to move. They had found her. The woman who tortured her, and made her wail, and weep, and scream. Then something else registered in her mind. "What do you mean, 'us'?" She asked, getting up and walking towards him.
"I mean us, as in Hawkeye and Black Widow. No Max, no Cameron. They don't want this to go badly, so they're sending us. It's probably just this one mission, but it's probably our last. We need to leave, now." Clint wanted to reach out and grab her hands, but didn't because of their audience (the Captain) watching.
Natasha nodded. "Come on then." She said, smiling and walking past. She knew their problems hadn't just drifted away, they were still very much there. But for the sake of what could be their last ever mission? She didn't want their pity problems in the way.
