Wow, I went to town on this one. Almost 100 words shy of 4,000. Anyways, this chapter is chock full of stuff. I had a bit of writer's block so it's all over the place but I think you guys are going to rather enjoy their trip to Coney Island. Enjoy!
Clint and Natasha weren't quite sure if they were in a relationship or not following the masquerade ball, but one thing they were sure about was that they were still best friends. The days following the masquerade ball, Natasha felt like she was walking on cloud nine. Not even a glimpse of Alexei could bring her down from her high. To be honest, she didn't really care if they were dating or not. All she needed was Clint in her life and that's all that really mattered to her.
However, Clint's parents weren't really proud of this achievement in their son's life. Though they were happy for the both of them and that they had finally managed to have their first kiss together, his parents thought that they were too young to be dating. They also didn't want their son or Natasha to get hurt. Relationships were tough and they didn't want Clint and Natasha to experience that just yet.
Therefore, while it was a slow night at Sweet Creams while Natasha was working, Clint sat in her section and they attempted to discuss where to go from here on out.
"My parents think one of us is going to get hurt if we start a relationship," Clint mumbled as he picked at the food on his plate.
"Oh please," Natasha groaned. "I get hurt all the time by my parents' abusive words. I can handle a little breakup if it were to happen."
"They think we're too young."
"There are younger kids dating nowadays."
"They think we should wait a year."
"A year?"
"Thought you were okay with not being in a relationship, Tasha?" Clint said raising an eyebrow at her.
He was right. She had told him that she was okay with still being just friends, but there was a part of her that wanted his arms around her, his lips brushing against hers, and his eyes to stare longingly into hers. Sure a year would ensure that they were mature enough to handle it but it felt so far off that Natasha wasn't sure she'd be able to handle it.
"Yeah, I'm okay with it, I guess…" she trailed off.
Clint slightly rose from his seat and leaned across the table and gave her a quick kiss. It was short and sweet but it still made Natasha feel dizzy, as if she had spun around too many times.
"That should hold you over for a year," he said, sitting back down in his seat the proper way and shoved a couple of fries in his mouth.
"You're an ass," she said as she got up to tend to her other tables.
"Watch your language. That's not professional at all," he called after her as she walked away.
Clint never did find out what Natasha had been arguing with Alexei about at the masquerade ball, and he never asked, but that didn't mean he wasn't worried Alexei would still try anything stupid. He had never really seen Alexei in the halls much before the masquerade ball, and he still didn't see him. Clint was starting to wonder if he even went to this school.
However, Natasha passed him in the hallway all the time. He didn't intimidate her and he didn't scare her. Actually, it was quite the opposite. Natasha always shot him intimidating looks that made Alexei scampered off in the opposite direction.
Clint was still curious as to what she did to make him run off so quickly. Many times he tried to broach the subject but it just seemed like it would have been horrible timing.
He finally asked her one day after school while they sitting in his living room, doing homework. It was a rare occurrence for Natasha to have a day off after school so the fact that they were spending time together – even if it was doing homework in complete and utter silence – was a blessing.
It was quiet in the living room where they sat – Clint sprawled out across the couch with his history textbook propped up against his leg, and Natasha leaning up against the couch with her math homework scattered across the floor – except for the sound of the occasional scratch of a pencil upon paper. Clint wasn't focusing well on his homework questions, and it was hard to keep the thought of Alexei out of his mind. He knew better to bug Natasha while she was doing her homework, but he couldn't shake this from his head.
"Hey Nat?"
"Hmm?"
"What did you say to Alexei at the masquerade ball that pissed him off so much?" Clint asked, his voice shaking a little. He was a little nervous to ask this. It wasn't his business, and if Natasha wanted to tell him, she would have by now. She sighed and set her books on the floor to turn around and face him.
"Well, it turns out that his family had to file for bankruptcy, and his parents wanted him to marry me to cover it up."
Clint was starting to get angry again. He didn't like when she talked about the whole marriage thing her grandparents keep trying to do to her.
"I found out," she continued. "And it turns out my grandparents didn't know. The last thing they would want is some greatly respected family from Russia who is now bankrupt tarnishing their reputation."
"Respected?" Clint asked. "How is his family respected?"
"They're practically business royalty. Alexei's dad owns several corporate businesses across Russia, but he made a couple financial mistakes on purpose that have now seriously hurt him and his family. Alexei wasn't too happy about it when I told him about it at the masquerade ball. He brought up the whole marriage thing again, and I used the bankruptcy ordeal against him."
"So what now? Are your grandparents going to try and pawn you off on someone else?" Clint asked, trying to hide his jealousy.
Natasha shook her head. "Nope, that won't be happening."
"Why not? From what you tell me, they're pretty persistent."
Natasha drew in a huge breath and let it out. "Because I told them I love someone," she said, and she turned back to her homework.
Clint couldn't hide the huge grin that spread across his face as he returned to a comfortable position on the couch to finish his homework.
Before the group of friends knew it, summer was upon them, and so was Barney and Tony's graduation. It was hard to believe how time flew. Clint couldn't believe his brother would be off to attend college in the fall at University of Pittsburgh. Though Clint and Barney fought a lot, it was going to be hard with Barney living six hours away.
The evening of Barney's graduation ceremony, Clint and his parents piled into their car and headed to the stadium for the 7:00 ceremony. Barney's graduation went by in a blur. Clint couldn't believe he was witnessing this. Tony's valedictorian speech was heartwarming and funny at the same time, and the salutatorian – a girl whom Clint didn't know – even teared up a bit. As soon as they started calling the names Clint and his parents kept their ears open for Barney's name to get called, and when it was, they cheered as loud as they could and they watched as Barney stumbled on stage and accepted his diploma.
Once all of the names were called, Principal Fury introduced the latest graduating class, and then chaos ensued. Silly string was flying through the air. Caps were thrown. Fireworks exploded in the night sky. Barney had graduated high school. Clint was going to be a junior, and Natasha was going to be a sophomore. At this thought, Clint realized he only had two more years left of high school. Two years left with Natasha being around every day, and it scared the living hell out of him.
Barney didn't want a graduation party. Instead, he wanted to take a trip to Coney Island since he had never been there before. The trip to Coney Island was planned a week after graduation – a Saturday to be exact – in order for Barney to attend his friends' graduation parties.
Tony Stark was generous enough to extend the invite of his graduation party to Clint and Clint's friends. Clint had never really hung out with Tony, except for when he tagged along with Barney whenever they went somewhere. Clint never understood why Barney and Tony were friends since they were polar opposites. Tony was the smartest person in his class, which was clearly evident over the fact that he graduated as valedictorian. Barney did enough just to get by. It really stumped Clint as to how Barney had gotten into University of Pittsburgh because his grades were average and so were his SATs. They were nowhere near phenomenal like Tony's were, who would be heading off to Stanford University in the fall.
The day of Tony's graduation party, Clint, Steve, and Thor rode along with Barney over to Tony's house; Natasha would be joining them later once she got off of work. Clint had never been to Tony's house, so he imagined it would be magnificent. Sure enough, it was. Isolated atop a hill outside of town, Tony's house was located at the end of a long, winding driveway. It overlooked the entire town. There was an Olympic sized pool and a Jacuzzi. The house was made of stone and the landscaping was tended to perfection.
Barney parked his car behind a silver Prius and the boys headed out back by the pool to join the party. The boys claimed a table in the yard and began to chat. After a couple minutes, they realized that Tony was nowhere to be found. It was strange for Tony Stark to miss his own party.
"Now the party don't start 'til I walk in!" Tony shouted half clothed from the balcony above the pool.
"Please tell me he did not just quote Ke$ha," Barney said, covering his face in embarrassment.
Tony disappeared once more, but reappeared a couple minutes later on the patio dressed to the nines. Many of his classmates patted him on the back and shook his hand as he made his way over to the table Clint, Barney, Steve, and Thor were seated at.
"Sorry to keep you guys waiting," Tony said sliding out a chair from underneath the table and joining them at the table. "My lady friend and I were…indisposed."
"Lady friend?" Barney said as Clint, Steve, and Thor reacted with a round of "yucks," "ews," and "I really didn't need to know thats."
"Oh I didn't tell you?" Tony said. "My lady friend is Pepper Potts. We've been dating for several months now. We only kept it a secret because her parents don't quite approve of me."
"Well they're not going to approve of you now once they find you've been secretly dating her, not to mention sleeping with her," Barney said.
"Oh they'll get over it," Tony said, waving him off. "Once they see how much of a charming and studious college student I'm going to be, they'll have to accept me."
"That will only make it worse since they'll probably suspect you're sleeping with other girls at Stanford," Thor chimed in.
"Nah," Tony said. "That's not possible. California girls are too easy, and we all know I want girls that I can't have."
With that, the conversation was over and the boys rose from the table to grab something to eat. They were headed inside to grab food from the bar when Clint spotted Natasha stepping down the stone steps into the backyard. Clint thought he would get used to seeing her dressed up but every single time he did, she took his breath away. She wore a light blue sundress with a white cardigan over it, no doubt to keep her warm when it got cooler later. Her hair hung in loose curls that just slightly brushed her shoulders. There was a brown belt tied around her waist that accentuated her curves.
"I'll meet you guys in there!" Clint called to the rest of the guys, and made his way over to Natasha.
"Hey!" he said when he approached her.
"Hey!" she said with a smile.
"You look…nice," Clint said.
She rolled her eyes. "Nice? I look beyond gorgeous for someone who just got off of work," she teased.
They started to walk back towards to door to go inside and get something to eat.
"So…" Clint said. "Did you get off of work for next Saturday? For Coney Island?"
"Yeah. I'm really excited by the way," Natasha said.
Even though the Coney Island trip was Barney's graduation present/party, Clint was still allowed to bring friends with him, so he invited Natasha, Thor, Steve, Peggy, and Jane.
"Yeah, me too," he said.
"Hey, Romeo and Juliet!" Tony called from the door way. "Stop making googly eyes at each other and get in here and grab some food before it's all gone!"
With that, Tony disappeared back into the house and Clint and Natasha made their way into the house to grab something to eat without another word about the Coney Island trip.
It was 7:00 in the morning the day of the Coney Island trip when Clint was roused from his bed by his father. He blinked at him sleepily and sluggishly climbed out of bed. They would be leaving in about an hour. Natasha would be arriving at his house around 7:45 with Jane and her parents, who graciously offered to give her a ride to Clint's house.
Jane and Natasha arrived right on time, with Peggy arriving soon after. The teenagers were bleary eyed and tired but were excited for the trip to Coney Island. The group piled into two separate cars – Barney with Tony, Steve, and Thor and Clint's parents with Clint, Natasha, Peggy, and Jane – and they were off for the nearly two hour drive.
When they finally arrived at Coney Island, the boardwalk was already packed and the beach was lined with tourists soaking up the sun's rays. Barney and Clint's parents found a place to park down the road from the main attractions. Clint's parents advised everyone that they were to return to the cars at 10:00 at night. Tardiness would be frowned upon, and in Clint and Barney's case, a severe grounding. With that final remark, the teens were sent on their way to explore however they pleased.
Barney and Tony broke off to find something to eat from the boardwalk since they never ate breakfast, and Clint's mom and dad toted their lounge chairs towards the beach. Clint, Steve, Thor, Peggy, Jane, and Natasha didn't quite know where to start. It was too early for the rides to be in operation, and they weren't hungry so they decided to take a walk along the beach.
It was a perfect day for lounging at the beach. The sun was shining. The water was just right, and the temperature was in the low 80's. The group of teens skirted along the edge of the water, digging their toes in the sand and waiting for the water to lap up against their feet. At one point, Steve snuck up behind Peggy and playfully teased that he would throw her into the water. Peggy had no problem with this, as long as she got to take off her clothes first leaving her only in her bathing suit. The rest of the group, also clad in their bathing suits underneath their normal clothes, stripped off their outer layers and plunged into the ocean waters.
They seemed to lose track of time as they threw one another into oncoming waves and splashed each other. By the time they emerged from the water, they were tired and hungry. They waited several minutes to dry off then they dressed themselves in their outer layers of clothing and headed for the boardwalk.
The group stopped by Nathan's Hot Dogs for some lunch. When they got in line, Steve and Thor were arguing as to whom could each more hot dogs. Once they got to the front of the line, Steve and Thor were so deep in the argument that Clint decided the only way to settle it was to have a hot dog eating contest. The boys ordered nearly 40 hot dogs, and Steve and Thor were determined to settle this argument.
Once the girls also got their food, they headed to a table outside the hot dog stand and Steve and Thor started prepping for their competition. Steve and Thor were given 20 hot dogs each, and the girls started the countdown. On one, Steve and Thor began shoving hot dogs into their mouths. By the sixth hot dog, Steve looked like he was about to puke and puke he did. By this time, Thor was on his twelfth hot dog. Therefore, Thor won.
"He just got lucky," Steve huffed as he wiped his mouth.
By the time the group had finished eating, the attractions were open and operating. They started walking down the boardwalk, trying to decide what to do first.
"Oh Steve, win me a stuffed bear!" Peggy squealed as they passed by a game stand.
Steve pulled her over and they began to compete for a cheap stuffed bear. They left Steve and Peggy at the game stand and continued walking. One by one, the group began to dissipate as they got distracted by the lights and sounds of the game stands. For the remainder of the afternoon, the group spent their time competing for cheap teddy bears and stuffed animals. By 5:00, they regrouped and decided that they were hungry.
"As long as it's not hot dogs, I'm okay with whatever we pick," Steve said.
They stopped at a food stand and grabbed fries, burgers, and chicken tenders and stationed themselves against the railing of the boardwalk since there were no available tables. Once they were finished, they also grabbed ice cream to cool themselves down after the exhausting day they had.
They made their way to the rides and they stood there looking around in awe. If they couldn't decide what they wanted to do first on the boardwalk, they were completely clueless as to what they wanted to ride first. They made their way through the crowd and got in line for a random ride.
They spent the rest of the night running back and forth to various rides, but never to the Wonder Wheel, Coney's Island's Ferris wheel. Both Jane and Peggy cited a fear of heights for the reason to not go on it, but around the time the sun was setting, Thor and Steve had coaxed them into standing in line for the ride.
Clint and Natasha were left in the front of the line, awaiting their carriage, after Thor and Jane had piled into their own carriage. The wheel turned and a carriage holding a family of four unloaded, allowing Clint and Natasha to step in. It was perfect; they had the carriage to themselves.
The wheel turned and they were instantly hovering several feet in the air on the outer edge of the wheel. They were almost to the very top when they got a perfect view of the sunset over the ocean.
"Beautiful," Clint whispered.
"It is, isn't it?" Natasha agreed as she rested her arms on the edge of the carriage.
"I wasn't talking about the sunset."
Natasha turned to Clint, and blushed. "Clint, come on. Don't do this."
"What? I can't tell the truth?" he asked innocently.
"You know what I mean," she said sternly.
They sat in silence for quite some time. During the silence, their carriage had managed to reach the very top of the Ferris wheel and was at a standstill. The silence was deafening, and since it was only the two of them, Clint had to say something.
"Nat, are you mad?" Clint asked, concerned.
"No, I'm not mad. No wait, yes, I am mad," she said.
"Why are you mad?"
She let out a sigh and shifted in her seat to face Clint. "You and your parents are the ones who said we couldn't date for a year, and yet here you are just making it painfully dreadful to avoid it."
She returned to her original seated position and crossed her arms across her chest. It was almost as if she was pouting.
"What if we just didn't tell them?" Clint suggested. "We could do a secret relationship like Tony and Pepper and then when the year is up, we just tell them."
Natasha let out a laugh to show that she rejected his idea. "Just to let you know, I really like your parents and I really don't want to piss them off by going against something they advised us to do."
"Nat," he said softly, which made her turn her head to face him. "I can't stop feeling the way I do about you. I think about you all the time when you're not around. This isn't just a friendship anymore because…because…"
He trailed off and took a deep breath. "Because I'm in love with you."
Natasha's jaw dropped. She couldn't believe what she just heard. Did she still have ocean water stuck in her ear? If so, the salt was probably clogging up her ears. Yeah, that was probably the problem.
"W-what?" she managed to choke out.
"You heard me," he said firmly.
"Clint, stop joking around," Natasha said, her voice shaking slightly.
"I'm not joking and I will never joke about this."
She couldn't take this anymore. It suddenly felt like the Ferris wheel carriage was closing in on her. Her parents never told her they loved her, so Natasha was having a hard time accepting the fact that someone actually did love her.
"You can't act like you don't love me too but I know you do," Clint said, pulling Natasha out of her thoughts. "You said it yourself that day we were talking about why Alexei was so angry at the masquerade ball."
"You're so egotistical. How do you even know I was talking about you?" Natasha said defensively.
"I'm not stupid Natasha."
It was true. Clint was the person she was talking about that day, but she never thought he would feel the same way. She loved her parents – even though they were a couple of dysfunctional assholes – but not once did they return the affection. At this thought, she began to cry.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I take it all back. I didn't mean to upset you," Clint said nervously as he watched the tears rolls down her cheeks.
Clint enveloped her into a hug and she instantly began to calm down. Right here, in Clint's arms, is where she belonged, where she felt safe and sound. She turned her body so that she was facing Clint but still being held tight in his arms. All she wanted was his lips on hers, and for him to never let her go.
"Okay," she whispered. "I promise we'll make this work."
Clint smiled because that's all that he wanted to hear. He leaned in and kissed her passionately as the Ferris wheel gave a sickening lurch and began its decent.
What? Craziness! Like I said, I had a bit of writer's block so that's why the quality isn't as great as it usually is and why it's all over the place. But I hope you guys liked it anyways!
As always, thanks for the reviews, adding this to your favorite stories, adding me to your favorite authors, and signing up for alerts. And, as usual, please review! I enjoy reading what you guys think. It puts a smile on my face while I'm at my miserable job haha.
