A/N Thank you all so much for making this story even remotely popular on fan fiction! I feel honored that my first story has 52 followers! I literally love you guys:)
"Coulson, you of all people know that Natasha and I can do this with our hands tied behind our backs." Clint stated as he looked at the advanced-level training course.
"Yes, Barton, I know. Just do it, okay?" Coulson said back in a fatherly tone. He only used that tone when he was around Clint and Natasha because he knew that they could use a father figure in their lives that wasn't trying to kill them or turn them into killing machines.
"Yessir." Clint replied with a sigh. He turned to Natasha with a goofy yet dark grin spreading across his features. "Let's kick some virtual ass, Tasha."
Natasha just rolled her eyes and waited for the bell to tell them to start. She was used to him calling her nicknames when it was just them, but she always felt a little uneasy when he used them around other people. She felt like if people knew that he called her 'Nat', or 'Tasha', then she would be less of a threat. Coulson had even taken to calling her by her first name sometimes, but that was only when something had gone wrong on a mission, so she wasn't particularly fond of that.
The bell rang, initiating the training exercise and much to the surprise of everyone there, nothing happened. No targets popped out, not shots rang out through the stadium, no other agents came running at them, nothing.
Coulson had told the crew in charge of the arena to make this exercise as difficult as they could, but he didn't think this is what they would come up with.
"Agents." Fury's voice echoed through the course. "I think you're all up to date on how to fight, it's the conversations that need a little work."
The three of them tried to pinpoint where Fury was, but not even Clint could find him. He may be the Director, but he was still the spy. No one spoke for a few moments, but apparently that was enough for Fury to become impatient and show himself.
"Could you all be semi-normal for a minute?" He stated more than asked as he appeared in front of them from who knows where.
"Never thought I'd here you say those words boss, but I'm not sure what you mean by conversations needing work, Natasha and I communicate in the field just fine." Clint said, still trying to figure out where the Director had hidden himself.
"You damn well know what I'm talking about, Barton. I can't have Agent Romanoff trying to kill you every time you say something stupid, which is far too often for my liking." Fury answered in a stern voice. The last part made Natasha and Coulson smile ever so slightly. Clint looked a little offended so Coulson decided to butt in.
"Well, I guess we're going to talk then." Coulson said in a matter-of-fact tone. "This should be fun."
"Please don't kill each other, Agents," Fury said to Natasha and Clint while he walked away. "That'd be a hell of a lot of paperwork for Coulson to do."
"I'd bring you back to life just to kill you myself if that happens." Coulson said in an oddly professional manner as he motioned for Clint and Natasha to head towards the door.
"After you, sir." Clint said with a smirk.
Coulson sighed and shook his head as he walked to the door. He was so caught up thinking about how many ways this could go wrong that he almost missed the look that the two master assassins shared.
For months after Clint and Natasha's not-so-little explosion in the gym, Phil Coulson had worked overtime to make sure the team was at the best possible level of trust and ability. Little did he know, they would end up doing some work of their own.
Once they were out in the hallway, Coulson spoke. "I'll let you two decide where we're going to speak since you're going to have to be comfortable, but please don't choose the gym. We don't want to repeat the past."
"Coulson, it's been three months since the fight and things have gone pretty smoothly since then." Clint said out of pure annoyance that even their handler was tip-toeing around that situation.
"Barton' room." Natasha stated, receiving a smirk form Clint and a confused look from Coulson.
"Okay..." Coulson half asked, prompting Natasha to elaborate.
"I'd rather not let my guard down where there are a lot of people. And Barton's room is actually kind of nice." She explained nonchalantly, and started heading in the direction of his room.
Coulson shot Clint a look of slight disbelief and Clint just shrugged in response as to say, 'Don't ask me.' The two quickly followed the unpredictable red-haired assassin to her place of choice.
Clint opened the door to his room but stood in the doorway, turning to face Natasha and Coulson. "Sorry for the mess, I haven't had time to clean today since we were supposed to be training."
"Barton, you have like four personal belongings, how could your room be mess-" Natasha started as she pushed past Clint into his room, "Oh." Was all she said when she noticed the usually clean room in a state of complete disarray.
"I told you is was messy, Natasha. I have no reason to lie to you." Clint said in defense of his room.
Natasha shot him a look as she stepped over the pile of papers next to his bed and went to sit in his desk chair.
"Uh uh Romanoff, I sit there, you two sit on the uh - mattress." Coulson said as he noticed that Clint's bed wasn't even remotely made. Natasha shook her head in mild disgust as she looked at the bare mattress.
"God, Natasha, if you don't want to be here why did you choose my room?" Clint asked heatedly.
"You know I don't like people in my room, Barton. I always have to make sure no one placed anything in it." She responded.
"It's not my fault you're a security freak." Clint mumbled under his breath loud enough for the others to hear.
"Alright, before you two go for each others' throats, let's begin." Coulson said, trying to diffuse the rapidly heated conversation. He told them that they were to go back and forth with yes or no questions about anything that wouldn't likely spark a fight. Clint and Natasha both looked at him incredulously. He looked back at them with raised eyebrows. "I'm waiting." He said as he motioned for them to begin.
Clint was the first to come up with a question, although it one that mocked the exercise. "Is your name Natasha Romanoff?"
Natasha raised an eyebrow at him.
"This is not a joke, Barton. Everyone on base still gets a little worried when they see you two talking, and I want to fix that just as much as you do." Coulson cut in, and Clint gave him an understanding look. He did hate that people were still treating him and Natasha like a ticking time bomb.
Clint turned back to Natasha and they continued the questioning. "Do you trust me, Barton?"
"Yes, Natasha, I trust you." Clint responded. "Can you call me by my first name?"
"I suppose so," She answered. He gave her a look telling her to continue. "Clint." She said, giving him a look of her own. "Why do you trust me?"
"That's not a yes or no question Tasha. This exercise isn't a joke." He said mimicking the gestures of their handler when he had said the same thing just moments ago.
Natasha rolled her eyes. "Fine. What's your favorite type of music?"
"Classic rock and alternative. You?" He asked, generally interested in her answer. She didn't really seem like a 'Top 40' type of person.
"Classical music. It reminds me of when I was a dancer, or at least thought I was." She said with a hint of sadness swirling in her eyes.
Clint gave her a comforting look and that seemed to snap her out of whatever hell she was imagining about the Red Room. The two continued their rapid fire questions for just under an hour when Coulson decided that the two can actually hold a civil conversation without ripping each others' throats out.
"Now that you two have proven to at least one person on base that you don't actually hate each other, I'll leave you to do whatever you like for the rest of the day while I tell Fury that you can be trusted to have a conversation without erupting." With that, he left Clint's room, and the two spies as he shut the door behind him. He couldn't help but notice that there was definitely more than one conversation happening back there. The looks they gave each other, the body language that each of them subconsciously responded to, made it seem like the two knew each other for a very long time. Or that there was something between them that they weren't letting known to the public.
'If only Fury could have seen that, he would have lectured them on how actions like that get you compromised.' Coulson thought as he walked toward Director Fury's office. He didn't want Clint and Natasha to know that he knew about whatever was going on between them, so he decided that wasn't a crucial element of the exercise and wouldn't tell his boss about their hidden language.
Clint and Natasha stayed in the room and sat in silence for a bit, but it wasn't awkward, it never was between them. They enjoyed the fact that they didn't have to be talking to communicate.
"He figured it out." Clint said, finally breaking the silence.
"Figured what out?" Natasha asked, pretty much knowing what he was talking about, but she needed to know for sure.
"This whole thing we have going between us, Tasha."
"What, how we're able to have spoken and unspoken conversations simultaneously? Anyone who observed us for five minutes could see that." She responded, not wanting to admit that there was something else behind it.
Clint sighed and tried another tactic to get Natasha to open up and be truthful with herself about this. "Do you like me, Nat?"
That caught her kind of off guard. "I kind of have to like you, we're partners."
"You know that's not what I meant." He said with a stern look in his eyes. "Do you like me, yes or no?"
Natasha broke eye contact to look at the floor. "I don't like people, Clint."
Clint took a deep breath and put a hand under her chin to bring her eyes to his again. "Natasha, we've been partners for two and a half years now, you may be a good liar but I can tell when you're not being truthful with yourself, and with me."
"I don't do this kind of thing, Clint." Natasha responded. It wasn't what what he wanted to hear, but he knew it was the truth.
"And I don't want to force you to do anything, Tasha. I just need you to be honest about how you feel." Noticing how guarded she had become, Clint continued. "No one's here to judge you. No one will think less of you for what you say here. It's just us. You trust me right?"
Natasha sighed, knowing that she couldn't go on trying to hide things from her partner and herself. "Of course I trust you, but I've only felt something like this once before in my past, and ended up being a complete lie." She said as memories of Alexei Shostakov started to flood her mind. "I promised myself I wouldn't let that happen again, that I have to stay strong no matter what. I told myself I would never fall for anyone, but then again, I told myself to never trust anyone farther than I could throw them, and you changed that too."
She said the last part with such unwavering eye contact that Clint knew he had his answer, though it would take time before she could say the words. But for now, this was all he needed.
Clint smiled at Natasha like no one else ever did. She felt comfortable with him. She knew she could trust him with her life, but being able to trust him with information she hadn't even admitted to herself before was something she never had. She like it. She liked him.
Clint reached over and moved Natasha so she was sitting on his lap, facing him. She gave him an arched eyebrow and an eye roll, but didn't resist. He brought their faces dangerously close and gave her a look with a certain question in it. She nodded her head ever so slightly and anyone else would have missed it. Not Clint.
"I kinda like you too." He said with a smirk as he closed the gap between their lips. This kiss wasn't like the last one, it wasn't fast and heated, it was soft and heartfelt. He poured everything he felt into it, and soon Natasha was doing the same. They were lost in each other like neither of them had ever been before. Neither of them were big on words, but this kiss said everything. There was pain and agony, but each of them worked to ease some of it with as much softness as they could possess in their world. There was nothing overtly sexual about the kiss, but the way they were wrapped up in each other's arms and how their lips worked in perfect synchronicity, they felt safe. Nothing could hurt them here, nothing could disturb them-
Natasha's phone started ringing. Reluctantly, they pulled away and rested their foreheads together, Natasha trying to regain her breath before she answered the phone.
"Do you have to answer that?" Clint whined quietly.
Natasha let out a breathy laugh that made Clint's heart clench. "Yes, I do." She said as she lifted herself off her partner and reached for her phone. "Romanoff." She answered.
"Report to Director Fury's office. There's a mission that we need to brief you for. Just you." Coulson said quickly before hanging up.
"What was that about?" Clint asked.
"A solo mission."
"Where are you going?"
"I guess I'll find out when I get there." She responded. She walked over to the mirror to hide any evidence of what just happened before she met with the Director.
"I really hope you leaving after we kiss doesn't become a habit, Romanoff." Clint called after her playfully as she walked towards the door. She turned and gave him a sultry look.
"You don't mind watching me walk away, Barton" She said just before she put on the serious face that she wore most of the time, and slipped into the hallway.
"Agent Romanoff, there is a certain influential figure in Malibu who we need you to monitor. He is currently in need of a new assistant and we feel if we send you in there, there's no way he could turn you down. You'll need business attire and your uniform, just in case." Fury began as he slid the folder towards Natasha. "You'll be going undercover as 'Natalie Rushman', a transfer from the legal department."
Natasha read through the file thoroughly while Fury finished up the briefing. Before she left the office, she innocently made a case why she and Clint needed to be able to contact each other while she was on assignment. Fury granted her this, not wanting her absence on the helicarrier to mess up whatever calm may have risen between the two agents.
Natasha collected her things and was on her way to the plane that would take her to Stark Enterprises when she found herself face to face with Clint. There were other agents that were walking around the hangar, so the two tried to be as professional as possible while still flirting in their hidden language.
"Can't tell me where you're going?" Clint said with a glint in his eye.
"Two words: Tony Stark." Natasha replied with an annoyed look on her face.
Clint leaned down closer to her to whisper in her ear so no one else could hear him. "That playboy better not try and steal you away from me."
The closeness of his breath to her ear and the low rumble of a chuckle that followed had Natasha quickly tensing up so she didn't react. He pulled himself away and they both composed their faces into the austere looks they were so used to.
"Don't get into too much trouble while I'm gone, Barton." Natasha said with a small raise of her eyebrow.
"I think there's a higher risk of trouble with you here, Romanoff." He replied with a half smirk crossing his mouth.
Natasha shook her head and scoffed at his comment when she turned and got on the jet. 'He's going to get us caught one day.' She thought. She couldn't help but think that maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing.
As Natalie Rushman sauntered away from the training room in the mansion, Tony Stark turned to his girlfriend/CEO, Pepper Potts. "I want one."
Pepper quickly turned to face Tony, "No."
A/N That was fun to write, even though I didn't get to write it all in one sitting like I usually do.
They're finally 'together', whatever that means in their terms. But of course Tony Stark happens in the middle of everything, and it's not the last time he'll do that. Idiot. Gotta love him though.
Thanks again for all the great reviews! They help me have to motivation to actually sit down and write out the scenes that play in my head like a movie:)
P.S. I feel like Coulson might be a little OOC in this chapter, but I tried to show how close Clint and Natasha are to him, and how he's able to read them almost as well as they read each other.