I keep getting writer's block. I'm seriously making up this story as it goes along except for a select few parts so if some chapters are really boring, I'm sorry. Either way, here's chapter 10!

It was hard for Clint and Natasha to keep up appearances as best friends in front of Clint's parents. Sometimes they would forget that they couldn't hold hands or cuddle on the couch. They would hear one of Clint's parents about the reenter a room and they would quickly scramble to be seated on the couch with a decent amount of space between them.

Somehow it had also managed to slip their minds to tell Steve, Thor, Peggy, and Jane that they were secretly dating. They had accomplished keeping it a secret for a couple weeks following the trip to Coney Island but Clint blew their cover one day when the group met up at the local cinema to catch a movie. Clint had greeted Natasha with a quick hello kiss on the lips. When he pulled back, he thought she would be happy to see him, but instead, he was greeted with a look of complete shock in her eyes. That's when he realized that they had an audience and they were watching.

"Good God Clint!" Thor boomed.

"What the hell Clint!" Steve yelled, while Peggy and Jane squealed with delight.

"Whoops," Clint said, flushing a deep shade of red.

"You are in so much trouble later," Natasha whispered as they made their way to the box office to buy their tickets.

Summer passed with sweltering heat and intense thunderstorms. Before Clint knew it, it was the first day of school once again. Summer had been eventful. Aside from his secret relationship with Natasha, Clint had managed to successfully earn his driver's license, and since Barney would not be allowed to have a car at college, Clint was granted the keys while Barney was away.

The first day back to school after a relaxing summer was always the hardest. Clint had managed to hit his snooze button five times before he realized he didn't have Barney to come in and wake him up so they wouldn't be late. It was his responsibility to get his lazy ass out of bed and get ready for school.

Clint could tell just by the way he was moving that he was going to be late picking Natasha up from her house. He knew that eating a bowl of cereal was just going to make him even later, but he couldn't deny the protests from his stomach. Once he was finished, he glanced at the clock on the stove and rushed up the stairs to grab his backpack, and then flew down the stairs and out the door. Natasha was going to be pissed.

By the time he had reached, Natasha's house, her parents' cars were gone and they had 15 minutes to get to school before it started for the day. As he pulled into the driveway, he noticed Natasha on the front porch, balancing on her forearms with her body contorted into a half moon shape, her legs arcing above her head.

"Nat, what are you doing?" Clint called out of the driver's side window.

"The Scorpion," she called back. "Leave me alone!"

"We have 13 minutes to get to school. We've gotta go!"

She slowly lowered her body to the ground and began to roll up the mat she had been using. At T-minus 10 minutes, Natasha was loaded into the car, ready to go to school. Clint leaned over and pecked her on the cheek and then quickly pulled the car out of her driveway.

"What was that thing you were doing on the porch?" Clint asked Natasha as he turned onto the highway.

"Yoga. I do it practically every morning," she said, watching as the landscape whizzed by her window.

"Since when?"

"Hmmm, maybe a couple years now?" she pondered.

"It's pretty cool," Clint said as he merged onto the exit ramp.

"It's a pretty good way to get motivated in the morning. You should try it since you can't manage to be on time," she teased.

Clint snorted a laugh. "Yeah right, can you see me doing the Scorpio or whatever that move was."

"The Scorpion," she corrected him. "You're such a wuss."

Clint turned the car into the student parking lot at Stroudsburg High School and parked into a parking spot. Natasha quickly unloaded out of the car, hastily grabbing her backpack with her.

"Hey!" Clint called after her from across the roof of the car. She was already headed to the school, walking at a brisk pace.

She turned around, walking backwards, and smiled. "What?"

"I don't get a kiss?" he asked.

She smiled, still walking backwards. "Go to homeroom Barton!" With that, she turned around and started to jog to the school entrance, leaving Clint alone in the deserted student parking lot.

This school year was going to be better for Clint and Natasha. Not only did they have lunch together – as well as chemistry with Dr. Selvig since Natasha decided to take two science classes – but the manager at Natasha's job decided to take it easy on her hours. Natasha didn't mind. Sure she needed the money, but as long as she still worked at least three days out of the week, she was fine with it. The cutback on Natasha's hours meant that Clint and Natasha had more time to spend together. Clint still had football practice after school and games on the weekends, but they would still manage to find a way to spend time together.

Clint and Natasha seemed to fall into a daily routine. With the exception of the first day, Clint would usually get to Natasha's house a half hour before they had to go to school and they would eat breakfast together. Sure they would each only eat a bowl of cereal but it was still breakfast.

However, it wasn't until nearly the end of September that Clint noticed that Natasha's parents were never there. Clint would always arrive at Natasha's house by at least quarter after seven, and Natasha said that they were always gone way before she got up at 6:30.

Clint had always noticed that he had never seen her parents. Ever since they were kids, they had been an enigma. Natasha would only mention them in passing or if they had another fight. Otherwise, Clint had never met them, or even seen them.

Now that he was actually dating Natasha, he wondered if he should mention to her that it would only be right that he met her parents. He really didn't want to bring it up, seeing as talking about her parents was always a touchy subject for her and she always got extremely defensive. But Clint respected Natasha, so it would only be right to make sure that he met her parents so they knew exactly who their daughter was dating.

"Absolutely not!" Natasha had said when Clint asked her if he could meet her parents.

"I don't want them to think I'm a bad person," Clint said.

She let out an aggravated sigh. "Fine," she said testily. "I'll ask them, but if a dinner plate gets thrown at my head, it's going to be your fault."

It wasn't until the middle of October when Natasha had told Clint that she had managed to talk to her parents about him meeting them. She told Clint that a dinner was set for later in the week, on Saturday night. Clint had to admit he was nervous. No, not nervous, he was scared. Clint had heard one too many stories about how dishes were thrown and her father usually got slapped by her mother. He had hoped he wouldn't be the reason a fight would break out during dinner.

On Saturday night, Clint drove to Natasha's house in a nervous haze. He was dressed in a simple pair of black pants, a red shirt, and a tie. He didn't want to be over dressed, yet he didn't want to be under dressed, so he was pretty sure he was right in the middle.

When he pulled into Natasha's driveway, both of her parents' cars were there, and for a split second, he had hoped they wouldn't be. The fact that he had never met them before was probably the problem. Clint had known Natasha since he was in first grade. Most kids would know their friends' parents, but Clint had never even seen her parents. Meeting them for the first time, especially under the circumstances, scared Clint right to his core.

He got out of the car and slowly made his way up the porch steps. He hesitated to ring the doorbell but eventually he did. He heard footsteps on the other side of the door and prayed that it would be Natasha who opened the door. Fortunately, it was. She was dressed in a black skirt with black tights and a red satin top. Her hair was in its usual curled style which just brushed her shoulders.

"Hi," she said with a smile.

"Hey," he said, trying to hide how nervous he was. Clearly it didn't work since Natasha walked right up to him and wrapped her arms around him.

"They're calm, for now," she said into his chest. "Just, please, don't say anything stupid."

Clint nodded, and she took him by the hand and pulled him into the house. It seemed strange to be in her house while her parents were actually present. It almost seemed different. She continued to pull him by the hand, leading the way throughout the house, until they reached the kitchen. Sure enough, there they were, slaving over a hot dinner. Clint had to do a double take because he wasn't really sure if he was really seeing this.

"Mom? Dad?" Natasha said. Clint felt his heart skip a beat, and not in the way Natasha usually makes it skip a beat. No, he was nervous as hell.

They turned around and greeted Clint with smiles. He wasn't sure if they were genuine or not, so he returned the smile.

"Oh Clint, it's so nice to finally meet you," Natasha's mother said, approaching him and kissing him on both cheeks.

"I-it's nice to finally meet you too, Mrs. Romanoff," Clint managed to choke out.

Meeting her mother wasn't so bad, Clint realized. It was her father that he was so scared to meet. He was quite an intimidating guy, and Clint wasn't sure if it was safe to look him in the eye. Mr. Romanoff approached Clint, and held out his hand so Clint could shake it.

"I-it's very nice to finally meet you, Mr. Romanoff," Clint said, shaking Natasha's father's hand.

"Mr. Barton, I trust you've been treating my daughter well?" Mr. Romanoff said, crossing his arms.

"Y-yes, sir. We've been best friends for years, and I wouldn't treat her any differently now."

Natasha's father nodded, but didn't say anything else. Natasha's mother broke the tension and ushered everyone to the table to begin dinner. There were four chairs at the table, one positioned on each side of the table. Natasha pointed to the seat on the adjacent side to hers, and he took a seat. Mr. and Mrs. Romanoff brought in the dishes of food and set them in the center of the table, and then took their seats.

"Please, help yourself Clint," Mrs. Romanoff said cheerily, gesturing to the various bowls and platters of food.

The Romanoffs and Clint piled food onto their plates and began eating in silence. The only sounds that filled the room were the scraping of utensils upon plates. Clint had expected it to be awkward, but not this awkward.

"How old are you, Clint?" Natasha's father grunted. The sound of his voice almost made Clint fall out of his seat.

"I'll be 17 in February, sir," Clint said as he picked up his glass of water. As he did, he noticed his hand was shaking. Was he really this nervous?

"I'm going to be short, simple, and to the point with you Mr. Barton. Do not try anything funny with my daughter. Do you understand?"

Clint was about to answer when Natasha's mother cut in. "Now dear, now's not the time to be making threats," she said with an edge to her voice.

"I'm just looking out for our daughter," her father said sternly.

"Well, I understand you're concerned but she's going to be 16 in November, I believe she's responsible and mature enough to make her own decisions."

One comment after another, Natasha's mother and father calmly argued back and forth. Clint glanced to his left and he noticed Natasha had her thumb and forefinger pinched to the bridge of her nose and she was shaking her head back and forth. Clearly this was only the calm before the storm.

"It's just my understanding Mr. Barton has made our lovely daughter cry on several occasions. Do we really want that to continue happening?" Clint heard Natasha's father say.

"I'm sorry, but you've got it all wrong," Clint chimed in. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Natasha shaking her head as if to tell him to shut up. It had to be said, and he was going to continue.

"Natasha has cried a couple of times in my presence because of things that you have said to her. I'm quite possibly the only person she can tell them to because she trusts me.

"And," he added. "Because I love her, unlike the two of you. You can say what you want about me and you can kick me out of your house, but it won't change the way I feel about her. I'll still love her, and I'll still feel sorry that she has too poor excuses for parents."

By the time Clint had finished, he had actually regretted what he said. He was almost sure Natasha's father was seeing red right now. Mr. Romanoff rose from his seat at the opposite end of the table and crossed the room to stand by Clint on the other side.

"Dad - ," Natasha started but her father held up a hand to silence her.

"No one talks to me like that in my own house," Mr. Romanoff said pointing a finger at Clint. "I will not be made fun of, and I will not be called a poor excuse for a parent."

Clint gulped. He didn't even notice he was gripping the arms of the chair so hard that his knuckles were white. It was almost as if he was bracing for the impact of a plate being thrown at his head.

"But," Natasha's father continued. "You have charisma. You have guts. And you've made our daughter the happiest person in this household. Even amidst our financial troubles and constant bickering, she comes home as if she's walking on cloud nine, and we instantly know that she was with you.

"So understand this Barton, do not make a fool of me in my house ever again. But you have guts, boy, and I like that," Mr. Romanoff said and he returned to his seat at the opposite end of the table. Natasha let out the breath that she was holding in, and Clint loosened his grip on the arms of the chair.

"Now, honey, you didn't have to make a scene," Mrs. Romanoff said.

"Oh for Christ's sake Vera!"

Mr. and Mrs. Romanoff started bickering until the actual arguing ensued. When Mrs. Romanoff tossed her glass of wine into her husband's face that was Natasha's cue for her to pick up her dinner plate and Clint's and finish their dinner in her bedroom.

So we've finally met Mr. and Mrs. Romanoff and they're still as terrible as Natasha makes them out to be lol. I hope I didn't disappoint you guys with a boring chapter, but Natasha's sixteenth birthday is coming up and Clint has something very special planned. Thanks to PaigeD6 for the idea ;).

As always, thank you for adding this to your favorites, signing up for alerts, and reviewing. As always, I love reading what you guys think so please review this chapter. It puts a smile on my face when you guys freak out like I do haha.