"This god damn Black Widow! She just went crazy. Started killing everybody in her way! She even kills people from her own side now!"
Clint hears the people talk. He worries. Of course he knows that Natasha hasn't gone crazy, he knows that she follows a plan. He knows that she takes out everybody who is related to the Red Room. What he worries about is how much that seems to bother SHIELD. The council is nervous, and when the council gets nervous, people usually end up dead. Clint worries that it probably won't be long until somebody is told to kill her.
Because of that, he keeps his eyes and ears open. He listens to the gossip that never interested him before, just so he knows if there is maybe someone who got the order to take her out. Nothing.
Instead, he gets to know a nice young woman, Bobbi. He meets her one day in a cafe. Bobbi studies biology and she is really nice and really clever. Clint likes her. She lives a normal life. A life that maybe could have been his, if his father and than his brother and then the circus hadn't screwed with him to hell and back.
He goes out on a date with her. He takes leave and tells Coulson that he really doesn't want to be interrupted. They go to the cinema and than they have dinner. It's nice, but it's... not right. It feels a bit wrong, and Clint just knows that this with her isn't what he wants. He thinks of ways to tell her that without being rude when she says:
"Clint. I really like you, really, but... I don't think we would work. I think we can make great friends, but I don't want to be together with you. Don't misunderstand me: You are really nice and all, but there is just..." she searches for words.
"No spark." He says. She nods. He brings her home, says goodbye and forgets her.
Natasha sits in a little cafe in Canberra. It's quiet and she pretends to read a book, but in fact waits on somebody. The table she sits at is usually reserved for a high member of the Red Room. She waits for him to show up. Her hair is black today, and she wears glasses, and she applied make up so she nearly didn't recognize herself in the mirror before she left her safe house.
It takes only a few moments until a male voice with good disguised Russian accent asks her what she does on his table. She plays the confused tourist and it takes only a few minutes until he follows her to an empty side street. She planned this, she knows that there is no camera to see what happens now. His throat is slit before he even realizes that something might be wrong. She walks away with a smirk.
Clint sits on the top floor of an empty office building in Riga, bow and arrow ready. He is here to take out one of the top men of the Red Room project. The man, a middle old guy in Armani dances on a party in a garden, perfectly in Clint's sights. He smiles. Way to easy, this one. He takes the shot, and then sits there and watches the panic unfold. Nobody even thinks of looking here for him. It's been a few month since he's seen Natasha, but thanks to all the rumors he still knows she's out there, taking down the people who ruined her life. She isn't as stupid as most of the other assassins and spies out there, she will know who killed the man. He imagines the little smile on her face when she hears about it.
"Nice shot." Clint's hand is at his gun before he recognizes the voice. Slowly, he turns around.
"Didn't see you at the party." He says. There she stands, wearing a nice black dress. Her hair is blond.
"I just arrived when he fell to the floor. Not really clever of you to stay here." She answers with a smile.
"Didn't expect anyone to find me here." He shoots back. Natasha just smiles.
"I know your style, Clint."
When Natasha saw the arrow sticking out of the throat of her mark, she looked around. It took her only a few moments to be sure where he was, and then she just went there. It's kind of nice to know that she can sneak up on him.
They go to his safe house. He says that he has about three hours before anyone will ask for him, so she stays there with him. She takes her blond wig of, and sees the smile on Clint's face when her long red hair falls down her shoulders.
"You have to be careful, Tasha. In the last month I've heard so many rumors about you. You make the council nervous. That's not good." He tells her.
"Why not? I don't attack them, and I don't really care what they think of me."
"Because if the council gets nervous there is a good chance a SHIELD agent will get the order to kill you soon. I know that you can take care of yourself, but please, just promise you'll be careful, okay?" He really is worried about her. It nice to know that somebody cares enough to worry, but she just says:
"Like you said, I can take care of myself. Besides, why should they get nervous? I more or less do their work!"
"Good question. I never trusted the council." He says and with that, they change the topic.
She just is in the kitchen to fetch two beers when she hears the door open. Then there is a voice she doesn't know.
"Good job, Barton."
Clint is absolutely shocked. What the hell is Coulson doing here? The last thing he heard was that the man was somewhere in Alaska!
"Good job, Barton." He prays to god or whoever that Natasha hears it and stays in the kitchen.
"Thanks. Did you beam here? Because I thought you were in Alaska." He says and hopes not to sound nervous.
"No. I was just in the city and thought I'd debrief you now instead of later."
Natasha stands in the kitchen and listens to what the other man, Coulson, obviously Clint's handler, and Clint discuss. She's not sure if she should run for the hills or stay here. She heard the nervous shaking in Clint's voice, even though she's quite sure Coulson didn't. If she gets caught here, what isn't that likely, she and Clint both are in trouble. But if she runs, it's more or less sure she is seen by Coulson and Clint is in deep shit. She thinks feverishly while she keeps an ear on the debriefing in the next room.
"Your mark is one of those people we think the Black Widow might attack, too. Did you see anyone who could be the Widow?" Coulson suddenly asks. Natasha closes her eyes.
"No, sir. I was the only assassin there." Clint answers.
"Good. I have to go. Director Fury expects you back by tomorrow." There is a bit noise, and then she hears the front door open and close. Shaking, she releases a breath she didn't realize she was holding. Then she stands up and goes back to Clint. They look each other in the eyes and after a moment, they begin to laugh.
AN: Yes, I do know that in the comics Bobbi is Clint's wife. I told you in the beginning that I won't do this like it is in comics. This is a story about Natasha Clint, so deal with it. I hope you still liked it!