Warning for all of my readers: This chapter gets a bit steamy toward the end; it's not a full lemon but it's...limey. You've been warned, skip over it if you'd like.

"Are you out of your goddamn mind, Romanoff?" Clint shouted, slamming the door to their hideout behind them.

"I don't know what you're all worked up about," Natasha replied, her annoyance growing at his tone. She leaned back against the wall, watching him with cool eyes. She didn't take kindly to being yelled at, not by anyone.

Things had been different between them since their kiss seven months earlier. They were still partners on and off the field, still went on missions together, still trained in the gym together, still ate lunch in the cafeteria together. But now there was that undercurrent of things unspoken between them.

Neither of them had said anything after the kiss, everything simply dropped where it was. Neither of them knew how to deal with what was between them. Natasha certainly didn't know how. She was taught from a young age that love was for children, that emotion would get you killed. She didn't know how to deal with her partner, her best friend kissing her, didn't know how to deal with all the repercussions that came along with it. While it felt good at the moment, they never thought about the consequences that would follow them.

"How can you not understand why I'm all worked up!" he said, exasperated. He racked his hand through his hair as he started disarming himself, placing his guns on the table in the corner of the room. "You were kidnapped-"

"I was fine," she answered, taking out her own weapons and placing them on the dresser.

"You didn't know where they were taking you-"

"Yes, because kidnappers always tell their victims where they're taking them."

"They could have killed you-"

Natasha snorted quietly. "Yes, because just anyone would manage to kill me. Deadly assassin isn't a name I have just because it sounds nice; I can back it up."

"SHIELD didn't know where you were," he said, pacing back and forth in front of her.

"Like I care? I would have checked in with Coulson the moment I got rid of the people annoying me." 'Seriously, what is he going on and on about?' Natasha wondered, taking up her spot against the wall again.

"I didn't know where you were," he said loudly, placing his arms on either side of her effectively trapping her between them. His eyes locked onto her bright green ones, filled with the swirling emotions he felt. He was angry with her for being so nonchalant about her safety, he was angry with himself for not seeing the attackers coming, he was relieved she was back safe, and he was damn terrified of all of the emotions she managed to pull out of him. When had he gone from being the stoic Hawkeye to this mess of emotions? His arms were trembling slightly as his body tried to deal with the adrenaline filling his veins and the emotions that dominated his mind. "I didn't know where you were, Tasha," he repeated quietly, his eyes begging her to understand all the things he couldn't say, that he wouldn't say.

"Clint," she said softly, placing her hands on his shoulders. Her hands slowly slid up his shoulders, resting at the back of his neck. Now was the moment of truth. She knew Clint would leave her to make the choice, to choose whether she wanted to go forward with this or stay the way they were. Every instinct drilled into her screamed for her to push him away, to move his arms and change out of her uniform into something more comfortable until their transportation showed up for her. It should have been simple, an easy thing to do. Clint would put up no resistance. But she didn't want to let him go. She was so cold inside and Clint was like a fire in her life; he could either warm her or send her up in flames. No matter what happened there were gonna be consequences. "Clint," she whispered, pulling him close, her lips smashing against his hungrily.

Clint's arms immediately wrapped around her body, pulling her flush against his as he pressed her back against the wall. "Tasha," he whispered against her lips, his hands threading through her vibrant red hair.

Natasha's hands were squeezed between them as she unzipped his vest and shoved it off his shoulders, smirking at the thud it made on the floor. She ran her hands across his toned muscles, her fingertips tracing the scars she knew so well, some from past missions, others from the time before she knew him. They had never been intimate before, but they still knew every inch of each other's body. She knew for certain Clint was the one person she could trust with this.

Clint laced his fingers, lifting Natasha as she wrapped her legs around his waist. He carried her over to the bed, their lips never separating for more than a handful of seconds. He carefully laid her on the bed, his lips going to the side of her neck where he kissed the sensitive skin. Her quiet pleas had his hand reaching for the zipper at the front of her uniform, easing it down a bit before pausing. "Are you sure you wanna do this, Tasha?" he asked breathlessly, his free hand clenching the bed sheets as he looked at her flushed face. "If we do this…there's no going back to before, not between us. Things won't be like they are now."

'God does he think I don't realize this?' Natasha wondered as he spoke. This was going to change everything between them...but she was willing to let them change. "Clint, just shut up," Natasha said, rolling her eyes as she pulled his lips back to hers. That was all the answer Clint needed as he slid the zipper down completely, revealing the body he already knew so well, that he would know better. She was his best friend after all, who could he love more than her?

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