Natasha Romanoff always appeared cold-hearted and hard as she walked through the hallways of SHEILD's helicarrier, and today was no exception, except for the fact that she seemed even more intense, if that was even possible. She was steeling herself for her next solo assignment. Only she, Coulson, and Fury knew why.
Clint was oblivious at the moment, as he was in his own world in the shooting range two floors down. He had been told that Natasha was going on a mission soon, but Coulson hadn't told him where, he said that Clint would have to ask her himself. He was being sent to the base in D.C. in three days, to keep watch on this thing called the Tesseract. He really hated surveillance missions, but apparently he was needed for his eyesight.
Natasha knew exactly where Clint would be and headed down there as soon as her briefing was over. She threw open the doors of the shooting range to let Clint know that she needed to talk to him.
"What's up Tasha?" Clint asked without turning around to see who was there.
"I need to talk to you." She said, and then promptly walked out back to the hallway.
Clint quickly put away his gear and ran to catch up with her. He noticed her cold demeanor and soon enough, he realized what this was about.
"Является ли это о вашей миссии, Natasha?" (Is this about your mission?) He asked in Russian, knowing that she didn't really want others to hear the details as they stalked through the halls of the helicarrier.
"да." (Yes.) She answered curtly. She didn't have the heart to look at him right now.
"Куда ты идешь?" (Where are you going?) He asked simply.
Natasha shook her head. She couldn't find her voice to tell him. She'd been there before, but never without him. This was her first solo mission there in five years.
They kept walking through the crowded hallways and both wished that there hadn't been so many agents here right then.
"Natasha, Вы тот, кто хотел говорить об этом, пожалуйста, скажите мне." (You're the one who wanted to talk about this, please tell me.) Clint nearly pleaded.
All Natasha could do was stop walking and take a deep breath. She seemed like she was about to talk when she closed her mouth and shook her head again. She resumed walking and started to explain some background about her mission. "Я должен вынуть голову из ячейки мафии." (I have to take out the head of a mafia cell.)
"где?" (Where?) Clint asked again.
Natasha just continued to explain her mission softly so no one else could hear her but Clint. "Я должен заставить себя поймал их, дать им почувствовать, что они имеют верх." (I have to let myself get caught by them, make them feel like they have the upper hand.) Her eyes were dark and withdrawn, Clint knew Natasha never liked playing the dumb spy who gets caught, but she's done it before and never acted like this.
Clint was starting to get uncharacteristically impatient with his partner. "Natasha, скажи мне, где." (Tell me where.)
Natasha stopped walking again and turned away from Clint. "Barton." She warned.
Clint was starting to worry, but knew he wouldn't get an answer out of his partner when she was acting like this unless he made her angry. 'Here goes nothing.' He thought. He grabbed her shoulders and turned her around, shoving her up against a wall to get her full attention, and got the attention of everyone around them as well, but he didn't really care right now.
"Where!" He loudly growled at her in English.
Something like fire flashed in Natasha's eyes before she yelled back at him. "Russia!" She spat. She then pushed him off of her and nearly ran down the hallway away from Clint and countless other stunned agents.
"Fuck." Clint grumbled under his breath.
Suddenly, a hand clapped down on Clint's shoulder. "She's a handful, dude, I don't know how you do it." A familiar voice said from behind.
Clint decided that he would rather elbow the man in the chest than comment on the remark, so that's exactly what he did. Agent Hobbes went tumbling to the ground and Clint when running after his partner.
"Natasha!" He called out, making her slow down a bit. He caught up to her seconds later. "Tasha, nececitas hablar sobre esto." (You need to talk about this.) he almost whispered in Spanish, placing a hand on her arm and starting to rub it comfortingly
Natasha roughly grabbed his hand and pulled it off her arm, letting her hand linger on his for a split second longer than absolutely necessary. "No aquí. Prefiero no hablar de la posibilidad muy real de esta misión hacia sur cerca de otros personas." (Not here. I'd prefer not to talk about the very real possibility of this mission going south around other people.) She responded before they both calmly walked away from the growing crowd.
Agent Hobbes was still on the ground, stunned as he watched the two master assassins communicate. "So I guess that's how he does it." He said as he was helped up by Agent Guiteras.
"They are certainly, different, from other teams here." She responded as she and all the other agents on the floor watched Clint and Natasha walk away. She finally had enough of trained professionals gawking at the two retreating agents. She turned to face most of the people in the hallway and addressed them in her ever-present thick Spanish accent, "I wouldn't continue to stare at them for too much longer if I were you."
There were a few throats that were cleared as agents tried to act innocent, and the crowd quickly dispersed.
Agent Hobbes turned to Agent Guiteras as they walked the same way as Clint and Natasha. "Were you close enough to hear what they said in Spanish?" He asked rather loudly.
Agent Guiteras sighed, and then answered. "Yes, but I think Agent Romanoff would rather slit everyone's throat than have others know what she said."
Clint and Natasha were still walking away but could still hear what the other two familiar agents were saying.
"Hobbes is too nosy for his own good." Clint said with a straight face.
Natasha glanced back at Agent Guiteras, who nodded and smiled slightly. Natasha nodded back before turning back around to let Agent Guiteras know that she was grateful for her help with the situation.
"Yeah, he is, but as much as I used to hate Guiteras, she seems to have my back." Natasha said seriously, but still wondered why the agent she clashed with so much not too long ago chose to stand up for her.
"I thought you didn't like it when people tried to stand up for you?" Clint asked, recalling the way she was always hard-headed when he tried to do something like that for her before they started whatever it was their relationship could be defined as.
Natasha looked down for a moment as they kept walking. "I've got a lot on my mind right now."
The two continued to walk to Clint's room, where Clint was surprised to find Coulson waiting.
"Clint, Natasha." Coulson greeted, and Clint realized just how serious this was when their handler called both of them by their first names.
The three stepped inside and Coulson locked the door behind them. Clint and Natasha sat on his bed while Coulson took the chair, the arrangement was much like the time that Coulson was assigned to make sure the two assassins wouldn't kill each other.
"Phil," Natasha said calmly, much to the surprise of Clint. She never called Coulson by his first name. "Clint and I need to be able to contact each other while we're away from each other."
Coulson nodded. "I know that, and I've already managed to convince Director Fury of that. Seems like I have to do that a lot lately." He added, giving the two a slightly sly look as he referred to how he convinced Fury to ignore the relationship that developed between the two.
Clint still looked a little outraged at the thought of Natasha having to go back to Russia by herself. "Natasha said that she has to get herself caught by the Russian mafia?" He addressed Coulson.
Coulson remained calm as he answered. "Yes. We need them to think that they've got her for good. It'll make them let their guard down."
Clint turned to Natasha, who was sitting tensely. "This isn't just about the mafia, or else you wouldn't have reacted like that."
Natasha swallowed before meeting his eyes. "They have know ties to the Red Room."
Clint asked a question that he rarely ever wanted the answer to. "What's your success rate?"
Natasha kept eye contact with him as she answered. "47%."
"You know you can say no to missions, right? Why'd you take this one, Natasha?" Clint asked heatedly. He was both angry at his partner, and worried about her at the same time.
"The success rate for other agents is lower." She responded.
"How low?" Clint asked her.
When Natasha didn't respond, Coulson answered the looming question. "Less than 10%."
Clint kept his attention on Natasha. "God, Tasha, If your success rate is so low, why are you being sent in alone? Why am I not going in as backup?"
"SHEILD can't afford to lose both of us, Clint." Natasha said in a low tone.
Clint understood the reasoning behind the solo mission, but he still didn't like it. He and Natasha were sitting so close that their sides were nearly touching, and he reached to grab one of her hands that was balled up in a fist and unravelled her fingers gently.
"Я не думаю, что я могу позволить себе потерять вас." (I don't think I can afford to lose you.) Clint whispered to her as their fingers intertwined.
Hearing a sentence with so much meaning behind in her native language, and the language of the country she was being sent to made Natasha unravel. She let out a short, shaky breath and buried her face in Clint's shoulder, so Coulson couldn't see her. She wasn't crying and she trusted him not to judge her, but she still hated to look vulnerable around anyone. She and Coulson had gotten over whatever hostility that had been there when she first arrived at SHEILD and now she liked him as a friend, and would even talk to him when even when it wasn't necessary, which is saying a lot for her.
The three agents sat in silence as Clint squeezed Natasha's hand and let his other hand run through her short red locks. Coulson silently observed the two as he wrote down another request for Fury.
A few more moments passed before Natasha lifted her head and met Clint's steady gaze before turning back to Coulson and started to apologize, trying to get herself together. "Sorry, that was unprofessional-"
"No need to apologize, Natasha." Coulson said with a smile on his face. He knew that even the strongest people need moments to let down a few of their walls. He was just glad that Natasha was comfortable enough to do so around him. Even thought he was reluctant to be the handler for Strike Team Delta in the past, he now knew that the two broken people in front of him were two of his favorite people in the world.
"Now," Coulson continued, "I am going to make one last request to Fury about your missions if you agree to it. I want to make absolutely sure that if something happens on either of your missions, the other one of you will be called immediately, no questions asked."
Clint and Natasha shared a quick glance of relief and then turned back to Coulson and nodded.
"Alright then. Clint, you know your mission, correct?" Coulson said.
"Yessir." Clint said with a small smile, thankful for the subject change.
Coulson smirked at the two as he remembered how Clint acted when he first arrived at SHEILD. "And try not to be too much of an asshole when you get to D.C., Fury would be, well, furious."
The three of them all chuckled a bit, and the lighthearted conversation kept up for a little over an hour. They talked about how the food on the helicarrier was shit, but how none of them could cook even if their lived depended on it. Coulson kept sneakily poking fun at how the two assassins in front of him were attached at the hip, and apparently the hand tonight. Clint and Natasha both gave him stern looks after those comments, but they were both glad that they were able to have a civil conversation with their handler. Not everyone was that lucky.
As the night wound down and Coulson needed to return to his office, the three stood up to say goodnight. Clint clapped Coulson on the back and caused him to stumble forward a bit, but just laughed at the archer. What Natasha did next surprised him. She seemed a little hesitant at first, but then proceeded to wrap her arms around Coulson. After a few seconds, he returned the hug, as weird as he thought it was.
"Thank you." Natasha said quietly before stepping back to where Clint stood.
Clint placed a strong arm around Natasha's shoulders and kissed the top of her head. She gave him a look feigning confusion, but then wrapped her arm around his waist.
Every time Coulson saw them like this, it made it harder to agree to send them on dangerous missions, but they all knew that being compromised wasn't an option. They were professional in the field, and what they did outside the field could never follow them when they were working.
"I'll make sure no one bothers you while you're prepping for your missions. Now get some rest, you two, we can't have tired assassins running around." Coulson said before smiling and leaving the two alone.
Clint and Natasha were grateful to have such an amazing handler. If anyone else had been in charge of their team, they would have been broken up by now because anyone else would have thought they were compromised, but Phil Coulson knew better than to think that SHEILD's top agents would do something so irresponsible. He trusted them, and they trusted him. What they had was irreplaceable.
"He's a good guy." Natasha stated, turning to face Clint.
"He's the best." He responded before pulling her into a kiss that melted away all the fear that they had at that moment.
The kiss was slow, and conveyed unspoken words and truths that could never be put into words. Natasha didn't believe in love, and Clint didn't really either, but whatever this was, was pretty damn close.
A/N AHHHHH that chapter was full of so many different feels. Sorry for ripping your hearts out at reminding you of just how close Clint and Natasha were to Coulson, and just a forewarning, their relationship with their amazing handler will be touched upon in the future as well.
Sorry that this chapter wasn't quite as long as the other ones I've been posting recently, but if I added anything else it would have taken away from the importance of everything in this chapter.
Agent Guiteras cameo! She's not a main character, but will probably pop up here and there in the future, along with a few other agents.
This was the last chapter before the movie takes place, so most of the following chapters will involve the rest of the Avengers.
Please review, I love everyone who reviews my story!