Hey guys! This chapter is a monster and it's one of my longest ones ever, so I'll cut this short and let you get on to the good stuff! All I ask is that you read the AN at the end! It's important!

Okay, enjoy!

Chapter 20-Prom

Natasha woke up on the day before prom and hit her alarm clock crankily before wrapping herself in her blanket. It was an exceptionally chilly January morning and she was up way too early. The school had decided to do something nice for students and let them out for the weekend on Friday after four grueling days of exams, and she had forgotten to turn off her alarm. Natasha's exams had gone well, or at least she'd thought so, and she had hoped to treat herself by sleeping in, but that clearly wasn't going to happen now.

Groaning, she sat up and stretched then threw her legs over the side of her bed and hauled herself to her feet. As soon as she'd left the warmth of her bed behind she began shivering violently, so she grabbed her pull-over hoodie that was hanging on one of her bedposts and slid it on. She silently went downstairs and into the kitchen to get herself something to eat and found herself munching lazily on a bowl of cereal when her mother came into the kitchen.

"You're up early." She commented. "I thought you didn't have school today?"

"I don't." Natasha told her.

"Well I'm glad you're awake, because there's something I need to talk to you about." Her mother stopped what she was doing and turned to look at her. "My London interview is on Tuesday, which means we'll have to catch a flight on Sunday so we'll have a day to recover from jetlag."

"Do I have to go with you to London?" Natasha whined.

"If we end up moving there don't you at least want to get a feel for it?" Her mother asked.

"No." She crossed her arms.

"Look, Natasha, I know that you're totally against this, but can't you at least try and see what an amazing opportunity this is for me? For both of us?" Her mom said desperately.

"You know the first day of second semester starts on Monday." Natasha informed her. "It would really suck if I had to miss the first day of my new classes."

She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"You know what? Fine. Ask Carol if you can stay with her next week while I'm at my interview if you don't want to go that badly. I don't care. I'm tired of trying to get you to see this my way."

"Fine." Natasha shrugged, pleased with what she'd accomplished.

Without another word, her mother grabbed a granola bar from the cabinet, stuffed it in her pocket, then hastily stormed out of the kitchen. Only when Natasha heard the front door slam did she get up and clean out her half-filled cereal bowl.

She decided to go back up to her room and take an extra-long shower to try and wash away all the stress from the week before. Finals had been a killer, especially physics, and her little talk with her mother a minute ago hadn't helped.

By the time she'd gotten out of the shower and found something to wear, she was only a little more relaxed and she had a new text message from Carol.

"Hey, you up?" It read.

Natasha replied: "Yeah."

A few minutes later there was a response.

"Cool, want to hang out? The dress place opens in two hours so we can find something to do till we need to pick up our dresses."

"Sure," she typed back, "Sounds good."

"Great. See you in twenty." Carol replied.

Sure enough, twenty minutes later Natasha heard the doorbell ring. She ran downstairs and opened to door to find Carol standing outside.

"Hey." She greeted her, opening the door wide enough for her to enter.

"What's up?" Carol asked as she walked inside.

"Nothing, I was just getting ready." Natasha told her.

"Are you excited for tomorrow?"

"Yeah, sure." She shrugged.

"Wow, try not to be too enthusiastic." Carol said sarcastically.

"Forgive me if I don't see what the big deal is. It's just prom." Natasha said apathetically.

"Yeah, and you're going with Clint!" Carol squealed.

"I owe him a favor." She shrugged again.

"Aw, c'mon. You're excited and I know it!" Carol said positively. "Just wait till we pick up our dresses. Then you'll feel it."

"Yeah, sure." Natasha laughed. "Oh, I almost forgot. Can I ask you for a favor?"

"Go for it."

"My mom is going out of town next week and I really don't want to go with her and miss school, so I was wondering if I could stay with you until she gets back?" She said hopefully.

"I'll have to ask my parents but I don't see why not." Carol replied thoughtfully.

"Cool, thanks."

"No problem." She smiled.

After a few hours had passed and they had run out of things to talk about, Carol suggested they go ahead and pick up their prom dresses. She and Natasha had gone dress shopping a few weeks beforehand and had each bought the gown of their choosing. Carol's was a lovely, simple, strapless light pink dress that clung to her body before widening toward the bottom, causing it to flow behind her slightly when she walked. She'd paired it with a pair of light pink heels which matched the color of her dress exactly. Natasha's dress was light blue with thin straps that crisscrossed in the back and a decorative rhinestone piece in between the breasts. She had found a pair of sparkly silver heels to go with her dress and they both had picked out shawls to wear so they wouldn't freeze to death given it was the middle of January.

Their dresses had been perfect to say the least, except for the fact that they were a little too long. Thankfully the store they'd bought them from also did alterations, so they had left their dresses there to be hemmed after they'd paid for them and had scheduled to pick them up today.

When they arrived at the store they immediately headed towards the back where a lady stood behind a counter reading a magazine. She looked up when they approached her and she asked them for their names so she could go and retrieve their dresses. After spending a few minutes in the back of the store the woman came back with both of their dresses.

"You girls should try these on to make sure they fit right." The lady told them with a heavy New Jersey accent.

Carol and Natasha thanked her and took their dresses to the dressing rooms and tried them on like she told them to.

"Wow, you look awesome!" Carol gushed when Natasha came out of her dressing room.

"So do you." She replied as she came to stand next to her in front of the mirror.

"Are you getting excited now?" Carol leaned over and whispered.

"I suppose." Natasha smiled.

"Ha! I told you!" Carol exclaimed.

And she really was right. As she stared at her reflection in the full length mirror she could feel her excitement levels rising. As much as she didn't want to admit it, she, the girl who used to despise school dances, was getting excited for prom.

"I must be going insane." She muttered.

"Oh shush! Prom is supposed to be fun. I honestly can't believe I actually got a date, and with Steve Rogers no less!" Carol grinned.

"Your dream guy." Natasha sighed.

"Hey, I'm not the only one going to prom with their dream guy, so don't even try and tease me about that." Carol told her as she turned to look at the back of her dress in the mirror.

"Okay, Clint is not my dream guy." Natasha said, crossing her arms.

"Please, don't even pretend that, if the opportunity presented itself, you wouldn't be more than happy to give a relationship with him a chance."

"I'm not admitting to that." She shook her head.

"You don't have to. I happen to know it for a fact." Carol assured her.

"And how exactly would you know that?"

"I'm just observant is all." She shrugged. "And I'm going to be the first to say I told you so when you two do end up together. I'll say it after your first date, after you get engaged, at your wedding…"

"Oh my God, shut up!" Natasha laughed.

"I'm just warning you ahead of time." Carol told her. "Trust me, it's gonna happen."

Natasha rolled her eyes and returned her attention to her reflection. Even if there had been a chance that what Carol had said could happen, those chances would soon be nonexistent if she ended up moving to London…

On the Saturday evening of prom Clint got dressed in the tux Tony had lent him and called a cab to come pick him up. While he waited by the door he could feel his mother watching him from the doorway of the kitchen.

"Mom." He said without looking at her. "Can you please stop staring at me? You're making me feel uncomfortable."

"Sorry." She said sheepishly. "You just look so handsome!"

"Yeah, you've said that already…a lot." He sighed.

"Well, it's true." She told him.

"Thanks." He smiled.

"So, do you promise to take pictures when you go pick up Natasha?" She asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure her mom will take a few." He assured her. "I'll ask her to send them to you."

"Good, thank you." His mother smiled.

Just then Clint saw the cab pull up in front of his brownstone and he opened the door to leave.

"I gotta go." He told his mom over his shoulder. "See you later tonight."

"Have fun!" She called after him before closing the door behind him.

Clint hopped into the cab and gave the driver Natasha's address. A few minutes later they pulled up in front of her brownstone and he told the driver to wait while he went to get Natasha. He ran up the front steps and knocked on the door, straightening his jacket and bowtie while he waited. Suddenly the door flew open and he looked up to find Natasha, dressed in a gorgeous blue dress with her hair falling in elegant curls around her face, looking at him.

"Hey." She greeted him with a smile.

"Uh…hey." He stuttered, all his words escaping him. "You…you look amazing."

"Thank you." She blushed. "So do you."

"Are you ready?" He asked, gesturing to the cab.

"Yeah, let's go." She turned to close the door when her mother came running up.

"Wait, hang on!" Mrs. Romanoff exclaimed. "I need pictures!"

"Mom, please." Natasha groaned.

"We can take at least one." Clint told her. "My mom wanted to see pictures."

"Okay." She agreed.

He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer to him so her mother could take the picture. After she'd snapped a few she stuck her phone in her pocket and bid them farewell.

Clint helped Natasha down the steps and into the cab and soon enough they were whizzing towards the hotel where the dance was being held. It took them a little over twenty minutes to get there given that the traffic was shitty as usual, but they still managed to arrive mostly on time.

When they got out of the cab Clint paid the driver and he left them on the curb in front of the hotel. They walked inside together and were immediately directed to the hotel's ballroom where they found Carol and Steve walking in ahead of them.

"Steve!" Clint called after him, causing him to look behind him.

"Oh, hey guys." Steve greeted them with a smile. "Whoa, you two clean up nicely."

"Thanks." Natasha said as she gave Carol a one armed hug. "You both look fantastic as well."

"Shall we go ahead in?" Clint offered.

Everyone nodded and the four of them walked into the ballroom together where they were immediately bombarded by Tony.

"Well it's about time you all got here!" He exclaimed.

"The dance just started." Steve said as he checked his watch.

"Yeah, and Bruce and Thor were here right on time. What's your excuse?"

They all rolled their eyes and sighed.

"Oh, don't give me that, especially when I was about to do you boys a solid." Tony said, acting like he was offended.

"What do you mean?" Steve wondered.

"I just thought I'd give you a heads up that your evil blonde exes are here already and that they're both sporting dates." He told them. "I didn't quite see the face of the guy that Bobbi is here with, but I did recognize Sharon's date. He's that one asshole, uh…dammnit I can't remember his name...it's Grant something…"

"Grant Ward?" Natasha piped up.

"Yes! That's it." Tony nodded. "You know him?"

"Not really. He was in my martial arts class. Like you said, he's kind of an asshole." She told him.

"Yeah, well anyway, I just thought I'd let you know." He said. "Now if you'll excuse me I have to go find my own date. Catch you guys later."

And with that he ran off to find Pepper, leaving them to stand awkwardly near the doorway. Eventually they decided to walk around some. Music was playing, but no one was really dancing yet, so they went to stand towards the back wall which was made entirely of windows that overlooked the Hudson River.

"Wow, Pepper really scored with this hotel. The view is awesome." Clint said as he took in the lights that shimmered along the river's edge.

"Yeah." Natasha agreed quietly.

Clint peeked at her out of the corner of his eye and noticed the zoned out look on her face.

"Hey," he said, turning towards her. "You okay?"

"Uh-huh." She nodded. "Why?"

"You were getting all distant for a second." He told her. "You've been doing that a lot lately."

"I was just thinking." She shrugged.

"What about?"

"Nothing really."

"You were thinking about nothing?" He teased her.

"Shut up." She smiled, nudging his shoulder.

"Oh my God, will you two stop flirting. It's making people uncomfortable." Carol suddenly cut in.

They both blushed.

"Steve and I were going to go get something to eat. Wanna come?" She offered.

"No thanks, I'm good." Natasha told her.

Clint shook his head to show that he was going to stay with Natasha and they moved across the room towards the refreshments leaving them alone together.

Clint and Natasha remained by the window, talking and laughing until more than an hour had passed and they'd run out of conversation topics.

"So…" Clint said as he tried to think of something else to say. His eyes wandered over to the dance floor, which had filled up dramatically since they'd arrived, and suddenly got an idea. "Do you want to dance?"

"I don't know," she smirked. "I wouldn't want to embarrass you."

He laughed.

"Oh, you're underestimating my mad dancing skills."

"Are you telling me that you know how to dance?" She said, unconvinced.

"As a matter of fact, I do. Come on, let me prove it to you." He offered her his hand.

Natasha smiled a little but eventually took his hand and he led her over to where most of their friends were already dancing.

"Hey, look who finally decided to join the party!" Tony yelled over the upbeat song that was currently playing. "I was about to go over there and drag you two out here!"

Clint punched him on the shoulder and then proceeded to ignore him as he made an attempt to impress Natasha with the dance moves he'd promised her. After they danced through two songs, he believed that he'd accomplished his goal.

"Okay, so you know how to dance." Natasha shrugged, trying to act like she wasn't impressed at all.

"I told you." He grinned.

She smiled and laughed as the upbeat music that had been playing for most of the night morphed into a slower song. A much slower song.

They both froze as they looked around and saw other couples start to slow dance around them. For a minute Clint wasn't sure what to do. Should he ask her to dance? Should he offer to go do something else? While he was taking the time to decide he didn't realize that they were still standing in the middle of the dance floor.

"Hey, I need a drink." Natasha said, clearly trying to escape the awkwardness.

"Oh, okay. I'll come with you." He offered, trailing behind her as she turned and made her way towards the refreshment table.

She poured herself a cup of red punch and sipped on it nervously while Clint did the same. They didn't speak, but simply stood there and watched as their classmates danced and had a good time.

"Well, look who it is?" A horribly familiar voice suddenly said from behind them.

"Shit." He thought.

They both scowled and turned to face the blonde girl as she stood there appraising them with her hand on her hip.

"What do you want, Bobbi?" Clint grumbled.

"I just wanted to tell you two what an adorable couple you make." She said sweetly.

"We're not a couple." Natasha growled.

"Could've fooled me." Bobbi shrugged, taking a sip of her own punch.

"Don't you have your own prom date to be terrorizing? Or did you scare him away too?" Clint cut in.

Bobbi glared at him before turning to Natasha and giving her a once-over.

"Wow, Natasha, you're dress is so lovely." She told her with false sincerity before purposefully stumbling forward and spilling her punch all over her.

Natasha gasped and jumped backwards as the red liquid seeped into her light blue dress.

"Oops." Bobbi smirked.

Natasha stared down at the bright red stain with wide eyes, then shot a soul shattering glare at Bobbi before roughly shoving past her and running towards the ladies room.

"Natasha, wait!" Clint called after her before shooting an equally hateful glare at his ex-girlfriend. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"It was an accident." She said innocently.

"That's complete bullshit." He told her angrily before storming past Bobbi, his cup of punch still in hand, and quickly making his way towards the bathroom. He looked around to make sure no one was looking before bravely opening the door and poking his head inside.

"Nat?" Clint called quietly. He looked down the row of sinks and found her standing in front of the one farthest from the door, furiously dabbing her dress with a paper towel. "Natasha, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." She grumbled as he entered the bathroom after making sure no one else was in there.

"You don't look fine." He sighed, coming to stand next to her.

"Maybe that's because I'm all wet and sticky." Natasha said as she continued to try and get the punch out of her dress.

"I'm sorry about that." He apologized.

"Don't be. It's not your fault." She told him. "God, this is never going to come out."

Natasha was clearly more upset than she was letting on, and he wasn't about to let Bobbi ruin what had been shaping up to be a pretty damn good night. So he came up with a plan to try and cheer her up.

"Hey, I think I know how we can get her back for this." Clint said, nudging her shoulder.

She shot him a curious glance out of the corner of her eye.

"How?"

"Go back out there and pretend nothing happened." He said proudly.

"Are you kidding me?" She looked at him incredulously. "I look like a wreck! I think I'd rather just go home."

"If we leave then she wins." He told her.

"I don't care. She can have this one." Natasha said firmly. "I'm not going out there looking like this."

"Oh c'mon! This is a good idea, I promise! This way we can be the better people and still have a great night."

"Clint, look at me!" She exclaimed. "This is so embarrassing! I'll stick out like a sore thumb."

"Alright." He sighed, holding his cup of punch out in front of him for her to see. "I didn't want to have to do this, but you leave me no choice."

"Clint, what are you-"

Before she could finish her sentence he had dumped the remaining contents of his cup down the front of his shirt, squirming uncomfortably when he felt it soak in.

She gasped and covered her mouth with her hands.

"Oh my God, why did you just do that?"

"So we'll both stick out." He told her as he offered her his hand. "Shall we?"

"You're crazy!" She said, still shocked.

"Yeah, I know. Are you coming or what?"

Natasha was hesitant, but she eventually took his hand and allowed him to guide her out of the bathroom and back to the dance. As he led her back towards their friends, who had all stopped dancing and moved back towards the wall of windows at the back of the room, he felt Natasha's hand tighten. She was obviously noticing the large number of people staring at them as they walked by. He squeezed it comfortingly gave her an assuring look.

"They're just jealous that they don't look as awesome as us." He joked.

She smiled and looked down at her free hand, her face still a bit pink from embarrassment, but other than that she seemed okay.

When they rejoined their friends Carol was the first one to comment on the new addition to their outfits.

"Oh my God, what happened to you two?" She gasped.

"There was an incident over by the punch." Clint told her.

"What'd you do? Try to drink it straight from the bowl?" Tony asked as he gaped at the massive red stains covering the front of their clothes.

"Yep, that's exactly what we tried to do." Natasha decided to play along.

"How'd it work out?" Steve laughed.

"As you'd expect: terrible." Clint told him.

Everyone laughed and he could feel Natasha relax next to him. It was seeming as though his plan had worked perfectly, which was good considering that he'd just ruined a perfectly good white shirt to implement it. As the rest of the night went on she got more and more comfortable and even agreed to dance some more before prom finally ended.

"Hey, there's an after party at my place if you all are interested." Tony told everyone as they were leaving.

"Well, that would be great and all, except that I'm still covered in sticky red punch and want nothing more than to go home and take a shower." Natasha sighed.

"I can respect that." Tony nodded before turning to Clint. "I assume that means you aren't coming either?"

"It'd be rude if I made her go home alone." He shrugged.

"Yeah, yeah, you're such a gentleman. Why don't you get out of here before you start rubbing off on me." Tony shooed them away.

"I'll call a cab." He leaned over and told Natasha. He then flagged down the first yellow cab he saw and helped her inside when it came to a stop in front of them.

Natasha gave the driver her address and soon enough they were speeding through the slightly less busy streets of Manhattan towards home.

When the cab pulled over to the curb in front of Natasha's brownstone she thanked the driver and got out of the cab. Clint followed her out, asking for the driver to wait for a moment while he walked her in.

"I had fun tonight." She told him when they reached the door.

"Despite getting ambushed with punch by my evil ex-girlfriend?" He asked.

"Yes, despite that." She smiled.

"Good." He nodded and looked down at his hands.

"Well," She glanced at the door. "I should probably go ahead inside…"

"Wait." Clint reached out and grabbed her arm. "Can I, uh, say something real quick?"

"Yeah, of course." Natasha said with a smile.

"Okay." He took a deep breath. "This is something I've wanted to tell you for a while now, but to be honest I didn't want to freak you out, so I kept it to myself. And I now realizing that saying that is probably going to freak you out anyway so…"

"Clint." She refocused him.

"Right, anyway," He shook his head and took another deep breath, obviously nervous.

"Are you okay?" She interrupted.

"Yeah, I just don't know how to say this." He told her.

"You can tell me anything you know." She said soothingly.

"I think I'm falling for you." He suddenly blurted out.

Natasha felt her heart skip a beat.

"What?" She almost whispered.

"Oh man, I didn't mean for that to come out like that." He rubbed his hands over his face. "I was going to say that I think you're beautiful and smart and perfect and that I always have, it just took me thinking I was going to lose you again to fully realize it. And I know you've always been so happy with just being friends, and I'm happy with that too, but I don't know, I just feel like there's something else here. I just need to know if you feel it too because I'm really falling for you Nat."

Natasha stared at him with wide eyes, unsure of how to respond to all that. She was stunned to say the least. Where had all this come from? Why did he have to do this now when she might have to move, causing him to lose her all over again? All this time she'd spent trying to distance herself from him only for it to have the complete opposite effect. And now she was going to end up hurting him even more than she'd originally planned.

"Nat?" Clint said anxiously. "Please say something."

She opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. She couldn't just stand there like that, she had to do something, so she grabbed his face and pressed her lips to his.

He was obviously caught off guard, but he quickly recovered and proceeded to cup her cheek with one of his hands, kissing her back. She snaked her arms around his neck and pulled herself closer to him, relishing in the moment. This was definitely different than the first time they'd kissed. It felt like it meant so much more and it made her feel like she was coming alive because, who was she kidding, she was falling just as hard for him as he was for her. She wished she could stay in that moment forever, but she knew that wasn't an option. No matter how selfish she wanted to be right now it was clear the time had come for her to come clean.

Natasha pulled away from him and closed her eyes. She could feel tears forming as she tried to find the words to say what she should have told him weeks ago.

"Clint, I might be moving." She told him, sneaking a glance at him as she said it and immediately regretting it.

All the light their kiss had brought to his face drained away as he took a step back from her.

"What?" He shook his head. "No, you just moved back, you can't move again."

"I know." She said, her voice trembling a little. "It's not fair."

"Where would you be going?" He asked, still seeming completely flustered and confused.

"London." Natasha whispered.

"London? As in England?" Clint looked as hurt as one could get without experiencing physical pain.

"I'm sorry." She told him as a tear trailed down her cheek. "I'm sorry."

And with that she spun around and threw open her front door, hurling herself inside and slamming it behind her. She sank to the floor and let her tears flow freely, not having to worry about her make-up or Clint seeing her this way. She couldn't believe this was happening. She'd finally decided to accept what everyone else had been telling her all this time only to have it all ripped away from her.

Her mother had always told her when she was a kid that life wasn't fair. She must have forgotten to mention that it became cruel when you got older.

Hey, how's it going? Was this a bad place to end? This was a super long chapter, and I had to end it somewhere! Also I'm already late posting this so I decided to try and find a stopping point. So, did you like it? Please tell me you liked it! I worked so hard and had a bit of this written months in advance, so I hope it turned out alright!

Now, on to some bad news: This may be my last update for three weeks. I said I would try and do another chapter, and I will try and do it, but if I don't, then I'm sorry. So, if this is indeed my final chapter for a while, then I hope you all liked it and I will honestly miss writing! On the plus side though, I'll probably miss it so much that I'll go into a frenzy when I get home and start cranking out chapters like my life depends on it! So at least you have that to look forward to! I'll start working on the new chapter ASAP and I will still be doing sneak peeks. If I send out the sneak peek then there's a good chance I'll post the next chapter. If not then I'll be back in three weeks!

Thank you all soooo much for your support and for your understanding and I can't wait to get back and write some more chapters! Until next time, TTFN!