Clint couldn't believe had let Tony talk him into this. Skulking around the auditorium to sneak a peek at Natasha Romanoff. They'd managed to find out that she had Theatre Arts first period and were waiting around to get a chance to talk to her.

"Come on, Clint," Tony persuaded "How are we going to get you hooked up if you're afraid to take a chance?"

Clint looked around, waiting to get caught. He was supposed to be in English class reading MacBeth like a good boy. "Explain to me again, how this is supposed to work? The teacher will know we aren't supposed to be in this class."

Tony tapped his temple and nodded with a superior expression on his face "They have a sub today. Mrs. Holstein is out sick."

"And the sub is supposed to just let us into the class?" Clint asked as they entered the theatre.

"Look?" Tony asked seriously "Do you want to get back to English and read Shakespeare or do you want to spend the next hour staring at a beautiful woman?"

"Is this a trick question?" Clint asked with a grin.

"Then let's do this," Tony moved forward.

Clint stared for a second and then moved to follow "Is this about Pepper?"

Tony turned to glare "Pepper?"

Clint ran his hand through his long hair "I heard she was out with Rhodey last night."

Tony frowned but managed to pull it together "Pepper is allowed to date whoever she wants."

"Uh huh," Clint replied as they took seats at the back of the theatre. "Keep denying it.

"Clinton, mommy and daddy are divorced and mommy will soon be dating new men. It'll be strange but it's perfectly normal, "Tony deadpanned.

"Ok so is this about Laufeyson moving in with you?"

Tony shrugged "It's not so bad. I mean, he serves his purpose."

"And what is his purpose, exactly?" Clint asked,

"Well, with all Howard's focus on him, he doesn't have time to focus on me," Tony announced proudly.

"Good point," Clint tossed his hair as they took seats in the back of the theatre.

"So Pep was with Rhodey?" Tony asked offhand.

Clint laughed looking for Natasha "Yeah, that's the rumour."

"Who did you hear that from?" Tony replied carefully, trying not to show any signs that his world was falling apart.

"Thought it didn't matter?" Clint asked.

"Anthony Stark, are you supposed to be in this class?" the young teacher asked.

"Depends," Tony shrugged "Does your list say otherwise? Good morning, by the way, Mrs. Lewis, you are looking lovely as ever. Marriage certainly does suit you."

Mrs. Lewis frowned "Flattery will get you nowhere, Anthony. Now where are you supposed to be?"

Tony smiled charmingly "Why here with you, Denise, of course."

"And you Mr. Barton?"

Clint opened his mouth to speak but Tony cut him off "Look Mrs. Lewis, Denise, dear, we aren't technically in this class but we want to be."

The teacher shook her head with a slight frown "And?"

"So we're here checking it out…auditing it, isn't that right, Clint?" Tony looked at his friend with a serious look.

Clint nodded in agreement "Auditing, exactly."

She seemed to think it over, finally deciding it wasn't worth the effort of argument as a substitute. "Sit quietly, Mr. Stark. If I hear one distracting word from you or Mr. Barton, I'll send you both to the office."

"Quiet as church mice," Tony replied with a zipping motion over his lips as she moved to the front of the theatre.

"Good morning, ladies and gentleman,"she began "today Miss Holstein wants us to go over some exercises regarding how we pull emotions into performance art."

A general shuffling occurred through the crowd as she continued "Yes, yes, I want you all to get in touch with your feelings. Who can tell me an example of a dramatic performance or some other performance that touched you emotionally?"

"TV or movie?" a student asked out loud.

"Either. Music too…" Mrs. Lewis replied as she turned her sights on them. "C'mon anybody. Mr. Barton, what about you?"

The entire class turned around to look at them, including Natasha's piercing green eyes.

"Me?"Clint looked around nervously as Tony covered his mouth to chuckle.

"Yes you, Clinton, "Mrs. Lewis smiled "And don't think I can't see you snickering, Anthony Stark, you're next so you'd better start thinking."

"Um," Clint said shuffling in his chair, wondering what he'd done to deserve being called on in a class that he wasn't even supposed to be in. "When Nemo's mom dies."

The class chimed in agreeing. "That was way sad," one female student lamented.

"Ok, good one. Disney really made you feel the sadness of his mom being eaten by another fish. Good job, Clint," the teacher praised "Anthony?"

"Bambi's mother dying," he offered with a cute grin and the class laughed.

"Let's try to steer clear of the animated cartoons now that we've hit the big one with Nemo."

"Wait, I haven't even mentioned Simba's father," Tony offered leaning back in his seat. "Seriously, I'm just getting warmed up."

"Yeah that was crazy sad," another student offered "I can't even watch that scene."

"And what about the Fox and the Hound?" Tony added. "And the end of Toy Story 3."

The class murmured agreement and began to call out various cartoons with sad endings causing Mrs. Lewis to shake her head as Tony gave her an evil grin.

"Well , I was trying to find a fun way to jump into this week's lesson which is emotional response and since you are just visiting today, I wanted to see how you could add to the class but apparently it's not something you can do. So you guys can split up into pairs to prepare a scene, do some interpretive dance or music performances but I want you to put your all into it to try to reach the audience on an emotional level. We will draw for performance order throughout the week and Friday we'll vote on the best one."

"Tony, we can't do this. We are only gonna be here today," Clint looked at him as the members of the class moved to find partners.

"Relax," Tony replied as his smiled widened at someone walking toward them.

Clint turned toward his stare to find Natasha Romanoff in front of them, in her black cardigan and jeans.

"Hey, you guys want pair up?" she asked in her husky voice.

"Uh," was all Clint could manage but Tony rescued him "Actually, Natasha, it is Natasha right? I think I'm going to ask Mrs. Lewis for a pass to the lavatory. Nature calls."

They both watched as Tony stood and walked away.

"So how about you?" she asked again.

"Sure, I'd love to…I mean, uh yeah that's cool," Clint replied.

"You're in my Latin class, right?" she asked as she took the seat Tony had just vacated.

"Yeah, I am," Clint let a slow smile creep across his face.

"I've never seen you in this class before," she said.

"Well," he hesitated "we're just visiting."

"Visiting a class?" she asked curiously.

He laughed "Let's just say we weren't in the mood for our first period classes this morning."

"And you picked Theatre Arts to hide in?" she continued.

Clint rubbed the back of his neck nervously "Seemed like as good a class to hide in as any."

"Because it should be easy?"

"No, that's not what I meant," he replied quickly.

A slow easy smile spread across her face "Relax, I'm just giving you a hard time, Clint."

"You remembered my name," he said surprised.

"Why wouldn't I?" she asked as her green eyes peered into his intently.

"Um," he sputtered as he looked down at his hands.

Natasha chuckled a bit causing him to look up "So what do you want to do for this assignment?"

"You know I probably won't be here tomorrow. Maybe you'd be better off with another partner," he answered truthfully.

She nodded her head in agreement "Most definitely but I don't really know anyone else, so…"

Clint smiled as he flipped his bangs "And you know me?"

"Well I did save you from being disgraced in Latin class," she smiled. "You owe me."

"True, and I have a feeling you are the collecting kind."

"Actually I am," she nodded.

Clint raised his empty hands "I don't have anything to offer," he joked.

She smiled at him softly "Oh I'm sure we can come up with something."