I dare you
A/N: You'll love it. Trust me. If you lived through all that angst you will cry in happiness today. Finally.
Chapter 21
Clint and Natasha were finally back in New York inhabiting in the small apartment SHIELD gave them to use during off time. They rarely used it. There really was no point in each of them having separate empty flats so they just shared one for convenience sake. Clint stopped making lewd comments about how they were once in a while roommates – the last time he tried that she really did nearly castrate him with her sharp knives.
Currently Natasha was lying on her bed staring up at the ceiling with a blank look on her face. She wasn't deflecting – she just didn't have it in her to feel anything right now. Too much happened, too fast with too many people involved.
She heard the quiet creak of the floorboard but didn't move a muscle. He did stuff like that on purpose. Probably to save his own ass so that she wouldn't end up killing him the next time he snuck up on her. He learned the first time around with a sharp scar on his neck as proof and a really good reminder. She knew he was there before he even spoke.
"Hey Tasha," he said quietly leaning against the door frame. She didn't remove her eyes from the ceiling as she continued to think. She heard the question on his tongue before he even uttered a word.
"If you dare ask me how I am doing I will castrate you," she said right off the bat. Clint grimaced and gave her a weary look. She made good on her threats.
"You have a weird obsession with cutting off body parts," he said instead while giving her a long look. She promptly gave him the finger.
"No – it's just you," she said simply. He coughed into his hand – she was so straightforward sometimes it hurt his pride just a tiny bit.
"Lucky me?" he said rolled his eyes. She simply snorted and refused to continue the conversation. He watched her continue her intense staring contest with the ceiling before he walked over and sat down beside her.
"Let's hack the SHIELD database Tasha," he said quietly. She didn't even blink.
"No," she said simply. He sighed – probably a bad idea.
"Let's trace her then," he tried again. She shook her head.
"No," she said calmly. He scowled and ran a hand through his hair.
"Let's beat up Coulson until he tells us then!" he said running out of ideas and falling onto the bed beside her. She finally tore her eyes away from the ceiling and gave him a look of disbelief.
"No!" she exclaimed. Was he insane? Did he have a death wish or something? He sighed and rubbed his hands over his face as they lied next to each other.
"Tasha - Tasha don't you want to know where she is?" he asked sadly. He felt her shift uneasily beside him.
"Yes," she said quietly. He paused as he took in her curt responses. Oh she was a beast indeed.
"What did he say? What did the calm bastard say?" he asked narrowing his eyes. She sighed – he was so slow sometimes.
"He told us to chill out for 2 weeks and that he'll point us in the right direction," she said quietly. Clint paused as he took that information in.
"Why 2 weeks?" he asked slowly. She glanced at him warily and then went right back to her staring contest.
"So she could settle in wherever she is," she said with a shrug. Clint watched her carefully – trying to see if she was lying to him. But then why would she?
"And you agree with him," he said slowly.
"Yes," she said simply. He stared at her for a minute before he promptly flipped himself over and suffocated himself against her pillow.
"Damn it!" he grumbled like a little kid. She rolled her eyes at his childishness.
"You're impatient Barton," she said with a snort. He lifted his head off the pillow that smelled faintly like her and scowled at the Russian beast.
"Yes. Yes I am an impatient man - deal with it!" he said arrogantly. She shot him a burning glare that made him freeze and suddenly plaster a big fat fake smile on his face.
"Ah but I'm cute and adorable too?" he said feebly. She stared at him for several seconds.
Click.
He glanced down at the gun aimed at his family jewels. Well.
"Get off my bed you insane bastard," she ordered with a straight-face. He tried to gauge how serious she was when she promptly fired a warning shot that barely missed his head. He quickly ducked and scowled at her.
"OI! Those things kill people!" he said irritably. She gave him a dry look.
"Thanks for letting me know - I didn't notice," she said sarcastically. He suddenly got a weird look on his face that made her want to shoot him all over again.
"Tasha. Tasha let's be normal for once…" he said quietly. She gave him a wary look and slowly placed the gun between them.
"We are the farthest thing from normal," she said with a snort. He shook his head as he picked up the gun and literally threw it out of her room. They both heard it hit the wall and fire a shot into the ceiling above their heads. They both froze as pieces of plaster floated to the ground beside them. He knew he was getting the death stare.
"You call this normal?" she said shooting him a dirty look. He just stared at the unintended bullet hole in her ceiling in shock. Well that was a bad start.
"Sorry I will fix that," he said sheepishly. She sighed and shook her head. Child.
"What do you want Barton?" she asked quietly. She could feel his eyes on her but didn't take her eyes off the new bullet hole she had to stare at. Maybe it wasn't that bad of an addition to her ceiling.
"Tasha…we're friends right?" he asked hesitantly. She paused but didn't look at him.
"I don't do friends Barton…" she said carefully. He gave her a searching look.
"Don't do friends or don't have friends?" he asked softly. He felt her tense beside him.
"Can't have friends. You can't have friends in this job," she said shaking her head. It was fact she had come to accept like many other things in her screwed up life. His gaze on her never wavered.
"We can be friends," he said quietly. She would have laugh in his face if there wasn't something off in his voice. She would have called him a bunch of names and kicked him out of her room for being an annoying bastard. She would have done one of the several standard things she usually does to him with he gets on her nerves.
But he meant it. And she didn't know exactly what to say.
"Coworkers can't be friend Barton," she said with a sigh. He shook his head.
"We're more than coworkers Tasha. Way more," he said softly. She tensed.
"Why do you want to be my friend Barton?" she asked pinching the bridge of her nose. He always came up with the most ridiculous conversation topics. The worst part was that he always managed to rope her into them.
"Cause I never had one?" he said hesitantly. Not a real one. He left unsaid. She paused.
"Really?" she asked giving him a searching look. He stared back at her with honest eyes.
"Yeah," he said softly. She promptly looked away and didn't say anything for several minutes. His eyes fell. She wasn't going to buy it.
"Well…I never had one either so this is going to be a great start," she said with snort. He froze and nearly fell flat on his face.
"Wait! Wait! Wait! So that means we're friends?" he asked excitedly. He was like a god damn puppy. She gave his excitement a wary look. He was shaking the whole damn bed!
"Barton. Calm down before you piss yourself – especially on my bed," she said warningly as she nearly fell off because of the vibrations.
"You don't even sleep on your bed!" he said with the gigantic smile still on his face. She scowled at him.
"Still my bed!" she grumbled. He continued smiling for several minutes. She sighed and went back to staring at her ceiling. Not like much has happened anyway.
"So we're friends?" he asked again with the same level of excitement. Natasha groaned.
"YES!" she shouted before she shoved a pillow in his face so that she could block out the blinding smile. He fell onto the bed beside her and laughed against the pillow. She didn't understand where all this damn happiness was coming from!
"Are you sure?" he asked his voice still muffled by the pillow. Her eye twitched.
"I will strangle you if you ask one more time Barton," she said threateningly. She could practically feel his grin. It was pissing her off. His damn cheerfulness was pissing her off damn it!
"Tell me! Tell me!" he said throwing the pillow off his face. She stared at him in disbelief.
"Tell you what?" she asked incredulously. He propped his head in his right head and stared at her.
"Tell me you're my friend," he said with a shit-eating grin on his face. She was going to shoot herself.
"Will you shut up if I do that?" she asked cautiously. His face suddenly went blank and he took a deep breath.
"Yes," he said finally calming down and just watching her. She blinked. Now she had to guess if the calm face was real or the insane excitement from a second ago.
She had a feeling the damn crazy grins were more real. She humored him anyway.
"I'm…I'm your friend Clint Barton," she said slowly. He smiled softly.
"Thank you," he whispered.
She really didn't know what he was thanking her for. She didn't do anything.
They stared at each other for several minutes before he had to open his mouth and ruin the moment.
"Wanna do something fun, completely stupid and definitely not work related Tasha?" he asked with a devious look on his face. She gave him a dry look.
"No," she said promptly shooting him down. He simply continued to grin at her.
"Too damn bad – let's get drunk!" he said with the big shit-eating grin back on his face. Natasha groaned and placed her head in her hands.
"Is that what friends do?" she asked in a pained voice. He flashed her a boyish grin.
"I have no idea! Let's figure it out!" he said with a laugh.
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A/N: The fluff…it is Sickeningly SWEET. But I thought after all that angst why not just give it to you guys? Some nice epic fluff.
The next chapter is going to be funny as hell. I love humor!