Remember their birthday, every year.

I could not decide if I wanted to write about Clint's Birthday or Nat's, and then if I wanted to make it happy or sad. So, I did all of that! Please enjoy!

First year of their partnership, Clint's Birthday.

He hardly even remembered it was his own Birthday. It wasn't like he made it out to be a giant holiday in his life, it was pretty much just another day for him. Clint just happened to glance at the date, and realized he was another year older. To celebrate he went down to the target range to practice, just like he did every morning.

He had already emptied a quiver-full of arrows into a few targets, and was just starting in on the next quiver when she came in. Clint guessed who it was, because no one else would have been able to get so close before he sensed that they were there. As if to confirm that Natasha was behind him, suddenly a knife was whistling past his ear and landed in the center of a target he hadn't fired at yet.

"What, you couldn't have hit one of the arrows?" Clint joked, not turning around, preparing to let loose his next missile. Without another word a second knife was flying through the air, and then clattered to the ground- after cracking one of his arrows clean in half. The two halts were still stuck in the target

He turned around now, to see his still relatively new partner smirking at him. Her flaming hair was a tangled mess around her face, it looked like she hadn't gotten much sleep last night. Again. One of the few things he had managed to learn about his partner in their time together was that her sleep schedule was erratic at best. She went to bed late, and woke up early. He had tried telling her to sleep more, but she never listened to him.

"Good morning." Clint said, placing down his quiver, and grabbing another that had a new kind of arrow Coulson wanted him to test. "Did you actually sleep, or where you up shining your knives?" "No, I spent the night cleaning my guns actually." He glanced at her, and couldn't tell if she was joking or not.

"You should really sleep more." He said. She rolled her eyes, "Yeah? And you should stop trying to tell me what to do. You should know that doesn't work by now." Clint sighed dramatically. "I guess I thought you would listen to my wise, genius advice for once…." "What, just because it's your Birthday?"

Clint was so surprised he almost dropped his bow. "What? Who the heck told you that?" Natasha scoffed. "No one. I hacked your records when we started working together, and for some moronic reason happened to remember when your Birthday was. Duh." She said this like it was the most obvious thing in the world, like he should have known she would do that.

Ok, he had suspected she had done that anyway. He was just surprised that out of all the information Shield had about him, she had remembered his Birthday of all things. No one did that. Even Coulson had forgotten a couple years ago. Not that Clint had cared about that, Birthdays were stupid. Who needed them? Not him. Cakes and presents were overrated.

"I could tell Fury on you, that's a major violation of privacy." Clint smirked. Natasha just ignored him. "So do you have any big Birthday plans bird brain?" She asked, walking towards him, and running a hand over the different bows and arrows laid across the table next to Clint. "I don't know. Did Coulson tell you that we have a mission today?"

She shook her head. Clint smirked. "Then nope, I have no plans for the day. Why, are you doing anything?"Natasha ran her fingers over one of the bows, for a second it looked like she was going to pick it up and shoot. He had offered to teach her before, and wished she would try and learn. He was sure The Black Widow would be a natural archer.

Clint really thought she was about to pick the bow up, then she pulled her hand away. "I was going to get some breakfast, and then go shopping for an outfit for that undercover mission…" She glanced at her partner. "Would you want to come? I'll buy you food."

Barton paused, about to shoot another arrow. "Will you make the waitresses sing Happy Birthday to me?" "No, Clint, I won't." The arrow hit it's target "Ok, then let's go."

_

Third year of their partnership, Natasha's Birthday.

Clint Barton was in deep, DEEP trouble. Nat had told him not to go in on this job alone, she had told him she would be able to work even with the not yet healed bullet wound in her shoulder. He should have listened to her. Maybe if he'd had some backup, he wouldn't be in a prison right now, probably about to be dragged back into another brutal interrogation session.

He had just been "interviewed" for maybe the fourth time. Or was it the fifth? He'd lost count after they started really beating up on him. And now Clint was in a filthy cell, trying to staunch the blood flowing from a cut in his arm, and see out of a swollen black eye. He couldn't think about how much everything hurt right now. Couldn't think about what tactics they would use on him next, couldn't think about when Shield would come get him- Couldn't think about IF they were going to come get him. Of course they would. He was important! Right? It wasn't like they had hundreds of top notch archers they could choose from… And besides, Natasha would make sue SOMEONE came to save him. Hopefully.

Natasha. He would think about her, that would help distract him. The way she looked in a fight, like she could defeat anything. Like she was fearless. He would think about the way that her hair looked like fire as it flew around her face when they trained together, and how it looked so untamed all the time. Even when she was sleeping, it looked wild and uncontrollable. Not that he saw her sleeping all that often, just a few times when they had to share a room on missions- or that one time on the way back from one when she fell asleep against his shoulder. He thought about that, how she trusted him enough to fall asleep against him.

Footsteps thudded outside of Clint's door, and he wondered if they were going to bring him back in for another interrogation again so quickly. He wouldn't be able to handle that. No, of course he could. He'd been trained for this. He shouldn't think about that. Think about Natasha.

He had been here two days now, and the mission had been a hellish two weeks- So if he had his dates right….. Yup, it was his partners Birthday today. He felt a stab of pain course through him as he realized this. They always celebrated each other's Birthdays. He had wanted to take her somewhere fun this year. Maybe an arcade, or make her go bowling, at least he wanted to drag her to a fancy restaurant and buy her some cake. But now he couldn't do any of that. He was stuck rotting in this putrid cell, and she was probably worried sick about him. Or at the very least maybe she was just slightly worried. He was pretty sure she was mildly concerned.

Clint had to distract himself from all of this, the stress, the fear, the pain, the footsteps and noise outside of his locked door. He sat down on the floor, his back against the door. There was dust, and grime, and who knows what else on the floor. It was beyond disgusting, but it would provide Clint with a distraction. He began running his finger through the filth, sketching the outline of a cake. He spent the next- ten minutes? Hour? Few hours? Designing the perfect birthday cake for Natasha. He drew it and redrew it. Adding candles, and taking them away when he realized he was unsure about her exact age- She had a complicated past, the Red Room didn't exactly celebrate Birthdays. He tried to draw flowers on it, and then realized he couldn't draw flowers. So then he tried drawing polka dots, spiders and hawks, guns, then he realized he couldn't draw. So he just put random scribbles on the cake for decoration.

He had just about finished the drawing, when he realized the sounds behind his door were getting even louder. He recognized the sound of gun shots, and- were those explosions? What the hell was going on? Should he do someth-"

Suddenly he heard an explosion, so close to him Clint could feel it through the door he was leaning against. And then suddenly he was falling backwards, and he was laying on the filthy ground. And staring up at Natasha. She was staring down at him,, and once she saw he was alive, looked relieved. Clint grinned up at her, though he was sure that only made his bruised and beaten up face look even worse than it actually was.

He couldn't think of anything to say, so he just said the first thing that popped into his head. "Hey, Happy Birthday Nat!"

_

Fourth Year of their relationship. Clint's Birthday.

Natasha walked down the hallway with a gift bag in one hand, a small bright pink pastry box in the other. She had a serious look on her face, and everyone else in the hallway moved out of her way as soon as they saw her coming. She finally got to Clint's room, and after checking out the file clipped to his door, walked inside.

"Hey Barton, good morning. And Happy Birthday. I know how you love celebrating things, so here I am. Ready for some Birthday fun?" She asked, knowing she wouldn't get an answer. The archer had been hurt on their last mission together, and been put in a medically induced coma. The Dr's kept telling Natasha they were pretty sure he would be fine when they woke him up. And that they were almost absolutely sure he WOULD wake up. It was that tiny little bit of doubt that had Natasha terrified though.

She had refused all of the missions Fury and Coulson kept trying to push on her, and visited Clint every day. Even though Shield visiting hours for patients were supposed to be a half hour in the morning, and hour at night, Natasha managed to see him much more than that. Having most everyone in Shield be terrified of you had its benefits. Natasha practically had the run of the hospital sector of Shield by now.

Clint was still in the hospital bed- of course. He had tubes, and wires, and bandages covering him linking him to the machines helping to keep him alive. Natasha tried to smile when she entered his room, even though he couldn't see her. He would want her to be happy, maybe if she tried to be, Clint would sense that and want to wake up.

"Hey Barton, Happy Birthday. I was hoping you'd be awake for this, but the Dr's told me they weren't going to take you off the meds for a few more days. Something about wanting to make sure your stupid brain was healthy enough, and got enough rest- I guess it's just as lazy as the rest of your body, and wants to get more sleep. Though I should know it doesn't do that much work in the first place." Natasha tried to laugh, but instead a sad choking sound came out of her mouth. She kept remembering how the Dr's were not 100% sure that he would wake up at all.

"Anyway, I'll celebrate with you today because I am SUCH a nice person and can't let your Birthday pass. And then I'll celebrate it again when you wake up. I promise. In the meantime here's your gift." Natasha sat down on the edge of Clint's bed making sure not to disturb anything that was hooked up to his body.

"Well, I guess I'll open your gift for you. Lazy bum. I'll have you know I got this forever ago, and I am very annoyed that you can't just open this yourself you idiot…" Natasha placed the gift bag on the bed, and pulled out the tissue paper, and finally the gift. It was a new strap to carry quivers of arrows, she had asked Shield to design it, so it could hold larger quivers. It was also purple, and had tiny silver hawks decorating it. Natasha had been so excited to see his reaction when he saw the gift, and hadn't thought it would be so….. Unresponsive.

"Do you like it Barton? I had some new kid in the labs, Fitz design it for me. He's crazy smart, and he was nice enough to decorate it like this. Once I told him who it was for he actually got the idea to decorate it with the hawks. Do you like it? I'm sure you do. I mean, it's awesome. Isn't it? I think it's pretty cool. It might even be better than the new widow's bite gloves that you got me for Christmas. Those were pretty nice. This is better though." Natasha was babbling, trying to fill up the silence, feeling an ache in her chest missing Clint's endless chatter.

"So, yeah. That's your gift. And I got you a cupcake too. I guess that was kind of dumb, but I couldn't not get you something, you have such a sweet tooth. So, yeah. Happy Birthday." Natasha set the bakery box on the bedside table, and shoved the new strap back into the gift bag. She was upset, and trying not to show it. She missed her partner, and just wanted to get him back.

Natasha carefully scooted up more on the bed, made sure not to dislodge anything, and laid down in the bed with Clint. She rested her head on his chest, and listened to the steady beat of his heart. It made her feel like he was talking to her, even though he wasn't awake.

It made her feel less alone. Made her feel more confident that her partner was going to wake up soon, and would be ok.

Sixth year of their relationship, Natasha's Birthday

They were in Natasha's room, in Avenger Tower. Thy spent a lot of time in there. They liked the rest of the team well enough, but seriously anyone living with Tony Stark needs some personal space sometimes. And Natasha's room had more security than Clint's, so they wound up hanging out in there a lot.

They were wasting away the afternoon making paper airplanes, competing to see who could make the best one. Clint's were usually more accurate, but Natasha's tended to be faster.

"Are you sure you don't want to do anything fun tonight Nat?" Clint asked, smoothing out a fold of paper, making it into a wing. "If we go out to dinner somewhere it's not like the rest of the team will know it's your Birthday. And even if they did find out, what's the worst that could happen? Stark would throw you a party, and that would be the end of it."

Natasha rolled her eyes, and examined the airplane she had just made. "You've never been to one of Stark's parties, they're horrible. I would like to avoid suffering through one of them if that's possible, please. We're going on that mission to Spain next week, I promise that if we have time you can take me to eat somewhere nice there. It'll be fun."

Clint sighed. "Ok….. I'll talk to Coulson and see if we can arrive there a day early, that way we can have a normal date, without any life threatening injuries or hostage situations." Natasha smirked. "Speak for yourself, that date sounds pretty normal to me. Didn't we go out for a romantic hostage situation last week? That was fun."

Clint snorted. "We need to reevaluate what your idea of fun is Nat…. Heads up." As he said this Clint threw his finished paper airplane towards her, and it landed in her lap. Natasha clapped dramatically.

"Good job, right on target! It was flying a bit low though, don't you think? Are you using a heavier kind of paper than I am? Did you do more folds than usual?" Natasha picked up the plane to examine it, "In all though, this was very well made Barton! Did you fold a little cockpit over here?" As Natasha asked this she began examining the fold of the wings, and then noticed something was shining from under one of them.

She carefully unfolded the wing- and found an intricate silver chain, that had an arrow suspended in the middle of it. She caught her breathe as she saw it, and for a second didn't know what to say. She picked it up, and let it catch the light. "Oh Clint, it's beautiful… This is for me, right? You didn't send me the wrong airplane by accident?"

Clint smirked, and began looking at the other planes surrounding him he'd already made. "What? Oh darn, I sent you the one with the necklace, didn't I? I meant to shoot that one over to Stark. Oh well, I guess you can keep it… I mean, if you want to. I know you don't wear a lot of jewelry, I just saw that and thought you might like it… I can always take it back if you totally hate it, just give you some money instead. I don't know, I didn't know if you would even want to wear an arrow, because usually when people see arrows they think of me, and if they see you wearing an arrow they might think that-" Clint's anxious chatter was interrupted when Natasha left her chair and came over to kiss him.

"Thank you Clint. I love it. It's beautiful." She kissed him again, and when she pulled away the archer had a goofy smile on his face. "I'm glad you like it."
She was grinning, and putting on the jewelry. "I do. Do you think you could grab a pizza for dinner, and bring it up to the roof without anyone noticing? I'll meet you up there with drinks?" Clint pulled her back in for another kiss. ""Sounds like a plan. Meet you up there in half an hour."

_

I hope you liked this, please review! Next chapter will be kind of sad adorable fluff!