Ok, this is a bit of a tricky chapter… The fourth "rule" is "Befriend their mom, she will tell you stories no one else can." Well….. That's a bit of a problem since the mom's of our two favorite Avengers are dead. So, I had to change what this rule could mean. I decided Coulson could be a little something like a mom figure to Clint. And came up with this! I hope you enjoy! I feel bad I am kind of doing two Clint chapters in a row, if you want I will make the next chapter very much Natasha based :) This chapter is, let's say around four months after Clint and Natasha started to work together.

Rule number four-Befriend their Mom, she will tell you stories that no one else can. (EDIT or befriend their handler ;D)

Clint had to do a double take when he saw who was sitting in the office. It was Phil and Natasha- No one else, just the two of them. That might not have been so extremely insane, only they were not going over mission papers or extraction plans. They were not fighting or resisting the urge to kill one another. They were laughing. Together, not at each other. And as soon as Barton entered the room, they tried to stop and go back to acting like they hated each other. But then Coulson started laughing again, and even after composing herself, Natasha looked like she was about to break back into a smile.

"Hey guys…. What's going on?" Clint asked, wondering if he'd somehow gone insane, or these two were playing a joke on him. Only the Black Widow didn't do stuff like that, did she?" Coulson looked more serious, and Natasha's almost smile grew. She was the one who spoke. "Nothing much. I was just getting to know my handler better… And my partner. Turns out Coulson has quite a bit of information about you that I found pretty interesting."

Suddenly Clint felt very nervous about what these two might have been laughing about. Especially since Phil was looking more and more uncomfortable leaning back in his chair away from the archer. Like he was regretting something he had said, or more like he'd said more than he meant to. The handler cleared his throat. "Um, well Barton, Agent Romanoff was asking me about your work history. I was just telling her a few stories….."

Now Natasha was smirking at the archer, and all he could think about was every dumb embarrassing thing he had done that Coulson could have told her about. Wasn't that stuff supposed to be confidential?

Natasha turned in her seat towards him, and her eyes were practically shining with mischief- Clint had only seen that look a couple of times before. Like right before she got to use a bazooka gun to bow up a car. Or when they were given a mission to blow up an empty. It was the look she got right before she caused some serious trouble.

"So Barton, is it true you called in to be rescued from a mission once because you were lost?" She asked. Clint looked at her in disbelief. "Um, yeah, is that such a big deal? Stuff happens. People get lost." Natasha's smirk grew wider. "Is it true once you called in to be rescued because you were lost in Mall of America?"

Clint opened his mouth to reply with a witty remark, but came up with nothing. So instead he just kind of left his mouth hanging open, feeling like an idiot. "Um…. That might have happened on one of my first missions. At least it happened in one of the first years I worked a mission. It's a big place, ok? It was crazy crowded, and no one would tell me where the maps were. I studied the employee blueprints, ok? I didn't know how to get from the stupid toy store to Forever 21!' The place is huge, it's not so crazy I could get lost there!"

Natasha's lips twitched, and Coulson was busy staring at the ceiling, probably wondering if it had been a good idea to spill a few of Hawkeye's secrets. It hadn't been. He was going to come back to find every surface in his office had been covered with suction cup arrows later.

Clint was about to defend needing rescue from a mall, when Natasha spoke again. "Oh, and Coulson also mentioned that you once confused a sleeper arrow and a poison arrow? No way you are THAT stupid."

Barton had to smile at that one. "Ok, first of all no one died because of that. I came out the worst from that one. Second of all, come on! All my arrows look the same, it's no surprise I should confuse them sometimes! It wasn't even a big deal. I just shot the target full of a sleeping aid, threw them in the back of the car, and found out they were still awake when they woke up and tried to choke me." Clint laughed at this, and rubbed his neck as if he could still feel those fingers trying to crush his windpipe. "So I just braked the car point blank, and luckily I hadn't thought to put the set belt on the target, so they kind of went flying. Hit their head against the back of my seat, and did me a favor by knocking themselves out."

Coulson was laughing at this, he kind of liked that story. And Natasha was doing that throaty chuckle that Clint secretly thought he might love. That laugh made him want to spill all of his idiotic secrets, just so she wouldn't stop laughing.

Ugh, quit it, he had to pull himself together. They had only been working together a few months, Clint sometimes felt unnerved by how much he liked his new partner. Even if it seemed she didn't like him back. Even if he had practically been ordered to not like or get attached to her. Whatever, Fury wasn't his boss, he couldn't tell him what to do….. Wait, that was stupid… And not really true, Fury was very much his boss. Not the boss of his friendships though, right?

Clint's train of thought was interrupted by Phil speaking. Their handler leaned in towards the assassins, he was still laughing. "Oh, I should tell you about the time Fury got mad about Clint and his pets." At this Natasha leaned in closer, eager to hear more, and Clint raised his hand as if to stop his handler. "Woah, ok, I think we've told her enough for now Phil, she doesn't want to hear about that….."

Natasha tossed her hair over her shoulder and grinned at him with a feline-like smile. "Oh, I would love to hear about this Barton. Sounds interesting, and I don't have anywhere to be."

Before the archer could protest, Coulson started talking. "Ok, so Clint used to have a thing for stray animals. If it was loose, abandoned, on the streets, he would bring it in. At first it was just a few dogs, a couple cats, that was ok. We were usually able to find homes for them pretty quickly- Or in a couple cases return the animals to their real owners when Barton here was a bit too eager to play the hero of the animals…"

Clint rolled his eyes and sighed heavily. "How was I supposed to know those dogs were breed to look that skinny on purpose? They looked malnourished to me!" "Coulson scoffed. "Those were Ibizan Hounds you idiot! We had to pay their snotty, wealthy owners thousands of dollars so they wouldn't press charges over you kidnapping their prize winning dogs!"

Natasha was laughing again, "Is that the story? Clint stole some snobby dogs, and that's why he is so poor? Because is still paying off the bribe?" Phil grinned. "No, that's just the start. So over the years he started bringing in more and more strays. And not just cats and dogs either. He started to bring in things like rabbits or foxes he found in hunting traps, birds with broken wings, anything that looked like it might need help. It was getting ridiculous, and Fury didn't have time to find homes for all of them. This isn't exactly an animal shelter."

The Black Widow smirked at Barton, who looked a bit uncomfortable. This was not his favorite story. Their handler continued talking. "So, one day Clint brought in a cat with a batch of kittens. And Fury lost it, he was just done with the whole savior of the animals thing. So he sent out an order to have all agents on missions that week keep an eye out- for rats."

Natasha's eyebrows lifted up, arching across her forehead. "Rats?" Coulson was grinning. "Yup. Well, or mice. For a week we had a couple hundred agents going on missions, and we had them on the lookout for trapped mice. We payed them five bucks for whatever they brought in. We wound up collecting way more than we needed, just sent them the extras off to the lab."

Natasha nodded, Clint fidgeted, wondering if there was anyway he could stop this story. "Ok, so what did you actually need the mice for in the first place?" She asked.

Phil was trying not to laugh, he was maybe a bit too amused by this story. "Well we had them tested for anything that could kill our archer friend here, and found around 70 that weren't infected with any disgusting diseases. And Fury had all 70 put in Barton's room."

Natasha's eyes widened a bit, she was smiling again. "No way." Phil nodded eagerly, "Yeah! It was amazing. Clint had just gotten back from a mission, he was exhausted. I was in the hallway waiting to see his reaction. He walked into his room, and I swear not a minute later he BOLTED out, totally freaking out. He was terrified." Remembering the memory Phil lost control, and broke out laughing for what felt like a very long time for Clint. He would have been annoyed, only Natasha was laughing too, and listening to her laugh, seeing her happy, Barton found himself smiling instead of getting annoyed and mad like he usually did when this story was told. She turned towards her partner, "You're scared of mice?" She asked, laughing. Clint sighed heavily. "No, I am not scared of mice. It was dark, and I just wasn't expecting for the floor to start moving and crawling over my feet."

It was an embarrassing story, but Clint could find the humor in it. At least until Coulson began demonstrating just how scared Clint had been, mimicking the way he had stumbled out of his room, and freaked out. Not even Natasha's laughter could make that seem funny.

Eventually the trio calmed down, and since Coulson had a lot of files to go through he sent Clint and Natasha down to the cafeteria to get dinner. Natasha was still smiling, and as they walked down the hall she glanced at Clint. "So, did that work? Did the mice stunt scare you away from rescuing all the strays?" Clint smirked and shook his head. "Nah, I'm just smart enough to bring them to animal shelters instead of back here. Fury really broke my habit of bringing strays back to base."

Natasha lifted an eyebrow. "Oh really? When's the last time you brought one back?" Clint smiled at her, and spoke without thinking. "I don't know, how long have you been here now?" For a second he was scared he had said the wrong thing. Maybe offended her, and now the Black Widow was going to kill him for calling her a stray. Instead after a few seconds she glanced at him, and her smile was softer than the one she wore when laughing at him with Coulson. "Well, glad you weren't too scared of the thought of Fury turning your room into another mouse hole to bring me in." And that was it.

They didn't talk much during their meal, but things felt different between them. The mood was lighter between them, they were more at ease with each other.

And a few weeks later, when Clint came back from a solo mission, he would find something on his nightstand. One of those catnip mice, like the kind cats play with. He didn't need to ask if Natasha had left it there for him. He knew that she had. Maybe this partnership could become a kind of friendship after all.

_

Ok, this chapter was a little bit of a mess but I hope that you liked it! PLEASE review! And a friendly reminder that you should check out the collaboration I am working with, just search for the story "In the End You Will Always Kneel" by The Freelancer Collaboration. It is a really great story, and I am writing Natasha in it! But really please review this story you guys! Next chapter is more about both members of Strike Team Delta, that will be fun since the last two chapters have focused on Clint more than Nat :D Enjoy and review guys!