Rule Number 6- Leave notes when you go out for the day, it will make you feel safe.
I had so much fun writing this one, I really hope you guys like it! It gets very fluffy, so enjoy ;D
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Clint woke up early- Well, early for him. Ok, so he woke up before noon for once. That was pretty good for him, especially considering his insane schedule. Late night undercover jobs were fun at times, but didn't exactly bode well for early mornings.
He pulled on a tattered pair of purple pajama bottoms, and ran a hand through his messy bedhead of hair before heading to the Shield cafeteria. Sure he might terrify a few of the newbies with his just woke up from the dead look, but if Shield didn't want him scaring off new recruits in the morning they should let him keep a damn coffee machine in his own room. Stupid rules. Always making life harder.
He shuffled to the cafeteria, grunted at a few people he vaguely recognized, and soon was back in front of his room holding an entire pot of coffee and a donut. Maybe he should have grabbed a cup for the coffee, but who had time for that? The pot would work just fine.
He took a slurp of the drink, and was about to open his door to get ready for the day, when something caught his eyes. A tiny white square of paper was folded up, and taped to the corner of his door. More curious than cautious, Clint yanked it off to investigate. An elegant arrow was doodled in the upper left corner of the square, and a Black Widow hourglass was casually drawn in the lower right corner, sketched out with a few swift lines. Barton stared at it, wondering what the heck this could be about.
It had been around four months since he brought The Widow in, and they were just starting to work well together. Ok. Maybe that was an overstatement. They were just starting to not totally distrust each other, they didn't argue every single time they spoke, and they were allowed to go on missions without three highly skilled special op teams following them in case Natasha decided to make a break for it. So, yeah, they were making progress.
Clint opened the door to his room and made sure to set the donut down carefully on his dresser before sitting down on his bed to read the note, and take another gulp of coffee. It was extremely straightforward.
Barton,
Coulson called me in this morning, a special job came up they need me to work it solo. It's confidential, but thought you should know it's in Hong-Kong, should last three days, and if you don't hear back from me by then I expect you to come help me get out of whatever mess Shield has thrown me into. Not that I think I would need your help, but you never know. Better safe than sorry.
Romanoff
Clint read the note, read it again, read it a third time. He couldn't help but wonder why The Black Widow would leave a note like this, it wasn't really like her…
He was sipping at the remaining dredges of coffee grounds at the bottom of the pot and licking donut crumbs off his fingers when a thought struck him. This was her first solo mission with Shield. Maybe she was worried she wasn't going to return, that Shield had had enough, and was ready to get rid of her. Of course they wouldn't do that, but how would she know? Her past was seriously messed up, Clint wouldn't be surprised if Natasha thought Shield would just kill her if they decided she was too much trouble. This note was her way of letting someone else know where she was, that she was supposed to come back. Maybe it made her feel safer. Well then, if it helped, Clint would gladly start exchanging notes with his partner.
One year later
Annoyed, Natasha whipped her backpack into the corner of the room, and placed the duffle bag of weapons more carefully at her feet. This mission was already bad enough without a random grenade going off. Clint was right behind her, surveying the room and trying to make the best of it.
"Hey, at least there's a window in this one, isn't that nice? And look, no roaches yet! I mean yeah we should probably still use the bug netting, so I don't wake up with another spider on my face, but hey no obvious roaches is ALWAYS a good thing in my book. Plus at least this house has two beds, so one of us won't have to sleep on the floor." He walked back into the other room as Natasha began surveying the bedroom, ensuring it was secure enough for her standards. Clint was in the sorry excuse for a kitchen. It consisted of a broken microwave, and empty cooler. "Aw man, another place without a coffee machine? It's like Shield is trying to kill me."
Natasha spoke from the bedroom. "Come on, you could do with a break from all the caffeine Barton, it's really not good for you." He snorted. "You know what else isn't good for me? Being so tired that I can't focus on not getting killed. That's REALLY not good for me." Natasha smiled to herself at his words, and although she was annoyed that Shield had just shuffled them to their seventh safe house this mission- Well, no, there was no "although" she was just straight up annoyed.
They had been sent here to gather intel on a group suspected of "collecting" and selling organs on the black market. The entire job was hellish. It was almost impossible for them to really blend in here, Clint hardly knew a word of the language (lazy bum, couldn't be bothered to learn how to ask for directions but knew how to ask if he could pet someone's dog….) and it was sweltering hot here in the middle of summer.
Natasha peeled off her catsuit (literally, it was like a second skin in this heat) and took a quick shower in the filthy bathroom. The water stream was pitiful, and the coldest the water got was "not boiling hot". It was still nice to wash away the dust and grime of travel, and clean the wounds she had collected on this job. When she was done she changed into a tank top and shorts. She did all of this in less than ten minutes- But when she went back out into the kitchen, Barton was gone.
For just a second Natasha was worried, on alert, assuming the worst had happened. She soon had a gun in hand. It was that kind of mission, the kind you never really feel safe on unless you have a weapon within reach 24/7. She was looking for signs of a struggle, maybe blood, worst case scenario signs Barton had ditched her for who knows what reason. But no, his bag was still in the room- And- There, on the door, was a folded white square of paper. Natasha cautiously walked over and pulled it off, and relaxed when she saw it had their usual symbols on it. A perfectly drawn Black Widow Hourglass in the upper left hand corner since the note was to her, and a squiggly arrow in the bottom right corner since it was from him.
She brought the note back into the bedroom, and laid down before opening it. It was nice to not be on her feet, but being on her back hurt the new bullet wound in her stomach….. Oh well, she would just have to suck it up, she'd live. She'd been through worse. Natasha opened the note to distract herself. It was written in his messy scrawl that almost no one else knew how to decipher.
Natasha,
Hey, so this safe house has a shower that WORKS! See, LOOK AT THE BRIGHT SIDE, THINGS ARE LOOKING UP! I would have told you I was heading out, but you need even a few minutes of relaxing, didn't want to bug you. Also didn't want to have my wrist broken by walking in on you in the shower. Not again. Try and relax, TAKE THE PAINKILLERS COULSON SENT, that bullet wound is worse than you seem to think. Get some rest, I'll bring back food and hopefully some kind of caffeine. I am going to the store we passed on our way here, the one that was a couple blocks away next to the stand selling kites? If I'm not back in around two hours assume that I have either found a local girl who has fallen madly in love with me, or that I have been abducted and am in deep trouble. If it's the latter, well, I'm sure you can come and save me.
Clint (duh who else would write you a message like this? We're the only two in here…)
Natasha allowed herself a rare smile at the note, and then went to dig out the painkillers Coulson had sent her way from her backpack. She was going to follow her partners advice- But only because he wasn't around to see she was actually listening to him, and rub it in her face. Honestly when she actually did what he said, Clint could be insufferable…
Roughly one month after the events of Avengers-
Natasha was sitting in the kitchen of her apartment- THEIR apartment, staring numbly down at the note in her hand. The world had gone insane a lithe over a month ago. With Super Soldiers back from the dead, Demigods calling lightning down from the sky, aliens invading the city, having to work with Tony Stark, and an idiot who wore gold antler horns and a green cape messing up everything in Clint's head.
But she had gotten Barton back. He was here, and alive, and she was going to fix him. Sure, he had bad nightmares, and sometimes didn't know who she was when he woke up in the middle of the night besides her. His brain was obviously a bit scrambled, and Fury had said he doubted Clint would be allowed back in the field anytime soon. But he was here. Alive. That was all Natasha cared about.
She was supposed to take care of him- And he wasn't supposed to leave in the middle of the night with nothing more than note. This was not how they worked, this was Loki screwing her life up again, even weeks after he had been taken back to Asgard.
Natasha had woken up early, and reached out for Clint besides her- Only to find a cold crumpled pile of blankets. That had caused the first stirrings of alarm. There had been no coffee brewing in the kitchen, that was another sign something was very wrong. She had reached for the knife under her pillow, the smooth handle a comforting weight in her hand.
Carefully she had made her way through the apartment- Not sure what she was looking for, not sure what to expect. Then she realized some of Clint's things were gone. Some arrows. A scarce handful of clothes, his toothbrush. As soon as she realized his bow was gone, she had gone to the door, where they always left their notes if one went out without the other. Sure enough there was a clumsily folded piece of paper. A Widows Hourglass in the upper left corner to her, an arrow in the lower right corner so she knew it was from him.
The note was scrawled in pencil, crumpled up as if it had been riding in his pocket for a while.
Nat,
I need space. I know you're just trying to help, but in this city, with these memories, I feel like my brain is going to implode. I'm going to the farm- I don't know for how long. I guess until I get my head on right again. I know your probably not going to listen to me, but please don't follow me….. It's not fair that I should stall your life just because Shield thinks I'm too crazy to work for them now. I'll keep you updated. I'm not supposed to say this, it's like breaking one of our rules, but whatever. I love you.
Clint
After a couple minutes of staring at the note, Natasha snorted and walked back into their room. Damn right she wasn't going to listen to him… If she caught the next plane out she might even make it to the farm before he did, depending on when he left. She was going to go help him, no matter how long it took. At least she would finally use up some of those personal days she'd saved up over the years with Shield….
Four years after Avengers
Clint was half asleep when he rolled over in bed and realized Natasha wasn't there, that the only things next to him were blankets pillows and a couple of weapons. Ok, that was weird.
Then he realized he had actually been sleeping, and hadn't been woken up by a crying baby. THAT was weirder. Clint was instantly awake, popping his hearing aids in, taking in the room. The first place that he looked was in the pink bassinet resting beneath one of the windows in the room, it was empty. Starting to panic, Clint then looked at the bedroom door- And was flooded with relief when he saw a small white piece of paper stuck to the corner of it.
It was a brief note, the handwriting was loopy, Clint guessed Natasha had been fighting sleep when she wrote it.
Clint,
Nova's having trouble sleeping again. I swear this is your fault, if your DNA wasn't composed of 99% all the caffeine you have ingested over the years, our daughter would be able to sleep on a normal schedule. I didn't want her to wake you up, so we're outside. If you actually wake up and read this, you know where to find us.
Tash
Clint felt relief flood his body- The farm was ridiculously well protected, if someone so much as stepped on the property without their permission, Strike Team Delta would know. That didn't stop them from being terrified for their daughters safety though. Constantly being worried that this beautiful little person, this happiness might be taken away from them.
It was a pleasantly warm summer night, Clint stepped out onto the porch downstairs in his pajamas. Actually, wait, 2;am, it was a pleasantly warm summer morning technically. Natasha was sitting on the porch swing, cradling their three month old daughter, who looked like she had just fallen asleep based on the exhausted look in Natasha's eyes.
She smiled tiredly up at Clint when he walked up, and spoke softly. "Hey, I see you decided to join us." Clint's heart skipped a beat as he grinned at the two redheads in front of him. "Well, you know, I didn't want to miss out on all the fun. You should have woken me up, I would have taken care of her." Natasha shrugged, scooting to the side of the swing so Clint could sit down next to her.
"Well it wasn't your turn, and besides you need sleep, it's your turn to feed her when she wakes up in- Oh, probably three hours." Clint sat down and joined his family on the swing. "That's fine, who needs sleep? That's why coffee was invented." Natasha smiled, Clint wrapped his arm around her, and she rested her head on his shoulder. Barton reached out and carefully repositioned the blanket around the infant, thinking that if it meant he could have more moments, he would choose never to sleep again.
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DID YOU LIKE IT? PLEASE TELL ME THAT YOU LIKED IT! I LOVED WRITING THIS, IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! PLEASE REVIEW! (Also I doubt any more chapters will go far enough ahead to when Nat and Clint have kids, this will probably be the only mention of little Nova in this story hahaha, I just thought it would be a cute idea.)