Hello I'm back with a new chapter! I hope you enjoy! It's a bit rushed, but I really wanted to get it out before school started so here ya go!
"Natasha Romanoff, by order of S.H.I.E.L.D, I am placing you under arrest." The man says, his bow drawn back and eyes narrowed. S.H.I.E.L.D…S.H.I.E.L.D…where have I heard that name before? Natasha thinks, racking her brain for the answer. She sees glimpses of an insignia etched on the side of a van as memories flash through her mind. Suddenly it clicks. A memory so deeply buried it hasn't been accessed since Natasha's earliest days at the Red Room. Ohio, 1995. When those S.H.I.E.L.D. agents came and ruined her fake life. Natasha chuckles, remembering how simple it was to get away from them.
"Oh, thank goodness." Natasha says, dropping her arms in relief.
"Wait, what?" The man asks, confused, "What do you mean 'thank goodness'?"
"Well I'm saying thank goodness there isn't any real threat."
"Hey! I am very much a threat to you!" The man stomps his foot indignantly and pouts like a child. Natasha smirks at his antics, knowing they could have been friends in another lifetime.
"Sure sure, tough stuff."
"Wha-?!" He squawks, finally letting his bow drop, playing right into Natasha's hands.
"Look dude, I didn't train ninety-percent of my life to be a spy and assassin just to let some bow and arrow guy stop me."
"Hawkeye."
"What?"
"My code name is Hawkeye, and I have a feeling you haven't dealt with anyone quite like me before." The man - Hawkeye - says, drawing his bow once more.
"No offense, but I feel like I'm being threatened by a cupcake." Natasha responds, rolling her eyes.
"How-how dare y-"
"Alright, this has been fun and all but it's high time I get out of here." Natasha reaches behind her and grabs a knife left on the kitchen table. She chucks it, the blade slicing through the air, aimed for Hawkeye's head. He manages to duck out of the way in the nick of time, however he loses the arrow he was holding. With a growl of frustration Hawkeye flicks his wrist and his bow stiffens, becoming a spear-like weapon.
"I told you, you haven't dealt with anyone quite like me before."
"I have to say I'm impressed. But how long can you last against the Black Widow?" Natasha beckons for him, asking for a fight and she is not disappointed. Hawkeye lunges forward, thrusting his staff at her. Natasha leaps out of the way, snagging one of the arrows from the wall as she jumps past. She holds the shaft tightly in her hand, aiming the arrowhead at Hawkeye. Just before it hits his face, he uses his staff to shove her arm away, forcing Natasha to jump back a bit..
Panting, Natasha pauses for a moment to catch her breath. As she does so, she looks closely at Hawkeye's stance, taking note of how his feet are too wide. With a smirk, she quickly crouches down and swings out her leg, sweeping his out from under him. Taken by surprise, Hawkeye falls and lands on the ground with a loud thud, his tinted glasses getting thrown off his face in the process. Not wasting a moment, Natasha sits on top of him, one knee holding his staff arm down, while the other crushes his throat.
"I told you, you can't beat me." Natasha whispers as Hawkeye gasps for air. She doesn't actually want to kill him, just make him pass out. His fingers twitch and she looks at them suspiciously. She takes the arrow that's still clutched in her hand and maneuvers so it's positioned right above his heart. "You better not try anything or you'll be dead for real."
"Go…to…" Hawkeye chokes out, struggling to talk around his crushed windpipe. But there's a fire in his eyes that grows steadily, and he grips his staff harder, his fingers splayed in an awkward way. "Hell!"
With a final burst of strength, Hawkeye pushes a hidden button on his staff before his hand goes limp. That's when Natasha hears a faint beeping sound. Eyes widening in realization, she looks at the arrow in her hand as it blinks red in time with the beeping. It's a bomb! She jumps up and runs to the broken window. Reeling back, she chucks it as far as she can. A few seconds later, the night sky lights up with a loud kaboom!
"I bet you didn't see that coming," Hawkeye says, slowly standing up while gasping for air.
"Oh shut up," Natasha says while rolling her eyes. However, in that brief moment, Hawkeye launches forward, throwing her off balance and sending her crashing to the floor. He kneels on her chest, constricting both her movements and her breathing. She flings her arms out in hopes of grasping something, anything, to use against her opponent but only hits the smooth ground. Her arm starts to throb again, reminding her of her injury as pain pulses through it in time with her heartbeat. Natasha feels something wet drip down her arm, and she winces, realizing she must have accidentally ripped her stitches.
While she's struggling, Hawkeye sits, putting his full weight on her - much like what she was doing to him a few minutes ago. Natasha keeps struggling in vain, she has no way to escape and the lack of oxygen is making her thoughts slur together and her brain feel fuzzy.
"I can't let you run back to the Red Room after all the pain and suffering you've caused."
"Swha…?" Natasha slurs out. She must have had a ridiculous expression on her face, because Hawkeye's eyebrows shoot up in surprise and he slightly lightens the pressure on her chest.
"What I mean is," He starts, gulping nervously, "You really are under arrest now. I will be taking you back to S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters where you won't be able to hurt anyone ever again." Natasha looks at him incredulously then starts to laugh. Mirth bubbles in her chest, almost overriding the pain she feels from laughing with someone literally sitting on her. It doesn't last long though, and her laughing fit quickly turns to one of coughing, but it was worth it to see Hawkeye's reaction. He stares at her, a mix between anger, horror and concern flashing across his face.
In the end, concern wins and he stupidly stands up, letting Natasha catch her bearings while still keeping his staff aimed at her. She watches him from the corner of her eyes as she slowly sits up, still coughing and gasping for air. Could this be some kind of trick? Is Hawkeye attempting to make her lower her guard? Well it won't work. Natasha is a highly trained assassin and spy, one who has learned the hard way what happens when she disobeys. What punishments she gets. How the Red Room always-
No, Natasha interrupts her train of thought, you're not in the Red Room anymore. She looks up and takes in her surroundings. The quaint little apartment with shattered windows and arrows embedded in the walls. The soldier sent to arrest her who is staring at her with something close to concern in his eyes. And Natasha. The scared little girl who finally escaped hell on earth. And she is not going to prison after all she's endured. She gazes into Hawkeye's eyes defiantly, and his concern is quickly replaced with a stern anger, proving that he means business.
"Mind telling me what that was about?" He asks.
"Oh I just thought it was funny that you assumed I would go crawling back to my 'masters'."
"Is that not what you're doing? Aren't you on some mission for the Red Room?"
"What? No! If I were on a mission you wouldn't have been able to find me that easily."
"I wouldn't say it was easy, per se…" Hawkeye mutters under his breath. "So if you aren't on some mission, what are you doing here?" He asks.
"I finally escaped that tortuous place, and a frie-person helped set me up with this place - not that you'd care." Natasha answers, venom in her voice. Memories flash through her mind of a simpler time, back in Ohio. They didn't care about you either, she thinks, squeezing her eyes shut as tears spring into the corners of them.
"Escape? What do you mean escape? Why would you have to 'escape' your job?"
"Well newsflash, the Red Room wasn't a job. It was an organization that forced women to it's bidding." Natasha spits back, her tears gathering thick and threatening to fall. She tries to hold them back, refusing to appear weak to this random soldier. Why she's even telling him any of this is beyond her, but now that the words have started flowing they don't seem to want to stop.
"...What?" Hawkeye quietly whispers, horror painted clear on his face.
"We were recruited when we were little girls. We were, conditioned, to follow orders. And when we didn't, well…" Now the tears truly start streaming down her face. Natasha lets out a sob and pulls her knees to her chest, trying to hide from the man in front of her.
"I-I had no idea. S.H.I.E.L.D told us that the Red Room was an organization like ours, but evil. Where women were recruited for their special talents and then put them to use by choice. I thought you always had a choice."
"I never did, I never will." Natasha looks away, dropping her head and hugging her knees tighter, as if they were her armor.
"All those deaths…" Hawkeye murmurs solemnly.
"I didn't want to hurt anyone!" Natasha shouts, her head shooting back up, staring at Hawkeye with bloodshot eyes. Slowly she looks back down again, a sad expression on her face. "But I guess it's too late for that now. Just please, don't make me go back there, please."
"Look, you've done some pretty bad things in your life, but now you have a chance to make up for them! You can change!" Hawkeye exclaims, a soft smile on his face.
"How?" Natasha asks brokenly. She's just an empty shell of a person. Molded to fit whatever state suited Dreykov. Hawkeye sighs and shakes his head, finally dropping his weapon. He opens his mouth and looks like he's going to regret his next words before he even says them.
"Look, I've made the decision to trust you."
"A horrible decision really,"
"Maybe, but I'm doing it anyways. You may not have had a choice then, but you do now. You can choose good. So what do you say, want to join S.H.I.E.L.D?"
That wasn't my best chapter, but it wasn't horrible either in my opinion! I apologize that Nat was a little OOC, I wanted her to let her walls break a little and let Clint see the vulnerable side of her in order to trust her. I hope you liked it though all things considered! I'd love to hear from you guys about what you thought or if you have any suggestions to make it better! Thanks and have a great day/night!