"Is this love, Agent Romanoff?" Loki pried.
"Love is for children," she replied cooly. The Red Room had instilled that message in her.
He continued to try to break her, but she kept her mask firmly in place until she escaped to her room, where she broke down and cried until they called her for a meeting with the others. Then she wiped her eyes, fixed her makeup, and forced a smile onto her face.
They fought silently.
Suddenly he had a knife at her throat. She could not shake the memory of his arrow aimed at her head so long ago. He had made a different call back then, but Loki would not.
He yanked a fistful of her flaming red hair, the same hair he always played with ever so gently to calm her down. It broke her heart when he looked up at her and whispered "Tasha" in that helpless tone. Then she saw his eyes: icy blue, not the warm, familiar cloudy grey. Loki was using him against her. So much for emotions not being a weakness. She was furious now, furious at Loki for using the only thing she had ever had against her, twisting and breaking him to get to her. Her anger exploded and her fist connected with his face. Hard.
As she waited for the medics to come get him, one solitary tear wetted the dark fabric of her catsuit, unnoticeable amid the black fabric. No one would ever know.
"Do you know what it feels like to be unmade?" He was on the verge of tears and so very vulnerable.
"You know I do," she tried to reassure him.
"How many agents did I-"
"Don't." She cut him off protectively. If he gave into this he would fall apart.
"Now you sound like you." She could not help grinning at the relief of having him back.
"But you don't." Of course he would notice.
Her smile vanished and she stared intently at the floor.
"Natasha." He spoke her name so delicately, as if it were the most precious thing in the world.
"I've been compromised," she stated sullenly.
He pulled her in. "But we haven't," he whispered in her ear.
"You and I remember Budapest very differently."
Of course they did.
Clint remembered seeing her find herself, and watching her grow into who she really was. He remembered holding her sob-wracked body comfortingly so many times.
Natasha remembered him singing her to sleep in Russian. She remembered feeling safe. She remembered the snow-covered buildings and the tiny jewelry store on the corner.
The only thing they both remembered was falling in love.