A/N: Lot's of dialogue in this chapter so please bear with. Quick notice, I may or may not be uploading tomorrow because all of the chapters that have been submitted so far are ones that I've already written, and chapter 12 is where the line stops because I've only just started writing it. The story is 21 chapters so we've got 10 more to go after this one. Hopefully it will be finished before I go on my cruise on the 7th of December. Please read and review. I desperately want to know what you all think of my story because at this point so far I can't tell if you guys like it or not. But it would be nice if you could tell me, perhaps through a review.
"How did it go?" Clint asked her as the lift arrived in the living room.
It was already late at night when Natasha finally got back to Stark Tower after being gone the whole day. He'd found a note shoved under his door when he woke up signed by Natasha, telling him that she and Steve had gone into SHIELD to interrogate a prisoner. She hadn't said who the prisoner was but Clint had been guessing all day. Most likely it was Doctor Blake since Natasha had been getting highly involved with Phoenix's case.
Natasha glared at him, which was never good. Obviously it hadn't gone well at all if she was in such a bad mood.
"Sorry," Clint winced and gave her an apologetic look when she sat down next to him on the couch. No one else was around having already gone to bed, except for Tony who was spending the night in one of his labs as usual. "Why'd they call you in so early?"
"Hasn't anyone told you yet?" Natasha seemed confused now and Clint shrugged. No one had so far told him anything, he'd spent the whole day sitting around the tower for crying out loud, he was completely left out of the loop. It wasn't the first time it had happened though. Especially with Natasha Romanoff as his partner, Clint was usually a step or two behind.
"Last night Phoenix attacked SHIELD and she and the other super children helped Doctor Blake escape," Natasha sounded exhausted from just delivering the news.
"Security was tripled with defences on each floor," she sounded almost robotic now. "They attacked in two ways, from the top and from the bottom. Defences were somehow knocked out and four teenagers managed to take on about 200 fully trained agents, while also managing to free the prisoner with our highest security placed on him."
"No way!" Clint exclaimed. "Oh my god Nat this is worse than we thought. But wait, why were you called in to interrogate a prisoner when Doctor Blake escaped?" the facts about what Natasha was telling him didn't seem to add up.
"They managed to capture one of the teenagers while they were making their escape," Clint thought it was good news but Natasha sounded far from happy as she told him. "Captain Rogers and I interrogated them today and what we managed to get out of them, which wasn't much, was kind of hard for Steve to cope with."
"Which one?" Clint was curious now.
"Phoenix," the pieces finally fell into place as Natasha muttered the words bitterly.
It was a foolish move but Clint put a hand over Natasha's which were rested on her knees as she looked at the floor. He knew that Natasha didn't need comforting but he still patted her hand reassuringly. Clint always thought it was weird when he exchanged ordinary gestures with Natasha seeing as how the two of them were far from ordinary.
"Clint the way she talked," Natasha shook her head. "She talked like Doctor Blake was the only person in the world. She called him her Master. She doesn't even seem to realise that she is what she is because of him. He has drilled it into her head that everyone wants to see her killed and that he is the only person that she can believe in and because of that she obeys his every word. It's sickening. I was surprised Steve managed to handle it so well."
Clint didn't dare say it to Natasha's face, but thought to himself that Natasha wasn't exactly handling it well either. He'd never seen her take anything personally with regards to a mission before, but with Phoenix it was different. She was trying to save her and Clint had a pretty good guess at why.
Years spent at each other's sides Clint learned things about Natasha. Most important was that her past was a touchy subject that he didn't press into often. Young girl, brainwashed into murder and following the words of a crazy man. He'd seen it before. Actually he had meant to kill it before. Instead he brought Natasha home. The similarities between the two of them were kind of hard for Clint's mind to comprehend.
One thing he knew for sure, Natasha was going to do everything in her ability, (and probably more seeing as how she's really good at her job), to save Phoenix.
"Did you actually get anything useful out of her?" Clint asked as he removed his hand from her knee after realising it had been there a bit too long.
"Not one damn thing," she replied. "I'm not surprised really. Given how smart she is, she would never blurt things out to her enemy. I'm going back tomorrow but Steve will stay here."
"Do you want me to come with you?" Clint asked.
"I want to interrogate her alone but you're more than welcome to come with me to SHIELD," Natasha shrugged, proceeding to sigh dramatically and put a hand on her forehead. She stopped, looking at the ground then up at Clint, making contact with his eyes. "Did you stay up and wait for me?"
"Of course I did," Clint was slightly taken aback by the question. "You seriously thought I would be able to sleep having no idea where you were. You're the one person I give a damn about more than everyone else. Remember that."
"If it came down to one of us being kidnapped it would be you Clint, and then I would be the one that would have to save your worthless hide," Natasha joked with her lips curving upwards in one corner.
"Natasha please," he titled his head back. "You're severely damaging my delicate man ego."
"Don't worry I'm sure it will live."
"Well I'm going to take myself and my battle scarred ego back to my room," Clint got up off the couch and looked back down at Natasha who still sat there. "Goodnight Agent Romanoff."
"Goodnight Agent Barton," she replied with a trademark Natasha smirk.
Natasha watched him walk towards the elevator with a smile on her face as she shook her head at the idiocy of her partner. He had the right idea though. Natasha was looking forward to seeing her pillow after everything that had happened with Phoenix earlier.
She was just about to stand up and leave when she saw someone walk towards her.
"Pepper," she took immediate notice when the other woman began walking towards her with a glass of champagne in her hand. "I thought you might be keeping away from alcohol after what happened the other night."
"Wine I can handle. The stuff that Tony's always drinking, that's a completely different story," Pepper sighed, filling the recently vacated space on the couch next to Natasha where Clint had been sitting. Natasha wasn't exactly thrilled that Pepper was now going to start with girl time, but out of respect to the other woman she decided to stay and see where the conversation would lead.
"Hey I couldn't help but noticing the exchange between you and Clint, is there uh, anything going on there?" almost immediately Pepper began to get nosy.
"Nothing romantic has ever happened with regards to Clint and myself," Natasha was used to the constant questioning of people wondering if there was anything romantic between her and Clint. "We're just partners."
Pepper actually smiled off to the corner of the room before facing Natasha again. "No," she shook her head and Natasha actually peered at Pepper oddly, with her eyebrows low, her eyes squinted, and a titled head. Not often did she convey such strong body language that could be easily interpreted.
"What do you?" Natasha began to answer her question but stopped halfway.
"I saw how you looked at him," Pepper clarified. "It was a look I'd seen many times before. For some crazy reason I was attracted to Tony before we actually became official, if you know what I mean. Back then I remember looking at myself in the mirror and thinking about Tony, I would see something in my eyes. At first I honestly had no idea what I was looking at until it hit me one day."
Tony and Pepper's romance wasn't something Natasha wanted to know the inside details about. She'd dealt with their hopeless flirting before when she had been assigned to Tony as a SHIELD shadow. It had been almost painful to watch. Not to mention Pepper had held a big grudge against her at first because her methods of getting close to Tony hadn't exactly been professional.
"I can see the same thing in your eyes when you look at Clint," Pepper smiled at her. "It's a kind of warm look you get when you look at someone you hold close to your heart."
Natasha rolled her eyes. "This isn't a soap opera. There doesn't have to be romance around every corner."
"I've seen him look at you the same way," Pepper hit the defensive almost immediately. "Love isn't something you choose Natasha. Sometimes you don't even realise you're in love until one day it will just hit you. There are people you meet and you see them and you think, I like that, that's attraction. Love is when you meet someone and you think, not bad they're ok, and then you get to know them and suddenly they're this amazing person you just couldn't bear to lose."
Natasha sat there, unblinking and expressionless as Pepper finished her grand speech. Natasha was not ready to change her views just because of a woman that watches too much drama TV with love triangles and secret romances. "Love is for children," she remained adamant.
Pepper looked at Natasha's shoes running her tongue across her top teeth in thought. "If you really think that then you'll be able to look me in the eye and tell me exactly what you think of Clint without looking away or lying."
"You do know that I'm one of the best spies in the entire world don't you?" Natasha could see many flaws in Pepper's plan. "You would have no idea when I'm lying to you and I have starred mass murderers in the eye and told them to their face that I find their line of work highly attractive."
As expected Pepper halted, giving Natasha a strange look before talking again. "Then I'm asking you as a friend, not as a spy."
"Pepper, nothing has ever happened between me and Clint like that and it never will," Natasha sighed and rubbed her face, thinking back to the night Clint had been drunk and kissed her. What JARVIS had said to her, maybe the AI hadn't kept its mouth shut as promised and mentioned things to Pepper. It would explain her sudden interest into Natasha's love life.
"Look me in the eye," Pepper was strangely cocky for someone who was challenging Natasha Romanoff.
Natasha looked up, met Pepper's eye, and froze halfway through the first word of her sentence. She wanted to say that she didn't love Clint but the words wouldn't form right in her mouth. She couldn't love Clint though. Natasha Romanoff was The Black Widow, a ruthless killer. She couldn't love people, it was against her nature. Clint was just her partner, her friend, an ally. Nothing more.
She was allowing herself to get confused and emotional, she had to get a hold of herself. It was like meeting Phoenix had triggered an emotional overload in her mind. She was feeling sympathy for an enemy. This couldn't be tolerated. It was essential that she got a hold of herself. But she couldn't.
Thinking about Clint, really thinking about him, Natasha brought every little detail about him into her mind. His appearance, the way Natasha could talk to him about anything, the way he could go from being an agent of SHIELD to a real person in a matter of seconds, the way he could communicate with Natasha without even moving a finger.
Clint Barton, Hawkeye. Her ally, her friend.
Oh no, this was defienetly the worst trouble Natasha had ever landed herself in.
Natasha put a hand over her mouth and looked at Pepper who anticipated Natasha's answer with giddiness. "This is bad," with her hand still over her mouth Natasha's words were mumbled but Pepper heard her loud and clear.
"I knew it," Pepper went to hug Natasha but stopped, as if remembering that the woman sitting next to her could knock her unconscious faster than humanely possible if she made the wrong move. "Natasha this is huge, you need to tell him."
"No, that won't be happening anytime soon," Natasha shook her head. "That would be bad. This is already bad. This is about as far from good as you can get."
"Then why are you smiling?"
It hadn't even occurred to Natasha that her facial muscles had been pulling her lips into a small smile. She quickly wiped it from her face and mentally scolded herself for subconsciously showing too much emotion. He face became serious again and she faced Pepper with a hard glare.
"No, I'm not saying anything to anyone and neither are you," Natasha felt like slapping herself. "If this gets out I'll be signing my own death notice."
"What's the worst thing that can happen?" it was almost funny how naïve Pepper was. "It's not the like the whole world will explode if people find out."
"When Director Fury is your boss you have to be prepared for every outcome," Natasha spoke calmly. "I have seen him practically toss people out of SHIELD for having non-professional relationships with each other. I'm not exactly comfortable with risking my position at SHIELD for romance. Besides, the only reason I'm even thinking about Clint in that way is because people keep bringing it up. It'll wear off in a week anyway and I'll look back and laugh at the time I thought of Clint that way."
"No," Pepper was still holding up her part of the argument even though she was fighting a losing battle. "It doesn't work like that Natasha. You've fallen for him and you know it."
Natasha abruptly stood up and looked down at Pepper. "Mention this to anybody and Tony will be waking up with a dead body next to him," Natasha warned. "Goodnight Pepper."
With those last words it was just a quick moment of storming for Natasha to reach the lift. No way in hell was she going to fall in love with her partner. Romantic drama was created in a fictional universe and it can damn well stay there. Natasha Romanoff blatantly refused to fall in love with Clint Barton. They're just partners, that's all they will ever be. Natasha will not become just another woman to fall in love and loose herself. She is not falling in love with Clint.