A/N: Unfortunately my wonderful readers this is the last chapter of Love and Fire, but it is not end of Phoenix. I'm currently in the process of planning for the second story in this story called Ice and Fire and it will be set two months after this story and will involve everyone's favourite supervillian, I think you all know who. For the last time in this story, read, review and enjoy.
After Phoenix agreed to join SHIELD she was whisked away to Stark Tower immediately. She wasn't coping at SHIELD, and Fury had no intention of interviewing her until she was in a stable state of mind. Steve and Natasha escorted her, and she sat in the back seat of the car, tucking as much of her body as she could into the corner, remaining completely silent the whole trip.
The rest of the Avengers met them at the Tower, each of them attempted to greet Phoenix, who muttered their names whenever they spoke to her and looked at the floor. For the entirety of her first day at the Tower she followed Natasha like a shadow. Every loud noise, sudden movement or anytime anyone so much as talked in her presence she would jump and immediately retreat to the corner of the room. For the entire day she did not talk to anyone.
Tony managed to arrange a "small bedroom" for her which looked more like a master suite in a five star hotel. Phoenix didn't seem to have any arguments on the matter, and settled herself down at the insistence of Natasha. At around 3AM JARVIS notified Natasha that Phoenix was wandering around the tower, Natasha of course went to confront her, but Phoenix merely shrunk away from her in fear and quickly scattered back to her room.
Her second day at Stark Tower, Phoenix murmured, "Hello," to Natasha when she emerged from her bedroom. Somehow Natasha managed to get Phoenix to sit down calmly in the living area, and she managed to coax a few more words from her, mostly relating to how she felt about staying at Stark Tower. Director Fury showed up and discussed SHIELD training with Phoenix, who barely uttered more than five sentences.
She expressed a strong desire to do her training far away from New York and Stark Tower, mostly from the way she shook her head whenever the suggestion for her to stay in the United States came up. Fury eventually made up his mind and handed her a folder, stating that she would be leaving the day after next for a Special Ops Marine Training Base in a undisclosed location, apparently they had an agreement with SHIELD, and many agents had trained there previously. Natasha didn't ask.
Natasha hadn't had a proper conversation with Clint since their impulsive kiss in the elevator. She was too busy with Phoenix to worry about her romantic life, but the thought of what had happened had been a constant topic on her mind for the past several days. She kept stealing glances at Clint whenever they were in the same room together, and sometimes she would catch him looking right back at her. God it was so childish. Natasha felt like an idiot, acting the way she was. She would have to talk to him sooner or later, but the matter of Phoenix had to be dealt with first.
Phoenix's third day at Stark Tower was the day she had a full conversation with Doctor Banner without turning and running away. She met Pepper for the first time and interacted with her slightly, but she quickly moved away from her, clearly finding her manner too overbearing for what she was used to. She also lurked around outside one of Tony's laboratories for a small amount of time, intrigued by the rock music that he was playing. Tony noticed her, and invited her inside, introducing her to AC/DC in the process.
Late in the evening, Natasha found Phoenix in the hallway and approached her hesitantly, not wanting to surprise her and freak her out. Phoenix did jump when she heard Natasha, but did not bolt in the opposite direction. "Agent Romanoff," she kept her head down as she spoke.
"Hi Phoenix," Natasha greeted, falling into step beside Phoenix, she began discussing something that Natasha had been concerned about since yesterday. "I think it's too soon for you to be going off on a full SHIELD training course. You've only had a three day break. That's nowhere near enough time to recover from what happened."
"I can't stay here any longer," Phoenix shook her head, rubbing her left arm as she talked while avoiding Natasha's eyes. "I have to get away from all this, it's too much. This training that I'll be doing is what I'm used to, it'll distract me from...everything. It's important that I do this. I have to move on."
Natasha nodded in understanding, she got everything Phoenix said because she'd experienced it herself once before. "Are you going to come back here or move on completely?"
"I think I will come back," Phoenix told her sounding confident.
"Best news I've heard all day," Natasha turned around to match the voice to a person and saw Clint walking towards them. She kept a straight face when really she became anxious to leave the scene as soon as possible. No way in hell was she ready to face him yet. "We'll miss you Phoenix."
"Ok," Phoenix shrugged, unsure of what to say, and looked from Natasha to Clint, he was now watching the other assassin closely. Phoenix didn't really know much about normal interaction but she could tell that Clint wanted to speak with Natasha alone. "I'll go now."
"I'll see you before you leave in the morning," Natasha called after Phoenix who exited the scene quickly as she retreated to her room, leaving Natasha alone with Clint. A situation Natasha was not ready to face. Before she could say anything or even try to leave Clint met her eyes with a stare that demanded she stay and not run away, so she didn't move.
"You've been avoiding me," Clint stated after a minute of awkward silence.
"I've been busy with Phoenix," Natasha told him, intent on getting away whenever she could.
"You're the best liar I've ever seen but I'm not an idiot Nat," Clint scoffed. "You've been avoiding me and I think we both know why."
Natasha looked him up and down and then folded her arms, refusing to look him in the eye. "Why don't we just both forget about everything that happened and move on," the words tasted bitter on her tongue as Natasha released them from her mouth unwillingly.
"I don't want to forget it." Natasha's eyes finally met his and he laughed in spite of himself. "Look Natasha if you want to move on from this that's fine, but I'm not moving on. I actually care about you and I know that we're friends and partners but that's not going to change anything to me, or how I see you. Because I see you Nat, not just as an assassin or a spy, but as a friend, more than a friend actually. I see you as the person you really are and this whole speech sounded a lot better when I was practising it in the bathroom mirror."
Natasha, for one of the first times in her life, was both stunned and speechless at the sudden declaration of emotions from her partner. He looked at her expectantly but she could find no words, biting on her lip and looking down at the ground, she grasped around in her mind for any possible way she could respond.
"You seriously practised what you were going to say in a mirror?" were the only words Natasha could form properly.
"Natasha I just need a straight up answer here," Clint was being serious and that's exactly how Natasha knew she wouldn't be able to avoid confrontation any longer. "I don't want some sappy declaration of love because I know you're not the kind of person that does that, but I need to know if you see any sense or any possibility of this working."
"Any possibility of what working I don't even know what you're talking about," continuing to lie through her teeth, Natasha was still adamant on getting away from the situation. She wasn't ready to confess anything to anyone yet, especially not Clint.
"Us Natasha," Clint replied in a low, almost pleading voice. "I'm probably being delusional here but when we kissed in that elevator, it wasn't just me. I know that we're partners, and that romance is a taboo subject among SHIELD agents but I'm beyond caring about that now. Can I have a straight answer this time because I think I deserve that much at least?"
Natasha was still unable to form a sincere statement and run it through in her head to make sure she wasn't saying anything stupid, so this time the only thing she could do was talk without thinking. Probably one of the dumbest things she'd ever done but it was her only option if she was going to be fair to Clint.
"I do see the sense in it Clint and if there were any way then I would be more than willing to try this," she answered, surprised at the truth in her own words. "Over the past month I've come to realise that I do care about you in that way and no one was more shocked than me because I always make a rule wherever I go that I don't have romantic relations with any co-workers, but obviously this time I broke that rule."
"Seriously?" Clint was a little bit shocked now. "So that kiss was not just me , you were actually kissing me back? I thought I imagined that."
"It was a good kiss," Natasha gave him a small smile which he returned with an odd laugh and a ridiculous grin.
For a minute Clint didn't know what to say, until something came into his head. "I know this great Chinese place not too far from here. I know you're not really happy about the fraternizing with co-workers thing, but personally I think we could try one date."
"What if we get caught?" Natasha asked with a smirk.
"We won't get caught," Clint shrugged. "We are the best covert spies in the world, I think we can at least try having a secret relationship."
Natasha laughed and shook her head, meeting Clint's eyes once again and smiling. "This is possibly one of the craziest things we have ever done ."
"So that's a yes then?" Clint joked, causing both of them to start laughing. He moved to stand by her side an surprisingly she didn't say anything when he took her hand in his and they walked together back towards the lift. "You're right by the way, this is a bad idea. For one thing we're already moving way too quick, and Fury has eyes everywhere. Not to mention if Tony begins to suspect anything he'll follow us around everywhere."
"You know for once I don't actually care," Natasha said as they stepped into the elevator.
They finalised the decision of their new relationship as Natasha wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him towards her. Clint was quick to react, smiling against her lips as he put his own arms around her waist. This time they could both genuinely enjoy their kiss, as they decided to go against everything they knew was right.