SHIELD land headquarters, New York City, September 2012.
Natasha stepped out of the showers into the training room, where her partner was practicing shooting with a new set of trick arrows. She smiled.
"Clint," she called.
He didn't answer. Natasha realized that he must not have been wearing his hearing aids, since she knew he enjoyed the silence sometimes.
She walked up behind him. Sensing her presence, he turned around and smiled.
"Hey Nat," he said, putting in his hearing aids. "Need a sparring partner?"
"Nah, just showered," she said.
He nodded and turned back to his target.
"Clint."
He shot an arrow into the bulls-eye.
"Hmm?"
"Last week, when you said that thing about Budapest…"
Clint grinned.
"You and I remember Budapest very differently," he repeated.
Natasha hesitated.
"What did you mean?" she asked.
Clint chuckled and put his bow down on the table, taking a swig of water.
"Well," he began, adjusting his arm bands, "you probably remember the FUBAR'd gunfight. What was it, ten or so guards against you?"
"Twenty," she corrected.
"Yep. I remember Fury sent me to take you in for working with Shostakov, and then I saw you kill him first. So I made a different call."
Natasha sat on the table and touched his bow.
"Why?" she whispered, after a while.
Clint sighed. Phil always told him to trust his instinct, and something was telling Clint to spare the life of his fiery red-headed target that day. A gut feeling, and he still wasn't sure why. Maybe it was the fact that he saw a bit of himself in her – the good and the bad. He saw a lost, mindless soul who was incapable of trusting anybody, and he knew a little of what that was like.
The Swordsman. Barney. Natasha knew everything. Phil had given Clint a second chance, so he decided to do the same with Natasha. And so, emulating his mentor, the hawk took the vicious, broken spider under his wing.
"You know why," he said finally, passing her an arrow.
She got off the table and aimed at the target with Clint's bow, missing the bulls-eye by a few inches.
"Not too bad," said her partner.
Natasha rolled her eyes and grabbed a nearby gun, hitting the bulls-eye six times with each lazy flick of her hand.
Clint chuckled.
"The fighting isn't all I remember from Budapest," said Natasha quietly. She looked up at her partner, nonchalantly fumbling with the SHIELD logo on her shirt. The Black Widow never allowed anyone except Clint to see her like this – indebted, thankful. He could only recall one other person who Natasha had ever looked grateful to – Phil, when he officially gave her Clearance Level Six and a trusting smile, welcoming her to SHIELD.
She pulled her partner closer and wrapped her arms tightly around him. Clint smiled and buried his face into Natasha's sweet-smelling, slightly damp hair.
"Thanks for making that call," she whispered.
A.N.: Yayyy finished! I wrote this entire story on a mega long road trip in the car haha. Here's a timeline:
1983: Clint Barton born
1986: Natasha Romanoff born
1995: Phil rescues Clint (Clint is 12, Phil is 31)
2005: Budapest (Clint is 22, Natasha is 19, Phil is 41)
2008: Clint loses hearing (Clint is 25, Natasha is 22, Phil is 44)
2012: Avengers (Clint is 29, Natasha is 26, Phil is 48)
Hope you liked!