A/N: Sorry it's up kind of late, I had to do English homework. Not sure how long it'll be until chapter 3, since I'm back in school now. I hope you enjoy it...it's mostly flashbacks of good times and lots of Clintasha fluff. The bit at the end was something that came to me...not sure how it turned out.

REVIEW! Please. If you review, I will love you forever, because they really encourage me. It doesn't even take that long! Just put your thoughts in that little box.

Shout out to my bff, PJ, I hope you like it.

Enjoy!

-DP

Chapter 2: Flying

"He's not coming back."

He wasn't coming back, but she could pretend. She could remember. It hurt, but then, she didn't really have a choice, did she?

"Ready for an adventure, Nat?" he asked, a big grin on his face like he was a little kid again. She couldn't help but love that grin.

"It's a wedding," she pointed out. "That hardly qualifies as an adventure."

"It's Tony Stark's wedding," he pointed out, and she had to concede the point. His expression changed from something playful to something more serious. "You look beautiful, by the way. Trying to put the bride to shame?"

She swatted him, wondering why the compliment made her feel suddenly light – she got compliments from men often, and had long since stopped taking any meaning from them. She got into the car, and they rode in silence for a while.

"You're gonna dance with me, right?"

She looked up, startled. "You want me to dance with you?"

"Well, usually you're trying to kill me, so I think this will be a nice change," he said cheerfully. "Unless, of course, you don't want to dance with me, in which case I would be hurt, but hey, it's your decision."

"Of course I'll dance with you, Hawkeye."

"Did you just call me "hot guy"?"

She groaned at the familiar line and just shook her head, laughing the way only Clint could make her laugh.

There had been something about Clint that had broken down the emotional wall that she'd carefully built up around herself. No one else had managed it.

"Clint!" she shrieked, as he grabbed her around the waist, pulling her down on his lap. He laughed, and she felt his warm breath tickle her ear, a sharp contrast to the cold night air.

"That's my girl."

"I'm not your girl," she protested, but for some reason, her cheeks warmed slightly. It was ridiculous! She'd been in much more intimate situations, yet Clint, her partner was making her stomach flutter? She buried her face in his shoulder so that he couldn't see her blushing.

Too late.

"Are you blushing, Nat?" He sounded surprisingly serious.

"Of course not. It's cold," she scoffed. She was the Black Widow, for God's sake, why was she blushing?

He took her face in his hands and forced her to look into his deep, beauteous blue eyes. "Natasha Romanoff," he whispered, like it was something to be revered, and she shivered. He leaned forward slowly, slowly, his eyes never leaving hers…

The balcony door banged.

"Uh, sorry," Steve mumbled, clearly embarrassed. He fled back inside.

"Don't move, or the moment will be broken," Clint told her, when she tried to pull away, her senses having been returned.

"What moment?" she tried to bluff, but he raised his eyebrows. "I mean it's already broken, Steve just interrupted, not that there was anything to interrupt," she babbled. She never babbled.

"Tasha, shut up and let me kiss you." Clint commanded. She did better than that.

She kissed him first, so fiercely she knocked over both of their hot chocolates, all over Tony's balcony.

Neither of them really cared.

That was back in December, and they'd been "together" (or something like that) ever since. It had scared Natasha how much this man meant to her, and she been afraid everything would be yanked away from her, the way love always was.

Now it had been.

"Merry Christmas, Nat. Now close your eyes," Clint told her softly. She caught a brief glimpse of a fire in the fireplace, a huge stack of presents (Tony's doing – he liked to wrap things in boxes twice the size of the present), and a lit tree. Then his hands covered her eyes.

"What's the surprise?" she asked cautiously.

"Just wait and see." She heard the smile in his voice. "You look beautiful, by the way," he added.

She smiled and felt a familiar fluttery feeling. "Thanks. Now about that surprise…"

He chuckled and steered her farther into the room, finally seating her in a chair – unfortunately to in his lap. Somehow, he still kept her eyes covered.

"Can I see yet?"

"Alright." He removed his hands.

She glanced around the room, not seeing anything different, and her eyes were drawn to him. "Hey, handsome," she teased, seeing him all dressed up in a suit. "Someone's looking good. I'm not sure what the surprise is though."

"Me, of course. What could be better?" He winked and she laughed, because she didn't want anything else, not if he was an option. "No, I do have something for you, I would be a jerk otherwise," he confessed, and she laughed again. He placed a surprisingly heavy envelope in her hands. "Don't' open this now – you'll know when the time is right." Then he handed her a surprisingly light box saying, "You're a hard woman to shop for, Tasha."

"You didn't need to get anything," she told him, frowning, but he shook his head.

"I would be a jerk if I didn't get something for the woman I love." He smiled apologetically, but she was too busy thinking.

He loved her. He loved her.

"Love is for children, Clint," she whispered, but without confidence. She just sounded scared, because her walls were shattering around her, and she didn't know if she was ready for that.

"You always said I acted like a child." He kissed her cheek. "I don't expect you to say it back. I just want you to know… I promise I'll always be there, even when you don't want me."

"You're gonna be old and gray, Legolas," she managed, and he laughed. She took a deep breath and looked down at the present that she'd been unwrapping in her lap. "I don't understand." She looked at Clint questioningly. "An iPod?"

"Look a little closer."

She pushed a button, surprised to see that the little device was fully charged, since she doubted they were sold that way. But more than that, there was music already on the device, music that stirred old memories…

"How did you know?" she demanded, staring down at a list that included several Russian songs from her childhood, classic American songs that Clint had once tried to educate her on, and some of her personal favorites. She hadn't realized how much Clint remembered.

"Because I know you," he replied. She kissed him, wondering what she had done to deserve him.

Clint. What was she supposed to do without him? Sometime in the last few months, she'd fallen hard for him, and now he wasn't there to catch her.

"I love you, you know?" he whispered, staring at her in amazement.

She smirked. "That's because I just saved your ass from assassins and you're still in shock, hot guy." She sheathed her pistols and kissed him briefly on the cheek, a breach of protocol, but who was going to protest?

"No," he said seriously, "Nat, you are amazing and I love you."

She whipped a pistol out, shooting a missed assassin over his shoulder. "Haven't you got any better places to have this conversation?"

"I'm keeping it real," he said, winking, and she smiled reluctantly.

As she turned away, she spoke in a carrying whisper, "I love you too, Clint." A moment later, she felt his arms around her.

"Better to have loved and lost then never to have loved at all." Whoever had said that had obviously never been in love.

"Superheroes? In New York?" Tony joked.

"What are you talking about, I don't see any heroes," Natasha told Tony, smirking. But when she turned back to the little boy, her face was gentle.

"What's your name?"

"Will."

The Avengers were doing a special presentation in New York, at Nick Fury's request, and many people were coming up to talk to them. It felt especially strange to Natasha and Clint, former assassins used to hiding, but Tony seemed to enjoy it.

"Who's your favorite hero, Will?" Clint asked, though it was fairly obvious by his costume.

"Iron Man!" Will exclaimed, staring at Tony with such adoration that even Natasha's heart melted a little. Clint squeezed her hand.

"Hey, buddy," Tony said, grinning.

"Here he goes again," Bruce sighed, before turning to smile and talk to someone else.

Tony shook hands with Will, talking excitedly and generally making the boy hero-worship him even more. Eventually, the boy and his mom moved on, and three teenagers took their place.

"Oh my God, it's Hawkeye," the teen on the left, a red-haired girl, hissed to the other two. She and the teen on the right, a brown-haired boy, were dressed like Clint. The dark-haired girl in the middle was dressed like Natasha, which Natasha found kind of weird.

"This is like all of your dreams come true," agreed the other girl. "She would marry you if she could, you know," the girl added louder, obviously speaking to Clint. "Liz is crazy that way. I mean, she would if she didn't think you and Black Widow were meant to be."

"Well," Clint said, glancing in amusement at Natasha, "I'm taken."

When he leaned over to kiss Natasha softly on the lips, the three teens looked weirdly as though all of their dreams were coming true. Maybe because Natasha was feeling happier than she'd ever been.