Thanks for reading guys! I was afraid no one was even looking at the thing. Anyway, here's the official first chapter of the story:

For the better part of his life, Clint was a loner. His childhood was an alarmingly short memory for him. His teen years were times of wandering, looking for places to fit in, to feel safe, but never really finding anything. He bounced around from city to city, joined the circus, got taken under the wing of a skilled archer and found that combined with his perfect eyesight he made the perfect knife thrower. Archery became his favorite sport and the bow and arrow always his weapon of choice.

Even after Fury dug him out of the Iowa State correctional system after he stupidly stole a car at the age of 21 and recruited him into SHIELD as a marksman, he continued to favor the bow and arrow and it became something of a calling card. Clint rose up in the ranks of the organization and became a favorite of Fury and the rest of the council.

Until he was sent on a mission to take out a hired killer in Italy and instead found himself paralyzed by a green pair of eyes and a flash of red hair.

Over time Natasha had become more than the mission he broke orders on, more than the girl he saved. He spent her first few weeks at SHIELD watching her, lurking in the shadows or up high on his favorite perches studying her from afar, trying to figure out what he had seen in that moment that had prevented him from taking the shot. When he thought back to those first few months he couldn't remember when exactly it was that he first started having feelings for her and he thought perhaps he was always in love with her. Thanks to Fury she became his partner, thanks to Phil Coulson she became his friend. It was after a post-mission talk over a few beers that Phil had suggested Clint try and spend time with Natasha outside of their missions together. He saw something where Clint didn't, he probably even knew back then that Clint was in love with her all along.

So he took his handler's advice.

One night after they were briefed over an easy in and out mission Clint asked Natasha if she wanted to grab a beer and pizza. She gave him a puzzled look and stayed silent for so long he almost turned and walked away in embarrassment but then she shrugged and said sure.

He took her to his favorite pizza joint that served slices on paper plates and beers in plastic cups. A ball game was on and Natasha seemed amused by the dedication and enthusiasm of the fans. Clint hadn't thought about the fact that she wasn't raised to love a sports team so he explained it to her, from the diehard fans to the sports nuts that watched everything. He told her about Sunday afternoons spent watching football games and how baseball was still America's sport in his mind, all peanuts and popcorn and Applejacks. He even sang a few bars of Take Me Out to the Ball Game. She stared at him like he was an idiot but then she burst out laughing. They spent the rest of the night cheering on the team with the rest of the fans, high-fiving each other and other patrons in the bar. It was the first time Natasha had given him a genuine smile, and he thought it was one of the most beautiful things he had even seen in the world.

They went on through the motions, missions together and apart. Sparring, exercising, debriefing, their work was impeccable and their partnership and relationship grew stronger. The pizza and beer nights became a tradition, sometimes Phil joined them but mostly it was just the two of them. Soon, those nights extended well after the ball games were over, ending up in one of their apartments sitting on the couch or on Clint's rooftop patio, one of his favorite places.

They grew closer and Clint told her all about his past, the demons he had struggled with, his recruitment to SHIELD, his previous marriage. Natasha's walls eventually came down and she shared her past with him, from the childhood joys to every brutal moment of her time as a young woman. The first time he kissed her was on the roof, after she taught him a few curse words in Russian and he tried to teach her the electric slide. She had tripped over his foot and brought her down with him, they were both laughing and he was leaning over her, her hands splayed out on his chest and he kissed her. She tasted like beer and cinnamon and her lips were softer than he expected but he still thought it ranked in one the top ten best moments of his entire life. When he thought back on it, Natasha's reflexes were so sharp that she rarely ever took a misstep, he wondered if she had even tripped it all, if she had planned it all out ahead of time. He decided it really didn't matter, he was glad it had happened.

Their private moments continued and no one was the wiser to their blooming relationship. Each moment Clint fell more and more in love with her but he knew he had to be careful.

Sex was frequent for the couple and Clint felt their sex life was pretty amazing. Their strength and agility as well as their mutual preference for a little roughness left both of them gasping after each love-making session. It was after one incredible time together, which involved bondage and experimental positions that left them both screaming in pleasure when he finally worked up the courage to say it. They were laying together, breathing hard in post-coital bliss, and he turned and whispered into her ear, "I love you." Her breath hitched and he stopped breathing for a moment too until he heard her say softly, "I love you too." In that moment he knew she was the one.

After a mission in South America with too many close calls left Natasha with a broken arm and Clint with a broken rib they decided to get married. They asked around until they were directed to a village outside Rio De Janeiro and asked a Native Shaman to do it. The marriage may not have been legal or recognized anywhere outside of this region but it was real to them. Instead of rings they got tattoos on their left hands – she got an tiny arrow on the inside of her ring finger and he got a black spider on the inside of his. No paper trail, no evidence that it ever happened should one of the two be interrogated, no one really knew anything about it; there was nothing to compromise them. And that was the way they liked it.

But saving the world, Loki's mind control, their new group of super friends had changed everything. Loki knew their secret; he knew all of Clint's feelings for Natasha, every second and every action of their life together. They were compromised. All their safeguards were for not against an enemy they never could have anticipated. Even with Loki off the planet and most of SHIELD still in the dark about the extent of their relationship they knew things could not remain as peaceful as they had been. Coulson was gone; he had been the only person who knew their relationship extended beyond that of a working partnership, he was their buffer to the rest of the world.

Natasha could feel Clint's struggle with his feelings about the situation. He was still there, still with her, but things weren't the same, he felt like nothing would ever be the same again. His feelings for her were still so intense but he knew she could feel his hesitation every time they were close to each other. Come back to me, he could almost hear her saying every time she looked at him, every time she reached for him and he flinched away.

"He's in love with you." He finally said one after what seemed like hours of silence.

"What?" Natasha turned to him. They were on his favorite perch on the top floor of Stark Tower.

"Loki." He looked at her, then down at his hands. "He's in love with you."

"How do you even know this?"

"I could feel it. All my feelings, about you, were transferred to him, when he took over my mind with that thing." He gestured with his hand sharply, "Every thought I ever had about you, every moment," his eyes darkened as he emphasized this word, "we ever shared, he knew them all. He fell in love with you, like I did."

"But he's not in your head anymore, you know this. That link is gone"

"How do you know those feelings didn't go away? I saw the way he looked at you, before Thor took him back. It's the way I look at you."

"Clint," she said softly, taking his hand, "He's gone, back on Asgard, a whole other dimension away. He's captured and he can't hurt us. He can't hurt you."

He shook his head, running his hand over his face, "It just all feels too simple. He knows everything about us-"

She brought his hand up to her lips to quiet him. "It is simple," she whispered, "We won. He can't hurt us."

He almost believed her.