Oh hey, guess who finished today's update early? This girl did! I believe you guys are going to have a damn heart attack from all the cuteness. I know I did. Anyways, here is chapter 6!
The school year had ended for Clint and Natasha, and summer was bound to be an adventurous one. Clint's parents were planning a day trip to Dorney Park, an amusement park located about an hour's drive away, for the middle of July. Steve and Thor would be away for two weeks while they went to baseball camp at Temple University in Philadelphia; they were both hoping to join the junior varsity team in the spring when they got to the high school.
Natasha's parents had somehow managed to put their differences aside for the time being to plan a trip to New York City to visit Natasha's grandparents. Natasha and her parents were still dirt poor, but her grandparents were filthy stinking rich. They lived on the Upper East Side of NYC – on Fifth Avenue to be exact – and they were your quintessential rich assholes. Natasha's family had been financially struggling for years, and her grandparents – her father's parents – hoarded their money as if they didn't have enough of it.
"I hate them," Natasha whined to Clint one day while they were lounging on Clint's back deck. "They don't like me. Every time I see them, they try to make me all lady-like. They make me drink tea and try to find me a husband that I should get married to when I'm 18."
Clint didn't like that comment, but he brushed it off. "Do they at least let you run around the city by yourself?" he asked. "I mean, your parents leave you home alone all the time. It would be pretty cool to gallivant around the city by yourself."
"I sure hope so," she said. "If I have to be cooped up in that fancy apartment, I might hurl. I might just take walks to the MET and sit on the steps and people watch like I usually do."
Clint wished he could go with her. He hated that she would be all alone in a city with family members who either despised her or didn't pay any attention to her. Not that she needed a lot of attention, but it's nice to be acknowledged every once in a while.
Natasha was gone for a week, so Clint spent that week with Steve and Thor. Clint and Thor would ride their bikes to the park while Steve coasted alongside them on his skateboard. They would usually meet up with Thor's older brother Loki and his classmates Maria and Pepper. Occasionally Barney and Tony would come along too. Barney would come just for something to do, but Clint noticed that Tony only tagged along just to see Pepper.
Once the week was over, Natasha had returned from New York City even more irritated than she was before. Her grandparents had apparently tried to bribe her with clothes and fancy gadgets in exchange for marrying a boy three years her senior named Alexei Shostakov.
When Clint heard this news, he tensed up. It was almost as if he wanted to punch the guy out for just being involved in this debacle.
"I'm used to this stuff happening. They try to promise me to some guy every time I see them but I always get out of it somehow," she said. "It was the fact that they bribed me to marry this Alexei guy. They know my family can't afford much so it was really upsetting that they would do that."
Natasha quickly changed the subject and Clint was glad that she did. He knew she didn't want to keep talking about it because it was obviously difficult to talk about. Clint, however, knew that if she kept talking about it, he would absolutely lose his temper. No one, not even her family, should treat Natasha that way, and Clint did not like it.
Summer passed by with flying colors. Clint and his family – along with Natasha, Steve, and Thor – finally made that trip to Dorney Park in the middle of July. They rode roller coasters, ate funnel cake, and got soaked on the water rides. All in all, it was one of the kids' highlights of the summer.
For the first two weeks in August, Steve and Thor were in Philadelphia at baseball camp, which left Clint and Natasha by themselves to ride out the last few weeks of summer before they had to be separated by different schools for another year. During the day, they would ride on Clint's bike to the park – Clint pedaled while Natasha balanced herself on the handlebars – and swing on the swings. By late afternoon, they would swing by Cherry Top and grab some ice cream with the money Clint's mom had given him. Natasha didn't like that she didn't have her own money to pay for ice cream and she usually felt like she was taking advantage of Clint and his family. Clint always insisted that it wasn't a big deal.
After eating their ice cream, Clint and Natasha would get back on Clint's bike and they would head back to his house for dinner with the rest of Clint's family. Natasha usually felt like she was imposing on family affairs as well, to which Clint's mother would always reply, "Natasha, you and Clint have been best friends since elementary school. You're practically part of the family."
It was a muggy night the week before school was about to start back up when Natasha and Clint were sitting around a campfire in Clint's backyard. They had roasted hot dogs, and roasted marshmallows to make s'mores, and now they were full and staring into the orange flames of the campfire. Clint and Natasha were sad that school was starting up in a week; this meant that they would barely be seeing each other.
Once Steve and Thor returned from baseball camp, football practice for the junior varsity team had started up. Clint had practice from eight to noon each day for the past week, and it would continue for the rest of the week until school started. Once school started, practice would be after school from four to eight. Throw in the games on the weekends, and that meant there was practically no time for Clint and Natasha to hang out. However, Clint had always told her that he will make time for her, no matter what.
Natasha stared into the flames as they danced around the firewood. When they were in fourth and fifth grade, being separated by schools was hard on them, especially Natasha since she feared the playground because of the bullies. But this year, Natasha wasn't sure how this separation was going to affect them. Since the events following Cupid's Ball, as well as the night of Clint's farewell dance, Natasha had sort of begun to develop feelings for her best friend. Sure she was only 13 – going on 14 in November – but there was no denying that she liked her best friend as more than a friend.
Clint was secretly feeling the same way. He didn't understand his actions, and he started to wonder if what Bobbi had said at the farewell dance was true. Did he really like his best friend as more than a friend?
"Do you still do archery, Clint?" Natasha asked, pulling Clint out of his thoughts.
"Huh? What? Oh yeah, every so often. Most of the time I do it when I get angry or stressed," he said. The day Natasha had told him about her trip to New York City was the last time he had took part in target practice. He had been so worked up about the Alexei guy being promised to her that he needed to do something to take his mind off of it. He had dug out his bow and arrow from the garage after she had left and dragged the target into the backyard. After about an hour of imagining the bulls-eye being the guy's head, Clint had let off enough steam and called it quits.
"Are you still good at it?" she asked.
"Is hitting the bulls-eye every single time considered good enough?" he teased as he turned to her and smiled.
"Stop being a jerk," she said, shoving him just a bit. "I was just wondering if you would teach me."
"Teach you what?" he asked.
"How to shoot a bow and arrow," she said matter-of-factly.
Clint was taken off-guard. He was really confused as to why she wanted to do this, but he realized that he didn't care. Secretly he was hoping that she wanted to do this so if her family members irritated her again, she could just take them out with one swift flick of a bow. Or she just wanted to spend more time with him.
"Yeah, okay. We can start tomorrow, but I'm going to let you know that I suck as a teacher," he said.
It was true. Clint was a horrible teacher. Normally very good at shooting a bow and arrow, he didn't quite know where to start.
"How about you show me how to hold the bow?" Natasha suggested with a giggle.
Clint laughed and demonstrated the correct way to hold the bow, as well as the stance and the correct posture. He then handed off the bow to Natasha to see if she could replicate the same stance. She demonstrated it, and Clint figured it looked good enough to him.
Clint wasn't sure if he should start her off with drawing the bow back with or without arrows, so he let her decide. She said she figured it might be easier without and so they practiced for about an hour drawing the bow back and releasing it without arrows.
After she had mastered the art of pulling the bow back without arrows, Clint decided it was time for her to actually try and shoot one. He grabbed his quiver and pulled an arrow out. He loaded up the bow to show her how to hold the arrow when it's pulled back – between the index and middle finger – and he released it. The arrow shot across the yard and lodged itself into the target, right on the bulls-eye.
When Clint was handing her an arrow to load into the bow, he noticed her left arm was extremely red from the bow string whipping up against it. He had forgotten to tell her to wear long sleeves so that it wouldn't hurt as much but clearly she didn't seem to notice or care. Either way, Clint stripped off his sweatshirt and handed it to her.
"I don't want you to get any bad welts or anything," he said when she rejected the offer. Only then did she graciously put on the sweatshirt and readied the bow. She still had a perfect stance but she didn't pull the bow back far enough and the arrow lost its momentum about halfway to the target once she released it.
Natasha kept going, pulling arrows out of the quiver and loading them into the bow, but failing miserably in her attempt to get them to hit the target. Once the quiver was empty, Clint ran across the yard to retrieve all of the arrows and brought them back for her to try again. Only this time around, Clint was going to help her, but of course, Natasha stubbornly said no.
"Nat, I'm just going to help this time. You're doing great so far," he said.
Natasha mumbled something incoherent under her breath but Clint still followed through with his plan. He let Natasha load the bow and get her stance ready. Clint was only going to help her with pulling the bow back and releasing it.
He positioned himself behind her, and wrapped his arms around her so that his hands were resting on hers. He wasn't sure why his heart was racing, or why it felt like there was an electrical current pulsing through his skin, but he tried to focus as hard as he could on helping her reach her target.
As soon as Clint put his hands over hers, Natasha's whole body had felt like she'd just gotten struck by lightning. His arms were around her and his hands were on hers. At this point, she had completely forgotten what she was supposed to be doing that she had relaxed a little bit on the bow.
"Nat, you have to pull up the bow and pull it back. It's a little low," he breathed in her ear. Her heart had begun to beat ten times faster. He was so close to her that she couldn't believe it.
"Oh sorry," she said, as Clint brought the bow back to its original height and helped her pull the bow string back. He pulled it back a little further, much farther than Natasha had originally been pulling it back, and told her to relax. She hadn't even noticed how tense her shoulders were. Whether that was just because she was just learning how to shoot a bow and arrow, or that Clint's arms were around her she wasn't sure. Either way, she relaxed her shoulders and let out a breath she hadn't even noticed she was holding in.
"Now relax your fingers, and let go," he said in her ear.
She did as she was told and let the arrow go. It felt like it was moving in slow motion from the moment she released it up to the point it hit the target. When it did, she squealed and jumped up and down in celebration.
"Clint, I did it! I did it!" she squealed. She tossed the bow on the ground and jumped up and wrapped her arms around Clint in a hug. Clint was completely caught off guard. He even had to take a step back to balance himself when her body slammed into his, but he wrapped his arms around her to reciprocate the hug.
She pulled back and looked Clint in the eyes. "I don't care what you say, you're a really great teacher," Natasha said.
"T-thanks," he stammered.
He set her down on the ground, breaking the hug, and they went to inspect where the arrow had lodged into the target. It was nowhere near the bulls-eye, but Natasha didn't care. At least she had managed to hit the target.
Clint pulled the arrow out and handed it to Natasha.
"You should keep this one, as a reminder of the first time you hit the target," Clint said.
Natasha gingerly took the arrow, and as she did, her fingers gently brushed against Clint's. She felt that same electrical current that she felt before. It felt like her skin was vibrating.
"Thanks. I'll display it right next to your Valentine," she said with a giggle. Clint smiled, and her heart began to race again.
There was no denying it. Natasha Romanoff was in love with her best friend, Clint Barton, and she couldn't help but wonder if he felt the same way.
Oh hormones, aren't they a fantastic thing? I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Maybe if I finish the next chapter before I go to bed tonight, it might be up later today. It's about 8:00 here, and I usually go to bed about 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning. So yeah, maybe I can have the next chapter up by later tonight, so keep checking your alerts if you've signed up for them!
Once again, thanks for clogging up my email with alerts that you have signed up for story alerts, author alerts, adding this story to your favorites, reviews, etc. But really, it means a lot so thank you. And as always, please review this chapter. I love reading what you guys think of the story so far!