Title: Love Means Never Having To Say 'I Love You'
Rating: PG/K+
Originally posted: 23rd September 2023
Originally written for: kiss_me_cassie - '"Shut up, I'm trying to confess my love to you"'
Characters/Pairings: Nat/Clint
Notes: for the be_compromised Summer Promptahon 2023 on Dreamwidth.

"Look, I know what you're going to say..."

Natasha highly doubted that was true, but she sat back with his arms folded across her chest and expected to be entertained by Clint's best guess. When he got like this, with the pacing and the awkward tone in his voice, it was usually best to let him get it all off his chest before she told him he was an idiot. She found it worked better than trying to interrupt at all. Led to less awkwardness, less real fights too.

"Last night, it was great, obviously. I mean, we may be spies who can lie for a living, but not to each other. Besides, even you're not that good."

That got him a 'harrumph' of indignation, but Natasha didn't actually deny he had a point, or maybe even several. Last night really had been kind of amazing and she absolutely did have a good time, which she supposed ought to have been obvious enough. She just refused to confirm or deny until he was done speechifying.

"Obviously, it wasn't supposed to happen. It wasn't any kind of plan, but with you in that dress, and the latest near-death experience being a little closer than I would've liked... I don't know, it just happened. We both know that it did, that it was great, but that it wasn't supposed to."

"You said that part already," Natasha reminded him flatly. "Just skip to the part where you call it a mistake, we chalk it up to experience, and move on, okay?" she advised, getting up from her chair, feeling more antsy than she liked and trying to cover it with fake boredom and indifference, because it was just easier that way. "It's not like I was expecting-"

"Will you shut up for two seconds?!" Clint cut her off with both his words and a hand grabbing a hold of her wrist - a risky move if he was anybody else manhandling the Black Widow in such a way. "Nat, I... I'm trying to confess my love to you," he told her helplessly.

Natasha was sure she had never actually seen real fear in his eyes before, but it was there right now. It was endearing and beautiful to her, not least because it matched her own that she had been trying to hide for days now.

"You love me?" she checked, hoping he couldn't hear the nerves in her voice, a tiny voice in her mind still telling her this couldn't be real, not really.

"You need more proof than last night and me babbling like an idiot this morning?" Clint checked.

She almost laughed, even though it wasn't all that funny. It was probably the rush of relief that came with his confession. Probably the joy in knowing she was loved by the only man she had ever felt so deeply for herself, and when she kissed him, she hoped he knew it, because she simply didn't have the words. For all the feats she had achieved in her life, all the death-defying stunts, and touch-and-go fights, it was speaking the truth of her heart that Natasha feared the most. Maybe she would get over that, some day. Not today, but someday.