Title: Out On the Moonlit Floor
Rating: PG/K
Originally posted: 24th August 2024
Originally written for: inkvoices – 'This is a love story. It must be; it's got kissing in it.'
Characters/Pairings: Clint/Nat
Notes: for Be_Compromised Summer Promptathon 2024
She knew better than to think it was that simple. To think that falling on her feet and falling in love went hand-in-hand. After all, love was for children, something akin to fairytales and magic. It meant nothing to adults. Certainly, it meant nothing to a woman like her.
Yet, Natasha had to wonder if she could really kid herself that she was so very jaded. With the life she had lived so far, it would be easy to say she was, but these last few months, there had been a marked change in the course of her journey, even in Natasha herself. She never expected to be saved. She hadn't even realised she needed saving, until him.
Clint Barton was the kind of person she never even knew existed until she met him. Until he chose to make a different call and handed her a chance that she had never even known she had a right to wish for. At first, he was her saviour, and then, almost her sponsor. Now, as a part of SHIELD, he was her willing mentor-turned-partner, and more than that, perhaps the truest friend she had ever had in her life.
She already lost count of the number of missions successfully completed. It was a lot of black ops, undercover work, basically fighting and sneaking and lying, just as she had as a Black Widow, but for the good guys this time. At least with Clint she was certain that there would be no chance of a double-cross, not with him at her side. She trusted him, and what was perhaps more of a miracle, he trusted her. Completely, implicitly, without a moment's hesitation, and from the very beginning.
How could she not love him for that? How could she do anything but fall hopelessly, helplessly, head over heels, for a charming, good-looking, trustworthy, single man, who saved her life and vowed to help her keep it safe from here on out?
When they were out on mission, playing the part of a couple, which they so often did, how could she not inhabit the role entirely and wish, with that corner of her heart that still held onto some shred of hope and innocence, that it might be real someday?
Maybe it was all a fantasy. Maybe it was pushing the fairytale too far to think he could save her and help her and love her too. Yet, when the couple they were playing attended a ball, dressed up to the nines, and he asked her to dance, she found it so difficult to remember they weren't on a real date. When he swept her into his arms and moved her effortlessly around the floor, she wished it was the dream that it seemed to be. When he made a big deal of kissing her, just to get close enough to whisper secret plans in her ear, she had to fight to keep her concentration on the job at hand.
Surely, at some point, there had to be a happy ending to the tale, Natasha thought. "Assuming we both live long enough to see it," she added, under her breath, realising a man on the other side of the ballroom had recognised them. "We've been made," she said crossly, adding a couple of muttered Russian curses for good measure.
"Come on, like the most fun part of these things isn't almost getting caught," said Clint, a smirk on his lips and a glint in his eye as he pulled her a little closer. "Well, maybe it's the second most fun part," he decided, right before he kissed her lips one more time. "Let's go."
Shots were fired within moments, giving Natasha barely a second to process, but it was long enough. Maybe this was a love story, with a potential for a happy ending, after all.
