WHO Clint Barton & Natasha Romanoff WHAT Checking in WHEN Recently-ish (sometime this past week) WHERE Nat & Bruce's bedroom WARNINGS Endgame Spoilers, Clint is a weirdo, idk. STATUS Closed | Incomplete GDoc
Clint wasn't often one to deny someone contemplative private time, but when Natasha did it for extended periods of time and Bruce was acting worried over it, he got concerned. The network had been vague at best, which just didn't fly with Clint. Not when it came to Nat. Ordinarily, or at least in his version of things, she'd just disappear off the face of the earth for a little while and come back when she was ready. That wasn't exactly possible to do in Madison Valley so he knew where she was. He just didn't know what she was doing or why she was isolating herself.
He was willing to give it a couple of days, but after that he decided to take matters into his own hand. When Bruce was at work, he decided it was time to strike. Letting himself in was never his style - that was all Nat - so he decided to go with a different method. With a few small rocks in hand, Clint climbed up a nearby tree and started throwing them at her bedroom window to get her attention. He kept it going at a steady rhythm until one time he didn't hear the clink against glass, but the soft thud of it hitting carpet. She'd opened her window.
With a grin, he waved cheerfully. "Hey, Nat. Fancy seeing you here."
Natasha had appreciated Bruce letting their friends know she needed some space for a while, processing everything on her own was hard enough without everybody else talking about it or asking her what was wrong. She’d face them all soon but for now she was appreciating the downtime. Or she was until she heard something hit her window. At first she thought it was a bird dropping something or the wind but when it happened again and again she realised it was deliberate.
Opening the window she saw and heard the culprit immediately, “Barton, what are you doing here?”
With a not so innocent look on his face, Clint lifted both hands palms up to show his surrender. "Just came to check up on my favorite redhead." He could say that without fear of retribution because she was the only one within earshot. "Usually the whole seclusion thing means something bad happened," he pointed out as he climbed along the tree branch to the edge. Clint made a jump for the roof and grinned when he landed on his feet.
"You can tell me to get lost," he offered. "I know I'm not the Clint you know, but I also know you and me? We're going to be close in pretty much any universe out there. So when you go through something that needs secluding? I'm going to at least do you the courtesy of kicking me out yourself." Sometimes the need to be alone was easy to stick to if you really were alone. Clint was hoping that showing up would get her to open up a little.
Natasha couldn’t stop a smile, of course it would be Clint who came to check on her despite Bruce’s best efforts to keep everybody away. Maybe it was time to talk though, and while it should be that Clint was the hardest one to talk to being that he wasn’t exactly her Clint meant it might not be as hard as expected.
“Just get your ass in here before you fall and break something” she told him, moving back from the window and making sure it was open wide for him to enter. “You’re lucky Bruce isn’t here” she added as he made his way through the window.
Clint grinned broadly when she officially invited him in. “Don’t worry. Rowan isn’t the type to sue. I don’t think.” He was definitely teasing as he climbed in through the window like he’d done it many times before. He had, just not this window. Usually it an apartment building in the city somewhere that he was sneaking into or out of.
“Why do you think I waited until he was at work?” Clint asked a little cheekily. He wanted to keep things light because he didn’t know what was going on with her. Whatever it was had clearly been bad, it if she wanted a distraction in another form, he’d gladly offer himself up for physical harm. “So. I don’t know how you guys usually do it, but I know you probably do it. Backup Clint to the rescue, alright?” He didn’t mind that they weren’t the same things to each other because she was still Nat and he was still Clint. The hard parts were crap like this but that wasn’t going to stop him from being there for her.
Nat laughed at that, she couldn’t help it, “Rowan likes me so I’m sure she wouldn’t blame me for you being an idiot” she told him, the sense of deja vu not lost on her either. She and her own Clint had done their fair share of climbing in and out of each others windows.
She rolled her eyes at him, so he’d purposely waited for Bruce to leave. Well at least it was a caring action, she appreciated that just as she appreciated his words. “Alright” she said before letting out a long sigh, “Let’s go get coffee, we’ll both need it” she told him, because he was right they were still Nat and Clint and while she might not want to she should probably talk about it all.
"That's more than fair," Clint agreed. Rowan was a good kid but he was under no delusions that he was a good guardian or anything. He was good in his own way at least. That mess with the vampire in New Orleans had helped cement that a bit. Coffee was like cold pizza - or any leftovers really - in that he was never going to turn it down.
"It's gonna be one of those things is it?" he asked as he followed her out of her bedroom. It was a little more homey than he was used to, but that was probably because of the different versions thing and the whole being married thing. Clint didn't pay too much attention though and opted to just stay quiet until he found himself at the kitchen table with a mug of hot coffee in hand.
"So. Out with it. Who died?" He clearly expected someone to be dead, possibly by her hand. He understood that. He'd killed Bruce, after all. It wasn't easy to deal with when it was someone that close.