Who: Clint Barton clint & Natasha Romanoff russianspy When: March 29th, after this. Where: Around Test City What: Perimeter sweep. Rating: General audiences Warnings: Language, but otherwise tame. Status: Closed/Completed GDoc
It had been a long time since Natasha was dropped into a situation without any direction, but at least she had a good number of weapons. The apartment complex had been easy enough to assess, and she’d thoroughly checked through her designated apartment, as well as her computer and mobile device. Nothing was bugged and the electronics were clean, which set off red flags for her. She wanted to check out the city around them. It might look like Roswell, New Mexico, but Natasha had been taken here unexpectedly. That meant it was entirely possible that the city wasn’t what it appeared to be.
Then there was the added point that Clint didn’t remember anything after eating shawarma with the rest of the team. After the Battle of New York, which had been almost two years ago for her. Tony and Pepper seemed to have knowledge of some other place and knew some of the others that had arrived, which was also a red flag. Checking out the city would come first, and then she and Clint could tag team recon on the others who had arrived in this Test City. She was still dressed in her battle suit, but it was a familiar layer that was just as much armor for her as the Iron Man suit was for Tony. Maybe he’d find enough to make her some new gadgets. The Widow Discs were one shot wonders, unfortunately.
She made her way to the front of the building, their designated meeting spot, and grinned when she saw him. Damn, but did he have a great ass, even in jeans. Natasha had burned nearly every cover, shared nearly every mission report, kill, and her history in the Red Room all so that she had a chance to be a hero. To be an Avenger. She’d protected Clint as much she could, and protected Coulson entirely, but she’d leaked enough about Clint to worry about him.
“I know you don’t know what happened, but damn. I’m glad to see you.” Natasha didn’t hesitate in her steps as she strode toward her partner. They weren’t into public displays of affection, but she needed it this once. Her arms wrapped around his neck as she pressed into him, crowding him as she hugged him.
“You missed a hell of a lot, you know.”
~*~
Confused didn’t even begin to cover how Clint felt. First Pepper was talking about a couch, and then Natasha was going on about a data purge…
None of it made any sense to Clint, but hell, he’d just roll right along with the punches as he always had. The one thing that did comfort him, however, was the simple fact that Natasha said she was coming to get him after the dump.
Clint knew that what she done must’ve been pretty big for her to be willing to do that for him.
He collected his gear, and tucked his cell phone down into the front pocket of his jeans. Sliding his sunglasses on, Clint stepped outside, making a straight line for the sign outside. His back was turned toward the apartment complex, arms folded over his chest while he waited. He didn’t have to wait for very long until he heard Natasha’s voice. Turning, he offered her a small smile in return, arms dropping down to his sides.
Clint sighed as her arms went around his neck, his own wrapping around her slender waist in a tight hug. “It’s good to see you too.” Although not as much time had passed since the last time he’d seen her. “Sounds like I did.” He chuckled softly, the sound rumbling through his chest before he pulled back, although he left his hands settled on Natasha’s sides.
“You’ll have to fill me in on what I missed. Which way do you want to head first?” Finally he broke contact with her, albeit reluctantly, and stepped back.
~*~
In the early days, Clint had been her touchstone to humanity, a way for her to check her reactions and thoughts against a base so that she could get better after the Red Room. It had taken her a long time to break those habits, to learn to want things again and make decisions for herself. It’d taken a full year after she was certain the Red Room was thoroughly dismantled before she could sleep without being handcuffed to the headboard. She’d come a hell of a long way, but it hadn’t felt like it when they’d first come up with the plan for her to infiltrate the World Security Council and dump everything on the web.
Feeling his arms around her, returning her hug, was exactly what she needed to center and focus. “It’s been an eventful two years, but in my timeline, I haven’t seen you in months.” Natasha pulled away and took the lead, letting him fall into step next to her. “You were off on mission, dark for the past two weeks. Turns out, HYDRA was inside SHIELD all along. We - Steve, Maria, Fury, and this new guy, Sam Wilson - took out the Insight carriers and I dumped a lot of information onto the web.” Sitreps were easy, between them. It hadn’t always been effortless, but they’d gotten there.
“I blew a lot of covers, burned a lot of bridges. Coulson was clean, but I kept as many of his files off the web as I could. You weren’t so lucky, given that a lot of our missions were together. More than a few of them were to HYDRA’s benefit. I dealt with Capitol Hill as eloquently as I could, but I wasn’t going to waste more than a day before going after you. I needed the time to get Steve a file he was after.” She glanced at him as they turned the corner. “You remember Odessa? 2009?” That hadn’t been fun to come back from.
“The Winter Soldier. Turns out, HYDRA took Steve’s childhood best friend, brainwashed him, gave him a bionic arm, and put him on ice between missions. They didn’t do such a good job of brainwashing Steve out of his memories. It’s not nearly enough, I don’t think, but whoever Barnes has become, he doesn’t remember all of who he was.” Natasha reached for his hand, twining her fingers with his.
“He was one of my instructors.”
~*~
Damn, a lot really had happened in two years apparently. Not that Clint would’ve thought otherwise considering the nature of their respective jobs, but damn. He took some time to process the information, all the way through Natasha stating that The Winter Soldier had been one of her instructors.
His eyes flicked down to their joined hands, and he gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “I do remember Odessa. At least he’s back with people who will take care of him. Hopefully in time things will work out.” That meant a lot. Clint had been there before, and the only thing that had brought him back was the people that cared about him.
The main one was walking by his side, but she was aware of that. Clint didn’t have to tell Natasha how much she meant to him, somehow he felt that she understood.
“You did what you had to do. HYDRA needs to be exposed, pure and simple, I don’t blame you for dumping the information out there.” He turned to look over at Natasha, offering her a smile as they continued to walk forward. “I’m glad you were coming for me, though I’m sure by the time shit hit the fan I was long gone.”
Clint couldn’t imagine why he would’ve stuck around knowing that all that information had been made public about him. The only reason would’ve been if he thought Natasha was in danger, then he probably would’ve stuck around.
“Sorry it’s been awhile since I’ve seen you in your timeline. At least we’ve got time together now, right?” It went without saying that they also didn’t have many threats looming over their heads either.
~*~
Natasha returned the squeeze, adding a small smile. She knew she could count on Clint to be understanding about what Barnes was going through. That she had a history with him might’ve complicated things, but she should have known better than to worry about it. “Steve’s pretty determined. I think it’ll be fine, in the long run. Just not sure how long that’ll be.” She remembered all too well being in Steve’s shoes, and she knew she was fucking lucky that Clint had only been under Loki’s control for a short while.
She’d had the chance to fuck with the trickster god, but Steve and Barnes would never get the chance to go after Zola or the rest of HYDRA’s muckymucks. Test City probably wasn’t going to be a walk in the park, but at least they all had each other. “I’ve never had too much trouble finding you. I wasn’t worried. It’s not like we’ve never done dark missions before, but with the mess…” Natasha trailed off, knowing that he was well aware of her feelings towards him. Maybe this place was a blessing in disguise.
“This place will be easier than back home, that’s for sure, but I don’t know if it’ll be too much of a walk in the park. Pepper said we were in a place called Composite City, and it routinely liked to fuck with us. I figure as long as we’ve got each other, it won’t be too bad. We’ve got most of our team here, and I’m thinking we scope out the others here, we’ll find a few allies.” Just being able to walk down the street hand in hand, without fear of exposure or something else, meant a lot to her. Her free hand fingered her arrow necklace lightly, just for a moment.
“Things can be different here, I think.” She paused, gave him a small smile, and added, “I hope.”
~*~
If anyone could break through to a comrade it was Steve. Clint had no doubts that things would work out eventually, in its own time. He would just keep hoping for the best, that was all any of them could do at this stage.
He nodded, “I know.” It was the easiest affirmation that Clint could give her. He knew that Natasha had his back always, just like he had hers. They were partners in everything, and he, for one, didn’t take that for granted.
Clint too knew how lucky he was. Not many people had others watching out for them, making sure that they were okay and that they were going to be okay. Especially in their line of work where someone was your friend one minute, only to stab you in the back the next.
He remembered Pepper’s comment about him wanting a couch. Clint had no memory of such a place, and part of him was exceptionally bothered by that. He didn’t like having his mind played with. “Yeah, she’d mentioned that we were there to me too. I don’t know. I don’t like the idea of not remembering something that apparently happened to me.” He snorted softly and shook his head.
Turning his head to look over at her, Clint offered her a smile. “No matter what happens we’ll be alright. Like you said, we’ve got our people and each other. That’s all we really need.” Clint knew that eventually they would form friendships and allies outside of their group of people, that was inevitable considering how many people were already there and how likely it was that more would show up.
Clint wasn’t too concerned about what this place would throw at them if it did anything at all. They’d been through a lot already, and with all of their various abilities it was unlikely that there wasn’t anything that they couldn’t overcome.
“I’m hoping it’s different. Easier.” He bumped his shoulder into hers, “We’ll be fine. Like always and less stressed, I hope.” He gave Natasha a wink before leaning over to press a soft kiss to her temple.
Here he wouldn’t have to worry about showing her any affection, here he wouldn’t have to care what people said. Stark could suck it. Clint deserved to be happy, so did Natasha.
They all deserved it with all that they’d been through, even if it was just for a little while.