After the War

Serious business and a bouncy bed

Clint

Natasha had been skipping training for a few days now and I started to wonder if she was doing it to avoid me. I really hoped that wasn't the case. She told Steve she was doing yoga with Pepper, but we both knew her well enough to know that that wasn't really the case, so one morning I decided to follow her to see what she was really up to. And not just because I was curious, I also wanted to know if she was okay. And maybe she wanted to talk to me, although I doubted that. So I followed her and I found out that she was indeed hanging out with Pepper, but not for yoga. "You little liar," I whispered to myself. And I hid as she quickly whipped her head around. Dammit Clint, you may be almost deaf but she for sure isn't, be quieter! Okoye entered the room not much later. "Good morning," they all greeted each other. "What's today's planning?" I heard Natasha ask Okoye. "Well, you keep saying that spears are medieval, so I was planning to change your opinion on that." "Oh, bold choice." Okoye chuckled, "Is it now?" "Well, I'm good with sticks." "You mean your Black Widow batons?" "Yes." "Well, spears are different." "I thought so." "Let's start with the basics then, both of you grab a stick." "told you we were working with stick," I heard Natasha say, probably to Pepper this time. "They will learn you to control the spear." "Yeah, I get that." "you just have to go for the black and red one huh?" Pepper commented, probably on the stick Nat chose. "They're my colors!" "Yeah, right, like purple is Clint's color and red and gold is Tony's thing." "And everything that's star-spangled goes to Steve." "Are you ready?" "Yeah, sure, but, wait up." Nat's voice dropped to a whisper... or so I think. "Oh really?" "Uhu." "How sure are you?" "100%." Then suddenly a spear flew right towards where I was sitting and it would have impaled my if I hadn't moved. "Goddammit! Was that necessary?" I asked. "Kinda, yes," Natasha answered. "What the hell are you doing here Barton?" "Well... you know... spying..." "Spying on a spy huh? Well you did a wonderful job, at messing up that is." "Thanks." "You're welcome."

Natasha sighed. I had asked her to follow me into the changing room so we could talk and to my and probably even to her own surprise, she agreed and followed me. "What do you want to talk about?" "I think you know that," I replied. "Well, maybe I don't." "Maybe you don't want to you mean." "Yeah, right, like I don't want to be remembered of what you said to me. Can't see why I wouldn't want to be remembered of that." "Nat." "Don't "Nat" me." "Natasha, please." "Is it really that weird that I don't want to remembered of how you hurt me?" "No, it's not." "Indeed. It's not." "But I'm sorry!" "You better be." "Well excuse me?" "Oh you have no right to get angry now! Just listen to me for a while, okay?" I shrugged, "Fine." "You and Laura accepted me as a part of your family, you made me the honorary aunt of your kids. You know how much they mean to me, how much you and Laura mean to me. You guys are the only family I've ever had and you dare to tell me that you're, that they're not my family? I know, we're not blood related, but blood doesn't make a family Clint. It's the feeling of safety, the feeling of friendship and wanting to protect someone that makes you family. Family is more than just flesh and blood! I mean, look at us, look at the Avengers, we're a family too..." "I know... I know that blood doesn't make a family and I regretted what I said the instant that I said it! I... I wasn't thinking straight, I wasn't thinking at all." "That's clear." "Well... I was thinking... but mostly about myself," I admitted. "I was wondering how I could move on without my family... not realizing that there was still one part of my family out there. One who had just fought, who had seen her friends die and disappear... who was tired and beaten and needed me..." I sighed. "Go ahead, call me an idiot." "You're an idiot." "You know, this should actually be the part where you tell me that you understand me, say that I'm not an idiot and forgive me." "I'll just go with the first and the last, I understand you, I forgive you, but you're still an idiot." "You forgive me?" "I've been angry with you for about a week now, I'm getting bored of it." I smiled, "I knew you'd come around." "Of course you did. You're my moron of a best friend." "That's my sweet homicidal spy-friend." "You really are an idiot." "Love you too Nat." She sighed, "Idiot first class..."