Clintasha- The beginning

chores

Once his leg was healed to a point where he could walk without pain, Fury sent Barton out on a surveillance Mission somewhere “classified”. There was no Radio-contact allowed to someone other than Coulson once a week and it was obvious to everyone that this was his pay-back for disobeying Orders. Natasha was moved to a group quarter together with the other Agents of her training group. They even removed her access code for Barton’s apartment to make sure she really stayed out of there. Probably because of the weapons the Archer hoarded, she thought.
Before leaving, her Roommate gave her some tips she thought she wouldn’t need but turned out to be quite handy. “Don’t break anyone’s bones in training. Don’t do anything suspicious. Avoid the cameras if you go to the training room at night. Pretend to be a team player even if you are not and they are useless. In training Missions always act according to the instructions, no improvising or reckless stunts. The vending machine next to briefing room 6 has a fault and always gives out two packs of Doritos instead of one if you type the number two times. Take some coffee from the bunk room, the stuff they make here is awful.” He’d actually packed her a bag with coffee packs to take with her.
They shook hands before he boarded the lonely quinjet early in the morning on a Wednesday. It was the first time they touched without sparring or patching each other up. “Be careful.” The blonde laughed at her words “Of what? The tumbleweeds? This is a nonsense mission to punish me there won’t be any action. Good luck with your level one test by the way.”
“When will you be back?” the question hung in the air for a while before Barton finally answered. “five weeks” Both their shoulders sagged just little enough that neither noticed the other’s disappointment.
“Still, be careful.” He knew she didn’t mean the assignment but the restlessness that would certainly come at one point. Even after the jet was long gone, a lone red-haired figure stood in the hangar and wondered if she would survive five weeks of group housing without nightly sparring.
The new group situation did nothing good for her. She didn't trust the others enough to sleep while they were in the bunk room. So, she didn't. Natasha would sneak away between lessons and go to the bunk room alone to sleep for maybe half an hour until someone entered. It wore her down faster than she'd thought. The red head was used to sleep deprivation but now at Shield, she had to look the part if she wanted them to trust her.
Still sleep never came in the night and she found herself wandering to the training room more often than not. Even though the spy didn't want to admit it, she slowly slipped in the pattern Barton had when she arrived.
After a particular exhausting day, she crawled into the air ducts to get a bit of personal space. An hour of wandering around the ventilation system later, she came across Barton's nest above his Bunk room. The room she'd been taken out of for as long as he was gone.  The pillows and thin Army blankets suddenly looked promising and after a moment, she was tightly curled up against the metal wall.
The blankets smelled of him, a wild mix of sweat, shower gel and gun powder. A smell she'd come accustomed to. It calmed her and for the first time in 10 days she slept soundly for more than an hour.
Natasha kept coming back the following nights, sneaking out as soon as the others were asleep and coming back before they woke up. The training and lessons still bored her but it was better now. She had a place to escape to.
Never once crossed the though her mind that she might miss Barton a little. She even tried to befriend some of the other junior agents. Not really though, just enough to make them like her.