Number Neighbors- Natasha Romanoff x Reader

Chapter 13

Natasha Romanoff did not like Leon.

She considered looking into him, if only for your safety.

She could probably pull his info from your contacts, but would you be mad at her if she did? That was never something she had to consider when looking into people before- or at least, their reactions never mattered to her. But yours did. It irked her to not know exactly why.

Last night when she stopped by that restaurant to give you dessert it took everything in her not to rush in there and meet you face to face.

Her hands were shaking when she wrote you that note, and her heart was pounding so hard she could feel it in her head.

The thought that you were right there, only a wall away on a date with some guy who probably wasn't treating you as good as you deserved whirled around in her head the whole time.

The alley behind the restaurant was dirty and smelled like typical New York garbage but the memory was ingrained in her brain.

She didn't know why she felt this infectious pull towards you.

If she hadn't forced the waiter to wait until she left to give you the dessert she likely would have stayed to see your reaction.

But she couldn't see you. Not yet. Not when she didn't even know what this feeling she had was.

So she went to her closest friend and fellow Avenger who might know the answer: Clint.

She found him in the common room reading a book on the couch, although upon further observation he was napping with a book on his face.

"Hard at work there"

There was a disgruntled groan muffled by the book and Nat smirked at having woken the man.

"You can never give me a break can you?" Clint successfully removed the book from his face, sitting up on the couch as Nat sat on the chair askew from him.

"Just trying to make sure you finish your reading time before nap time or you might not get recess"

He rolled his eyes, leaning back into the couch and letting his head fall back against the furniture, staring at the ceiling he pinched his nose in frustration but Nat could see the smile he was failing to hide

"What do you want, Nat?"

Nat considered her approach for a moment, not used to these kinds of conversations. She crossed her arms over her chest and looked over his shoulder. Clint eyed her suspiciously from his place on the couch and she hated how easily he could pick up on her body language.

"This isn't going to be our run-of-the-mill conversation is it?"

Nat didn't have to answer for him to know the answer was No.

He sat up a little straighter then, maintaining whatever snippets of eye contact Nat would throw at him.

"Is this about that person you've been texting?" Nat's eyes snapped to Clint's, holding him in a gaze that has leveled the most powerful of men.

She should've known he would catch on, he was a trained spy as well, and she hadn't exactly been that subtle about it. Still, part of her was scared to share you with her family, like the magic of your anonymity and personal conversations would be broken.

But as someone who was trained to always know everything about a subject before jumping into it and never let emotions be her weakness, she needed to know what about you kept throwing her from her usual nature.

"Nat, you know you can trust me" She did know that. She knew she could trust him with anything, the way he trusted her with Laura and his kids, and countless other things they shared over the years they'd known each other.