Natasha got home late that night, having been at Stark Tower for most of the evening after spending the day lazily with Clint. Tony had new modifications for her suit, and she kept on having to take it on and off as he tinkered with it. By the time she got home, Natasha was ready to go to bed and hoped that Clint had made dinner. She turned the key in the knob, opening the door then locking it behind her.
"Hey, Clint," she said, turning around to see him sitting on the couch watching tv and dinner on the stove keeping warm. He stood up from the couch smiling, walking over to her and giving her a kiss.
"Hey, beautiful. I thought you'd never come home. Dinner's on the stove, let's eat," he said, clearly hungry. She laughed, following him to the kitchen.
They ate in mostly silence (they were both hungry) and Natasha talked about her evening while Clint tried not to look bored with the tech-talk. Once they both ate their fill (which for Natasha was barely one serving and for Clint was three), they cleaned up in silence.
Clint and Natasha sat on the couch, Natasha in between Clint's legs and leaning on his chest. He played with her hair as they watched tv, though neither of them were really paying attention.
"Hey, Nat?" He said cautiously. "We need to talk." The four words she hated the most.
"Ok, Clint. About what?" She asked, acting like she didn't know and sat up, turning to face him.
"You know. The negative tests," he said quietly. "I've given you space to process and deal with it, but you haven't done anything except act like everything's fine. But I know you, Tasha. You're not fine, and don't try to tell me that you are."
"I'm fine." Natasha got up off the couch, walking to the kitchen so that he didn't see her face and know she was lying. He got up and followed her, wrapping his arms around her and burying his face in her neck.
"I'm sorry, Tasha, but I know you're definitely not fine," he said after a moment, picking up his head to look at her.
"I may not be fine now, but I will be, okay?" She said, mostly to make Clint happy, while detangling herself from him and turning to walk into the bedroom. "You don't have to constantly be worried about me," she muttered.
"Yes, I do," Clint called after her, rushing to grab her hand before she could escape into the bedroom. He caught her left hand and pulled her back to him. She let him, but kept her head down so he couldn't see the tears start to form in her eyes. "I love you, Tasha. Nothing is going to change that. I'm with you through everything. You don't have to do this alone," he said gently.
"Maybe I do," Natasha said quietly, so quietly that Clint had to reply it in his mind to make sure she actually said something, and let her slip away into the bedroom. He stood and watched as she closed the door, her eyes trained on the floor. Clint's heart broke when he heard the lock slide into place.
Clint turned on the tv again, but he was never truly watching it. He sat with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands, wondering what he did wrong. In all of their time together, Clint had come to learn that when Natasha wanted to be alone (especially if she did not want Clint around) it was because of something he did. Last time it was because he had pulled a couple of pranks with Tony on Steve, Thor, and a few lower level agents.
After about ten minutes, Clint decided he had had enough. He went to the kitchen and pulled the lock pick kit out from behind a drawer, taking it over to the bedroom door. Tasha won't like it, he thought as he started to open the lock, but too bad. He was in the room in a matter of seconds, and he found Tasha in the bathroom, staring at herself in a mirror while clutching the counter so hard her knuckles were as white as paper.
Her hair was a mess from having her fingers rip through it from nervousness, and tears were silently falling down her face. Clint walked over quietly, putting his hand on hers to let her know he was there. She turned towards him in a daze, too many thoughts swirling in her head to make sense of how he was standing there. Clint put his hands on either side of her face, gently wiping away her tears with his thumbs. Suddenly all of those thoughts in Natasha's head were gone, and she realized that Clint was here and she needed him.
Clint kissed her gently, then buried his head in her neck and wrapped her up in his arms. At first she did nothing - not even a response to his kiss - but then she slowly wrapped her arms around him. Clint immediately relaxed in her arms. "I love you, Tasha," he whispered in her ear.
The tears were falling faster now, and Natasha couldn't do anything but let them come.
