Natasha's Secret

Chapter 10 - Clint can't keep his Mouth Shut

"Nat, are you ok? You've been kind of distant the last few days," Clint sat next to Natasha on the sofa of Avengers tower, their teammates currently doing their own things in other rooms.

"Yeah," Natasha smiled, an actual smile, not her usual smirk, "one of my friends who I thought was dead turned out to be alive, he had been living under my nose the whole time but he wasn't able to communicate with me, I'm really happy he's alive," Clint smiled.

"That's great, is he a..." Clint trailed off, aware that any conversation they had wouldn't be completely private in this high tech tower, Natasha nodded.

"Yeah, we thought he had died in the attacks but he managed to escape, thank the gods," Clint looked like he wanted to talk some more but Tony burst into the room at that very moment.

"Alright, I managed to do the extraordinary, I know we met him a while ago, but I convinced Percy Jackson to actually come here and test some underwater technology I've been working on, I know, I'm amazing, no need to clap," Tony stood in the middle of the room, he then looked around and seemed to notice that Natasha and Clint were the only ones in the room.

"Shit, where is Banner when you need him, or Thor for that matter, he seems to like the guy," Tony grumbled and went to find Bruce.

"Did Percy tell you about this?" Clint whispered to Natasha who nodded.

"Yes, we had a discussion about it yesterday, he knew it would hard for both of us to pretend not to know each other as well as we do, but in the end, the benefits that Stark's technology could have on marine life outweighed our discomfort," Natasha answered in a low voice.

Clint was about to speak when the heard a very loud squeal, Natasha rolled her eyes and said, "I think Thor has been informed of Percy's future visit," Clint snorted.

"Who was that?" Steve came out of the elevator in a tank-top that was sticking to him with sweat.

"That was Thor, and go change your shirt, you look gross and probably smell worse," Natasha made a shooing motion with her hand.

"Alright, but most women would love to see me in a sweaty tank-top," Steve called over his shoulder as he walked back to his room.

Natasha huffed, "Well, I'm married to someone who looks even better after a training session," she mumbled and Clint laughed.

"No arguments there, I'm as straight as a ruler but your man could bend me if he tried... that came out way dirtier than I meant it to," Natasha threw her head back and laughed at her friend's expense.

"Someone call Fury, his robot is malfunctioning," Tony strode in the room pointing at Natasha who glared at him.

"Shove it, Stark,"

"That isn't very ladylike, is it Ms. Romanov," Tony mocked her causing Natasha to snort.

"You want to talk about ladylike? I was trained in Russia, I could name swear words you've never even heard of while drinking vodka like it's water," this wasn't true of course, Natasha had been trained at Camp Half-Blood.

"You sure can beat that husband of yours in a drinking game, I remember when he was passed out on the floor and you were dancing to the macarena on top of the bar," Clint laughed, then realized his mistake.

"Husband?" Steve asked, coming back into the room with a new shirt on, his eyes narrowed.

"Um-uh-no-I-" Clint stuttered, giving Natasha a panicked look.

She sighed.

"Yes, I'm married, have been for almost seven years," Tony looked stunned while Clint kept on apologizing.

"It's alright, Clint, we all have slip-ups, it would have come up sooner or later with the amount of time we spend together," Natasha reassured Clint then rubbed her temples, the facial changing technology gave her a headache sometimes.

"So you actually have human emotions for another person," Tony said, brandishing a spoon he had been about to use to eat a pint of ice cream.

"Considering that fact that he's the love of my life and has been with me for about ten years, yeah, I think that counts as human emotions,"

"All right, no need to get testy Ms. Firecracker, just making my usual sarcastic comments," Tony opened the ice cream pint and dug his spoon in, eating at the speed of light.

"Is there any chance that we know him?" Steve asked warily, his eyebrows raised, Natasha smirked,

"Yup, you've all met him," Tony dropped his spoon, then quickly picked it up,

"Is it Nico?" he asked, Natasha looked at him, saw he was serious and almost fell off the couch laughing.

"N-no," she cried, "I think of Nico as a little brother of sorts, plus he's getting married to Will! Did you miss them asking me to be the maid of honor?" Tony just shrugged.

"Worth a shot, you realize I'm going to start naming every single person we've ever met, right?" Tony sat on a chair opposite Natasha and Clint, Natasha sighed in annoyance.

"I'll join you," Steve sat in the chair next to Tony, giving Natasha a curious glance.

"What are you guys doing?" Bruce asked, walking into the room with a cup of coffee he kept away from his face to stop his glasses from fogging.

"Natasha just told us that she's married, has been for seven years, and we've met the guy, help us guess who it is," Tony said. 

Bruce looked at Natasha who just shrugged in a challenging manner.

"You guys will never be able to guess who it is," Natasha crossed her arms across her chest and smirked.

Tony, Steve, and Bruce spent the next hour trying to guess who the mystery man was to no avail.

"This is pointless, we're never going to get it, and even if we do, she won't tell us," Bruce said but Tony just shook his head.

"Natasha, are we going to be seeing him in the future?" He asked.

Natasha nodded. 

Tony smirked, "We'll make a bet, you have to beat Steve in combat or, the next time you see him, you have to go straight up and kiss him," Natasha raised an eyebrow, exasperated.

"Honestly, I'd do anything to shut you up at this point," Tony cheered and grabbed Steve, pulling him towards the elevator that leads to the training room, Natasha, Clint, and Bruce trailing behind.

"Don't go easy on her, Capsicle," Tony warned before Natasha stepped on the mat.

"Ready old man?" Natasha taunted, Steve just grinned,

"As I'll ever be," Steve lept straight into an attack which Natasha blocked just in time. They continued this pattern for a while, Steve attacking while Natasha blocked.

He's trying to tire you out, a voice in Natasha's head whispered, but Natasha knew it wasn't her own voice.

But she knew that voice.

It was her mother.

'Nice for you to finally show up,' Natasha thought, 'you could have told us that Frank was alive, that he was a cat, that might have been important information, but no, you decide to reach out when I'm sparring with a teammate,'

Natasha waited for a response, but nothing came, 'stupid gods,' she thought.

Natasha was so caught up with cursing her mother under her breath that she didn't notice Steve's fist coming right towards her face.