The very last thing my Natasha and Clint do when they are in the middle of fighting is get physical - no sparing for them. Clint has too great a physical control over his temper and if the argument gets to just shouting, he leaves the room. Natasha doesn't want to kill anyone - she's had too much training from too younger an age to kill people to risk getting on a sparring mat and getting distracted. In IM2, we see what she can do while distracted (Happy was on the ground in about three seconds), so while she has the quicker temper, the most physical she usually gets while they are fighting is throwing something at a wall once one of them has left the room.

The longest running conflict they've had is post-Loki, when Natasha had moved into Clint's apartment to keep an eye on him. That wasn't the conflict. The conflict was two parts: Natasha wanted Clint to go to therapy because he badly needed help, and Clint turns into a jerk when he's hurting. She'd get frustrated; his abandonment issues would twist so he'd take shots (metaphorical) at her from frustration, because they were arguing, and/or from the combined place of 'if you stick around, you actually mean it; if you are going to go, get it over with'. In my headcanon, Coulson a) lives and b) is good friends with both Natasha and Clint, so Natasha ended up getting him to help.

They can hiss at each other over everything from Clint not leaving his shoes at the door to what Natasha spends on food (he grew up hovering in and under the poverty-line - how she spends money is a conflict that isn't going to go away) to Clint not going to therapy to Natasha being more sociopathic than normal and screwing people over whom Clint thinks can't handle it. They might talk it over, or just offer silent apologies (sex from Clint, food from Natasha is fairly standard, but they mix and match and make other overtures of peace), but they are both professionals enough (and honestly don't work together that much) that their domestic fights don't spill out into their working lives.

Professional disagreements or conflicts - actually, Natasha and Clint are better at handling them, because they are professional and both habitually work in teams, and they take too much pride in their work to fuck up their work (or endanger their co-workers) by not dealing with things.

Ficly, I've written:

Here's No Game: no arguing really talks place, but Natasha feels the undercover personas are blurring and messing things up, so she (eventually) brings up the subject with an 'in future, we aren't doing this'. Not arguing, but it was an issue and a potential conflict of interest of personal and professional lines blurring that they are dealing with before it becomes more of an issue (set pre-canon; daemon AU)

I've got troubles enough set very, very early on in Natasha's SHEILD career - the conflict (Clint punched someone, the rumour mill is saying because of Natasha, and Natasha is really not happy about this) is resolved through talking.

(not a) kiss with a fist is set post-canon when Clint is in the middle of his post-Loki unhappy place; the argument itself doesn't feature, but Natasha kisses him to try and get across what words didn't (and the fact that they don't normally get physical for various reasons is addressed)

An Apology (of a Kind) is set during the same time as the above ficlet. This is post-argument, when Clint's stormed one way and Natasha stormed the other, and while Clint doesn't verbally apologize, he makes an overture of peach which is accepted.

Domestic conflicts - if they go on for a while - are probably noticeable, but as I don't have the Avengers being a family in my headcanon (exception being Steve ending up as a little brother to Natasha), I haven't really thought about outsiders noticing beyond Coulson (and that was more...Natasha visiting him in hospital and crying at him, because long-term stress and worry and Coulson is safe, and Natasha is only human)

Oh -- I look forward to reading those when I'm done with Friday night "movie night". Thanks! And yeah, I agree with you on the physical thing. They do too much fighting for real to be wanting to settle personal disputes that way -- too much chance for accidental (and highly prejudicial) injury.

That said, back in my fencing days my husband and I sometimes settled things "by the sword," but usually just bets, or who had to do the dishes -- never real disputes! :-)

:-)! Hopefully you like! But yes, exactly - both of them are too trained, with too many instincts. Natasha is the better at hand-to-hand (being the brawler to Clint's long-distance), but neither of them are going to be physically fighting along with everything else, because yeah, as you said. Way too much room for injury, and they are professionals.

Ahahah, makes me miss my own fencing and re-enactment days. But I can see that kind of sparing! Disputes and jokes without any anger behind them settled on the sparring mat.

I've read a few fics where the two of them resolved disputes either on the sparring mat or via physical altercation and they never sat well with me. I think all of this sums up why quite well. These two would be too careful to do that, wouldn't be interested in doing that, and are too adult to do that, frankly.

I also agree with your comments that it would be too reminiscent for Clint of his childhood and he wouldn't go near it with a ten-foot pole. Given the hideousness of Natasha's childhood, I can't see her liking it, either. Very well said. And truly, it helps express in words why I was never comfortable with that particular take on things. (Doesn't make a story bad - just means that part wasn't my favorite.)

Excellent discussion, all!

My Clint didn't really have a physically abusive childhood (his parents were guilty of neglect) and my Natasha wasn't really hit, either (again: instincts - my RR controlled them by other means), but that angry loss of control resulting in violence never sits well with them.

(See also a theme with two of my fics)

Sparring matches where they 'don't hold anything back' never sit well with me, either - if either of them don't hold back, then they are trying to kill the other and risk either doing that, or causing a lasting injury. I won't back out of a fic that has them do it, but I'll eye it as jarring.