Natasha felt her jaw crack at the force of her yawn as she climbed down the ladder that led up to the loft area of Clint’s apartment. She’d heard him get up and rustle around down in the lower part, and the fact that it was Clint and not somebody else meant she’d been able to get back to a light doze. But the noises had roused her curiosity too much for sleep, so, hair in disarray and trailing the blanket from the bed because it was getting chillier in the loft and Clint didn’t seem to recognize cold temperatures at all, she wandered over to check it out.

What she saw made her eyebrow go up.

“Coffee’s on the stove,” Clint said as he set the second hollowed out pumpkin on the newspaper next to the first.

“Mm.” Natasha poured herself a cup and wrinkled her nose at the pumpkin spice creamer next to the pot. She took a long sip as she studied her partner, who was fiddling with the pumpkin placement still. He’d eschewed his shirt, though he had his “light” quiver strapped to his back and an arm-guard bracing one forearm. Whatever he planned to do, he was going to be shooting left-handed. Speaking of which… “What’s going on?”

Clint grinned over his shoulder. “Isn’t it obvious?”

“Not as such.”

“Pumpkin carving contest.”

She caught the knife he tossed her without looking at it and just looked at him.

“Kids are coming by to trick or treat tonight, Nat. If there aren’t any pumpkins outside the door, how will they not know this is the coolest apartment in the building?” Apparently satisfied with the pumpkin, Clint walked over to join her in the kitchen area and picked up his coffee. “Rules are you can carve whatever you like but the pumpkin has to be the scariest thing you can think of, and no peeking at each other’s pumpkin.”

Natasha took another sip of coffee, considering. She’d never actually carved a pumpkin before. “Who’s the judge?”

“The kids, of course. And no bribing them with candy.”

“Would I do that?”

“Gleefully and without hesitation.” He tasted a bit like pumpkin himself when he kissed her, but Natasha found she didn’t mind as much. “Ready?”

“You’re going down,” Natasha told him, flipping the knife around to a better grip as she eyed her pumpkin. The move had nearly made a trainee wet himself the week before, but Clint just grinned and moved to the other side of the apartment, giving himself as much room from the two pumpkins on the table as he could.

Clint pulled the first arrow out of his quiver and nocked it. “Go!” he said.

The knife and the arrow hit the two pumpkins at the same time. Several hours later, the candy bowl in front of the apartment stood empty. Surrounded by the leftover wrappers, the two assassins couldn’t help but concede that it was a tie, though Clint pointed out that maybe next year, they would get better results if they didn’t ask children to pick between two pumpkins with Nick Fury’s face on them.

Bwahahah, this is so cute! And fluffy :D And I love it!

*Takes a bow* thank you!

That was great! I bet Fury is not so secretly pleased to be an epitome of scary :)

You know Maria has the picture of the pumpkins that Natasha texted her as her background. ;)

Awww, nice. And Nick Fury is the perfect terrifying costume.

I want to see the fic where all of the Avengers show up at a Halloween party dressed as Nick Fury, actually....

Bwhahahaha. And you know they would each have their own little touches.

Looooooove. But did anyone tell Fury?

Oh, they totally took a selfie with both of their pumpkins and hacked his Instagram account to leave it there.

Loved this!! And Clint carving a pumpkin (lol, accidently wrote turkey at first..but maybe he does that too) with his arrows is amazing.

I will confess, I saw a post on Tumblr that was "ordinary Batman adventures" and him carving a pumpkin with his bat-shaped shuriken really started off this idea. But thank you! And yes, Natasha and Clint totally argue about who gets to carve the turkey every year.

This is beautiful and lovely and light, and feels perfect for an autumn day. Thank you. <3

BWAH!!! I'm sure Fury was quite flattered to be considered the scariest thing by two master assassins. =^.^=

HA! Loved it!