Natasha reads about secret admirer notes and tries it on Clint. She's just a little too good with the secret bit.

Whenever they're asked what they're reading, it's research. Never mind that Clint's reading Russian spy novels and Natasha's reading romances by the dozens.

She promised to come back to him when her ledger was clean. He made it stick by promising to wait.

Natasha is like a cat, in that she shows her deep and abiding affection by how consistently she wakes Clint up (well) before the alarm's supposed to go off, by how often she brings him (very unwanted varieties of) food, and by the fact that she allows even platonic touches, let alone romantic ones.

Natasha's fate and Clint is cupid (complete with the two types of arrows for falling in or out of love). Is it any wonder their pets are luck and bad luck? They're living undercover as a normal cohabiting couple.

Ohhhh, this is lovely! *adds to list*

Learning to share a bed.

(or on AO3)

The first time Clint slept over in Natasha's bed, he ended up with three cuts, ten bruises in various odd locations, and a bump on his head from the book that she woke him with trying to throw it at the alarm clock.

"You could at least warn a guy," he griped as she none too gently bandaged up the worst cut on his head. She'd genuinely seemed more concerned about the blood on her sheets than the fact that it was coming from an injury he'd gotten from the knife under her pillow.

Natasha gave him that sharp look that said he ought to know better. "You big baby. This is nothing."

For all that it was nothing, she swore the most creative blue streak in no fewer than twenty languages when she slept over in his bed two nights later and ended up with an arrowhead nick on her throat, several bruises from falling off the bed, and an only mildly repentant Clint on her hands after she threw a book at his head (again) and hadn't been expecting flashing lights to go with his alarm clock.

"I don't sleep with the hearing aids in," he reminded her as he checked her throat much more gently than she'd checked his head. "My apartment's fine for if I can't hear."

"You could at least warn a girl," she deadpanned.

He stared at her. She cracked a small half-smile.

"I'll make us breakfast."

It was anything but perfect, but it was nice anyway.

The next time they shared a bed, they made it out without any unintentional injuries and called it even. As for the intentional ones, well...

"That's not even an injury, Tash."

Natasha craned her neck to get a better look in the mirror and looked miffed. "I can see the imprint of your teeth."

Off-the-job sleeping habits: she likes to snuggle, he steals all the covers, she wakes up to white noise, an earthquake couldn't rouse him...

Natasha's an art-forger; Clint's an art thief. She's the first one to successfully con him since he was a kid.

Natasha's a translator for law enforcement, including Russian and ASL. Clint keeps getting brought in for the oddest of things.

Natasha's a war bride, and Clint's a soldier.

Oooh, that fits perfectly with a fic I've been working on...

Steve tries three times to set up his best friend: the first (with Tony) is a complete disaster, the second (with Bucky) is a let's be friends not total flop, but third time's the charm when he meets Clint and thinks this is the one.

While his "I love you" is pretty spectacular, it's his use of "our place" and "we" and "let's go ..." that make her heart melt.

Awww! :warm fuzzies:

Natasha was taken by fairies as a baby with a changeling left in her place. When the parents find out, Clint is hired to find her and bring her back. Only fairy time doesn't move at the same speed and she's grown up as fae in the interim.

Space AU where Clint salvages a ship called the Black Widow that went down in battle. It turns out to have a working AI, which is still highly pissed off.

OH.

...I'm getting Anne McCaffrey vibes :)

you might think that love is just a matter

of leaping out of the frying pan of yourself
into the fire of someone else,
but it's a little more complicated than that.

It's more like trading the two birds
who might be hiding in that bush
for the one you are not holding in your hand.

— from "Adage" by Billy Collins

No one promised us forever.

I've read (and LOVED) fic where Clint used to be a bird, how about fic where Natasha used to be a cat?

I kept not being sure if I should prompt that. Totally seconded. I thought it would be a convenient way for her to escape too, to become a cat, then maybe adopt Clint?

But just yes to cat!Natasha however she gets to and from.

Don’t be afraid your life will end; be afraid that it will never begin.

Grace Hansen

Instead of wearing his shirts, Natasha collects Clint's broken or worn-out weapons to repurpose into her own so she can tell him later he saved her when she used his grappling hook or his old bowstring as a garotte.

This is lovely and I want this fic :D

Natasha doesn't celebrate December 25; she celebrates January 7. She doesn't celebrate February 14; she celebrates March 8. Clint remembers every birthday, anniversary, and holiday, but he can't seem to figure out how he still ends up in the dog house.

Pick it up, pick it all up.
And start again.
You've got a second chance,
you could go home.
Escape it all.
It's just irrelevant.

Medicine, by Daughter

OR ANY OF HER OTHER LYRICS, I'M NOT VERY PICKY

Edited 2014-08-04 05:46 pm (UTC)

5 times they keep each other's secrets

Robin Hood AU

5 times Natasha rescues Clint and 1 time he rescues her spectacularly

5 times they said goodbye and the time they decided to stop saying it