Ahahaha.

Although, I'd actually love a storyline (even in fic) where Clint and Natasha are "yeah, we're Avengers. We're SHIELD agents first. Have been for years. Fury's backed us. So have our co-workers. Go personal loyalty that exists before the superheroes."

But I appreciate that this is an unpopular opinion <.

Well, I dunno, I mean, it could be interesting either way they went. I wouldn't be opposed to seeing them really struggle with that choice and maybe choose SHIELD for exactly the reason you state. On the one hand, as Natasha says to Loki, regimes fall every day and she tends not to weep over it; on the other, she argues for Fury when the other Avengers start freaking out over the Phase 2 weapons, saying that they shouldn't be naive, that they're all under observation, etc., and, well, SHIELD seems to have been pretty good to her so far. I think Clint'd be in a similar boat.

Just my .02, and now I'm super into the idea of this storyline. Has an Avengers vs. SHIELD storyline happened in the comics? Probably, I'm guessing?

Oh, I agree on the regime aspect (in my headcanon, she's fourteen when the Soviet Union collapses, which is old enough to feel betrayed by this - all the trauma she's gone through in being raised to protect it has now been wasted. And she never really gets over that.), but hmm.

I don't think her arguing for Fury means much - she's a professional, SHIELD is her job; even if she doesn't agree with Fury, she's hardly going to argue with him in front of non-SHIELD members in that kind of situation.

I see her as a woman who is intensely, personally loyal - Clint might have offered her his hand, but Fury's the one who had to back up the choice. If she got onto SHIELD's radar, she would have gotten onto others, such as InterPol - Fury's going to have to have gone "she's ours, now, you cannot throw her into prison or kill her", which is a risk for him to take. And so she'd owe him for that. And also there is the hug Fury gives her in IM2, like she's a favourite daughter (and he had no reason to do so, except that he just wanted to). And there are her co-workers whom she's worked with for years, who have backed-up her in operations. And...asked her out for drinks, gossiped with her in the hallways, become friends, etc.

That's my headcanon, anyway *g*

And I'm not sure! I'm not actually into the comics at all.