Ok, I had no idea what to write and then I found this quote. And this happened...

"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage." -- Lao Tzu

"Cap, I can't wait for back up!" exclaimed Natasha Romanoff. "It's already been longer than we planned," she yelled into the comm unit.

"You can't go in there alone, Natasha," pleaded Steve Rogers. "Barton will serve my head on a silver platter if anything happens to you."

"No, he'll blame Stark," was her matter-of-fact reply.

"What the hell? If anything, I shaved an hour off of our arrival time while bringing cool toys to play and not share with HYDRA," Tony indignantly responded.

"Stand down, Agent Romanoff, and wait for back up. That's an order," commanded Steve. Tony turned away from the controls of the quinjet to give him an approving nod.

"Sorry, Cap," came her out-of-breath voice punctuated with grunts, groans, and surprised shouts from HYDRA's first line of defense at their remote island bunker. "I'd be defying those orders even if SHIELD were not in shambles. I hope you understand." And with that, she shut her comm link off.

After a heavy sigh, Steve looked at Tony. "Gettin' us there as fast as I can, Cap," promised Tony.

It was only a few minutes later that the quinjet landed and Tony -- in full-blown Iron Man armor -- and Cap entered the bunker. "Ya know, I gotta hand it to Robin Hood. Getting that coded message to Pepper was a pretty tricky hack job. If SHIELD doesn't claw its way back, he might have a future with Stark Industries," stated Tony thoughtfully as they easily dismissed the few remaining guards they encountered.

As they entered the main area, they were greeted with an impossible scene. A bloody and battered Black Widow sat with her back to an equally bloody and battered and noticeably thin Hawkeye. They leaned against each other for support while keeping high-powered weapons trained on the HYDRA leadership.

As their teammates quickly subdued the enemy, a simultaneous chorus of "What the hell took you so long?" escaped from Strike Team Delta. It was not dignified with a response.

A short time later both Natasha and Clint were loaded and made comfortable in the quinjet for the flight home. As was their usual routine, they took turns taking inventory of each other's injuries and doing field dressings. They were silent and completely oblivious to anyone else.

"Thanks, Tash," Clint stated simply.

"For saving your ass? Any time. You know that," was her quiet reply.

"When I have the energy, I'm going to give you a very pointed lecture about never doing that again. The odds were clearly not in your favor. You could've been killed," he growled. Then he added softly, "And that would've killed me."

"SHIELD may be destroyed, but this is still our job," was her attempt to end the conversation.

"What you did back there -- for me -- was above and beyond. I won't have you risk your life for mine ever again. Period. End of story," he stressed as he looked directly into her eyes.

"You have to know I would never do that for anyone else but you," she whispered and cupped his face in her hands.

He was so shocked by the emotion behind the words that he didn't know how to respond. He continued to be mesmerized by her eyes.

"I had a lot of time to think while we tracked you down. I did a lot of reading to calm my nerves. I found a quote. I was going to share this with you in private, but now seems like a good time," she said as she moved her hands from his face to entwine her fingers with his.

"I no longer believe love to be childish," she said. "Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. I believe that to be true. That's why I was able to take on a HYDRA outpost. And win. My love for you gave me courage. Your love for me gave me strength. It's that simple," she stated.

He leaned in and kissed her deeply. "If that's your idea of simple, remind me to not complicate things," he said through a radiant smile.

"Deal," she agreed as she leaned back in to continue their kiss.

Oooh, I really enjoyed this! Thank you so much. :3