Here’s what I have so far:

Does Natasha love Clint?

While the answer to this question may seem like it should be simple, it’s actually quite complicated. 

Because of the aspects of their relationship that we have been privy to throughout the Avengers movie, in my mind, when she says that “love is for children,” Natasha is not saying that she doesn’t love him. She’s saying that it’s more than just love; that love does not accurately describe their relationship, because it is not a strong enough word, and does not show all the facets of their relationship. It is the idea that love is a singular emotion, that their connection can be simplified into one simple little word is what she believes is childlike, because it’s innocent and a bit naive to think that.

Now, because of her past and what she went through as a child, Natasha is very good at hiding her emotions. She has always been taught that emotions make you weak ~ first in the Red Room, then in beginning of her career as the Black Widow, and then through her work with SHIELD. She believes that if she shows emotions, especially towards someone else, it would show this weakness; they would become a target for her many enemies, and a distraction that will prevent her from doing her job. But with Clint, it is different. 

Part of what makes Hawkeye and Black Widow’s relationship so interesting is that it’s almost all implied. You never see them kiss, or say the words “I love you,” but their connection is obvious.

We know that they first met when Hawkeye was sent to kill Black Widow, and instead recruited her into SHIELD (effectively saving her life), but since then, their relationship has changed… They are partners for SHIELD, but they are more. Even before they share the screen, their importance to each other is obvious. Black Widow is in the middle of an interrogation when Coulson calls her and insists she come in. She refuses, until he says one thing: “Barton’s been compromised.” That one sentence is all she needs to hear in order to drop everything and come running. And remember, she’s coming in from Russia… it’s not like she’s next door to the SHIELD base). 

Once she arrives at the helicraft, she follows her orders. (She also pulls up his info on the computer and runs a worldwide search for him before saying "It's still not going to find him in time," supposedly referring to Loki)... When they capture Loki however, their relationship takes a larger role. It is Black Widow who interrogates Loki, and their conversation is quite revealing… 

Remember that Loki at this point has seen inside Hawkeye’s mind. He knows that Natasha is important to him, and he knows (even if we don’t) the exact nature of their relationship. That is why he is not surprised when Natasha comes to him. Instead of asking what his plans are or anything of the sort, Natasha focuses straight away on Clint, asking what has been done to him, and what will be done to him if Loki were to win the battle. Now this might be an interrogation tactic, as it is revealed to be later, but it also shows the concern Natasha has for Clint’s wellbeing. 

It is at this point that Loki asks Natasha if she loves Clint. Her response is the quote I used in this piece ~ “Love is for children. I owe him a debt.” The fact that Natasha not only has an answer to the question, but that the answer is automatic with no hesitation, shows that she has been thinking about that question quite a bit. The words “I owe him a debt” also have more significance than it seems. This may not make sense at first glance, but look at it this way…  Although she brushes it off, claiming that the debt is in exchange for not killing her when they first met, but it is so much more. As Loki says, her world is hanging in the balance, about to crumble, and she is bargaining for one man. 

Yes, Natasha has “red in [her] ledger” and she’s “like to wipe it out” ~ she has killed countless people, has done terrible things. But when she asks Loki about saving Clint, it is not that she thinks that by doing it she will wipe clean her ledger, because as Loki says nothing “makes up for the horrors… they are part of [her] and they will never go away.” It is that she’s trying. She’s trying to make up for her past. To save the man who is her partner, and who saved her from the self-destructive path she was on. 

She has changed since he saved her, and this chance to change would not have come without his help. She is no longer the person who uses her “very specific skill set” without a care for who she uses it on or why. As her partner, Clint has helped her with this change ~ has helped her regain herself, and turn herself into the woman we meet first in Iron Man II and then again in the Avengers.  

The most revealing statement in this exchange between Loki and Natasha, however, is what Loki says next: “I won’t touch Barton. Not until I make him kill you, slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear. And then he’ll wake just long enough to see his good work. And when he screams, I’ll split his skull.”

Natasha’s immediate reaction is one of pain and distress, and although this is revealed to be a ploy, Natasha’s interaction with Clint later in the movie shows the statement’s true effect. Becuase, Loki’s words would terrify and horrify even if they were about someone you barely knew, but the fact is that Clint is more than that. He’s her partner. Her friend. He isn’t just a co-worker… he’s someone who knows her well enough to know the ways she’s afraid to die. As a superspy and an assassin, that’s an incredible amount of intimacy. It’s exactly the kind of emotional connection that Natasha has always been taught is a weakness. 

It can’t just be that they probably slept together, it can’t just be some romantic fling, because it’s more than that. And Loki knows that just as well as Natasha does, because he has been inside Clint’s mind.

Later, when Natasha is forced to fight Clint, she could very easily have killed him; he’s an archer, not an expert in hand-to-hand combat as Natasha is. Instead, she smacks Hawkeye in the head, trying to save him, even though she has no clue if it will work.  And it does. Loki shaken out of his head, Clint calls her “Tasha” before passing out. Another sign of their obvious intimacy.

She waits in his room while he is unconscious although there is no doubt other (and probably more important) things she could (and should) be doing. She is by his side when he wakes up, ready with a glass of water to take care of him. 

When he asks her if she knows what it’s like “to be taken over by someone else… to be unmade”, she responds quietly, “You know that I do.” And although he doesn’t react verbally, it’s obvious that he knows exactly what she’s talking about. It’s just another thing that they share ~ something else that connects them.

Their connection and trust is not shaken by Hawkeye’s time under Loki’s spell and, once she is convinced that Hawkeye is free of the magic, Natasha trusts him enough to vouch for him when he offers to fly Captain America and her into battle. 

And of course, when the two of them are fighting side by side in the final battle, Black Widow comments that it’s “just like Budapest.” Hawkeye retorts that “you remember Budapest very differently than I do,” And of course, while we all want to know just what happened in Budapest, nobody except the two of them do (and they’re not sharing). Obviously, it was something significant if they brought it up in the middle of a war they were in great danger of losing…

Even in the after-credits scene, where the team is eating shawarma, if you look closely, Clint has his leg on Natasha’s chair. This small gesture shows the level of comfort they share, and the closeness of their connection.