So, this didn't quite go as planned but i do hope you enjoy it! :D I loved the concept of literal hearts for anything and I thought this worked well, so yes. I'm going to wander off now and try to sleep. XD

~*~

It doesn't strike her as love, not really, until she finds her heart sitting atop her chest one morning. It's a week before Valentines and she knows what this means, knows what her body is trying to tell her.

Natasha sighs, closing her eyes and picks her heart off her chest, setting it aside and rolls onto her stomach to go back to sleep. It's too early for emotion, she decides. This is something to be sorted out after coffee, breakfast and more than anything, a lot more sleep.

But when she wakes up again and her heart is still there, beating softly against the wood of her night table, Natasha can't escape it. She knows what this means, she just has to let herself accept it.

~

Clint isn't a stupid guy, he knew what was coming. When he wakes up and his heart is waiting for him, he just sighs and shakes his head. Right, okay, time to talk about this, he supposes.

Lucky comes trotting in, giving him a dog-smile and moving to sniff at his heart. Clint pushes him away gently with one hand.

"Not for you, buddy. Sorry."

Lucky looks momentarily offended before loping off to go find something more interesting to sniff at. Clint chooses to go back to sleep. He's not putting off anything, really, he's just looking to get a bit more shut eye.

Even when his phone rings and he pretends not to hear it. It's not denial if no one's there to call you out on it.

~

Natasha is not actually going to throw her phone across a room, no matter what she wants to do. She's not pissed, not exactly, but she really doesn't want to put this off. Clint...Clint may not feel the same way. His heart could still be sitting in his chest, happily beating away in ignorance while she sits here miserable, staring at her own heart that simply sits there, going on as if nothing has changed now that it's out of her chest.

She hates this.

She hateshim.

Except she doesn't. She very clearly doesn't.

Her heart ticks and ticks, reminding her that it's there, that it can't be ignored and time is running down. Soon it will be Valentines and something is going to have to be done.

~

Clint avoids Natasha for most of the week, something he is weirdly proud of in this awkward 'I know what i should be doing but I'm just so good at not doing it' sort of way.

But Valentines Day comes around whether he wants it to or not, his heart is small and aching and Natasha has clearly had enough of him avoiding her.

"Clint," she says, climbing through his bedroom window, as he is emerging from a shower. "What the fuck?"

He sighs, closing his eyes and leans against the wall, still dripping, a towel around his waist.

"So," he says," I guess we're gonna have a talk now, huh?""

~

Natasha is watching him, trying to seem annoyed and doing a pretty good job at it. She has her heart in a jar, in a bag at her side and she can see Clint's sitting on a plate next to his bed.

She rolls her eyes, at the sight of it, then looks up at him. "You have something you wanna tell me, Barton?"

Clint shrugs at her, peeling off the towel. There's no shame between them, they've seen each other's scars, there's no secrets there. "Well, that depends."

"On what?" Natasha sits on thee edge of the bed, removing her bag and setting it on her lap.

"On if you've got something to tell me."

There's a long moment of silence before Natasha removes the heart from her bag. Setting it on the bed, she then looks straight at him.

"Well," Clint says. "I guess we do."

~

Clint and Natasha make the meal together, as is custom. They make a whole big production of it, but most of their focus is on the hearts. They take care in preparing each other's treating the organs with as much tenderness as they possibly can, wrapping theme up in leaves, searing them ever so carefully, making sure they were spiced perfectly.

Neither of them are amazing cooks but they knew what to do for this, knew how to take care of a heart that was going to be theirs.

When the food is done, they sit down on Clint's couch, propping their feet up on the coffee table, Clint watching Natasha while she watches the pair of hearts that are between them.

"I really don't want tot do the whole feeding each other thing," she says , looking up at him. "Can we just..."

"Eat like normal people?" Clint finishes. "Sure, I'm up for that."

Then she laughs a little and he laughs a little and they both know that if there were hearts int heir chests, they would be fluttering.

~

After the food is done, after their new hearts have settled in their chests, Natasha leans against Clint, her eyes closed.

They don't say anything, just lay there and listen to their bodies adjust to the new additions. Some people danced, other people fucked. Some other still raised adrenaline in some way just to feel their new hearts in their chest.

Clint and Natasha chose to to simply be with each other, comfortable and content, letting their hearts fall into time with one another and trusting their bodies to know what's best for them.

HOW? WHAT? THIS IS BRILLIANT! I mean, the concept, the execution, everything! Excellent!

:D So glad you liked it! Thank you so much <3

Wow. That was amazing, and amazingly original. Loved it!!

Thank you so much! :D

Okay, wow, that was fantastic—otherworldly and yet still perfectly in character!

*bounce!* Oh yay! I am so glad you enjoyed it.

WOW! What a great fill for the prompt, and totally original - well done!

It's not denial if no one's there to call you out on it. - so very Clint!

Hee! :D *spins* Yay! So pleased people enjoyed this.

That was considerably less creepy what whatever weir thing I was thinking of. Thanks! I enjoyed it muchly.

It was less creepy than what I was initially thinking too. Just didn't wind up the way I thought. XD

I was waiting to read this, because I knew it'd be good and then I wouldn't finish writing the fill I'd started myself *grins* AND IT IS VERY GOOD INDEED. I LOVE how you've embedded this strange, supernatural thing so well in the mundane, which is magical realism at it's best, and Clint and Natasha's attitudes are just <3

:D:D:D Thaaaank you! I am so glad you liked it and yussss. bounceglee