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A Gift From: bettybackintheday
Title: Inseparable. In Sync. In Love?
A Gift For: crystallitanie
Rating: PG
Warnings/Choose Not To Warn: Brief mention of blood, physical injury
Summary/Prompt Used: Wedding fic. Proposal, their wedding, proposal at someone else's wedding, having sex at a wedding - whatever you feel like!
Author's Note: All of your prompts were so tempting! There were so many ideas floating around my head for so long… this is what I finally decided to submit. It’s not exactly your prompt to a tee, but I hope you enjoy it. Wishing you a very happy holiday and all the best in 2019.

Inseparable. In Sync. In Love?


“Just like Budapest all over again!”
“You and I remember Budapest very differently.”


BUDAPEST

Blood, so much blood. No matter what she did, she couldn’t stem the flow of blood oozing from his abdomen. She shielded his body as best she could while bullets flew over her head from every direction. With their covers blown, they were caught in the crossfire between two of the biggest former-Soviet-turned-private weapons runners in Europe. Everybody was shooting at everybody else – every man (and woman) for himself. The last contact they had with SHIELD was barely an hour ago. At that time, the extraction team was estimated to be two hours out.

“Nat, you gotta get outta here,” he gasped.

“What? And let you have all the glory when the mission wraps? No way,” she laughed while applying superhuman pressure to his wound.

He gave her a grim smile. “Competitive to the end. That’s m’girl.”

“Competitive, yes. Your girl, no,” she scoffed.

“Well, maybe someday,” he mused.

Natasha cocked her head to the left, wondering for a split second what he meant by that before deciding that he must finally be going into shock. She had to keep him focused and as coherent as possible.

“Ahhh, ok, Romeo. What, exactly, does that mean?” she asked lightly.

His head lolled back and forth. “Turn down the volume and I’ll tell you.”

“Clint, we’re not watching a movie. There are people shooting at us. I need you to keep it together, ok?”

“Hmmmm…”

“Clint, don’t you dare pass out on me,” she pleaded while popping up from their meager bunker and firing off several shots.

As she targeted the closest of the gang members, she heard him say, “Hey, Tash. I have a secret.”

She was desperate to keep him awake, so she replied, “Oh, you do, huh? What’s that?”

He got a relaxed and dreamy look on his face. Then he said matter-of-factly, “I’m going to marry you.”

“Jesus, Barton,” she yelped. “You keep talking like that and SHIELD will throw you into therapy for the rest of your natural life!” Assuming you live through this, she thought to herself.

And then she saw it. The quinjet flew into view and hovered over them. The extraction team flooded the scene. Everything was a blur from that point on; everything except the determined look on Clint’s face.


SOKOVIA

“C’mon, Barton. Pick up on this,” she whispered out of frustration. She’d been tapping out her location and situation in Morse code for hours. Surely, one of those rocket scientists would think of an off-the-grid way to communicate.

T-H-E-R-E-_-Y-O-U-_-A-R-E

She heaved a heavy sigh of relief when she deciphered the response.

A-B-O-U-T-_-T-I-M-E

C-O-N-F-I-R-M-_-Y-O-U-R-E-_-Y-O-U

It was risky, but she was so relieved and the situation they were facing was so dire that she tossed caution to the wind.

W-I-L-L-_-M-A-R-R-Y-_-Y-O-U-_S-O-M-E-D-A-Y

She imagined the smug smile on his face.


GERMANY

“We’re still friends, right?”

“Depends how hard you hit me.”

They anticipated each other’s every move, their confrontation more like a violent dance than an actual brawl. Each knew the other’s weakness, yet deliberately avoided cashing in on it. This was actually a bit of comfort in the midst of confusion and chaos. This could go on all day as far as either of them was concerned…

…until Natasha found herself flying through the air and slamming into the ground. Hard. “Damn it, Wanda, mind your own business,” she muttered while watching Wanda and Clint scurry across the tarmac. Clint stole a glance back at her, his eyes creased with worry. Suddenly he stopped and, though her vision was blurry from striking the pavement, she was able to read the message he quickly signed to her. “I still want to marry you.”

She rolled onto her back with a frustrated groan.


THE RAFT

This is crazy, this is crazy, this is crazy – the words pounded in her head. Not impossible, of course. It would’ve been easier if the team was, well, a team. But that’s why they were raiding The Raft, right? And she and Steve made great tactical partners. Almost as good as she and Clint. Almost.

After setting Wanda free from her restraints, she ran to Clint’s cell.

“Hey,” she said by way of a greeting while hacking into the lock.

He didn’t reply, just stared at her while she worked.

“You know you’re amazing, right?”

“Oh, I bet you say that to all the girls when they break you out of a maximum security prison,” she teased.

“There’s only one who can actually do it,” he said far more gently than the situation warranted.

As the door slid aside she looked up at him. She couldn’t get a read on the emotion she saw on his face. He gripped her in a tight hug. Reflexively, she clung to him amid the sirens, flashing lights, and shouting. As they made their way through hallways and to the prison surface, their hands remained clutched together.

After helping Wanda and the others make it safely into the Wakandan jet, Clint and Natasha buckled in and began their ascent.

“Just like Budapest all over again,” she shouted over the roaring aircraft and churning sea.

“You and I remember Budapest very differently,” he shouted back.

“So, are we friends, again?” she yelled as the wind spun them around and the waves licked at their heels.

He gently wiped away errant strands of dripping wet hair from her face and gave her a toothy grin. “What if I asked you to be more than friends?” he asked, his voice cracking on the last word.

Not allowing her feelings to bubble to the surface, Natasha rolled her eyes and shouted, “We’ve always been more than friends! You and I are inseparable and, Sokovia Accords aside, totally in sync with one another!”

Clint halted the progress of the lift. He put his hands on either side of her face, put his mouth to her ear and said, “And, we’re in love.”

Natasha moved her head slightly to be able to look him in the eyes, their noses almost touching, “You’re insane,” she stated.

He nodded slowly. “Probably.”

They stared at each other for impossibly long seconds. She knew he was right, though she never put her feelings into those words. And she certainly never spoke it out loud. She didn’t hate the way it sounded and was surprised that she wasn’t more surprised by that.

“So, all those cheeky comments over the years about… – “

“The word you’re looking for is marriage,” he interrupted.

“ – marriage, those were legit and not some nonsense tactic to deal with life or death situations?”

“Nat, I’ve been asking you to marry me for years!”

And without warning she started to laugh. “You want to marry me? For better or worse, in sickness and in health and everything else?”

“I can’t think of anything I’ve ever wanted more.”

“Hey! Pardon the interruption, but we’re in the middle of a jailbreak here! We gotta go!” screamed Steve.

Natasha waved him off, re-engaged the device to ascend, and turned back to Clint.

She offered him a wide smile, put her arms around his neck, and whispered into his ear. “Ask me one more time.”

He wrapped his arms around her waist as best he could and stared into her watery eyes. “Natasha Romanoff, you are my partner, my best friend, my reason for living. I don’t need a piece of paper to prove my love to you, but I want you to know that I’m with you for as long as you’ll have me and this is the only way I know to prove it to you. Will you marry me?”

“I can think of a million reasons why I shouldn’t and only one reason why I should. I love you, Clint Barton. So, yes!”

With only five feet left to the safety of the Wakandan aircraft, they began a passionate kiss. They didn’t break apart when they were unceremoniously dropped onto the floor and pulled away from the opening. They didn’t stop when Steve instructed Sam to “Get us the hell outta here!”

They did pause, however, to mumble “Language...”