This is what they learn first:

He learns about her from a file that depicts her in sterile details, devoid of personality and self and soul. He learns what they know of her childhood, her career, her habits, her contacts. The psych assessment lists her as 'likely a sociopath void of any hint of empathy towards others' and points to her record, where tyrant and toddler are treated alike. And he learns when he finally clocks her in his sight, that there is more to everyone, than can be listed in statistics and reports.

She learns that she has wanted death, when she catches the sharp glint of light from the rooftop across the square. She knows that she is stuck here, valued only for her cruelty, and that she is too much of a coward to get out the only way she knows how. She learns that she is ready for nothingness, that she is prepared for the void, and welcomes the bliss of... of...

She learns that sometimes when you expect the worst, a second chance arrives instead.



He learns her name is Natasha, and that her palms are impossibly soft. He learns that she speaks more languages and dialects than he thought possible, and that she is older than her smooth skin would have you believe.

She learns his name is Clint, and that he has blue eyes. She learns that those eyes see twice as well as most men, but that his hearing was damaged as a child. She learns that he diffuses tension with a lackadaisical demeanor and devil-may-care attitude, but his organisation acknowledges he is a professional anyway.



He learns that she can make herself valuable to anyone, make herself wanted, or feared, or loved, or hated and in keeping with that trend she makes herself useful to S.H.I.E.L.D. and carries through. He learns of the value she places on debts, and the lengths she goes to collect on them.

She learns that he jeopardised his entire career over her, but that he does not care. She learns that he spends hours on the range each day, and that he is deadly with any projectile weapon he puts his hands on, but that when he uses his bow it is as poetry.

He learns that she is the most flexible person he's ever met, and he has spent far more time living with the circus than most people would suspect.

She learns that he ran away and joined the circus. She'd thought that was something only done in American movies.

He learns how to swear like a true Russian.

She learns to make coffee the way he likes it. And she learns to like it too.

He learns that he can trust her to have his back when she picks off the goon he'd missed on his sweep through the factory.

She learns that he never learned to dance, but that hasn't stopped him trying.

He learns that her left hook is stronger than her right, but that her thighs are her real weapon.

She learns that his hearing-loss is worse than he lets S.H.I.E.L.D. believe, but that she could never tell anyone unless he allowed it.

He learns that she has no problem playing the honey trap.

She learns that he has been the honey trap once or twice himself.

He learns that she does not deal well with children, that she will find any excuse to leave a room they are in. He learns that she does not know how to talk to them, and it is the closest she's come to losing her cool since that first day he offered her his hand. He learns from her sealed medical file that she'll never have children of her own.

She learns that he had a family. That he'd had a brother. That he'd had a fiance. She learns that they all betrayed him.

He learns that her favourite musician is Edith Piaf, but that she point blank refuses to listen to her music. He never learns why. He learns that sometimes secrets need to stay that way.



Almost a year after Natasha takes Clint's outstretched hand and his offer of a new life, she teaches him the Viennese Waltz in a honky-tonk bar in Louisiana.

He learns what her laugh sounds like and she learns that, no matter how much effort she puts in, he will probably never learn how to dance.