It hadn't been a bad mission. Two weeks, a comfortable persona, everything accomplished if not brilliantly, than more than satisfactorily.

It had also left Natasha unsettled enough that she knew better than to crawl home to her Chicago apartment, which was lovely and cosy, but entirely devoid of other living things. Instead, she was currently curled up on Clint's couch in San Diego, reading a book with her feet resting against his thigh.

He was playing his guitar and singing Country, all old school and- Well, she could tell he was picking the songs with rather more care than he normally did when he was playing for the hell of it. Nothing too dark, nothing too 'shut myself up alone and drink 'cause I'm lonely', and it was that kind of unspoken solicitousness that made him safe.

“Girl, your mem’ry won't ever haunt me / 'Cause I don't love you, and now if you'll buy that, / I got some ocean front property in Arizona. / From my front porch you can see the sea,” he sang with the cheerfulness the song called for. Natasha snorted slightly from her end of the couch.

“I got some ocean front property in Arizona, / If you'll buy that, I'll throw the golden gate in free, / I don't worship the ground you walk on, / I never have and that's a fact,” Clint sang, and then without looking at him, she joined in.

“I won't follow or try to find you / 'Cause I don't love you, and now if you'll buy that, / I got some ocean front property in Arizona, / From my front porch you can see the sea.”

He adjusted the music and his voice to cater for her, and she could feel the smile he was giving her.

“I got some ocean front property in Arizona, If you'll buy that, I'll throw the golden gate in free.”

She let her voice trail off as the song ended, and turned the next page of her book. She knew him well enough that he wouldn't say anything, that he'd move onto the next song and just let her read.

It suited her just as much as the rest of the things he did, and she really would have to find him a tiny golden gate from somewhere. Lego, maybe, just to see that grin on his face again.

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A/N: The song Clint and Natasha sing is Ocean Front Property, by George Strait.