Chapter Text
Magadan, Russia; 2009
Clint and Natasha are in Russia on a mission for S.H.I.E.L.D. They were infiltrating an enemy base to gather important information that had fallen into the wrong hands and needed to be removed. It was going pretty smooth, or as smooth as it could go with them together. Natasha just told him that she had left the base with the information on a secured USB-stick. Clint was on a mountain with his sniper gun a few miles from the base. He had the perfect view on Natasha as he saw her leave the building. It was snowing here, so that made his view a little blurry, but it was perfect to cover her footprints in the snow making it impossible for the bad guys to know where she went.
He was still focusing on Natasha when he suddenly heard footsteps behind him. They weren’t loud or obvious so this person was trying to sneak up on him. Unfortunately for them Clint was a trained spy and even though he had his hearing aids, he could hear that there was someone behind him. The sound came closer and closer and Clint mentally started to prepare himself for any fight that might come out of this. He remembered that he had his knife in his left pocket and the amount of bullets he had in his handgun. He had hid his bow and quiver with all of his arrows by a tree close by in case he needed them. He didn’t know if he would have time to grab them, in case of an attack.
Then the sound stopped.
From what he had heard it was probably a guy, a strong guy. His steps sounded heavy in the snow. It had been a while since he had stopped walking towards him. Clint didn’t turn around and the other guy didn’t make a move, so Clint kept his eye on Natasha pretending that he had no idea about the person behind him. When she ran up the mountain towards him, Clint lost sight of her. Apparently the other guy had noticed that too, he might have even been waiting for it to happen before making his move.
“Stand up, turn around, don’t make a sound.” His voice was low and sounded dangerous. It was definitely a man’s voice.
Clint thought about whether or not he should listen to this man or just straight up ignore him, but he decided to listen for once in his life. He stood up, turned around and didn’t make a single noise while doing so. When he turned around he finally got a good look at the man. His hair was long and had a beautiful dark colour and he wore a mask covering most of his face. His bright blue eyes stared right at him with this murderous look that Clint for some reason found kind of attractive. Dammit Clint, don’t think about that, he looks like he wants to kill you. He thought to himself. Just try to stall whatever this is, Natasha could be here any minute.
They kept staring at each other when it hit Clint. His eyes fell on the metal arm of the man, he knows who this is. The Winter Soldier. Clint had obviously heard of him, a lot of people in his business had, but he never thought he was real. After another minute of absolute silence and a lot of intense staring The Soldier spoke up.
“Where is it?”
Clint’s mind immediately went to the information his partner was carrying at the moment. He must be after the same thing and if he needed that information nothing good could come from that. So Clint decided to do what he does best.
“Where is what?”
Play dumb.
He said it as casually as he could given the current situation. The Soldier stepped closer, until he was practically standing on him, but Clint did not move a muscle.
“Where. Is. It?” he asked again only now, even more demanding than before. He must really need this information.
“I have no idea what it is you’re talking about.”
The next moment The Winter Soldier swept his feet from underneath him and pinned Clint to the ground, pulled out a knife and held it to his throat. Clint tried to keep his face straight while also trying to look intimidating even though he was the one being threatened.
“Tell me!” he said, pressing the knife further onto his throat.
“I don’t have it!” Clint finally said. He could feel a line of blood dripping down his neck.
“Who does?”
“Doesn’t matter, you’ll never get it.” Clint said with a grin on his face.
Clint knew that if he didn’t do something soon, he would probably not walk away from this. The Winter Soldier wasn’t known for leaving witnesses alive. He tried to reach for the knife in his pocket in a way he hopefully wouldn’t notice it. Once he got a hold of it he carefully took it out and made a quick move, slicing the knife across The Soldier’s leg, making him hiss in pain. Clint took the opportunity to punch him in the face, giving him room to stand up again. The punch had made his mask fall off, giving Clint a clear look at his face.
As quickly as Clint had punched him, the Soldier got himself together again and replaced the knife with a gun that he got from his back. Clint had to duck as he started to shoot at him. He tried to dodge them, but the bullets were everywhere and there wasn’t anything he could hide behind that was closeby. He tried to reach for his gun but a bullet hit caught his left arm. Then another bullet hit his calf, making him drop down in the snow. He tried to stand up again, but the Soldier already had him pinned down again. He was now breathing more heavily and found it harder to keep a straight face towards his attacker.
He wondered how long it was going to take before Natasha would get here , but on the other hand he wanted her to stay away, because she did have the information The Soldier was looking for. And also he didn’t want her to get hurt like him.
“Does the girl have it?” he asked next, obviously not willing to give up.
Clint’s look intensified. He didn’t want The Soldier to hurt her too, but he needed to stay calm. Otherwise he would just kill Clint and find his partner anyway.
“You stay the fuck away from her!” Which might have been a stupid thing to say he realised as the words left his mouth, because it kinda indicates that she has it. What Clint didn’t expect was to be punched in the face. He grunted but didn’t say anything else.
“Does. She. Have. It?”
Huh, apparently he needed more reassurance before he went after Natasha. He kept his mouth shut, not wanting to give anything more away. This earned him another punch.
His nose is probably broken right about now, because this guy had a mean right punch. Clint felt a little blood running down his face. He had a hard time keeping focus on the soldier's face and he felt himself slipping away into unconsciousness. The blood loss was getting to him.
If he didn’t get help soon he might bleed out here, if The Winter Soldier didn’t kill him first. The snow and his cold surroundings weren’t really helping him either at the moment.
Then they heard a sound in the distance, it could’ve been a siren or something like that. Immediately the Soldier released his grip on Clint and proceeded to stand up. Clint let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding in and looked up at the Soldier who was apparently preparing to leave.
Clint looked confused, why would he leave all of the sudden? Was it because of the alarm in the distance? Were they.. calling him back? Before he left he look at Clint with the same murder glare as before.
“I’ll be back to finish you.” was all the Winter Soldier said before he took off.
Clint didn’t even have enough time to let the sink in let alone respond to it. He first thought was to get the fuck out of here, because he had no doubt that The Soldier indeed would come back and kill him. Clint had seen his face and he was pretty sure that that wasn’t really meant to happen. He wondered why he didn’t just kill Clint before he left, but he must have a good reason for that or something. The problem was, he couldn’t really move by himself at the moment, because you know he had been shot. Multiple times. That meant that he had to wait for Natasha to find him.
What felt like hours was only a few minutes before she showed up. The minute he saw her Clint lost his consciousness, knowing that he was safe with Natasha and that she was going to help him get out of there.
It took Clint about 3 months to fully recover from his physical injuries and another long month before he was finally cleared for field duty again.
When Natasha asked him what had happened he had ignored her at first, not wanting to get into that. Later when she had forced it out of him, Clint had told her a fake story about a soldier from the base who caught him off guard and got lucky. He thinks she bought it, because she never brought it up again. Clint was glad about that, but it didn't stop him from thinking about it.
Everywhere he went he was scared of being followed, still afraid that The Winter Soldier was going to come for him. Clint had always been a bit paranoid, but this definitely made it worse. The first few weeks were the worst. He couldn’t sleep and wouldn’t go into a building without checking every room inside of it. He was always looking over his shoulder for The Soldier. He didn’t know if Natasha noticed, but if she did she never confronted him about it. Over time it became less, but it was always in the back of his head. Anywhere he went his mind told him that he would be waiting for him.
He didn’t know what he would do if The Soldier really was waiting for him with the purpose to kill him, but he prayed to god that that would never happen….