Chapter Text
Kate: I’ve got a mission for us, meet at my apartment ASAP
Natasha: We’ve never done a mission together. Ever.
Natasha: Also, how did you get this number?
Kate: I know, but I need you on this.
Kate: Please? It’s about Clint.
Natasha: I’ll be there in 20.
“Thank God you’re here,” Kate said as she flung the door open. She didn’t bother with greetings, just grabbed Natasha by the sleeve to yank her inside.
Natasha barely managed to swallow an undignified yelp as she pitched forward towards Kate, years of training keeping her upright instead of stumbling into the apartment. She scowled and slapped Kate’s hand away from her arm. Very few people would risk manhandling Black Widow; Kate had clearly been spending too much time with Clint ‘I-have-no-sense-of-boundaries-or-self-preservation’ Barton.
“Sorry,” Kate said. “I probably don’t know you well enough for that kind of casual contact, huh?”
Natasha nodded. “Clint’s really the only one who gets away with touching me like that. Believe me, if he wasn't so fond of you I would have punched you already.” It wasn’t strictly true -- Natasha genuinely liked Kate. But there was no reason for that to be common knowledge.
“That’s probably fair. Although more often than not, people are punching me because I’m associated with Clint. You might be the first to use our friendship as a reason not to deck me.”
“There is something about Clint that makes people want to punch him in the face.”
“Part of the Hawkeye charm,” Kate said, motioning towards a yellowing bruise on her jaw. “Anyway, you know I wouldn’t reach out if it weren’t important.”
“You said you have a mission for us, but I checked in with Steve and America. There’s nothing on the agenda for us or the Young Avengers.”
Kate cleared her throat and shrugged. “It’s not official business for any variety of Avenger. It’s more of a personal mission.”
Natasha sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “You’re about to pull me into some Hawkeye Squared clusterfuck, aren’t you?”
“Not a clusterfuck and not Hawkeye Squared, although I love that you’re on board with that name. Follow me.”
An entire wall of the living room had been taken over as a mission control center. Natasha wrinkled her nose at the disarray of photos and documents -- apparently Kate decided to copy Clint’s “Beautiful Mind” approach to planning missions. God those two were becoming more alike by the day; Natasha should really stage an intervention.
“Wait are these all photos of Clint… and Bucky?”
Kate nodded. “That’s the mission. Operation Get Clint Laid. Operation Winter Soldier Hawkeye Love Nest.” She gasped, a manic grin spreading across her face. “Operation Winterhawk!”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“I mean, if you have a better name for the op, I’m all ears. You just seemed into the idea of fun nicknames when you referred to me and Clint as Hawkeye Squared.”
“I meant you’re kidding about the mission. Kate, I had actual work to do today. Real missions for S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers. And you’re wasting my time with this?” Natasha scowled, then turned on her heel to leave. “I cannot believe you called me over here to meddle in our friends’ love life.”
Kate reached to grab Natasha’s arm again, then held her hands in a placating gesture when Natasha glared at her. “I knew you wouldn’t come if I mentioned that I wanted to set Clint up with Bucky. Just hear me out, okay?”
Natasha slowly rotated to face the wall of documents “You have two minutes.”
“Okay then,” Kate said. “We both know Clint is an absolute disaster of a human in general, but doubly so when it comes to romantic endeavors. Normally I try to stay as far away from his love life as I can, because Clint is gross and I cannot deal with it. But lately he’s been talking about Bucky non-stop, and I’ve started to watch how they interact. I have never, ever seen him act the way he does around Bucky. He’s... sweet? He goes out of his way to be considerate, he modifies his behavior to make sure nothing triggers Bucky.”
She stepped back to point to a photo. “I mean, just look at them.”
Natasha studied the photo while Kate continued to ramble. It was a candid shot, probably taken from one of the Avenger’s social media pages. In it Clint was gesticulating wildly, clearly in the middle of some ridiculous story. All of the Avengers around him were engaged, but his gaze was solely on Bucky. While the majority of his face was animated, Natasha noticed the small furrow between his brows. He seemed concerned, maybe waiting to see how Bucky reacted to his tale.
Bucky’s expression made something twist in Natasha’s gut. He wasn’t laughing as outrageously as Tony, or looking alarmed like Steve. The corners of his lips curled upward in a soft smile, and his brows were raised above eyes that crinkled with genuine mirth. It was as if he couldn’t quite understand why he was amused.
And maybe she was reading too much into it, but Natasha thought Bucky was looking at Clint with something akin to wonder. Like Clint was the best damn thing he had seen in the past seventy years.
“When have you ever seen someone look at Clint that way?” Kate asked. “Bobbi, Jess... they loved him, sure, but they always seemed exhausted by him. I’ve never seen someone treat Clint like he was a reason to keep going.”
Natasha nodded, stepping away from Kate to look at the rest of the wall. More pictures of Bucky and Clint with looks of disgusting longing whenever the other’s back was turned. Printouts of text conversations between Clint and Kate, with every mention of Bucky’s name circled in purple ink. A collage covered with a rather disturbing web of red string connecting Bucky’s gaze to Clint’s ass.
Natasha stopped again in front of an interview Bucky had given several months back. Kate had highlighted a paragraph two-thirds of the way through the article.
Who on the team inspires you most?
Hawkeye, hands down. Clint is the human soul of the Avengers. On a team of gods and super soldiers, he’s just a regular guy, you know? He’s a regular guy with a bow and arrow who will go up against monsters and Hydra and robots, and he’ll win .
He reminds me a bit of Steve before the war. It doesn’t matter if he’s outnumbered, if the other guy is stronger or has powers. If there’s a chance that he can do something good, something right, Clint will throw himself in head first. It’s annoyingly noble and kind of stupid. [Laughs] Guess I didn’t get my fill of chasing dumb blondes into fights during the 30s.
Well when the Winter Soldier and the Avengers have your back, it’s easy to act heroic.
[Pause] Clint Barton is heroic, has been since before I joined the team. Hell, since before he joined the team. Being an Avenger isn’t what makes Clint a hero. He always was.
“Clint cried when he read that,” Kate said. Natasha turned to look at her. Kate looked annoyingly sincere. “We sat curled together on the couch and he cried in my arms. He told me I was the only other person who had ever made him feel like a hero. I want him to always feel like that.”
Natasha sighed. “It wasn’t... he wasn’t always like this. Before New York. Back when we were just S.H.I.E.L.D. agents he was even more cocky than he is now. He was still a mess, still had all his baggage but he was... happier. Confident.” Natasha paused for a moment before voicing something she never before dared to say out loud. “I miss him.”
“I didn’t know that Clint,” Kate said. “This Clint is my best friend and I don’t think I’ve ever known him to be truly happy. There’s always this layer of self-doubt, hatred even. Times when he’s outright depressed.” She sighed and scrubbed and hand over her face. “This got way deeper than I meant it to.”
Natasha reached out to squeeze Kate’s other hand. “Clint is lucky to have someone like you who loves him.” Kate glanced up at her. “You know I love him too, because you called me. But I’m not the right person to help with this.”
“Why?”
“Because anytime I interfere with that idiot’s love life it puts a strain on our friendship. And maybe it’s selfish, but I can’t risk him resenting me if this ends poorly.”
“Listen, Clint is an idiot, but he’s our idiot and needs our help on this. And I may not know Bucky as well as you do, but I get the vague sense that he is also a moron.”
Natasha smiled. “He is. I still can’t help. I’m sorry.”
Kate didn’t reply, just turned to study the wall. Natasha let herself out of the apartment.