I'll stay with you (Clintasha)✔️

♥︎❁17❁♥︎ Take care of her

That day after leaving Bucky's dorm, Natasha didn't have any luck finding Clint. He had simply picked up his books from his room and left for the benches.

She thought - knew, he was avoiding her and left it at that.

However, she had Jerome come by to pick her up and got him to bring the watch she intended to give Clint for Valentine's Day. She left the neatly wrapped box together with the card at his door.

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The weekend arrived and Natasha realised she hadn't spoken to Clint all week. She was unhappy, and paced around her house sulking. Lucky followed behind her, wagging his tail and showing his tongue.

Natasha stopped at the couch and sat down, taking Lucky into her arms.

Chocolate brown eyes with a sparkle in them stared back at her with endearing innocence. She pouted at him.

"You miss him too, don't you?"

Lucky yapped in response.

"What do I do? He won't even look at me, let alone talk to me." Natasha sighed.

Lucky licked her nose as a comforting gesture, causing her to break into a giggle. Natasha stared at Lucky for a moment longer, as if considering something.

"Let's go for a walk."

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Natasha and Lucky strolled down the grey stone pavement at the park. Lucky was thoroughly enjoying his walk, and barked excitedly as they passed by other dogs.

They neared some stone benches that were next to a tree when another walker's dog came to play with Lucky. They chased each other around in circles while Natasha and the lady chatted.

That was when she spotted a wheelchair behind the tree. The person sitting in it had his back facing her but she knew from his hair that it was Clint.

Natasha handed Lucky over to the lady and excused herself for a while.

She approached the tree and saw that Clint was with Laura at the stone benches. She stopped a distance away and made sure they couldn't see her while she looked on.

Her eyes darted to his wrist to see if he had accepted the watch, but was soon met with disappointment when she found he only had a piece of blue string round his wrist.

To make matters worst, she looked over to Laura and found she had the same string round her wrist.

Natasha felt a lump forming in her throat as she backed away from them.

Her mind did somersaults and she sensed a headache creeping along. She didn't know how to react, was she supposed to be happy for him? He was all smiles talking to Laura unlike how annoyed he was talking to her. Maybe it was really over between them.

She shouldn't have seen this, she shouldn't have come to the park. Natasha fought back her tears and collected Lucky from the lady before heading home, explaining about her headache to the lady and that she hoped they'd meet again.

Back at home, Natasha put Lucky back into his playpen and locked herself in her room.

She dived into her bed, hid her face in the pillow, and shut herself out from the world.

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That Tuesday after school, Clint met Bucky at the lockers. He looked around to make sure Natasha was nowhere near before speaking to him.

"Hey Bucky, I have something to talk to you about."

They went to a more secluded area of the school and sat down at one of the wooden study benches.

Bucky didn't speak first but looked at Clint with questioning eyes, as if they demanded an answer.

"Look, I know you like Natasha and have been very good to her..."

"What are you trying to say?"

"Please take care of her. Protect her, care for her, and love her. Give her what I couldn't give."

Bucky's expression remained unchanged, but he was angry with Clint. He couldn't see why or how Clint could hurt Natasha when she'd given her everything for him. He felt indignant for her, how Clint had given her happiness then heartlessly took it away.

"I would have done so even without you telling me. But the issue here is not me, but Natasha. She hasn't given up on you."

"She'll come to see how good you are to her and she'll forget about me in no time." Clint said it verbally, but his heart had protested in the form of a sudden sharp pain. He hid it well and waited for Bucky's response, he had to be sure that Bucky would take care of Natasha, he needed his promise, or he couldn't rest easy.

"Don't you think what you're doing is irresponsible? You should have seen how hurt she was that day after whatever you said to her, to be coming to me crying her heart out."

So Natasha was indeed with Bucky that day, Clint thought.

"I don't need you to lecture me, I know what I'm doing. Just give me your word that you'll take care of her."

"I'm not obliged to give you this promise." Bucky replied coldly before leaving. Clint remained at the benches, his head bowed as the afternoon sun rays shown down mercilessly on him, his shadow concealing his helplessness and guilt.

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