Love Is For Children ~Hawkeye & Black Widow (Part One & Two)

Flavours of Life

Natasha was staring down at her hands; fiddling with her fingers while she waited in an office. Although she had no idea who she was, where she was or who Clint was, she allowed him to carry her out of the falling apart building...

Clint looked like a deer in headlights when the question began to linger in the air. At first he thought she were joking for the briefest of moments, or maybe was just frazzled and out of it from the sedation, but then she asked again and began to back away from him; trying to crawl away and out of his grasp, looking at him with fear in her doe eyes, which made his chest heave and his hands shake - he hated the feeling of her slipping away.

"Natasha, it's me, Clint" He almost stammered, cautiously stretching out an arm for her which she shied away from - sending a pang of pain through Clint. Her breathes became shallow and quick as she tried her best to crawl away from this strange man that seemed to know more about her than what she did. Clint drew his shaking arm back before running a hand over his blood stained and dirt covered face; he probably looked like a monster, so he did his best to wipe the impurities away in an attempt to show her his real face, praying it would jog her memory.

"Who am I"? Natasha looked down at her bare arms and bare legs; her eyes filling up when she noticed the hospital gown she was dressed in. "What happened to me? Wh-what's going on"? She couldn't stop herself from beginning to sob as she ran her hands through her hair. Clint was in a manner of shock, he couldn't find the right words to say, he didn't want to face the fact that Natasha, the famous Black Widow couldn't even remember who she was, and the woman he loved couldn't even remember him.

"Why won't you answer me"? Natasha yelled; slamming her fists down onto the hard ground. Clint wanted to disappear, or quite frankly die right at that moment, because he couldn't even begin to think of how to fix her, he just sat there frozen and numb as she cried and hit the ground, shouting and asking him for answers to questions he didn't want to answer.

"What did you do to me"? Natasha cried, wrapping her arms around herself as she looked at Clint with such disdain. It hit him hard, that look in her eyes burned him almost making him shatter completely, but he wouldn't let her sit there, thinking he'd been the bad guy, he had to at least try and mend what he could of his beautiful, broken girl.

"I came here to save you" Clint uttered, carefully moving towards her with his arms out by his sides; treating it as if she were a wild animal and he was being careful not to provoke her or scare her off. He sighed, letting his arms carefully drop to his sides when he was knelt just in front of her. "These people" Clint gestured to the bodies of his latest victims. "They...did something awful to you, and I tried so hard to save you sooner, but it wasn't soon enough" Clint had a hard time speaking with the lump in his throat - he felt like his world was crumbling around him.

"But I don't even know who you are" Natasha wiped her tears away, staring at him, wondering how this man knew her and why he would want to save her. Clint swallowed the lump in his throat, and fought against the internal battle inside of him whether to run or to pursuit Natasha - but obviously, he would never leave her, she was too embedded within him and too deep under his skin to let go.

"You used to know me, trust me" Clint smiled sadly. "We were...friends and we worked together quite frequently" Clint kept his tone light, trying his best to convince her he was the good guy, the guy she could trust like she could before.

"Worked together? In an office"? Natasha asked sounding as perplexed as she was to begin with, but less frightened. Clint chuckled for a moment, before realizing it was all true - she couldn't remember a thing about her life.

"No, something a little more complex than that, but we can't sit here all day, it's my job to get you back safe...just please come with me" Clint extended a hand, doing all he could to steer his voice away from desperation. Natasha looked at him with wide, wet eyes and then down at his open hand. She initially wanted to flee and find her own way out of this mess, but she had to think of the big question - What did she have to lose?