Marvel One Shots

"Feel the Shield... BE the Shield"

Natasha was walking swiftly down a SHIELD hallway, Clint trailing hopelessly behind her. "Tasha, it's not as bad as you think. I'm sure it happens to a lot of people."

The look Natasha gave Clint was murderous. "Barton! It's -partner's therapy-! That's like marriage counseling, except I can't divorce you."

Clint looked disgruntled. "You would divorce me?" He asked, pulling open the door, entering after Natasha.

"I wouldn't even marry you."

"But if you had married me...would you divorce me?"

Natasha crossed the room and sat down in her chair, glaring at Clint, who sat down next to her. "I..." She started, pausing and starting a new sentence, choosing to ignore Clint's question. "This is all your fault." She muttered mutinously.

Clint looked over at her in disbelief. "My fault?! You're the one who said that you didn't trust me as a partner!"

"You couldn't complete a simple kill mission!"

"I was supposed to kill you! I saved your life."

"So what? I -"

Natasha's response was cut short by a woman walking into the room. Not that she didn't want the woman to hear what she was going to say, but rather she was shocked into silence by the woman's outfit, which looked like it belonged in a 2010 Disney channel movie.

The woman smiled broadly at the two agents, waving at them like they were five years old. "Hi guys! Are you ready for your session?!"

Clint immediately felt wary. No one could naturally be that peppy. She seemed like the kind of crazy that brewed their coffee with monster energy drinks. He stared blankly at the woman, not offering any sort of reaction. Natasha seemed to agree with him, because she looked so bored she might have been listening to a reimagining of the history of shovels.

The woman, upon seeing their obviously disinterested reactions, sat down across from them. "I'm Kathy Crawly, and I'm going to be your therapist for partner therapy. Do either of you know why you are here, specifically?"

Natasha shrugged. "I said that I didn't trust him to always complete the mission."

Kathy leaned forward, hand on her chin. "And why don't you trust him to complete the mission?"

"I don't trust him to always complete the mission because -he doesn't always complete the mission-. Why else would I not trust him to complete the mission? 'I don't trust Barton to finish the mission because he sucked his thumb until he was 12'." Natasha ended in a heavily sarcastic mimicry of her own voice.

Clint looked scandalized, opening his mouth in protest. "I did not suck my thumb until I was twelve! Who told you that? I swear, if it was Coulson I'm going to make him pay for my pizza the next time we have game night!"

Natasha rolled her eyes. "It's was a joke, Barton, get a grip... You have a game night with Coulson?"

"Well, yeah, every month. We play like, Monopoly and Settlers of Catan and stuff."

Natasha furrowed her eyebrows, leaning towards Clint. "What is Settlers of Catan?"

Clint's mouth dropped. "You've never played Settlers of Catan?!"

"Look at who you're talking to, sweetheart." Natasha retorted sarcastically.

"Hey! Don't call me-"

Clint was interrupted when Kathy loudly cleared her throat, giving both of them a pointed look. "Agents Barton and Romanoff. As intriguing as it would be to totally analyze your conversation, I'm not being paid by the hour, I'm being paid per appointment. So give me your attention and you can be on your way."

As soon as Kathy spoke, the animated expressions left both Natasha and Clint's faces. They faced her again, looking at her with either annoyance or contempt (or both).

Kathy cleared her throat again, smoothing her skirt over her lap. "Now, it looks like what this partnership is lacking is trust. So we're going to perform some basic trust-building exercises, and then you can be on your way."

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"This is not what I had in mind." Clint murmured under his breath, looking up at Natasha to see her subtly nodding her head in agreement with him.

They were in the shield gym with the one and only Kathy Crawly. She had stacked foam mats so high that even Clint was having trouble seeing over them. It was only with his help that Natasha had been able to stand on top of them.

Now she was standing at the very edge, staring dubiously at the ground. Her eyes darted over, and she raised an eyebrow at the therapist. But Kathy just motioned for Natasha to hurry up. With a sigh, Natasha turned around. It took a second of steeling her nerves to allow herself to drop off the stack of foam mats backwards, hoping that Clint wasn't too clumsy to catch her.

She landed heavily in Clint's arms, in and out of his embrace so quickly that Kathy blinked and she missed it. Literally. But she knew that he had indeed caught her because of the awkwardness that was now in the air, and the uneasy half-smile that Clint was staring at Natasha with.

Natasha was just focusing on not looking Clint in the eyes, which wasn't very hard. She was just thankful that she wouldn't have to try to catch him, due to the large height difference. Kathy had a different exercise planned for him.

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"Natasha! You need to feeeell the shield....BE the shield!"

It seemed like Kathy couldn't stress those words enough, as if she was throwing something more dangerous than marbles.

Honestly, Natasha was just doing the best that she could to try not to laugh. It was a pretty funny sight, seeing the outrageously bright attired therapist throw marbles at Clint (who was duck taped to a pole) while Natasha had to run around and try to catch them.

Having not been hit in such a long time that he thought the exercise was over, Clint opened his eyes, only to immediately be hit in the eye with a marble because Kathy accidentally threw two instead of one. "Ow!" he exclaimed, squinting in pain.

Though he couldn't see it, Natasha gave Kathy a simply murderous look before jogging over to Clint, cutting his duct tape bonds and grabbing his shoulder to pull him down to her height. "Stop squinting." She ordered.

Clint whined. "But it hurts! I thought you were supposed to catch the marbles, not let them hit me in the face!"

Natasha rolled her eyes, hands on his face to keep it still. "Oh, stop being a crybaby, Barton. It probably won't even bruise. You're fine." She said, finishing her assessment and stepping away.

Clint rubbed his eye, but stopped complaining. "I think we're done here." He commented, strolling over to the door. "After you, Agent." He waved Natasha through the door with grand sweeps of his hand.

Natasha cast an unimpressed look in his direction, but her eyes were shining with amusement. "You look like you are shoveling flies, Barton."

Clint trailed after her, letting the door swing shut. "Don't you mean spiders?" He said in a mockingly confused tone.

Kathy shrugged hopelessly. There was no point in trying to get them to finish their appointment out. Besides, she got the feeling that they hadn't really needed her help.