I love you (Clintasha)✔️

✬♧18♧✬ Two hearts apart

Clint went back to work.

He figured keeping himself busy would take his mind off Natasha and his broken heart.

But everywhere he went, places that they used to hang out, her now vacant office, was only an added reminder of his loss.

The archery range that he so loved, his favourite place, was now a place of broken memories.

It was where he first taught her how to shoot an arrow and where they bickered about how she was too short for the board. The feeling of her hand in his was too real, her soft skin against his callous fingertips, the way it fit in his like it was a puzzle piece - made just for him.

Clint looked down and realised he had held his palm open and longing for her invisible hand.

And that table at the very back of the cafeteria. It was their table. So many sweet moments had been spent there over plates of hot food and cups of coffee. It was where she would steal some of his fries while still trying to be healthy with her salad, where he would have his mouth open and waiting for her to feed him as they shared their food, and where he would clasp her hand in his over the table top.

Her office - where he would drop by numerous times during the day just to spend more time with her and spin in her chair.

S.H.I.E.L.D was as much their place of memories as their home.

Clint knew she would be coming back to work sooner or later, and he would have to face the reality of her dropping 'Barton' as her last name.

They would be strangers.

Fury and Coulson totally sympathised with him, but that didn't mean letting their best agent go.

Maria had been dropping by a little more often just to check on Clint and make sure he wasn't going into self-destruct mode.

She had been thinking of talking to Natasha, but ultimately it wasn't her place to meddle in affairs of the heart.

She could only do her best to watch out for both her friends.

--------------------------------------------------

"Bucky, don't go."

Bucky had been sleeping on the couch since Natasha came over to stay. It was sudden but he wasn't going to chase her away, of course she was welcome to stay as long as she liked, but still there were proprieties to be observed.

Bucky turned around from where he was standing at the threshold of the door.

Natasha had sat up, clutching the covers at her waist, and she was looking right at him.

He could never deny her of anything with her looking like an angel under the pale moonlight.

"I'll stay here till you fall asleep." He answered warmly, sitting down next to her.

"No it's okay, you can sleep right here in your own bed." It left her lips before she could even think.

It sounded so familiar.

As Natasha tried hard to remember where and when she had said that before, a bolt of lighting flashed across the sky followed by a roll of thunder, before it began to rain heavily.

What happened thereafter she couldn't remember exactly, she vaguely felt Bucky lay her down gently and climb in next to her, while her mind was solely focused on the strangely familiar setting. The rain. It was something so typical, nothing out of the ordinary, yet it struck her.

When she finally snapped out of her absence and met with the pair of chocolate brown eyes in all their endearment, her eyes were wet.

Before she knew it she was crying.

"...I-I let him down...I-I broke his heart...it's wrong of me to do this but...I don't know! I can't remember him a-and he's so good to me...I can't repay him! I-I don't know what to do!"

Guilt. It finally caught up with her.

Bucky embraced her shaking body while she cried into his chest.

She was so conflicted, it was like her heart was torn in two. It felt right, she wanted to believe that, but yet it felt so wrong.

Another bolt of lighting.

The bedroom was illuminated momentarily.

Clint sat alone under the covers on the king sized bed (fit for two), unable to fall asleep.

The light hit the spiral of seashells dangling from the ceiling, tinkling softly, almost drowned out by the torrential sound of rain, but Clint heard it clearly.

As clearly as the day he had received the birthday gift and promised himself always to cherish it.

There it was, cherished by the receiver, forgotten by the giver.

🌿⚓️🌸❁🌸❁🌸❁🌸❁🌸⚓️🌿
Thanks for reading! Do vote and comment! Stay awesome xx