Clintasha One-shots

Senses

Please don't mind the typos I just wrote that on a busride:P

On their last mission, Natasha got temporarily blinded by a flash grenade. Tony pulled her out and got her back to the Quinjet but it still took a few more hours until she could see properly again.
The feeling of helplessness didn't sit well with her. Natasha Romanoff was not helpless, not ever. And still, she felt so vulnerable in that moment. The only thing that kept her from panicking was Clint's soothing voice in her ear. He'd switched to their private channel so the others wouldn't be able to overhear them. „Nat, remember when that happened to me in Prague? Just keep breathing.“ She could hear gunshots and his breaths got a little deeper. He was probably running. „I can see you Nat, just stay still. I will handle the goons around you.“ A few feet next to her, Natasha could hear the distinct sound of an arrow flying true and a body falling afterwards. She suppressed the urge to run and crouched down, making her less of a target.  „Stark is on his way to pick you up.“ Clint piped up in her ear again „We are almost done here anyways.“ Natasha nodded and soon, there was the sound of Tony’s boosters coming closer.
He kept touch with her the whole flight even though Clint was piloting the jet. He knew from experience that someone to anchor on helped when you are deprived of one or two of your senses.
Once her eyesight came back, Natasha and Clint went to the training room after getting some Chinese takeout at a corner shop. They both knew the drill, if one of them found a weakness, they trained until it was eliminated. And Natasha hadn't ever felt so weak as in that situation.
Both, now dressed in athletic shorts and Shield issued Tank Tops, began to stretch and do warmup exercises. They had a routine, forged by years of rehearsal. Once the Assassins finished their last exercise, a mirroring technique, Natasha pulled out a black strip of cloth and tied around her head.
Of course, Natasha and Clint had trained like that before. A few years back, he had been the one temporarily blinded and they’d started to train blindfolded. However it was a long time ago and back then it was usually him who was blindfolded.
At first, Clint was careful, only hitting her lightly every once in a while when she made a major mistake but with her getting used to the lack of sight, he picked up speed. Soon they were engaged in a furious sparring match. Natasha knew she was losing, and that her partner still held back but she could feel how she got better by the minute. Anticipating his moves was hard when she could see but blindfolded, the red-head found it almost impossible.
She remembered the first time they trained like that. Back then it had been Barton who went blind. Immediately, she felt glad that she was still able to hear. Clint needed a lot longer before he’d been able to adapt, and they had passed a week without him landing a single hit. After that it got easier and he now was better at fighting blind than her even though he was almost completely deaf without his hearing aids. Natasha wondered how it was like to solely rely on instinct and ground vibrations.
A sharp blow to her cheekbone reminded her why focus was important. Her partner had long ago stopped pulling his punches seeing that she was getting the hang of it eventually. The red-head countered with a roundhouse kick to where she though his head was and was rewarded with a grunt of pain when he blocked it just in time.
They continued their dance for hours, only stopping for something to drink occasionally. Natasha felt confident after a while. She trusted her partner with her life and even though they were fighting, it was just what she needed after that mission. Stress pooled from her form until she was grinning and laughing every time she hit the floor. Clint held back a little more and their fight developed into friendly wrestling.
“Want to get some Pizza?” he asked, straddling her form in his arms while she tried to escape “Sure” she shrugged and finally broke free by jabbing her elbow into his stomach “But I want you to go full force on me one more time so I can see what we will have to work on tomorrow.” Natasha readied her stance and lifted her fists in a loose defence.
She could hear his light footsteps settling on the opposite side of the mat before his voice flooded over to her “Ready?” the red-head nodded confidently and he charged.
It was different from before. During their regular sparring sessions they hardly ever held back on the other, only assuring no major injuries occurred but this was a whole other level. Was she usually considerably better at hand to hand than him, the blonde now had a huge advantage. And since Natasha asked him to not hold back, he didn’t.
After a fraction of a second she was slammed into the ground forcefully before she could her him withdraw. The only unspoken rule between them was to not hit once the other was on the floor. Honour and all. She wasted no time springing back to her feet and charged immediately, her left hook was blocked and soon Natasha doubled over, a fist in her stomach.
Clint gave her time to retreat before launching himself in the air with a kick aimed to her head. She blocked, but only because she’d taught him that move and knew what he was going for. The blonde cornered her more than once, knocking her of her feet every so often. She felt the burns of her muscles mix with newly acquired bruises when she pushed herself up from the floor for what must have been the sixteenth time in the last half hour. At least the red-head managed to land a few good hits in between.
Suddenly, she heard the door slam shut and felt heavy footsteps pounding towards them. Steve, she thought. He was the only one heavy enough to be that loud while walking. Natasha focused back on the fight when she sensed her partner closing in again.
“BARTON! What are you doing?” her partner was yanked off her and she felt a sudden loss of contact. “Rogers, let me go.” She knew that tone. The low dark pitched growl meant trouble. Usually, Clint was very hard to upset but todays events didn’t only leave her shaken. Additionally, they were both high on adrenaline from hours of fighting each other. “Calm down Soldier.” Cap’s voice was even but the tone indicated anger.
“Let. Me. Go.” Deep breaths in between the syllables were followed by a sickening crunch of a super soldier hitting the floor boards.
She quickly ripped of her blindfold, scrambling to her feet. Just a few steps away, Clint stood over the captain, breathing heavily. The other was already standing back up but kept a little distance between them. “What do you think you are doing here?” Steve half shouted, “Don’t you see her getting hurt?”  he furiously pointed in her direction. Everything was still far too bright and Natasha had to blink a few times to properly see the other two men.
Clint focused his stormy blue eyes on hers and for a second she could see regret in his eyes. Not for fighting her, he knew she could take it, but for his over-reaction with the Captain. Before the Archer tried to push past Steve, he signed ‘Sorry, got to leave’ to her. Only a faint movement no one else would have noticed but they had used this code before. Rogers grabbed him by the shoulder, trying to get him to stay. Clint looked at the hand on his shoulder as if it burned and seized the other up. The smaller man squared his shoulders, staring in those sky blue patriotic eyes and drew in a long breath “Let me pass.” It was his mission voice, calm and collected. Only Natasha could hear the edge in it. She knew if her partner didn’t get out here fast, she would have to separate them. A fight on her behalf was the last thing she wanted.
Clint tended to get very triggerhappy if someone underestimated her capability to care for herself. And implying that she wasn’t fully in control of the situation earlier did just that. Her pride was far more important to him than his own. She knew the Captain meant no harm. The golden boy only wanted to protect his team, but he didn’t understand their world and what they had to do to survive in it.
“Steve, let him.” Natasha ordered. Her tone was sharp and left no room to argue. The moment the hand left his shoulder, Clint was out of the door. Probably either on his way to the roof or the garage. Once they were alone in the room, Steve turned towards her “Natasha he was hurting you.”
She immediately shook her head, also making a beeline for the door “No” she stated over her shoulder “He was helping.”
Later that evening, the whole group gathered in the large communal kitchen for dinner. It was Pepper’s day to pick something to order and they would most likely be eating some fancy four-star food. Natasha already had the coffee mashiene up and running when her partner entered the kitchen. He was now dressed in black sweatpants and a dark purple hoodie, hands shoved into his pockets. She hadn’t seen him since he left the training room earlier, keeping her distance because she knew he needed space.
Upon his entering, Steve and Tony’s conversation died down immediately and Rogers stared at the Archer in disdain. With a sigh, Clint stepped next to her, accepting the cup of coffee and turned to leave the kitchen again. Before he could slip away, Natasha grabbed his wrist and slightly puled him back. ‘Please stay’ she signed to him, shielding the motion from the other’s with her body. Anther sigh, then a slow nod. She released his arm again, briefly brushing over the hand warps he still wore. The smile she plastered on her face was forced. Natasha knew he’d been beating his knuckled bloody at a punching bag for the last hour. She was sure she would also find bruises from his bowstring on his forearm hence the hoodie. It was unhealthy, dangerous even and still she couldn’t blame him for his comping mechanism considering she did exactly the same. They just weren’t made for the regular world.
Ever since they moved into Avengers tower and out of their Shield quarters, they found themselves confronted with a lot of seemingly unimportant but significant problems. For one, the ‘team thing’ didn’t sit well with any of them. Too many unknown people. Too many secrets to be kept.
Pepper’s voice disturbed her thoughts “Come on you two the food just arrived.” Natasha walked over to the table taking a seat on the side farther away, her partner quietly shuffling behind her. Clint finally dropped on the stool next to her, fiddling with the sleeves of his hoodie. He pulled them up over his hands under the table until they covered the reddened bandages over his knuckles before placing his arms on the table. One hand still held onto the mug as if it somehow shielded him from reality. The first course was served in silence, occasionally interrupted by Tony or Bruce discussing some new formula they were working on.
When they got to the main course, Stark placed his phone on the table, creating a hologram of a pair of glasses floating in the air. “So,” he started “I’ve been thinking and came up with this prototype of Tac glasses that shield you from flash grenades. They are meant to shut down when exposed to extreme brightness. This way we might be able to avoid the event s of our last mission in the future. I’m currently working on a contact lens option.” Everybody nodded more or less enthusiastically, observing the stats that popped up next to the glasses. Natasha felt like she should probably say something and swallowed the bit of food she was currently chewing. “That looks pretty god to me. We’ve also been training during the day to fight blinded. It’s always better to be prepared.” Next to Tony, Steve shook his head with a snort “Yeah ‘training’ if that’s what you call it. He was beating you up.” Bruce, Pepper and Tony looked back and forth between the two assasins and him, looking confused.
Clint visibly stiffened next to her “Yes, training. Because she asked me to. Not that you would understand that.” His icy glare focused on the super soldier.
“You don’t injure your teammates on purpose. Soldiers have to stand together, not take each other apart.” Steve lectured in an even but quite loud tone.
“One: none of us are soldiers, not anymore. Two: We both outrank you, ‘Captain’. And three: I repeat, Nat asked me to.” The grip on his mug tightened visibly and Natasha soothingly laid a hand on his knee where the others wouldn’t see it.
“Wait, wait!” Tony cut in “Before you jump at each other, could you at least tell us what happened?” The Archer wanted to open his mouth but she was faster, cutting them both off. “Clint and I were sparring in the training room. I was blindfolded because we were training in case one of us got blinded again. Cap found it a bit harsh.”
“A bit harsh?” Steve was almost shouting “Natasha have you looked in the mirror?” This time it was surprisingly Tony who acted as peacemaker “Calm down Steve, I bet there is a good reason for this. We are all professionally here.” He rested his hand on the taller man’s shoulder and looked expectantly to the pair of Assassins.
“Not everyone can just get poked by a needle and turn into the perfect human being, some of us actually have to work for it.” Clint shrugged seemingly careless but his voice was dripping with sarcasm. Once you pissed him off, her partner could be a real Asshole if he chose to.
The red-head slightly kicked him under the table “What he is saying is that we” she gestured between herself and the Archer “had to work really hard to get where we are now. You all take that for granted because you have a flying suit of armour or superpowers. We are just human and the level we are operating on now takes decades to reach.” Tony looked a little dumbfounded but nodded, he had experienced several moments of helplessness during battles when his armour failed.
Steve crossed his arms in front of his chest with a huff “Still, that doesn’t justify hurting each other.”
“Better us than someone with more evil intentions.” Natasha leaned back in her chair, rocking slightly “We can control ourselves our enemies not so much. Better train some situations before you actually get into them.”
“That didn’t look like control to me.” Steve insisted, glaring at the Archer who again, fiddled with the sleeves of his hoodie. His head snapped up at the comment “I did what she asked. Don’t think she wasn’t in full control of the situation.” And added barely audible under his breath “I would never hurt her.”
“BUT YOU DID!” the Captain slammed his palms down on the table, causing the plates to jump.
“Rogers” Natasha’s voice was pure ice “I am fully capable to look out for myself, are we clear?” she didn’t wait for a response “We know how far we can push. We don’t injure each other. Bruises are normal and part of the job.” The silence that followed was final. No one dared to argue against her.
After a while, Clint nudged her with his foot. When she looked up, the blonde discreetly signed to her ‘Show them?’ it was more a question than a suggestion since he knew how much she hated being watched during training.
Natasha though a moment before nodding with a smirk ‘your turn’ she gestured and stood. “Come on. We will show you how we train. Maybe you will understand then.”
Down in the training room, she quickly changed back into her gym clothes and joined Barton in the ring. The Archer had stripped off his hoodie and held the blindfold in his hand. The angry red streaks of the bowstring were now on plain sight on his right arm. He looked at her guiltily when he caught her examining it. That was something she would have to deal with later.
They did a few stretches before starting their mirror exercise. “What are you doing?” Pepper sounded fascinated. Natasha dropped her hand, gesturing for Clint “It’s a trust exercise. We mirror each others movements to sync the exercise. See:” she held her hand up again and the Archer immediately copied the movement. After a few seconds, you couldn’t tell who was moving and who was following. They went from mirroring their hands to easy fight patterns, dancing fluently around each other, never touching but always synchronised.
After a while, Clint nodded to her and they both took their place in a corner of the ring. The blonde pulled the black fabric over his eyes, exhaling deeply. She stated lightly, tapping him on the spots she would have hit to give him some time to adapt. It had been a few weeks since they did that. It took him five minutes to get to their usual speed. After that, it as just blurry movements. Of course, she easily kept the upper hand, being generally better at hand to hand but his performance was still remarkable. Courtesy of weeks worth getting his ass kicked by her until everything hurt too much to walk. Of course, he was now still wearing the hearing aids and was able to hear her.
Tony clapped from his position next to the bars “Remarkable, where did Legolas learn that?” Natasha stopped attacking for a moment to answer “The same thing that happened to me happened to him a few years back but Barton was in a room full of hydra agents and didn’t have immediate backup like I did. We trained blindfolded after that for a few weeks, well he did at least.”
“So you do that often? Push the other past the limit to train?” Steve was still sceptical “How else do you expect us to eliminate weaknesses?” Clint had somehow found a spot right next to her, still wearing the blindfold.
“I get that.” Tony now, too observed the Archers wrapped and bloodied knuckles “Not that you have that many weaknesses master assassins and all.” The comment got Stark a slightly bitter laugh from both of them before Clint reached up to his ears and pulled out two little silver devices. He placed them on his hoodie and went back to face his partner. The spy was already waiting for him. “Those were my hearing aids.” he declared, dropping into a fighting stance. His voice sounded a little off like every time he couldn’t hear himself. “Nat, full force.” And that she did.
He was a little less accurate in his hits than before but not as much as Natasha would have thought after haven’t trained like that for at least two months. She immediately suspected him taking advantage of the robot dummy system Stark build when she had been on missions. She kept him down without greater trouble but had to accept some hits on her own. She’d trained him too good and he knew her moves too well by now to not be able to guess her next step.
After being slammed a dozen times onto the mat, he finally tapped out when Natasha had him in a chokehold between her thighs. She released him immediately and rolled to her feet while her Partner ripped the blindfold off his face, his eyes immediately locked with hers and she supplied a snort nod to indicate she was fine. Clint smiled in return and signed ‘Good fight’ to her before standing up, too.
The other Avengers were staring at them in shock and awe. “Wait, you are deaf?” Tony asked again, pointing his finger towards his ear in the process. Clint nodded, he still had to get the aids back in but his lip-reading was excellent. He turned to Natasha, throwing her a few gestures to ask if she could continue until he heard himself again and began to fumble the delicate things back into his ear. “80 percent on both ears.” He could see her say and observed the rest to see whether anyone would say something. Steve’s expression had changed from shocked to concerned “I think I understand now. Doesn’t mean I have to like it.” Clint inclined his head, leaving one device in his pocket to sign a rely to Nat. His first aid was in place, but he wouldn’t be hearing anything until the second one was synced. She repeatedly nodded at his string of fast gestures and turned back to Steve “He says he wants to apologize for slamming you onto the floor earlier.”  The super soldier shrugged it off with a slight smile. “And before you ask, he told me to say that it doesn’t affect his performance in the field as you could all witness and that it is a level seven classified information none of you should be knowing.” More nods from everyone.
“Why doesn’t he tell us himself?” Tony asked confused
“My voice sounds off when I can’t hear myself.” Clint spoke up finally able to hear again. “And she functions as a great filter for swear words.” He said winking at Steve who even cracked in a grin.
"I want to learn those Sign Language Swear words!" Tony recieved a punch in the arm from Pepper for his comment and a single raised fimger from Clint. "First lesson."