The Los Angeles Operation

Fourteen

Natasha unwillingly put Barbara’s hair up into a fancy braid and tucked it under. She purposefully pulled a little harder than she should have. Clint noticed and glared at her, but Natasha pretended not to notice. 

Once she was done, Morse went to do her makeup. Knowing it was going to take her a while, Clint moved to sit down next to Natasha. 

“Do we need to talk about it?” 

“About what?” Natasha asked, playing dumb. 

Clint gave her a look. “The kiss.” 

“No. Why would we?” 

“I don’t know… just find it a little odd that you’ll kiss me but you refuse to love-“

“If you finish that sentence, I’ll kill you,” Natasha replied. 

“Well, why do you?” 

“I’m not going to grace that question with an answer.” 

Clint scooted closer to her. “Come on, Tasha. Please.” He gave her a sad excuse for puppy eyes. 

“No, Clint. And you don’t look cute making that face.” 

Clint wasn’t giving up that easily. He moved even closer and slipped an arm around her. “I’d really appreciate it if you told me.” 

“Well, that’s too bad.” 

“Nat… why won’t you tell me?” 

“Tell you what? That I love you? Because it’s not true.” 

That was a flat-out lie, and she knew it. But, the important thing was, he didn’t know it. Natasha was concerned that Clint was getting suspicious. But, really, if he couldn’t see that Morse had a crush on him when she was making it so painfully obvious, would he really notice if Natasha loved him? Surely she was doing a good enough job of hiding it. 

Clint knew that she didn’t love him, and probably never would. But that wasn’t going to stop him from loving her. 

His hand brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. He gently traced her jaw line with the back of his finger and said, “Yeah, I know it’s not.” 

The carefully masked pain in Clint’s eyes hurt Natasha. She wanted to tell him that… well… she was lying. She did love him. 

But, instead, she said, “The closest I may ever get to love is trust. And I trust you with everything that I am. Good enough?” 

“No, it’s not. But I guess I should content myself with it, huh?” He smiled a little to show her he wasn’t mad. 

“I guess you’ll have to, yeah.” 

Why did this lie hurt Natasha so deeply? She had lied about far more serious things before, so… why did it pain her? She had hurt people more than she was hurting Clint right now, so… what was wrong? 

“You alright, Beautiful?” Clint shook her from her thoughts. 

She smiled a little. “Yeah, just… lost in thought.” 

“Good thoughts?” 

“Good and bad.” 

“Who are they about?” 

“Stop pushing it, Clint.” 

“Okay, I’ll back off,” Clint promised, scooting away from her. 

“Don’t.” The word was out of her mouth before she could even finish her thought. She blushed. Clint looked at her, confused. She had no choice but to finish her thought. “Don’t pull away.”