What Happened In Budapest *unedited*

Chapter 12: Gentle Reminders

  Barton smiled and backed away from me.

He thought I was crazy.

I stepped closer to him. “No, really, Barton.”

He held up his hand. “Before you continue your insanity, I want to ask you two things.”

“Uhm…”

“Why don’t you ever call me Clint?”

“What?”

He crossed his arms. “I’m not letting you talk before you answer.”

“Okay.” I stared at him. “oh, wait. You actually want me to answer.”

“Yes,” he said, obviously trying to get me to talk. “I do.”

“What’s the question again?”

“Quit stalling for time, Nat.” He said. “Like I said, I’m only letting you continue with this… uh, discovery-“

“Okay! I get it.” I opened my mouth to answer, closed it, and then opened it again. “So anyway, I was sitting on the roof thinking right before I fell…”

I kept talking, ignoring the exasperated glares he kept shooting my way.  I finished talking and said: “so what are your thoughts?”

“I think,” He stared slowly. “That you’re stubborn and annoying, but smart.”

I frowned. “ABOUT MY THEORY.”

“And pretty,” He added after a while.

I froze.

“Oh,” He turned redder than a radish. “Right. Theory. Uh… it’s absolutely insane, but I guess it works.”

“What part is insane?” I asked.

“The whole thing,” He grinned, then added: “But it makes sense.”

“I wish I knew why they’d chosen you.” I puffed and plopped myself into a chair.

He frowned at me. “I feel very welcome.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

His frowned righted itself a little.

“What I mean, is they could have picked anyone else. Why you?”

“Oh,” He said, a little blandly. “They chose me because they know how approachable you are. Like a bed of nails.”

I scowled at him. “Isn’t that from a teen book?”

He smiled a little more. “I didn’t know you were into that kind of stuff.”

“I’m not, and don’t get off topic.”

“So you really want me to tell you why they picked me?”

I crossed my arms, making Barton more uncomfortable than I should have been.

“If you feel like telling me,” I said, three or four minutes later. “Do let me know.”

“Okay, Okay.” He sat down on the floor, and feeling quite award (more than I should be feeling, honestly) I sat down, our knees touching.

It was nice.

No it wasn’t. This was Barton, and he was… Barton. Maybe it was a little nice.

“They didn’t choose me.” He stared, and my eyes widened in surprise.

“Don’t you have to-“

“Nat! Let me talk!”

“Okay,” I whispered.

“Like I said, I didn’t really get chosen. Someone else was supposed to go, but like I said, you’re not that approachable. Even more so when you can just… vanish. Here you’re just… I can keep an eye on you, you know? Make sure you’re real.”

“ME? Not real?” I exclaimed.

“Yeah. Like I said, you just vanish. You’re the legendary Black Widow. Cold, distant.”

I kinda sat there.

“But anyway, the other guy backed out. He doesn’t really like you, and you have no idea who he is, so he said what the hell and told Fury no. I saw a chance and I took it.”

“If I’m so approachable,” I sad, slowly. “What propelled you to come with me?”

“Well, Fury said you were going, no matter what. I think he’s tried of your sulking and taking out all those dummies and crashing the system after a while. So because the other agent backed out, he obviously needed another agent, and I was the only one who wanted to do it.”

“Yes, but why.”

“I’m about to tell you. See, as stubborn, annoying, clueless, beautiful, strong, etc., as you are, you’re still human. Well, as human as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent can be. And someone, sometime, needs to remind you of that every so often.”

“So, you’re my reminder?” I asked, trying to figure out what he meant.

 “In a way. My mission has a little extra than yours does, as even as you think they are.”

“You want to remind me I’m human.”

“You are human.” He stated simply. “But you don’t have the personality of a human.”

“You’re saying I’m Vulcan?” I said, shocked.

“NATASHA ROMANOFF YOU NEVER TOLD ME YOU LIKED STAR TREK!”

“Who doesn’t?” I asked. “It’s like saying that everybody hates Harry Potter, which I love.”

Barton just stared. Then, he leaned over an kissed me.

A nice kiss. A proper one. One on the lips.

So that’s what he meant, reminding me I was human.

And all I did about the reminder was kiss him back.

OMG OMG OMG OMG GAHAHAHAHAHAHAH FIRST REAL MOMENT GAAAAAAAAAAAH MAJOR FANGIRLING.

And I'm the writer, isn't that weird?

BUT HALELLUJAH I UPDATED A DAY LATE AND BEFORE SUNDAY WHOOT-WHOOT!

And now I'm just going to stare at my screen going what did I just write holy crapp kissing why did i-

And yeah.

SUPER HAPPY ABOUT THE clintasha kisses!

nufflepuff