I Dare You by shadowsontherun
Go check their story out, it's really beautiful and funny, you'll love it for certain. You can find it just by searching it on Google, since the author is not on Wattpad.
Chapter 1
It all started back when they were both still strangers in an odd state of limbo between enemies and partners. There were no Avengers, no aliens, no magic and no one to boss them around out in the field where they called all the shots and either they did their job right or they didn't bother to come back at all.
"Ooh, so this is about you two's life before the Avengers was made. Awesome!" Tony clapped his hands together like a gleeful child. People sat up straighter, curious and excited to know what they were like before they became the heroic and crazy avengers.
Clint silently watched his partner from the corner of his eye growl in frustration as she promptly threw the binoculars she had been staring through for the last 3 hours onto the ground and angrily pushed herself to her feet.
"Still impatient as ever, huh, Natashalie?" Tony grinned. He was rewarded with a smack in the back of his head when he wasn't looking. "I would be in the best of moods if I waited three hours for someone that I wasn't sure will appear," Steve defended her. "Yeah, that's annoying," MJ nodded in agreement.
"Sounds sad to be honest," Peter added.
"Okay, no need to attack me again," Tony grumbled.
He noticed the way she was half limping and rolled his eyes.
"And they call you a wonderful spy," Clint teased. "Wonderful assassin, not spy," Natasha argued. "I was more fond of charging in and slicing everyone to bits."
"You need better posture while crouching for long periods of time - otherwise that is going to keep happening," Clint said without moving an inch from the initial position he took up at the edge of the ridge they were lying on.
"A guide to how to be a spy," Clint said, using his finger-gun to pretend-shoot the screen. "I still can't believe how you used to not be good at this."
Natasha shrugged. "As I said, I was not one for waiting. Unlike you."
"Hawkeye for a reason, Nat."
His riffle was exactly where he wanted it to be and he was going to keep it that way. He had no problem staying in one place for hours. However his partner was another story.
"Shut up Barton - I wasn't built for long term stake outs. I hunt targets - not wait for them to take their damn time in the burning sun," Natasha said as she tried to ignore the pain shooting up and down her calves - she should have been paying attention to the building tension but she was too damn proud to keep shifting her weight when he could lie still for literally days if he had to. The damn bastard pissed her off.
"LOL. Sassy."
He chuckled at her irritated tone.
"Sometimes I think you're crazy, Barton."
"Crazy brave, or...?"
Sometimes he thinks there is an equal chance of her shooting him as there is of her saving his ass.
Yes, there is. Most certainly. Was what everyone was thinking..
"Why the hell did we get a mission the middle of nowhere Barton?" Natasha asked pacing behind him to get some feeling back in her legs.
"Cuba is hardly the middle of nowhere Romanoff," he said as he continued to peer through his sniper scope and scanning the scarce dirt roads running along the base the cliff they were perched on.
"You guys are at Cuba?!"
"Cool beans."
"What did you just say, Ned?"
"Holding a stake out in the Cuban mountains waiting for a drug trafficking convoy that may or may not pass by this location is what I consider a shit mission in the middle of nowhere," Natasha muttered as she continued her swift walking. She was the running type - not the sitting for endless hours type.
"Language, Natasha," Steve reminded. Nearly everyone rolled their eyes. Classic Steve.
"Patience, dear Natalia...is not your strong suit," Clint said dryly. He didn't need to look up to see the scowl on her face.
"Who said it was?" Natasha tilted her head. "Who didn't?" Clint countered.
"Ahem, you."
She whipped a bag of bullets at his head in retaliation. He didn't even flinch - it made her even angrier.
"Agent Romanoff," Maria narrowed her eyes. "Yes, Hill?" Natasha responded teasingly.
"'Don't call me Natalia," she hissed. She hated that name. She hated everything related to her past - there was a reason she chose a new one when she accepted his offer to join SHIELD.
"You won't let me call you Natasha so what am I supposed to call you?" he asked with shrug.
"You didn't let him call you Natasha?" Peter looked surprised. "I thought that was only for Tony in the past," Bruce mumured thoughtfully.
Clint nodded. "Yeah, believe it or not, she was even more moody in the past." "I don't doubt it," Tony grunted.
"Romanoff is just fine," she said irritably. He didn't need to look up at her fuming face to feel the rage coming off of her in waves - whoever said Natasha Romanoff was emotionless was an idiot.
"Big idiot," Natasha added. Clint smiled.
"After 6 months you'd think we'd get past last names wouldn't you?" he asked glancing up at the agitated Russian but otherwise made no comment about her intense dislike of anyone using her first name - whatever she chose it to be. He had the feeling last names were a way she kept a good 50 mile distance between her and the rest of the world. Well too bad for her - once you're Clint Barton's partner there is no way things are going to stay so cut dry and cold professionalism. He just didn't work like that.
"Get a different partner," she said without a second thought. He didn't even bat an eyelash.
"No," he said simply. Natasha shot him a withering look.
"Why?" she asked suspiciously. She never understood why he wanted to be partnered with her of all people. She didn't realize until she was already halfway through the SHIELD welcome mat that he was more than just a normal field agent - he was one of their best.
"True... why, Barton?" Tony turned to look at Clint. It took him a while to realise how serious Tony was. He didn't call Clint Legolas. He was genuinely curious. Clint pondered the question for a while, but Natasha knew he already knew the answer.
"She was okay with me," He finally said. No one was really convinced at that answer.
And before she came along he had always worked alone.
"Because I like mine just fine," he said with a half shrug.
"Apparently you are the only one," she muttered under her breath - he heard her easily because of the small distance between them.
Natasha glared at the floor.
"You have your own charm Natasha," he said simply - without any flowery buttering up. It was simply the truth -but she still didn't believe him. She never did.
"Yeah when I'm doing my job and pretending to be what targets want to see - I'm downright charming indeed," she muttered darkly. Clint paused as he listened to her bitter tone.
"I wasn't talking about the Black Widow - I was talking about you," he said without looking at her. He felt her stiffen immediately behind him and the silence that followed confirmed that she wasn't happy with him.
"He's right Natasha," Steve said softly. "You have your good points."
Sometimes he wanted to tell her to just chill the hell out and live a little - but then she would probably shoot him between the eyes and that would be the end of that.
Some people managed to crack a smile at that. A fond one.
"You know what I love about drugs Natasha?" Clint asked suddenly. Natasha glared at him.
"Don't call me Natasha," she growled. He ignored her and continued anyway.
"They make even your lovely growls sound like sweet lullabies and conveniently - they are very, very flammable," Clint said holding up a packet of ammunition between his two fingers with a slight smirk on his face.
"You were almost as annoying as Tony in the past," Natasha grumbled. Clint clutched his chest as if in pain. "Gasp! How dare you compare me to Tony!" Tony stared at them in irritation. "Why are you talking about me like that?"
"You should be happy to be compared to someone amazing like me," Clint told him.
"I'm surprised you're alive, Clint," Bruce says honestly. Steve nodded sheepishly. Natasha scared the heck out of him sometimes. "Yeah, you're really brave I guess," MJ remarked.
"You guess?"
Natasha narrowed her eyes at his little barb but couldn't deny his second statement. There was only one problem.
"What is it, Natasha?"
"You're going to blow us all up if they're jacked up on ether of all things," Natasha said shaking her head. The man was insane.
"Trust issues."
"Paranoid."
"Nope, just careful," Natasha argued. "He could easily blow our brains out." "It's a spy thing," Clint says proudly.
"How much are you willing to bet on that Nat?" he asked with a devilish grin. Natasha was about to strangle the damn sniper.
"Rest in peace, Barton."
"How many times do you think of strangling me?" Clint wonders. Natasha shrugs. "Too many to remember."
"The fuck are you doing to my name Barton?" she shouted in frustration.
"You really don't like being called that," Sam observes, grimacing at the loud noise. "And language," Steve adds. People facepalm.
Clint simply smirked and continued to watch for movement - not that he was really expecting anyone before evening.
"I admire your bravery or foolishness," Ned comments. Clint blinks in confusion at that.
In the meantime inspiring Romanoff to pull her own hair out was a much more entertaining pastime. Natasha took a calming breath and pinched the bridge of her nose. Honestly - no one infuriated her like Clint Barton did. She still didn't know why she bothered to stick around.
She could have ditched his sorry ass in any number of missions over the last few months - but she never did.
"You never did," Clint echoes.
She didn't analyze the potential reasons too closely. She didn't think she would like what she'd find.
Ignore the raised eyebrows.
"I'm trying to find one that fits," he said suddenly out of nowhere. She paused and gave him a quizzing look.
"What do you mean?" Steve tilts his head, puzzled.