When Romanoff woke up in the morning, she noticed that her dogs were lying across the threshold of her door. Barton must have left the door open on his way out. She showered and changed into her work out gear. In the kitchen is where she found him, using a blender and making a protein shake.
"Good morning," Clint greeted.
"Just get back from a run?" Natasha asked.
He nodded and used his arm to wipe sweat off his forehead. "Feel like some training today?"
"Sure why not. Let me just put the dogs outside."
They went to the gym and did some jiujitsu. Then after putting on some padding, practiced their hand to hand combat. She went into instructor mode and taught him a few new tricks. Once they were satisfied with that, both did some weight training.
"Sauna time?" Natasha asked.
"Nope, I'm going to try swimming in that current you mentioned."
They split up. Barton did do the swim and was pleased with how strong the current was. It was a great way to end the workout. Then he went into the jaccuzi to relax. This is where she found him semi-dozing. He opened an eye, long before she even came to stand beside him. He had felt her presence, even with his eyes closed.
"S.H.E.I.L.D called, we're to head back to the airship tomorrow."
"No rest for the wicked it seems," he mumbled.
"As if you're not itching to get back into the mix of things," Natasha snorted.
"We both are," Clint said fully opening his eyes and pinning hers with his.
"Nick Fury says it's just a recon mission. But something is up, because we are doing it together," she advised.
"That's the agency for you, never gives straight answers or the full truth." He got out of the jaccuzi and towelled himself dry. "I'll meet you in the training complex by the weapons wall."
Romanoff grinned and went that way. She picked up a pair of curved blades and waited for him. He jogged in, wearing his gear. "Grab a few toys and let's go into the forest," Clint suggested.
She noticed he had his bow and arrows. She strapped on her guns, a sword and took the hand blades too. New metal cuffs she clipped on to her wrists and gave him a pair also. He took two guns and a katana. At the conveyor belt, Romanoff touched a panel and out came a modified quad ATV. She got on first and he sat behind her. They rumbled off and down the horse path into the forest. She turned off the path and then stopped in a small clearing. Some targets already were up and showed marks from use.
He nodded satisfied with the area. "Choose your weapon and attack," Clint said.
Romanoff put aside the pile, then turned her back on him, so he couldn't see what she chose as a weapon. A quick spin around began the attack. As he'd predicted, she used the curved blades for hand to hand combat. The wrist guards came in handy to deflect her blows. He managed to disarm her, quicker than she'd expected. The guns had rubber bullets, Romanoff used these next. She caught him twice, but his acrobatic skill kept him out of harms way most of the time. When her clips were empty he came at her with the katana. The sound of clashing swords, scattered the few remaining birds. She wasn't the best with a sword, but her agility made up for that.
"Stop," Clint said. "If you do this, then I can't do that...." he taught her how to defend against his katana. "Okay let's start again."
With the new move he'd just shown her, she improved her defence. He showed her a few more techniques and then Romanoff stopped them.
"Okay hot shot, let's do some target practice." Natasha shook her head when he picked up his bow." Not with your bow Hawkeye, with the guns. Let me just change the clips to real bullets. One for me and one for you."
"Did you bring a sniper rifle?" He asked.
"No, but this gun has been modified for a sniper attachment. That I did bring." She showed him the pieces, but didn't assemble it. "Later."
He was a pretty good marksman himself, so they were evenly matched with the hand guns. Getting frustrated with her own performance, Romanoff assembled the sniper unit. She called out her shots, before firing. He watched to see if she hit or missed. She was accurate for the most part. One shot that he gauged to be around 500 meters, completely missed it's target. Barton grinned and then did the same shot, hitting it right in the centre.
"Sometimes you really irritate me," Natasha complained.
Clint chuckled, "awe don't be like that."
Romanoff dropped her weapons and he knew that she wanted a hand to hand combat session. He removed his weapons and the wrist cuffs. Then they fought. He let her win, not wanting to be bruised again. She ended up on top of him, with a full mount and put him in a choke. He tapped.
"You won that easily and you always will."
She stayed straddled over him, her hands on either side of his head. Romanoff's hair fell forward and he tucked some strands behind her ear. Barton looked into her eyes and saw the desire building. She licked her lips, wanting to kiss him so bad, but didn't follow through. That meant she wasn't ready yet, to allow him closer to her than ever before. Standing up, she offered him her hand, he took it and got up too. Both knew they shouldn't get involved due to working together, yet both of them didn't want to let go either. He also realized that she didn't trust him enough to just give into her desires. Barton knew about her past; what had cause her to become the Black Widow. The past that she had overcome and survived, would have broken most people. It made her who she was today and why Romanoff fought the good fight and worked for S.H.E.I.L.D. They picked up their gear and then got back on the ATV to return to the training compound.
"Any word from Nick about the next assignment?" Clint asked.
"He sent over an information packet. I'll put it up on the screen in the conference room."
"Even after everything we just went through working with the Avengers, I still want to get back to the usual grind. I guess it's the ADD, I need to be in the thick of things," Clint said.
"You're an adrenaline junkie, just like I am. We're not happy unless we are working or our lives are on the line," Natasha explained.
Clint shrugged. "I think for us what we do is who we are, it's not just a job. Who we work for, is how others define us."
She nodded, "agreed."
They came into the training complex and put away their weapons, except that Barton kept his bow and quiver. Then he followed her to the conference room. He was definitely admiring her rear assets. She put the information on the screen and they saw the details of their next assignment. They were first tailing Maya Hansen who was a doctor working on nanotechnology for the military, through a contract from FuturePharm research institute. She was going to a gala event to solicit more funding. S.H.E.I.L.D. suspected she may be leaking the technology to competitors, to find who'd pay the most to keep the research going. From the information provided, Barton had a feeling that there once again was something that they weren't being told, but he said nothing.
"I hate Galas. A dress doesn't give me too many options to hide weapons," Natasha grumbled.
"True, but normally there shouldn't be need for weapons at such an event," Clint grinned. She gave him a sour look. "But we'll figure something out," he reassured and her smile came back.
"The Gala is tomorrow night. Come on, you're going to have to help me figure out what dress will conceal the most weapons."
Romanoff grabbed his hand and towed him after her, going to the weapon's room to load his arms with gear. Then she went to her room and into the walk-in closet. He sat down on a sofa chair by the glass wall, waiting for her to reappear. The first dress was done up to her neck and ended above her knees. She could conceal a gun between her breasts, but no other weapon. She went through two other dresses, that had the same problem. Finally she came out in a shimmering long blue dress. The back was cut low, with thin criss-crossed diamond straps. The front was a style that accentuated her curves in all the right places.
"Wow, that's the one," Clint said in awe, as his eyes roamed over her from head to toe.
The smile she gave him, lit up her eyes. "Thank you. Best part is this...." Natasha lifted up the dress to expose a leg band that held a gun on one thigh and two blades on the other. Then from between her breasts she pulled out another gun.
Clint whistled, "lethal beauty."
"Now you know why my code name is Black Widow," she grinned.
He frowned. "I thought that was because you've been married repeatedly and killed each of your husbands."
She gave him an unamused look. "There's that too. Part of the red in my ledger," she sighed.
Not liking that he had changed her mood negatively, Clint said, "you did what you had to do to survive. I don't blame you for that." He stood up and twirled her around, then put her into a low dip. He liked how the material felt in his hands. "So what's our cover story?"
Natasha saw the look of desire pass through his eyes and it made her feel good. "You're an investor of course and I am your wife."
"A gold digger or a partner in crime?" He joked.
"Both," Natasha winked and laughed.
"Nice. So do I have a tux in my closet?"
"Several actually. Let me just change and we'll see what works best for you." Natasha disappeared and in five minutes was back in a pair of track pants.
He raised an eyebrow, "that looks comfy."
"Once we pick out your disguise, you can change too."
He did as she said and they went through a few classic looks. She was undecided between a Yves Saint Laurent tux that was dark blue or Barton's choice, which was a dark blue shirt, bow tie and black tux.
Natasha made him turn around slowly and finally decided. "The dark blue shirt just works for you. That's the look." Then she went into the closet to the accessories drawer and picked him out a watch and a ring. "These double as weapons too. The ring spins over to reveal a spike, great for punching and leaving considerable damage. The watch has a timer with explosive built in. Great for a quick getaway, but not too effective for a big blast."
"You've got to like the gadgets S.H.E.I.L.D. comes up with," Clint smiled in acknowledgement.