Chapter Text
CHAPTER 1
Prologue
Clint Barton was your best friend and your partner. And you were hopelessly head over heels in love with the man. You met Clint your first day at Shield after you were recruited. He was in charge of a weapons training course. He was showing off with his bow and arrow, shooting the targets dead center everytime. He never misses. When it was your turn you shot your arrow straight through one of his splitting it in half right down the middle. That’s how you caught his attention. After you were finished with your training courses for the day he cornered you in the cafeteria and you ended up talking for hours. He’s extremely smart, funny, sarcastic, and so incredibly handsome.
The next day he went to Director Fury and asked to train you personally. He saw you had talent and didn’t want you, and I quote “tainted by incompitent ass hats.” Clint normally worked alone, didn’t do well with partners. But he saw you were different and you’ve been his partner ever since.
The two of you spent a lot of time together, and became very close practically inseparable. You kept having these moments where he would almost kiss you. But he would chicken out at the last second everytime. Finally being fed up with all of the almost kissed moments you flat out asked him why he wouldn’t just kiss you already. It was obvious both of you were attracted to each other and felt something for each other.
That’s when he dropped the biggest, most unexpected bomb on you. Clint Barton is a married man. You’re heart shattered the day he told you that. He felt like your other half, like you were meant to find each other. You know he felt it too. But he found someone else before you. He asked you to keep it a secret. The only other person that knew was Director Fury. Clint was paranoid and wanted anything personal kept out of Shield’s files.
Clint must have seen the hurt in your eyes when he told you. He apologized and told you that you were right about everything, about feeling something for each other. He asked if you wanted a new partner and your already shattered heart almost disintegrated. You still wanted your friendship and partnership. You could move past the other stuff…..eventually…..hopefully.
So you stayed partners and best friends. Nothing changed, you are a little ashamed to say even the flirting didn’t change. But you’re not a homewrecker, nothing happened beyond some flirting. Eventually he introduced you to his wife Laura. They had their second child on the way when you first met her. Over time the kids called you Auntie (Y/N), but you got the feeling Laura didn’t like you. Maybe she could tell you were pining over her husband, so you can’t really hold that against her.
You were with Clint when he was sent to kill a young and beautiful KGB agent, Natasha Romanoff. The two of you made a different choice and ended up recruiting her instead. She doesn’t trust many people, but she friended you and Clint surprisingly easily. She actually thought you and Clint were a couple for the longest time. You saw the surprise on her face when Clint told her about Laura and the kids. He eventually introduced Natasha to his family. The kids call her Auntie Nat, and Laura actually seemed to like Nat. Which made you feel worse about yourself for having feelings for a married man. Even if you never acted on it. Although admittedly you two are probably closer than what most would deem appropriate.
After Nat met Clint’s family she cornered you. Just one lift of her eyebrow and she had you confessing everything. At first she thought you were having an affair, but you quickly cleared that up. After your confession she tried to help you by keeping Clint in line, she could tell his little flirtations were doing more harm than good to your own mental well being.
You were with Clint on assignment to watchover Dr. Selvig as he tested and experimented on the Tesseract. Some weird powerful cube that was found by Howard Stark when they were searching for Captain America 70 some years ago. You were also with Clint when Loki appeared. Both of you took shots at him to try and stop him, but failed miserably. Loki said you both had heart and used his scepter to take control of your minds.
Both of you were forced to do things you would have never done. Natasha was brought in by Director Fury and Agent Phil Coulson to bring the two of you back in. You made her job much easier by coming to her. Loki made the two of you attack Shield’s Helicarrier. She beat the shit out of both of you knocking you unconscious and called it “cognitive recalibration” when you asked her how she broke Loki’s hold on you.
You and Clint fought side by side with the Avengers when the Chitauri attacked New York under Loki’s command. In the aftermath of that attack Director Fury wanted to keep the Avengers banded together for emergencies. He asked Clint to join. Clint said he would only join if you and Natasha were brought in with him. Fury easily agreed to his terms. Tony Stark turned Stark Tower into the Avengers Tower.
For once you weren’t with Clint, he took some time off to be with his family. But only you and Natasha knew that. You were with Captain Steve Rogers and Natasha when Shield fell and found out Hydra had been infiltrating Shield the entire time. Clint’s paranoia turned out to be warranted after all and you were thankful Director Fury kept his family off the books. Tony was in California. Thor went back to Asgard, and you weren’t sure where Bruce was. So it was the three of you against Hydra.
You and Steve weren't exactly close. You were like work friends, except he was technically your boss. But you admired and respected him. He always treated you with respect and he trusted you more than he trusted Natasha.
You were with Steve when he found out his best friend Sergeant James Barnes was not dead and was in fact captured and experimented on by Hydra. He was the assassin known as the Winter Soldier. That’s also around the time you met Sam Wilson who would eventually join the Avengers. You were with Steve and Sam trying to disable the three Helicarriers Hydra weaponized to kill millions of people. You watched in horror as the Winter Soldier shot Steve. Steve shoved you off the Helicarrier into the water below to save you from the same fate.
You swam to shore and saw when Steve’s unconscious body fell from the sky. The Winter Soldier was hanging from the Helicarrier watching him fall, until he suddenly dropped into the water after him. You watched in confusion as the soldier pulled Steve out of the water and threw him on to the shore. Thankfully Natasha had taught you some Russian. The Winter Soldier was giving you a cold stare with his piercing blue eyes the entire time you watched him drag Steve from the water and he towered over you when he dropped Steve onto the ground.
“Soldat, ya sdelayu vid, chto ne videl tebya. Tol'ko, pozhaluysta, ne obizhay moyego druga”
(Soldier I will pretend I didn't see you. Just please don't hurt my friend.)
Without a word he left, walked away from you and Steve. Maria Hill and Sam came to your rescue and got Steve to the hospital. You and Sam stayed with him the entire time. You and Steve became actual friends instead of being work friends or acquaintances after that.
With Shield in ruins all that was left was the Avengers. There were some sectors of Hydra that still got away. And they also stole some dangerous items that were in Shield’s vaults. Like Loki’s scepter for example. The thought of that scepter being in the hands of Hydra gave you nightmares. Because you still had nightmares about what Loki did to you and Clint. So the Avengers reassembled at the Tower and started searching for hidden Hydra bases.
When Clint came back to work the two of you were partnered together once again, and you were back to your own internal torment of pining over the man you so desperately desire, but can’t have.