Be not simply good; be good for something

[broken_arrow]

For three days they just talked, and more often than not they sit in silence, but after she had given him some names of people who had possible connection to the Red Room Clint had managed to get Fury to give him access to one of the smaller, private training rooms. It had all the essentials: training mats, punching bag and, of course, targets.

They had been at it for going on twenty minutes, their first sparring match since that first meeting in the tunnels. She was good, he had to give her that, but it was clear she wasn’t used to a challenge, at least not any more; he doubted she had came up against many recently who could even make her work for a victory.

Clint could have ended it sooner but he let it go on, watching all her moves closely, learning her tells. She had a definite routine, an order of things, and he kept on the defensive, letting her keep the upper hand, until she became too repetitive. He hadn’t acted much on the offensive the entire time so when he finally switched it was fast and it was effective. He used her surprise, her confidence that she was the best, and in the blink of an eye he had her on her back, pinned to the mat.

“Not bad,” he complimented her. Sort of.

Comments

[red_andblack]

Natalia had been a little too sure of herself that day.

It was surprising even to her that he got her to spar. Clint had been nice enough over the past few days, and ever patient through her moods, especially when things turned bad when certain memories resurfaced. She didn't want to hurt him, and was plenty convinced she would given the chance.

Now, looking up at him, she realized her first lesson would be in humility. Breathing heavily, she cursed in her native tongue. "Not good enough." she mumbled, letting her eyes drift away. Her hands went limp beneath showing her surrender.

She wasn't pleased.

[broken_arrow]

Even though he didn’t understand Russian Clint could tell she was cursing, and even without the cursing it would have been very clear that Natalia was less than pleased to lose. She didn’t try to fight back, though; didn’t try to throw him off or throw a fit. She just submitted.

Releasing his hold on her, Clint rolled over to sit beside her and brushed a hand back through his hair. “Not yet,” he agreed. It was a statement of fact, but also one that spoke of a faith that she would get better. To be honest, had she kicked his ass right off the first go he might have been worried, at least once he got over his hurt pride. “But you’re still better than some of the new recruits I’ve seen.”

[red_andblack]

Sitting up, Natalia rested her wrists on her knees and looked down. Her skills weighed more on the intel side of things, but she was also trained to kill if necessary. It troubled her she was losing her touch.

"Some." she echoed with a scoff, reminding herself of the handful of doctors she sent to the infirmary her first week there. "And who trained them?" she questioned, tilting her head to the side to look at him.

[broken_arrow]

Alright, so maybe that hadn’t been the best choice of words. Here they were, practically keeping her a prisoner, and then he had to go and insult one of the things that she relied upon, her ability to fight and to kill.

“Most of the more seasoned agents get training duty at least once in their career,” Clint said. “You gotta keep in mind that SHIELD doesn’t just take any bozo off the street. They only take the best, so you can pretty much count on everyone here being awesome at something even before training starts.”

[red_andblack]

It made sense. Not that she would know. She was only six when they took her from the orphanage not long after her parents died. But, Natasha would hardly put up a fight if it meant learning some new defense techniques.

She looked at him. "What about you? What did SHIELD see you in that was so.. awesome?"

These Americans and their slang.

[broken_arrow]

Clint grinned at her question, though it was more for hearing her say ‘awesome’ in that Russian accent than the chance to talk about his skills. It was cute, her trying out the Americanisms.

“Me?” he asked in a showboating manner. “I’m the World’s Greatest Marksman!” You can take the boy out of the circus but you can’t take the circus out of the boy. There was still a bit of showman left in him yet, no matter what had happened to him back then. “Or, well, at least that’s what the sign used to say.”

[red_andblack]

She heard a number of them in the past week and a bit. But the one that made no sense to her was "gross".

Natasha raised a brow, quite impressed with the theatrics, but her expression turned to confusion as he finished. "Sign?" she questioned.

[broken_arrow]

“Yeah,” Clint said, getting to his feet. “My sign.” Walking over to the nearest wall he attached the quiver of arrows he had brought with him, all normal tipped, to his back and grabbed the bow. “I grew up in a circus and that was my act, the World’s Greatest Marksman.”

The target was set up on the far side of the room. He took a moment to sight it before loosing the arrow. It struck the bullseye dead centre. “I’d shoot apples off people’s heads, lollypops out of their mouths.” Another arrow landed barely a millimeter from the first. “I could pick a dime out between someone’s fingers, though that one could be a bit painful even when done right.”

He looked over at her, taking his eyes off the target, before letting the third arrow go. It landed just with the other two in a neat cluster. “It was always done right.”

[red_andblack]

Lifting her chin in understanding, Natalia watched casually as Clint took aim. To say she wasn't impressed would be an outright lie. He was definitely worthy of his title. However, she didn't give way to how awed she really was.

Moving over to a stack of mats off the wall, Natalia watched. Both Clint and his skill. It was habit for her to study, put herself in front of him as if she were engaged in battle; to learn his technique, his faults, and weaknesses. He was cocky.

She looked at him just as he did and their eyes fixed for a long moment before they moved to the target.

"Bravo, Agent Barton." she said, moving off the mats to take a better look. "It makes sense why they sent you after me. You have quite the eye."

[broken_arrow]

Clint followed her movements with his eyes, watching as she studied his handiwork. He had certainly done as he always did, but he could do better if he wanted to. He hadn’t even pulled off the Robin Hood shot. He was saving that one for another time. It was always good for winning bets, after all.

“That’s what they say,” he replied, resting one end of the bow on the floor and his hand on the other end. “Hawkeye, they call me. I think it was meant as a joke at first, maybe even mean spirited?” he shrugged his shoulders. “But it kinda stuck.”

Of course that was why they had sent him; she would have torn apart anyone else, or used her wiles on them. They had figured he was their best bet, their safe bet, because he wouldn’t have to get close to her to kill her. Clearly things hadn’t worked out as they’d planned.

[red_andblack]

"The eyes of a hawk," Natalia mused thoughtfully. She finally turned to face him. "Did you know that a hawk has one million photoreceptor's in their retinas, while a normal human being only has about two hundred thousand? I would say it was meant more as truth than anything."

It was interesting learning about him. He knew so much about her, likely more disturbing. That was one thing she liked about being who she was, even if she didn't really seem to care. Much of what she learned about others she sometimes used as a mask for one of her various personalities.

[broken_arrow]

Clint’s brows slowly raised higher and higher as she spoke, struck dumb for a moment by her intelligence. It wasn’t that he thought her stupid, not by a long shot, but people like them, people who hadn’t had the luxuries of school, weren’t often so learned.

He was then struck further by the fact that he had lumped them together into a ‘people like us’ group. Oh, he was sure she’d love to hear that. Right.

“I didn’t know that,” he said after a moment. He’d really had no idea. “Guess I should take it as a compliment then, huh?” He actually liked the codename, and it was a lot less cumbersome than his circus name. Made a cool call sign over the comm links too. “What about you? You ever use one?” He held up the bow in question.

[red_andblack]

Learning people wasn't the only thing she spent time doing.

If there was an opportunity, and a resource was available, Natalia would read as much as she could. It helped in cases where she needed to be beautiful and intelligent. But, she also enjoyed it. One of the few things she could honestly admit to.

She gave a slight knowing nod, then looked back at the target. When he asked his question, she turned back. "Other than Black Widow? Yes, I have many aliases. One for every job."

[broken_arrow]

Clint was confused for a moment by her answer, then he realised she was talking about codenames, not the bow and arrow he had been asking about. Thinking back over how he’d posed the question, he realised he’d given no lead in to the change of subject, and raising the bow hadn’t really been enough.

“Of course you do,” he answered. He knew some of them, any of her jobs that were known and included in her file, but he had the feeling SHIELD didn’t know them all, and that her body count was higher than they originally thought. “How many languages do you speak, anyway?”

She was still standing between him and the target but he drew another arrow from his quiver and gave her a moment to move.

[red_andblack]

Stepping away, she watched him as she mentally counted them. Thinking about it now, it was hard to believe in seventeen years she managed to learn as many as she did.

When he made the shot, she followed it to the target. He was very good, probably the best she had ever seen.

"Nine in total. Most learned before I was ten. The last one though was English, which you can likely tell." she replied, glancing back at him.

[broken_arrow]

“Nine?” Clint repeated, lowering his bow again. “Pretty impressive. That’ll come in handy.” It would definitely make her an asset, even more so than just being well trained, and it could help their case quicker as well. It would be a long while before she was trusted enough and trained enough to be sent out in the field, but she could do linguistics work, translations, interrogations. Very handy.

“Now I wouldn’t say that,” he replied in regards to her English. “Your English is very good, especially considering that accent.”

He grinned at her to let her know he was teasing.

[red_andblack]

Despite being cold and unfeeling most of the time, Natalia found it easy to let her guard down, if only a little, around the archer. It made her feel at ease, even if he did just best her in a sparring session. But, she still vowed the next time would be her victory.

"Only one drawback in learning from a recorded dictionary. There is no slang." she shrugged in amusement. "Do you know other languages besides English?"

[broken_arrow]

“Yeah, slang isn’t something you normally pick up if you’re learning through recordings or classes. You’ll pick it up quick enough around here,” Clint replied. He thought it was important to talk that way, as if she was already in and part of the organization. If he showed confidence in her perhaps she would be more open to this whole transition.

“I know a few more. Nowhere near nine, though,” he admitted. He was fluent in French and Spanish, but could also make do with a bit of Latin, German and Japanese....or could at least curse in them. Being a sniper rather than a spy it wasn’t deemed as important that he know all of these like the back of his hand. “I started later than you.”

Much later. He hadn’t started learning until he joined SHIELD, and he had already been about the age she was now at that point.

[red_andblack]

Having only been there a day shy of two weeks, she had heard enough of it to understand the meanings, but it felt odd to use it herself. English was one of those languages she held off on learning, partly due to her dislike of the country. Sure, she'd been there on jobs before, but she didn't need to focus too much on talking then.

"You could teach me American slang," she suggested, smiling. "In return, I will teach you Russian. If you want?"

[broken_arrow]

Whenever she actually smiled Clint felt accomplished and hopeful. Surely if Fury saw her like this he’d call off her execution for good, right? This wasn’t just some heartless killer. She had been forced to grow up far too soon, far too quickly, but underneath it all she was still just a girl, a young woman. He couldn’t ignore how dangerous she was, but if they helped her, gave her somewhere to belong and something worth fighting for then they could use that danger.

“Sounds like a pretty good deal to me, though you definitely got the raw end of it,” Clint replied. “You already have a working knowledge of the language. I got nothing.”

[red_andblack]

Natasha shrugged lightly, her smile fading only a little. She was letting herself get too comfortable, too fast. Sure, it was easy with him, he'd been nothing but patient and considerate. But, he only had roughly ten more days to prove to his boss that she was worth saving.

What if she couldn't?

"That is if we have time." she reminded him, then turned to walk back to the mats.

[broken_arrow]

Clint’s smile fell at her words. He tried not to think about how time sensitive this whole thing was, but as heavily as the thought weighed on his mind he could only imagine what she was dealing with. It was her life on the line, after all.

“We’ll have time,” he said with more determination than confidence. Removing his quiver, he leaned it against the wall with his bow before crossing the room after her. “Look at how much progress you’ve already made, and the information you’ve already given them will come in handy. It’s gonna work.”

[red_andblack]

Sure, it came in handy now, but what good was she when there was nothing else she could give them. How long would it take before they accused her of withholding any other information?

Just ten more days.

"With you, yes. But, I don't trust them." she motioned to the door, talking of the people beyond it. "I'm still dangerous and this, your boss will not approve of."

[broken_arrow]

“Okay, don’t trust them, that’s fine, but just try and trust me,” Clint replied earnestly, giving her a weighty look. She had no reason to trust any of them, and he knew how hard it was to put faith in people, but he had to try. “You think I’m not dangerous?” He gestured back over his shoulder at the target. “You think I couldn’t turn on them all some day? You’re not a bad person, Natalia, but you had a lot of bad things done to you, a lot of us have, but that doesn’t make us hopeless.”

He knew she wasn’t much for physical contact unless in involved trying to kick his ass or a handshake, but he took a chance and placed his hands on her shoulders and ducked his head slightly so their eyes were level.

“Just trust me. I know them, alright? I know Fury and I know this is gonna work.”

[red_andblack]

"Do you really believe you could turn on them?" she interrupted, head tilted in hard curiosity. He was a good agent, respected. That much she summed up after he went against his orders and spared her. Punishment for that where she came from was far more than a week, and quite painful. She had the scars to prove it.

Natalia quieted again and looked away, a reasonable attempt to control her frustration. But, then she felt the weight of his hands on her shoulders and tensed under them, though didn't move, or, shrug them away.

Trusting him was still a work in progress, however she did find herself wanting to believe what he said. And after a long moment of consideration, she looked up and nodded.

"Da, xopowo." she replied quietly, and a moment later gave a very slight, almost unnoticeable grin. "It means 'yes, okay'."

[broken_arrow]

He hadn’t expected the question, this wasn’t about him, but he could see that she was genuinely interested in his answer. “Well... no,” Clint admitted, “but that doesn’t mean it’s not possible.” SHIELD had his full loyalty, he owed them his freedom and maybe even his life; he couldn’t turn his back on that nor did he want to. That didn’t mean he was completely ignorant of some of their shady methods, though.

Clint remained patient, letting her consider his words without further pressure, and when she finally met his eyes and nodded he smiled back at her. He didn’t understand the Russian but it sounded good, though he was grateful for the translation nonetheless. “Okay,” he said. “Xopowo,” he repeated, very poorly mimicking her Russian in his American accent. “Now whaddya say, you up for round two?”

[red_andblack]

Natalia pushed forward on her hands, fingers curled around the edge of the vinyl covered mats, obviously thinking over the answer he gave her. It was a little confusing, and it did sound a little foreboding. But, it was all dismissed when she heard him repeat after her. And then she cringed at him teasingly.

At the same time she pushed off the vinyl covered mats and landed on her feet. She gave him a quick nod. If anything, the workout relieved some pent up tension.

This time, she had a few tricks up her sleeve to make sure what happened before, didn't happen again.