“I’m not allowed to be nice every once in a while?” Natasha replied. There was actually plenty that she wanted, just now wasn’t the time and place for any of it. In truth she had missed him, plain and simple, and if that made her a little more complimentary than usual then so be it.

“Exactly. If I ever have to train them or work with them on anything, I would prefer they be intimidated by me,” she said, wiping the smile off her face as she looked over his shoulder at the rookies again. A few of them who had been watching rather closely looked quickly away.

“It doesn’t have to be upscale,” she said, actually preferring to get him away from headquarters for a while, but he probably didn’t have a lot of time, he was still working after all. “The cafeteria is fine.”

The slight contact of his hand on her shoulder, no matter how brief and innocent the touch, sent a current through her. She wanted nothing more than to just pull him into her arms, bury her face against his neck and just hold him. It had been too long, those months filled with worries and fears and the occasional nightmare, and while she could see that he was fine her body still craved the physical reassurance.

As Clint’s students filed out, she passed them on her way further into the room and busied herself with plucking arrows from one of the targets.