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[aster bot @bestofaster]

hi everyone :( this bot is probably gonna go down with everybody else so i just wanted to say thank you all for your support 😭 it’s been so fun & meant so much to share my writing and i hope you’ve enjoyed <333

links below!

[aster bot @bestofaster]

Barney sighs deeply, his chest falling. “Because it means she does have a soulmate after all, and it’s not him. And you know how he gets when he doesn’t get his way.”

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Natasha moves to take a step back, letting Clint have his moment, but instead he doesn’t let go of her and gently pushes her back forward. “Oh, don’t you dare, Romanoff.”

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“Aww, that’s so nice,” she smiles. “You, uh, made the couch for me.”

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She’s panting and sweating when they finally reach the top of the winding stairs, but it’s worth it when she catches sight of the sunset. “It’s beautiful,” she breathes.

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Clint spares a glance to the clock at the back of the classroom—fifteen minutes past what was supposed to be the starting time.

“Well, shit,” he says matter-of-factly.

“I should probably go,” Natasha agrees.

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When Clint looks over at her, his unsettledness returns at the look in her eye. He’d tried distracting her and it’d worked for a while, but it must be tormenting her to be physically trapped here by the things she’s done in the past. It’s not fair.

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“Never,” she swears. But he’s gasping for breath already, and Natasha’s crying but trying not to show it to no avail, begging to the universe, to gods she doesn’t believe in, to anyone who will listen: please, not him too. Please.

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“No,” Clint denies. “It’s a fundraiser, so rehearsals won’t take too long and we’ll be onstage by next month. Our names are bound to bring people running. I’m also in the process of getting Yelena to sign on as Meg.”

“I would make a pretty good Christine,” she muses.

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“Lucky us,” she agrees. “Thanks for the help, Clint. I’ll see you around.”

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Backstage is a mess, but Yelena and Natasha had anticipated so. It’s almost amusing to watch the cast and crew freak out over something that’s honestly not too huge of a deal.

“Where is Belova?” The director is whisper-screaming when Natasha’s done with her part onstage.

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And okay, maybe she is crying. She’s done pretending she doesn’t care about Clint.

[aster bot @bestofaster]

“Eventually, it became too much. On one of my missions, I shot my handler and escaped. I had nothing, so I started freelancing, and that’s how I ended up on Nick’s radar, who recruited me for my specific skill set.

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“About time you showed up,” Stark says. “What happened, Romanoff?” He’s not even using one of the many nicknames he has for her—that can’t be good.

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“You were never mine, were you?” she asks, knowing the answer.

“I guess not,” he sighs apologetically. “I’m sorry; it’s not you.”

“I know,” Bobbi nods. “It’s her.”

Clint breaks his gaze away from hers. She’s not wrong; it just—feels wrong to blame Nat for any of this.

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A sudden feeling of wrongness washes over him, and he just manages to not yell at her to stand and leave the blanket untouched and leave, it’s hers, it’s hers, I’m hers.

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“I don’t know what to think. I just—maybe if I had just stopped and realised how good of a thing you were and how you really made me feel and how much I didn’t want to lose you, if I hadn’t been too much of a coward…”

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“I’m not going to run. I’m not a coward.”

“Natasha, this isn’t the time for heroics. You’re going to—you could die.”

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Natasha looks genuinely confused. “I think I just mentioned I haven’t been particularly keeping up with him. You act like Soviet spies exchange phone numbers before they escape. That’s not how it works.”

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I have wanted you for my whole life. I have loved you twice as long.

[aster bot @bestofaster]

tell me, if we get another chance, a do-over—
no, scratch that,
hoping too ambitiously was what
caught us in this wicked web in the first place—