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Christmas is the Time to Say "I Love You"

Summary:

Grocery shopping wasn’t necessarily the best place for sudden relationship revelations, but Natasha Romanoff’s life had recently taken a turn for the domestic.

Notes:

Written for mintedjulep for the be_compromised Secret Santa exchange! Written for the prompts "Clint asks Nat for help finding Kate a Christmas present" plus "Clint/Nat/Laura happy throuple".

I googled "Christmas love songs" and found "Christmas is the Time to Say I Love You" by Billy Squier which is cute and I don't think I've ever heard before, so that's where the title is from. I hope you like the fic!

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

Grocery shopping wasn’t necessarily the best place for sudden relationship revelations, but Natasha Romanoff’s life had recently taken a turn for the domestic.

It was Clint’s fault, but since the entire new, shiny relationship between her, him, and Laura was Clint’s fault, mostly, that made sense.

It started when Natasha had her head buried in the yogurt fridge at the grocery store. “Is it blueberry that Cooper’s stopped eating or the peach?” she directed to Clint, who was standing by the cart and fiddling with his phone.

“The blueberry,” Clint answered. “He’ll still eat the peach. Hey, I need your help in picking out a Christmas present for Kate.” Despite all of Clint’s grumbling about coming out of retirement to train a new archer, he clearly had developed a fondness for the newest Young Avenger.

Natasha picked up a container of peach yogurt and frowned when she read the sugar content. “Why don’t you ask your wife? She’s better at that sort of thing.”

“You are my wife,” Clint said.

Natasha dropped the peach yogurt container. Luckily, it didn’t spill open when it hit the floor and rolled around her feet as she stared open mouthed at Clint.

“I’m-what?” she sputtered in surprise.

“Hm?” Clint said, looking up from his phone. Seeing Natasha staring at him, he rubbed awkwardly at his head. “What happened?”

“I’m not your wife,” Natasha said. Her voice sounded strangled to her own ears.

“Tell that to the government of Costa Rica,” Clint said with a laugh. “I think we’re still on the record as being there from that one mission with Coulson.”

Natasha glared at him.

“What?” he said.

“You have a wife,” Natasha said. “I think you might know her. Laura Barton? Ring a bell? Feisty brunette? Three kids? Weird obsession with true crime documentaries?”

“Well, yeah,” Clint said. “That doesn’t make you any less of a wife to me.”

“Clint,” Natasha said quietly, “We’ve been together for all of four months.”

“And we’ve been friends for years. And partners at SHIELD for...forever it feels like.” Clint paused. “I know ‘partner’ is probably...less loaded of a word than ‘wife’ is. But it feels weird to call you my partner romantically. I was already calling you partner because you were my work partner, you know?”

Natasha stooped to pick up the yogurt container and tossed it into the cart. “Just call me your girlfriend. It’s easier.” She grabbed the cart and began to push it towards the frozen section of the grocery store.

Clint picked up his pace to keep up with her. “I don’t want to call you my girlfriend, either.” His nose wrinkled. “It makes you sound less than Laura.”

Natasha sighed. “It’s ok if I’m less than Laura,” she said, patiently. “There’s the aforementioned years of marriage and three children.” She smiled at Clint, who was still frowning. “And it’s not like the three of us could get married, anyway.”

Clint fidgetted. “We could,” he said, “if you wanted to.”

Natasha sighed. “It’s been four months,” she reminded him. “You’re moving too fast.”

“We’ve loved you a lot longer than four months,” Clint said, softly.

Natasha’s mouth twitched. She turned towards the freezers and stared at the frozen waffles as though they could give her answers. Unsurprisingly, the only information the frozen waffles gave her was that there was yet another Superman movie coming out.

Clint gently touched her shoulder. “You need a minute?”

Natasha shrugged.

“Okay,” he said. “We need eggs anyway. I’ll be back in a minute.” He shuffled away, leaving Natasha with the cart and the unhelpful waffles.

She took the cart away from the waffles and headed further down the aisle to the frozen vegetables. Clint had wanted some frozen blueberries for the next time he made the kids pancakes. She opened the freezer door and pulled out the closest bag just as the phone in her back pocket vibrated. Natasha tossed the freezing cold bag into the cart and pulled out her phone.

From Laura: Hey did Clint open his big mouth?

Natasha stared at the phone for a moment before typing back a quick Yeah.

She almost put the phone back away, but Laura began typing.

From Laura: First of all, it’s cool with me if he wants to also call you his wife. If you’re worried about that. But I told him it’s way too soon.

Natasha hesitated, then typed, Yeah, it’s only been four months.

From Laura: In his defense, we’ve loved you longer than that.

That gave Natasha a smile. He also said that.

Laura sent a heart emoji. Natasha waited a moment to see if she had anything else to add, but there was no more typing. Laura had either said all she needed to say or had been side tracked. Either was equally likely.

She headed up out of the aisle, towards the eggs, to find where Clint was sheepishly standing. “Hey,” she said, “I’m not mad.”

Clint exhaled. “Good,” he said, “Sorry for, you know, rushing.” His mouth twisted self-deprecatingly.

Natasha touched his arm gently. “Maybe talk with me about it next time and don’t spring it on me in a grocery store?”

Clint gave a little smile. “I think I can make that happen.”

“Good,” Natasha said. She raised up on her toes a little so she could press a quick kiss on his cheek. Clint leaned into it for the brief moment until she settled back onto her toes. “Anything else we need?”

“I think we’re good,” Clint said, clearing his throat. “Unless you think I can find a Christmas present for Kate here.”

“Just make her some trick arrows,” Natasha said. “She liked the boomerang one you made. Or-maybe those nice gloves like you had when we were in the field? To keep you shooting ready?”

“Hm,” Clint said. “Seems kind of boring for a teenager.”

“She’s not most teenagers. We can keep workshopping it though.”

Clint gave her a little nudge. “What do you want for Christmas? And don’t say ‘nothing’ or something for work, we’re going to get you something frivolous this year and you’re going to like it.”

Natasha gave a snort of laughter, turning the idea over in her mind. “Jewelry,” she said, finally. “I like the arrow necklace you got me after Lila was born. Something like that.”

“Ok,” Clint said, easily. “We can work with that. I assume rings are out?”

“Well,” Natasha said, slowly, “Maybe not.”

Clint raised an eyebrow. “Maybe not?”

Natasha mock scowled at him. “We have to talk about it first. And I’m including Laura in that ‘we’.”

“Of course,” Clint agreed, easily. “But if we do get you a ring, then can I call you my wife?”

“That can be included in the discussions,” Natasha said. “Now, hurry up. The sooner we leave here, the sooner we can get home to Laura.”

“Yes ma’am,” Clint said, his smile so big that Natasha couldn’t do anything else, but smile back.

Notes:

You can follow me on tumblr at paperairplanesopenwindows for more yelling about ClintNatLaura.