A/N Here's the last chapter! Sorry it's been forever, I've been really busy and I had a brief stint of writer's block. Thank you to everyone who took the time to read my story, I love y'all! Thanks to everyone who helped along the way, you know who you are! I don't know what else to say, and my best friend is being no help. (She is sitting right next to me, and I asked her what to say in this, the last A/N of the last chapter of Just Another Mission, but she has yet to finish a story so she doesn't understand the feels running through me right now. But y'all probably don't want to hear about her. Sorry, ArcelSkye, you know I love you!)

Ch. 5 Just Another Reunion

The mission ended pretty quickly. Natasha practically ordered some rookies to go to her cover apartment and get her stuff so she could head straight to the plane. As soon as Lawrence was safely in custody and the mission declared officially over, Clint had to turn in his comm. So Natasha made him promise to go to bed after he was done with post-mission, because he hadn't been sleeping well of late. She'd ordered him to bed for good reason, and she needed sleep as well, but she really missed him. They needed to talk about her earlier confession. She needed to figure that out herself, actually. It wasn't like her to inadvertently do anything, let alone an admission of love.

Love. A dangerous word, especially for Natasha Romanoff. But not forbidden, like it was to Natalia Romanova. Like it is to Black Widow. Natasha sighed and pressed her face to the plane window's cool glass. She didn't know who she was anymore. It was so much easier when she was forbidden to care. Now, now that there's Clint, she feels like she's losing herself.

Or finding herself. This person she is with Clint, is that who she'd be if she hadn't been snapped up by the Red Room? She shook herself from those thoughts and what-ifs and gave up on falling asleep for a while. She settled back in the cushy airplane seats. She had to figure some things out before she could face Clint again.

Natalia Romanova used love as a weapon. Black Widow was indifferent to it. What did Natasha, Clint's Tasha, feel, now that she was allowed to? Nat turned to her old go-to for such problems: her brain.

The Red room was gone, from her life and everyone else's. She'd made sure of that. They were the only ones forcing her to not feel. No one would punish her for feeling, or being open about it.

But Black Widow couldn't be open, couldn't be weak. When she donned that cat-suit and walked those halls she had to be the sexless fearsome assassin. Oh, people (men) still fell prey to her looks, but her fellow agents had to care more about what she could do to them than what she might be feeling. Now that she had established a reputation, however, Natasha was coming out from behind the Widow. She saw so many agents laugh and socialize within SHIELD, and a part of her longed for that. She was tired of getting surprised looks when she smiled or laughed or told a joke. Maybe it was time to open up to someone other than Clint.

Clint. Everything came back to him. She'd told him, or rather hand-signed, that she loved him. As soon as she'd done it, she'd realized that it was true. As alien as love was to her, she was in it and she'd fallen hard. Clint deserved someone who was honest with him and was their true selves. He deserved someone better. So she would be better. For him.

Her problem solved (even if the idea scared her), Natasha could sleep away the remainder of the plane ride back to base, back to Clint.

~o0o~

Clint was finally able to sleep, after replaying the night in his head, over and over. Natasha said she loved him. Even after he'd slept, gotten up, showered, and dressed, he was still stuck on that. Well, stuck oscillating between that and the fact that he would be seeing Tasha today.

He felt like a teenager about to go on a first date. Clint usually didn't care what he wore, and it showed in his wardrobe choices, but now he dug through his drawers until he found Nat's favorite shirt. Tasha loves him. Natasha loves him. Natasha Romanoff loves Clint Barton. Black Widow loves Hawkeye.

Clint forces himself to stop. She only said she loves him. People say that too flippantly as it is. Tasha obviously didn't mean to say it, so was it an actual confession or just a natural phrase to follow an apology. But, for it to be natural, it would have to be oft-repeated, and Tasha said neither 'I'm sorry' nor 'I love you' often. So she must mean it, right? Clint didn't want to set himself up for disappointment.

He was a SHIELD agent, so even if it didn't seem like it, he's very meticulous. So he planned. He would just tell her how he feels and give her a chance to return the favor. Even if he'd practically said it over the comm. He'd just act as if none of that happened, as if it wasn't driving him insane.

So Clint focused on the latter of his two main thoughts, that Nat should be arriving soon. He shifted on the uncomfortable airport seat and watched the runway out the window, his leg jiggling in frustration. Natasha's plane was supposed to have landed half an hour ago.

Clint had hacked the Air Traffic Control about five minutes after she was supposed to have arrived, so he could listen in to find out when she was close. He may not be as tech-y as Stark, but he can manage that much.

When he finally heard the pilots announce the plane preparing to land, he jumped up and ran toward the tar-mac. He had to drop some airport guy to get out the door, but he'd worry about that later.

The plane was one of SHIELD's private high-tech jets, used only for ferrying around agents on missions, and since this was a solo mission, Tasha will basically be the only one on board. Clint stood on the edge of the runway nervously.

Natasha ran down the steps of the plane and practically jumped into his arms. They were embracing like some cliché TV couple, and it was throwing Clint for a loop. He wasn't complaining, he loved holding Tasha, but where was the bantery/flirty remark about him waiting for her like some pining teenage girl? That's what he expected. What was going on?

She didn't kiss him, there were still agents around, but she took forever to pull back from his embrace.

"What's up?" he asked, tucking one of her fiery curls behind her ear.

"I missed you. Lawrence . . . Lawrence made me realize what I have waiting at home," Nat took a deep breath, "I love you, Clint."

Clint exhaled loudly. There went his plans, but he couldn't exactly complain. He felt like the air had been knocked out of him. Tasha was looking at him nervously. Oh, right, he should probably respond instead of standing there grinning like an idiot.

Natasha yelped as Clint grabbed her hand and pulled her into the small room he'd come through. "Did you knock out an airport dude?" she asked, nudging the guy with her foot as they passed him.

"Shut up and listen." He pulled her deeper into the room, "Why do you always have to ruin my plans?"

"What?" Natasha was really confused, and Natasha Romanoff was rarely confused by anything. She'd assumed/hoped that Clint had dragged her into this private room to either tell her he loves her, or at least kiss her or something.

"I wanted to do this some other way," he ran a hand through her hair, "I had it all planned. We were going to go to my house and I was going to cook you dinner and . . ." he trailed off, aware that he was rambling.

"Why?" she asked suspiciously. He wasn't going to do something stupid like propose, was he?

"Because I love you," he said, finally meeting her eyes.

"You planned how you would tell me you love me?" Natasha shook her head, "You already did on the comm . . ."

"No I didn't, not really."

Natasha raised an eyebrow, "Well, neither did I, if you want to get technical."

"I – I wasn't sure if you meant it," she opened her mouth to respond but he cut her off with a hand, "So, I was going to just tell you how I feel and give you a chance to tell me how you feel."

"God, Clint. I told you I did!"

"Excuse me for being a bit insecure when it comes to my amazing girlfriend, Nat!"

Natasha laughed, "So I can't call you my boyfriend, but you can call me your girlfriend? Nice double standard." Clint didn't seem to know how to respond, earning a chuckle from the woman holding his hand, "Just kiss me, you idiot," she said, moving closer. So he did.

A/N So . . . that's it. It's over. (I take back what I said about ArcelSkye, she helped me spell words for this chapter.) Please Review this final chapter!