The Avengers were all gathering in the rec room as it was movie night yet again.

"Do you have the hot wings, Bruce?"

"Yea they're here, Tony." Bruce said upon entering the room.

"Awesome. Wait Cap, put the sodas over here. Where's the DVD, Clint? Clint? Yo Hawkfeathers?!"

Clint jumped out of his reverie. "What!?"

"The DVD, Barton, I think you're sitting on it." Bruce supplied as he motioned beneath Clint.

"Oh…" Abashed, Clint handed Bruce the DVD which was thankfully protected by its case.

" 'Oh' " Tony mocks him, "Where is your head tonight, Clint? You keep zoning out and the movie hasn't even started yet."

"Natasha and Thor are missing again." He simply states, creating the most awkward silence in the history of awkward silences.

"I'm sure they'll be here, Clint." Steve begins softly, "Let's just wait a few minutes."

"NO!" Clint shoots up from his seat. "NO! I'm tired of waiting for them and I'm tired of waiting on them to come out of the shadows about all this crap. Once and for all I'm putting an end to all of this. I'm going to catch them and have things finally out in the open." Clint brushes pass Tony and makes for the exit.

"I don't think that's the best…" Tony starts, but after being ignored he shrugs, "If you can't beat 'em , join 'em. Wait up!"

Steve watches in horror as Tony up and follows Clint. "This is a really bad idea. What if he does catch them and he gets the uncontrollable urge to pick a fight with Thor?"

"That's very likely. Clint's been on edge in recent days." Bruce said in support of Steve's assumption.

"Maybe I should go with them to stop any impending disasters. You might want to stay behind, Dr. Banner. If something unexpected does happen, it might be a bit stressful to say the least."

"That's probably a wise idea, Captain, but an inquiring mind has got to know."

So Bruce follows Steve in chase of Tony and Clint.

When the four of them reached Natasha's floor, Clint marched off the elevator towards her door.

Violently jiggling the door handle, he exclaims frustrated. "It's locked."

"Well of course it is." Tony answers.

"Unlock it, Tony." Clint growls at him.

"Okay fine, JARVIS, open the doors."

They hear a click and Clint pulls the handle , rushing into the room.
"Ah ha, I knew you two were up…" He quiets, examining the empty room. He heads to the back and starts searching other rooms.

"Clint…" Steve says, face aflame. "I don't think we should be here."

Deaf to Steve's plea, Clint says, "They've gotta be around. Check the bathroom and kitchen area, Tony. I'll check the bedroom."

Bruce scrubs his face with his hand and sits down on one of the nearby couches.

A few minutes later, Tony comes out to the main room. All he says is, " Empty."

"They aren't in the bedroom either." Clint sounds thwarted.

"Funny… that would have been my first guess." Tony notes almost to himself.

"Stark!" Clint warns with a sharp glare. He sighs and then says more calmly. "Just please, please locate them."

Tony nods a tad solemnly and calls out, "JARVIS, locate Thor and Natasha please, and if you say that'll conflict privacy mode, I swear on my alcohol cabinets that I'll strip your circuit boards."

JARVIS makes no argument this time, "Sir, they are not in the living quarters of Natasha's suite, but in the training wing."

"In the gym, hmm … kinky." Tony wisecracks.

"That's on the other side of this floor. Look Clint, maybe they are just working out together and we should leave it at that." Steve suggests rationally.

"Oh no. We aren't using that lame ass 'working out' excuse for those two again." Clint shakes his head. "Now if we take the other elevator we can get to that side of this floor faster. Let's go."

Clint flies out the door in pursuit of said elevator and Tony is right behind him.

Bruce sighs, but stands up. "I guess this in inevitable, Captain. Shall we?"

"Geeze, do we even have a choice anymore?" Steve says resigned, heading toward the door as well.

At last on the other side of Natasha's suite, Tony, Clint, Steve, and Bruce are making their way down the hallway leading to her personal training area.

"Now everyone quiet. I want to catch them off guard. There'll be no way lying out of it this time."

No one says anything, so Clint leads the small group to the edge of the gym's entry.

Natasha's voice could be heard sounding an ounce strained. "You can be a little more dominate, you know? Pin me down if you want to. "

Thor's hearty laugh echoed across the halls. "I thought you were wary of the bruising, Lady Natasha?"

"Honestly, those are half the fun. It's explaining that's the not so fun part." A rustle is heard followed by Natasha's own laughter. "There, that's how I like it."

Thor seems amused. "Verily, you have fire in your blood, much alike my friend and confidant, Lady Sif of Asgard."

"Oh?" Natasha pauses to grunt but then adds with labored breath, "Do you and Lady Sif do this too?"

Clint , along with the others, were still in the hall listening. "I've heard all I could hear of this." He murmurs under his breath. Now looking infuriated as he surges through the doorway to face the gym and its occupants, he begins to shout, "We've caught you in the act, so now what do you have to say for…"

But the moment he walks in, he spots Thor with Natasha on the wrestling mat. She had just thrust up a knee to jab the god square in the gut. Thor takes it good naturally but lets her go smiling. At Clint and the others' entrance, they both start and scramble to their feet. Clint's former anger dissipates and the accusations he was about to make dies on his lips.

Tony, coming up behind Clint, takes in both of their appearances with raised brows. Natasha's in her training gear and her hands are wrapped like she's about to box. Thor is wearing sweat pants and a thin tee, his hair tied back casually like he's also prepared for a workout. Natasha's drenched in sweat, but Thor is only slightly flushed. Tony also notices the water bottles sitting off to their side.

"What…what exactly is going on here?" Clint asks in a small voice, just as confused at the scene before him as Tony.

"Dammit." Natasha swears as she grimaces, snatching the wraps off one hand and throwing it to the floor.

"I fear all things must come to light now, Lady Natasha." Thor says gently.

"What things?" Steve breaks the span of silence consisting of downcast eyes and questioning stares. "What is it that you two have been up to for so long?"

Thor further encourages Natasha,"You have no need to be ashamed. I am certain they will understand."

She sighs and looks as if she's about to accept her fate.

"Ashamed?" Clint trains his eyes on Natasha once more. "Nat, what's the big secret?"

"Look guys, I know these last couple of weeks you have all noticed I haven't been in the best of moods. I've also been losing my focus."

Everyone around the room nods except Thor.

"Well, it's because I've been so frustrated and angry and stressed about some personal stuff."

"Personal stuff?" Tony pries.

"Yea, just stuff from my past and even things from the present that's been bothering me. I needed an outlet to clear those pent up feelings out of my head. But I'm not the touchy feely type, so my best source of relief is a sparring session. I wanted a partner who was a lot stronger than me, someone powerful who would give me a real challenge, and I didn't want to worry about hurting them much. I know you're my usual partner, Barton, but I needed something else…"

Everyone is quiet so she continues where she left off," Steve was the perfect candidate, but he's had reservations against sparring too intensely in the past, with me being a woman and all. I wouldn't have asked Stark to don the suit if he was the last person on earth, since I'm sure he'd be a cocky douche about it."

"I take offense to that."

She smirks for his benefit, but goes on, "So that day a few weeks ago, when me and Thor shared an elevator, we made an agreement that he'd let me spar with him… give him all I had. Work out all that pent up energy and frustration." She nods in gratitude at Thor and added no more to her explanation.

"So sparring, that's all you two have been doing?" Tony sounds skeptical. "What the hell! Why didn't you just tell us?"

"Because it was my own business, Stark. And honestly, I guess… maybe I was a bit… embarrassed. I am sorry I had to lie, but it was my personal crap and I didn't want it spreading around that I needed to do all this just because I couldn't deal with my baggage alone."

"That's nothing to be embarrassed about." Steve said softly. "That's just being human."

She met Steve's gaze and had to smile.

"Okay hold up. Just sparring!? " Clint began, still perplexed. "How could that explain … what about the freak storms, and your hair being fried, and the bruises?"

"Oh that…" Natasha chuckles, "I had Thor summon some of his powers so he could seem threatening when I evaded him. He just threw a little lighting here and there for show, but it didn't ever really hit me."

"He must have hit you at least once by the smell of your hair before." Mentioned Tony.

"No, that was an accident. I guess he was still a bit charged when I tackled him, so I got zapped a little. Don't worry it didn't hurt it only tingled. It was actually exhilarating in a way."

Thor looks ashamed but provides, "Lady Natasha told me some time afterwards that it was best I control myself more. Her appearance and the storms overhead were becoming quite obvious."

"Hell yea they were." Tony said, laughing.

"But the bruises?" Clint continued, not relenting.

" Don't be so surprised, Barton. I like being manhandled a bit, that's no secret. I wanted to feel something so I told him to pin me a little roughly whenever he could or at least block my hits."

"Oh…" Is all he says.

"Well, I didn't want him just standing there as I repeatedly attacked him. That's never any fun. Though actually this whole arrangement became so much fun for me that even after I lost the bad mood, I still wanted to spar every day. I think it's been distracting me more than it should have."

"Yea, your concept of fun is a bit skewed, Natasha." Tony comments.

Clint seems to finally let go of the breath he's been holding. "Oh thank God. We thought…well Tony thought… I thought… Well it doesn't matter, but it's just a relief this is all over." He playfully puts Natasha in a one armed choke hold and then walks up to the Thunder god to pat him on the back.

Thor beams at Clint, happy for the tension to finally become erased. Then Natasha suddenly says, "Wait… what exactly did you guys assume? I mean I get it you were probably on to the fact we were up to something together, but I never really knew what everybody else suspected."

She looks around the room and everyone gets really quiet and flustered looking.

"Wow… you mean they thought we were… Thor?" Quickly catching on, Natasha turns to Thor who looks equally distressed, avoiding any eye contact. "You mean you knew they thought me and you were…" She gestures at Thor. "Clint is that why…. You figured we were… Ha!" Natasha's broken sentences ends in riotous laughter. Everyone just watches her uncomfortably.

"Oh man that's a good one. I can't believe you all thought that of all things. I mean, I guess I should have realized the situation looked weird, but honestly…. Wow, yea I need a drink." She says with an amused quirk of her lips. She was still chuckling while she grabbed a towel on the bench nearby and exited down the hall.

Tony gives a slight cough into the laughter that erupted, once Clint turned to point at him declaring, "I am never listening to any of your wild dirty-minded notions ever again!"