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It was cold. Scratch that, it was freezing. Clint didn’t know what the temperature in Norway was usually like, but he sure as hell hoped it was a lot warmer than this.
How do people live like this? he wondered as he plowed his way through the snow in the woods away from The Cabin.
The Cabin (as Clint referred to it) was their safe house for this mission. It was in the absolute middle of nowhere, surrounded by snowy forest for miles around. And it was eerily quiet. It had been even quieter since Natasha had left a few hours earlier to try to find cell service.
Shield safehouses had a reputation for being not so great. Along with not having cell service, The Cabin also lacked running water, electricity, and beds. Instead, they were provided with a limited supply of water bottles and packaged food, a few half-dead flashlights, and two sleeping bags. Clint figured that’s just what happens when you volunteer for the missions no one else wants to take.
No one else is capable of taking, Clint corrected himself. He and Natasha were Shield’s best.
Clint had tried to kill his time while Nat was out. He arranged the empty water bottles in a triangle and tried to knock them down with a rolled-up sleeping bag; he pointed one of the flashlights at the wall and made shadow puppets. He even attempted to make some sort of heat source out of the discarded cereal boxes, but it was no use. He was still bored out of his mind.
He also tried to sleep, but after about twenty minutes of shutting his eyes, he began to get worried.
Nat had been gone for close to two hours, and he was sure that that couldn’t be good, given the state of the weather outside.
The snow was coming down hard and heavy, and there were already about two feet on the ground. Clint put on his coat and snow boots, but he opted to leave his bow behind. They were in the middle of nowhere after all.
So now he was trekking through the snow, cursing the Norwegian weather for being so destructively beautiful.
He walked for a while in silence, following the tracks Natasha had left. They were already starting to get covered in fresh snow, but they were still visible.
For now.
After almost half an hour of walking, Clint was starting to get frantic. If he hadn’t found Natasha yet, then there was a good chance she went much farther from The Cabin than the mile that she promised.
“Natasha?” Clint called, hoping that the wind didn’t carry his voice away and that she was nearby.
“Nat? I’m getting worried, where are you?” He was moving much quicker now, his trail was drying up. Natasha’s footprints were almost gone.
“Tasha, it’s freezing out here, I’m sure you're nearby just-” Clint froze. There, lying in the snow, was Natasha’s coat.
Oh shit.
He knew it was hers, how could it be anyone else’s? Clint had been there when she bought it. They had been in Canada on a mission, and she had spotted it in a secondhand shop.
“Oh my gosh, Clint, feel how soft it is!” Clint had smiled at her amusement and encouraged her to buy it.
Now she wore it every time it was cold. So naturally, the sight of the coat laying on the ground in the below-freezing landscape of a Norwegian forest did nothing to calm Clint’s fears.
His mind went blank with terror, he grabbed the jacket and continued his search, even more frantic than before. The only thing he could think of was getting to Natasha as soon as possible. Before it was too late. Clint fought his way through the snow-now almost to his waist-around a tree and into a clearing. And then he saw her. Natasha was across the clearing about 20 yards, slumped against a tree and jacketless.
Clint kept fighting through the field, desperately trying to reach her. When he finally got to her, she was non-responsive and ice cold.
“Nat, please, please wake up!” Clint begged as he put her coat back on.
Picking Natasha up, Clint began his two-mile walk (this time more like a run) back to The Cabin. The whole way there he continued begging Natasha to wake up. He knew she was still alive. She had a pulse, but it was weak. Clint understood the severity of the situation, hypothermia had killed many agents before.
With about a quarter mile left to go, and a huge stitch in Clint’s side from carrying Nat the whole way, he started to plan what he was going to do to warm her up.
The jacket wasn’t going to be much help, and there was no heat or electricity in The Cabin, so Clint was going to have to think of something else.
He remembered something from a Shield training course years ago, about how the best way to save someone from frostbite was to regulate their body temperature. He couldn’t remember how exactly, and with The Cabin growing closer, and Natasha getting colder, time was running out.
Then it hit him.
Should a member of your strike team contract hypothermia on a mission, the best way to regenerate body heat is to crawl naked into a sleeping bag with somebody else who's already naked.
That was what Shield told them, so Clint figured that was what he had to do.
Finally, The Cabin came into view. Clint threw open the door and laid Nat down. Then he got to work.
Clint unrolled one of the sleeping bags and unzipped the other one, so it became a sort of blanket. He helped slide Natasha into the bag, noticing that her breathing was getting a little steadier. But she still wasn’t awake. Then, he got to work on his clothes. He kicked his boots off and ditched his jacket, shirt, pants, and socks. He opted to leave his underwear on though. He figured when Natasha woke up that would be more comfortable for her.
Then Clint got in the sleeping bag, and took off Nat’s clothes, leaving them both lying in their underwear in the dark.
This is warm, Clint thought, and he started to relax. He could hear Natasha’s breathing next to him, and it was calming. Clint slipped his arm behind her head and tried not to think about the fact that they were both almost completely naked.
That could wait.
It had been about fifteen minutes, and Natasha started to stir. Clint watched as she slowly blinked open her eyes and assessed her surroundings.
Her immediate response was fear, Clint could tell by the way her eyes got wide and her breath hitched. But then she turned over, and the expression melted into one of relief.
“Hi Clint.” She said with a soft smile.
“Hey Tasha.”
“What happened?” Nat asked, wiggling around in the bag, probably just realizing that she wasn’t wearing anything. And neither was Clint.
“You got away from me,” Clint said. “You went out looking for cell service because this crappy place doesn’t have any. It also doesn’t have beds or heat which is why we are in a sleeping bag. You were gone for too long and I got worried, so I went out to look for you. Then I found your jacket in the snow, and I panicked. You were slumped against a tree and barely breathing so I had to carry you all the way back here. You were so cold, and I remembered what they told us at that training course about hypothermia so as soon as I got back here with you, I got us both in the sleeping bag. And I know that this is awkward, but I didn’t know what else to do. You were Nat and I just needed to do what would keep you alive because I need you. You’re my best friend Tasha and I don’t know what I would do if I lost you.”
Natasha stared at him, at a loss for words. After a few moments, she took a deep breath.
“You’re never going to lose me, Clint. I’m going to be by your side forever.” Natasha said. “Now I know that I can’t promise that, but I sure as hell hope nothing ever happens to change it.”
She shifted, moving her arms around Clint and pulling him in. Their foreheads were pressed together, both of their heads lying on a pillow.
“You did the right thing, you know,” She whispered, “thank you.”
“Of course,” Clint whispered back.
“Oh, and Clint?”
“Yes?"
“This whole being naked in a sleeping bag thing?” She paused, “Under different circumstances, this would be totally awesome.”
And they both smiled in the dark.