Y'know what, I’ve decided that Clint met Nat after he was already married, and as they became better and better friends, she’s coming over to the house, she’s playing with the kids, she’s connecting with Laura, etc he was horrified to find that he was falling in love with her, because he loves Laura and didn’t want to ruin his family. And one night he confesses this all to Laura and says “if you don’t want me to work with her anymore I’ll explain it to her and move to a different department” and instead of making him do that Laura was all “…actually I’m sorta in love with her too; I mean I’m not interested in having sex with her but I fantasize about touching her romantically and I really want her to be part of our family”
So they open up their marriage to Nat and at first Nat is like “sure” because she loves them both back, but as Nat starts to outgrow the Red Room brainwashing and integrating into normal society she also starts losing her comfort with doing things outside the norm. Because their arrangement isn’t hurting anybody right now but surely it will in the future, right? Otherwise more people would be poly. And while she knows it’s completely wrongheaded and irrational, the fact that she can’t have kids makes her feel like she’s “not really part of the marriage”, especially after she tries to pick the kids up from school and isn’t allowed because “you’re not their mom” even though Clint and Laura both authorized her to do so.
So she asks Clint and Laura if they can take a break from the whole thing while she sorts things out, and they say of course because they love her and want her to be in a good headspace.
And that’s when she convinces herself that she’s in love with Bruce (Tony’s got Pepper, Thor has Jane, and Steve has his own issues because he’s stuck on both Peggy and Bucky), and that’s why the BruTasha in AoU was so forced and awkward and out of character.
And after Bruce leaves Nat goes back to Clint and Laura all “I fucked up. Start over?” in her trademark deadpan and of course they take her back.
(via cthulhu-with-a-fez)
