Kate Bishop: Practically an Avenger. (hawkeyeout) wrote in onewaythreads, @ 2018-10-08 22:11:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, kate bishop (hawkeye), scott lang |
Who: Kate Bishop and Scott Lang
When: A while ago
Where: Kate’s place
What: Kate freaks out after Clint disappears
Rating/Warnings: Low/None (maybe some swearing?)
Status: Complete
This was a bad day. Kate went to open the door to Clint’s apartment--she was out of coffee in her own--and found it locked. Uncharacteristically. Maybe Clint was out, then. So she dug her keys out of her pocket and tried to slip one into the lock. Only, it didn’t work. None of her keys fit in his lock. She started to knock and try the bell, but after unsuccessful attempts, she gave the door a mighty kick. It swung open, and…
Nothing. The apartment was empty. There was no furniture, no clothing in the closets, no food in the fridge. And the worst part? Lucky was gone.
Kate was trying not to panic, but her breathing was elevated. She wasn’t awake enough for this, she had no coffee. She pulled out her phone and texted Scott in an absolute panic.
>> Clint is gone
>> I’m in his place and he’s just gone
Scott was sitting at the kitchen table at Stark Tower with his laptop, trying to get his work done in between long sips of coffee when his phone vibrated twice in quick succession. His new job was great, but the primary stakeholder of a big project had gotten laryngitis during a business trip and there was a Monday deadline; there was no way the rest of the project would be finished without someone picking up the rest of the work. Scott wanted to seem like a hard worker and a team player, so he agreed to finish it up over the weekend.
It was proving to be a harder task than he thought. When his phone began to vibrate, he was thankful for the interruption, but that gratitude was quickly replaced with another emotion entirely:
worry.
Scott pushes himself out of his chair as his eyes scan over her texts a second time. He shuts his laptop and one-handed texts a response.
>> I'm coming over
And without waiting for a response, he heads for the door.
While other people had come and gone, Kate was far from prepared fire Clint to disappear. Clint and Billy were the two people she knew from her own world, and now Clint was gone? Kate had half a mind to go chase Billy down, but he'd gone out for something. She wasn't sure if he'd taken his phone.
With her heart thundering way too fast and her eyes burning with tears, Kate headed back to her own apartment. It was a slow walk. She felt completely lost. When Scott arrived, she was standing in the kitchen, staring at the coffee maker.
"Hey, I let myself in. Figured it wouldn't be a problem. I--"
Scott takes just one look at Kate’s despondent form and feels something constrict painfully in his chest.
Scott sets down his keys on the counter, then without saying anything else, heads straight for Kate and pulls her into his arms.
Kate turned to look at the sound of his voice. This was Scott. Her boyfriend. A man she was rapidly falling in love with. A man she was already in love with. He came running when she texted, and that was a whole different set of emotions she couldn’t quite wrap her head around because she was so busy freaking out over Clint being gone.
Then there were arms around her. She felt… empty. She was still in shock. Logically, she knew she was in shock, but those arms felt so good, and Clint was really gone. Would she ever see him again? What if she never saw him again? It was like a piece of her went with him.
Kate closed her eyes and pressed her face into Scott’s chest. She felt like she should be sobbing. Why wasn’t she sobbing?
Scott has to bite back the urge to say It's okay, because he knows it's not. While things might be okay in the future, they're not okay now and he can't tell her they are and still feel like an honest man.
Instead, he holds her tighter.
"I'm here," he tells her. "So do what you need to do."
Kate actually tried to cry. She willed it--maybe it would help rid her of these dark, cold, empty emotions. But the tears just wouldn’t come. She grew frustrated, which was better than the empty feeling, but still didn’t help rid her of the darkness.
Finally she sighed deeply and pulled back. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. He’s gone. He’s gone and I might never see him again, and--and I’m not … I can’t…” She ran her hands over her face and through her tangled mess of hair. “I don’t know. I can’t. I just can’t.”
Scott realizes maybe he needs to turn the ship in another direction.
"You don't have to do anything, either. Look, you just let me know what you need and I'm going to make it happen."
He separates from her, just enough to brush her hair out of her face and behind one ear.
“I…” Kate couldn’t really figure out what she needed, or wanted, or… what would fill that empty hole inside of her. She swallowed, then glanced over at the coffee machine--she’d gone to Clint’s this morning because she and Billy were out. Normally, Billy would just magic some up, but Kate didn’t have him here this morning… so.
“I need some coffee.” She said, softly, and turned to look up into his eyes. Her own were pleading and sad and desperate. “Can we go get some coffee?”
"Let's get some coffee. My treat."
Scott takes her hand into his own and gives it a squeeze. He grabs his keys off the table and leads her through the front door. He lets go of her hand, briefly to lock the apartment up, and then takes it again.
"Starbucks okay? Or do you want to go up to that local place?" What was it called again? Scott can’t remember.
“Uh…” Kate sniffed. Her nose was a little runny. She’d have to grab some tissues on the way out, but… did she have any? It was one of those things that Clint always seemed to have. Now he was gone, and couldn’t buy…
She swallowed. Hard. “I don’t… I dunno. I don’t really care.” Coffee was coffee right now.
"Starbucks, then." It was the closer of the two options and Kate looked like she could use 50ccs of coffee stat.
Scott doesn't say much of anything as they head downstairs. He's not really sure what you're supposed to say in situations like these when your girlfriend's best friend (was he her best friend? Scott's not really sure) suddenly ups and vanishes. He wishes that there was a book for that, but the topic seems so highly niche that there probably wouldn't be a market for such a book anywhere.
Except maybe here, where people vanishing suddenly seemed par for the course. God, he really hopes that Kate and Jan don't disappear. He'd probably completely lose it.
Kate felt like a zombie as she walked beside Scott from her apartment all the way to the Starbucks. Inside people were talking and laughing, reading the newspaper and working on laptops, drinking their overpriced lattes and frappuccinos and acting like the whole world hadn’t just changed.
Kate reached for Scott’s hand once they were inside, waiting in line to order. She wrapped her other hand around the crook of his elbow, and cuddled in close against his arm--almost as if she was hiding behind him.
Scott places their order -- a mocha for him, a coffee black for her and as soon as he's paid and his hand is free, he wraps his arm around her shoulder and pulls her close.
God, he wish someone would write that book. He watches as the barista prepares their drinks.
"If you want, you can come stay with me and Cass." When he says it aloud, he realizes it sounds wishy-washy, so he tries again. "I wouldn't say this if I weren't sure the both of us wanted you to."
Kate let him order and pay for the coffees, then cuddled in close against him while they waited for the drinks at the end of the bar. She pressed her nose into his chest. He smelled good, full of musk and spice, a very manly smell. Her eyes closed as she breathed him in.
“Mmm.” Kate gave a gentle nod. “Maybe tonight. I have to talk to Billy. I have to--to I don’t even know. Settle his affairs?”
What can Scott really offer to do?
"You want me to pack up his stuff or something?" Scott asks. That seems like A Thing That Needs To Be Done. "I can do it and you can go through it later, when you're feeling better."
Kate’s breath caught in her throat. “...his stuff’s gone. Everything’s gone. The place was empty and locked up and…” She pulled back just a little. “I didn’t look too hard, but all the furniture… I don’t know what happened--how that happened.”
Scott opens his mouth to say something and then closes it because he still hasn’t figured out the right thing to say and he’s pretty sure that it doesn’t exist. He looks over at the barista, who shoots him a sympathetic look as she sets their drinks down on the counter and calls out his name.
"One second," he murmurs to Kate and he pulls free for a moment to grab his drink and hers. He hands Kate her drink.
"Did you want me to check things out later?" he asks.
Kate accepted the drink with both hands, savoring the feel of the hot paper under her hands. It felt real. It brought her back into the real world, not thinking about Clint's empty apartment for a moment. Coffee's smell and heat and bitter taste cleared her mind.
"Yes." Kate responded. "Just... make sure it's really true and that I'm not living in some terrible nightmare."
"I'll do that," Scott says, drinking his own beverage. Finally, he's thankful to do something with his mouth that comes easy, because the words certainly aren't.
"I'm working from home today and I'm pretty sure I can work from home tomorrow," Scott says in between sips. "Maybe a few days as long as I get the job done. If you wanna lay out on the couch on top of my lap while I work, I can't think of a better way to work."
“I will. I should probably check in with Billy first, though.” Kate was absolutely devastated without Clint, and Billy would be much better. He wasn't as close with Clint, but they were still all Avengers. And Billy would want to support her, she knew.
“I never thought he’d be gone. Just… gone. As much as I came here to figure out who I was without him… I didn’t really want to be without him.”
Oh. Yeah. Billy was friends with him, too.
"I don't want to give anyone false hope, but... people have come back here before." Scott's seen as much from the network posts. "Maybe it'll happen with him, too."
“Yeah, and people have come back different, too.” Kate said, frowning slightly. “They come back and they don’t remember being here before… I don’t know. I’m not even--I can’t--” She sighed and shook her head. “I don’t want to think about it anymore.”
“Let’s not think about it,” Scott says. “Let’s pick up donuts on the way back and sit down and watch Top Chef on Hulu until our brains come loose.”
A beat.
“Have you seen Top Chef?” he asks. “I love it. It’s what made me want to learn how to cook.”
Scott doesn’t know how he went from talking about Barton to talking about Top Chef in almost the same breath, but if Kate wants a distraction, he can talk cooking shows all day.
Hey, distractions were good. Donuts and distractions were very, very good. Kate was more than willing to jump on the new subject. “Top Chef?” She asked. “... I don’t think so. I’ve seen Iron Chef. Is Top Chef the one with the guy who yells at all the people in the kitchen?”
“No, that’s Kitchen Nightmares,” Scott says, leading the way to the door. He holds it open for Kate. “And the guy who yells at everyone is Gordon Ramsay. He’s got another show with kids on it called Master Chef Junior. He’s really good with kids.”
Scott wished he was a kid so he could be on that show.
“Have you ever seen The Real World?” Scott’s not even sure if the show’s still around. It was a product of the 90s, back when MTV still played music videos, but also had a couple of TV shows they played, too. It might be before Kate’s time. “It’s like that, but with chefs. And cooking.”
Kate was more than willing to leave with him, following him out the door. She held the coffee cup in both of her hands until they were outside, then offered her hand to his.
“The Real World? That’s that MTV show, right?” Kate asked, somewhat apologetically. She didn’t spend all that much time watching television back in her world. Besides, The Real World was a little before her time, really. “Kinda like Survivor, only in a house and not an island?”
“Yeah, something like that,” Scott says. “You’ll see what I mean when we get home.”