Who: Kate Bishop and Clint Barton When: Tuesday during the Truthiness Plot Where: Archery School What: Kate can’t tell a lie Rating/Warnings: Low/None Status: Complete
It’d been a really weird few days. Kate was finding that in circumstances when she’d normally just shut the hell up, she was blabbering her honest opinions on things. And whenever anyone asked her a question, she couldn’t lie. She wasn’t all that much of a liar to begin with, but now it was compulsory. And it really hurt her teaching.
She’d canceled a few classes, but when she’d debated canceling with Clint… The truth was she didn’t want to go another week without seeing him. Was that sappy? Fuck, she was sappy. She’d devolved into a thirteen year old girl with a crush, doodling his name in her notebook and pulling up pictures of him on her phone.
...who cares if she told him the truth, anyway? What’s the worst that would happen?
Lesson time rolled around. Kate had been avoiding the chubby girl who answered the phones in the front lobby, and was practicing in the range, waiting for Clint to arrive. She prayed to God that she wouldn’t do something irreversible today.
Clint showed up already in his gear--which wasn’t so much ‘gear’ as a compression tank and sweatpants--and his bow slung over his shoulder. Lucky padded by his side wearing his harness, and his tail wagged when he saw Kate at the range.
“Me too, boy,” Clint said softly. “Me too.” He smiled and approached Kate from behind. “Hey, girly girl,” he said, louder, his voice warm with affection. “Not going to pass out on me today, are you?”
"Definitely not gonna pass out on you today." Kate said, turning around and breaking into a grin. She couldn't hide the way her eyes sparkled when she looked at Clint. Normally she might have tried, but today was about honesty. Unwillingly, maybe, but honesty it was.
"Hey!" Her eyes turned down to the dog at Clint's feet. She set aside her bow and, ignoring the harness that meant he was on duty, Kate bent down to give Lucky attention, pets, even kisses, while she scratched his ears. "Who's a good boy? Good boy."
“You spoil him,” Clint declared, disapprovingly, and then knelt to undo Lucky’s harness. “You’ll confuse his poor doggy-senses until he’s worthless except as a lapdog.”
“Shhh.” Kate said, cuddling with the dog. “Don’t interrupt my Lucky Cuddling time.” She finally pulled back, smiling softly, and turned her attention to Clint once more. “I needed that. I’ve had a hell of a few days. This not lying thing is really not like me.”
Clint looked amused, still crouched down beside them both. “Truth spell got you too, huh? I seem to have dodged that bullet,” he mused. “Are you saying you’re a habitual liar, Ms. Bishop?”
“Yep,” Kate replied, shifting her weight and settling on her knees beside the dog. She kept one hand on Lucky’s ear, scratching idly. “Not habitual, no. I just keep some things to myself when I suspect it’s in my best interest not to tell.” She frowned a bit after that admission.
“Wouldn’t have pegged you for being circumspect,” Clint replied. He stood up, his body protesting the crouch posture, and then set his bow and the harness down on the bench. “Or having to be.” The Kate he’d dreamed never had a problem saying what was on her mind, or so he’d thought.
“It’s self-preservation. Saving face. The fear that my feelings might not be returned.” Damn. She really didn’t want to say that. Even though she knew it was probably time to tell him what she felt, because… well, reasons. “The fear that admitting it will change everything.”
Clint raised an eyebrow at that and hummed, thoughtfully. “Change is going to come, no matter what. Question is...what kind?”
“That… that really depends on you.” Kate wasn’t speaking in generics anymore. Or was she from the start? Maybe not. “What kind of change do you want? Because it’s obvious what kind I want. Or, it should be.”
That caused both of Clint’s eyebrows to go up. “...huh,” he said, surprised. He was visibly taken aback, his expression blank as he processed that. “Me,” he repeated.
“Yes, you.” She wasn’t sure what kind of reaction she was expecting, but that definitely wasn’t it. Surprise? Didn’t he know already? Hadn’t she made it obvious? “Clint,” she finally pried herself away from the dog so she could stand, “I’m just… I like you. Okay? It’s the kind of like like that makes me daydream and doodle your name in my notebooks and act like a thirteen year old girl in front of a picture of Justin Bieber. And it’s embarrassing, and I can’t shake it. Not that I want to shake it.” She bit down on her lip to stop talking, but forced her eyes to stay on his face.
“Me?” Clint repeated again, this time a little skeptical. “Katie, I…” he laughed a little. “I come with all sorts of baggage. You have no idea how much. Being a much older broken down mostly deaf army vet is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to me.”
“I don’t--” Kate lifted her hands to run them over her hair, tucking loose strands behind her ears and fiddling once with her ponytail in an exasperated way. “Everyone comes with baggage, Clint. Some people have a bit more than others, but…That doesn’t matter to me.”
“It should,” Clint said, gently. “I could be bad news, Kate. I could be a bad guy.”
“It’s a gamble I’m willing to make.” Kate said, taking a step toward him.
She was so like him in that way. There, and here--refusing to back down. Refusing not to believe in someone--even over that person’s objections. He’d been in this position himself--but from the other side.
The corner of his mouth turned up, slightly. “I know.”
“Are you going to let me take that chance?” She asked. She took another step forward, closer to him now. Close enough to reach out and touch him. But she didn’t. Not yet.
The hint of a smile turned into full blown amusement. “Would you really let me stop you?” he asked, eyebrow cocked in challenge.
That brought a smirk to her lips. Kate shook her head a little. “No.” Seeing the look on his face, feeling the strength within her swell, she knew this was the truth. “No, I wouldn’t.” She stepped up even closer, bringing both hands to his chest.
Clint carefully took her hands in his. Now this part...he was not really looking forward to. “I’m...sort of seeing someone,” he said. It’d been weeks since he’d seen Elaine, true, but it wasn’t that long, all things considered. “It was serious.” He wouldn’t feel right without explaining.
Crap. That was something Kate hadn’t even considered. And why not? Clint was a fox, man. And a catch. Seriously. So why hadn’t she thought about him seeing someone? Currently? He should be. He should be seeing someone.
But it made her feel embarrassed. Laying it out there like that and then… was he turning her down? Is that what this was?
“Oh. Sorry, I…” She lowered her hands, but didn’t pull them out of his. “...I’d much rather you were seeing me than whoever she is, but,” that stupid truth thing reared its ugly head, “I don’t want to make trouble for you.”
Clint didn’t let go either, carefully cradling her hands in his. “It’s...complicated,” he replied. “Not trouble. But most relationships are.” He ran his thumb over her wrist, lightly. “It wouldn’t be right to me...not ending that, before starting something new.” he said, carefully. “That’s not a no. That’s not even a ‘not right now.’”
Kate’s heart was pounding. With nerves or excitement or whatever, she wasn’t focused on the why, but more the intense thrumming in her chest, the twisting in her gut. “What does that mean?” She asked, looking up into his face--into his eyes.
“It was serious,” Clint repeated. “And I respect her.” He shifted a little, uncomfortably, and rubbed her wrist again. “I don’t want to be the bad guy. The guy who breaks up with someone to be with someone else.”
The rub of his thumb against her wrist was distracting. She wanted to feel his hands on her now, and all she could think about was how much she wanted to kiss him. Kate nodded once. “I don’t want you to be the bad guy. But I want you to be with me. At least, I want you to give me a shot.” She shifted, too. “So, do what you gotta do.”
“There are things you don’t know,” Clint said again, even though he was so proud of her, the way she stood her ground, but respected his line at the same time. She was so strong, and so beautiful. How could he not want to be everything she seemed to think he was? “Things that will make things...complicated. Later. But they’re not the kind of things I can tell you, either.”
One of Kate’s eyebrows raised in question, in curiosity. She tried not to let any of her emotions cross her face. There were a bunch of them, and she was trying to suppress them. All of them. “Why would you bother bringing up things that you say you can’t tell me? Do you want me to ask about them?”
“Not sure you’d believe me,” Clint admitted, and he did drop her hands, then, took a step back, and rubbed the back of his neck, awkwardly. “Unless you’ve had dreams, and I missed that. Have you?”
“No.” Kate said, softly. The lack of his hands in her own made them feel cold. “But that doesn’t mean I won’t believe you. I believe Billy and Teddy. Billy says you’re an Avenger.”
Clint looked up at that, sharply. “Billy and Teddy,” he repeated. He wracked his brain to remember--there were so many people who could know that. Finally it clicked. “...your teammates. The Scarlet Witch’s son. The magic one. And the green one. They’re here. You’ve met them.”
Another reaction she wasn’t expecting. Clint was full of surprises today. “Wiccan and Hulkling. They’re here, and I’ve met them. We go crime fighting together.” She explained. There was a glint in her eye and a smirk tugging the corner of her lip at that explanation.
Of course she was.
“Of course you are,” he grumbled, but he didn’t bother to protest otherwise. “So. They’ve told you about the dreams. And about me.” He looked her over. “Have they told you about you?”
“Just… that they know who I am, I fight crime with them on the Young Avengers team, and we’re a tightly knit group.” Kate paused. “Billy said you and I would be cute together when I told him about my feelings for you.” She actually winced when that truth slipped out. She hadn’t meant to say it.
Clint grunted. “He’s one to talk,” he muttered. “Him and that boyfriend of his.” Because that was what he objected to.
“He tell you your codename?” he asked, curious. “Or mine?”
“They’re… cute. In their own way.” Kate only knew about them in this world, but they were damn adorable here. She almost couldn’t imagine them being cuter in the dreams. “We would be cute, too.” She added quickly, “Hawkeye. He called you Hawkeye.”
“Mmm,” Clint nodded. “He didn’t call you Hawkeye?”
Kate paused. “I didn’t… why would he?” She said, racking her brain. Every time they’d talked about it, had he ever called her anything but Kate? She couldn’t remember. She’d spent so much time pretending these Dreams didn’t exist, and now she was kicking herself for it.
“Listen,” she said, taking a step forward. “...let’s talk about this. Somewhere a little more private.”
Clint glanced around them. “...okay,” he replied. “Or we can talk about this later. Over food. I believe I’m paying for valuable lesson time. I’d hate to waste it,” he added, teasingly.
“Let’s definitely not waste it.” Kate turned back to pick up her own bow and arrows, stopping to scratch Lucky’s ear along the way. She had a lot of things to think about now. And a bunch more questions.