InsaneJournal

Who: Clint Barton and Kate Bishop
When: Monday; April 20th.
Where: Archery Studio
What: Random Encounter
Rating/Warnings: Low/None
Status: Complete



Nobody puts Kate Bishop in a corner. At least, that’s what the dark-haired, young woman was telling herself grumpily as she sat behind the reception desk at the Archery studio where she worked. She had her arms folded across her chest, with the radio on, one foot on the desk drawer and the other tip-toeing on the ground… she was seeing how far she could lean back in the rolly, rocking-like chair before the thing fell over. Every time she thought she might have gone just too far, she gave a little jolt and sat forward, preventing a sprawl.

Thankfully, no one was around to watch her as she leaned back, bounced forward, and sang along to whatever top 40 hit was on the radio at any particular moment. She didn’t have any more lessons for today but had to wait out to the end of the shift behind the desk--just in case new customers or students came in.

Orange County hadn’t been Clint’s first choice of settling. Not by a long shot. He’d actually thought of San Diego, but he’d spent a few hours on the beach one morning and it looked like Lucky was in love. Considering he’d already buried some sticks, Clint sucked it up and took out a lease. It was fine really; he liked the sun, liked the beach, liked the ease of things. And there were plenty of dog parks, so that was a plus.

When he’d found out that there was an archery range as well, one that wasn’t four hours drive out of town, Clint was pretty sure that Lucky made the right decision.

Clint’s dabbling in archery started years ago, around the time he’d started his sniper training, practicing without the monotony of spent rounds. There was a certain calm that came with archery though, and Clint found that it was soothing enough to quiet his mind long enough to let him relax for a little while before all the irritation built too high.

So he’d grabbed his gear, headed out with little in the way of expectations (he found that worked best to avoid disappointment) to find this fencing and archery place. Didn’t take long, or too much looking before entering the center where classes were apparently held and… Okay, hearing aids were definitely working, and Clint wondered just how to interrupt the singing secretary.

The singing secretary was leaned so far back in her chair that it was in danger of tipping over. And she was distracted, thinking about the song, thinking about what she was going to do when she got off work. She happened to glance by the door and saw--well, she saw someone standing there that she hadn't seen before. Now that was distracting.

In a jolt, the chair went tipping over backward, sending Kate sprawling to the floor. Perfect. Best first impression ever. She bounced up, even though she'd banged her head into the linoleum on the floor, and crashed her elbow into the desk on her way down. Ow.

"Hi." She said, then cleared her throat. "Welcome. How can I help you?"

Graceful, for sure. Clint managed to not smirk too much at the rather abrupt bounce back from the fall. “Um, I’m looking for the archery range?” Fencing and archery didn’t strike him as particularly popular by way of hobbies. Probably something a certain breed of person took up.

Probably not always his breed of person, but there were always some minor exceptions. “You okay?” Between falls and startles, it probably wasn’t the best way to creep up on a person either.

“You’ve found it.” Poor Kate went a little pink. Not too bad, but enough. She was embarrassed. Of course, the guy who’d just come in was good looking. And had just seen her epic fall.

“Yeah, actually, I’m not sure.” She said, lifting a hand to the back of her head. When she withdrew her fingers, there was no blood. That was a good sign. It hurt, though. “I’ll be fine. Just, the three of you stop spinning in circles.”

The last bit was a joke. A lame one.

“So, are you looking for lessons or practice time?” She added. Putting on her secretarial hat now.

Lame joke or not, he snorted a little because it was his kind of joke. Lame humour aside, if she wasn’t overly concerned about a concussion he wouldn’t fret. Unless the triple vision actually happened. “Um, practice time.”

He was rusty, sure. And lessons might be something to consider later, but he’d be better gauging himself first. As was his tendency to just learn on the fly too. It was more about the movements of it anyway, something he used for stress relief himself. “Just getting back into the swing of things just now.”

At least until he settled and decided if he wanted to actually learn the techniques properly.

At least the joke wasn't wasted. Kate liked that. She smiled softly, watching the newcomer with interest. "Ah, well, yes." She said, and stepped forward to the schedule book on the desk, nearly tripping on the tipped over chair. "We have open gym times. You can pay a membership fee and use the gym whenever it's open. You also get a discount on private and group lessons if you have a membership already, but it's not necessary for classes."

She decided to set the chair upright before continuing, so she turned around, bent down and picked it up, then set it on its wheels. One little dust along the arm, and she was turning back around to face him once more.

"I'm Kate, by the way. I teach here."

Clint wasn’t one to care really about gyms, not entirely, membership was largely restricting in some senses and he was a more natural exercise sort of person. However, it was largely frowned upon to go out somewhere and shoot things. People often complained even if it was with arrows. So…

“What kind of membership plans are there?” He was sticking around, and this was the only place in the area that had an archery range, which was basically the selling point for him. Why bother worrying about things like what gym to join if there was one with an actual range to just chill out on. And the option of lessons later.

It was kind of lucky that she’d turned back towards him before talking again, and Clint just managed a small smile, “Clint, hi.”

“Honestly? If you ask me, it’s ridiculously cheap to come shoot arrows into targets. I don’t think we charge enough.” Kate said, realizing after she’d said it that he did ask her. She dug through the folders on the desk, and pulled out a sheet that had rates on it. They were low.

“It’s not exactly a busy range here. So you’d probably have the run of the place to yourself most days.” She explained, leaning with her hip against the desk.

He hummed in agreement really, not about the price plan, because that helped him out if it was cheap, but the run of the place. “Not an overly common past-time.” A CO had asked him how he relaxed one time and the look he’d gotten had spoke volumes. But then most people considered Clint to be a little that side of ‘normal’.

“Well, okay, might as well do this now.” Because would he really be bothered later? Probably not. Better to get it done and over with since it wasn’t like he’d find something else. “What’cha need to do this?” Hopefully nothing proving his address since he didn’t technically have anything yet.

"Just an ID and a credit card, Clint." Kate said. She had to bend over to pull some more paperwork out of one of the filing cabinets. She had to dig around for a moment to find the membership form, and came back up to face him only after she'd started her sentence. "Everything's kept on paper here. We've got a computer, but I swear it's a 2GS, and it's in the store room in pieces."

She set the form and a pen down in front of him on the desk. "I also work over at the Laguna Beach Fencing Center. They've got these updated systems, it's all modern and whatnot. This place is like from the stone age. But it pays the rent. Every teenage girl wants to be Katniss Everdeen, every young boy wants to be Legolas."

Picking up the pen to start filling things in, Clint just snorted slightly. Popular culture went a little over his head at times, but those were two he caught. It was kind of a point yeah, because there were those moments of peaked interest where the latest craze got people all on board with whatever. Clint tended to miss a lot of them, and he was majorly thankful since the last one that he was caught in was those damn furby things.

“Oh, I’m not even a little up to date on things,” he had a DVR that he could barely use and a phone that was probably smarter than him. “I’d probably make you cringe if anything technical came up.” Ask him jury rig a bomb-scanner from some leftover supplies and yeah, sure. Ask him to program his favourites into his tivo? Nope. “Least you get to do something you like?”

Presumably. Why else do it just to make rent?

Hey, the peaked interest was good for Kate. She was teaching Archery in a world of handguns. Anything Suzanne Collins or Orlando Bloom could do to make her chosen profession a little more appealing to a mass audience meant more money in her pocket. She didn't mind at all.

"Maybe you need some private tutoring. I'm sure we could get you up to speed." And that? That was what Kate considered flirting. A hot, somewhat older guy interested in archery? Got her blood going. She had to admit this guy got her blood going. He was likely to shoot her down, but that's okay. Practice makes perfect.

Until right then, archery had just been a sort of hobby, a way to pass some time and manage to relax at the same time. Sure, it helped maintain a centre of balance for him and gave his arms a workout too, but Clint wasn’t banking his livelihood on an interest in a hobby that was mostly outdated by video games and loose gun laws.

The light flirt was met with a raised eyebrow and small smirk, she bounced back rather well from the initial embarrassing sprawl, which Clint could admire, no point in getting hung up on life’s little flail moments. “Well, I would hate to be behind the class.” Class or no class, it wasn’t like there was harm in flirting.

No harm in flirting. Just got a girl’s hopes up, that’s all. Not that Kate had any serious hope about this guy. No, she was realistic about her pursuits, most of the time. That didn’t mean she didn’t try the shot in the dark. And the smirk on his face made it all worthwhile. It was a very nice smirk.

“You’ll be fine. So long as you do your homework, Mister…” She leaned over to read the form he was filling out. “Barton. Clint Barton.” The name resonated within her somehow. She just didn’t know how. Huh.

It took a little thinking before he chimed in with his rank, mouth open to say it before he remembered his discharge and clicking his mouth shut with a tight smile. “Gotta say, I’m mostly just a weekend archer,” or a middle of the week if things were too cloying, his head got crowded from time to time, and Clint wasn’t the sort to sit down and talk about stuff, so steadying his own mind came in handy.

The form didn’t ask for anything difficult and it was easy to get it all filled out and produce a credit card and drivers licence for whatever process was needed. “And I was terrible in school.” Clint and school were like potassium and water. A good learning experience, but not all that great for much else.

"No judgments here. We can't all be every day archers." Kate said as she accepted the paperwork and the credit card. Checked the ID. She put the credit card through one of those carbon copy machines, going through the steps like the old guy who ran the place taught her to. She'd done this a few times. Could do it in her sleep. Because Kate Bishop was actually a pretty smart girl.

"We'll just have to find something you like studying," she added, bringing back that flirtatious smirk. Her sparkling, brown eyes met his for a moment as she held out his credit card, ID, and his new membership card. It was his name on a piece of paper, business card sized, with a unique, eight-digit code stamped on the back.

"Welcome to the club. You want a tour?"

Really, right then, if he wanted to he could absolutely be an every day archer; there was nothing else to do currently, unsure what he wanted to venture forward for with life after all. But probably too much would just be pointless, and Clint tended to have a point for his hobby.

“Sure, why not?” A tour though, that’d be fine, he didn’t need to rush home, Lucky wasn’t a disruptive dog and was mostly content to sleep the day away when Clint wasn’t around anyway, “I’m always one for enjoying the scenery.” A tour through the place would be helpful too, and there was never anything wrong with enjoying some company. Kate seemed like she wanted something to do in the least.

Kate didn't have any classes to teach, and when she wasn't actively teaching, she was supposed to man the desk. It was, as her actions when he walked in may have indicated, ridiculously boring. (The pain in the back of her head had faded.) She was thankful for someone to come along and distract her from the boringness. And he was a handsome, older (than her, anyway) archer. Which was exactly her type. Hey, two could enjoy the scenery.

"Come on, then." She put a sign up on the desk that said "Be right Back" and turned to lead him further into the Archery Range.

"Locker rooms to the right. Bathrooms are in there, too, case you need them. Bring your own lock. But we cut them off if you leave shit in there, so make sure to take everything with you when you go." She stepped through the double-doors into the large, training room. It was the size of a gymnasium with all sorts of antique-looking training equipment.

It was just better to get the tour, shown where shit was and where to go, than fumble around later trying to find things. Of course he ended up watching her a little more than the surrounds, halfway to listening and the rest to reading her lips -this was where it got a little difficult, walking and talking was a pain in the ass.

“Um, could you stick to my left?” It’d be easier with his ‘good’ ear, although both were kind of ballsed up, but one was always better than the other, “I um… I’m hearing impaired.” Deaf, legally, but there wasn’t really a need to bring that up. He gave a shrug and a small ‘what can you do’ smile to go with it, but there was no point in getting shown around and not taking in any of it.

Kate turned to him, curiously, when he asked if she could stay to his left. Left? Oh. Well, Kate wasn't one to judge. "Sure," she said, moving over to his left. "Is this better?" She asked. And she made a mental note. Hearing impaired meant she'd have to... well, not speak louder, because that might be insulting. But make sure he had a clear view of her face when she talked to him.

And now she was re-playing all her interactions with him from earlier. Had she talked into the filing cabinet instead of facing him? ...had she talked from the floor? Crap. Well, nothing she could do about it now. She'd have to just change her behavior from now on.

“Thanks,” it wasn’t a huge deal, and Clint didn’t like making a massive fuss about it. He’d picked up on how to work around it; his better ear usually facing whoever was talking, keeping an eye on lips, not getting caught up in group conversations. There was nothing worse than having to stop people and explain that, actually, he couldn’t hear a word they’d just said. Which made it a little awkward, yes, but not impossible to get by.

“I mean, I have aids, they work fine but in open areas like this,” well the sound just got lost, so it was near impossible to catch things, and the level of the damage meant that he was more prone to just counting on lips to follow. Wanting a subject change, and quick, Clint skirted his eyes around the gymnasium, “Did we go back in time?” It really did look a little bit outdated all things considered.

For a moment, Kate felt her breath catch. But then she realized he meant hearing aids, and not AIDS aids. She exhaled in a rush, a tiny chuckle under her air. That was ... ugh. Weird. Never mind.

"Yes," she responded, nodding. Then she turned to motion to the equipment. She didn't speak until she was facing him again. "It's way out of date, but you're welcome to use any of it. If you can find a use for it." She added, almost playfully. "Targets up against the back wall for indoor shooting, and there are some targets set up outside."

She touched his arm at the elbow, then opened the door to lead out to the outdoor range. Her desire to touch his arm had nothing to do with his confession of his hearing loss.

It wasn’t that big of a deal to Clint; he noticed the slight change, the pause she took before speaking again, waiting to face him before answering. It was fine, he was used to the slight change when people found out, when they became a little more aware of things. He didn’t bother commenting on it, not wanting to embarrass her for being thoughtful.

Indoor was fine for those kinds of days, days where either the weather or the mood didn’t sit right with heading outside. But Clint did prefer the open air for any sort of target practice he did. The light touch got his attention more than the noise of the door opening, Clint following along with Kate’s non-verbal cue.

Much like a driving range for golfers had a big, fenced-in area around it so stray golf balls wouldn't smash into car windows, a lot of the lot of the Archery Range was fenced in with mesh. Light came through, air and the elements, but it was protection for both the people doing the practicing, and the people who might be standing nearby. Or a hundred feet away where the arrows finally landed.

The outside was nice. Some trees around the outside, grass underfoot, though there was a platform to fire from as well. Hay bales, practice dummies, and other things lined up and scattered about. There were targets up, some broken arrows littering the ground round them--relatively recently fired. Kate would have to clean up better after her next class.

She motioned. "It's not the biggest area to practice, but it's pretty good. I've seen quite a few ranges in my day." She'd been thinking of her travels with her college's archery team, and didn’t really get how the ‘in my day’ line probably sounded strange coming from a girl barely a quarter century old.

It was probably a lot better than some of Clint’s on the go ranges. It wasn’t like there was an abundance of sports centers where he ended up, and on the go all the time meant that indulging in hobbies was a luxury that occurred maybe once in a blue moon. He could go several years sometimes without getting some time to himself to just do something enjoyable. Which was probably why all the new spare time on his hands was a little daunting.

The fact that these were more than makeshift targets was definitely moving up in the scale of things.

“In your day?” Clint caught how strange it was, chuckling lightly, “You gonna break out your rockin’ chair and start complaining ‘bout young ‘uns these days?” Clint let a slight twang lilt his voice, grinning at the mental image and shaking his head. “Honestly, I’ve seen like, three of these places that actually cater to archery, so don’t sweat it.”

When Clint pointed it out, Kate realized how ridiculous she probably sounded, and she had to laugh at herself. First banging her head on the floor, now this. Jeez. This guy was gonna think she was the biggest idiot ever. Well, hopefully a cute idiot?

She lifted a fist and waggled it. "Get offa my lawn!" She mimicked the twang and added a old lady gravel-like tone to her voice. Then laughed a little more, and shook her head, letting her fist fall.

"Well, good. Then we won't disappoint. Not that I was planning on disappointing you, anyway." Another small flirt. With a side-of-the-mouth grin.

Apparently the flail and fall wasn’t so much of an out of character startle as a part of the personality, which was cute, yeah. Better to poke fun than be serious all the time. At least Clint thought so, occasionally he wasn’t serious enough. “Will there be a questionnaire? I mean I wanna make sure you uphold this promise you just made.”

He might be a little bit rusty on the human interaction side of things, least of all the flirting thing but he was pretty sure he was catching that, and why not? “I take things like that to heart.”

"Good thing I'm the kind of girl who never backs away from a promise." Kate's words were serious as a heart attack, though she was still wearing a fondness on her face that hinted at flirtation.

She nodded once, getting back to business before she lost herself gazing up at the handsome man's face. "I think that's all there is to see here. The place isn't all that big," she said that part apologetically, "and most of the fun stuff comes with the actual practicing. We've got supplies to rent and to buy in a storage room. They're too expensive here, though. I can give you a list of retailers who sell things for half the price we sell them for."

She turned to lead the way back in, touching his arm again. This time, it had nothing to do with getting his attention. This time, it was because she wanted to touch him.

“That’d be great, sure.” Probably shouldn’t make a big deal, since she was giving him the low-down on some better places with lower prices, management or whatever probably preferred their staff to sell the stuff here. Higher prices or not.

“So why don’t you go ahead and sign me up for one of those classes,” he may or may not need it right then, and it would likely be something for later, but she offered, he was new to the area and why not? “Make sure I don’t accidentally maim anyone. You can show me a few pointers.” The smirk was definitely a smile by now, and whether he had ‘game’ or not, Clint knew exactly how to use what he had.

"No problem." The pair turned to head back inside, through the gym and into the front entryway. Then back to the front desk. Kate's temporary and between-classes home. She'd released his elbow once he'd turned to walk with her. She wasn't talking to him without making sure he could see her face--but other than that she hadn't changed the way she was speaking or treating him. Kate didn't give special treatment.

"You want a private lesson?" Kate asked, giving him one of her flirtiest smiles. She'd overcome the embarrassing initial meeting had she? Hopefully? "I'll make room on my schedule. Unless you want to try one of the other teachers?"

Most of the time, Clint would have something exceptionally inappropriate to comment with right then, but those comments usually resulted in a slap and regularly had to come when he was in no danger of returning to the place. This was somewhere he was intending to frequent, which meant not scandalising the employees. “Nah, you know the deal anyway,” And Clint wasn’t exactly the type to share with people unless he needed to, “I cool with sticking to you.” Besides, if the instructors here were paid per class or whatever, he’d rather give her the money for it.

“Just lemme know when you’re free.” Since Clint was happily lazing on his current situation for now. He could take a few weeks before deciding he was bored.

If Kate was a shade more girly than she actually was, she might have blushed at that. Might have been proud or flattered or something. But as she was, she understood needing to be comfortable with someone to explain something like he did today. And she was a bit honored that he'd trusted her with that information.

"Okay." She drew out her phone--it was one of those smart doohikeys with such a huge screen that it barely fit in her pocket. She tapped it with her fingertips and the thing lit up, then a multi-colored calendar came to life on the glass. She switched from day to day, checking things over, and finally stopped. "Thursdays at one?" She asked, lifting her eyes back up to him again. Then broke into a smile. "First lesson's free."

With nothing else to do, not even a case of nothing better to do, it was literally nothing else, Clint nodded at the date and time, because why not? “You sure?” Not about the time, about the money. It wasn’t like Clint couldn’t afford it. Years of army service and travelling meant that his pay was never really spent. A few things here and there, his parents funerals, medical requirements his insurance didn’t cover, and more recently taking care of Lucky, but that didn’t exactly eat into any of his savings. “I wouldn’t wanna get you in trouble for anything.”

And Clint was the sort of person who believed in paying for what you got.

"Company policy," Kate shrugged. She got away with murder around here, actually. The guy who ran the place didn't really care that much, so long as he could come in whenever he wanted and use the range. He was one of those multi-millionaire types who bought the place on a lark and used it as some kind of a tax write-off, or something. "You won't get me in trouble. I don't really get in trouble for much around here, so it seems."

She tapped the screen of her phone a few times, putting his name in. "Clint... Barton... Thursday... at one..." She finished, and turned the phone to face him, so he could read it if he wanted to. She’d even spelled his name right and everything. "There. Email reminder set to go."

Well, if it was a policy then he wasn’t going to argue, even if it wasn’t, he probably shouldn’t argue any way. “I’ll bet you don’t.” She was sweet, cute in that not-quite-innocent kind of way. The sort that Clint was pretty sure could be an angel one minute and a hellion the next. Most fun ones were. But if she wanted to play it that way, fine, he’d take the lesson on company policy this time.

“Awesome, I’ll just get my dog to remind me.” Lame joke, but Clint tended not to use reminders or diaries or whatever. And yeah, he probably missed like several things that way, but he was just used to not doing it. “Hey, my number’s on the form too, if you wanna text me some places to get stuff, and anything I’ll need to bring on Thursday?”

He had her pegged already. Kate the half-angel/half-hellion. Some people could read her like an open book, and others had no idea the depths of her neuroses. She wondered where Clint would fall. And if this was just a one-time lesson thing, or if something more might come from it. She hoped for the latter.

"Smart dog," she commented idly. "And yeah, I'll text you. Just don't mind me if you get pocket-dialed. It happens sometimes." She refrained from saying when I wear tight pants. Though, that part was absolutely true. "I'll see you Thursday."

So, it wasn’t just the ‘blowing off steam’ that it sometimes was, but that was okay. If it gave Clint something to do, a hobby that was actually developing towards a past time towards a skill, then fine. And working with Kate could prove interesting at least. “See you then.”

He’d even make the effort to remember what time to show up at.