WHO:Clint Barton & Kate Bishop WHEN: Recently WHERE: Out to dinner WHAT: A date and putting a name on their relationship RATING/WARNINGS: Low/None STATUS: Complete
After the whole gender alteration thing, Clint was a little more aware of just what was going on with Kate. She had some stuff dotted around his place, something he really didn’t care about at all -some clothes in his dresser, toothbrush in the bathroom, her own towels at his place. But her uncertainty about just what the situation was maybe had skipped his attention a little.
He wasn’t one for the over the top things, didn’t do grand gestures. He sort of took it for granted that she’d maybe just be able to read his mind really. But that obviously wasn’t the case and Clint figured it should probably be fixed.
He liked what he had with Kate, and however serious it was or wasn’t, he didn’t think he should leave her in limbo about just what it was. They were dating. They just hadn’t done actual, discussed, traditional dates. So, before he even contemplated Tony’s offer of a double with him and Pepper, they’d need a proper date.
He made the reservation at a small, cosy little restaurant, one that didn’t have over the top menus but was a little more classy. He’d even broken out a tie, getting the downstairs kid to look after Lucky for the night since he had no idea how long he’d be out, driving over to Kate’s to pick her up.
Kate was being ridiculous. She knew she was being ridiculous, but that wasn't stopping her. After those texts from Clint she went out and bought a couple new things to wear; new underwear, new dress, new shoes. And damn if she didn't look smoking hot in them.
She was dressed and ready to go when Clint arrived at her door. A date. A real date. The giddiness in her belly almost made Kate feel a little ashamed, but she couldn't help that, either. She liked Clint. A lot. And now that things looked like they might be getting more serious?
She pulled open the door, trying to act casual, and smiled at him. "Hey."
Clint wasn’t the best at the ‘normal’ state of things; his last serious relationship was with a communications expert with the forces, so the whole ‘date night’ thing hadn’t really happened. But he’d figured that maybe with so many places around here, he should make the effort at least let Kate know he was serious about this and not just screwing around.
“Hey,” he knew that Kate had a bit of a fancy upbringing, “you look great.” But Clint was not the ‘shirt and tie’ sort of guy, he’d made the effort though, suit pants, dark navy shirt with a tie and a vest because it was still a little stuffy for a jacket. It was a fancy kind of place after all. “You um… you ready?”
Sometimes girls needed a bit more time, right? And having been female for a weekend, Clint was not about to rush her.
"Thanks," Kate gave a playful spin around, unable to keep the stupid grin from her lips, "new dress." She leaned forward to steal a kiss, feeling a touch embarrassed about how excited she was about tonight. She'd gone a little overboard in her preparations for her first official date with Clint. Of course, they had been casual, sleeping together and spending time together for a while now, but this was a step toward something more serious. It was exciting, right?
"Shut up," she teased, a preemptive strike against any teasing he might do about the silly grin on her lips or the blush on her cheeks.
"Yeah, I'm ready." She grabbed her purse and locked the door behind herself. Then she looped her arm through his. "You look handsome tonight. I'm really digging the tie."
Apparently he really should’ve done this a while ago, but then he hadn’t actually been aware that this was something that needed to be said. Then again, he doubted women were all that fond of just having those casual sort of hang outs that didn’t actually define anything. And if Kate needed or wanted a definition, they could probably go as far as to put that on there.
“I dislike them on principle,” although it didn’t stop him stroking his own hand down to make sure it was still flat under his vest. “I honestly don’t see what the point of them is, but dress codes, who knew.” Really, who knew that certain restaurants had a dress code? He actually had to go out and buy a tie for this.
With a hand on the small of Kate’s back, Clint led her out towards his car, completely fine with not bringing up just how adorable she was with this beaming kind of glow about the date. Definitely past due, he didn’t need to poke fun at her in order to be reminded that sometimes a guy actually needed to tell a girl these things. He just hoped he hadn’t misjudged the restaurant.
Ah, definitions. Funny how Kate was one of those women who insisted she didn’t care about defining what they had, but if the definition became available? The thought made her giddy with happiness.
“I dunno, I think I’ll like having you on a leash.” Kate teased, turning to tug a little on the knot of the tie. She didn’t mess it up, though, as much as she’d like to wrap her fingers around it and tug him in for a kiss. “But I like you no matter what you’re wearing.” She climbed into the car and pulled on her seatbelt, then settled her little purse in her lap.
Clothes made the man, right? Well, Clint was a marginally functioning slob who really didn’t like having to deal with smart clothes, but he could pull it off once in awhile. It was times like these he missed the uniform, because at least that was meant to be worn a certain way. But, the point was a nice meal out, with nice fancy trimmings.
It wasn’t far a drive, and the radio cut out the small talk, Clint parking just along the street from the restaurant to cut down on the distance Kate might need to walk on her heels getting back to the car.
He was even being proper enough to help Kate out of the car and down towards the restaurant, glad that it wasn’t a freezing night, or still too hot, considering all the layers extra. The most painful thing would probably be the fact that the prices weren’t printed on the damn menu in this place.
Kate sort of felt like a princess. The girl was more a tomboy than anything else, so this was a little unusual--It was ridiculous, actually, and she was a little embarrassed about it, but enjoying it none the less.
They headed into the restaurant, Kate's arm wrapped around Clint's as the walked, and she noted how fancy the place looked. White tablecloths, sommelier on staff, low music, candlelight? This was not a Clint-like place. It was a nice surprise.
They were seated and Kate looked down at the menu, remembering how her dad would take her to places like this when business lunch meetings fell on "take your daughter to work" day.
"Color me impressed, Clint," she smirked at him over her menu. "You've raised the bar here."
It really wasn’t his type of place, and he couldn’t ever remember being in a place like this ever. Any of those ridiculous Gala’s that were held for the service were in big hotel conference rooms and he’d only attended one of those after his injury because he’d been forced to. But this. Definitely out of his league.
“Well, y’know,” Clint just shrugged because the point was making it fancy and special, right? “I think I’ve got some catching up to do.”
And he kind of thought it was about time Kate knew he was kinda serious in their somewhat-casual thing. Which probably didn’t make sense, but Clint was coming to realise that casual wasn’t really his thing anyway.
If the point was making it fancy and special, he’d succeeded. Kate was impressed. And giddy. And flattered. And happy. She couldn’t tear the smile from her lips even if she wanted to. Which she didn’t.
“What kind of catching up?” Kate asked, folding her menu closed. Chicken or risotto or whatever, she didn’t care what they had to eat tonight. This was one of those horribly cliche’d just want to be with him nights. The food part didn’t really matter.
As much as food was important, and Clint intended on having a nice damn meal because this place was insane, he was mostly just winging it around now. “We’ve been dating for at least two months by this point,” possibly more, he really wasn’t sure himself any more, but he kind of figured after they started sleeping together and her stuff steadily migrated into his apartment it was about time to label it ‘dating’ at the very least.
“Lots of catch up.” He was pretty sure that the term wasn’t ‘waiter’ in a place like this, but they were offered drinks, asked if they needed some more time and Clint just looked to Kate in question, because he was pretty sure he was ready if she was.
Kate was shocked. Dating? They hadn’t--they weren’t--they didn’t… really? She opened her mouth to speak, but the waiter (server?) came by and asked what they wanted to drink and eat. Kate sat up in her chair. “I’ll have the risotto and a glass of the house Chardonnay.”
She turned her attention back to Clint, waiting for him to order. Once he was finished, she reached a hand across the table to take hold of his. “...is this… some kind of anniversary?”
Ordering his own chicken dish and a matching glass of wine, Clint just shook his head at Kate’s question afterwards. “God I hope not, because I’d have forgotten about that one too.” It was less that they had been dating dating, but he was pretty sure they were both exclusively seeing the other, which was pretty much dating without the dates. And if Tony was serious and Clint was gonna be exposing Kate to Tony’s insanity, he was doing it after they’d had their own first date.
“I think I just became a little more aware of things when you came into my apartment and got all cute and mad when you thought I was another girl I was sleeping with.” Then again, calling her cute when she got mad probably not the best thing, but hey, truth.
Kate was pretty sure she was supposed to be insulted by the “all cute and mad” comment, but she couldn’t bring herself around to it. She was more flattered by the ‘cute’ part, and distracted at the memory. She’d been pissed when she thought he was sleeping with someone else because she sure as hell wasn’t. And then when she found out it was him?
“Cute and mad?” She asked, trying to roll her eyes at the words, but all she managed to do was blush and smirk sheepishly. “Well, yeah. I mean, I know we hadn’t labeled… this,” she motioned between them. “...but I haven’t seen anyone else since we started… this. I assumed you were on the same page. Probably shouldn’t have assumed.”
Clint just gave a small smirk, “Not been seeing anyone else either. Except Tony, but I think he just flirts for shits and giggles.” Also not in that way, but it was amusing and fun all the same. “But I mean… It doesn’t feel casual, and I guess a label isn’t important, but maybe we could do this stuff more.”
Usually they just ended up in places together, or on his couch with random shows or movies on, and that was cool, because it was easy to just hang out with her. But they weren’t just… stringless sex between friends, at least Clint didn’t think they were. He was getting the impression he wasn’t too far off base with this. And really, the way she blushed and was so excited about a date, Clint had no problem with doing it a little more frequently.
He wasn’t too far off base with this. Kate wished she could hit him. Like on the playground. She could push him into the mud for teasing her about Tony. But then he went and said something as adorable as… “No, it doesn’t feel casual.” Kate had done the no-strings-attached thing before, and this was far from that. At least, for her... there were lots of strings. Lots of emotions.
The waiter brought their drinks, and Kate gave him a quick “thanks,” then she turned big, brown eyes back to look at Clint’s. “If we were to label it…” Okay, Kate was shit at hinting at things. She was kinda no nonsense. “What would that label be?”
Subtle really wasn’t her strong suit, and Clint hoped that really wasn’t something she had to do a lot. Clint just smirked a little as he took a sip of wine, to watch Kate sort of hedge around things. He was probably a little old to have a girlfriend, but ‘partner’ tended to mean something completely different thing thanks to his line of work. “Well, it’s probably along the line of exclusive dating,” since they’d just work in a few more actual dates.
“So I’m assuming boyfriend/girlfriend would be the appropriate label, despite my being far too old for that.” High school kids or college kids, he was pretty sure it was for people before they hit thirty.
No, Kate wasn't subtle. And she was thankful than Clint didn't seem to mind. His words made her feel warm inside. Or maybe that was the wine. She took a sip to occupy her hands. Boyfriend/Girlfriend. Kate hasn't been someone's girlfriend in years. It felt... good.
"I'm not too old for it," she smirked. "And you know you don't have to take me out to fancy dinners for me to be your girlfriend. You could have just asked."
Realistically, Clint hadn’t done the boyfriend thing since high school, which was a fair while ago. But relationships while in the army hadn’t really had the space for the typical dating pool. But in the wide open world, that would be a little easier to work on.
“Right, because… You’re not enjoying yourself?” Sure, he wasn’t really thinking they’d go the fancy-suit-and-tie thing overly regularly, maybe just special occasions, but he was pretty sure it was worth it to go for that nice meal first time out.
“Oh, sure, I’m enjoying myself,” Kate agreed. She didn’t want him to get the wrong impression. “I mean, I haven’t pulled my phone out once to check Valarnet, have I?” A tease, and a grin. “But I like all the other things we do together, too.” Watching movies on his sofa, taking Lucky for long hikes, morning sex on a lazy Saturday… the list went on and on. Kate liked it all.
“But I’m glad we finally decided to make this… official.” She reached for his hand again.
Clint just smirked as he turned his hand over under hers, from the way she got all dressed up, he sort of figured that she’d been pretty excited about a date-date. “I dunno, I mean, I think checking Valarnet is completely logical sometimes. How else would we know if we should avoid certain places when heading home.” Although the fact that she wasn’t even bothered didn’t escape notice -there was this thing about the current generation being attached to phones just now, right?
“Is there such a thing as silently-official? Because I think we’ve been that for a while, but now it’s an actual acknowledgement?”
“You’ve got a point. I end up pulling my phone out whenever anything unusual happens. If a traffic light is out, I have to check Valarnet.” Kate gave a little sigh. Why did she live in Orange County, again? Oh yeah. Beach, job, friends, Clint. And, as much as she kinda hated them, the Dreams were pretty brilliant. It was worth putting up with the weirdness for all of that.
“Silently official? I like that.” Kate leaned over, lifting up out of her chair so she could stretch her torso across the table, nearly knocking over a water glass as she reached forward to steal a kiss from Clint’s lips. “Now I get to doodle your name all over my notebooks and not feel like a stalker.”
It was a sort of state of constant awareness when it came to the net, which wasn’t overly terrible, sure. But it did get very tiring at times. Taking one night to just ignore that was probably going to be relaxing all on it’s own.
Shifting slightly to meet her almost halfway, Clint just kept stroking his thumb over Kate’s knuckles as they resettled. “Because you were doing it before?” Teasing, of course. With the food arriving, Clint sat back, still smirking at Kate because really, this wasn’t all that complicated -he might’ve been far more use to do this kind of thing over burgers or pizza, but even his tie wasn’t really bothering him that much now.
“Well, yeah,” Kate couldn’t help the smirk on her lips, the blush on her cheeks. She was just so damn happy. It wasn’t really like her. Not really. But he brought it out in her, more than anyone had before. “Of course I did. But I felt like a stalker all the while.” She teased. Hey, at least she wasn’t doodling Mrs. Kate Barton or something. That would be a bit much.
Clint just shook his head with a fond smile, sometimes she was a total badass, others she was just ridiculous and adorable. It really balanced things out very well. “Well at least the creepy stalkery feeling may diminish somewhat.” He was just teasing really, but the smirk stayed on his face even as he started to pick at his overly expensive food. “For the sake of your self-respect, I’m glad we decided this.”
“My self-respect thanks you kindly.” Kate grinned, reaching for her wine glass. “The rest of me thanks you, too.” She sipped and set the thing down, then dove into her food. Figuratively, of course. “Now that’s settled…” She was just so giddy, she couldn’t think of anything else to say.
Grabbing for straws, she asked, “are you coming back to the Archery Range soon?”
He hadn’t actually meant to take a break from archery. It had just happened that everything had ended up happening that way. “Probably,” since he had his own body back as well, he should probably use the bow his dreams had just planted on him. “There aren’t really a lot of other places to actively practice without potentially injuring someone accidentally.” He didn’t miss targets, that wasn’t a worry, but people randomly walking into flying arrows, probably not the best thing to happen.
“But yeah, I’ll probably get back into the swing of it.”
“Good.” Kate said, nodding. “The place gets kinda monotonous without your visits to look forward to.” She’d stopped calling them ‘lessons’ ages ago. Once she realized that he was the Hawkeye, the one who should be doing the teaching. Since then they’d started learning more from each other than with one in the leadership role. Kate liked that. She liked that she could give him as much as he gave her in return.
“So, what’re we having for dessert?” She broke into a smile. “Something chocolate?”