WHO:Clint & Kate with Barney WHEN: late 5th Sep WHERE: Clint & Kate's apartment WHAT: Barney rolls into OC to stay with Clint and Kate for a while; pizza and stories to start WARNINGS: Nada STATUS: Complete
In all honesty, it was a surprise to Clint when Barney had gotten in touch. It was a bigger surprise when he hadn’t been asking for money, either to get out of a jam or for bail. But he supposed that by now they were both growing up and maybe Barney deserved the benefit of the doubt.
So far things had been entirely normal, he’d picked Barney up, there’d been the usual bro-hug and the ‘wow that’s new’ in regards to lines on faces or tans and then they were off back to Clint’s. Small talk was the usual, where they’d been, when Clint had gotten back to the States, how recovery from the injuries was going, what Barney was doing now. And then they’d hit the Kate portion of Clint’s life.
“Settlin’ down, little brother?” Barney gave him a sly look, a light nudge to the shoulder and chuckle. Clint could only really shake his head with a small smile.
“Kinda, it’s still… well, it’s not new so much as different. But we live together, so keep it clean, yeah?” Which hopefully meant that Barney wouldn’t be a total slob while occupying their sofa.
The walk up the stairs to Clint’s place, the reminder that ‘I have a dog, by the way’, before they got there, both Barney’s bags dropped by the door while jackets were hung up and Clint automatically toed off his shoes as Lucky came forth to investigate the new person, “Kate? We’re back.” It wasn’t like they had a big apartment, so shouting wasn’t really needed anyway.
This was a really big step for Kate. This was the first time she was meeting Clint’s family. It’d been a really long time since she’d met a significant other’s… significant other. Now moving in together seemed like a much smaller deal--it was just storing their shit in the same place. They went from spending almost every night together, to spending every night together. Not a whole lot had changed. But today was important.
Kate was nervously tidying the apartment. She wandered around moving things around--all the laundry was put away. The beds were made. Toilets cleaned. All the surfaces were cleared and wiped down, the carpet vacuumed. She’d been busy.
When the door opened, she was rearranging magazines on the coffee table for the fourth time today. She looked up and over at the pair of them, and broke into a warm, slightly nervous smile. “Hey.”
It was cute that she was cleaning, for Barney, making the place look all nice. “Hey,” he met the smile with one of his own, “Kate this is Barney, Barney… Kate.” Obviously, introductions were awkward sometimes.
Still, Barney just smiled back, a little crooked given the scar on his upper lip, hair a few shades darker than Clint’s, slightly taller, slightly more haggard looking. It was pretty clear to see they were brothers, and that Barney was a little older.
“Well hey there, I hear you’re the little lady that’s got Clint here all settled down.” Which Clint knew was a half-compliment, considering his previous track record of deployment and what not.
Kate came forward around the coffee table and held out a hand to Barney. “Good to meet you.” That part was absolutely true. She was pleased to meet him, glad to be learning more about Clint’s family, to be becoming part of it. A laugh bubbled up in her, and she shook her head. “...settled down? That’s not… that’s not what this is.” Was it? “We’re just shacking up. It’s NBD.”
...she actually said the letters out loud. N. B. D. Truth was, Kate was a little terrified about how serious things had become between herself and Clint. They were both shit at relationships, and if this was going to crash and burn? She was a little afraid it might break her.
“Anyway, you want a beer?” Kate said, changing the subject before it got awkward. “I stocked the fridge.”
Barney threw a look at Clint, who was just smirking at Kate there, “Yeah, this shacking up stuff is totally no biggie,” and his tone was totally just making fun of Kate right there, but he kinda got it at the same time too, because settling down had some massively scary connotations too.
“Okay, okay,” Barney just held his hands up in surrender, “a beer would be great, thanks.” Lucky was poking his nose at Barney’s knees, getting the new person to lean down a little and let him sniff him out before declaring that mission done and wandering off himself.
“You eat on the way? We can get something in? Because neither Kate nor I are awesome cooks so we’re not trying.” They could live on whatever they had but it was kinda late to start making crap and Barney could deal with pizza if it came to it. “There’s a pizza place nearby that’s good.” Before Kate could launch in to offer to try cooking.
Kate’s face suddenly felt hot. They were making fun of her! She tried to look stern, but an embarrassed smile sat on her lips even as she led the way into the kitchen. On the way she smacked Clint’s shoulder. Maybe a little harder than expected. There was no way Kate was going to try and cook for them. Food poisoning would be the worst way for Barney to spend his visit with them. Pizza sounded great.
“Nothing goes better with an ice cold beer than a slice of pizza,” Kate chimed in, offering bottles to the Barton brothers as soon as she had the lids off. “And we can have leftovers for breakfast.”
Really living on take-out wasn’t that bad either, they had fairly active lives, and if Orange County didn’t kill them their diet might as well. “She’s feisty,” Barney teased as Kate gave Clint’s shoulder a whack, but then he figured he’d get something like that with teasing her. It wasn’t too big a deal.
With the beers in hand, and pizza agreed on, Clint called in their usual order with an addition for Barney before they made themselves at home in the living room, Barney sprawling into the armchair while Clint took up the sofa and made a point in nudging into Kate to try and get her to relax.
“So, d’you know how long you’ll be around?” And Clint was careful not to make that into some kind of accusation either, because hell, things weren’t falling to shit right now, progress!
“Couple of weeks, maybe. Got some stuff in the area to tie up and what not, kinda surprised me to find out you were local, but hey, good luck there, huh?” And that was Barney’s evasive tone, it just made Clint nod a little, not pointing it out just yet. “How long you crazy kids been shacking up for?”
Kate sat down beside Clint and folded one leg over the other. She was close, but not too close. First impressions were important, right? And she felt like she was failing at this one. Why was it that whenever she didn’t care about what the other person thought, she wowed them with her grace and charm, but when it was really important she turned into a total, unlikeable basket case?
She gulped once from the bottle, then settled it down into her lap between both hands. “...June?” Kate said, turning to look over at Clint for confirmation. “I think it was June. So a couple of months now?” They’d celebrated their anniversary in Mexico in July, and were still settling in to life together. It scared Kate, too, how domestic and comfortable they’d become so quickly.
Clint just had to roll his eyes really, because sure, Barney was family and everything, but it wasn’t like Clint was too bothered with what Barney thought at this point. He was hardly someone that needed impressing. “Yeah, about then,” considering they’d mostly been staying at his place anyway, since Lucky was the factor in that scenario, it was just when Kate had officially given up her place and moved into his. Joint tenants and everything.
“I guess at this point I should be used to you having your life more in order, huh bro?” Because sure, signing up for the army out of high school and just not leaving was ‘in order’, but then compared to Barney, anything was more in order.
“Yeah? What’s the latest career choice then? You selling or buying this time?” If it wasn’t something utterly illegal and sketchy, Clint would take that as a step up.
“Nah, I’m legit, man. Dealing with a family run car business. All above board.” Car salesman? Clint just snorted into his beer. He could tell that Barney was holding something back but there was no point getting into things with Kate around, because Barney was clearly trying to act smooth. Clint would give them both a break, “Besides, we’re not here to talk about me. What is it you do Kate? That got you meeting this idiot?”
Kate was slowly learning that Barney was just as big a lug as Clint was. She was starting to worry a little less about things. Funny how she'd worked herself up into a frenzy, and now she was calming back down again. Actually, it was a little funny she'd been so worried about things, considering. Kate just wanted everything to be good. To be Perfect. And so far so good. Though, she couldn't help but worry that the other shoe was going to drop at some point.
"Uh... archery?" Kate turned to glance at Clint for confirmation. It felt like a lifetime ago that they'd met, so many things had happened since. Dating and fucking and moving in together and joint holidays? It'd been over a year now. Going back to that was something she didn't often do. "I think you came to the Archery range where I work," she said. "...and I also work at a burlesque club, but I don't know if you've ever come in there."
Clint immediately held his hand up, beer bottle hanging between his fingers to halt Barney before he started, “She works in the bar, don’t start, I will punch you.” Of course it just got a chuckle from the elder Barton at that point, Barney’s hands going up in surrender.
“I didn’t know you kept up the archery stuff.” Archery stuff, pfft, like it wasn’t a whole part of their lives. Clint just had to hope that Barney didn’t stick around long enough to get sucked into this chaotic madness that was Orange County. Just so that these dreams didn’t end up screwing with more.
“More or less, yeah. It’s relaxing. And we happened to end up meeting at the range and… it snowballed.” It wasn’t exactly a meet cute or anything, but it just built from there. Clint was only moderately interrupted by the pizza guy at the door, Lucky automatically colliding with the door and barking to make sure Clint knew dinner was here. “We’re adorable and share our interests.” And that was another tease that he just dropped casually on the way to the door, money in hand, before heading back while trying to not trip over his insane pizza crazed dog.
Oh. Right. Kate should have mentioned that part. Definitely not a dancer. She wouldn’t really even try--though she might be able to fake it. If she had to. It was sweet of Clint to get all protective. Kate gave him a little smirk.
“The archery stuff, hmm?” she asked. As if archery was just a thing that could be discarded. A silly hobby like watching reality television. No, Kate and Clint were archers. It ran in their blood. It was more than a passing fancy to both of them, which is part of what bonded them together.
“Snowballed,” Kate agreed with a grin as Clint got up to go for the pizza. She turned her attention to Barney and a glint came to her eye. “This is where you regale me with childhood stories about Clint so I can make fun of him relentlessly.”
“Yeah? You want me to start with the grand-theft auto in high school or the falling off walls in middle school?” Barney just smirked, leaning forward in his own chair, like sharing conspiracies right there. “Bet he didn’t tell you he had one of ‘em floppy hair cuts? And an earring. All the way through junior year, he looked like a dumbass.”
Which, to be fair, was very true, but what sixteen year old didn’t look like a dumbass?
“That’s enough of that, or we’ll start talking about your attempts to dismember yourself asshole.” Nope, Kate and Barney were not trading stories about Clint’s insanity as a teenager, because Kate did not need to know that Clint hadn’t grown out of his reckless streak.
Pizza boxes strewn across the coffee table, Lucky climbing on anything that might get him in to get a slice, Clint detoured to the kitchen to grab more beers. “Besides, you pierced my fucking ear, you sadist.” Because that Barton’s had a very long history of making ridiculous bets.
“Oh my God,” Kate said, eyes wide at Barney for a moment. “You didn’t!” But at the same time, she wasn’t all that surprised. Teenagers--especially teenage boys--could be total dicks. And if Barney did that? “But then why’d you keep it for years?” Kate asked, turning to watch Clint in the kitchen. She decided to let him wait on them, bringing the pizza and beers out. “...think you’d get it pierced again?” Totally teasing now. “Earrings are sexy.”
“Hey, hey, dismemberment is a strong word, I almost sliced off my thumb working on a motorbike, almost.” Naturally they played up the stories to make the other one look more and more stupid, but for once, Clint was entirely serious.
“Please! Your thumb was barely attached, the doctors were convinced they’d have to just cut it the rest of the way off, he’d almost gone the full way through the bone. Mom passed out twice from the blood and you near puked over yourself at least half a dozen times.” Fun times they had. Barney was a bigger idiot at seventeen than Clint ever was.
“I kept the earring for two years because I was a teenager and I was an asshole. Got rid of it when I enlisted, and no, I would not get it pierced again.” Teasing or not, that was a no.
“I ain’t the one that got blown up.” And even though Barney muttered it under his breath, and Clint’s hearing was shit it didn’t go over Clint’s head that the little storm cloud was there right now.
Kate thought she’d seen a scar on Clint’s thumb… but seriously, that never even crossed her mind. She raised an eyebrow, then gulped from her beer bottle, just listening to the brothers giving each other shit. It was amusing, and she was learning so much about the man she loved.
“Wait, you got blown up?” Kate asked, turning her eyes to Clint again at that bit of information. “When did that happen? How?” After she’d been assaulted in the park at such a young age, Kate was overly cautious about a lot of things. She wasn’t really the kind of girl to take risks. She couldn’t even think of a time when her thumb was in danger of amputation. Now, though? In Orange County? Anything was possible.
“It was just… It was my discharge.” Clint nudged Kate over while grabbing a slice of pizza, “An IED took out our convoy, I was in the lead car taking the crossing and we got hit. I was not blown up, the car I was in got blown up.” And Barney knew that, the asshole.
Taking pity on Lucky and his begging, Clint held a slice out for him, letting the dog chomp through it happily. He’d probably skirted over a lot of the details when it came to how and why he was discharged from the Army, although Kate knew about the cause of his deafness, he tended not to go into too much detail about his recovery past that.
“The car you were in is the same as being blown up, kiddo.” Barney just countered it, tucking into his own pizza. “God knows what shit you got into overseas.” They hadn’t exactly grown up in some crime ridden area, it wasn’t even that big a town. But somehow they’d both managed to find plenty of trouble.
“Stop being a dick, you dick.”
Kate’s comforting hand came over to rest on Clint’s thigh as he explained about the explosion. She knew the basics about how he’d left the military, and hadn’t put two and two together what Barney was talking about. She thought this was a story from their childhood, not from more recently. She squeezed there once, then released him to pick up her own pizza and dig in.
Kate had never really been the kind of girl who ate only salads in front of guys she was interested in, but now that she and Clint were living together she was all about eating. Pizza, beer, pasta, sandwiches, all that good stuff. She wasn’t shy.
“You should come visit me at the club,” Kate said, changing the subject. “It’s a really upscale place. I think you’d like it.”
“It has booze and women, it’s Barney’s kind of place.” Clint was fine with dropping the subject of his injuries and subsequent discharge. It wasn’t as much of a sore topic, a year on he was doing okay all things considered, even with the dreams and Orange County being what it was.
Kate’s subtle support was met with a small smile and nudge to her side.
“Hey, I oughta take in some of the sights while I’m here.” Barney didn’t disagree with Clint at all, smirking around his own pizza. “I’ll be sure to clear a night for it.” And if Clint skipped getting drunk with Barney it was only because he didn’t want to deal with getting arrested right then.