It was a weird thing, having Clint be completely deaf. Weird for Kate, and she couldn’t imagine how weird it was for him. She was trying to be as supportive as possible, and focus on the way things were the same instead of how they were different. She still loved him. He still loved her. They had Lucky. They had archery. The biggest difference, besides the fact that she couldn’t holler at him from the bedroom (not that she would anyway), was the subtitles when they watched Netflix.

Kate was in the kitchen throwing together a quick dinner, playing some music from her phone, keeping her hands busy. Lucky was laying on the floor near her feet.

It was weird. In the way that everything was completely muted, most of the time. He’d get the vague hints of a sound now and then, he knew it was most likely just his imagination, but it toyed with him most of the time. Lucky had figured it out really quickly, and rather well. Instead of barking if someone was approaching the door or he wanted something, he’d nudge at Clint’s knee or hand or somewhere that wouldn’t startle the archer.

Clint was pretty glad that the dog was a smart little guy.

And Kate was being pretty fantastic about things, for all that it had changed exceptionally quickly and drastically, she’d flowed with it well. Clint was glad that he could read lips well enough, but he was proud that she was coming on with sign language too.

“Hey,” he was used to padding around barefoot again, looking rumpled and a little worn but soldiering on as usual, Clint still found it weird to not hear his own voice when he spoke, “What’cha up to?”

Kate turned at the sound of Clint’s voice, and broke into a smile. It didn’t seem to make a difference how much time had passed, or whatever had happened in the world, or to them… Kate still loved him. He made her happy.

She put down the spoon she was using to stir the tabbouleh salad she was working on. (It was hot--far too hot to actually cook anything--so the cool salad would be a nice, refreshing dinner.) Then she lifted her hands to sign her response as she spoke it. “Making dinner. You hungry?” Eyebrows raised in question.

It was probably stupid, but he felt the grin on his face as signed at him, something warm settling in his chest that she bothered to take that effort. She knew he could read her lips, but she still signed anyway. “When am I not?” It was almost second nature to sign it back, sloppy and a little rushed, but that was Clint’s MO.

“Smells good.” He totally understood that cooking was not a thing to do, and they needed to stop with the take out too regularly. Salads were just easier to manage in this eat, because eating just became a chore if it was so hot you lost the energy to actually eat.

Going to the fridge to grab two bottles of water, “And ice cream later?”

“Summer,” Kate used the sign for boy instead of summer, but she was trying, “is a good time to eat healthy.” Hey, she got good, time, and healthy right. It was a process. And she was happy to be learning with such a patient and loving teacher. “But we can always have ice cream later.” She gave up signing for the last bit, and just stepped over to steal a kiss from her husband.

It took a minute, because Clint was glancing between her lips and hands and… The kiss was enough for him to not mind the apparent boy time they were eating healthily, and just rolled with it all. They could do the healthy thing and then top up on ice cream, the heat just meant they were doing a little as possible.

“Ice cream is gonna count as a food group around here for a while,” if only so they didn’t melt. Clint made a point in pressing the cool bottle to the small of Kate’s back with a grin, arms wrapped around her waist, since he wasn’t screwing up any dinner by keeping her attention. “I’m all for quick and easy.” He threw in the eyebrow wiggle just for effect.

Kate simply nodded about the ice cream. It was funny how even after all this time, Clint kisses still took her breath away. She broke into a little grin that exploded into laughter at the cold bottle being pressed against her back. Then she squirmed against him. “You’re all for mean!” She teased, though she wasn’t sure how much of it he could see or understand with her face so close to his, squirming from the cold bottle against her.

He didn’t so much hear or see what she said as he felt the little gusts of breath while she squirmed, it didn’t stop Clint from laughing slightly, waiting just a little bit longer before he removed the bottles from Kate’s back, crossing his wrists to hem Kate in with his arms around her waist.

“What, you don’t want to cool down?”

Kate squirmed against him again, pushing closer to him to try and avoid the cold. She laughed, her body shaking as it pressed against his. “Not that way! I was thinking maybe we’d take a shower together, but…” Of course, most of this was spoken into his shoulder. He couldn’t hear any of it. She pulled back a little and made the ASL sign for shower.

The vibrations on his shoulder were enough to cause a small shudder down his spine, but he didn’t catch any of it, since her mouth was covered and all of the noise went straight into his skin, he didn’t mind much. He knew Kate would repeat herself if he nudged her, or she remembered he couldn’t hear her, but adapting to it was a little frustrating on Clint’s side. Because felt she shouldn’t need to repeat herself.

“Oh,” when she signed a single word, Clint grinned a little, “...suddenly I’m not entirely hungry right this second.” His lips found a soft patch on skin on Kate’s neck, nipping just lightly, “At least not for food.”

The nip to her skin sent goosebumps down Kate’s arm. She turned to press a kiss against the side of his face, hitting somewhere between his cheek and temple. “Well?” She asked after pulling back to meet his eyes. Both eyebrows rose. She made the sign for now. Food could wait. It was just a salad, nothing that couldn’t wait for a few minutes. Or a few hours.

Walking Kate backwards, leaving the bottles of water on the counter, Clint just grinned as he ducked his head to press kisses along Kate’s throat, “Now sounds perfect,” was muttered right beside her earlobe. At the least, a shower would cool them down, even if the just got all hot and bothered during it. Lucky glanced up as they moved from the kitchen through the living room, but even he couldn’t be bothered getting up to inspect what they were doing.

It was too hot for clothes anyway.

Kate chuckled at the words, then tightened her arms around her husband. She sighed, eyes fluttering closed, feet shuffling forward, as they moved out of the kitchen and down the hall. No thoughts were spared for Lucky as Kate pulled out of Clint’s arms and tugged her t-shirt up and over her head. She tossed it aside, then reached for his.

Shirts pulled off, bathroom door shut over behind them, Clint paused on route to the shower to run his hands down Kate’s back, palms flat as he stroked back upwards, snagging on her bra strap as he went. Unsnapping the back of the bra and tugging it off before reaching into the shower stall to twist on the shower, not really caring too much about the temperature, lukewarm would probably do them both just fine.

It was boiling hot outside. Kate was sweaty. She probably would have enjoyed a hot shower about as much as a cold one, for different reasons. It didn’t really matter. The most important part was they were together to enjoy it; the slick of soapy skin, the massage of hands, the taste of each other’s mouths. She freed her arms from the bra and tossed it aside, too, then started on the fly of his pants. Her mouth found his neck, slowly nibbling on the warm skin there as her fingers deftly worked at button and zipper.

While Kate worked on his pants, Clint slipped his hands down the back of hers, cupping her butt to pull her closer, giving Kate more access to his neck before they had to pull away, getting rid of the last of their clothes. Tugging Kate into the shower, the water managing to be cooler than outside without any problem, Clint smirked slightly at the downpour over them and the tight squeeze of two adults in the shower stall. Just as well they were more than ready to invade the others space. “We should invest in a bigger shower.”

“Mmm. Maybe we should invest in our own place.” Kate’s arms were covered in goosebumps that may or may not have had anything to do with the cool water pouring down over her hair. She gave a laugh as she lifted her hands to push the hair out of her eyes. Then she went on her toes to kiss him again, letting the water stream over and between them. Her arms snaked up and around his shoulders. “A place where we can tear down walls and rebuild the shower to whatever size we like.”

The idea wasn’t something new; a bigger place, an actual house, permanence. It’d be good for them, they could do whatever they wanted with the place, Lucky could have a garden, Kate could have a space to work out, they could put in whatever they needed. It was meant to be the next big step in relationships, right? Buying property together? And Clint could get behind that and the notion of a larger shower for times like this. Maybe some better AC just for comforts sake. Turning to press Kate into the back of the shower stall, hands hooking under her thighs to pull them all the more tantalisingly closer, “That is definitely a discussion to have.” Post-shower, it was a discussion for after then.

Because Clint wasn’t really planning on doing too much more talking.