WHAT: Learning the tricks of the trade (ft. High Kate Bishop) WHERE: Avengers Compound WHEN: Late night on the Fourth of July WARNINGS: Drug references and silliness STATUS: Complete
Taking over Avengers Compound for the Fourth of July and, perhaps more important in a place so removed from America, the elder Rogers’ birthday had been Kate’s idea when she and Sam started planning. It hadn’t taken much sweet talking to get Natasha to agree to the location – there really was no better, not with the beachfront to hang out on and the gorgeously manicured lawn to choose from for lounging and socializing. They had plenty of men being manly and helming barbeque duty, and then she’d sent out the invitation via network post to the Outlander network at large.
She didn’t expect attendance from every one of them, but they’d gotten a good crowd to join. Some of the younger crowd had chased the littles around until they were all giggling madly, sweaty, smiling and carefree. At one point after a dinner of hot dogs and cheeseburgers, Kate had let Morgan and Little Francis each grab her by the hand and treat her like a tug-of-war rope until she collapsed dramatically.
It was true what James had said to her older self all those months ago: she was a soft touch for the little kids. She wasn’t sure how that happened, but her brother’s stint as a precocious eight-year-old had only solidified that further.
The kids had been settled into bed in one of the Compound’s spare bedrooms not long after Tony’s very extra fireworks display. That was when the adult treats had come out. Those who remained had scattered into smaller groups and pairs – Kate was pretty sure she’d seen Natasha grab a special mini brownie before going back down to the beach to re-join Steve, Sam, and James; the rest she hadn’t tried too hard to pinpoint. Only Carol, Tony, Emmeline, Marlene, and Francis remained on the lawn with Emily and Kate, currently sprawled on the grass with her back pressed to her girlfriend’s legs while Emily enjoyed the comfort of a lawn chair. Within the hour, the effects of one of those mini brownies started to fog Kate’s mind, making her fingers and toes start to tingle.
Most would probably claim marijuana really didn’t change Kate all that much. On a surface level, they’d be right. She was still her usual chatty self, but where sober Kate possessed an ounce of self-restraint and a decent filter, high Kate decidedly did not. Every thought that came into her head was voiced out loud, no matter how ridiculous it may be. To her, every bit of it sounded brilliant, too.
“Hey. Hey, Hawkeye.” Kate stretched a leg out, craning to kick at Francis’s foot where he sat across from her. “You know what I was thinking?”
He was on his back in the grass a short distance away, looking up at the stars when Kate’s shoe connected with his. Francis shifted enough to prop himself up onto his elbows so he could look her in the (admittedly glazed) eye. He couldn’t help the smirk that appeared on his face. “I’m pretty sure I never know what you’re thinking. But tell us.”
“No, no. This is just between you and me,” Kate declared, hand sweeping broadly between them. It didn’t matter that they were, in fact, surrounded by people, most of whom were doing their own thing, chatting or entertaining themselves. This was just for her and Francis, though her volume remained the same, audible to all. “We should have a secret Hawkeye handshake.”
Across from her, Carol snorted out a laugh.
Emily shot her boss a Be Nice look as she continued to run her fingers through Kate’s hair while fastidiously pretending that she couldn’t hear their apparently secret conversation.
Meanwhile Francis had hauled himself up into an actual sitting position. His expression was serious, and he pitched his voice low, as if trying to keep it from carrying too far.
“You telling me that Clint didn’t teach you the secret Hawkeye handshake already?”
Kate looked scandalized, mouth dropping open. Her gaze remained steady on Francis’s face, taking every word he said deeply seriously, eyebrows furrowed. “You already have one!” she gasped accusingly, as if she had guessed this information rather than been told it. “I should’ve known. You’re both so secretive.”
She leaned back into Emily’s fingers in her hair for a moment, letting her eyes fall closed while she pouted, then returned her gaze to Francis. “Okay, you gotta teach me so I can decide if it’s cool enough. You’re a guy, it might be awful.”
Despite the urge to laugh, Francis kept his face stone serious as Kate looked at him aghast at the bomb he’d just dropped on her. He only allowed himself the tiniest of smirks as she leaned back to close her eyes. He shot a glance over to Tony and Carol who were watching the scene with rapt attention. The smirk widened slightly in acknowledgment of them but he quickly dropped it before Kate could catch on.
“Wow. You insult me, then want me to teach you the secret handshake?”
“I’m a Hawkeye, it’s my right,” Kate declared loftily, as if this was a law Francis should obviously be aware of. As far as she was concerned at that moment, that was the absolute truth.
Carol’s poker face was absolute trash tonight – side effect of indulging in a little more alien liquor than usual. She giggled, hand snapping up to cover it as best as she could just as Marlene’s foot shot across Emmeline to snap into Carol’s knee.
Francis wanted to shoot Carol a look, but at the moment was currently locked in a stare-down with Kate. The good news was that Kate appeared to be so hyper-focused on getting the handshake out of him, that she hadn’t really clocked Carol’s laughter.
“Yeah, but you’ve been a Hawkeye for the least amount of time. I don’t know if you’ve fully earned it yet. I mean, there must have been a reason Clint didn’t show you right away.”
Carol forced out a cough covering a laugh. Even Kate would notice her laughter eventually if she didn’t get a hold of herself. She grabbed onto her wife’s arm on one side and Tony’s on the other until she evened out. She wasn’t going to ruin this. She was invested in how it all would play out.
“What kind of reason?” Kate scoffed. “There wasn’t a reason other than…” Her hand shot up toward the night sky over them. “Vallo! I only got, like, two weeks with him. He totally would have taught me if it wasn’t for Vallo.”
“Mmhmm.” Francis replied in his smugest, most condescending tone. “Sure, just blame it on Vallo. I’m sure that was it.”
From beside Carol, Tony pressed his own lips together to keep from laughing himself. For a moment there, all he could see was Clint sitting there in the grass, fucking with his friends to get them all riled up. It made him both happy and sad, all at once. He gave Carol’s arm an affectionate squeeze.
Kate would not be deterred, despite Francis’s tone and general annoyingness. She narrowed her eyes at him and carefully considered her tactics – suck up or snark back. On a good day, it was hard to choose between those two, but with her brain hyper-focused this way, she made the choice surprisingly quickly.
“Fine,” she relented, her body relaxing and face shifting from outright annoyed to something closer to mild exasperation. “Then do the new guy a solid, Hawkeye. Please teach me the handshake?”
Francis grinned broadly. “All right, New Guy. I guess you’ve earned it.” He rose to his feet in a graceful movement and reached a hand out to Kate to help pull her up as well. “You gotta be on your feet for this.”
Kate accepted the hand up but remained relatively graceful herself despite how profoundly stoned she felt. She gripped Francis’s hand in hers for an extra moment, then pulled back to readjust her ponytail. “Bring it on,” she declared.
The small group of spectators all watched the two of them expectantly, and Francis intended to give them something worthwhile.
He reached his right hand out to grab hers so their arms were now linked diagonally between them. Then he brought his left hand over top and grabbed hers, their linked hands now forming an X. “Now, you gotta bring your right shoulder in, and bump mine, then do the same on the left. Repeat it twice more. Let your left hand go, then the right hand.” He spun around on his heel, then mimed drawing back a bowstring toward the sky. “Then turn, and shoot.”
Kate focused in and did exactly as she was told, even turning and drawing back her own imaginary bowstring just a moment after Francis. It wasn’t hard to pick up – she had been following choreography of some sort in her training for ages – but she found herself thinking back to her initial hypothesis.
“Yeah, that’s awful,” she declared, nose wrinkling in distaste. “Like, the last part’s good, but the rest of it’s so…” She fumbled for the word for a moment before settling on, “bro-y.”
For coming up with something on the fly, Francis didn’t think it was awful, but he gave her a slight shrug in response. “Hey, no one is forcing you to participate in the Secret Hawkeye Handshake, but if you think you can come up with something better…” He raised his eyebrow in a challenge.
Well, Kate Bishop was never one to turn down a challenge, not even a raised eyebrow that, in all likelihood, most people would ignore. She was not most people. She was a Hawkeye, damn it, and she was going to learn this Secret Hawkeye Handshake, no matter how silly and ridiculous it was.
“Well, maybe we can just make improvements, like–” She paused, turning and seeming to notice the extent of their captivated audience for the first time in quite a while. “Come on.” She snagged Francis’s arm and tugged him out of the center of their little group. “We’ve got work to do.”
Tony repressed the grin that had been threatening to expose itself as Kate dragged Francis off and out of sight. Once he was certain they were out of hearing range, he let out a snort of laughter.
“All right, I’m taking bets on what Kate’s improvements are. Who’s got $50 on their being at least one twirl?”
“I’ll take that bet,” Carol declared, finally letting out a cackle of her own. “$100 if it involves sparklers. God knows those kids love their sparklers.”