Title: The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You
Fandom: Hawkeye (comics)
Word Count: 962
Summary: Kate comes back to New York, but things have happened to Clint in the meantime.
Content Notes: Kate/Clint, spoilers for the Fraction/Aja run up to and including Hawkeye #18. Thank you baka_yu for the suggestion for this.
Badges: Female Characters


Kate bangs the door to Clint's basement apartment as loudly as she can. She's had one hell of a day at the office, and she's been driving for so long she never wants to get in a car again, but at least she's back home. True, California is lovely - sunny, for one thing - and Marcus and Finch are the best. But she can only be one person, with one life, and there's so much of it already in New York that, in the end, it was easier to burn bridges she'd already thought she'd torched when she was fifteen.

Daddy Dearest and his jerkitude going up in flames, now there's a thought. Maybe she should take Clint out there - she's sure he's capable of bringing down Armageddon on any place just by being there and left unsupervised.

Whether she likes it or not, this crummy little apartment is safe and right and it's where she needs to be right now. The sun is sinking and all Kate can think of is beer and pizza on a rooftop, and maybe some reunion action.

There's no reaction to the bang of the door, but the door's not double-locked and Clint's shoes and coat are by the door so he must be in. Probably passed out somewhere. She calls his name a couple of times.

No reaction to that either.

Right.

Not like she expected roses and chocolates, but a welcome kiss would've been nice. Welcome hug. Whatever.

She opens the door to the bedroom and finds a tousled-looking Clint in the bed, pajamas ridden up to expose some of his (not bad-looking at all) torso.

Yeah, okay, pizza on the rooftop can wait till later. Kate kicks off her shoes and steals over to the bed. She climbs in behind Clint and nestles into the sheets next to him. "Guess who's back," she says in a low voice while her hand snakes around the bare skin of Clint's midriff.

She wasn't sure what she'd expected, but she's pretty sure a deliberate, hard elbow to the side of her face hadn't been on the list. The combination of Clint's force behind the movement and her being unprepared makes her roll off the bed, but she catches herself and gets to her feet in a fluid movement. When she looks at Clint, he's already sitting up with his fists below his chin.

"What the hell, Clint?" she scowls.

"Oh my god, Kate, I'm so sorry." His hands fall like useless weights.

His voice doesn't sound right, there's something off about it but she doesn't know what. She kicks the sheets off her feet and sits back down on the bed.

"I..." he starts, then points at his ears. "Can't hear. Long story."

Kate moves closer to him very gingerly.

"C'mere."

He scoots over and she pulls him into a hard embrace. She needs to do something with her hands, and it's either this or punching him, which, yeah, that won't help. She starts talking even though he can't hear, just to get the words out.

"I can't leave you alone for *five minutes* without you doing something stupid. Goddammit, Clint."

He just holds on to her and runs a hand through her hair. She's biting her lip very hard by this time. It's been the longest day ever and she just wanted someone to comfort her. It's not fair.

She takes a deep breath - pull yourself together, Hawkeye - and gently breaks the embrace. He kisses her on the forehead.

"Okay, so what happened?"

Clint mimicks writing and Kate rolls her eyes. She gets him pen and paper from the kitchen and waits next to him while he scribbles. He hands her the piece of paper after a long time. She reads, then nods slowly and picks up the pen herself.



Is it permanent?

He bites his lip. HOPE NOT. HAPPENED BEFORE.

Okay then. How long?

NO CLUE. SORRY HAWKEYE.

Kate sighs. Ok. Anything I can do?

GO BE HAPPY SOMEWHERE ELSE.

She doesn't even have to think about her answer for this one. Tried that. Didn't work.

TRY AGAIN.

Take your own damn advice.

THERE IS NOTHING FOR YOU HERE.

Kate stares at the paper, then throws the pen in his face and gets up.

"Fine, you wanna act like this is the end of the world, I'm not gonna stop you." She holds up her shoes. "You're an Avenger. I dunno, ask Stark to fix you or something. He deals with the end of the world on a weekly basis, I'm sure he can build a hearing aid. And by the way, yeah, I'm doing great, thanks for asking."

"Kate." He sounds like a child who's pronouncing the name for the first time.

"I'm sorry. This is hard for me."

Stop making it harder on purpose.

I CAN LIPREAD YOU KNOW.

"Alright."

HOW YOU BEEN?

She tries to summarise the last few months in a couple of sentences, then shoves the pad at him. He stares at it, looks at her, then back at the writing. He picks up the pen to formulate a response, but gives up after a few minutes and just shrugs and puts pen and paper on the floor next to the bed.

"Nothing to say."

She almost giggles, then. "Yeah, I kinda got that."

She turns around to kiss him full on the lips. He kisses her back and puts an arm around her shoulder. They slide down further under the covers, Clint holding Kate from behind.

Some things, Kate thinks as she drifts off, you don't need language for, and after the day she's had, she's actually A-OK with waiting till morning to deal with everything else.