Fandom: Hawkeye Comics
Characters/Pairings: Clint Barton/Kate Bishop
Rating: Explicit
Length: 2,373 words
Written for: fan_flashworks: current and genprompt_bingo: round #21: "Thunder and Lightning"
Summary: A mission goes wrong, Clint and Kate get wet and need to keep warm.
Originally Posted: January 21, 2022
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At the edge of the cliff, Clint looks down at the water, then at Kate. He's about to pull her back, there's got to be a better way. Sure the mad scientist dude isn't far behind them and yeah, he's riding what looks like a giant boar with glowing red eyes and long curved horns, but what's the alternative? Forward means down and down means rapid waters and jagged rocks. Kate turns her head, nods at him, and jumps off the cliff. Oh, hell. Clint takes a deep breath, holds it, and follows his partner down.
Hitting the water hard he manages to steer clear of any rocks. Sadly, that luck only takes him so far, and he can feel his hearing aids slip from his ears as he plunges deeper into the water. He reaches out, trying to catch them but the current quickly carries them away. His lungs burning for lack of air, he heads to the surface.
He can't find Kate. He turns around and around again but she isn't there. He dives back under and resurfaces over and over again, terror gripping him like a vise. Finally, he spots her pulling herself up on the riverbank ahead. He allows the current to pull him towards her, hauls himself up on the embankment, and helps her out of the water.
The blood dripping down Kate's leg catches his eye so that he's not paying attention to her lips and doesn't even realize that's she's speaking until she punches him in the shoulder. He looks up.
*hearing aids?* she signs.
Clint makes the sign for *water* and says, "They fell out when I hit."
Kate shakes her head and winces. Clint frowns, takes a step closer, and checks her over for injuries. There's a small laceration on the back of her head, and the gash on her leg that's deeper than he'd like. If they'd been anywhere else, he'd be insisting that she go to the hospital for stitches. So much for this being just a simple recon mission.
"Can you walk?" He asks, using a mix of signs and spoken words.
Kate signs, *Yes, I scraped my leg on a rock, I'll be fine.*
“I don’t think it was a rock, those are teeth marks, something bit you,” Clint says.
Kate shudders. *Gross, I hope it wasn’t one of the Mad Doctor’s creatures.* She takes a few tentative steps.
“You’re limping,” Clint tells her.
*I'm fine,* Kate signs. That's when the rain starts to fall.
She leans on him as they make their way through the ravine. The further they go, the harder the rain seems to fall. The wind is whipping all around them, and he feels the rumble of thunder more than he hears it. It looks like the storm has officially rolled in.
Lightning strikes a nearby tree. “We need to find a place to take cover,” Clint says. He brushes his rain-soaked hair out of his eyes. Visibility is low and it's getting harder to see Kate's hands but he can tell that something has captured her attention. She stops walking and points up at the sky. He looks up and through the rain, sees a very large black bird that kind of looks like a crow or raven but is closer in size to an eagle.
“It looks like one of the Mad Doctor's creatures,” Clint says.
Kate signs, *Trust?*
“No, but I think we’re going to have to anyway.” They follow the bird as the storm rages on.
The bird creature leads them to a ramshackle cabin a little ways off the so-called path. The peeling paint, boarded-up window, and broken steps they have to gingerly make their way around don't exactly leave him feeling hopeful. The cabin feels a little too good to be true despite the rough shape it’s in, but it’s getting dark, the rain isn't showing any signs of stopping, and more importantly, Kate’s hurt. He needs to take the chance. He opens the door and the bird creature flies past them and into the cabin.
With one window boarded up and the other looking like it hasn't seen window cleaner, or a sponge, in maybe a decade or so, there isn't a lot of light inside the cabin. Clint steps inside, and takes a look around. Sitting on a dusty old cot is the bird-like creature that led them there. Other than that, the cabin looks empty, dusty, and filled with cobwebs. Kate follows him in and leaves the door open behind her.
Clint strips off his gear first, setting aside a small box that resembles one of those tins of fancy mints. Everything is very wet. He's very wet. He's peeling his soaked shirt off his chest when he notices that Kate appears to be deep in conversation with the bird. He shakes his head and strips down until he's wearing only his boxers.
Kate turns to him and signs, *The bird says it's safe.*
Okay, then. The bad guy's weird science experiment bird says it's safe, so it must be safe. Sure, why not? Clint gives the bird a thumbs up. It opens its beak, probably saying something he can't hear, and flies out the door. "Thanks?” he calls out after it.
Clint picks up the small box and shows it to Kate. She signs, *What is it?*
He explains how Tony gave him a whole big box of these miniature emergency kits. They're waterproof, small enough to slip into a pocket, and generally filled with useful stuff. The catch is that he doesn't actually know what's in each box until he enters the code that will get it back to normal size. Well, that and they're prototypes so not everything in them works the way it's supposed to and occasionally things explode. He doesn't tell Kate that part.
Kate shivers. Worry eats away at him. The temperature is dropping fast. He needs to get her warm. Maybe the kit will have something useful in it. He puts in the code, presses the button on the side of the box, sets it down, and backs away. There’s a puff of smoke that quickly dissipates, revealing the same box just where he left it, only now it's the size of a steamer trunk.
Kate pulls her hair back and does some weird knot thing with it, keeping it out of her face. Her muscles are tensed, jaw clenched. He can tell she's hurting. Clint opens the box. There’s a large puffy sleeping bag, a gallon jug of water, two boxes of mystery energy bars, a cellphone, waterproof matches, one battery-operated camping lantern, and a first aid kit. The phone’s a brick. It doesn’t even turn on which is unfortunate as both of their phones died in the water and it would’ve been really handy to be able to call someone to pick them up right now.
At least the sleeping bag seems functional and warm. He’ll let Kate have it, of course. They drink some of the water and eat a couple of energy bars. His are pizza-flavored he's really not sure how he feels about that.
"Take off your clothes," he tells her.
She raises her eyebrow at him. He knows she's well aware of the dangers of staying in wet clothes in the cold. He dusts off the cot and spreads the sleeping bag out on top of it.
Kate strips down to her bra and panties and allows Clint to clean and bandage her wounds.
"Take the rest of your clothes off and get into the sleeping bag," Clint says. Kate gives him a look that clearly says he's being too bossy. He ignores that and sets the lantern on the floor near the cot. The light it gives off is dim but it's better than nothing and at least this way he can see her hands while she's signing.
He strings the rope in front of the door, to slow down anyone who might try to come in uninvited, as well as to act as a clothesline for their wet things. He doesn’t expect their clothes to dry overnight, but it should keep them off the floor at least.
Kate shakes her head when he doesn’t join her in the sleeping bag. "I'll keep watch," he says.
She tugs at his sleeve and sighs “You too”.
He shakes his head, tries to walk away and Kate pinches him. What the hell? Fine, whatever. He slips off his boxers and gets in, arranging himself behind her so he can still see the door. It's cool, he can still keep watch. It's not like he's going to be able to sleep with Kate naked and pressed up against him like this.
She’s still shivering, this time against his bare skin. He can feel the blood flowing to his dick. With little room to make space between them, he tries shifting slightly but it only makes it more awkward. He focuses his eyes on the door and tries not to think about how good she feels against him.
Her shivering eventually subsides while his erection does not. He’s trying not to touch her but failing miserably. She shifts, pressing herself against him. Does she know what she’s doing to him? He puts his hand on her hip to still her movements, but that’s a bad idea too. She grinds her ass against his cock and this time he’s sure it’s not an accident.
Kate lifts his hand from her hip and for a moment he thinks that maybe she doesn’t want him touching her but then she places his hand between her legs and that’s when he realizes that he is well and truly fucked because there's no way he's going to say no, or tell her to stop. He wants her too much, and at this point, he's all out of self-control.
He kisses her neck, her shoulders, the little scar on her back. His hand busy between her legs, his thumb on her clit, and two fingers inside of her. Kate's rubbing herself against him. He moves his hand away and cups her breast in his hand, teasing her nipple with his thumb. Kate tilts her hips just right so that his cock is lined up at her entrance. She slowly slides herself onto him inch by inch. There isn't a lot of space to thrust or maneuver but it doesn't take long for them to find their rhythm. He moves his hand back to her clit. Kate’s pace quickens, and he can feel her getting close. He wants to take his time, make this last longer. He wants to turn her around so that he can suck on her nipples. He needs to taste her, to circle her clit with his tongue instead of his fingers but there just isn't enough room to maneuver inside the sleeping bag and it's too cold outside of it. Kate’s pace falters as her orgasm crests. Clint picks up the rhythm and in two quick thrusts, he spills his load inside her.
A few minutes later, he slides out of her and tries to catch his breath. She turns around in his arms and kisses a slow and winding path along his neck to his mouth. The kiss is unhurried and soft, like they have all the time in the world to do this. He can almost believe that they do.
"That was kinda fun," she says close to his ear.
How is he even supposed to respond to that? He murmurs "yeah." And hopes it's enough.
Kate settles her head on his chest, snuggles in closer, and falls asleep. Clint keeps his eyes on the door. He doesn't want to fall asleep. Someone needs to keep watch, but he can feel his eyelids grow heavy. Hopefully, the storm will pass soon. Who knows if anyone's coming to get them.
He must have dozed off because the next thing he knows someone is busting through the door. Their uniforms are SHIELD so he doesn’t throw the dead phone suddenly in his hand at them. Maria Hill strides in.
Kate’s saying something. Hill is very definitely yelling something. Clint says, “It’s not what it looks like.” even though it's exactly what it looks like but he doesn’t know how Kate wants to play it and it’s not like he can ask her now.
It appears that Kate is telling her that he lost his hearing aids because the next thing he knows, Hill pulls out a small case with a new set of hearing aids, and hands it to him. He puts them in slowly in hopes that he’ll figure out what to say by the time they power on, but no dice.
“I don’t give a flying fuck what it looks like, Barton. Put on some clothes and get your ass in the jet,” Hill says.
Clint points to the still wet clothes now lying on the floor in the dust and dirt. “Those clothes?”
Maria glares at him. She barks an order at one of her people. He leaves the cabin for a moment before returning with a couple of thin blankets. He hands them to Hill.
She glares at the agent and says, “Don’t give them to me, you idiot.” She hands them back to her agent who turns around and hands the blankets to Clint. Clint takes one and hands the other one to Kate.
Quickly they’re bundled up and moved to the jet. He buckles in next to Kate and she leans her head on his shoulder. “Not what it looks like, Hawkeye?”
“Did you want me to tell Hill what actually happened?”
Kate pauses and for a moment he’s afraid that she’s going to say that it didn’t really happen or that it didn’t mean anything or something else that would mean he wasn’t going to be able to touch her like that again. But what she says is, “It doesn’t matter what we tell other people, it only matters what we tell each other.” She takes his hand, links her fingers with his, leans in, and kisses him. Clint kisses her back and hopes like hell that he doesn’t mess this up.
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