Title: Missing You
Fandom: Hawkeye Comics
Characters/Ships: Clint Barton/Kate Bishop
Rating: G
Length: 668 words
Written For: genprompt_bingo - prompt: Taxes
Summary: Kate is doing her taxes and it's not going so well so she decides to call Clint in the middle of the night.
Notes: Takes place after the events in Civil War II and references a canon death from that time period (but not by name).
Originally Posted: January 31, 2017
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Kate checked the time on her phone for the third time in ten minutes. It was two in the morning. She rested her head on the desk and thought about just sleeping there. Various papers were scattered everywhere. A crumpled receipt fell to the floor. She was pretty sure it was for arrows. She could deduct those, right?
This doing her own taxes thing was very much not fun. Kate had no idea what she was doing. It really shouldn’t be this hard. She wasn’t exactly rolling in money these days.
“Okay Kate, you’re a superhero, you can totally do your own taxes.” Great, now she was talking to herself.
She looked at her phone again. Ten minutes had passed.
“Futz this” she said. She scrolled through her contacts, found Clint’s name and before her better judgement could kick in, she hit call, fully expecting it to go to voice mail. It was too late for him to be picking up the phone. Not that she actually knew where he was these days, or what hours he was keeping. It had been a while since they had last spoken.
“Hawkeye” he answered. Kate wasn’t sure if he was greeting her or acknowledging his own identity.
“Hey, Clint” she said. She suddenly felt lame for calling him in the middle of the night.
“Hey yourself. How are things on the west coast? You’re still out there, right?” He sounded tired.
“Things are good. The west coast is good. Warm sand. Beautiful beaches. I opened my own detective agency.” She wished he was here with her.
“Good, that’s good. I’m glad”
“I’m sorry for calling so late. Is it late for you? I have no idea where you are these days.” She was, babbling wasn’t she? Why did he always make her feel like a foolish school girl?
“Mostly on the road. It’s not that late. I was awake. What’s up?”
“I’m attempting to do my taxes.” This was stupid. What the hell was she doing? Why was she calling him in the middle of the night.
Clint groaned. “Taxes? Is it that time of year again?”
“Apparently” Kate flipped through some of the papers on her desk. Everything was a jumbled mess.
“I should probably do something about that.” He sounded grumpy.
“I’m totally lost here.” Kate said.
“With your taxes or with life in general?”
“Both” She hated admitting it.
Clint laughed and she could picture him in some dark room, running his hand through his messy hair, the faint lines around his eyes crinkling. She missed him. Not that she was about to tell him that. “Do you, do your own taxes?” She asked.
“Nah, Tony has someone that does that stuff. He did that for all the avengers.” He paused. “I guess I’m going to have to do my own now.” He sounded sad.
“Oh” Kate knew he wasn’t with the Avengers anymore. Pretty much the whole world knew the reason. She wanted to ask him about it but she knew he wouldn’t want to talk about it. Clint wasn’t big on sharing his feelings in the best of circumstances and killing a friend was not the best of circumstances, even if it was for the right reasons. “Are you with a new team?” she asked. She hated to think he might be all alone.
“Sort of” There was a note of uncertainty in his voice.
“That sounds promising. Still out there righting wrongs?”
“Until the end.” He said.
“Hey,don’t let that be too soon, okay. I don’t want to be the only Hawkeye again.” It was the closest she was willing to come to saying that she missed him.
“I’ll see what I can do.”
“See that you do. I’m going to try and figure out what I’m supposed to put in all these little boxes on these stupid forms.” She said.
“Get some sleep Hawkeye” he said.
“You too Hawkeye” She ended the call. “I miss you.” She said into the empty room.
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