Title: sleeping bags and s'mores
Fandom: Hawkeye Comics
Characters/Ships: Clint Barton/Kate Bishop
Rating: Teen
Length: 1,327 words
Written For: trope_bingo round #9 - Free space - prompt: huddling for warmth
Summary: Kate and Clint are on a stake out type thing at a remote cabin. Neither of them remembered to check the weather report before they left.
Originally Posted: September 04, 2017
→→→→→→→→→→→→→
Kate looked out the window for the third time in less than an hour. “The Snow’s really coming down. Are you sure there’s not supposed to be a blizzard today?” she asked.
Clint shrugged. “I thought you were going to check the weather report.” he said.
“Seriously?” Kate tried checking the weather app on her phone, but there was a definite lack of a signal . Not really that surprising since they were currently holed up in a remote cabin in some weird forest, with an even weirder name.
“Hey, this stake out was your idea Katie” She was so going to punch him. Clint completely failed to notice Kate glaring at him, as he put more wood on the fire. The plan had been to spend a few days scouting out the area. She had caught wind of there being a potential HYDRA base out here. She cursed herself for not checking the weather before they left. She knew better than to leave that sort of thing to Clint. At least she had remembered to pack plenty of food. She had three different flavors of beef jerky, bunches of Slim Jims, several boxes of chocolate fudge Pop-Tarts, a few bags of ketchup chips, two cans of spray cheese and fixings for s’mores. Totally healthy stuff. She had thrown in a bag of apples and a bunch of bananas to balance it out a little. She even remembered to bring several jugs of water. Clint brought pretzels and beer.
The cabin was pretty rustic and kind of small. All the snow falling outside made it feel even smaller. They had only been there one day and it was already feeling kind of claustrophobic with the two of them cramped inside a single room. They had already scouted around the area a little and had found no signs of HYDRA, or anyone else for that matter. The snow started to fall just before dark and hadn’t stopped. It had to be some sort of blizzard like storm. The wind was really blowing too. It made the cold inside the drafty cabin so much worse. She probably should have brought more blankets. She had brought a sleeping bag and only one blanket. Clint brought his sleeping bag, and that was it. Fuck. She really should have planned this better.
Kate looked out the window again. “This is too much snow!”
“Come sit by the fire.” Clint said. She glanced out the window one more time and then joined him by the fire.
“It’s colder than last night already” she said. The night before had been cold, but nowhere near this cold. “Curse this whole windchill factor thingy.” she said.
Clint laughed. “Yeah, the wind’s gotten pretty bad. We should zip the sleeping bags together tonight.”
She looked at him like he had just announced plans of becoming a super villain. “Excuse me?”
Clint sighed. “To keep from freezing our asses off.”
“You’re serious?”
“We’re both adults.” Clint said.
Kate rolled her eyes. “So nice of you to acknowledge that for once.” Clint too often treated her like a kid. She was so not a kid.
“I promise to keep my hands off you.” He shook his head, like it was the furthest thing from his mind. Kate bit her lip. It wasn’t him she was worried about, not that she was about to let him know that. He’d be beyond insufferable if he knew about her stupid crush.
“I really should have brought more blankets” she said.
Clint complained about her food choices when it came time for dinner. “Pop-Tarts and s’mores do not make a meal”
“You could have contributed more than pretzels and beer.” Kate stuffed another s’more in her mouth.
“She says as she drinks my beer” he said. Clint shook his head and gave one of the Pop-Tarts a quizzical look. Kate licked melted marshmallow off her fingers.
She put off going to bed as long as she could, but she was falling asleep on her feet. Clint was zipping the two sleeping bags together and she was pacing the small area in front of the door.
“Come on Kate, time for bed.” Clint had taken his shoes off and was getting settled inside the now giant sleeping bag. “Fine” she said, toeing off her boots. She slid in next to him. She felt warmer already, but she had no idea where to put anything. She crossed her arms in front of her chest stiffly. “This is less than comfortable” she muttered.
“Try to relax a little Hawkeye” Clint said. She had no idea how she was supposed to do that. Not while being so close to him. She hated feeling this way. It was awkward and childish and she knew he didn’t see her that way at all. Never mind that he was a total mess when it came to relationships. Not that she was all that much better, but still. She was young, she had an excuse.
“Why don’t you rest your head on my chest.” Clint said. Kate blinked. Had he really just suggested that? “Why don’t I what on your what?”
He sighed. “We’ll both be warmer if we’re actually touching. That’s kind of the point to this whole thing.” Clint sounded tired.
Kate knew she should just do what he said and try and sleep. “Okay, fine.” She shifted so she was curled up on her side with her head lying on Clint’s very warm chest. It was nice. She felt her whole body warming up. She closed her eyes and fell asleep to the sound of Clint’s snoring.
It was the morning light that woke her up. She opened her eyes and found that she was in much the same position she was when she fell asleep. What time had they fallen asleep? All she could remember was that it was late. But not late enough that the sun was already up. It was up now, though she wasn’t sure how long it had been that way. She thought about getting up to check on the snow. She couldn’t get a good look from where she was on the floor. She was comfortable where she was. Clint was still asleep and so very warm. Soon she found herself staring at his lips. Why the hell was she staring at his lips? She could probably kiss him and he wouldn’t even wake up. If he did wake up, she could just say that he was dreaming, or something. She moved slowly. It seemed to take forever, and then she was there with her lips on his and she was kissing him. His breathing changed and she froze. Several seconds passed and his breathing became even again.
Kate knew that she should get up and move away from Clint. This was way too much temptation. Did she really just kiss him while he was asleep? She kissed him again. This time when she went to pull away she found herself being kissed back and then pulled further on top of him. He was awake. Of course he was. She suddenly wished they were both wearing much less clothing. She was definitely not cold anymore, that was for sure. They were still kissing when she thought she heard a something outside. It was getting louder. She pulled away from Clint, he tried to pull her back. She knew he didn’t sleep with his hearing aids in. She tapped her ear, shook her hands, and then pointed toward the window. She really needed to learn more sign language. She was putting her boots on while he was slipping his hearing aids back in. She recognized the sound now. “Snowmobiles” she said. Clint nodded. Within minutes both of them were outside, bows in hand. Kate wasn’t sure whether she should be grateful for the interruption or pissed off. There’d be time to think about that later. Now it was time to kick some HYDRA ass.
→Return to Marvel Index!
→Return Home!