Title: The Words You Want to Hear
Fandom: Hawkeye Comics
Characters/Ships: Clint Barton/Kate Bishop
Rating: Mature
Length: 1,178 words
Written For: trope_bingo fill - prompt: in vino veritas/drunk fic
Summary: Clint lets Kate assume that he's drunk, because sometimes it's easier that way.
CW: alcohol
Originally Posted: July 21, 2017
→→→→→→→→→→→→→
Clint woke up on his couch after a long weekend spent cooped up in his apartment, with only Wade Wilson as company. He had no idea why Wade had chosen to visit him, and stubbornly refuse to leave. Then again, does anyone really know why Deadpool does anything?
Clint rubbed the back of his neck. It was sore from sleeping on the couch. Sitting up, he looked around his living room. There were empty beer bottles everywhere. Wade had come bearing alcohol and had insisted on drinking all weekend long, despite the fact that it did little to nothing for him, because of his healing factor.
Clint had maybe one or two beers over the weekend, as well, but he didn’t get drunk. Getting drunk and leaving Wade in charge seemed like a bad idea all around.
Clint was picking up the beer bottles and food containers littered around his apartment, when Kate returned. It was probably just as well that, she had spent the weekend elsewhere. The two of them had had a big fight that ended with Kate yelling at him and then taking off for parts unknown. It was a stupid fight. Kate had accused him of not treating her as a full team member. She said he was being overprotective and accused him of treating her like a child. Clint knew she was right about him being overprotective, but he didn’t think he was treating her like a child. He hadn’t looked at her that way, for a long time. That was part of the problem.
Though he would never admit it in public, it had been kind of nice to have Wade around. Sure he was a pain in the ass, but he did make for a very good distraction. Clint hadn’t wallowed in self-pity for more than an hour or two the whole time Wade was visiting.
Kate stood in the doorway looking extremely pissed off. She slammed the door.
“I see you spent your weekend wisely.” She was looking around at the mess of beer bottles scattered everywhere. “I bet you’re even still drunk.” she accused. Clint sighed. He really didn’t feel up to being judged right now.
Kate looked fierce standing there with her hands on her hips. She was dressed in a lavender sundress, purple sunglasses pushing her hair out of her face. She was beautiful. He stepped forward and tripped over an empty beer bottle.
“I knew it.” Kate said, and Clint realized that she had mistaken his clumsiness for drunkenness. Not that he was usually clumsy, but he was still stiff from sleeping on the couch and she was distracting in her beauty and anger. He was about to defend himself, to explain how Wade had stopped by and how the mess was all because of him, but then another thought occurred to him. If were drunk, it might be okay, to say or do something he was unlikely to do when sober. It would be entirely reasonable for his inhibitions to be lowered by alcohol. Later on, he might even be able to claim not to remember whatever he ended up saying and it would be believable, probably.
“Sorry” he mumbled, looking down at at his bare feet. He took a deep breath, looked up, and said what he had wanted to say for far too long. “I love you”.
She was staring at him, her eyes wide. “What?” Her voice was so soft, barely above a whisper. Clint stepped closer to her. She had let her hands fall from her waist. He took another step forward, remembering to stumble a little. He gently grabbed her in closer. “Kate, I love you.”
“Clint, you’re drunk.” She said. He thought about denying it, he thought about telling her the truth, and fessing up to being sober. Instead he dipped his head down and kissed her. She didn’t hesitate in kissing him back. It felt as if, she had been waiting for this, a very long time. Maybe she had been, maybe it was only wishful thinking on his part. He had been an idiot. He was probably still being an idiot. But right now he would let alcohol be his scapegoat.
As they kissed, and he slowly maneuvered them both, toward the couch. He brushed his thumb across her bottom lip, as he broke away from the kiss, just for a moment.
When she didn’t move away, or protest in any way, he sat down on the couch, pulling her with him. They kissed some more and this time when they parted it was Kate that said: “I love you”. Then she was pulling off his shirt, and there was more kissing and more clothing was discarded, a condom was found, and then Kate was straddling him and all thought was lost to him.
Kate had wished for this, so many times. She was mildly embarrassed that she had mistakenly accused Clint of being drunk. Her observation skills were usually better than that, but he drove her so crazy, sometimes it was hard to think clearly around him.
She wasn’t sure what Clint’s weekend really entailed. Maybe he had been drunk, but she didn’t taste beer on his lips, or any other kind of alcohol. She couldn’t smell it on his skin either.
For some reason, he wanted her to keep thinking he was drunk.
Maybe it was what he had to do to get from there to here. Kate liked it here, wrapped in his arms, basking in the afterglow. She wasn’t sure why exactly they called it that, but whatever. The sex had been good. Scratch that, the sex had been amazing. Clint was sleeping now, curved around her, both of them naked, on the couch.
Kate must have fallen asleep eventually. She woke when Clint tried to extract himself from the couch, without waking her. The couch really wasn’t big enough for that. She stretched her arms over her head and tried for nonchalance. “Hey there.” she smiled.
He gave her an embarrassed half-smile. “Sorry to wake you.” he mumbled.
“S’kay, I’m starving. Wanna order pizza?” She watched him as he got dressed. Naked looked good on him. “Sure, you make the call. I’m just going to take a quick shower”. He moved like he couldn’t get out of the room fast enough. Kate sighed. She had a feeling that he’d pull something like this. She got dressed and called the pizza place around the corner.
Clint didn’t come out of his room, when it came. She wasn’t surprised. She knew exactly what he’d say later. That he fell asleep, that he was sorry. That was if she even bothered bringing it up to begin with. If she didn’t say anything, he might pretend that none of it had ever happened.
Kate told herself she didn’t care. She shared her pizza with Lucky, and put the leftovers in the refrigerator, then took the dog out for a walk. She would deal with Clint later. She wasn’t going to let him pretend it all away.
→Return to Marvel Index!
→Return Home!