Run; K. Bishop¹ ✓

Five.

 ➶ ｡˚ ° ➶ ｡˚➶ ｡˚ ➶ ｡˚ ➶ ｡˚ 
(𝐑𝐔𝐍)
CHAPTER FIVE -----▹ 

Not very long had passed when Clint arrived back at Kate's Aunt's apartment, Kate had settled down onto one of the chairs in the living room and was on the phone with her mom, holding a frozen pizza to her head. "I've gotta go, love you." Kate said into the phone, "Since when did everyone start saying "I love you" to everybody all the time?" Clint asked her, "That was my mom." she said dryly, "Since when did your heart shrink three sizes?" she asked him sarcastically, "When a little girl in a ninja costume stole my Christmas." he responded dryly, "Where's Iskra?" he added not seeing her anywhere, "She's on the phone." Kate answered with a shrug.

"Hi, Mom." Iskra said into the phone, her voice giving away her exhaustion, "Hi sweetness, are you ok? You sound worn out." Maria noted, "Thanks." she said sarcastically, with an eye roll that Maria could thankfully not see. "Yelena called me earlier..." Maria started, and Iskra groaned, she has never wanted to kill an ex-Russian Assasin so much in her entire life, "She said that you snapped and left on "Avengers Business", what's going on Iz?" Maria asked her voice soft, "I..." Iskra started tears building up in her eyes, "I'm just so tired." she settled on eventually.

 "I know sweetness, but can you at least tell me where you are?" Maria said her voice still at a soft volume, Iskra was just grateful no one was yelling at her, "I'm in New York." She mumbled, "What, by yourself?" Iskra shook her head, "No...No Mom, I'm not by myself, I'm with Uncle Clint." Maria sighed, "What mess did you create now, to pull him out of retirement?" Iskra looked towards the door, "Shockingly enough, it's not my mess." Iskra said with a small laugh, "Ok..." Maria said a bit skeptical, "Mom..." Iskra whined, "Please be safe Iz, I can't...I can't lose you too." Maria's voice sounded so broken, "I promise, I love you." Iskra said, "I love you too sweetness, bye." 

Iskra walked back out of the room into the kitchen, "It's more of a title of nobility, like Earl of Sandwich" She heard Kate say and decided against questioning the conversation, Clint looked towards his niece, "Everything ok, Iz?" Iskra shrugged sinking down into one of the seats around the table, there were a few beats of silence when Kate spoke up again, "So, how's my place?" Clint replied with a simple one-word answer, "Crispy."

"Did you get the suit?" Iskra asked, "No." he said dryly, "But you have a lead." Kate said, he looked at the two of them skeptically, "What makes you say that?" Iskra rolled her eyes, "I taught pretty eyes, a few things about how to read people." Iskra said with a shrug, Clint rolled his eyes, "I would offer to buy you a hotel, cause' uh from certain angles, I know this all looks like my fault." Kate said standing up, "But um, my mom canceled my credit card, due to the whole clock tower." Iskra raised an eyebrow at the brunette, she would have to ask her about that later, "That's not necessary, I'm just gonna be another minute, Kid." Clint said, "Um, Iskra are you good to stay here?" he asked her, she gave him a brief thumbs-up, "Tell Cooper, Lila, and Nate I said hi." Iskra added, as Clint turned to exit the apartment once again, he nodded. 

Sitting on the chair Iskra pulled her knees up to her chin, a little lost in thought, Kate was in the kitchen thawing out a frozen meal, "Uhh Iskra?" she spoke trying to get the blonde's attention, "hmm?" Iskra hummed in response, "Do you want anything to eat?" Iskra contemplated the question briefly, "Sure, why not," she shrugged, Iskra made her way across the room into the kitchen, "Ok your options are a variety of frozen food meals or more frozen food meals?" Kate said grimacing at the empty kitchen, Iskra laughed, "I think I'm gonna have to go with...a frozen meal?" Kate smiled at her and started to follow the directions on one of the boxes.

A few minutes later, Iskra and Kate were sitting at the table eating, the (God-Awful) frozen meals, "So, you said Hawkeye is your favorite Avenger, is there any specific story behind that?" Iskra asked, "Uh yeah, actually." Kate said, "He is the entire reason I wasn't killed by one of those aliens, in 2012, he was my inspiration to get me to this point." Iskra listened to her tell this story, Kate even told her about her dad. "Well, I had a decent time talking to you tonight, maybe you aren't so bad after all pretty eyes." Iskra stated, "You're not so bad yourself Romanoff."  Kate replied.

Iskra didn't think she was going to fall asleep in the unfamiliar place, but she surprised herself when she actually did. Unsurprisingly enough she jolted awake from a nightmare at around 5:30 in the morning, and knew at that point she wouldn't get much sleep from there on out, at 6:30 Kate joined her on the couch with a fresh pot of somewhat strangely stale tasting coffee. 

The news reported on Armand the third death, "Wait they think I'm that...vigilante?" Kate asked, staring at the tv. "It's been less than 24 hours, you've been on the news twice, impressive," Clint said, and Iskra scoffed. "I told you that suit was bad news." Clint said walking back towards the kitchen, "Clint, I've gotta go." Kate said, practically jumping to stand up off the couch.

"Uh, no, no, no, That is uh actually the last thing you need to do," Clint said, "Let's not forget the Tracksuit guys that tried to kill you yesterday." Clint said, "Or the police thinking you killed Armand the third." Iskra added, "I'm going to find the suit, and until I do you're going to stay put," Clint paused before looking to Iskra, "And you are going to babysit."

"It's not safe obviously." he added, "Not showing up to work is not safe." Kate deadpanned, "My mom is already high-strung, surprised she hasn't called me already." she added, "Just stay put. Please." Clint pleaded with the brunette, Iskra sighed already knowing that Kate was probably just as stuborn as her, if not more. "Look, if I stay put, she's just gonna come find me anyways, she owns a security company it's literally the safest place I can go." Kate stated.

"Yeah no. You're just not gonna listen to me are you?" Clint asked, "I want to, but no." Kate replied, "Fine." he paused, "But Iskra's going with you."