Dinner with Friends ¦ Kate x Yelena

Chapter 6: Clint Barton

When the doorbell rings, Kate is expecting Yelena to waltz in despite her habit of appearing out of nowhere in her apartment. Instead, she finds a very different figure standing outside, grinning as she opens the door.

'Clint!' She practically yells before pulling him into a hug.

He pats her back, both in way of affection and to hint that she's suffocating him. 'Yeah, yeah, I missed you too, kid.'

Kate lets him in and Clint is greeted even more enthusiastically by Lucky, who has just woken up from his afternoon nap.

It has been a couple of weeks now since she spent the holidays with the Barton family and frankly, with all of the Yelena time she has been getting lately, it made it seem like forever ago.

Once she has given him something to drink, she asks: 'What are you doing here? I bet it's top-secret Avengers stuff,' she winks. He laughs it off in such a way that Kate interprets it as her being right. 'I knew it! Can I finally join you guys?' She hardly even takes a second to breathe in as she starts to rant about joining the Avengers but then Clint promptly stops her.

'It's not your time yet, Kate. But soon.'

She makes a mocking gesture. To her, it is soon enough. It has been soon enough since the moment she picked up the Ronin suit and met up with Hawkeye. Still, despite him not bringing any cool superhero news, total bummer, she is glad he decided to visit.

'How have you been doing?' Clint asks after taking a sip from his coffee.

Kate shrugs. 'Oh, you know. Superhero stuff.' Clint eyes her dubiously. 'Okay, I've mostly been hanging out with some friends. It's been pretty nice.'

'Oh, the LARPers? How are they?'

'Yeah! Them! Well, amongst others.' Her mind starts to trail off and she has to force herself to stay on topic. 'They've been doing well. I've attended a couple of their game nights and it's been really fun. They would love for you to join, actually! Oh, and Grills went on this date and it went horribly and it's kind of my fault but that's a story for later.'

Clint happily listens to Kate's sentences, which come at him at incredible speed. Then, he says: 'I'm glad you've been having fun, Kate.'

Kate squeezes her eyes at him. 'But?' She can tell there's something else on the tip of his tongue.

'But ...' he starts. 'I'm glad you're having fun but maybe it's time you start thinking about going back to school.'

Once again, she gives him a mocking expression in reply. 'If I wanted you to parent me, I would have asked my mom, thank you very much.' She's suddenly not in the mood to be told what she has to do with her life. In fact, she is never in the mood for that. She's twenty-two years old and feels perfectly capable of deciding what is good for her.

'Except you can't, Kate. Your mom is in prison and I highly doubt you've been visiting her. That is your choice and I will respect that.' Kate looks at him like a deer in headlights. 'So, please, let me give you some ... some fatherly advice: Go back to school. Being a superhero isn't a safe profession and if one thing goes wrong, you will need to find something else to do.'

If Kate has been hanging around with Yelena too much, it is definitely showing in her pouting face right now. She seems stuck somewhere between anger and awe. She doesn't like the way Clint is suddenly deciding what is best for her but this is exactly how he would talk to his own kids. He's treating her like family. Real family. That's something she hasn't been getting a lot of lately so instead of fighting, she says: 'Maybe.'

'If it's money you need, Laura and I would be glad to help pay your tuition-'

'I don't need money. Mom left me enough to get by. I'll think about it, okay?' Then she whispers: 'Thank you.'