i would wait(a hundred years)

i

"𝐼'𝓂 𝒩𝑜𝒷𝑜𝒹𝓎! 𝒲𝒽𝑜 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊?
𝒜𝓇𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊 – 𝒩𝑜𝒷𝑜𝒹𝓎 – 𝓉𝑜𝑜?
𝒯𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒'𝓈 𝒶 𝓅𝒶𝒾𝓇 𝑜𝒻 𝓊𝓈!"

- emily dickinson.
"im nobody! who are you?"

the day of christmas, kate and clint pulled up in a red van to his house. clint had decided, that since kate had no one to spend the day with, she would be staying the holiday with the barton's; much to kate's excitement, there had been little-to-no hesitance on her part, that was until clint called for her to get out of the car. "you coming?"

quickly with a deep breath, kate jumped out the car, "yeah. come on lucky." she lightly tugged on the leash to her new dog- well, old dog- no, same dog? ugh, whatever. tugged on the leash to pizza dog, who had been renamed lucky, against clint's wishes which had only fuelled kate's lucky fire. "hey, are you sure this is okay?" she questioned.

to which, clint laughed softly, and with a nod eased her worries, "oh trust me, they are very excited to meet you."

but before kate could say anything, a young boy's voice yelled out, "daddy!"

"hey! there he is!" clint laughed, louder this time, grinning brightly. "hey buddy! merry christmas!" he spoke softly to his youngest son, leaning down to hug him.

the voice of a younger girl chimed in almost immediately after, it was laced with an almost satisfactory softness, "you made it." clint let go of his son to approach his daughter, "you kept your promise." she added softly.

at this point, kate began to tune out the other conversation because clint's youngest son, nathaniel, if she remembered correctly, had skipped over to her, "whats your name?"

to which she breathlessly responded with, "kate."

out the corner of her eye she spotted clint's eldest son, cooper, she believed, but was too distracted by the easily excited, bundle of absolute joy in front of her. nathaniel tugged on her hand lightly and pulled her towards the door, letting go once they reached the steps. "this is kate. come on in. lets go." clint had explained her presence to his kids, quickly tagging, "its cold." to the end in a high pitched tone.

as kate made quiet conversation with the kids, a brunette with a beaming smile on her face rounded the kitchen table. "you made it."

clint only smiled back, "i made it."

the formerly distanced couple exchanged a hug and a few solemn words before kate tugged herself and lucky into the household. one of the kids prompted kate for the dogs name to which she quickly answered as the blonde dog took off from her grip. clint's wife looked curiously at the younger brunette, "right, yeah." clint smiled at kate, "brought home a couple strays." gesturing over to kate he spoke quickly, "this is kate."

laura- it is laura right? yeah, its laura. laura walked over to kate and engulfed her into a welcoming hug, giving a few quick words before they separated. laura smiled at kate and gently patted her shoulder before walking off to the kids.

kate looked over clint's kids and counted, one- two- three and- three? hadnt he mentioned that he had a fourth kid? around kates age? "hey clint? didnt you say you had another kid?"

clint opened his mouth to speak but a voice came from the doorway, "dad! i just you pulled in!"

kate froze- that voice- no. no, no, no, no. it couldnt be. emily hadnt heard that voice in what? over a hundred years? god- it seemed like time was frozen and she was the only one aware of it. though, that was only a wish emily could have. clint pushed past kate to reach his eldest daughter, they spoke words that were blurred out by the high pitched ringing that screamed in kate's ears.

brought back to earth by her name she heard the words, "kate! this is my eldest daughter-"

clint didnt manage to get her name out. emily beat him to it. whipping around she spoke softly, but loudly and clearly enough for them both to hear- no- for her to hear. "sue?"

kate studied her face. was she going insane? was that really her?

emily didnt miss the way sue's face fell, how all colour seemingly drained, leaving her face pale and dry. though quickly, her face picked up into a confused smile, the normal tinges of red resuming their flow and bringing back colour in full. "im sorry? i dont believe we've met?" she walked up to emily. "im hannah." sue- no, hannah spoke softly, extending her hand out.

all emily could do, was stand in the body of kate, and stare at sue, wishing and hoping that sue would stare back, but only being met by the gaze of a stranger.

emily snapped out of it. "oh- uh- sorry. yeah um- im kate." she hesitantly took hannah's hand, but she could only feel how wrong this was. she shouldnt be here shaking a stranger's hand, she should be kissing her sue.

they were involved in a trance of staring. emily staring at sue. hannah staring at kate. it seemed endless. as though the suffering of emily staring at the person that she loved, that was her soulmate, who didn't recognise her, would never stop hurting, because it wasnt sue staring back at emily, it was hannah.

the trance was quickly broken by a tall man approaching the side of sue- wait- hannah. it wasnt clint though, it was a stranger. kate retracted her hand from hannah's grasp to extend it to the new stranger. "im kate, who are you?"

the man smugly grinned. "austin."

emily's eyes snapped to sue's. they were staring at each other again. though, a small tug pulled at the corner of kate's lips, forming a soft smirk, because the look of horror in hannah's eyes? that showed how she looked regretful? in pain? the deep sorrow? it showed- that really- sue was staring back at emily.

978 WORDS
A/N
HI!! OKAY! so i know this chapter was kinda short. but i wanted to get this started before i lost any motivation to get it booted up.
i (hopefully) promise the next chapter will be much longer and provide to the story a lot more.
you could kinda consider this chapter to be a prologue if you will.
anyways! i will hopefully see you all soon <3