fiction | Part of the journey is the end

3. Hide and seek -1

"You're Hawkeye!" "And who the hell are you?" "I'm Kate Bishop."

Natasha's lips twitched into a smile. She liked Kate.

Clint said they had to get her out of there since it wasn't safe. "Do you live near here?" "Yeah. I live just..." Kate said breathlessly. He handed Kate her bag and asked if she was okay.

Everyone winced.

"She just saw a dead body," said Bucky. "She's not okay."

"I'm really fine. I..." "Come on. Let's go." "I saw a dead body." "This way."

"She needs help," Wanda said.

Clint sighed. "I'm going to help her. The Tracksuits connected her to that damn suit, and I need it back."

Later, Clint and Kate were walking down the street. "Where'd you learn to fight?" "I started taking martial arts when I was five."

"It is pretty impressive," said Scott.

"Wow. So, like, a year ago?"

Except for Peter, everyone snorted.

Peter rolled his eyes. "Clint and Tony have the same bad jokes."

"Because you make it so easy," Tony replied.

Clint looked behind them, and Kate asked if he was assessing threats.

Natasha looked at Kate, amused.

"Something like that." "That's how you operate? You're just constantly looking for things that are suspicious or weird?" "Uh-huh."

The Avengers grinned.

"Kate's so eager; it's adorable," Natasha said.

"Well, she is spending time with her idol," said Peter. "I wasn't any better when I first met Tony."

Tony snickered.

Kate clarified that she wasn't a total noob as she held her own against those douchebags and led them to her apartment building.

"It was impressive," Steve agreed. "Kate has potential."

"Um, some people have called me the world's greatest archer." "Yeah? Are you one of those people?"

All of them snickered.

"Well, one of them is. Yes," said Kate. Clint walked inside, sighed, and hit his head against the door.

Clint sighed. He knew his variant just wanted to spend Christmas with the family, but now his bloody past was catching up to him and it was also dragging in an innocent girl that didn't deserve this mess.

Kate opened the door to her apartment, and the dog perked up.

"Adorable," Steve grinned. He wondered if he should get a dog.

"Eh, I'm more of a cat person," said Natasha.

"Me too!" said Bucky.

"Nice place for a kid." "Yeah, I inherited it."

"Yeah, we all saw the penthouse," said Sam. "Kate's rich."

"What are you, eighteen?" "I'm twenty-two." "Yeah, same thing."

All the adult Avengers chuckled while Peter rolled his eyes.

"If Kate's twenty-two in 2024, then she didn't Blip," Rhodey pointed out. "She looked like she was ten in 2012 so she was born in 2002."

Clint pinched the bridge of his nose. "You're kidding me. 2002? She's Cooper's age."

Peter's eyes lit up. "Kate was born in 2002? That means I'm older!"