fiction | Part of the journey is the end

8. Partners, am i right? - 2

The following morning, Clint and Kate were in the kitchen. Clint said he would talk to Kazi and wanted her to track down the trick arrows from the LARPers.

Clint sighed. "The LARPers?"

All of them tried to hold back their laughter but were failing.

Sam grinned. "The LARPers, huh?"

"Shut the fuck up, Wilson."

His tracer arrow stopped moving and it was at an NYPD facility.

Peter winced. "That's the worst place it can be. It's a good thing I'm not there because the NYPD hates me."

"You know, I like to think of them more as our arrows," said Kate. "Okay. Go get our arrows," Clint replied.

"You agreed pretty quickly," said Wanda.

"I have three kids. I know when to pick my battles," Clint replied.

Kate walked through Central Park with the dog and her bow and arrows as she saw the LARPers practising.

"Damn, they're dedicated," said Rhodey.

She said that Hawkeye sent her on official Avengers business.

The Avengers looked amused.

"This isn't official Avengers business, but okay," said Clint.

"I'm his partner-slash-best-friend, Kate."

Clint snorted.

Natasha hid her smile as she was Clint's partner-slash-best-friend, but she didn't mind sharing especially if it was Kate.

"He said you guys could help us out. One of you is a cop?" "That's me, Officer Wendy Conrad. Better as Els-Bath of Deepdale."

There was a round of laughter.

"I can't believe Clint is stuck with them," Tony laughed.

Kate said they needed some casual, run-of-the-mill evidence tampering as Hawkeye's trick arrows were in an NYPD facility.

All of them raised an eyebrow.

"I knew Kate was confident, but it takes another level of confidence to say that to a cop casually," said Bruce.

Wendy said she could help them, and Kate said their outfits were awesome.

Peter frowned. "Hey, how come the police are so quick to help out Clint but not me? I'm an Avenger too and I protect the neighbourhood!"

"That's exactly why," Steve replied. "You do their jobs better than them."

"That's also true."

Meanwhile, Kazi got into his car and adjusted the glass to find Clint in the back seat. He went to grab his gun, but Clint had it.

Clint smirked. "Kazi's smarter than the others—"

"It's not like that's hard," Stephen muttered.

"—But he's still stupid. As if I'm not going to find any weapons in the car before he gets in."

"I know you have Maya's ear, and you seem like you're a reasonably not stupid guy," said Clint.

"I don't think he has Maya's ear anymore," said Scott. "At least not about Ronin. We saw them arguing about it before."

Clint thought he was a doormat, but he worked for William and Maya for years and knew the operation better than anybody.

"That's true," said Sam. "And Kazi's known Maya since they were kids. He grew up with the Tracksuits in his life too."