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Clint’s standing on the curb in the snow, rubbing his hands together when Phil pulls up in a towncar. Clint smirks and puts his hands in his pockets as he leans down to peer in through the lowering window.
“You looking for a good time, mister?” he says, and Phil scowls at him.
“Get the hell in here, you’re going to catch your death of cold!”
He gets in when Phil shifts over to make room and Phil grabs Clint’s hands and rubs them to warm them up. “You don’t have to wait outside in the snow, Clint,” he says in exasperation. Clint knows that; he’s more than aware of how Phil could have his driver go around the block til he’s ready, or pay whatever fine it might be that his idling might incur, but he doesn’t like doing that. He doesn’t like being a bother. Anyway, it’s easier to avoid questions from his roommates if he ducks out ahead of time.
“I was just excited to see you,” he says, curling his fingers to hold onto Phil’s warm hands, stilling them. “Hi.”
Phil squeezes his hands and smiles, leaning in for the kiss Clint was angling for. “Hello,” he says, frown melting away like it always seems to do around Clint.
“So where are we going, anyway?” Clint asks, pleased that Phil’s not moved away and is still holding onto him. He lets go with one of his hands so he can cup Clint’s cheek. Clint worries for a moment that he might’ve missed a spot when he was shaving, but Phil’s just checking how cold he is. He’s probably all red from the chill, and he hopes he doesn’t look too ridiculous.
“Shopping,” Phil declares, loud enough that the driver nods in acquiescence. “To get you a proper coat.”
Clint laughs. “I have a proper coat!”
Phil levels a look at Clint that speaks volumes. Clint leans in and lowers his voice. “I thought you liked my leather jacket, daddy.”
Clint preens when Phil can’t help but smile and roll his eyes. It’s kind of a joke, except neither of them are joking.
“You know I like your jacket,” Phil says, reaching out to touch the leather, eyes roving over the shape of it on Clint’s shoulders. Clint grins like he always does when Phil looks at him like that. It’s the same way he looks at art, the same way he looks at Clint’s photographs. It makes him feel treasured and special.
“And I’m not advocating getting rid of it, but it’s snowing. I don’t want you to get frostbite.”
“You scared I’m gonna lose my extremities?”
“Yes, actually.”
Clint rolls his eyes, but he secretly enjoys the little tug of war: Phil decides he needs to buy something for Clint, Clint protests because he’s doing just fine with what he’s got, Phil vocally worries about it and then Clint gives in, letting Phil spend money on him just like he was going to in the first place. He thinks Phil must like it too, because they keep doing it.
“I’m going to get you some gloves,” Phil says, rubbing Clint’s hands again. He has kind of a thing for Clint’s hands. “Thermal ones. Or maybe leather…” He has kind of a thing for leather, too.
“And a scarf. And a hat.”
“A hat?”
“Your hair will be fine, sweetheart.”
“That’s not what I was going to say.” (It was.)
“And a coat. A proper one to take you through the winter.”
Clint snuggles into Phil as best he can. “Thank you, daddy,” he says quietly, and there’s only a little bit of a whine in his voice, and it’s just for show.
-
They go to a department store; one of the upmarket ones Clint would never have set foot in before he met Phil. They go through the perfume section and up to the men’s accessories, where Phil finds ‘his guy’ (because Phil Coulson has a guy for everything) and starts relaying exactly what they’re after.
Clint fiddles with the tie display, picking out something understated that he’ll come by for another time when he wants to get something for Phil. His first gift for Phil was a tie, back when this whole thing began. It meant he was eating ramen noodles for three weeks but it was worth it for the way Phil looked like he was about to cry when Clint handed it over with as much shrugging indifference as he could muster. He’d accidentally ruined a tie of Phil’s the first time they met.
Phil says it’s his favourite tie now, but Clint thinks that might just be him being indulgent and sweet. Not that he’s complaining.
Phil calls Clint over to one of the displays where a variety of gloves are laid out, and has Clint try them on. They’re all pretty much the same, but Clint likes a pair of leather ones that are fairly thin and allow for good movement. Not that he’s expecting to use his bow with them, but he might want to take the camera out in the cold, and some gloves would be handy for that.
Clint sneaks a glance at Phil once he’s picked out a pair, and then winks when the shop assistant’s turned away. Phil reaches out to squeeze Clint’s arm and then doesn’t let his hand drop away when the shop assistant turns back, and sure, it is the kind of fancy place where you could just about do anything and they’d quietly allow you to so long as they’re sure you have cash to spend, but still. Clint feels something squirmy and warm in his belly.
Next, Clint picks out a scarf (various purplish stripes in actual cashmere - Natasha’s going to shit) and a hat (dark grey and just as soft). Phil pays for everything and then they head off to the menswear section on the same floor. Clint’s not really looking forward to trawling through racks and racks of coats, but Phil takes them to a desk where a woman with very neat red hair shows them to a small, yet very plush room, furnishing them with coffee and tiny macarons before she opens the doors to a closet full of coats.
“What is this?”Clint asks, figuring they’re in some kind of magical secret shop-within-a-shop. Phil laughs warmly.
“I know you hate shopping so I had Pierre” (that was the first guy’s name, by the way - Pierre) “call Alleyn” (the red-haired lady) “to pick us out some things. Anything catch your eye?”
Why doesn’t everyone shop like this?
Clint doesn’t know where to start, so Phil chooses a handful for him, humming and making Clint do spins whilst quietly chatting with Alleyn over cuts and weaves and vents. Eventually, through a mutual decision making process, they leave with a very warm, very smart (and probably very expensive, though Clint’s learned not to look at the prices til he gets home, or else he feels weird about it) plain black coat that goes nicely with the hat and gloves and scarf.
“Would you like to wear it out?” Alleyn asks, and it’s such a nice place that she doesn’t even say anything about the battered leather jacket that Clint’s shucking back on. He’s had it since he found it down the back of the ringside seating after a show at the circus years ago, and whilst objectively it’s seen better days, he’s not sure there’s ever been a cooler piece of clothing.
“Oh. Uh. Ok. Is that ok?” Clint looks to Phil for guidance, who smiles and doesn’t help. “Yes,” Clint decides.
-
“You look ravishing,” Phil leans in and says when they’re standing outside, Clint in all his new clothes and holding a bag containing his old jacket. He’s feeling pretty darn warm even with the snow and their breath fogging the air. Tiny snowflakes settle in Phil’s hair and Clint fights the urge to brush them away; Phil’s sensitive about his hair.
They’re waiting for the car to come around to take them to Phil’s place where Clint’s hoping to make his appreciation for his new gifts known. It’s… hard to explain to his friends how this works. It seems to some of them like Phil buys Clint things and then Clint pays him for them with sex, but it’s not that. Clint is turned on by Phil but not for his indulgences or the money. They argue over that more than anything - Clint doesn’t like the idea that he’s using Phil like that. But that’s what Phil has and it makes him happy to spend money on Clint. it makes him happy to look after Clint and that’s the thing that most moves him - the thought that someone wants to look after him and even spoil him sometimes, to buy him things just because.
Clint has thought about what it’d be like if Phil lost all his money, or if he’d never had any to begin with. He supposes it would be different, and perhaps the stresses over money that Clint knows so well would be stresses that Phil might have to cope with, that they’d have to worry over together. Phil wouldn’t be able to buy things for Clint but Clint’s not sure he’d care. He’s still sure Phil would badger him about wrapping up warm and doing his best on his college assignments, he’s still sure that he’d make soup for Phil when he got sick. He’s still sure they’d have just as much sex as they do right now.