Archive of Our Own

1. Clint wants to give Kate nice things. She tells him she’s fine with the thin mattress, the  nonexistent shower curtain, the dresses from two seasons ago. But Clint knows she’s used to  nice things. Girly girl deserves it.

i. It’s not like he has anything nice to give though but still

ii. He gets a fat paycheck after an Avengers mission, and first thing he thinks about is just buying a decent dinner for the girl and the dog.

iii. Animal Collective's “My Girls” starts playing in his head. Lucky isn't even a girl dog.

2. Kate is a shirt stealer.

i. The first time she slips/sleeps in Clint’s shirt, she feels home. It’s two sizes larger—just two sizes larger—but it makes all the difference in the world. It’s warm and comfortable and there’s this ~different~ scent—his scent. She was never that sentimental, but fuck, she can wear that scent all day.

ii. She tries getting that size—two sizes larger—but it’s not the same. Yeah so it’s creepy why the hell did she even do that like KATHERINE WHY but she just wanted that comfort okay America shut uP

iii. When Kate first started wearing Clint’s clothes, Lucky gets confused at first. Having one working eye, he relies on his sense of smell a lot more than other dogs do. And then there was this person in the kitchen, offering him Pizza. The smell of this person is new; it’s Clint, but it’s Kate too.

iv. (Why did she sleep in his shirt? It was right at the beginning, when she was just hanging out instead of living in.)

3. They have pun battles. Of course.

i. Clint makes this totally irritating pause before dropping the pun. It’s like, look at me, Katie, I’m gonna make a pun.

ii. Even during a mission.

iii. Seriously Barton, you win, just shoot that arrow.

iv. Kate wants to punch him. >_>

4. Kate learns to drink cheap liquor. (Because alcohol is alcohol.)

i. Clint (he knows all the hole in the walls), he took Kate to his favorite shithole, by the  name of ----- because she ‘was lonely and will definitely not spend a Friday night alone’ and because, well, he had been wanting to take her there for some local knowledge, of course. Why else would he take her out

ii. The bouncer-type regulars chided him: Who’s the girl? Isn’t she too young?

iii. Kate once challenged a biker to a drinking contest. She won. (She threw up all the way home and Clint had to hold her hair back and clean her up and take her to bed but thepoint is, she won.)

iv. The regulars call her “Miss Kate” now.

5. Old women dote on Clint Barton.

i. *Correction: Young women also dote on him.

ii. *Even little girls.

iii. Seriously what is it with Clint and the female gender?

iv. And sometimes the male gender too?

v. And any gender in between?

vi. He’s not even that cute.

vii. Come on. He’s not.

6. Neither likes housework!!!

i. One thing Clint likes tho is taking care of plants.

ii. He’s really good at it.

iii. He brings home these small potted pots and arranges them neatly by the window and baby talks to them.

iv. Kate has caught him doing this, so she can verify.

7. Clint sometimes watches Kate sleep.

i. “It’s creepy.”—Spidey, probably

ii. “It’s beautiful.”—Deadpool, definitely

8. They’re each other’s ICE.

i. Clint finds out through a bloody accident. A literal bloody one. (He burst through the hospital doors ready to beat up the person responsible.)

ii. A week later, while wheeling her into the apartment, Clint mutters under his breath, “It’s supposed to be your nearest of kin. Your family.”

iii. Kate glares at him. “I know.”

iv. [And Kate? She’s been his ICE since she returned his bow and arrow that Christmas he almost left. In this Avengers form thing everyone has to have an ICE. Before Kate, Clint had left it blank. Even when he got married. Even after Nat, Jessica. All the women. His brother. Before Kate, Clint’s ICE it was a blank. Then yeah, that Christmas happened, and he approached Cap with, “So, uh, I want to update my information on that Avengers form thing.” Writing Kate down as his ICE was one of the biggest steps he had taken.]

9. “Klint and Cate” / Kate Barton, Clint Bishop

10. Very rarely, they would get quiet time.

i. Clint would sit on the couch with beer and pizza and Kate would invade his space. She would put her legs on his lap; he would fake complain. You’re too heavy; I’m too weak. She would kick him, fondly, and he would pretend to get hurt, and he would pass her a slice of pizza, and she would accept it, and their dog would come running, tail wagging, and they would start laughing, but they would crouch mid-laugh holding their broken/stitched up sides.

ii. i97% of the time it’s catching bad people and getting shot at, but they look forward to quiet days when they don’t have to go undercover; when they are not Hawkeyes but two people on a battered couch, limbs adjacent, snoring, battle-tired, wounded, home.