Fic: Right On The Edge (Part 2)
Title: Right On The Edge (Part 2)
Prompt: Princess of China lyrics:
Once upon a time we're burning bright
That all we ever seemed to do is fight
Once upon a time on the same side
In the same game, now why'd you have to go
Have to go and throw it all in my flame
Word Count: 852
Rating: PG
Original/Fandom: Hawkeye comic!verse
Pairings (if any): none
Warnings (Non-Con/Dub-Con/Underage): mild swearing
Summary: Clint wants an explanation for Bobbi's invitation
Bobbi's expecting the visit, just not during business hours. It’s been years since Clint’s come to see her at SHIELD headquarters, as if they barely even exist there to each other. If he wants to see her, and he rarely does, he drops by her apartment. She’d even cleaned, in anticipation of seeing him on the other side of her window, seeing as he hated having to get past her door man.
But he pulls up the chair so they can stare at each other across her cluttered desk. She waits for him to speak first, not sure where his thoughts will land. Better he start off.
The trouble is that he’s not quite ready to speak. Behind his eyes are the arguments and accusations that have always been there. So far, she’d never once been able to sit behind his silences. It was, ultimately, what drove them apart. They’ve both learned lessons and hers is that she can (and will) wait for him to figure out what he needs to say.
“I hear through the grapevine that you took Kate out for a little meeting of minds.”
“The grapevine?” Bobbi asks, twirling a pen through her fingers. She knows it’s a tell but she can’t stop any more than she could ask him to quit bouncing his left leg. “You heard about it through the grapevine?”
He ignores the question. Or, rather, he answers it in his own way, in his own time. “Is this about you and me, Bobbi? I thought we worked through our troubles? We were going to be friends.”
“I didn’t know she was off-limits.” Bobbi keeps her voice low, even if she knows it won’t ever be soothing to him. Old wounds still fester under the surface and this conversation is grating over them without either of them hurling words, like arrows, at each other.
Clint stands up, rolls his shoulders a few times, and decides to sit back down. It says a lot about his feelings for Kate that he’s sticking around for this discussion (she won’t call it a fight just yet) but she’s still not settled on exactly what it is that he feels for Kate Bishop. A friend, but that’s a given. Clint has lots of friends.
His next words cement everything very neatly into place. “It’s not up to me whether or not she’s off-limits. I’m not her caretaker. I just don’t want her hurt because of our history.”
“What has she said to you about our excursion?” Bobbi asks because she needs to know if she truly is just dealing with that old history they can’t seem to bury or if this is because of Kate’s stormy expression as she’d left yesterday.
“I haven’t talked to her.”
She puts the pen down, twining her fingers together instead. “I asked Kate to tea because I wanted to get to know her better. I’m sorry it felt as if I was intruding on something but I meant it as... well... as an overture of friendship to see if I can’t do it right this time.”
There’s silence as Clint processes what she’s said, implications from the past that have bled into the future. “I’m sorry we can’t be friends. I never meant for it to all fall apart like this.”
Bobbi reaches out to take Clint’s hand. When he flinches back, she only tightens her hold until he’s relaxed again. It doesn’t take as long as she thought it would and she’s absurdly pleased. “We are friends, Clint. What we can’t be is lovers. That’s been decided and we’re both good with the decision. Right now, we’re friends who don’t quite understand what friendship looks like.”
He nods a few times before pulling his hand back. It hurts just the tiniest bit that she can’t even have that little bit of physical contact without it feeling so completely wrong. Still, it was more than she’d had even in those last days of their relationship.
“Just... be gentle with her. Not because she needs you to be gentle. But I do.”
He gets up to leave and she almost lets him. “What’s her aversion to tablecloths all about?”
His laughter is strained as he rubs the back of his neck. That’s a new tell that he’s picked up since she hung out with him and she can’t help but wonder what it means. “We’ve all got a past that we’d like to forget. You wouldn’t dress up like a clown if you were planning on getting on my good side, would you?”
Damn. She’d read the file but Bobbi’s thinking she should have paid better attention to what it said. “Message received. I won’t try to impress her with the finer things.”
“She’s classy without being hoity-toity. You know?” A gentle smile spreads across his face before he rubs at his neck again, settling into the reserved Clint she’s getting to know all too well. “Sort of like you, actually.”
Before she can answer, he’s gone. Maybe it’s better for both of them that she doesn’t have a retort for that parting shot.
This entry was cross posted at dreamwidth - where the cool kids hang out.
Prompt: Princess of China lyrics:
Once upon a time we're burning bright
That all we ever seemed to do is fight
Once upon a time on the same side
In the same game, now why'd you have to go
Have to go and throw it all in my flame
Word Count: 852
Rating: PG
Original/Fandom: Hawkeye comic!verse
Pairings (if any): none
Warnings (Non-Con/Dub-Con/Underage): mild swearing
Summary: Clint wants an explanation for Bobbi's invitation
Bobbi's expecting the visit, just not during business hours. It’s been years since Clint’s come to see her at SHIELD headquarters, as if they barely even exist there to each other. If he wants to see her, and he rarely does, he drops by her apartment. She’d even cleaned, in anticipation of seeing him on the other side of her window, seeing as he hated having to get past her door man.
But he pulls up the chair so they can stare at each other across her cluttered desk. She waits for him to speak first, not sure where his thoughts will land. Better he start off.
The trouble is that he’s not quite ready to speak. Behind his eyes are the arguments and accusations that have always been there. So far, she’d never once been able to sit behind his silences. It was, ultimately, what drove them apart. They’ve both learned lessons and hers is that she can (and will) wait for him to figure out what he needs to say.
“I hear through the grapevine that you took Kate out for a little meeting of minds.”
“The grapevine?” Bobbi asks, twirling a pen through her fingers. She knows it’s a tell but she can’t stop any more than she could ask him to quit bouncing his left leg. “You heard about it through the grapevine?”
He ignores the question. Or, rather, he answers it in his own way, in his own time. “Is this about you and me, Bobbi? I thought we worked through our troubles? We were going to be friends.”
“I didn’t know she was off-limits.” Bobbi keeps her voice low, even if she knows it won’t ever be soothing to him. Old wounds still fester under the surface and this conversation is grating over them without either of them hurling words, like arrows, at each other.
Clint stands up, rolls his shoulders a few times, and decides to sit back down. It says a lot about his feelings for Kate that he’s sticking around for this discussion (she won’t call it a fight just yet) but she’s still not settled on exactly what it is that he feels for Kate Bishop. A friend, but that’s a given. Clint has lots of friends.
His next words cement everything very neatly into place. “It’s not up to me whether or not she’s off-limits. I’m not her caretaker. I just don’t want her hurt because of our history.”
“What has she said to you about our excursion?” Bobbi asks because she needs to know if she truly is just dealing with that old history they can’t seem to bury or if this is because of Kate’s stormy expression as she’d left yesterday.
“I haven’t talked to her.”
She puts the pen down, twining her fingers together instead. “I asked Kate to tea because I wanted to get to know her better. I’m sorry it felt as if I was intruding on something but I meant it as... well... as an overture of friendship to see if I can’t do it right this time.”
There’s silence as Clint processes what she’s said, implications from the past that have bled into the future. “I’m sorry we can’t be friends. I never meant for it to all fall apart like this.”
Bobbi reaches out to take Clint’s hand. When he flinches back, she only tightens her hold until he’s relaxed again. It doesn’t take as long as she thought it would and she’s absurdly pleased. “We are friends, Clint. What we can’t be is lovers. That’s been decided and we’re both good with the decision. Right now, we’re friends who don’t quite understand what friendship looks like.”
He nods a few times before pulling his hand back. It hurts just the tiniest bit that she can’t even have that little bit of physical contact without it feeling so completely wrong. Still, it was more than she’d had even in those last days of their relationship.
“Just... be gentle with her. Not because she needs you to be gentle. But I do.”
He gets up to leave and she almost lets him. “What’s her aversion to tablecloths all about?”
His laughter is strained as he rubs the back of his neck. That’s a new tell that he’s picked up since she hung out with him and she can’t help but wonder what it means. “We’ve all got a past that we’d like to forget. You wouldn’t dress up like a clown if you were planning on getting on my good side, would you?”
Damn. She’d read the file but Bobbi’s thinking she should have paid better attention to what it said. “Message received. I won’t try to impress her with the finer things.”
“She’s classy without being hoity-toity. You know?” A gentle smile spreads across his face before he rubs at his neck again, settling into the reserved Clint she’s getting to know all too well. “Sort of like you, actually.”
Before she can answer, he’s gone. Maybe it’s better for both of them that she doesn’t have a retort for that parting shot.
This entry was cross posted at dreamwidth - where the cool kids hang out.