8428/A Little Us Time

A Little Us Time
Date of Scene:	21 July 2019
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Clint and Skye have a long awaited moment to talk and figure out where they're going next.
Cast of Characters:	Hawkeye (Barton), Quake

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Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Teatime was over and Clint was in the kitchen dealing with /it/. "You know, I'm terrified to clean this thing, I mean, what Nat was right, what if it is worth like all the money ever?" he asks as he gently runs water through the pot.

"I mean she's probably wrong but, you know?" he continues, over the little bit of music in the background.

He sighs, "Just when you think life can't get weirder."

As if the whole Birds revelation, and two cats appearing in their lives didn't happen. The /teapot/ was the weird thing.

Quake has posed:
"We could ask May," Skye points out. She, also, is pointedly not touching the thing. "We're not supposed to put anything but tea or water in it, by the way. May was pretty clear on that." May had also taken the papers that were in the box and not said anything more about them. If the thing /were/ worth that much money one really did have to wonder why she'd left it in their possession.

"I don't know? Natasha isn't really the sort to lie about shit like that. She probably goes to places where they sell things like this for your every day." Okay, maybe a slight exageration, but then again, what did Skye know? She'd have had money like that, nor would she ever.

"You took the whole Birds thing pretty well. I didn't like keeping it from you, but.." She shrugs. It was one of those things. One of those secrets. Her life was complicated.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"So you're saying I /shouldn't/ fill it with beer and chug it straight from the nozzle?" Clint asks with a glance over his shoulder. Though even in his joking he's careful, setting it down before turing his head. "But you're right May would know how to deal with it."

Washing done, he wipes his hand on a bar towel and turns to lean against the counter. "And yeah, she'd know, I mean that's her thing right?" Clint says with a smile before adding: "The Shadow knows..."

"That's trippy. I mean I remember the radio plays and stuff, but never figured I'd meet the person behind the mask," Clint says, but of course the radio plays were about Natasha's grandfather not her.

As for the Birds thing, Clint shrugs, "We're spies, secrets are going to happen, I am never crazy about them, but I am crazy about you, so, I can manage."

Quake has posed:
"I'm saying if you do that you are on your own when May finds out. Did you see how she was treating the thing? Even if it isnt' worth much, she likes it, so we treat it the way she asked." Even if she really wasn't sure why those things were so important.

Now that he's done washing up, she slips off the island and comes to wrap her arms about him. "Well, we weren't set up then. I don't know. I felt kind of weird. They were important people and I was just me. But I helped get it off the ground. Oh, May was a tiny bit pissed when she found out. We had a good long talk after she found out. But yeah, I've been working with them for a year now. It's been kind of different, finding out that I can do things - not just the powers thing, more like, you know how in SHIELD we all have the training and stuff? I mean, I know I'm important there, and there aren't many in my league, but in the Birds, I don't know. It's different. It's that and more. Like.. well, I'm not even the top hacking dog in the Birds, if you can believe it, but I think I held my own. I mean, how many people can keep something like that a secret from May, huh?"

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint nods, "That works," he says glancing over at the pot. "Though this is totally why I never bought anything expensive, always worried it'd break."

Wraping his arms around Skye in return, he holds her close taking in her words, "I bet," he says about keeping things from May. "She keeps a close eye on you," then as to the rest he nods, "Yeah, I know the feeling you're talking about, it's sort of differnet when you've got a place alongside people like The Shadow and whatever super hacker they have," he pauses, "You're really not their best hacker? How is that possible?"

Quake has posed:
"Totally not their best hacker. I'm good, but not as good as Oracle." He's maybe not heard the name before, but he's heard her mention 'her contact' numerous times before. And usually when they've needed computer support. Clint likely can put two and two together. "I actually wasn't even upset about that, which is weird. I thought I would be."

She has to nod, though. "I feel like I had to fight my way up in SHIELD. The Birds I was just one of them from the start."

He gets a hip check. "Unlike some gorilla armed archers I know, I had to work my ass off in SHIELD. Sometimes I feel like I still am." Agreeing, "And yeah. May watches over me. A lot of people do." She hadn't missed that. "Like Natasha. You got to know because she trusts me with you."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"Huh," Clint says about the hacker thing. "So this Oracle? Your contact?" he asks putting the pieces together. "And hey, if I found a better archer, I'd be sort of impressed, so I think I get where you're coming from though."

Then as a side note, "Glad the guy from Starling isn't better than me though, heard he was a bit of a jerk."

Clint nods, "Same for me with SHIELD and the Avengers, with me and SHIELD always a fight, always a struggle, but with the Avengers, I was just there when some shit went down and then suddenly I'm on a team with Cap and Iron Man." He shakes his head.

He nods, "And what do you think about all the attention from people like that?"

Quake has posed:
"Oracle? Yeah. My contact. Met them back when I was barely.. actually, I might still have been in my I'm leaving this place soon as I get a chance phase." Skye laughs. "Man, I was difficult. Surprised you people put up with me. And you, how is it we ended up together again?"

"Oh? You didn't say much about the guy from Starling. And how is Kate doing, anyway? Might want to wait to introduce Lucky to the cats until we get them checked out. And, you know, find Randy's owners."

"You? Struggled in SHIELD? You always.. I never saw that. You just seemed an institution to me. Clint Barton Special Agent."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint chuckles. "I think I remember that phase," he says, because of course he rememebered, he'd been one of the people who helped talk her through it.

"Dunno how the others managed, but hey, I had my own struggles with SHIELD at that time, so talking to you helped me see the good in what we did, even if there's sometimes some shady stuff that happens along the way. Which is part of why we ended up together."

"Basically he's a jerk that shoots bows and wears green, not much more to say other than I think he also kills people," Clint says of archer in Starling. "I keep tabs on him, but I don't think we're ever really going to be buddy buddy." A nod is given about the dogs. "Really should check in on Kate again and have a Hawkeye night, she's got my old place in Brooklyn now next to Ginos, and good call about Lucky, not sure how he is with cats."

The last bit earns a chuckle and a shake of his head. "It was mostly my early years, like eight years before I met you, but every once in a while I'd get hit with a whole 'why am I doing this?' moment and think about bolting, but yeah, it's not always been a smooth ride, though I usually keep that between me and the bosses, rather than let it get around the building."

Quake has posed:
"Oh, sounds jerkier than a jerk I once knew.. what was his name.. Hawk Guy.. Hawk something..." Skye laughs and tiptoes up to wrap her arms about Clint's neck. "I think talking to you helped me see what it was that was here. I think I was convincing myself. I was afraid of everything back then. Most especially this. And now I can't figure what it was I was so worried about."

She agrees about Hawkeye night, and the dog. "I bet she'd like that. That was a really great idea you had about your place. Kinda still in the family that way," Skye teases. "And Less worried about how Lucky will be with the cats then the cats around Lucky. Speaking of which, we need to warn Bucky."

She brushes a hand through his hair, "Do you still feel like that? Worry about how you fit in here? I know when we started going out we agreed we wouldn't make each other make choices, but do you ever wish you were just an AVenger?"

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"Definitely jerkier than that guy, and I dunno, he's pretty jerky," Clint says giving a lopsided grin, he wraps his arms around Skye's waist as she wraps hers around his neck. "Need a boost?" he asks the grin becoming a smirk.

"I know what you mean. Remember how I was about moving in? Even though we'd been basically at your place 24/7 since we got together." He laughs at the memory. "Or how we were about this place."

"Good point," he says of the cats and Lucky. "And yeah, definitely need to warn Bucky."

Clint shakes his head to the last bit, "Not right now. Hell, I know I'm welcome back and all of that but right now I don't feel much like an Avenger any more either. The stuff they've been dealing with? It's insane, and I guess, I just don't see where I'm helping there anymore," he says in broken hearted admission.

Quake has posed:
"A boost, or we can make this simple and turn off the lights and go to bed. Nobody is taller there," Skye grins. "You were so stupid about moving in. Your stuff was already living in my extra bedroom and you looked like I'd thrown on Gretel's headlights and you couldn't decide what side of the highway to run to. Did I ever tell you how scared I was to ask you?"

She looks sad when he speaks of the Avengers. "I don't know how to help you, Clint. I feel like... I knwo you wouldn't say it, but I feel like I stole that from you somehow. That having to help me took you away from where you were.. You're special here, but you were an *Avenger*. Sometimes I wonder if I ruined things for you even though we promised we wouldn't."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint chuckles. "Oh I like the turn off the lights plan, but I'm still taller, even there."

There is a chuckle at that even as he anticipates retribution.

The rest though makes him look away to keep his emotions in check. "I don't know what did it, but I feel like all of that is over now. Maybe I'm wrong, but yeah, I mean I know I'm welcome back, but I don't know what I bring to the table there anymore. I need to figure that out."

Quake has posed:
"Oh, tall jokes, huh? Pretty cheeky from a man who doesn't like to sleep on the couch." Of course she's joking. "Bed. We can finish talking there."

Of course she's also living under the misconception that the cats have any respect for this thing called sleep, or human hours.

"Clint?" she tells him once the've crawled under the bedsheet (too hot for blankets), "I know you were upset when I said I wanted to do this thing about my mother alone, but part of it that I didn't say was.. it wasn't just for me. Some of it was for you. You've been following me around for over a year now, and it's not been fair. Even if I didn't ask you. I.. You can't be you if you can't be away from me. Even if it's just to figure out that's not where you belong anymore, you can't figure that out unless you go there and try. You know?"

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"It's a short couch," Clint jokes before he heads up to bed. Unaware of the padded feet following them up the stairs.

He gets in under the sheet.

"I wouldn't call it following you around," Clint says but in truth it was accurate enough. "I guess there might be something to that. Not sure how to deal with it though, before I'd just hole up in my place in Brooklyn and get into some local trouble, try to help out the city, but now..." he frowns. "Not sure. Could still do the whole solo vigilante thing for a bit, just based out of here, as long as it stays off May's radar. You know, no SHIELD, no Avengers, just me. Like how you're rolling with the Birds."

Quake has posed:
"A very short couch," Skye agrees. "Except the purple one."

"Maybe following me is the wrong way to put it? I don't know. But sometimes I worry it made it easy for you not to make decisions about the rest. Like as long as you had me to worry about you could say you couldn't be with them. That you had other priorities, and you never had to offer any excuses that were just.. you. You know?"

There's a reason May takes Skye with her to meet with new people. She has an uncanny ability to read people. Even when she doesn't want to.

"Love you Hotshot, but I think we're at the stage where we don't just promise not to ask the other to give anything up, but where we admit being our own people makes us better for one another. I'm not scared you're going to leave me. I think I was a bit before. Like even if I didn't ask you to stay at SHIELD, that somehow you being an Avenger would be more important than building our life - we didn't even know if we wanted a life together. But now I'm afraid it's keeping you from being happy. I didn't have a choice about learning to be my own person. I don't know how to help you, but I know you have to do this."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"True," Clint said about the couches as he headed upstairs to bed.

Once there, he nods, "I guess so," he says as he thinks over what she says, it fit, though he didnt think about it until now.

"Agreed," Clint says about the stage they're at, that they needed to do their own things to make what they had stronger. "Love you too Keyboard, and you're right, I think that's what we have to do. Find our own paths, but still be us, still be together while we do it."

Quake has posed:
"Ah, you know you're not leaving me. How else would you make rent?" She laughs and snuggles in closer to him. "Still scared about all those things we used to worry about?"

Dating. Saying I love you. Sharing a house. A life. A future. All the myriad of things that had happened while they were busy not paying attention.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint laughs, "True, and someone needs to do their share of changing Grant's litter too," he says snuggling close, his head resting against hers. "Can't believe you named him after Ward," he says still chuckling, it was too perfect.

As to her question, he smiles, leaning back a bit so she can see his eyes, he answers: "Not a bit."

Quake has posed:
Skye laughs, the gesture vibrating against him. "I can't believe I did either. But he was sitting there in the pilot seat looking at me so smugly with that dark fur of his like he was saying 'I've got my eye on you, probie, and you can bet I'm going to be reporting every messup you make'.. How could I not after that."

Her laughter continues. "May is going to kill me. That lanyard? Totally official on the books. I even wrote an AAR for him."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint snickers, "It's a good name," he says before he blinks. "What? It's a real..." he shakes his head and laughs. "Yeah, she's definitely going to murder you."

He leans forward to press his forehead against hers. "Glad you're in my life, Keyboard. It's never boring."

Quake has posed:
"Yeah, but I bet she laughs before she murders me." Skye chuckles and strectches out against him. "Glad you're in my life, too. Who else would appreciate my non-boring?"

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint smiles, "Probably right," he says before he leans in and kisses her briefly but with feeling. "But let's hope we never have to find out," he says before going for another kiss.