Patch Me Up

“Look, I gotta find a place to stash you. Safe,” Clint tells Kate pointedly before looking forwards. He shuffled in place, annoyance ringing in his voice, “So I can recover the suit and clean your mess.” He should have known that his past would be coming to haunt him sooner rather than later. He wishes it weren’t interrupting his time with his family. 

He needs to get this over with quickly, not just to keep this random kid who has now gotten involved from getting hurt due to his mistake, but to get back to his family and enjoy the rest of the holiday together.

“Stash me? I’m not a bag of money,” Kate scoffs as she looks between Clint and the cashier.

“No, you’re not. A bag of money’d be useful to me,” Clint quips in a deadpanned voice. The cashier calls for them, and Clint turns on his friendly civilian persona, “Hi, how are you? Merry Christmas.”

Kate narrowed her eyes at him, “I actually do know a place about 10 blocks away. Would a bag of money know a place?”

~~~

A loud buzzing sound fills your apartment, waking (or more-so scaring) you out of a half-asleep state. You sit up on the couch, quickly realizing you fell asleep while watching your favorite Christmas movie as the credits rolled. Your attention is drawn to the intercom system near the door as it continued to buzz loudly. ‘What time is it?’ you think as you make your way to the system and press one of the buttons to answer, “Hello?”

“Hey, babe, can you buzz us in?” a voice you immediately recognized came through the speaker.

“Kate? Who’s ‘us’? What are you doing here so late?” you ask as you rub the sleep out of your eyes, “n’ why are you buzzing in, I gave you a key, remember?” 

“I may or may not have left it at my place. Which is currently on fire,” she explained rather simply. It took you several seconds before you were able to scream out, “What?! What do you mean– What happe– No, just-just come up and explain what happened.” 

You buzz Kate and whatever company she was bringing inside. As they came up, you tidied up the trash and nursing textbooks you had left on the living room table. You also balled up the draft pages from your end-of-term essay on infectious diseases before throwing them in the trash and threw a pair of shoes you left lying around in your room. By the time you finished tidying up, you heard knocking on the door. You hurried off to open the door, but not before pulling a sweater over your head quickly. It wasn’t until now that you realized that you still didn’t know who was accompanying Kate.

As soon as you open the door, you take in the sight of your girlfriend, holding the leash of a dog you’d never seen before, along with a blond-ish man that you swear looks familiar right behind her. “Come on in,” you say as you step aside and let them inside. 

You close the door after everyone came in. “Hey, baby,” you say as you gave Kate a quick peck on her cheek. Upon a closer look, you notice the cuts and scrapes that covered her face. You drew your eyebrow together in concern as you moved a piece of her hair to take a better look at the cut right above her right eyebrow, “are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m okay. You should see the other guys,” she quips with a playful smile. You feel something wet nudge your hand, and you focus your attention towards the ground. The face of a one-eyed golden dog stared up at you. It gives you a smile and its tail begins to wag at the eye contact. 

You crouch down to the dog’s level and allow it to sniff you before petting it. “And who is this little guy?” you ask in a baby voice while scratching behind its ears. 

“I saved him a few hours ago, he was gonna get hit by a car,” Kate answers. “You were lucky, huh, buddy,” you say as you continue to pet his golden fur. 

“Babe, did you fall asleep on the couch again?” you hear her scold as she sees the movie credits that were still rolling. “What? No,” you drag out the last word, “of course not.”

“Yeah, right. I’m gonna hear you complain about back pain and soreness tomorrow, aren’t I?” she jokes as she turns off the television. You clear your throat sheepishly.

“Now tell me, what’s this about your place burning down?” you ignore her last remark as you straighten yourself out, concern taking over your body as you take in the scrapes and cuts on Kate’s face once more. You take a few steps towards her and hold her chin up in your hands, inspecting the abrasions that decorated her skin more closely. “Well, these mafia dudes threw some molotov cocktails through my window and the whole place caught on fire,” she answers casually. Despite her tone, you could hear the hints of sadness in her voice.

“What do you mean by the mafia? Kate, what the hell happened?” you drew your eyebrows together, curiosity and concern fighting to hold first place in your mind.

“Kate, I need to go,” the voice of the man spoke before she could start. You turn towards the origin of the voice; you had forgotten the man was even here, something that gave you a twinge of embarrassment. Despite that, you begin to study him. He seemed familiar to you, but it still took you several seconds before it finally clicked. 

“Holy shit, you’re Hawkeye!” you exclaim in amazement, “you’re the Hawkeye!” 

He gives you a pressed smile, “hi, you can call me Clint.” Realizing you had not introduced yourself, you quickly give him your name. “Okay, I seriously need an explanation as to why you’re all banged up,” you say, gesturing to Kate and then turning back to Hawk– Clint, “and why there’s an Avenger standing in my dining room.”

“Yeah well–” 

“Wait, as much as I’d hate to interrupt your conversation, I have to go.” he interrupts, “I’m going back to your apartment to get that suit, so I need you to clean your wounds. 

Use soap, this,” he pulls out an alcohol bottle and a box from the white bags he had left on top of your dining table, “and disinfect it. And then I’m going back to my kids.”

He starts making his way towards the door. “Hey, you’re coming back, right? Won’t you need a key? Plus, I could look at the cut on your head before you leave,” you say as you inspect the items the pair had brought. “Nope. I’m good. Stay here. Lock this door,” he says quickly before disappearing behind the door. You look between the door and Kate, unsure of what the hell is happening. The mafia, some suit, an avenger? What the hell is going on?

You pulled out the rest of the items from the bags. “Okay, sit down at the table, I’m cleaning you up and you better tell me what happened tonight. All of it, got it?” you say as you lead Kate to sit on one of the dining chairs. 

“Okay, so it starts at my mom’s engagement party…”

~~~

“So these mafia guys are going after you because they saw you in a suit that you stole from a black market auction that was happening during your mother’s engagement party?” you quickly recap her entire story in the effort to know whether or not you understood correctly, “and you found the dead body of one of the fiancé’s relatives in his house?”

 “Yep, that just about sums up the last 24 hours of my life,” she answers. “And Hawkeye saved you from getting your ass kicked from these tracksuit guys?” you continued. “I could have totally taken all of them on, no problem,” she defends herself quickly. 

“Right, I’d say these bruises tell a different story,” you chuckle as you finish dressing the cut on her eyebrow, “we’re all done here.”

You stand up from the dining room table, gathering all the trash you had amassed while taking care of Kate’s injuries. “Well, I’m just glad I have my own personal nurse to take care of me,” she jokes before flashing you a cheeky smile.

You roll your eyes playfully as you cross to the kitchen and throw it all away in the trash can, “Not yet, it’ll take me a year before I’m officially a nurse.” After washing your hands in the sink, you make your way to the fridge and grab a bottle of water for each of you. “Do you want something to eat? I got those little cakes you like so much,” you call out to her as you continue to look through your fridge. 

“No, I’m good for now,” you hear her call out, and you head back to sit beside her. You place her water bottle in front of her as you begin to sip from your own. You slip into a comfortable silence as you study her. 

She was leaning forwards in her chair, her body tense as she held the bottle in one hand, the other fidgeting the cap. She was clearly deep in thought as she stared out to nowhere in particular. It was not hard to see that she was processing the events that had recently unfolded, the true heaviness of her actions weighing on her.

You reach out and lightly touch her forearm, breaking the spell she was under and bringing her attention to you. You offer her a soft smile, “Are you okay?”

She opens her mouth to answer quickly but then stops. She purses her lips before answering with an “I don’t know.”

“It’s just… a lot, you know? I didn’t expect all of that to get so messy so quickly, I guess. My mom’s getting married and she didn’t even tell me, her fiancé might be involved in some sketchy shit, I lost all my stuff and,” she rubs her eyes with both hands as she releases a sigh, “I don’t know.”

You take the bottle and cap from her hold and place them on the table before holding her hands with your own. “Hey, we’ll figure it out. All of it, I promise,” you say gently, giving her hands a comforting squeeze, “you don’t have to do this alone. You won’t do this alone.”

She gives you a small smile and squeezes your hands in turn, “I know.”

You lean forwards and give her a soft kiss on the forehead, “I’ll get you one of your cakes now, yeah?” 

Her smile widens as she gives you a quiet chuckle and a nod, “Yeah.”

~~~

You put on another Christmas movie while Kate took a shower. After leaving out a frozen pizza to thaw off on the counter, you laid down on your couch when the yet-to-be-named dog, or the YTBND for short, decided to join you. He laid on top of you, unaware of how heavy he is. You gave out a soft groan and you scooched over, making space for him. “You’re a big, heavy boy, huh?” you say in baby talk as you pet him head. He responded with a small groan and a huff before laying his head on your arm to use as a pillow. You give him a pout, “you have no right to be this cute.”

You wrapped an arm around his middle and paid attention to the movie you had put on.

~~~

You had once again managed to fall asleep in front of the television. You quickly noticed that the YTBND was still lying comfortably against you. The only difference now is the fact that a blanket covered the both of you, and you can not help but smile. You decided not to open your eyes, hoping to doze back to sleep, but the sound of voices caught your attention. 

“So, how’s my place?” you heard Kate say rather shyly, but you detected a bit of hope that perhaps her apartment had not burned up so bad. “Crispy,” Clint commented shortly.

“Did you get the suit?” she continued.

“No,” he answers, and you’re able to hear the faucet being turned on.

“But you do have a lead,” she says, and you once again detect a bit of hope in her voice. “What makes you say that?”

You bite your lip as silence settles briefly between them. You knew nothing about Clint or of his life, but it was noticeable he was anxious to finish whatever Kate had started. You assume he simply wants to get back to his kids. And who wouldn’t? It was the time of holidays after all, the time people want to spend with family and friends. Most people, at least.

“What is this?” he then says and you’re able to hear the rustling of paper. “Oh, I started to describe, um,” she started off with a small stutter, “what I could remember of the tracksuits’ faces.” 

You suppress a laugh; you were very aware that Kate’s artistic ability was not her strong suit. “I guess you’re not an art major,” Clint comments after, you suppose, he saw the drawings. 

“Okay,” you hear her say.

“Um, I would offer to buy you a hotel, uh, ‘cause from certain angles, I know this all looks like my fault,” she continues, awkwardness tinting her voice, as you hear the scraping of a chair moving, “Um, but my mom cancelled my credit cards due to the whole clock tower.”

It was your time to step in now. “If you need a place to crash, you can use my roommate’s old room. I haven’t found anyone to replace him since he left,” you say groggily as you carefully sit up on the couch, hoping to not disrupt YTBND from his sleep. It didn’t work; he woke up and jumped off the couch. Your shoulders slumped in disappointment as the dog made its way to the kitchen.

“Wait, Packston moved out?” Kate asks as she turns to face you. You notice she wore the comfortable set of purple pajamas she had left the last time she was here.

“Yeah, the douchebag didn’t even tell me, he just up and left with his girlfriend, but at the very least, he left his bed here, so,” you answer as you stand up from the couch and shut off the television.

“That won’t be necessary,” Clint chimes in, “I’m just gonna be another minute.”

“Okay, well, if you do need it, my door is always open,” you say while walking over to stand beside Kate. Clint gives you a half smile, “thanks, kid.”

“Thank you for…” Kate trails off and gestures to all the first aid supplies that were still on the dining table. She gently grabs your hand and slowly leads you both towards your room. “I’ll um.. see you tomorrow, I guess,” Kate adds quietly. 

“Oh, um, you can help yourself to whatever’s in the kitchen and the bathroom is at the end of the hallway on the right,” you add quickly before descending to the hallway and into your room with Kate. 

Closing the door behind you, you turn to face your room. Kate had her back to you while she checked her phone. You wrap your arms around her middle and lay your head on her shoulder. “Wanna go to bed now?” you ask softly. You can tell she wore a soft smile on her face as she turned her head towards you, “yeah, let’s go.”

You settled in bed, wrapping your arm around her middle, holding her close to your body with her back turned to you. You gently stroke her arm in a repetitive motion as you both start to doze off to sleep. “Kate?” you say tentatively. Three little words have been hanging on your mind for a while, but you have not gotten the courage to say them yet. 

“Yeah?” she asks, her voice low and quiet. She’s about to fall asleep. 

The words get caught in your throat. For some reason, they refuse to leave your mouth. A beat of silence passed by, and all you could muster up was, “goodnight.”

“Goodnight, baby,” she answers softly before slipping into a peaceful sleep. 

You clench your jaw as disappointment in your own cowardice fills your mind. You justify it by believing that maybe today was simply not the right day to say those three little words. Perhaps today is not the day, but at least you will someday.