Chapter Six
The whispers didn’t go away for the entire day, and she thought maybe she’d be able to focus, but that conversation with Clint just echoed inside of her mind. ‘You’ll never understand.’ Maybe she was too mean. She just needed to push him away, because if he kept trying, eventually she would break and she’d come back. This obsession was going to demand her to go back at some time, and some part of her knew it was just a matter of time until she was stealing that bow back again. ‘Please, come back.’ He asked, and she tightened her knuckles and laid her chin atop her hand. Her nails dug into her palms and she bit her lip as her professor droned on and on about, of course, today was the day that they covered the Avengers in American history class. Period seven. And the teacher’s eyes dotted towards her every other second, but she kept her head down as every person in that room looked at her, and she heard some people whisper to each other and they thought that she couldn’t hear it. There was a girl sitting next to her with long, dark eyelashes and platinum blonde hair and blue eyes. She didn’t even bother hiding that she was staring at Kate, and Kate wanted to just stand up and leave. There were three months remaining in the school year, and she was meant to endure this every second, every minute, every day. Kate, deep down, she hid that knowledge in her that she’d be running back to her bow in no more than a month.
“... is Hawkeye, like, your… boyfriend?” Gross. The girl whispered and Kate bored her eyes into the class’ projector screen before finally slung her bag over her shoulders and stood. She pushed her chair out of the way and quickly walked towards the door, and she was out. The air felt so clear and she took a long inhale, releasing her breath and holding her hands over her face, and she took a moment of quiet. She could hear hushed chatter from the interior of the room and her eyebrows furrowed together tightly. God, if she could get her hands on that damn Bugle reporter… Kate eventually stood up from leaning against the hallway wall and she quickly paced down towards the exit, and when she stepped outside she immediately rolled her eyes when she saw Clint sitting on the granite steps of the private school with his back turned. “Clint, go home.” She passed by him as she descended down the steps and he looked up, putting his lunch down -she wondered how long he’d been sitting there- and brushing away a trace of food on his cheek.
“... not leaving, Katie-”
"If you were anyone else, I'd be punching you right now." She scoffed and walked past him, but she heard him getting up and following her, and she sighed and quickened her pace. Are you my stalker, now? ” Kate shook her head and slung her bag over her shoulders, holding onto both of the straps on her shoulders. There was still the bright flush of her cheeks from the humiliation moments earlier, and it wasn’t just whispers about her secret identity, she heard people talking about her, about what else had been in that article. She looked back and saw he was following her and rolled her eyes once more. “Clint, seriously, stop.” Kate asked in a soft yet firm voice but he continued walking beside her. He was persistent, she would give him that, but if he kept budging, eventually she wasn’t going to listen and she didn’t want herself to.
“No.” He responded and followed behind her as she quickly paced towards the subway entrance a few blocks away, hoping that he’d get tired eventually. “You want to be alone!” He called as she quickened her pace and she slowed for a moment, and he knew he’d either gotten somewhere or really pissed her off. “You want to push it all down, Kate, you want to seal yourself off?” No ‘Katie.’ That meant he was deadly, deadly serious, and it was almost unsettling that for the past two days, they had barely teased each other once. “I’m not going to let you. I’m gonna keep sitting in front of this stupid school until you realize you’re not alone.” Clint continued walking beside her and she stopped with her lips pursed together tightly and her hands were curled tightly into fists. He waited beside her and for a moment it looked like she was going to punch him, it looked like she wanted to just glare the life out of him. And then something unexpected happened, and she suddenly hugged him so tightly that he could feel the life being squeezed out of him, and it seemed like she was just breaking down. She had almost leaped her arms around him and he almost staggered back, but his leg caught him and he looked down and her face was hidden in his chest, and she was quickly crying softly. He was quiet for a moment and he swallowed, and carefully, his arms wrapped around her, too, and he gave her this little moment to have someone who actually cared about her. He knew she didn’t know what that felt like, so he would just make up for it now by not having any malicious intent, not having any part of him that wanted anything bad to happen to her. Not like her father,-who she didn’t consider her Dad, he’d been replaced, quite evidently- not like her sister, or that man, or pretty much anyone else that had ever been in her life.
The sun was beginning to set since it was around half past three in Autumn, and her face still hid in his chest as she cried softly and he could feel her tears start to spill onto his suit. “It’s okay.” He promised her, and he wasn’t really sure if she heard any of what he was saying, but his hand gently rubbed her back like it would help any bit, but he wasn’t sure if it would, it seemed like it did. “... you’re not alone anymore.” That statement seemed like it only made her a little lonelier, but after a moment she shut her eyes and realized he was still holding her. It was an embrace, and he wasn’t used to it, and she wasn’t. He was so stoic. He was so made of stone. She had been so chipper and talkative two weeks ago, they were opposites, but they needed each other. She had a father… and she remembered something she’d told Teddy once. ‘Just because he’s your father doesn’t mean he’s your dad… trust me.’ Maybe she was right. After a minute or two of him gently stroking her back as she cried, she was quiet, and they just stood there for another few moments. “... okay?” Clint asked and she noticed a new strain in his voice when he saw her cry, and it sealed the fact that he was actually telling the truth now.
“... I got your suit wet.” Kate murmured under her breath and he smiled, even laughing a little underneath his breath. She sounded genuinely apologetic, and even a little like a child for a moment, so much more innocent and different than he was used to.
“That’s fine.” He shook his head, and he could feel a small smile on her lips that lasted for a few seconds. and eventually her face surfaced from his chest and she still looked down, but she looked different than she had for the past two weeks, there was a weight that had been lifted from the part of her eyes he could see, and her sleeve reached up to her cheeks and wiped her tears away. He thought he saw a smile on her face for a moment and he felt some sort of relief flush through him. Eventually her arms retraced from around him and he took a second later, but eventually released her, too. “Can you come home… please?” He didn’t like the idea of her sleeping around in different motels and places she didn’t know, even if he knew more than well that she could handle herself. Still, he didn’t like it. “Also, I found something, a… surprise.” He smiled instantly when he remembered what he’d come across in the two days she’d been gone, and he instantly saw the curiosity in her eyes.
“... well, now you have me intrigued.” Kate tried to joke and he felt another small rush of relief when she finally agreed to come back to the apartment. It was a start, and she was still resistant to take up the bow again, and he knew that was going to be another struggle for another day. She was reluctant. Half of her wanted to, the other half was scared of taking that bow again and she thought she hid it in her face but she didn’t.