( h a w k e y e )

“It’s not wasted on me, you’re just very hard to read.”

“you know, i have a hard time believing that but i’ll take it.”

“I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or not.”

“He’d be dead without either of us, and he would be the first to admit it.” Their common friend was an idiot and lucky to have as many friends as he did. “I wish you all the luck on that. He’s been a handful lately, to say the least. I’m starting to wonder if there is even a way to keep him out of trouble.”

“true, but i think he might need to be reminded sometimes.” as much as she cared for clint, she’d figured out early on that he was a massive trouble magnet - and it only seemed to be worse when his friends weren’t there to pull him out. “nah there’s no way we’ll be able to keep him out of trouble, we’ll have to settle for bailing him out and saving his ass.”

“Oldest? You better not be calling me old, Kate.”

“what, me? of course not, wouldn’t dream of it.”

“Or shot. He’s very good at attracting bullets,” Natasha joked, “Or doing something stupid. Both of those he’s very good at. He’s lucky to have girls like us to beat him around until he sees sense.”

“he’s definitely good at both, usually at the same time. i’d say something like ‘what would he do without us,’ but we’ve seen how that goes. definitely gonna have to stick closer to him, keep him out of trouble.”

“I didn’t ruin anything,” he joked as he sat back further in his seat. “Wait, you’ve known people as long as you’ve known me? I thought I was your longest friend.”

“oldest friend, maybe - but believe it or not i do know other people. some of them i even met before i knew you existed.”

Clint smiled softly, nudging her gently with his own shoulder, “I know, Katie, but still, I wanted you to hear it from me first.” He had to throw in her most despised nickname. He found it humorous how much she hated that name. “So, tell me about these friends of yours. Anyone I should be worried about?”

she couldn’t help but groan at the nickname, though she clearly wasn’t quite as irritated as she would’ve been five years ago. “here we were having this awesome bonding moment and you just had to go and ruin it.” kate knew better than to tell him who she planned to reach out to, not when he’d almost undoubtably try to talk her out of it. “nope, no need to worry. i’d honestly trust them with my life. known them about as long as i’ve known you.”

“Wise choice.” Even from all his travels the past couple of years, there was nothing quite like the pizza here. He glanced at Kate as she ordered the pizza and felt a sense of gratitude to her. “Thank you, you know, for helping me.vi know I don’t really deserve anything after….. everything that’s happened.”

kate studied him for a moment, mulling over her words before just giving a small shrug. “maybe you don’t, but sometimes life isn’t about what you deserve. you’re my best friend, clint - my family - i’ll always have your back. whenever you need me, whether you want my help or not.”

“I’m not…” but Clint sighed, running his hand down his face. Why did everyone think that? Rather than get into that argument, however, he decided just to keep his mouth shut and nodded. “Yeah, sounds good. Usual?”

kate could tell that he wanted to say something else, but was glad when he just let it go instead - she didn’t want to argue anymore, and she felt like she was starving. “yeah the usual, why change a good thing?”

“I meant it in the most endearing way possible.”

“i mean, i did spend years training with him - guess it makes sense he rubbed off on me, huh? could be worse, i could have gotten his amazing talent for winding up in the dumpster. i’ll take insomnia and coffee addiction any day.”

“You know, you sound a little bit like Clint when you say that.”

“if i didn’t know any better i’d think you were trying to hurt my feelings.”