Long nights. Hot days. The sticky feeling of the New York air. These are some of Kate's favorite things about summer.
On this particular summer day, as with most, the younger Hawkeye was spending time in the apartment of her namesake. They had been practicing their archery together all morning until it got too hot and they agreed to call it a day. Now, Clint, shirtless and sweaty, was making some iced tea for the two of them while Kate, who herself was clad in nothing more than a sports bra and a pair of shorts, sat in front of the fan in the window and looked through some of the boxes that still littered the apartment, despite the fact that Clint had lived here for several years now.
"Whatcha doing there, girly-girl?" Speak of the devil. He lowered himself to join her on the floor and pressed one of the cold drinks into her hand.
"Snooping through your stuff." Kate smirked. She held a small stack of photos up to his face. "You never told me you did all of this cool, acrobatic stuff."
Clint snapped the pictures from her hand and shuffled through them. "I told you I was in the circus." He shrugged sheepishly.
"Yeah," Kate rolled her eyes. "But you didn't tell me you could bend like that."
"You are way too young to be thinking about anyone's ability to 'bend'." Clint chuckled and dodged the playful fist that came at him. "Besides, it's been years. I don't even know if I can do any of this stuff anymore."
Kate allowed herself a sip of iced tea before replying, placing the cold glass against her neck as she spoke. "Who's the girl?"
"Girl?" Clint peeked down at the photos in his hand. "You don't need to be jealous, Katie."
"I am not!" Kate shoved him with her shoulder. "You just never mentioned her is all."
Clint shrugged again, flipping through the pictures more carefully than Kate had ever seen him handle anything in all the time she had known him. He took a long drink of his iced tea.
"You're stalling." Kate nudged her mentor gently.
"No, I just…" Clint shook his head and laughed. "Just someone from the circus. She taught me all of those cool tricks."
"Even the one with the horse?" Kate asked. Her focus was entirely on Clint by this point.
"Which one?" Clint asked with mock humility. "I could do a bunch. Horse tricks were kind of my second specialty."
"Can you teach me?" Kate's eyes shone as she hooked her chin onto Clint's shoulder, peering over it and at the pictures.
"Teach you?" Clint turned his head so their noses were touching. "I don't know if you can handle it."
Kate angled her chin in a little more, nearly closing the gap between them. Clint smirked and mirrored her actions, leaning in for the kiss. "I think I can handle it," Kate breathed before blowing a giant raspberry in his face.
Clint jerked himself away and wiped her spit away, shoving Kate playfully. "Well if you're gonna be like that, maybe you don't really want to be a top-notch circus performer."
"Are you saying you don't want to put your hands on me and move me into something like…" Kate pulled a picture out of the stack, an image of Clint holding the circus woman up with his arms and legs while she balanced on his chest and arched her back to touch her feet to her head. "Something like this?"
"I was thinking maybe more like this," Clint held up another picture, this one of him holding her up with one hand and her leaning back to kiss his forehead.
"Sure you're up to it, old man?" Kate teased, sipping slowly on her iced tea without breaking eye contact.
"Just try'n stop me," Clint challenged, a husk in his voice. "We just need to find a place to test your flexibility."
"Here's fine." Kate licked her lips in anticipation.
"Sounds good to me, Hawkeye." Clint whispered, leaning his sweaty body into hers and breathing on her neck, his rough stubble scratching at the delicate skin. "Now… Let's get you all loose and limbered up."
Hi, all! Hope you enjoyed. This fic was written and edited in about an hour. It's loosely inspired by a couple of really cute pieces of fan art by tumblr user when-it-rains-it-snows along with my own need for more Clint and Kate circus tricks. Can be read as the same universe as my cuddling fic or a different one (but more of All-New Hawkeye than Fraction's run); it doesn't really matter. Find me on tumblr as sobasicallyimafreak to see the fanart that inspired this as well as the pictures that inspired the photos at the end there. Hope you have a wonderful day!