"Aw, shit," said Jessica, as she stood in the door of what was no longer her bathroom, looking into the face of a very confused middle-aged couple.
"Spider Woman?" asked the woman, edging a bit closer to her husband, her hand curling in the back of his sweater.
"Jesus Christ," she said. "Sorry, oh my God, sorry." She held up a hand, trying to explain herself, but unable to actually articulate herself. She backed into the bathroom and closed the door. She sat down on the toilet, which now held a fuzzy seat cover, and put her head in her hands. "God damn it."
She lifted her head and looked around the bathroom, noting the different shower curtain, the toilet paper rolled the other way, and the couple of toothbrushes actually in a cup and not cluttered around the rim of the sink. This wasn't her bathroom, not anymore. She stood up and slipped out through the open window onto the fire escape. From there, she leapt down to the ground, a few stories below, where she found the things that had been in her apartment. The few boxes, labeled "Jessica Drew, apt. 31" were scattered in and around the green dumpster in the dirty alley.
Jess sighed and rummaged through them, found the ones with her clothes in them, and tucked them under her arms. She was thankful that she kept her more important stuff at Tony's, in a locker in the basement. She had started doing that after the first couple of times she had been evicted since joining the Avengers. A duffel bag of some mementos from her childhood with Hydra, some things from her days in England, and other personal things, in a vault under Avengers tower—just like some of the valuables of many of the Avengers. She knew that Luke Cage, at least, kept some cash stowed away for his kid's college fund.
The kink in her neck strained as she walked out of the alley, and Jessica was brought back into her actual situation. She was, technically, homeless. Again. She rummaged through one of the boxes of clothes, and brought out her phone. It was a durable flip phone, and well-suited for her lifestyle. He suit wasn't well-suited for phones, though, and it stayed behind most of the time. She held down the "end' button to turn it on, but the phone's battery was totally dry. She dropped it back into the box and looked around. She wondered who she could call on, go back to for the night at least…
Carol was out of the question. Last Jessica had heard, she was off fighting some sort of space danger, or something. They hadn't spoken in a couple of weeks, actually. Jessica made a mental note to call her, but knew that for now, she was out of the question to stay with, at least. It was then when the sky above her gave a groan, and a few drops of water splattered against her mask.
"This is exactly the kind of shit I need night now," she said, picking up her boxes from where she had placed them on the sidewalk. She scanned the buildings around her, her now former neighborhood, and knew the closest person that she could stay with. The rain opened up a bit more, a steady beat of rain down on her. She could feel the structural integrity of the boxes she held begin to go. She groaned, disgusted with her choice, and began running in the direction of the closest safe and dry place that she could think of.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Clint was awoken by a high-pitched buzzing in his ear. He sat upright on his couch, looking around his apartment in a frantic haste. It was then that he realized the noise was only the combination of a busted hearing aid and the door buzzer.
"I'm coming," he said to no one as he rose off the couch, feeling his way to the door and the buzzer in the dark, fumbling with his earpiece as he went. He couldn't get the sound to stop, even when the buzzer stopped buzzing, and he eventually just pulled the thing out of his ear. As he did, it slipped from his fingers and fell to the dark floor. "Aw, aid," he said. He heard the buzzer again, this time much more faintly, only the minutest inkling of a sound, but it was there.
Clint pushed the button and spoke into the receiver. "Uh, hello?" he asked, a finger in his ear, trying to adjust to the feeling of emptiness the lack of hearing aid now felt like.
"Clint, it's Jessica." Clint pushed his head closer to the speaker, and pressed the button again.
"I can't hear you, I lost the damn aid, just come on up." He let go of the buzzer, and after a thought, pressed it again. "If you're a bad guy, don't, actually." Then he pressed the button next to the one on the buzzer, ringing the person in. He then felt along the wall for the light switch. It wasn't long before he found it and, immediately after, the hearing aid on the ground. Under inspection, he could see that it was simply turned up to its highest setting and was almost out of batteries. He turned it down and adjusted it on his ear.
Once it was in his ear, he could hear that someone was behind him. He turned, ready to face whoever it was, whether it was a friend or a supervillain or one of those tracksuit mobsters who wouldn't leave him alone.
But he wasn't ready for Jessica Drew, his ex-girlfriend and super powered Avenger Spider Woman, standing in his doorway, soaking wet in her costume, holding two sagging cardboard boxes and a look of desperation on her face. "Clint," she said, her voice coming quietly even though Clint's hearing aid was now well-adjusted. "I need a place to stay for the night. Can I?"
Clint, still not completely awake and a little confused by the situation, just nodded, gesturing toward the interior of his apartment. Jessica gave him an uneasy smile and entered, and he closed the door behind her, wondering if his aid was buzzing or if that was just his brain, now.
A/N: This fic is going to loosely branch off from the new Hawkeye series, obviously after #19. Other than that, there probably won't be too many similarities to the comics. Additionally, I'm not deaf, and I cannot speak from any experience other than interaction with those who are deaf when writing about Clint himself. If anything seems out of the ordinary or contrary to actual experience in regard to his hearing loss, please do let me know!