The next week for us passed without incident. Clint went to 'work' each day and I stayed at the house and socialized with the neighbors. Disappointingly, John and Olivia had left on a trip with Olivia's father so we'd only gotten to spend time with them once. On the other hand, I'd spent almost every day with Trish and her little group. It was easy to identify the women Olivia had mentioned that were cold from the start from the ones that turned on her. If my guess was right, the spacey women had become initial test subjects of the mind control while the others seemed to be part of the cell or at the very least their husbands were. I noted my observations in my update reports and my handler seemed to feel that this was a good sign and that I was progressing well but still felt that it would be a few more weeks before we could infiltrate the cell. I'd continuously left out Clint or my involvement with him from the reports, and thankfully I hadn't been asked anything regarding my partner.
Clint and I agreed however that it wouldn't take the month or so that had been originally suggested. I refused to let on that the idea of the mission being over soon was mildly disappointing to me as I'd started really enjoying having Clint around and while I would be glad to take down the cell and secure my place as an agent I would miss him. It was nice having someone around to talk to and spend time with, especially when there wasn't baggage floating around between us. Maybe that was why we were working together so well, we didn't feel the need to dredge up each other's pasts or throw in talks of relationships in otherwise normal conversations. I occasionally got the feeling that Clint knew I wasn't looking forward to our eventually separation but as of yet he hadn't said anything to me about it. If it weren't for work and the super secrecy of it I'd have considered suggesting we meet up again sometime after all this was over, but if things went well I wouldn't be sure how often I'd even be available let alone know my capacity to have a functioning relationship of any kind with someone because of the cloak and dagger nature of it.
Still, the consideration found its way to my mind while I considered the little party at Trish's that we were supposed to go to the following afternoon. She had called a few hours previous to insist we come and that itself was enough to make me think twice. Every other time she'd wanted me or Clint to come around she came over a day or so before rather than calling less than twenty-four hours in advance. She'd also said it was going to be in her house which given the perfect weather we were supposed to have seemed a little fishy as well. I had every intention of bringing my gun with me and hoped that Clint had some sort of plan since he couldn't very well show up with bow and arrow. I'd only vaguely mentioned it to me and he'd said he had it handled so I was going to trust that he did.
While Clint fiddled with his arrows in the spare room I sat down with a magazine to try and relax. Unfortunately, both because I read so quickly and my mind couldn't focus my attempt at relaxing failed and I came up with a few plans in the event that Trish's intentions were more sinister. At this point it was just as likely that we'd in some way get more involved with the cell as it was that Trish or one of the others had up and decided to have a little community party. John and Olivia were due back the day after the party so perhaps the fickle neighbors wanted to throw a party without the hassle of looking bad by not inviting them. The other options left us with the neighbors wanting to turn is in to mind controlled zombies or testing us to see if we would work with the cell, both of which would be fantastic options for the part of me that wanted to get the mission done and over with so that I could show up those that wanted to think I couldn't handle it.
With more than enough plans floating in my head, my thoughts unfortunately shifted back to my predicament that no amount of thinking seemed to solve. It didn't help that I'd never really had any experience dealing with any situations even close to like this. To a point I wondered if things would be easier to figure out if I hadn't slept with him but at the same time the generally unprofessional level of intimacy between Clint and I wasn't having much impact on my thought process because it wasn't as if we weren't both consenting adults with a mutual attraction between us. Given how entirely unprofessional it was, I fully planning on leaving it out of my report regardless of whether or not I decided to try and maintain a friendship with Clint, an idea I found myself growing very attached to.
Sick of staying occupied with the same thoughts, I tossed the magazine aside and decided to go see what Clint was getting up to with his bow as it was clear I wasn't going to get anything else done. Clint however, seemed to be the opposite. He had pieces of the arrows laid out on the floor around him and various pieces parts that I wasn't sure the purpose of and there was hardly an empty space on the floor except around the outside.. It was interesting to watch him work, disassembling and reassembling them with added bits and pieces that let on that he certainly knew what he was doing with them. I was thoroughly impressed with him, it was one thing to choose bow and arrow as your weapon of choice, but he took it to a whole new level.
"Do you stare at everyone like that Kitten, or just me?" Clint teased without looking up at me from his current arrow and I smiled a little at the start of our familiar banter.
"I only stare at the people that look like lunatics sitting in the middle of the room playing with arrows like a mad scientist in his lab or something."
"So then just me," Clint laughed as he set down the arrow and looked at me and my jaw dropped a little when I realized the connotation of what I'd said. Now I was kicking myself for giving him the chance to take my well-mannered jab and turn it against me…again. He was getting better at finding the best ways of getting a reaction out of me, but at the same time I was getting better at masking my reactions from him. "What, no catty comeback, cat got your tongue?"
"Stop with your chirping Hawk or the kitty might just clip your wings and kick you out of the nest tonight."
"Harsh kitty, harsh, I liked it better when you were threatening to eat me, much better results."
"If I'm not mistaken it was you threatening to eat me, not the other way around," I laughed back to him as I moved around the edge of the room.
"You must be mistaken then," Clint teased, grinning at me as I leaned against the wall. "Because I remember you did more than your fair share of eating."
"I wouldn't call that eating at all! After you've seen how I eat I can't believe you'd even want to try and say that."
"I couldn't help myself, the way you rolled your eyes was priceless. You going to stand there all day or are you going to come over and sit down?"
"And where pray tell am I supposed to sit over there, the floor is covered with your arrow parts and doo dads." I asked with a laugh, rolling my eyes again when he patted his leg. "Right, because I can at all trust you not to pull something."
"I've never said I wouldn't, and you still came over anyway kitty cat so obviously it doesn't matter too much to you if you can trust me not to do anything or not," Clint laughed as I sat down on his lap. There wasn't much point in voicing a response; he'd flip it on me anyway so I chose a different approach. Once I'd settled in I swung my elbow back against his chest and smirked when he groaned.
"I told you to watch it Hawk, the kitty still has claws and she will use them.
"Messaged received Cat, message was definitely received," Clint grumbled as he rubbed the spot on his chest that I'd elbowed. For some reason I didn't have a full grasp on, it made me feel a little guilty that I might've actually hurt or upset him. "Anyway, what brings you up here? I thought you were going to chill for a while."
"I was going to, but I got bored and figured that I would come see what you were up to up here. Still don't know what you're doing but it has got to be more entertaining than sitting downstairs by myself."
"Well I'll tell you what kitty, I'll let you help me and you can see exactly what I'm doing and cure your boredom. Sound good to you?" Clint asked as he looped an arm around me which I chose to ignore. It seemed like what he was doing was something fairly precise and he was going to let me help him, he didn't even know that I'd likely pick up on what to do quickly. I wasn't used to people having faith in me like that and it made me quite happy.
"Absolutely! I mean I don't know how helpful I'll actually be but it could be fun," I responded excitedly.
"Don't worry about that, I'll walk you through it. You seem like a pretty smart lady so I'm sure you'll do fine." It took a bit for Clint to explain the different set ups that he used with his arrows and give me a quick run through of his customizations. He had me impressed and reinforced my feelings that you could never really know about a person from surface things. I got the feeling that if things with the cell came to blows he would be an asset to me.
Starting out I watched Clint put together a normal arrow as well one of the trick arrows. It seemed like a simple enough task and when I tried the standard arrow I had no issues getting it done. When it came to the trick arrow I relied on using my eidetic memory to recall what Clint had done with his before I started assembling my own. I felt him watching me as I worked and once I felt like I was finished I set the arrow down and looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"You are absolutely amazing, do you even realize that?! It took me forever to figure out how to put the trick arrows together and you just took less than an hour, how?!" We stared at each other for a moment as I realized that in my excitement I definitely didn't do things like a normal person.
"Well I suppose it can't really hurt to tell you seeing as how I made it pretty obvious I'm not normal."
"Of course you aren't normal; I noticed that when I met you kitten."
"I'll try to take that as a compliment. But anyways, the easiest way to explain is that I've got a supercharged eidetic memory so I remember pretty much everything I see, here, feel, all of that. So I watched you first and while I was working I relied on remembering how you did it to help me figure it out. I usually try to be a lot less obvious about it but I guess I got a bit carried away in my excitement."
"Be less obvious!? Flaunt it girl, you've got one serious skill set there that you should be workin' the hell out of."
"It's nice that you think so, but flaunting well above average intelligence and eidetic memory doesn't really do anything for you. Guys don't want to date girls so much smarter than them that will never forget anything they say, and no one really wants to be friends with that person either not to mention the number of people that I'm sure would love to try and exploit me."
"Kitten you are absolutely out of your mind, only a chicken shit wouldn't get with a girl because she's got a good brain on her, especially one so pretty as you. You've got the full package Kitty-Cat." I was blown away by how sweet he was even if I wasn't sure I was buying in to it. Sure he had a habit of being ungodly inappropriate and going out of his way to push my buttons, but he was such a total sweetheart that it made my heart melt. I didn't know what to say in response to him but Clint spoke again, saving me from an immediate response. "Just don't go changing yourself for anyone."