Chicago- Saturday

[throughaphase]

Kitty wasn't trying to make a big deal about it or anything, but this weekend felt a little bit like a big deal to her. It was her first trip with Clint, it was Hanukkah, it was his first time meeting her mom, and there was bonus quality time with a certain dragon. She saw no bad here. Because she didn't know any better.

Plus, she got to show off her city some. Since the weather was modded into cooperating, they left Lockheed at the hotel to do his own thing while Clint and Kitty headed to Millennium Park for some outdoor ice skating. And since he'd agreed to it, it wasn't till they'd gotten their skates and were headed to the area to put them on that Kitty thought to ask, "Have you done this before?"


[For he who gets to hate on gravity.]

Comments

[so_hawkward]

So far, Clint thought he was doing pretty well with this whole trip. He hadn't accidentally said anything offensive to Kitty's mom, Lockheed had only sneezed at him once (so far), and now he had alone time with Kitty where he'd hopefully earned boyfriend points by agreeing to do what she wanted--it was her city, after all.

"Yeah, I've been ice skating a few times," he said, because that seemed like the obvious answer. Then, realizing that the way his legs were wobbling might give him away, he added. "Okay, I've seen people doing it, so that's a start, right?"

[throughaphase]

"It's sliiightly different," Kitty told him, having absolutely no problem standing up in her skates. "Have you ever been rollerblading?" Because if not she was going to have to be good and not laugh when he fell.

[so_hawkward]

"I've been rollerskating," Clint said, because he was old and thank you for that reminder, Kitty. "I'll be good. I've got awesome balance."

[throughaphase]

Hey now, one of her costumes had included roller skates! ...Because her fashion sense at thirteen had made less sense than it did now.

"Okay," she said slowly, "just... know that almost everyone makes friends with the ice at first. It's totally okay." Because she could totally guess the face he was going to make when he said he had awesome balance and then fell like it was a surprise.

[so_hawkward]

"I'll be good," he said again, waving a hand at her in a way that totally wasn't meant to keep his balance. "Let's see how this goes before we get pessimistic."

[throughaphase]

"Okay. Rink ahoy," she said, starting out towards the ice. While making sure she didn't walk too far ahead or anything and maybe trying to figure out how to be a supportive girlfriend later when he was still sore.

[so_hawkward]

If Clint wasn't... well, Clint, he might have actually been willing to heed Kitty's advice. Instead, he headed onto the ice right behind her and, to his credit, managed to get both feet on the ice before slipping and falling on his ass. "So. Ice is slippery," he said weakly.

[throughaphase]

To her credit, Kitty didn't laugh. Nor did she say 'I told you so.' "Blades are pretty thin, too," she nodded, offering him a hand. "Clint, meet ice. Ice, meet Clint. You'll get less close as time goes on, promise."

[so_hawkward]

Clint glanced at her hand, but didn't take it as he tried to get back on his feet. "I don't want to take you down with me. It's not the ice that's the problem, it's gravity, my least favorite force in the world."

[throughaphase]

"Gravity is pretty much evil," she agreed, letting her hand drop. "If I didn't want to float out into space I'd say we abolish it altogether."

Okay so Kitty didn't really have to deal with gravity unless she wanted to but that was not the point.

[so_hawkward]

"Selective gravity would be the best thing in the world." It was really only a problem when he fell off of buildings. And right now, of course, although Clint did manage to get back on his feet. "Okay, I'm calling a do-over. Sound good?"

[throughaphase]

"Mm hmm. I saw nothing, it never happened," Kitty nodded. "You ready?"

[so_hawkward]

"About as ready as I can be," Clint said. Slowly, he started shuffling forward, grateful that he did actually have a good sense of balance. "See? I told you I'd be okay." Right, of course.

[throughaphase]

"You did, and you are," Kitty smiled, going much slower than she normally would. "And it just gets easier and easier."

[so_hawkward]

"I have a brand new appreciation for the people who do tricks on these things," Clint said. He tried to speed up so Kitty wouldn't have to crawl beside him, but it didn't take long for him to start to lose his balance again.

[throughaphase]

"I will not show off, I will not show off..." she half teased, then looked over and saw him. "You okay there?"

[so_hawkward]

"Completely okay," Clint said quickly, before instinct made him grab for Kitty to try to stop himself from going down again.

[throughaphase]

Was it wrong she'd been expecting something like that to happen? "I see what you're doing, this is totally just an excuse to grab onto me," she teased, trying to keep them both up and steady.

[so_hawkward]

No, it just meant Kitty was smart. "If I was going to grab you, I'd do it in a place I can't grab in public," he said, holding onto--okay clinging to her arm as he steadied himself. "Sorry. I thought I'd be okay at this. Stupid gravity."

[throughaphase]

"Don't apologize. Everyone does this their first time," Kitty said, waiting till he'd steadied himself before reaching for his hand. "Besides, you are so cute right now."

[so_hawkward]

"Oh, yeah, cute is definitely where I want to be right now," Clint said, but there wasn't much annoyance behind it because hey, holding hands was pretty nice. "So, your mom's pretty cool." There wasn't much of a segue there, but he was desperate to talk about anything besides his current fight with gravity.

[throughaphase]

"Yeah, she's not bad," Kitty smiled. "She seems to like you, too." Which, you know, made Kitty plenty happy.

[so_hawkward]

"Well, she helped raise you, so she can't be that bad," Clint said, giving Kitty's hand a squeeze. "I wasn't sure if it'd be easy to behave myself, but it's been really nice so far."

[throughaphase]

"And thank you for behaving yourself, by the way," Kitty smiled, looking over at him (and only checking out how he was doing at standing up a little bit). "I really like having you here. I mean, I know I don't live here anymore or anything, but... I just like it."

[so_hawkward]

"Hey, this is still your home, just like New York is still my home," Clint said. "And I like being here. With you, I mean." If Clint held onto her a little tighter... well, it was only partly to keep his balance.