#boaf 23

[marvelouslytrekking]

Birds of a Feather {23/?}

Summery: Clint plans a very nice first date but seemingly the universe is not on his side and things do not go as planned. Word Count: 2,695 A/N: Heyo! Back at it with this one for now! I had a lot of fun writing this chapter and finally getting this slow burn somewhere! I hope y'all enjoy it!!

You couldn’t remember the last time you had went on a date. It was certainly long enough ago that you were starting to freak out about going on this date with Clint. It didn’t help that you were already in love with the idiot. 

Clint had been determined to keep the date location a secret, which left you to stare at your closet without knowing what on earth you should wear. He had said fancy so you decided to go with it. You pulled out a nice black dress along with a simple pair of black heals and a small silver purse. You weren’t usually one for a lot of jewelry but you decided to pair it with a simple silver necklace and some small diamond earrings along with a few rings you had. You had also decided to take your time to curl your hair and put more effort into your makeup than you normally would. Just as you were finishing up, you heard a knock at your door. 

You took a steadying deep breath. It was just Clint, but it somehow felt like so much more. After feeling like you had centered yourself, you quickly headed to the door. “Hi.” You greeted him with a smile. You had never seen Clint so dressed up before. You were glad to have gone with one of your nicer dresses as he was in a black suit. 

“Wow,” He breathed as he took in your appearance. “You look amazing.”

“Thank you,” You blushed, “You clean up pretty nice yourself,”

You watched as his cheeks turned a bit pink at the compliment. “Ready to go?”

“Yep,” You nodded, slinging your purse over your shoulder and locking up your apartment. 

As you stepped out of the building, Clint offered you his arm. “I hope you don’t mind, it’s only a few blocks, so I thought we could walk. Or I can get us a cab.” 

“We can walk!” You agreed. You were happy that you had picked a pair of heels that had already been broken in. You walked in a comfortable silence, with your arm looped through Clint’s, you were happily taking in being this close to him.

As you made a final turn onto a new street, you realized where Clint was probably taking you. “Clint, are we really going here? I heard there is usually a like 4 week wait!” 

“I pulled a few strings and got us a table.” He smiled at you, happy to see the big smile on your face. He had picked a pretty exclusive restaurant. It was definitely fancy, but the reviews all claimed that the food was amazing, and not rich person, tiny portion “amazing.” You had mentioned that you had wanted to try it to him once. 

“I can’t wait to try everything” You chuckled.

“Maybe not everything, my wallet might suffer otherwise.” Clint teased. 

“Wow already trying to be cheap,” You teased back.

“What- no! I- I am not cheap!” He pouted. 

“I’m teasing.” You assured him, 

He just huffed as he opened the door for you. He walked up to the host stand with you. “We have a reservation under Barton.”

“Alright, let me just find you here” The hostess told you as she scrolled through her tablet. You watched as she frowned. “You said Barton?”

“Yes.” Clint confirmed. You could see there was a flash of anxiety as he caught on that something was wrong. 

“I’m so sorry, I’m not seeing your reservation. Are you sure you made it for today?” She asked. 

“Yes. I’m sure. It was for this Saturday at 7:00” He frowned. 

“I’m sorry I don’t have you in the system. Did you get a confirmation?” She asked.

“Oh, yes I did!” Clint was quick to pull out his phone and started to scroll through his email. “Here it is” He turned his phone to the hostess. 

“Okay, yeah that’s so weird. I am going to have to grab my manager as we don’t have it in our system and therefore we don’t have a table. I’m so sorry for the inconvenience.”

“Thank you,” you piped up as she started to walk away. Clint huffed beside you. 

“I made the reservation. I don’t know what is going on. I’m sorry this is a bit of a mess.”

“It’s fine. It’s not anyone’s fault. We’ll get something figured out or we’ll go somewhere else. I’m not picky, I promise.”

You watched as his frown only deepened. 

“Mr. Barton” You were interrupted before you could say anything else by what you assumed was the manager. “We want to apologize for this mix up. As my hostess said, we unfortunately do not have a table saved for you, however we were able to pull something together. It isn’t in the best spot and we normally wouldn’t want to seat anyone there but we know how hard getting a table here is. And for the inconvenience, we will be able to get you two a complimentary dessert for the trouble.”

You saw that Clint was struggling with wanting to argue about the situation but also didn’t want to make a scene. “I guess that will work. Thank you.” He said with a tight smile. 

You were walked back to a table all the way in the back corner. You could immediately tell that they had squeezed this table where there definitely normally wasn’t one. It was right outside the door that led into the kitchen and there was a tall plant that was all but pushed into the one chair. Clint seemed to clock all of that as well and huffed but kindly pulled out the chair not beside the plant, and gestured for you to sit down. You smiled as he gently pushed it in before taking his own seat. You had to chuckle a little as he fought the plant slightly. 

“I apologize about that, I will have someone come and move that for you.” The manager said with a frown at Clint swatting the leaves away. You were handed two menus and told that your server would be right with you. 

“This is already a disaster isn’t it?” Clint looked up at you sheepishly. 

“This isn’t even on my top 10 worst dates yet.” You reassured him. 

“God, you have been on some real doozies then.” He laughed. 

“I have.” You agreed. 

When the waiter came over, Clint ordered a bottle of wine, once you nodded in your approval on his choice. The waiter came back with the bottle and two glasses and began to pour the wine. As he was pouring your glass, another waiter came out of the kitchen door carrying a large tray of food. They clearly weren’t expecting an obstacle in their path and had to swerve at the last minute to avoid colliding with your server. Unfortunately, they still managed to clip them just enough that they were jolted forward, and the wine they were pouring spilled directly into your lap. You squealed as the cold drink came into contact with your dress and immediately soaked into the fabric. 

“Oh my god, miss, I am so sorry.” The waiter was quick to pull up the bottle of wine and apologize for the incident. 

“It’s okay.” You assured him. 

“I will go grab a new bottle.” He rushed off as you grabbed the cloth napkin and began to try to dab away the liquid. 

“Have we broken into that top 10 yet?” Clint cringed.

“Getting closer.” You grumbled. You watched as Clint’s face fell and you immediately deflated from your own annoyance. “I’m kidding. It’s truly fine. I’m just going to run to the bathroom to try and clean up a bit.”

“Of course.” Clint agreed. “Please just don’t sneak out the bathroom window.”

“Wouldn’t do me much good, you know where I live.” You joked. 

You took a minute to pull yourself back together in the bathroom. You had been looking forward to this date since Clint had asked and honestly, even before that, so you were trying to ignore everything seemingly going wrong. You chuckled to yourself thinking about it and decided that screw the universe and her twisted sense of humor, you were not going to let anything ruin this date. One final deep breath and you exited the bathroom and headed back to your table. 

You noticed that someone had finally gotten the plant out of the way. “Look at that, you’re no longer sitting on a plant.”

“Yeah, much more comfortable now.” 

“Oh and full glasses of wine, it looks like things are looking up.” You smiled. 

“Why would you go and jinx it.” Clint glared. 

“You’re superstitious?” You laughed. It shouldn’t have surprised you with Clint, but it did. You quickly knocked lightly on the table. “There, I knocked on wood.”

“Not sure that’ll be enough to fix this.” He laughed at you. 

“I can throw salt over my shoulder, if you think that’ll help?” You reached for the salt shaker.

“Not sure the women behind you would appreciate that.” He shook his head. 

“Probably not.” 

“What’s this?” You asked as the waiter put down some prawn cocktail. 

“I thought I’d order us an appetizer while you were cleaning up.” Clint told you. 

You frown as you looked at it. “Clint, that was very kind, but, um- I’m kinda allergic to shellfish.”

“Oh my god! Are you really? I feel horrible!” Clint rushed. You were pretty sure he was seconds away from throwing the dish off the table, so you decided to be merciful and you immediately let out a laugh. 

“Sorry” You said between chuckles. “I just couldn’t help it.”

He just stared at your blankly for a moment before glaring at you. “You’re not allergic, are you?” 

“No,” you kept laughing. 

“That’s just so mean.” He pouted which just caused you to laugh more. 

“I know. But you should have seen your face. It was so worth it.” 

“You’re the worst.”

“You know you love- it” You had almost said ‘love me’, but decided that maybe it was a little soon for that, even as a joke. 

Clint himself paused for a second before he let out a laugh and nodded. “For some reason, you’re right.”

“I always am.”

From there you and Clint fell into comfortable conversations as you normally would, and it seemed like the spell of bad luck was wearing off. Your food did take forever to arrive. Clint had to flag down the waiter and with how sheepish he looked and how he immediately went into the kitchen, you had a feeling he had forgotten to ring it in. 

However once the food arrived, you had no complaints, as the reviews had said, everything was amazing. 

Once you had finished your dishes, both of you raving about how delicious they were, your waiter kindly brought out a large slice of chocolate cake. You were already quite full but that didn’t stop your mouth from immediately watering. 

“I feel like for all the issues, we could have at least gotten two deserts.” Clint grumbled as you already were reaching for a fork-full. 

“You don’t think sharing a dessert is romantic?” You teased. 

“I don’t share my food lightly.” He admitted. 

“Well, I am glad I’m so special then.” You winked at him. The cake was as delicious as it had looked and you two quickly finished the plate. 

“The meal is on the house tonight.” The waiter informed you as he came to clear the plates from in front of you.

“That’s not necessary!” Clint tried to protest. 

“It is both an apology for the service that you received and also a thank you for what you did for the city.” He explained. You could tell that Clint got flustered by the last part. 

“Well thank you.” He gave the waiter a tight nod. You could tell that not having to pay was bothering Clint a bit but you didn’t know how to make him feel better about it. You didn’t care whether he made a show of being able to pay for some fancy dinner. 

Clint made sure to still leave a cash tip on the table before you got up. You were glad to see that even though you could say the service was not spectacular, he still felt it was good to leave the tip.

You followed Clint back out through the restaurant and out to the street. “Do you want me to call a cab or we can walk back?” Clint asked you. The temperature out was still nice and it hadn’t been a long walk there so you suggested walking back, it felt silly to try and wait for a cab for such a short distance. 

As you rounded the corner of your apartment building, you both startled slightly when a loud crack of thunder rumbled overhead. You had checked the weather before you had left and there hadn’t been any storms mentioned but before you could even comment on that, the clouds opened up and sheets of rain came pouring down. 

You squealed before Clint and you both began to make a run for your front door. You had to laugh as you made it into the building. It had only been a few seconds but you were both completely drenched. Clint was laughing a bit too, but you could hear the edge in his tone. 

“I swear the universe was really trying to get me on that list.” He groaned. 

“Well it failed.” You told him as you began the climb up the stairs. “Though you did make it on a list.”

“Oh what list would that be?” He asked. 

“I think that lands in my top 5 best first dates,” You smiled at him. 

“Now I know you have been on some bad dates!” 

“Yeah but even with all the crazy things, there was great food and even better company, so I have no complaints.” You stepped in front of your door, turned back towards Clint. 

“I have to agree, you made the date great even if nothing I had planned seemed to go right.” Clint smiled softly. He took a tentative step towards you. Your eyes flicked down to his lips before going back up to meet his eyes. He took one final step towards you before his own eyes drifted down to your lips for a second. “I really want to kiss you right now.”

“Please do” You breathed out. He didn’t need any further encouragement and before you knew it, his hand was resting on your neck and his lips were connecting with yours. Your hands went up to his arms as you returned the kiss. 

You had had many first date kisses, they were usually awkward and tentative and while Clint definitely had given you a moment to pull away had you wanted to, the kiss was much more heated than typical first kisses were. You had to assume it had something to do with how long you had been harboring feelings for him. 

You only pulled away when a shiver ran through your body. “I should probably get inside and out of these wet clothes. I have the early shift and don’t want to be sick and miserable during it.” 

“I would hate to be the cause of you getting sick.” Clint stepped back so you could turn towards your door. You were more than half tempted to invite him inside but you wanted to make sure to do this relationship right. You felt too strongly for the archer to let the heat of the moment cause any problems for you two. 

“Thanks for a great evening” You turned to him after your door was unlocked. He leaned in for another quick peck. 

“Goodnight Dani” He smiled as he stepped back. You gave him a final smile before stepping into your apartment and closing the door behind you. You found yourself leaning against the door with the biggest grin on your face. You hadn’t had such an amazing time on a date in a long time and boy did Clint know how to kiss.