Kitty's Apartment to Fast Eddie's, Saturday Evening

[so_hawkward]

As it turned out, Clint was glad he'd told Kitty that he'd surprise her with where they were going tonight, because it gave him time to weigh his options. Fandom had an awful lot of places to take someone for food and drinks, but there seemed to be only one place with food and drinks and games he could beat Kitty at.

Look, being impressive to a girl who could make herself intangible was hard, okay? He had to take his opportunities where he could get them.

It had been a while since he'd done anything like this, but Clint was determined to not let that show. When he got to Kitty's apartment, the only thing left to do was knock on the door and hope for the best.

[For that girl with the awesome pants!]

Comments

[so_hawkward]

"I figured we could head over. It's not far," Clint promised. There was the potential there for a line about coming back to her place later, but Clint was enough of a gentleman to keep that thought to himself.

[throughaphase]

"Let me just get my stuff," she said, going to pick up her purse and locking the door. Of course her keys were staying here because she didn't actually need them, but the door was getting locked. "Where are we going, anyway?"

[so_hawkward]

"Have you ever been to Fast Eddie's?" Clint asked. "I figured we could see how many times I can beat you at pool before it gets boring, among other things."

[throughaphase]

"I stopped in there once." And then there was an Emma. "You really think you're going to beat me that bad?"

He would. Undoubtedly. She knew how to hit the ball with the stick and that was what she could do.

[so_hawkward]

"Well, I could be convinced to let you win once," he said, smirking as they headed over. "Or I might only beat you a little. I'll admit, I'm out of practice."

[throughaphase]

"Oh, no. None of this letting me win stuff," she said. "Especially since I'm pretty sure I'm going to kick your ass at it."

No. Not possible. She was completely lying.

[so_hawkward]

Ah, but she was at least pretending to be confident, and Clint liked that a lot. "And here I was thinking we shouldn't be making any bets about who would win," he said, laughing. When they got to the door of Fast Eddie's, Clint made sure to open it for her. It seemed like the right thing to do, at least.

[throughaphase]

Amazing that you could earn points for chivalry from someone who could just walk through the door regardless, and yet. "Thank you," she said, and paused. "Do you really want to make bets?"

[so_hawkward]

"I am always willing to make bets on things, which I consider adventurous, but some people call idiotic." Clint grinned at her. "I think I prefer my take on it."

[throughaphase]

"Adventurous," she repeated, finding a free table. She kind of couldn't back out now, huh? "Okay, fine. What do you want to play for?"

[so_hawkward]

Oh, there were so many inappropriate things that came to Clint's mind, but he settled on, "Drinks? Maybe just one round," he said. "It'd be mean to take you out and make you pay for everything."

[throughaphase]

She'd be lying so hard if she said she hadn't been curious as to how he'd answer that. "Sounds good to me! Now where's the... triangle thingie?"

It's called a rack, Kitty.

[so_hawkward]

Clint put his hand over his mouth and coughed to try to cover his snickering. "Here, why don't you let me set up, and you can pick out a stick you like?" he suggested

[throughaphase]

And now it was Kitty's turn to not lead off with a really inappropriate comment. Ahem.

Going to the wall to check out the sticks, she asked, "So how out of practice are you, exactly?"

[so_hawkward]

"I haven't done this since I got here, and before that... it's been a really light year recreation-wise," Clint admitted as he arranged the balls in the rack. "There's not a lot of time for goofing off when people are trying to take over the world."

[throughaphase]

"Tell me about it," she said, leaning a little on the cue she'd decided on. "Which kind of sucks when that's when you need some downtime. For a little while afterwards, at least."

[so_hawkward]

"Yeah, my 'little while' of downtime has gotten a lot longer than I thought it'd be. But I can't complain," Clint said, smiling at her. "It's turned out to be a lot less boring too."

[throughaphase]

"Good," Kitty smiled back. "And I for one wouldn't be upset if your downtime just kept on going."

[so_hawkward]

"Well, it might have to keep going if someone needs to be taught how to play pool." That was his awkward-avoiding way of saying thank you, Kitty. He picked a cue of his own and motioned to the table. "You can break. Ladies first and all."

[throughaphase]

"I know how to play, thank you. Remember all the ass-kicking I'm about to do," she said teasingly, leaning to take the shot. If she'd known she was going to spend her evening leaning over... well, she still would have worn this top.

The cue ball hit, and the balls scattered around the table, and one solid almost went in. See how much of a pool shark she was?

[so_hawkward]

Yeah, Clint had no complaints about that top at all, and he was trying not to stare, but he was only human. "I definitely feel like I might be in trouble," he deadpanned, taking his time leaning over the table to line up his shot and sink that solid ball in. She had said not to let her win, after all.

[throughaphase]

Like she wasn't checking him out while he was doing this. That was probably about 75% of why people played pool. "Just you wait. You have to miss sometime."

[so_hawkward]

"Only because we're playing pool. If we were shooting something, I'd never miss," Clint remarked, taking his time with the next shot as well, because hey, maybe he liked being checked out. Luckily for Kitty, she was right, and he did miss.

[throughaphase]

"Oh, I know better than to challenge you to a shooting competition." She'd seen him with the bow, after all.

She looked over the table a moment, then aimed with the cue to try and hit a striped ball in the hole... and somehow managed to ricochet it and sink a solid instead. "You're welcome for that."

[so_hawkward]

Clint laughed. "Are you trying to let me win? Because I don't want that either." Pool wasn't the same as shooting with a bow, but it was all about angles and hitting things with just the right power and... well, Clint was good at the first part, at least. He got his first ball into a pocket, but the second one didn't go in, although it did push one of the striped balls closer to sinking.

It totally didn't count as helping if Kitty still had to get it in, right?