Budapest » [Clintasha]

Chapter Fifty-One: Robin Hood

"What were you thinking, Clint?!" Kate roared the second she opened the door to see my battered face there.

"I saved the wedding! I don't know why you're so angry!" I retorted, standing petulantly in her doorway, my weapons dangling off my skinny and gangly frame. "You told me to do it!"

Her reaction was something I didn't see coming. She lowered herself to violence; and I didn't have time to gauge the incoming blow as she slapped me across the face and my head veered off to one side. I was wordless for a moment and I clutched my throbbing cheek, heat flaring at the impact.

"Have a read!" She hollered, stuffing the New York Times into my hand. The front page story was not about the stock markets that day, but about the 'Robin Hood of New York' - 'Saving the rich and saving the poor'. "And that's not the only one, Clint!" She hissed, and a crumpled copy of the Daily Bugle was thrust into my grasp. 'The Boundless Bowman' was the headline, and a blurred photo of me in the church was splashed across the cover in black and white ink.

She may have found it all kinds of offensive, but I wanted to tear those newspaper covers out and pin them to my bedroom - the living room - wall. I mean, it wasn't every day that you made the cover of the newspapers; especially during the Cold War; it was all 'Cuban Missile Conspiracies' this 'Assassination of JFK' that.

"You think this is a bad thing?!" I yelped, a pitiful noise to rival that of the whining pup that had padded loyally to Katie's side; still bandaged like a patient at Bedlam.

"Yes, Clint! I think this is a very bad thing! You're getting yourself wrapped up in the crime scene of New York City: mobs, organised crime rings and international trafficking kingpins. You have no idea what you're trifling with!" She gritted, mussing her hair as she tried to comb the stress strands back into some form of order.

Deep down under all of that fury, there must've been concern. Kate could never remain livid at me for long.

"I'm a hero!" I disputed. Because that was the gospel truth... To me, anyway.

"No, Clint! You're delusional and a thrill seeker!" She returned. "You aren't in the circus anymore. You aren't going to get applauded for vigilantism! The media may love you, but that's because they're raking in the bucks at your expense, the authorities by no means are going to covet you with such idolatry!" Kate's eyes had bloomed with distress, and her cheeks flushed with an inkling of anger. But I could see in the waxiness of her complexion, her bloodshot eyes with their dark circles and her undernourished appearance that her behaviour owed to something more.

"I'm sorry about what happened to your sister, really, I am-" I placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it with reassurance. "But can't you see? I'm saving people, Kate! People like your sister! I'm doing good!"

My newly claimed pup looked greatly addled by the whole palaver: making sobbing and mewling noises akin to that of a new-born; nuzzled into me as some form of refuge. Lucky's tail was strung between his legs at all of the arguing and his frame trembling.

"You weren't fast enough to save Susan!" Kate slapped my hand away. "And if you're not careful-" her voice cracked in her throat. "-and you mess with bad people; you're gonna end up just like her!" Then slammed the door in my face.

Lucky barked with the fright of the sudden clap of noise and I felt the draught of air brush me as I was locked out. The tiny golden ball of fur was quick to bury its head into my calve and latch onto me with its claws.

"Kate!" I called, pounding my fist on the wood. "Katie, c'mon!" I hammered insistently; unignorably.  "Kate, don't be like this." I was persistent, until my knuckles began to tingle with the bruising from knocking so ardently. I slumped against the wood; resigned to the fact she was going to ignore me until she was in a better state.