"Exactly," Clint grinned, finally picking up the wood glue. "Being a Hawkeye is about making the shot no one else can. But being a person? That’s about finishing the shelf."
Kate Bishop leaned against a workbench covered in purple fletching and half-empty coffee cups. "Clint, it’s a shelf. We’ve been here for three hours. The Avengers have saved the planet in less time." Hawkeye: 1Г—4
He ignored her, running a calloused thumb over the rough edge. This was the "1x4" project: a simple set of trophy racks for Kate’s growing collection of "World’s Mediocre-est Archer" awards. But for Clint, it was a rare moment of quiet. No high-stakes missions, just the smell of sawdust and the rhythmic shhh-shhh of a hand plane. "Exactly," Clint grinned, finally picking up the wood glue
"I’m telling you, Kate, it’s all about the grain," Clint muttered, squinting through his hearing aids at the piece of wood. "You rush the cut, you splinter the soul. Precision isn’t just for trick arrows." That’s about finishing the shelf
As they clamped the boards together, the silence of the basement felt heavier and warmer than the noise of the city above. They weren't just building a shelf; they were building a home, one 1x4 at a time.
"Okay, I get it," she admitted, a thin curl of cedar landing on her boot. "It’s... grounding."
Kate took the plane, her movements tentative at first, then finding a groove. She felt the resistance of the wood—the way a 1x4 wasn't just a commodity from a hardware store, but a piece of something that required patience.