I'm coming home

[makethatwork]

Who: Clint Barton and YOU
Where: Alpha Force Tower, later Trailblazer dorms
When: TODAY. ...yeah, whatever today is.
What: Clint's back from his leave and is clueless about the things he missed. Like half his team disappearing.
Warnings: none (yet)

Alpha Force Tower

Clint could use a haircut and a shave, but all in all he doesn't look too worse for wear when he clomps into the residential area of Alpha Force tower, bow on his back and dufflebag slung over his shoulder. He's fiddling with one of his hearing aids, since he'd gotten kind of used to not wearing them most of the time so it's like getting used to them all over again, but otherwise he mostly looks way more relaxed and less likely to flip out than he did in the immediate aftermath of Mockingbird and Captain Victory's deaths.

"Hey, anyone home?" he calls out. "Fi, I brought you a souvenir!"

Trailblazer Dorms

In the wake of finding out that half of his team has disappeared without a trace, Clint wasn't really sure what to do with himself. "Disappeared" doesn't mean "dead", which is a blessing, but that doesn't make him feel that much better. A shower and a shave later, he's still pretty scruffy, but he feels like he should be doing... something.

And that something, he figures, is he should check on the Trailblazer kids. He always tried to keep an eye on them, even outside of the official mentoring or training, and now he's been gone for more than half a year. If nothing else, he knows there's new kids that he hasn't met yet, and he should do that. He shows up at the dorms and just hangs out in the living area, waiting to say hi to whoever comes by.

Comments

[teamsad]

Oh. Crap. Jessica shrinks a little, biting her lip.

"I'm sorry, I didn't... It didn't make the news. In Madripoor. And it wasn't relevant to my mission, so no one in CONDOR told me..."

She needs to not talk to humans, since she's apparently incapable of doing so without screwing it up.

[makethatwork]

The heat of the coffee helps. Or maybe it's the faint scalding of his esophagus. Or maybe it's just the fact that she clearly didn't mean to push any buttons and feels bad about it.

He doesn't know Jess well, but he knows enough about her background to know that she's not exactly the most well-socialized person. She's like a puppy who never learned to speak dog. (Sometimes, he knows how that feels. You learn a very very specific dialect of human interaction in an abusive home, in an orphanage, or in a shady circus. That dialect isn't really spoken by many people who haven't grown up with it.)

"It's okay," he says. "I mean, I managed to miss three of my teammates disappearing like six months ago just because I was in Canada."

[teamsad]

"Yeah," she blows out in a sigh, flicking a glance back at him to try and tell if he's still upset. She likes Clint, and the last thing he wants is to piss him off by being... her. "Maybe we should stop dropping off the grid. Apparently nothing good can come of it."

[makethatwork]

He laughs, and sticks the (now-empty) coffee pot in the sink. "Yeah, seems to be the cause of bad things happening. Let's just stick around for a while and see if that helps."

Nah, Jess. You'd have to actually work to piss Clint off in a real impactful way.

[teamsad]

"Sure," she sayss, false-cheerful. "The worst that happens is we get to be the next ones to disappear, right?"

[makethatwork]

"Hey, we're pretty great CONDOR agents, but I'm not sure they'd be tactically crippled if we dropped off the map."

He bumps his shoulder into hers and smiles crookedly.

"Hey, everything else aside, it really is good to see you again. We never really did much hero-wise together, hopefully we can kick some baddie ass and kiss some babies before anything goes to shit."

[teamsad]

"I'm honestly less worried about how they'd manage than I am about me." She cares about them and all, but... not more than herself.

Jess pulls a little face at that, holding up a hand. "You can kiss the babies, Hawkeye. I'll stick to venomblasting those who deserve it."

[makethatwork]

"Well, that's also a valid concern. I prefer not to think about that concern and the fact that if we get disarmed by aliens or whatever, they'll probably take my ears, too."

Yeah, that's not terrifying or anything.

"Aw, what, you don't like kids?" tease tease. "Come on, they're so... cute and giggly! It's not like you have to change their diapers, you're a fuckin' superhero."

[teamsad]

"No, I really don't. They're tiny and breakable and I have superstrength and..." She takes in a breath, shakes her head. "Dogs don't like me, Barton. You shove a kid at me and it'd probably start crying. Not a great photo-op."

[makethatwork]

"I bet I could find a dog that likes you," he declares. He probably could, too.

"Anyway, you don't have to hold the babies when you kiss them. Most moms actually prefer to keep them, you just, y'know, smile for a photo and move on. The kissing is purely metaphorical unless you wanna drop one on their cute little heads."

Someone stop Clint before he steals a baby. We know you wanna be a dad, Barton, but you have to supply your own baby for that.

[teamsad]

"I seriously doubt it." Jess rolls her eyes. "It's the pheromones. Freaks them right out."

And now she's side-eyeing him. That is way too much enthusiasm about babies, Clint. It's freaking her out.

[makethatwork]

"Okay, it's official, my new challenge is to find a dog that likes you."

At least it's not babies? SHUT UP HE WANTED TO BE A DAD. Before the woman of his dreams got herself killed to save him. He still thinks she made the wrong choice.

[teamsad]

Jess purses her lips, shifting uncomfortably. "It's... really fine. I'm probably not really a dog person anyway."

[makethatwork]

"Duly noted."

Beat.

"How about cats?"

[teamsad]

She purses her lips thoughtfully. "Cats are okay. I've met a few, and they didn't hate me on sight."