i'm the hero. i'm just in time.

There had been some new people the last couple weeks, a couple loops to be thrown for, and naturally Kitty figured that one thing to do about it was to invite the grumpy alternate universe version of her mentor/big brother type figure to dinner to meet her family.

When you came from the world she did and had spent this much time in Fandom, this was completely reasonable and not uncomfortable at all. Sorry, Logan.

The place was ready, the pizza was ordered, and now Kitty was waiting to see if he'd actually show up.


[For those two!]

As mornings went, this one was pretty typical for the Barton household. There was coffee on while Kitty made breakfast that wasn't just sugar cereal, the dogs had been walked and the marshmallow snow had been cleaned off their feet, and Lexi was on the floor scribbling on some paper.

She did keep asking about the zoo, though. Because she was very new to this whole "concept of time" thing but she knew she'd been asking about it for a while now.


[For the fam.]

Honestly there was probably no one more relieved to have this over than Lexi, who Kitty had been vague around but also she'd had no choice but to bring her around because this has not been an optimal time to find a babysitter in Fandom.

Which meant that Lexi was insisting on camping out outside the bathroom while Clint showered, with Kitty sitting next to her in the hall to say things like, "Honey, you don't need to knock to check on him, he's there."


[For the husband who's back!]

The bad news was, Lexi had been dragging the inflatable reindeer she'd been gifted around like it was her new best friend.

The good news was, there was a rule that Mr. Rudy had to sleep downstairs.

And that was a very good thing, because when the dogs started barking like crazy and Kitty went downstairs to check what had happened, she did not expect to find a murderous reindeer down there.

"Uh, Clint?" she called.


[For that guy!]

Kitty was no stranger to waking up suddenly because something was wrong. She'd been in the X-Men a whole year, that sort of thing happened all the time.

She was a total stranger to a two-year-old climbing out of her crib to come into her room and pull the covers off in the effort of trying to climb onto the bed.

So very cold now, Kitty sat up and looked at Lexi, who was now trying to pull the covers off on purpose, and said, "You need boundaries."


[For the teen dad!]

If you haven't seen on social media, my dad died this morning. Nick and I were already headed down tonight to see him anyway, it's just that the trip has changed by a lot, and gone from "we'll work from the hotel because visiting hours aren't till 3 anyway" to "let's clean out a condo in its entirety to hopefully drive back up if we need to???"

I'm not taking a break or anything, and in fact I'm probably going to be trying to throw characters at stuff like normal as much as my brain allows for something normal to do and/or might beg for fluff, but if I TD or end up on SP for way longer than usual, that's why. And I might not be around at all this weekend if I have to drive 17 hours back from Florida. Who knows!

Anyway, bleh.

Kitty hadn't thought much of the nightmares last night. It was weird for some of the stuff to come up after all this time, but she hadn't been that worried about it. Then came tonight (...this morning?), where she'd dreamt of being thirteen and on a table, having her memories removed and replaced with false ones, like everything about her was removed to turn her into a killing machine.

It was invasive, and terrible, and when she woke up she was left with the thought of just how hard it had been to come back from that, how much Logan had had to push her to make her own choices and work past the brainwashing when all she'd wanted to do was run. It wasn't even like she hadn't had to deal with Ogun twice since then, and the randomness and detail of this now actually made her mad.

She sat up in bed, rubbing her face, and apparently she was awake now.


[For the guy in the bed!]

Look, most of not all of our brains are melted, and it's hard to get into stuff, so thanks to Fry let's have a game night! And Cards Against Humanity is kinda perfect for nonsense fun. You don't have to do anything! A spreadsheet of cards will be provided.

Signups are up just so I have an idea of how to split up the cards. If you decide you want to play on Thursday, you'll just drop a comment here and I'll give you a set. Easy peasy.

WE DESERVE THIS.

'Twas the day after Christmas, and all through the town, Kitty was going around and hanging up posters advertising the New Year's Eve party at Caritas. If it was her night behind the bar anyway, might as well, right?

And once she was done with this she'd have to go burn the original posters Tino had done up, because no one needed the image of him dressed up like the New Year's baby in their heads.


[My plans flaked out so RP party it is! Will go up on Monday night for SP, and open if you want to catch Kitty around town!]

The good news was, Kitty had a small class, which meant she probably could get away with only being here a couple hours in case anyone wanted to talk to her, and if no one did then she could get some work done. It also meant that for the moment, Clint and Barney would be left with Lexi, and she wanted to get back there.

Not that she thought they couldn't handle it or anything. She just wanted to see what it was like.


[Open!]

At least one kid is an animal which means it's SDCC time! I'm leaving first thing in the morning and am coming back late Sunday, and I'll be pretty much afk.

In the meantime, Sabine is a bird in the care of Kanan and Hera, Kitty's off in New York with the fam, Aeryn has a family thing, and Brooke and Janet are quiet, with modding rights to the bf and roomie, respectively. My alumni might come out if I'm bored in line/an airport/crying on the floor from overstimulation and needing a break. (I'm about 50/50 with the crying thing.)

See some of you there!!!

Kitty usually woke up early, and she hadn't thought anything was off until she started to sit up and noticed that the room was different. It took a second to recognize it, and she immediately thought, Oh, this again. It wasn't the first time she and Clint had woken up here, it probably wouldn't be the last.

Around that time she decided that her life was too weird, and that reaction proved it, even if it was probably way too late to do anything about the weirdness now.

What actually got her out of bed, though, was the outraged shriek of, "Are you kidding me?" from the other room.


[For those in the house!]

For the most part, Kitty loved this week when it rolled around. No matter how frustrating the day could get, she had it easy, because she always had Clint at home.

However, this was the first time they also had a teething baby at home, too.

"Okay," Kitty said as she phased back into the bedroom through the closed door. "She's down now. For real this time."

...She was pretty sure.


[For the guy!]

Months ago, Kitty had said she was going to throw a birthday party this year, just to make Rosa go to it. And then Clint and Kitty's birthday week came up and she decided nope. They had a very-nearly-two-month-old, she was tired, she just did NYE, no.

Instead, they were celebrating their birthdays with an actual date night. At a hotel. Where they could sleep the whole night. And get room service. And not have to clean anything. It was gonna be great. Kitty was already in pajamas.

And as she pulled the cover off one of the food trays, she made sure her phone was face up on the bed and in sight so she wouldn't miss any calls about Lexi. "No news is good news, right?"


[For the slightly belated birthday boy.]