25 Unicorn Street- Thursday morning

[throughaphase]

After getting back from everyone dies funtimes in Beacon Hills, Kitty could have gone back to her apartment, and changed into her own clothes, or gotten some sleep, or whatever. But it'd been a rough few days and she missed Clint and maybe needed a hug and so she just went straight to his house. Priorities.

Then she just airwalked on up to his room and poked her head in through the wall with a "Hello?" And if he wasn't there, well then she was totally going to take a nap till he got back. Win/win.


[For the arms, and the rest of the guy too while we're at it.]

Comments

[so_hawkward]

Clint and his arms were still in bed, in that sweet spot between being awake and actually being willing to get out of bed. At the sound of Kitty's voice, he picked his head up--okay, he opened his eyes and leaned towards the sound a little. "Kitty?"

[throughaphase]

"Yep," she said with a little smile, fully coming into the room. "Don't get up."

Not that it looked like he was, but she was climbing into bed next to him anyway.

[so_hawkward]

"Mmmm okay," Clint said easily, wrapping his arms around her as soon as she got close. "You're really here, right? I'm not hallucinating?"

[throughaphase]

Kitty snuggled against him, already feeling a little better. She'd see if that lasted once he woke up a little and she started telling him things. "Yeah, I'm here," she said. "The day is saved, so I'm back."

[so_hawkward]

"Aww, you saved the day," Clint said, smiling. "Is Stiles back too?"

[throughaphase]

"Yeah, he is. All parents are safe, and technically... I don't know who saved the day, actually," she admitted. Because one bad guy killed the other and then they let that bad guy live, so...

[so_hawkward]

"It was probably you," Clint said, opening his eyes enough to look Kitty over. "And you're okay?"

[throughaphase]

"A little sore. I'll probably get some interesting bruises," Kitty said, because flying into walls would do that. She was leaving off the usual 'I'm fine' thing though because it sort of felt like a lie overall.

[so_hawkward]

Clint frowned a little at that, and tried to pull Kitty closer. "Is it a good thing you went though? Do you think Stiles would have been okay without you?"

[throughaphase]

Kitty paused.

"I mean, I'm glad I went," she said. "Whether Stiles would have been okay... is complicated."

[so_hawkward]

That got Clint to wake up a little more and look at her. "Okay, what happened?"

[throughaphase]

Kitty totally Kitty really didn't want to talk about this, mostly because she wished it didn't happen, but she kind of had to. "The darach was sacrificing people in threes. She ended up getting Scott's mom and Allison's dad, too," she said, not looking directly at Clint. "We didn't have any way to locate them, and we were running short on time, so we got desperate."

[so_hawkward]

"How desperate?" Clint asked, leaning on his elbow now to really look at her.

[throughaphase]

"There was this sacrifice thing," Kitty said, still avoiding actually looking at him for the moment because she felt like anyone's reaction to this would be bad and she didn't want to see it here. "Scott, Stiles and Allison agreed to die in place of their parents- temporarily- to find them. And the rest of us had to be the ones to do it."

No good way to say that.

[so_hawkward]

"They what?" Clint said. "How temporarily are we talking here?"

[throughaphase]

"I thought it'd be a minute or two. Turned out to be sixteen hours."

Seriously, getting details before going through with a plan from now on.

[so_hawkward]

"What? I thought you said Stiles was okay!"

Look, sixteen hours was a long time to sensible people.

[throughaphase]

"He is. Mostly." She was glad she knew he wasn't fine, and wished she didn't know at the same time. See, it was complicated. "Physically he's fine. Aside from the car accident, which I didn't know about till after everything was over."

[so_hawkward]

"There was a car accident?!" This was what text messages were for, Kitty! "I should have gone with you."

[throughaphase]

"Why?" she asked, a little defensively. She was half waiting for him to say something about her not being able to handle it, but that was probably due to beating herself up about things.

[so_hawkward]

"So you would have had more backup, and I wouldn't just be finding out about this now," Clint said. "Were you in the car?"

[throughaphase]

"No, I was with Scott and Derek in the big boss fight, which is also why you didn't find out about this before now," she said, sitting up. "We handled it, okay? It's fine."

No, it wasn't, but she felt like she had to defend what they did.

[so_hawkward]

"It certainly doesn't sound fine. I know you handled it but you can't tell me it wouldn't have been handled a little smoother if I'd been there to help you," Clint said, ignoring his ability to mess up just about any plan.

[throughaphase]

"Yeah, I can. Because there wasn't any way for it to go smooth at all. Because people there don't know how to communicate their plans and every time there was a good plan, something went wrong," Kitty said. "But fine, if you want, next time I go back to a situation where a bunch of people die violently and I get to drown my friend, you can share the trauma."

...Someone was maybe more stressed than expected. Hint: it was definitely Kitty.

[so_hawkward]

Clint opened his mouth to respond to that, and then sighed and tried to pull Kitty into a hug. "I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I didn't mean to upset you. I just wish you hadn't dealt with all that crap alone."

[throughaphase]

After a moment she relaxed enough to hug him back, reminding herself that it wasn't his fault she had problems. "I was fine at the time. Now's the hard part," she admitted.

[so_hawkward]

"Okay. What can I do to make it less hard?" That was part of boyfriendly duties, right?

[throughaphase]

"More hugs. Tell me I'm not completely terrible. Even if you don't believe it. This is the one case I'm okay with a lie." Oh, and he was probably going to have to deal with her bad dreams about killing people for a while.

[so_hawkward]

"Of course you're not terrible," Clint said, pulling her in for a hug. "You helped your friend save his dad and his friends and why would you be terrible?"

[throughaphase]

"I killed Stiles." For someone who had some pretty good issues with killing, and with her friends dying, actually having to kill a friend would mess with your head. "And there's consequences for that, and I did it anyway."

[so_hawkward]

"Okay but he... you know, asked you to kill him, right? And then you un-killed him or whatever?" Clint asked, trying desperately to understand. Damn it, Beacon Hills. "What kind of consequences are you worried about?"

[throughaphase]

"I didn't have to do anything to bring him back. Which I wish I'd known..." Here she'd just thought it'd be quick. "The guy whose idea this was, he was saying that doing it meant that they'd always have this darkness in them now. Which I think we all blew off but Stiles said he can already feel it."

And really, that was where like 80% or so of her guilt was.

[so_hawkward]

"Was it your idea to have Stiles go through with that? Did you tell him he had to do it, even knowing what it would do to him?" Clint asked.

[throughaphase]

"No. I kept checking to make sure they were sure about it," she admitted.

[so_hawkward]

"Then it's not your fault," Clint said. "Stiles made his decision, and the circumstances sucked and the outcome might really suck, but there's nothing you could have done to stop it. So you're not terrible, especially since I know you're going to look out for Stiles now."

[throughaphase]

"I know," Kitty sighed. "It's just... I don't do well with the whole killing thing, and I don't do well with my friends dying, and now it sounds like he's got whatever's the meta for a Dementor following him around and I can't not feel responsible."

[so_hawkward]

"You didn't kill him," Clint said fiercely. "You helped him, and now you'll be there for him. That's what matters."

[throughaphase]

She didn't really have an argument against that when put that way, so she just nodded and wiped at an eye. "Sorry if I've been difficult."

[so_hawkward]

"You haven't been difficult," Clint said. "You had a really crappy time away and I understand that and I'm sorry. Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?"

[throughaphase]

"You're doing it," Kitty said, managing a tiny smile. "And it wasn't all bad. I got to hit a bad guy with a pipe a few times. That was actually really satisfying."

She'd have been happy if her next birthday party was just spent hitting Jennifer the whole time.

[so_hawkward]

"Oh, beating up bad guys is always therapeutic," Clint said with a laugh, giving Kitty another hug. "I'm glad you're back, and I'm glad you're okay."

[throughaphase]

"Me, too." Also, she was really glad he didn't totally hate her now. Not that that had been a concern or anything, nope. "And I hope you don't mind me staying a while because my apartment's all the way over there."

Besides, Clint was all shirtless and comfortable.

[so_hawkward]

"Nooo, I don't want you all the way over there. I want you right here," Clint said, holding on to her like he could keep her from leaving.

[throughaphase]

Kitty managed more of a smile this time. "Seems like you really do," she said.

[so_hawkward]

"I really do," Clint said, giving her a kiss. "I'm glad you came here."

[throughaphase]

"Me too," she said, kissing him back. "I vaguely remember saying I was going to spend this summer living here in a bikini, and instead there was a bunch of drama. Next year. Seriously."