New York- Wednesday evening

[throughaphase]

This trip had been a little more eventful than Kitty had thought it'd be, but at least they'd stayed. By evening on Christmas, since there weren't any tracksuit bros causing any problems, they'd figured that they could spend some time out walking in the city. After all, it was Christmas in New York, it wasn't too cold, and everything was pretty. Even if some of the buildings were still undergoing repairs, it still looked festive.

"I think it was good to get out for a while," Kitty said, reaching for Clint's hand.


[For that guy!]

Comments

[throughaphase]

"What, part of a day of people not sucking?" she laughed.

[so_hawkward]

"That holidays are sometimes effective in creating peace," Clint clarified, glancing up at a nearby building when the tarps and cranes caught his eye. "I'm glad they don't have any of the guys out working today. They definitely deserve some time off."

[throughaphase]

"They really do," Kitty agreed, frowning a little. "Is this still from Loki?"

[so_hawkward]

"It's from the fight," he said, holding her hand a little tighter. "We kind of did a lot of damage, although the space whales didn't help."

[throughaphase]

"Damage comes pretty standard with these kinds of things," Kitty said. Of course, that kind of thinking was what was gonna make Maria Hill tear her hair out one day. "You got space whales?"

[so_hawkward]

"Flying scaly space whales," Clint said with a hint of a smirk. "It was pretty awesome, and terrifying and awful all at the same time."

[throughaphase]

"Sounds like the appropriate reaction to space whales," she smiled, then grew a little more serious. "Is it still weird to talk about?"

[so_hawkward]

"Yeah, kind of," Clint admitted. "I feel like less of it's my fault though, which would make SHIELD's shrinks happy."

[throughaphase]

"Ooh, progress," Kitty said, letting go of his hand to slip her arm around his waist. "And you know my next line should be to tell you you're not at fault at all, right?"

They'd gone through this once or twice by now, after all.

[so_hawkward]

"And you know that my next line is that rationally, I know you're right, but... it's hard to convince myself," Clint said.

[throughaphase]

"I know," Kitty said. "You'll get there. You've gotten this far, right?"

[so_hawkward]

"Yeah, and it only took a year and a half. Woo," Clint said with a small amount of enthusiasm.

[throughaphase]

"It doesn't matter how long it takes, it matters that it happens," Kitty told him. "It's taken me way longer to get over some of my stuff, so I'd say you're doing good."

[so_hawkward]

"That doesn't mean you're not doing good," Clint said quickly, wanting to be reassuring. "I think you're doing great. You always seem great to me, I mean."

[throughaphase]

Kitty smiled at him. "You're sweet. You're also kind of proving my point there."

[so_hawkward]

Clint thought about what he'd said for a moment, and then made a squinty face. "I was talking about you, not me?" he said, trying to backtrack.

[throughaphase]

"That really was a valiant effort right there, but nope, not gonna work," Kitty grinned.

[so_hawkward]

Clint made a grumbling noise and stuck the hand that wasn't holding Kitty's in his pocket. "You've still had it a lot worse than I have." That, at least, was something she probably couldn't argue with.

[throughaphase]

"Maybe," she conceded. "I think we're about even on this issue, though. I've just had more time to deal with mine. And he doesn't always stay dead so there's some catharsis in beating him again. Different situations."

[so_hawkward]

"Yeah, having Loki in town doesn't exactly help, even if he is a teenager with no knowledge of what happened here," Clint said. "He's still just snarky enough to... be annoying." That was better than describing the full list of what running into Loki did to his stomach.

[throughaphase]

"I can see it. And it's easy to believe that maybe he's not being entirely honest about that because, well, Loki," Kitty added. "But at least you can live in the same town as him and have a normal life."

[so_hawkward]

"Oh yeah, our lives are so normal," Clint said sarcastically, because he needed to have something to joke about in this conversation.

[throughaphase]

"Relatively normal?" Kitty tried. "Sort of?"

[so_hawkward]

"I guess. Distance from pretty much everything makes it easier." That probably wasn't healthy, but Clint didn't really care.

[throughaphase]

"True. Doesn't help much when you actually need to get back to things, though." She was pretty guilty of this one herself.

[so_hawkward]

"Yeah, I guess I've been pretty lucky that no one really needed me for anything besides getting that tape back," Clint said. It was totally okay to not be needed, honestly. "Would it help to visit your friends more? Maybe together?"

[throughaphase]

If Kitty looked a little surprised, it was because she totally was. "You'd want to do that?"

[so_hawkward]

If Clint looked surprised by the surprise, it's because he was too. "Sure, why not?" he said with a shrug. "They all seem to like me, which is nice, and they're good people. And I know I should encourage you to see them alone, but if they try to get you to come back, I want to be there to remind you not to. Possibly with nudity. I know your weak spots."

[throughaphase]

"I guess this is one area where I don't mind being predictable," Kitty considered. "I mean, sure, if you want to go I'm totally happy to have you with me. Though after the last time I'm not sure they'd ask me back without a very good reason."

[so_hawkward]

"They're your friends. They care about you. Of course they're going to want you to come back," Clint said, giving Kitty's hand another squeeze. "I think they understood why you got upset last time."

[throughaphase]

"I hope so. And I hope they take that as a hint," she said. "And I don't exactly hate the idea of them getting used to you being around."

[so_hawkward]

Yeah, Clint didn't really hate that idea either. "They should probably get used to it, if you don't plan on me going anywhere for a while," he said. Of course it would be up to her and her feelings, not him and his feelings.

[throughaphase]

"Which I really don't," she smiled. "They might start to talk, though."

[so_hawkward]

"Like my neighbors? They've been nice, at least?" Clint said uncertainly.

[throughaphase]

"Oh, they're great," Kitty assured him. "And my friends have been okay to you?"

[so_hawkward]

"Yeah, absolutely. I didn't get many shovel speeches at all. Much fewer than I expected," Clint said, at least partly teasing.

[throughaphase]

"They're not really shovel people." Who needed shovels when you could teleport ? "Good. Then I don't have to yell at anybody."