The Xavier School- Westchester, NY- Friday morning

[throughaphase]

It'd been a weird week. After Jean's funeral the focus turned to rebuilding, with everyone pitching in to get the mansion fixed up again so that the school could reopen. There'd been rumblings that Scott- who by the way was already with Emma and don't think Kitty hadn't questioned the hell out of that- had wanted to move on from that and not have anything to do with it, but he seemed better with the idea now. There was a lot of anti-mutant sentiment going around, basically everything was terrible, and showed no signs of getting better.

Home sweet home.

Kitty had started her day working on getting the Danger Room operational again, and then Scott had asked to talk to her. It'd been a pretty long talk, and now Kitty had a lot to think about, and so she'd found an open area away from the mansion rubble to sit in the grass and mull things over, even if she was pretty sure she knew what her decision actually was.

[For Clint and NFB for distance!]

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[so_hawkward]

Clint had been doing his best to stay out of the way of things, but that didn't mean he'd stayed out of sight--that is, he hadn't let Kitty out of his sight. It was obvious that things were not going well, so when he saw her moving away from the mansion site, he waited for a minute to make sure she was still alone before going over to her. "Hey. That Scott guy's kind of... special," he said politely.

[throughaphase]

"He's having a rough time," Kitty said, looking up at him and patting the open spot on the lawn next to her for him to sit. "I mean, I assume..."

[so_hawkward]

"Maybe Emma's helping him deal?" Clint said, taking a seat. "Some people don't do rough times well by themselves."

[throughaphase]

"Maybe. I'm not sure showing up at your wife's gravesite with your girlfriend is the smartest of moves, though," she said. You know, the grave that actually said on it that Jean would come back, because she was Jean. "Rachel is pissed, and I can't really blame her."

[so_hawkward]

"No, I don't blame her either," Clint said. "Like this whole situation isn't emotionally draining already. How are you holding up?"

[throughaphase]

"Okay. More worried about her and Hank, and no one even knows where Logan is..." Probably in a bar somewhere. For days. "And I had a talk with Scott."

[so_hawkward]

"Do you think you talked some sense into him? If anyone could do it, it's you," Clint said.

[throughaphase]

"Probably not. Though he also knows where I stand on Emma anyway," Kitty said. "But there was something else we talked about that I need to run past you."

She'd maaaybe practiced that phrasing a bit in her head so Clint wouldn't immediately think something was bad. Not trying to worry the boyfriend here.

[so_hawkward]

Ha ha, like Clint wouldn't automatically expect the worst no matter how she phrased it. "Okay," he said, turning fully towards her. "What's up?"

[throughaphase]

"So," she said, "Scott asked me to be on his new team, which isn't a shock, but I'd be able to do it on kind of a part time basis."

[so_hawkward]

"Oh," Clint replied, processing that for a moment. "Are you sure you want to? Do it part time, I mean, not be on a team with Scott. Although I sort of have to question that too."

[throughaphase]

"Scott's a good guy. I completely trust him with this sort of thing." Sure, eventually she'd totally try to kill him, but that was eventually. "I'm not really thrilled at getting back into uniform, honestly, but this deal actually sounds like I could keep what I have going in Fandom and still do some good here."

[so_hawkward]

"I thought you'd be excited about getting to be in the uniform, so you can help people," Clint said, giving her a small smile. "How much time do you think you'd be spending away from Fandom?"

He was trying to be optimistic here, deep down.

[throughaphase]

"A couple days a week. Scott's also asked me to play guidance counselor for the kids here, which is actually a big draw. So I could portal here Wednesday mornings, I think, spend the night, be back after classes are over on Thursday and come back to catch up on boyfriend time." And she totally would. That was entirely part of the plan formulating in her head. "Though you're always welcome to come with me if you want. And if I'm needed for anything they'll call me, so that part'd be like you and SHIELD."

[so_hawkward]

"That... actually sounds like a good plan. You'd be a really good guidance counselor," Clint said. "Are you sure that's not a lot of portaling though?" It might be better for her to realize that now rather than later, he figured.

[throughaphase]

"Oh, it's a lot of portaling. But the school's picking up the tab, so at least that's taken care of," Kitty said. "You really think this sounds good?"

[so_hawkward]

"I think it sounds like something that'll make you happy, and it's not like I won't get to see you still," he said. "Just promise me you'll be careful, and if you run into trouble, know you can call me? And if you end up not wanting to come back to Fandom..." Yeah, he wasn't going to finish that sentence.

[throughaphase]

Kitty gave him a little smile and leaned in to kiss his cheek. "I'm not going anywhere. Not without you. I'm not leaving unless that's what we both want," she assured him.

[so_hawkward]

Clint hadn't realized how much he actually needed to hear that until he sighed with relief. "Okay. I mean, of course," he said, with a more genuine smile. "Maybe you'll get to miss out on more of the weird stuff that way."

[throughaphase]

"That'd be nice. Which means it's so not going to happen," Kitty smiled. Okay, the smile was because he was all relieved. "And you'd be okay with it if I tell him yes? Honest answer here."

[so_hawkward]

Clint thought about it for a few more moments, and then nodded. "Yeah I--I mean, I'm gonna miss you, and I'm gonna worry about you while you're gone, but this is a really good opportunity and I'd be a jerk to try to stop you."

[throughaphase]

"I'm gonna miss you, too. But it's like a day and a half each week. That's like what happens when one of us isn't spending the night at the other's place. We can totally do this," Kitty said confidently.

[so_hawkward]

"I know we can do this. Just promise me you'll be careful?" Not that being surrounded by destruction was making him think about how dangerous mutant stuff was or anything.

[throughaphase]

"I promise I will do my absolute best to avoid getting hurt," Kitty told him. "My plan is always to come back to you in one piece. Sans bandages, even."

[so_hawkward]

"Good, because I don't think I have enough bandages for the both of us," Clint said, at least slightly teasing.

[throughaphase]

"That's why I have spare bandages at my place." Also slightly teasing. But she really did have spare bandages. "I can't believe I'm sort of excited to do this. I'm obviously a crazy person."

[so_hawkward]

"You're not crazy. You like to help people and this is the best way to do it," Clint said. "There's not really much reason not to be excited."

[throughaphase]

"Well, I've still lost a lot of friends, and anti-mutant sentiment is at probably an all-time high," Kitty pointed out.

Don't worry, Kitty, it's the year of Everyone Comes Back From the Dead!

[so_hawkward]

And that anti-mutant sentiment was one reason Clint worried, but he didn't want to make things worse. "Hopefully, you won't lose any more friends," he said. "I'd like to say people will come around on the mutant thing, but I can't pretend to be that optimistic."

[throughaphase]

"That's kind of what really makes me want to do this," Kitty admitted. "I can actually work towards trying to make things better this way. Even if I can't change the public's minds- at least not en masse- then I can at least help the kids here deal with it."

And if they could talk about kids like that was a thing that could happen someday, she kind of wanted to start taking steps to making the world not suck a little more.

[so_hawkward]

It helped that the island sent them a really awesome kid every once in a while. "See? That's plenty to be excited about," he said, slipping an arm around her. "This is going to be a good thing, I'm sure."