throughaphase | Xavier School- ridiculously early Friday morning

Kitty and Clint were still at Xavier's, because there were still plenty of kids who needed to talk after being tortured by a sentient Danger Room using their dead classmate's body to do so. Kitty was just glad she didn't have the job of calling Wing's parents or dealing with that, because after the last couple days, she just didn't have it in her. The day had been traumatic and stressy, and she'd fallen asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.

In her dream, Kitty was sitting under a tree on the lawn of the school when she heard someone call her, and she turned around to see her dad, alive and well. She ran to hug him, to assure herself that he was real, and he told her he only had one question. That question was, "Why did you let us die?" and then he began burning away right in front of her-

And that was when Kitty startled awake, not even sure what the noise she'd made was and hoping that she didn't wake Clint up, while also kind of hoping she woke Clint up because she probably needed a hug.

[For the guy.]

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The noise Kitty had made was enough to start waking Clint up, and when he felt her moving next to him, that got his eyes open. "Hey sweetie. You okay?" he asked quietly. If she didn't want to talk to him, she could totally pretend to have not heard him that way.

"Yeah," she said, rubbing her eyes with her hand. "Bad dream. Sorry."

"You don't need to apologize. I figured that might happen," Clint said, moving to drape his arm around her. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"It was about my dad," Kitty said, and rolled into her side to snuggle closer. "I'm hoping I can forget it quick."

Snuggling was the solution to every bad dream, really. "Okay. Do you think we could maybe skip going to Genosha the next time I visit? That might help a lot," Clint said, smiling softly.

It helped when you had access to Clint arms especially. "You're just saying that 'cause you don't want me waking you up in the middle of the night," Kitty said lightly.

"I don't want you waking me up in the middle of the night because I want you to sleep through the night," Clint said, kissing Kitty's shoulder. "I'm sorry for everything you've had to deal with over the last few days."

"I'm sorry I dragged you into it," she returned. "Here I thought it's be just another day, and then there's killer AI and a trip to the site of a holocaust."

"I'm glad I was here. I feel like I helped, a little," Clint said. "And I got to see you be okay. If you'd come back to town and been like, 'By the way, there was this killer AI that turned me into a kabob but I'm totally okay now,' I don't know if I'd have believed you."

"I'm all healed up, though," she reminded him. "No more holes."

Kitty that was terrible phrasing.

"It's kind of the fact that you had a hole to begin with," Clint said, pulling her closer to him and resting his hand over her stomach. "Sometimes, I forget how dangerous your life is. It's a wonder you don't have more sleepless nights."

"Something that's gotta be done, unfortunately," Kitty said, running a hand over his back. "Even if this time was totally unnecessary."

Editor's note: Charles Xavier is terrible.

"It really was. Your Professor is kind of awful. Is that okay to say?" Clint asked. "You can say something mean about an Avenger if you want."

"He's not... like that," Kitty said, though it should be noted that she'd once given Doctor freaking Doom a second chance. "I don't think he is, anyway. I hope he isn't. But that... none of that was okay. Peter's right, it's the same thing that was done to him."

"He seems to be doing better. Peter, I mean. It's good," Clint said. "He's a good guy, not that you hadn't made that clear before."

"Are you feeling better about him being around then?" Kitty asked. She did still worry about this some, yeah.

"A lot better, yeah. I uh, I kind of overheard you guys in the locker room. Which you may have already known because I'm not a hundred percent skilled in stealth," Clint said. "I think he and I agree a lot on how you should be treated and what sort of things you deserve, so I can't complain about him too much I guess."

"And also because you're my number one now," Kitty said, and paused. "Oh god, does that mean you heard me get rant all over him?"

"I did," Clint said with a smirk. "I'm not the only one who gets them. That's so reassuring."

"Oh, everyone here gets them. Well, maybe not Hank," she said. "I have much fewer reasons to be ranty with you."

"I try my best not to make you ranty," he said, reaching to take Kitty's hand and give it a gentle squeeze. "People care about you a lot. It's okay to let other people worry about you."

No, he had no right to give that kind of advice considering his own failure at that, but he wasn't that self-aware either.

"I'd argue that, and maybe it's because it's the middle of the night, but when I got a spear through me yesterday, and the last time Genosha came up with everyone else here I threw a fit and tried to leave... I can't really argue it," Kitty frowned.

"You didn't try to leave this time. You stayed and you fought and you saved the day," Clint pointed out. He almost added that her dad would be proud, but that was a little too mean on the emotional manipulation scale. "I know that doesn't make the nightmares better, but you should be proud of yourself."

"Guess I haven't really been looking at it that way," Kitty admitted, squeezing his hand back. "Feels kind of weird to be proud of myself in a situation where the Sentinel that killed millions of people almost killed us, you know?"

"I know. This whole thing was weird and awful," Clint said. "Do you want to stick around for a few more days, for the kids? Or do you want to get back to Fandom?"

Kitty paused. "I probably should. I hadn't really thought about it," she said. "You don't have to stay if you don't want to. I know it's crazy and the dogs probably miss you." And her life was insane, she couldn't blame him if he wanted to head off.

"Yeah right, like I'm going to head back to the island without you," Clint said, scoffing quietly. He closed his eyes and nestled in closer to Kitty. "If you're going to be dealing with the kids tomorrow, you should try to get some more sleep."

"Yeah," she said, and draped her arm around him to give him a little hug. "Love you."

He should hear that since this probably wasn't the only time she was going to wake him up like this for a while.

Xavier School- ridiculously early Friday morning

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