25 Unicorn Street- sometime late Tuesday night

[throughaphase]

Kitty had pretty much just gotten to sleep when she heard her phone go off. Groaning in annoyance, she reached to pick up her phone to shut it off, but when the display showed it was Scott calling, she figured it was important. So she picked it up and went into the hallway so she could keep from disturbing Clint any more than she already had.

And then a couple minutes later, she came back into the room, more upset and headed straight for the closet so she could get dressed.


[For the guy, mwahaha.]

Comments

[so_hawkward]

Clint hadn't really bothered moving when he heard Kitty's phone go off, but when she didn't get back into bed, he picked his head up a little and glanced in the general direction of where he heard rustling noises. "Hey, what's up?" he asked, putting his hand over his mouth as he let out a burp. "Ooh, that was too many nachos," he muttered.

[throughaphase]

"I've gotta go to New York," she said, mid-dressing. "It's an emergency."

[so_hawkward]

"Bad emergency?" Clint said, shaking his head as he sat up. "Sorry, that was a dumb question. What happened?"

[throughaphase]

"I'm not sure they're sure yet?" she said, pulling on jeans. It was easier to talk when she was busy with clothes. "Some huge thing at the Avengers mansion. At least three people dead. Some kind of attack, I guess?"

[so_hawkward]

That got Clint's attention even more. "Someone attacked your Avengers? And there were civilian casualties?" Geez, that was double bad news.

[throughaphase]

"Not civilians," she said, still trying to find things to do to not look directly at him.

[so_hawkward]

Okay, Clint was pretty oblivious to some aspects of interpersonal communication, but even he could tell that something was seriously wrong here. "Kitty, who died?"

[throughaphase]

Kitty sighed. "As of right now, Vision, Ant-Man, and my you."

Yeah, she was not going to get through this conversation without getting upset.

[so_hawkward]

Clint thought he'd mentally prepared for every strange thing that could result from his world and Kitty's being so similar, but apparently there was a glaring omission in his ideas. Hell, sometimes he almost forgot there was another Clint running around in Kitty's world, except now there apparently wasn't, and how was he supposed to react to that?

Clint figured getting out of bed might be a good start, and he went over to Kitty and slipped his arms around her waist. "Hey," he said quietly. "I'm so sorry."

[throughaphase]

"I don't know why I'm this upset," she said, hugging him tightly. "It's not you. And I barely knew him."

Except that she was going to be hearing nonstop at least for the next few days that her world's version of her boyfriend was dead.

[so_hawkward]

"It could be me at some point." Wait, no, that wasn't the right way to approach it. "I mean, it wasn't me, but it's still sort of me? I mean, I'd be upset if anything happened to the you that exists in my world. It's understandable."

[throughaphase]

"Is it not allowed to be you," Kitty said, holding him tighter. If she didn't have to be somewhere he'd be getting full scale cling. "Is it weird that I told you this?"

[so_hawkward]

"I think it would be weirder if you didn't tell me and I had to just wonder why you were upset," Clint said. "And it's not going to be me. I'm sorry."

[throughaphase]

"It's just so weird," she said, shaking her head. "I'm really good with the alternate reality stuff normally but Scott told me the names and it felt like getting punched."

[so_hawkward]

"Good guys aren't supposed to get killed. I think you'd be upset no matter what names were on the list, because that's what you're like," Clint said. "This one's just... kind of personal."

[throughaphase]

"A little bit," she said with a half-laugh. "You're never allowed to die, by the way. Ever. You're gonna be 102 and I'm going to be telling you 'nope, still not happening.'"

[so_hawkward]

"See, I'm okay with that, because you'll be 90-something and still alive and with me," Clint said, "so you can nag me all you want, and I'll just turn my hearing aids off and ignore you."

[throughaphase]

"I'll have to smack you with my cane to make sure you're reading my lips," she decided.

[so_hawkward]

"Hey now, there's no need for that," Clint said, giving Kitty a soft kiss on the cheek before sighing. "I take it from the fact that you're putting on people clothes that you've got to go soon?"

[throughaphase]

"Yeah," she said, frowning. "Scott got me the next portal out. I'll probably just be staying at the mansion with the kids if the X-Men are needed, but I might be back later than Thursday."

[so_hawkward]

"That's fine. You've certainly got a good excuse," Clint said, pulling Kitty in for a hug. "Take all the time you need. I was thinking I should go check on Barney sometime, maybe I'll do that while you're gone."

[throughaphase]

"Say hi for me," Kitty said, hugging him back. "Be careful? And we'll be in touch."

[so_hawkward]

"I promise, I'll be ten times more careful than usual," Clint assured her. "And if you need anything, I'll just be a portal away."

[throughaphase]

She wasn't thrilled about having to leave him at all right now, but she couldn't not go and wow would it be tone deaf right now to bring him with her. So she nodded and leaned up for a kiss. "I love you."

[so_hawkward]

"I love you too," Clint said, kissing her back. If he couldn't do anything else to help, at least he could make sure she knew that.