Spider-man: Christmas with Two Hawks

Choice

Clint should have expected that Yelena would've woken up by now. He had hoped he would've been there when she did. He looked down at the sports bag in his hand. It was his own fault that he was late.

Clint set the bag down along with his bow and quiver before closing the door behind him.

Pizza Dog immediately trotted over to Kate, who happily knelt down to greet him, petting him and squishing the dog's face.

Clint walked towards the little investigation circle. Spidey and Kate stepped back, while Yelena tried to fire his brain with her eyes. Clint looked directly into the fire. Now that he had a good look at her, Clint realised that Yelena looked nothing like Natasha.

She looked like a kid... metaphorically. For some reason, he felt the need to make that clear. Yelena definitely wasn't 'kid' aged. Even with the standard Kate set.

"What happened?" Kate asked him.

"Maya and Gargin got away. Somehow managed to slip away."

"Oh, well that sucks."

"Yeah. It does suck."

Clint turned to look at Yelena again.

"You two should go home," he said.

"What?"

"It's late and I doubt either of you had much rest since all of this began. Go home, and get some sleep. I'll call you in the morning."

Kate tried to argue, of course, she did, but Webs stopped her. He practically teleported to her side and used his arm to block her from stepping up to Clint.

"He's right. You're probably not used to long nights like these. Go to your mom's place and get some sleep. We'll continue this in the morning."

The kid's voice was calm and steady, a far cry from the maniacal anger that he was barely holding back moments ago. It made Clint worry for the kid.

Spider-Man stepped away from Kate and walked to the window. On his way, he grabbed a plastic bag that was filled with what sounded like plastic and metal. Right as he was about to step through the window, Kate yelled, "Wait!"

All heads turned to Kate as she rushed to the kitchen area. She reached into a cupboard and pulled out a plastic food container. She scrapped the macaroni from one of the bowls into the box. After making sure the lid was shut she rushed over to Spidey and handed him the warm container.

"Here," she said with a bright, awkward smile, "We don't want to let it go to waste."

Spidey stared, either at the box in his hand or at Kate, the mask made it difficult to tell and didn't say anything. It was as if the simple act of kindness had shut down his brain. Eventually, he managed a basic, "Thanks" before turning back to the window.

With the plastic bag in hand and the food container pressed to his side with the same arm, he used his free limb to fire a web and swing away.

Clint turned to Kate and asked, "What was in that bag?"

Kate pointed towards Yelena, "Her stuff."

///

Peter threw the bag of spy gadgets to the corner where he could scavenge them for parts later. He placed the macaroni from Kate in the fridge, making a mental note to return the container as soon as possible.

He got out of his snow-soaked Spidey suit and threw it on a chair to dry. He got into his nightwear, a simple t-shirt and trousers, and was just about ready for bed. Except he didn't go to sleep.

He just stood there, in the middle of his tiny apartment, with only whatever Christmas lights that could break through his window blinds to fight off the darkness.