Bartoned

Chapter 34

Moving out to the compound in upstate New York made you hyper-aware of how important the women in Clint's life were.

While most of the staff had their little apartments in the main facility, Tony had created a little section of the compound - a little village for the Avengers. It was quite cute really. Just a group of ten little houses set around a circular road. Each was unique and had its own yard. Tony's was a log cabin with a large glass attachment to the side housing a private lab. He had a little rambling garden and it looked out over the water. Natasha's was modern and two stories with lots of glass and sharp lines. Her garden had roses and a pool out the back with a hot tub. Steve and Bucky's resembled a Brown Stone, Wanda and Kari's house was a half-timbered house that looked quaintly out of place. Their garden was a rambling mix of wildflowers and vegetables.

The house you and Clint were moving into was two stories with a flat roof that Clint immediately said he was going to put deck chairs on. It was white brick with lavender trim and had a little playground with a sandbox out the back.

Everyone moved out in a staggered wave. Tony had gone first to get his house exactly how he wanted it. Next went Natasha and Hill. Hill needed to go early to make sure that the new facility was running smoothly before the complete switchover. You and Clint were next along with Bruce and Sam.

Natasha, Bobbi, Katie, Wanda, and Kari were all at your house now helping you bring boxes in from the truck parked outside while Doreen kept an eye on Nattie. The house was positively filled with women and all of them loved Clint and Clint was completely happy with them all there.

He and Natasha were doing all the heavy lifting. Clint had taken his shirt off and you had the feeling it was because he was showing off. He was a good-looking man, even with all his scars and band-aids that covered his fresh cuts. He knew almost everyone there liked looking at him. Unfortunately for Clint, Natasha stole the show in her tank top, carrying large boxes two at a time on her shoulders.

The rest of you unpacked. You didn't want to be living in a house full of boxes. Not anymore and especially not now Nattie was cruising along using them to keep herself up.

She was doing that a lot during the move-in process. Boxes got put down, Nattie would pull herself up on the edge of a box, if she could look in it she would pull as much out as her little arms would let her, and then when a new box got put down she'd walk as far as she could using the first box to keep her up before falling on her butt and crawling over, or she'd grab the pants leg of someone walking past and use them to get where she was going.

"You're being very helpful pulling all the pots out of the box for us, Nattie," Kate said as she picked them up from the scattered pile Nattie had been making on the floor. She spoke in that patient baby talk tone people affected when they spoke to infants but there was a little snark to it too.

"She's very helpful," Wanda said, waving her hands so all the pots and pans flew up and stacked themselves neatly into the drawer.

Nattie squealed and clapped her hands, which made her lose her balance and fall on her butt.

"She's very close to walking by herself," Bobbi said as she unpacked the dishes into one of the cupboards. "You're going to have her running around causing chaos in no time."

"Thus why we're so adamant we get things unpacked right away," you said. You were in the living room messing with the cables for the entertainment system and wishing that Tony was here to help you and not over at Bruce's helping him unpack. "But she's been doing the whole 'cruising from one thing to the next' for months now. I'm not sure there's any way to tell from that if she's going to walk."