On the last night that the circus was in town, most of the carnies spent their time out on the town of whatever place they were staying. Drinking, carousing, having a good time... but for Barney, that meant getting picked up by a pickup truck with a giant, excited dog only too happy to have someone else to play with as soon as the door opened.
For a second, it was a tossup as to who was going to get to Barney first between Clint and Sicem, but Sicem was faster and started bounding around Barney, only encouraged when Clint threw his arms around Barney to hug him excitedly.
"Come on!" he said, grabbing Barney's arm. "This is gonna be so fun!"
"There's plenty of hot water too, so if you need a shower — you can take your time," K told him, smiling at him as he followed Clint to the truth.
Barney raised an eyebrow and leaned his head down to sniff his shirt, his nose scrunched up. "Do I smell like lions or something?"
"Not really," she said. "But I know how hard it is to get hot water when you're travelling like that."
"K thinks of everything," Clint said, obviously pleased — and proud.
Barney looked between the two of them and then scrunched his shoulders up. "Yeah, I guess that would be good," he said.
"Oh, good, 'cause you shouldn't smell like lion poop on your birthday weekend," Clint said, pushing Barney in the shoulder with a teasing smile.
"What do you boys feel like for dinner?" K asked. "Clint has picked out a few options ... we'll go from there."
Barney's eyebrows shot up as he looked between the two of them. "Umm..."
"I told K how you like burgers, but you can get 'em anywhere so I also said that you really liked that one time we got egg rolls at that Asian place — do you remember?" Clint said, almost all in one breath, obviously desperate for Barney to have a good time during his visit — though whether that was because it was his brother's birthday (more or less — it was close enough, anyway) or because he wanted Barney to like K, it was a tossup.
"I did like those egg rolls," Barney agreed with a little smile.
"Chinese then?" K asked.
Barney nodded hesitantly, checking his pockets for the money he had — since he never left it anywhere. Not when it was the first time he'd actually had money of his own. "Yeah. Yeah, okay," he said.
"You don't gotta pay," Clint whispered to him. "It's for your birthday."
"It's too bad you're going to miss the fun next week," K said as they turned down the road toward town.
"What fun?" Barney had to ask, his eyebrows shooting up.
"There's a rodeo coming through, and I know one of the guys on the circuit. I'm going to borrow a horse and win a few classes," she said in an almost conversational tone. "He owes me a favor, and I trained his horse. So."
"Woah," Barney said, looking to Clint for confirmation and looking even more impressed when Clint simply nodded importantly, looking totally tickled with how cool his new guardian was.
"If all goes well, maybe I can give you a belt buckle," K said with a smirk.
"Like one of those really big ones that make you look like a cowboy?" Clint asked. "Can I get one? D'you think I could get one riding like you maybe if I learn how?"
She nodded with a smirk. "I think the only one you're old enough to go for right now is the mutton busting."
"What's that?" Barney asked. "It sounds... weird."
YOU ARE READING
On the Run Together
FanfictionWhen Clint Barton is just six years old, he decides that it's time to run away from the foster system that hasn't been good to him and go to the circus. But as it turns out, running away is harder than he thought it would be, and he runs into a myst...
