On the Run Together

Chapter 13: All I Want for Christmas is Family

The night before Christmas, Clint wanted to spend the night in Barney's room, if for no other reason than that it was Christmas Eve, and he hadn't ever spent a Christmas Eve where he and Barney were in the same house without him — and without waking up in the morning to drag Barney down to whatever celebrations were going on. Even if they didn't have anything or anyone but each other, Clint wanted to try to do something.

Only this time, they did have someone, so waking up on Christmas morning was a lot more exciting.

But even though Clint woke up a little earlier than usual, he didn't immediately wake Barney up — and he didn't go downstairs just yet. K had helped the boys set up a Christmas tree, and they'd made popcorn garlands, and there were presents sitting underneath it... but he was still half convinced that it would all be gone when he got downstairs. He didn't know why, because he'd seen it, but he kept thinking someone was going to show up and take him away from K or tell him he had to go back to the home he'd run away from...

But Barney woke up not long after Clint got up, and when he saw that Clint was already awake, he smirked. "You can't ever wait, can you?"

Clint smiled up at him and shook his head. "Not on Christmas," he said.

Barney sat up a little more and then stretched out lazily. "Yeah. Well. You got a pretty good setup this year."

"You too, Barney," Clint said.

Barney turned to face Clint and then shrugged. "No," he said slowly, "I don't want another mom."

Clint frowned at that. "How come?"

"I liked ours," he said simply.

Clint pressed his lips together as he considered it. He didn't remember their mom as much as Barney did, so it was hard to feel like that, but he knew that Barney was the one that reminded him of how things used to be, so he knew Barney had to miss it.

"I ... I like having a mom," Clint said.

"I'm glad you got one," Barney said quickly. "I just — I'm not gonna call her that, okay?"

Clint nodded. "Okay... but we're still family, right?"

"Duh," Barney said with a smirk.

"A weird one, huh?" Clint said, smiling nervously up at Barney.

"That's the best kind," Barney said. "Stop overthinking it, Clint. You're gonna give yourself a headache. It looks hard." He reached over and poked Clint in the forehead, and Clint batted his hand away.

"Shut up, Barney."

"Merry Christmas to you too," Barney grinned.

The boys slipped down the stairs after that, and Clint was irrationally relieved to see that everything was still there — and that K and Sicem were already sitting by the tree, K with her coffee in hand. Clint had to wonder if she had heard them moving around upstairs; she had said that she had really good hearing...

"Something smells great," Barney said, his eyebrows high on his head.

K smirked up at him and got to her feet. "My little tradition," she said. "Cinnamon rolls and Swedish pancakes — with lingonberries. Merry Christmas, boys." She waved them over where the cinnamon rolls were setting on top of the stove keeping warm and then pulled the already-made thin pancakes out of the oven before she held up one hand. "It's also a tradition — but I'm not going to make you do it — to have a little coffee with both. But you don't have to."

"I can handle it," Barney said quickly.

"Can I have hot chocolate instead?" Clint asked.

"You sure can," K agreed, then turned to the cabinet to get out the supplies. "Whipped cream okay with you? I think we're out of marshmallows."