Thicker Than Blood

Chapter 4: Family Comes First

Clint was watching Jean carefully the next morning. It was the weekend, so they didn't have any classes planned, but he really cared about his teacher. After all, she had taken the time to help him even when he didn't trust anybody in the school.

She was halfway curled around Rachel, with Scott's arm around her shoulders. They had their heads together, and Clint recognized the signs of a telepathic conversation between the two of them. Every once in a while, they would give each other a quiet smile or nod or shake their heads; it was the little things that gave away that they were talking.

He wasn't sure what he could do to help them. He wanted to do something, but Scott had said that he was too little to be on the team.

Clint hated that. He wasn't too little to get caught up in other stuff. He'd faced the soldiers coming after his mom, and he'd dealt with Sabretooth when he was just seven! He was eight now, and he felt like that was big enough to fight.

Even after his cereal was gone, Clint stayed at the breakfast table, absently stirring his milk — which was now purple because of his cereal — as he watched the Summers family. He didn't like feeling like this, feeling like he was helpless. He hadn't been able to deal with it when it was his mom and he was watching her hurt because of his dad, either. And this was his new family — he should be able to do something!

He was brought out of his thoughts when K reached over to mess with his hair, and he automatically ducked away from her reach, smiling despite himself. "Why d'you gotta mess with my duck fluff all the time?" he asked — also automatically.

"If you really don't like it, I can stop," K said with an airy tone and a little shrug. "But it's just so pretty." She paused, put on a false frown, and then lowered her voice slightly just to tease him. "I mean ... it's very handsome. And manly."

Clint rolled his eyes and smiled despite himself. "That's right I'm handsome."

K smirked to herself — especially since Clint was just starting to stop fighting her when she gave him compliments, but she wasn't going to point that out to him. "And what's the plan today, handsome?"

"I dunno," Clint said, falling back into a small frown as he glanced toward the Summerses again. "Maybe... maybe we shouldn't stay with the Avengers this summer."

K raised an eyebrow at that. "I thought you were excited to play with Thor."

"I am..." Clint bit his lip. His gaze hadn't moved from Jean and Rachel. "I just... I just think maybe we should stay. And — and you and Logan can — can maybe help with this evil supervillain messing with Rachel and her family..."

K couldn't help but smile at him once she heard where his head was. "Clint, we'll be here in a heartbeat if they need us. But if you really want to stay..."

"I wanna help," Clint said softly, then paused and turned her way. "I dunno how. Scott won't let me be an X-Man yet, and Logan told me to stay away from this bad guy, but I wanna help."

K let out a breath and then pulled Clint into a tight hug, with his head underneath her chin. "You're my little hero," she told him. "And I'm sure if you go talk to Jean, she'll tell you she's already planning to come find you and hang out with Jan this summer too," she added in a whisper.

Clint smiled at that. "Good. I like Jean and Jan."

K ruffled his hair again. "But if you really think you don't need to spend summer vacation with the Norse god of playing with puppies..."

"That's not what he's — he's the god of thunder, Mom!" Clint said, breaking into a little giggle despite his earlier bad mood. "I thought you said you knew 'em all!"