Thicker Than Blood

Chapter 5: Summer Home

When summer started, Clint knew that the Avengers had been thrilled to get their "turn" with him by the fact that Jan had almost tackled him in a hug before he was even through the door, grinning widely at him.

"Oh, I was going to spin you around, but you're too tall!" Jan teased, putting a hand on the top of his head to measure his height — and to be fair, he was now up to her shoulder, so he had grown a lot.

Clint gave her a grin and hugged her right back. "I'm gonna be taller than you — just you wait!"

"Oh, I have no doubt," Jan agreed, nodding seriously with her eyes wide before she ushered Clint and K inside and took just a moment to make sure she gave Logan a hug as well and to kiss K's cheek.

Of course, the Avenger Clint was most excited to see was Thor — and the big guy absolutely didn't disappoint as he reached down to scoop Clint up one-handed, grinning broadly at him. "And when will you be joining the team, my young friend?" he asked in the voice that always seemed to boom throughout the room but was never yelling.

"Well, I keep getting told I'm too young," Clint pouted dramatically.

"Nonsense!" Thor said, shaking his head with that same wide grin still in place. "It is not age or size that determines the worth of a warrior. It is heart — and we all know that you have that!"

"That's what I've been saying!" Clint said, nodding seriously — though he didn't get to make his case very well when Thor saw little Arrow and decided to get acquainted with the friendly puppy. And Arrow, for his part, took all of a few seconds to warm right up to the massive Asgardian.

"So, how was school?" Jan asked, honestly interested and thrilled to have Clint back.

"It was nice to have Barney there for a while," Clint admitted. "But Scott won't let me be an X-Man until I'm thirteen; can you believe that?"

"How dare he," Jan said, obviously entertained and shooting K looks that clearly said she had missed this dearly and that this was the best thing that could possibly happen.

"Well, he said it was kinda dangerous, which... I mean, I guess. But still!" Clint looked around at the other Avengers, who were all in various states of amusement. "I could do it!"

"Of course you could," Steve said — since Clint looked like he had something to prove and he knew that kind of look could lead to serious trouble from experience. "You just need to keep practicing."

"I been practicing," Clint said, tipping his head far enough back that he was looking up at the ceiling. "I wanna help fight losers like that stupid Magneto guy." He looked right at Steve, his eyes bright with anger. "He tossed my mom, and that's not okay."

As Steve nodded along listening to Clint tell the story of the Magneto encounter, Tony slid over to where K was with one eyebrow quirked up. "Magneto, huh?"

"I already told Charlie letting supervillains into a school full of minors was idiotic," K said. There wasn't anything sharp about her tone, but it was also clear enough for Tony to see that it was the kind of word that would have a lasting impact on her target.

Tony nodded, especially when the pause in the conversation was just in time for Clint's retelling of how "Logan and Kurt said I shouldn't use my pocket knife so I'm just gonna strangle him with his cape because it's so stupid."

"Nothing says ego like a cape," Tony said with a smirk, though the look was only thinly veiled in Thor's direction.

Clint heard it though and grinned Tony's way. "He dresses like he's going to the opera," he said, his eyes wide.