Thicker Than Blood

K-I-S-S-I-N-G

For several weeks after their encounter with Sinister, K and Clint made it a point to lie low. Neither of them were anxious for a repeat performance — and neither were the Avengers and X-Men, who seemed to be making it a point to look out for them a little closer than usual.

But when a couple months had passed without incident, Clint had finally started to relax — especially when he knew the end of the circus season was just around the corner.

Usually, that would mean a trip to the circus for their last performance, but this time around, Miranda and Paul had surprised K by calling ahead to ask if they could drop Barney off for the winter themselves.

It made sense when Clint thought about it. After all, Miranda and Paul had never seen the mansion before, and it seemed like they really did care about Barney — so they'd want to know more about where it was he ran off to every off-season.

Still, Clint wasn't as interested in showing anyone around as he was in tackling his brother — who was now a few inches taller and looking a lot more like a healthy twelve-year-old should look, as opposed to the skinny little boy that K had first met. And it was pretty obvious she was glad to see him growing so well, too.

Miranda and Paul both took a moment to look around the mansion in obvious surprise at the size of it — and the fact that Barney seemed to be right at home as he rushed over to Clint so they could catch up on everything they'd missed in their time apart.

"I thought Barney was exaggerating," Paul said, one eyebrow raised.

Barney grinned over his shoulder at Paul. "Toldja it was a cool place!"

"You sure did," Miranda said, unable to hide her laugh as she threaded her arm through Paul's and they headed up to the institute behind the two chatting boys.

It was clear that the Barton boys were too caught up in their own little conversation to do anything like a tour, but that almost wasn't necessary anyway — not when Jean was so pleased to see the other half of Barney's family coming to see him off personally.

Jean met them in the doorway with a twinkle in her eye, and before either of them could get their feet underneath them, they were swept off to the full tour — while Rachel, on the other hand, approached Barney carefully and curiously once the boys were settled in the living room with Arrow. After all, Rachel wasn't old enough to remember Barney having been around when she was only a few months old, but he looked and sounded enough like clint that it was obvious she wanted to investigate.

"Hey, Rachel," Barney said, giving her a little wave, though the little girl only raised an eyebrow in response.

When Rachel didn't move any closer, Clint laughed and held his arms out for a hug, and she took a few toddling steps before she fell over and then scooted the rest of the way over to hug Clint. She looked over her shoulder at Barney, who was scratching Arrow behind the ears.

"That's my brother, Rachel," Clint explained. "His name is Barney, and I love him." He waved to Barney. "Can you say 'hi'?"

Rachel studied Barney for a long moment before, hesitantly, she held out her hand and opened and closed her fists in the best wave she could do for him.

Barney gave her a bright smile and waved back. "Hiya."

Rachel giggled and hid in Clint's hug again, and Clint shrugged. "She's shy sometimes, huh, Rachel?" he said, looking down at his friend, though Rachel was pretty well latched on, so she didn't say anything.

It was definitely a sweet scene to walk into when Paul and Miranda had finished their tour with Jean. Rachel had finally started to warm up to Barney — that much was clear from the fact that she kept tapping him with her closed fist until he would turn and give her a fist bump. And then she'd positively fall apart giggling.