Thicker Than Blood

Chapter 15: That's My Dad

Notes: Sorry about the long delay in posting. I had a personal tragedy that I'm still struggling to get past, and it hasn't been that great for writing. But I'm trying to get back to normal.

This is the last chapter of this volume of the tinyClint universe, but look for the next one soon (next week probably). It'll be called "The Other Tiny Hawkeye" so... place your bets what it's gonna be about ;)

Clint was tickled when he woke up to see that there was plenty of snow on the ground the morning of his birthday. Fresh snow, too — which was the perfect kind for playing.

He already knew that there would be pancakes for breakfast, because his mom always made sure that he got his favorite breakfast on his birthday, but he stayed in the bed with Arrow for a little while longer all the same, grinning to himself. He was nine years old now. And that meant he was that much closer to Steve and Scott letting him be a superhero.

He had actually already told Barney that, seeing as Barney would be thirteen next summer, Barney could probably be a hero real soon, but Barney didn't seem to be as interested as Clint was.

Clint figured that was probably because he liked being in the circus so much, but he also figured if Kitty asked Barney if he was thinking about joining the team, then Barney would join in a second flat.

Barney was weird that way.

Finally, Clint got out of bed and headed downstairs, following the amazing smell of breakfast to where K was already several pancakes into the batch. Barney was awake, too, and he'd just spread some raspberry jam on his.

"Morning," Clint called out.

K turned his way with a smile. "Happy birthday, Clint," she said, waving him over so he could get a plate full of pancakes. "Blackberries or raspberries?"

"Um, both is good."

She smirked. "Both is always good."

Clint nodded and climbed up into his seat, smiling when Logan came in from outside to shake off his boots and hang up his coat. "Hey, Mom made breakfast."

"Did she now?" Logan asked with a smirk as he slipped over to steal a kiss from K.

Clint grinned at that, happily munching on his breakfast and looking out over his family. This... was just about as perfect as he could ask for it to be.

Once they were done with breakfast, Barney and Clint ducked outside to do a little exploring and playing — though Clint had to admit that now that they'd been there for a couple weeks, Clint kind of wanted to head back.

But not until after his birthday.

It wasn't that he didn't want to spend all this time with his family, either. He really liked having K and Logan and Barney all to himself. He really liked getting away from Jan and Jean and how weird they were about weddings and stuff.

But he also missed all his friends. He missed Jubilee and Rachel and even Kitty — even if Barney was super weird around her. And he missed swordfighting with Kurt and playing with Thor and playing pranks on all the Avengers and X-Men with his mom and finding new stuff to read with Storm.

That was his family. His whole family.

Clint flopped back in the newly-fallen snow to make another snow angel and then stayed there for a little bit, grinning up at the sky. He wasn't even going to move, except Barney came and sat down beside him.

"That looks painful," Barney said.

Clint scrunched up his nose. "What are you talking about?"

"Thinking," Barney said. "You look like you're gonna hurt yourself."