Who: Scott and Clint What: Babysitting Where: Clint's apartment When: The night of the party.
Loading an almost-boneless Clint into a cab was easy. What proved harder was making it look like they'd gone their separate ways afterwards and still reach Clint's apartment early enough to get him up the stairs. Traffic was moving, but sluggish, as Scott began to double back. Maybe he'd have time. If not, Clint could probably navigate the elevator - or he'd get stuck in it, and be easy to find anyway.
He'd taken this route before, a few times, in the years since he and Clint had become estranged, but it was a little more difficult to navigate in a suit. There was some vaulting involved. A little climbing. When he heard a seam of his jacket tear, though, he didn't dare abandon it. Scott might not have had the market cornered on black sport coats, but.. the number of people who stuck to monochrome in the city was painfully small. Ditching the jacket to move easier would create a breadcrumb he had no interest in leaving. Besides, there was some satisfaction in hearing the garment rip just slightly more each time he overtaxed the stitches.
By the time he'd reached Clint's building, he'd torn the thing in half on purpose. It had felt good to destroy something, after tonight. There had been so many moments he'd felt like doing it - to Loki's face, especially, although they'd only had that brief meeting in the men's room - that he was surprised he'd lasted this long. He tucked the shreds of the jacket under his arm and let himself in the back door, taking stock of the lobby from the other side of the elevators. No sign of Clint. Scott took the stairs up to Clint's floor, wondering if the cab had made good time despite the traffic, and found his friend struggling to get his keys into the door of the apartment.
"Hey, buddy," he greeted, glad to see there had been no trouble with the elevator, and gently removed the keys from Clint's hand so he could get them inside quickly. "Why don't you go get changed, I'll set you up with some water."