Clint Barton (sonofedith) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2020-08-08 17:57:00 |
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Entry tags: | !completed gdoc, !log, ~2020 august, ~~~ clint barton (sonofedith), ~~~ natasha romanoff (butwewill) |
Who: Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov
What: Guess who’s back in town
When: Today after Clint’s arrival
Where: Outside somewhere downtown
Warnings: Language, but there’s a 3 year old.
Status: Completed GDoc
The last five years had been absolute hell for Clint. First the snap happened and his family disappeared, then he snapped and went vigilante on a good portion of the world that didn’t deserve to live. In the end, he had gotten it all back, but at the cost of two of his best friends.
Tony hurt, but losing Tash was like losing a piece of his soul. Which he didn’t even have to think too long to know that it was why the damn rock was called the Soul Stone to begin with.
He really should have been used to it, being pulled from one place to another, but it still caught him off guard when it happened. One moment, he was carrying Nate up the stairs into Pepper’s house after Tony’s memorial, and the next…
Well, he and Nate were still dressed for the funeral, but they weren’t at the cabin. They were in a downtown, a place he was actually starting to remember. A place where they had been relatively normal and happy as a family. Looking around, Clint realized it was really damn hot out for what they were wearing, and he didn’t see anyone familiar just yet.
“Nate, kiddo, I swear, if only five minutes has passed since we were here last, your daddy might just throw a fit,” he told the toddler as he looked around.
“No fits. We be good today,” was the only reply from his kid as Nate struggled to get down.
Clint set Nate down on the sidewalk, holding tight to his hand as he looked around. “Yeah, well, Mom’s not here right now to yell at us for not being good.”
***
Natasha had been here for two months, and was still having trouble settling in - but she was beginning to adapt, at least. Strangely, that odd life in the 1980s that didn’t actually exist helped in some small way, and she’d come out of it with someone she’d at least like to get to know better, even if she wasn’t fully ready to make any other decisions about her life, such as it was here.
Her thoughts at the moment weren’t actually on John; instead, she was considering picking up a few items to personalize her room at Valkyrie’s house a little - which, yes, it had apparently been her and Bruce’s house in the past, but since she didn’t remember that life, Natasha didn’t consider herself to have any real claim to it. She had moved in to keep Valkyrie company, and to give herself a little space from her friend’s home that was too full of memories for her to be there when he wasn’t in town.
Since her mind had drifted towards Clint momentarily, Natasha obviously thought she was hallucinating when she turned a corner and spotted a familiar set of shoulders and haircut, but only for a moment. He wasn’t facing her, but she knew after only a second that it was him, before her eyes dropped to the toddler beside him, and for a moment her heart felt as though it were literally in her throat.
Before she could speak or move, the boy turned his head as though he could sense her, and broke into a bright smile as he immediately tugged on Clint’s hand. “Auntie Nat!”
Hearing those words and that voice for the first time in more than five years caused all her training and conditioning to momentarily go out the window as her eyes immediately watered. Blinking away the tears that wanted to fall, she tore her gaze away from the boy’s, and looked back up at Clint as he turned to face her.
***
Clint was hoping that if he stood around long enough, either someone he knew would wander by, or the city person would hurry up and get him the welcome packet. Unless this was going to be one of the times where they just shrugged and told him he would have to replace the stuff on his own. Something was telling him that he’d been gone a lot longer than what he was hoping.
Mostly because a lot of things were saying 2020 on it, and the last time he remembered being there was in 2016.
“You are just going to be a time traveling kid forever,” he muttered to Nate.
He didn’t even get an answer directly, just his son trying to rip his arm off and yelling for a dead woman. Except this was Madison Valley, and Clint was trying like hell to keep the anger off his face as he turned around to look.
He figured he was doing a shitty job, because of the first thing he said to her. “I’m really fucking pissed at you.”
Yeah, he’d stick a few dollars in the swear jar if it was still around.
***
Her lips quirked in the faintest of smiles, and Natasha just shook her head a bit. “Language,” she quipped in honor of their mutual friend, before closing the distance between them. Since Nate was already holding one hand up to her, she knelt so that she was closer to his level.
“Hey there, little man,” she said softly before leaning in to give him a hug - and if she took an extra moment to just enjoy his arms being thrown around her neck tightly, who could blame her? Finally, she straightened, one hand on Nate’s head as she met Clint’s eyes again, tilting her head slightly.
“Too pissed to give me a hug?”
***
“Not at the moment,” Clint answered as he reached for her. She was alive, and real, and he could yell at her now for what she did. Even if he was thanking her at the same time.
“Fuck you for doing that, and thank you for giving them back to me,” he whispered, because the last thing they needed was Nate repeating him again.”
He couldn’t ignore Nate for too long, because they had been heading for food before ending up here. “How long?” Had she been here? Had he been gone? It pretty much covered a lot of questions.
***
Clint was one of the few people who could pull her into an embrace and she wouldn’t tense or pull away; instead, she just leaned into him and let her free arm circle him tightly as she pressed her face into his shoulder. She grinned at the curse, but it was short-lived when the thanks followed and Natasha replied by tightening her arm a little more in silent acknowledgement. That was one thing he’d never have to thank her for.
After taking a slow breath to steady herself, Natasha turned her head so that she could press her lips to his cheek, then lifted it and opened her eyes. “Two months, one week, give or take.” Absently, she brushed her fingers through Nathaniel’s hair as she looked down at the boy again.
“There’s a fair amount of us here, a few know what happened, so I heard we won. Steve’s from just before Lang knocked on our door. He doesn’t know the details.” Like her death, mainly because that was a conversation she didn’t really want to have with anyone anytime soon. “You’ll see a lot of familiar faces around, and a couple at the farm.”
Her eyes swept over the two of them, taking in the black clothing, the cut of the fabric. "Not that long for you?"
***
Clint really understood not wanting to have certain conversations, because he certainly didn’t want to have this one at the moment. But, he couldn’t not say anything, because Nate would spill it if he didn’t. The kid sort of had a crush on Morgan at the moment.
“We lost Stark, at the end. Banner was only able to bring everyone back, but Stark… fu- Tony was the one who made the snap that took out Thanos.” There was a quick glance at Nate to make sure that he hadn’t heard what his father almost slipped up and said.
He figured he would have to get use to people all over again, but that was a normal thing in his life.
“Where are you staying?”
***
She’d heard about Tony, but it hurt to hear it again, especially from Clint. For a moment, she closed her eyes, mentally cursing Stark herself because while it needed to be done, he was needed by his family, and she wasn’t sure she could imagine a world without Tony Stark in it.
Which made being here all the more ironic.
Opening her eyes at the question, Natasha met his eyes. “With Valkyrie. Wanda’s at the farm, with two kids, and Steve’s staying there right now.” She wondered if Clint would move in there, even if for the moment she selfishly wanted him and Nate to stay with her instead, but now wasn’t the time to figure that out just yet.
“Do you want to get out of here? So we can talk some more.” While Val claimed not to be good with kids, she figured it wouldn’t hurt to have her keep Nate busy for an hour or two - or she knew Wanda could watch him. “We can go wherever you want.”
***
She hadn’t mentioned Laura or the teens, which meant they weren’t here. He wasn’t exactly sure if he was happy about that or not, because he didn’t want to have missed any more time with them. “At least with Wanda there, it is probably still the same.”
He really couldn’t see Wanda making any drastic changes to the place. And now he knew he would need someone to really give him the rundown on what had changed around here.
“Yeah, um, food and then wherever you’ve staked out for right now. I think Nate could use some Auntie Nat time.”
***
“We can pick something up and take it back,” she said softly, then turned her attention to the boy beside them. Giving him a bright smile, Natasha leaned down to scoop him into her arms before looking back at Clint. “And I could use some traitor time,” she replied with a grin, before nuzzling her cheek against the toddler’s hair once again for just a moment. She’d missed this more than she could even say.
Now that they had a loose plan in place, she led the way towards whatever the closest restaurant was, wanting to get their food and head back before something else happened that might ruin the moment.