y. belova (doesnotpose) wrote in momadness_log, @ 2021-11-06 13:48:00 |
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Entry tags: | marvel: clint barton-dog, ~inactive: yelena belova |
Who: Clint Barton and Yelena Belova
What: Dogs playing
When: After Bucky returned, in the last few days
Where: Outside
Warning: Low/Mentions of supernatural memory loss
Status: Completed via Gdoc
Yelena and Fanny were out at the front of the Avengers Facility playing. Yelena would throw the stuffed lizard, and Fanny would chase it down and bring it back. Then there was the tug-of-war portion of the game, which Yelena would always win, and she’d throw the toy again. It was a very pleasant game. The only thing that made it less fun was when it was raining outside, and then the less fun-ness only came at the end when Fanny was soaking wet and muddy, and Yelena had to figure out how to get her back into indoor shape.
Yelena felt Clint approach with Lucky, and threw the lizard once more. But Fanny had seen her new best friend, and went running over to meet them, rather than chase the lizard, so Yelena was the one fetching this time.
Clint watched the joyful greeting for about two seconds before the sniffing went to uncomfortable places, forcing him to turn away to give the two of them some privacy. Sure, they were dogs, but they deserved their dignity. His sunglasses cut out most of the mid-autumn glare—all the sun, none of the warmth—but he was happy to wear them for protection and not just aesthetics. The bruising was finally gone, but his nose was still a little tender. He'd had worse.
He didn't so much as sit next to where Yelena stood, as he laid down next to her with a sigh, hands folded under his head. "What's up, беда? Heard Fanny started to show her love the other day in a thoroughly feline way: through violence."
Amazing how dogs did that--the uncomfortable sniffing. Why did a nose have to go that close to a private place in order to smell it? Yelena had given up trying to prevent the dogs from being dogs, and was taking a page from Clint's book: giving them a little privacy to do their sniffing while she glanced down at Clint... on the ground. Why was he on the ground? Yelena raised an eyebrow, holding the lizard carefully by thumb and forefinger (after all, it was a disgusting dog toy).
"She has decided to bring in fresh game to share with her pack," Yelena responded. She dropped the stuffed lizard on his stomach, then sat down beside him. "I did not ask her to do this, she is simply... generous."
"Been hangin' out with Derek? I'm sure he could give everyone a lesson on pack dynamics." Clint laughed at his own idiocy and stared up at the sky through his darkened lenses. Filling his days with trying to figure out the team training schedules and hours and hours of range practice for himself was only taking him so far. All too often, he felt the pull of those missing hours. And now he was completely alone in it, since Bucky had been portal-reset and didn't remember any of it.
Maybe all of this rolling around on some level in his head was what prompted him to say, completely out of nowhere as far as his friend would be concerned, "I know it's not a subject you talk about much, but did the Red Room ever take your memories away from you?"
Yelena probably should send Fanny to go and get some pointers. She knew that Derek was a good person, though she hadn’t spent a lot of time with him. Yelena was about to say so, but then he asked a question that made her insides twist in a fairly horrible way. She closed her mouth and swallowed, then turned to look over at him. The only giveaway that anything was amiss was the flash of fear in her eyes.
“That is a complicated question, друг. Why do you ask?” Before she went into the details about the chemicals they pumped into the Widows at the Red Room, she wanted to understand why he was asking what he was asking.
All it took was that there-and-gone-again glint of an emotion he'd seen in Nat's eyes too—one of a hurt buried so deep it was a part of her—for Clint to realize he'd merrily stomped right into that particular minefield. No way to backpedal, and squirming against the ground would just be weird. He opted to fold a hand against his chest instead and beat a soft rhythm there with his fingertips. "Can't seem to stop thinking about my missing time. And with Bucky coming back through the portal, I'm all alone in that. I guess I was just wondering if they had something to steal memories if they might have something that could bring them back. But with your m—with Melina gone, you're the closest person I got outside of Nat to ask about it, and she'd beat me black and blue for even thinking about chasing after this particular white rabbit."
Clint sighed and dug the heels of his hands into his eyes until he saw stars. "Never mind. I shouldna brought it up. You don't gotta relive any of the crap from your past on my account."
Yelena wished that she could help. Clint was her friend--she claimed him. When they were on their beach house trip, he’d felt as close as family. Now that she understood that about him, about her feelings, she knew she’d do pretty much anything to protect him. To help him. She would have gone back to the Red Room to fight for him. But it didn’t exist anymore. Even if there was something there that could have helped him, she was fairly confident that it’d been destroyed along with the rest.
“She would. With good reason. Anything that is left from the Red Room is scattered to the wind by now. It was destroyed years before my time. Years before now, even.” She shrugged her shoulders, then reached to tug some grass up out of the ground and start sifting through it, shredding the blades between her fingers. “What about asking the magicians who are here? Have you talked with them about something they could do with their powers?”
Much as he wanted to, Clint couldn't suppress the shudder that went through him. Just on the edge of his hearing, he heard a whine, and then suddenly his side was enveloped with warmth as Lucky crowded against it. He reached down to pat against his dog's silky fur and chuckled morosely. "I'm okay, buddy. Thanks for comin' to check on me. Didn't mean to take you away from your play date." The smile he sent Yelena's direction was a wry one. "Me an' magic ain't exactly got a great history. I know it can do a lotta good, but I've been on the bad end of it a few too many times. Makes me trigger shy, y'know? Maybe I just gotta start dealing with the fact that I'll never know what happened and move on with my life. But I can't shake the feeling it's gonna come back and bite us somehow, and not knowing could get a lotta people hurt. Or worse."
Yelena raised an eyebrow as Clint shuddered and then Lucky was by his side. She didn’t have any of the backstory, so she wasn’t sure what happened with Clint and magic. Yelena herself probably wouldn’t be all that comfortable with magic being cast on her either, if she was completely honest. She wasn’t going to press, though.
“What about the Wakandans? Have you talked with their princess? Maybe she can figure something out.” Yelena didn’t have a whole lot of interactions with the Wakandans, but they seemed to have the crazy advanced technology that could likely help him out. She glanced over at Clint, and brought her hand to rest on his shoulder. “Hey. Whatever it is, we will get through it together.”
And then Fannie came over and sat down in her lap.
He wasn't sure why he hadn't considered Shuri or any of the other scientists in T'Challa's employ. Maybe because, on some level, he'd been counting on having Bucky around with him to figure it out together. Now that that was a bust, Clint had to concede it was a good idea, even though he was still sour on the idea of anyone poking around in his head. Hell, he hadn't really considered going to that Quire kid before he got portalled home or wherever those poor souls went.
All the same, he genuinely appreciated the suggestions, and showed it by giving her a grateful smile and reaching up to pat her hand before settling his own back at his side. "Thanks, Yels. I'm real glad we're friends now."
Yelena brought her hand up to scratch at the dog taking up basically all of her lap space. It wasn't that Fannie was a huge dog, but Yelena had a fairly small lap. She chuckled softly in response to Clint's words, and then nodded. "I am, too. I told my sister that I have claimed you now. You are my friend. I thanked her for training you in the ways of friendship, because I am fully benefiting from that training."
Clint had to pause to digest what she'd just said, and then he had to bite his lip to keep from laughing loud enough to startle both dogs. Still, his sides shook, and he grinned up at the sky. "I'll have to thank her, too. Guess I really did have a masterclass in befriending badass ladies, huh?"
Hey, that got him smiling again. Mission accomplished. “I guess you did.” Yelena patted his shoulder, gently. Then, suddenly, Fannie was bouncing up off her lap and bounding off after some small, woodland creature. Squirrel? Chipmunk? Yelena wasn’t sure, but watching her dog running made her smile. “Shall we go see if she catches it this time?”
With Clint's mood lightened again, Lucky lost no time in scrambling off him, which meant Clint got several paws to a couple of vital organs before his dog was off like a shot. "Oof! Yeah, let's. Who knows what kind of mischief our doggos can get into. Just like their parents."