Clint and Natasha's double bed was situated slightly to the left of the centre of the room. If one was to stand in the doorway, he would see a large window on the left hand wall, and a skylight in the ceiling. To the right of the bed was a chest of draws, and a wardrobe at the foot of the bed with its back against the left hand wall. On the right hand wall, at shoulder height was a shelf filled with books in various different languages, and souvenirs of their more successful missions. On the chest of draws was a picture of Clint and Natasha in Egypt, ginning broadly with a magnificent backdrop of endless desert behind them. Two paintings were set on the wall beside each other; one of Russia at winter (Clint had often complained that Russia was in fact always at winter) and the other was of an African sunset.
Clint lay on his back, his hands behind his head, reflecting that the room would be perfectly normal, if not for the gun beneath his pillow, the miniature armoury under the bed and the safe containing seven different sets of fake passports for each member of the family behind the Africa picture. And of course, the fact that during their visit to Egypt- indeed not long after the picture had been taken, if Clint remembered correctly-they had assassinated the leader of a trafficking ring. Clint smiled wryly- they really weren't the average family.
Natasha lay beside him on her side, one arm curled under her head and the other around her stomach. In the sunlight streaming from the window and the skylight, her red hair looked almost golden. It was shoulder length at the moment, as she had decided to cut it after the mission with Stark. She was dressed only in Clint's boxers and one of his old t-shirts that she had stolen years ago and adamantly refused to return, but Clint thought that she looked far more beautiful when she was like this than when she was all dressed up for a mission. Surprisingly, Natasha didn't like dressing up. She had once said that had enough time 'slutting' herself up for the Red Room, and now that she no longer had to, she wasn't going to.
Clint knew she was awake, and was about to say something when the door opened. Sam staggered in, yawning and rubbing his eyes with his fists. He clambered up onto the bed and collapsed face down on the pillow in between his parents.
Natasha smiled but didn't open her eyes. She rubbed his back with one hand and said, "Morning sweetie, did you sleep well?"
Sam just groaned, which Clint took as some form of yes.
Jesse then appeared beside the bed in a similar fashion, blinking blearily. "Where am I?" said shortly, rubbing his eyes. Clint was glad to see that the boy didn't look nervous, or even wary. In fact, he looked quite at ease, something that Clint had never seen him like before. His bruises had faded, almost disappeared completely, and his lip and chin had healed.
He smiled and lifted Jesse onto the bed, sitting him beside Sam. Jesse curled up slightly and pushed his head into Clint's chest. Clint rubbed Jesse's hair. "This is our house, where we live."
Jesse yawned. "You only live in one place?" He mumbled into Clint's shirt.
"Uh hu." Clint replied, closing his eyes. "We don't move around, we stay in one place."
Jesse sighed contentedly. "Weird." He murmured, before falling back to sleep. Natasha wriggled over so that she and Clint were touching shoulders, their children between them. Clint rested his head on Natasha's shoulder, and slept.
.
The peace only lasted for an hour or so before Sam got to hungry and started jumping up and down on the bed, therefore displacing its other occupants. After popular consensus from him and Clint, Natasha got up to make bacon and eggs. After Sam left to get dressed, Clint shook Jesse by the shoulder. "Hey," He said softly. "Time to get up." Jesse opened his eyes and blinked confusedly. "We're gonna have breakfast, are you hungry?" Clint asked. Jesse nodded and wriggled out of bed. Clint smiled and took his hand, leading him back to his room. Clint opened the door to find Sam fully dressed, jumping up and down on his bed. Clint eyed him sternly. "If you want to jump, you jump on the trampoline, understand?"
Sam grinned and jumped to the floor. "Sorry dad." He said, and bounded out of the room.
Jesse yawned and sat on the side of his bed whist Clint rummaged through Sam's draws. He was thinking about how they would soon have to go clothes shopping for Jesse- although him and Sam were basically the same age, Jesse was smaller- when he suddenly realised that Jesse must have had very little sleep, as they had got back at about one in the morning. "It's ok if you're tired." He said as he helped Jesse into his clothes. "After we've had breakfast, you can go back to sleep if you want." Jesse nodded.
Natasha was dishing up scrambled eggs as they walked into the kitchen. Clint led Jesse towards the table, before kissing her good morning, and starting to butter bread.
Breakfast was uneventful until Jesse literally fell asleep onto his plate. Sam giggled whist Clint lifted him up to put him back to bed, after scrubbing the butter off his face.
Jesse slept and Sam settled down the watch the traditional morning TV; everything seemed very relaxed and lethargic. Clint ended up watching it with him, and Natasha decided to get her paints out. This immediately distracted Sam, who went of to join in, leaving Clint to watch children's TV all on his own. He didn't turn it off.
The doorbell went, and it turned out to be Phil, who smirked at Clint, who was now watching Avatar the Last Airbender. Clint scowled and turned it off.
"So, how's it all going?" Phil asked. They sat down at the dinner table, watching Natasha paint whist Sam poured various different colours onto his paper and then proceeded to mix them together with his fist.
"He settled in alright last night- Sam, did he wake up?"
Sam stopped mixing and looked up at Clint, shaking his head. "Nope. He slept like a frog."
"Log." Clint corrected unconsciously, before turning back to Phil. "He came into out room this morning and was fine. He ate breakfast and then went back to bed. He looked pretty worn out."
Phil nodded slowly. "Well paperwork wise, it's mostly done. I need you to sign a few things but the main thing was getting Barney to sign. Normally it would be a lot more complicated, with investigations and such to prove that Barney was abusive," Phil glanced warily at Sam, but he was fully preoccupied with his artwork and didn't seem to be listening. "But Fury and I think we have all the evidence we need, especially given your family history." Clint was beginning to look uncomfortable, so Phil changed the subject. "Sam," He said, "How are you feeling about Jesse coming to live with you?"
Sam looked up, and scratched his nose thoughtfully, smearing a green-brown mess all across his face. "Oh it's gonna be totally awesome. I really wanted another brother and a younger one would be all whiney and annoying, but Jesse is pretty much the same age as me and not whiney at all. I get that he's all shy but mom explained it all and I'm gonna be empathetic and considerate." Phil smiled, knowing that this must have been an almost direct quote. "I'll look after him, he's gonna be alright now. But Phil I really have some important art work to do, so are you done with the questions?"
Clint smirked, and Phil nodded, smiling. "Yes I am, thanks Sam."
"No worries Phil." Sam replied, distracted by attaching what seemed to be curly yellow stems to the sticky brown mass in the centre of his page.
At that moment Jesse walked in, yawning but looking far more awake than he had earlier.
"Hey Jesse, feeling better?" Natasha asked.
"Yes, but I'm quite hungry now." Jesse replied, sitting beside Sam and eyeing his artwork with what could only be described as bewildered apprehension.
Clint realised that Jesse hadn't had dinner the night before, and said, "I can make you some more toast if you want. Or we could have ice cream?" Phil was amused to see that Clint looked to Natasha for permission.
Natasha raised her eyebrows at Clint. "Fine, but if you eat the ice cream now there won't be any for after dinner later. And it's only eleven thirty, so we're not making a habit of this."
Clint grinned and suddenly looked surprisingly like his six year old son. "Don't worry; we can make cake for later."
"How do you make cake?" Jesse asked curiously.
"Well it's got load of things like flour and eggs and sugar, and you're meant to mix them all in one at a time, but that takes ages and is boring, so me and dad put them all in at once an mix them a bit and put it in the oven and it's awesome." Sam explained ecstatically, all in one breath.
Phil smiled, and rose to leave. "Well," he said, "Everything seems to be fine here, so I'd better be off."
"Nooo Phil don't leave, mom said we can watch Harry Potter tonight, and we're having cake, and now we're having ice cream and-" Sam began but Natasha cut him off.
"You could always stay for dinner if you want, Phil. Or just for lunch." She suggested.
"There's plenty of ice cream for five-" Clint added, but Phil cut him off.
"No, really, I've got to go. Thanks for the offer, but we've got a whole gang of new recruits coming in tomorrow, and someone has to do the paper work." He smiled at them all. "Though I might drop round some other time. Tell me when you're watching Order of the Phoenix, that's my favourite one."
Clint smirked. "Here, I'll walk you out."
There were choruses of "Bye Phil!" as they headed for the front door, and Phil heard Sam explain to Jesse what Harry Potter was, and why it was far better than Star Wars.
Outside, Phil hesitated before getting in his car. "Hey, well done." He said.
Clint frowned. "What?"
"You did it. I have no idea how hard it must have been digging all those memories up, but you did it. Jesse's gonna be ok."
Clint grinned nervously, and rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, I couldn't have done it without your help. And man, some other time you've got to tell me what you did to Barney to get him to sign."
Phil smirked, and Clint pulled him into a hug. "Seriously, thanks. And thanks for helping me too, all those years ago. I don't think I ever thanked you properly."
Phil pulled away, and clapped Clint on the shoulder. "Kid, you never had to." He climbed into his car, and before shutting the door yelled, "Order of the Phoenix! If you forget you'll be doing your own paper work for a month!"
Clint laughed and waved as Phil drove away. "I won't!" He yelled.
He waited until Phil's car was out of sight, before returning back to the house. He sat next to Natasha and wrapped his arm around her waist.
"What are you drawing?" Jesse asked Sam.
"Well, it was meant to be a rainbow sun, but when I mixed all the colours together they just turned brown." Sam replied sadly.
Jesse frowned for a moment, and then said, "I think you would have to keep all the colours separate. If you made it spirally, and gave each ring a different colour, I think it would work then. I can show you if you want."
Sam grinned, and almost subconsciously, Jesse grinned back. "Cool! Yeah, please." Sam said.
He got a new piece of paper and Jesse drew a wiggly circle on it, and then drew smaller rings inside. Natasha leaned into Clint's side, and he kissed the top of her head. Now he knew things would be alright.
.
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Hello! OK, that's the last chapter of this story. I've had great fun writing it and I'm not going to leave the Barton family alone. I'm thinking about at least writing some sort of oneshot where the Avengers meet Jesse and Sam, and maybe something where Jesse is a bit older- at the moment he's just a scared little kid, but I'd like to develop his character a bit more, and to see him face his fears. Also I like the idea of a Clint based origin story. I might make it into three parts, early childhood, pre teen- teenager and then when Phil came along. But nothing's confirmed yet, and I have exams coming up so I probably won't be posting anything for two weeks or so.
So tell me what you think- too much hurt, too much comfort? Any ideas for what I should write next, any requests?
So thanks for reading- I didn't expect any response at all, but I've loved the reviews, thanks :D So you should be hearing from me soon. Adios!