Notes: Omg CC I am laughing at your review so hard. Jan isn't trying to turn him into a Summers, she swears! But can you blame Jam? She knows a Logan and K baby would be AMAZING.

And Arly, I'm totally with you. Anything that upsets Clint must immediately be abandoned in favor of NOT upsetting Clint. Period. (Though, to be fair to Jan... Logan and K do have awesome, AWESOME kids in CC's 906 universe and mine and CC's 714 universe, so...)


Chapter 7: Avengers and X-Men Assemble


Logan and K were still curled up asleep together when Clint woke up with a pretty stuffy nose. He was coming down with a solid summer cold, but sometimes, it helped him to walk around until his nose stopped trying to fall off his face.

So that's what he was doing when the Avengers came in from what had clearly been a pretty serious battle, judging by the fact that Thor and Steve had Tony propped up between them and Jan had a solid bruise on her arm.

Clint's eyes were wide as he rushed over to the group of Avengers. "Are you guys okay?"

It was obvious the Avengers hadn't expected the youngest tower resident to be awake to see the aftermath of a mission, and they shared a quick, wordless look between them before Thor took Tony off and Steve sat down with Clint, one hand on his shoulder to turn him away from the injured heroes. "You should see the other guys," Steve said with a quiet smirk.

Clint couldn't help but return the smirk — in spades. "You totally kicked their butts, huh? Who were you fighting?"

"Hydra."

"Didja fight the Red Skull?"

Steve frowned a bit but then shook his head. "Not this time."

"Oh, okay." Clint shrugged. "Well, I just figured I don't see you guys get hurt real bad too often, so…"

Steve smirked. "Well, that was mostly Tony's fault. Hydra knocked his suit out with some kind of new tech, but when Jan got hit, he was pretty insistent on going in to get her while we dealt with the bad guys."

Clint's eyes widened at that, though he was already nodding. "Oh, yeah. Because he likes her."

Steve didn't even bother to hide his smirk at that. "It's pretty obvious, huh?"

"Uh-huh." Clint tipped his head to the side. "I think he's kind of stupid sometimes, but I saw how he was real good with Jan after Hank hit her, so I think that's okay. I like Jan a lot."

"Me too," Steve said, his smirk widening. "I'm sure they'll be glad to hear you approve."

Clint shrugged easily. He didn't really care about the romances at the tower, if he was honest. He was more interested in the heroics of the team. "So, how come you were fighting Hydra? Were they doing something to take over the world again or something?"

"Pretty much."

Clint nodded. "That's what I thought. You guys're always dealing with, like, the end of the whole world and stuff." He looked over both shoulders before he leaned forward. "That's why I think maybe I'm gonna be an X-Man first, 'cause they save people, not like, whole worlds."

Steve raised an eyebrow at that. "Oh?"

"Yeah, Kitty was telling me how they sometimes have to go stop a buncha people from beating up just one person and I think maybe that's why you guys don't do that kind of thing because maybe… maybe you don't got time for saving everybody when you got the whole world to look out for."

Steve's smirk fell entirely, and he turned to face Clint properly. "What are you talking about?"

Clint frowned, obviously picking up on the fact that he'd hit a nerve. But when Steve looked genuinely bothered and seemed to expect an answer, he let out his breath. "Well, it's just… Kitty and Jubes tell me about how the X-Men go get kids who get kicked out and stuff or, like, people who get beat up 'cause they're mutants. But I don't think you guys do that. You don't talk about it, so I figured it's because maybe … maybe you're real busy." He shrugged again, looking down at the ground and feeling his cheeks flush. "It's okay. There's lots of people who're real busy and they don't, y'know, help."

Steve was almost frozen as he looked at Clint. It was obvious he didn't know what to say, but he finally, quietly, cleared his throat and put a hand on Clint's shoulder. "Clint, you know if we ever heard about something like that happening — if we ever saw that kind of thing — we'd step in."

Clint shifted but kept his gaze down and nodded. "Yeah, well, it's okay. I wasn't tryna start anything. I just figured that's what was happening, is all."

Steve's mouth was a tight line before he couldn't help but pull Clint into a hug. "I'm not mad, Clint," he said, since he recognized the defensive body language for what it was. "Not at you, at least. I'm just upset that people are doing that to kids."

"Yeah, me too," Clint said into the crook of Steve's arm.

For just a second, Steve tightened his hug before he finally let go and let out a breath. "You'd better get to bed. What are you doing awake this late, anyway?"

"My nose weighs a ton, so I went walking so I could breathe," Clint said with an easy shrug.

Steve almost smirked. "Yeah, I can relate," he said. "Feel better, alright?"

"Thanks," Clint said. "And tell Tony to not be so stupid, okay? You don't gotta get hurt to tell a girl you like her. Duh."

At that, Steve broke into a genuine smile. "I'll pass the message along."

Clint grinned and flashed him a double thumbs-up before he slipped off, though for a long time after that, Steve didn't move except to sit down where he was.

It wasn't like he didn't know the score. Politicians and pundits had been talking about the mutant "menace" for long enough know that Steve knew anyone with the X-gene had been having a hard time. And Jean had been hanging out with Jan enough that Scott knew the X-Men were genuinely invested in the vision Charles Xavier was out there preaching.

So he did, of course, know at least part of the story. He knew what Logan had told him about this Mr. Sinister character, and he knew that there were some people out there who would stop at nothing to get to mutants.

It was just one thing to know that and another to hear the honest hurt in a kid's voice, especially a kid that Steve knew had been through the wringer before he even got to the tower.

Steve had sort of figured the team was doing right by the whole world, not just parts of it. And they had mutants on their team, too. That had to count for something. But to hear Clint talk in that sort of resigned tone like the Avengers were just more people in a long line of adults who turned a blind eye while kids were hurting…

Yeah, that had to stop.


The next morning, Clint came down much later than usual — which was entirely understandable, considering the early morning he'd had. But still, he hadn't been expecting to find Steve talking with Scott and looking like he hadn't actually slept at all while the two of them had their heads together.

He couldn't help his curiosity as he crept closer until Steve spotted him and gave him a warm smile, waving him over. "We were just talking about you, Clint."

"You were?" Clint asked, frowning and wondering what he could have done that the leaders of both of the superhero teams that he wanted to join were talking about him. He was still half worried that he'd made Steve mad last night, but he didn't want to give away his nerves, so he instead gave the two men a smile full of confidence. "You're tryna figure out how I can be on both teams, right? You have to figure out how to share an awesome Hawkeye?"

Both Scott and Steve smirked at that. "Well, the Avengers don't have a junior squad like we do, so until you've graduated from my junior squad," he said, giving Steve a little smirk, "we'll just have to see where you are when that happens."

Clint shrugged. "Okay, so long as you're okay with that, Cap…"

"I'm fine," Steve said. "Actually, I was just talking with Scott about what you said to me last night."

Clint froze and only just swallowed down the reflex to bolt. "Oh… yeah?"

"Yeah, you got me thinking," Steve said with a gentle smile. "I don't want anyone to think the Avengers don't protect everyone. And if that wasn't clear, I want to make it undeniable."

Clint blinked at him. "Oh."

Scott smirked at that and shook his head. "We're just talking about how our teams can work together more," he explained. "Who knows — by the time you join the junior team, the teams won't be so far apart."

"That would be nice," Clint agreed, starting to smile a little more when it was clear he wasn't in trouble or anything.

"Yeah," Scott said with a nod before he broke into a grin. "It's all thanks to our own little ambassador."

Clint shook his head, his cheeks suddenly flushed. "I didn't do nothing."

"You have a knack for telling the truth," Steve said. "And in a way that makes it hard to deny."

Clint shrugged his shoulders up to his ears. "Yeah, okay. That's not really hard, though. I just say what everyone's thinking."

"Not everyone can do that," Steve said.

"Yeah, okay," Clint said, not entirely sure what to do with the compliment and inching toward the door. "I'll just… umm… let you do your team leader… thing."

"Thanks, Clint," Steve said, still with that warm sort of smile.

Clint shook his head to himself as he slipped out of the room and went down to breakfast. He wanted to help, of course. That's why he kept saying that he wanted to be on the teams when he was old enough. But it was still kind of weird to think that Captain America had listened to him so hard that he'd stayed up all night and then brought Scott over to do… whatever the heck they were doing now.

When he did get to the kitchen, he poured himself a bowl of cereal and took it with him to where the big TV screen was so he could watch cartoons and take his mind off of serious things like superhero teams and mutant kids in trouble. And he was pretty comfortable and settled in and most of the way through his cereal when Jean came to sit beside him and ruffled his hair affectionately.

"Did you come with Scott?" Clint asked.

Jean nodded. "You think I was going to pass up on the chance to say 'hi' to my favorite Hawkeye?"

Clint couldn't help but smile a little to himself when he heard anyone use his codename. It was like a little reminder that he was going to be on the teams someday, even if he wasn't old enough yet. "Where's Rachel?"

"We left her at home with the professor," Jean admitted. "She's been a little fussy, and we weren't sure how long this trip would take…"

"Yeah, I saw Scott talking to Cap," Clint said, his eyes wide as he nodded. "They like planning."

Jean smirked at that and nodded. "Scott was surprised when he called, you know. There hasn't been anything in the news lately; it's been a relatively slow summer."

"Yeah… that was my fault," Clint said, turning slightly pink.

Jean shook her head. "I wasn't complaining," she clarified and then pulled Clint into a warm hug. "I'm glad we have you around. You're such a good friend, Clint."

Clint shrugged at that but simply tightened the hug when he heard it. "I still don't think I did nothing special."

Jean shook her head — but she knew that Clint was still struggling to accept compliments. He could take them from his mother, and he could take them when it came to his schoolwork simply because Jean and Storm were sure to point out the concrete ways that he'd been improving so that he could see it clearly. But she could always hear that self-doubt in the back of his mind if she peeked.

It was hard to overcome years of abuse, even if Clint had thankfully gotten out of that cycle of horror at a young enough age that Jean knew he'd get past it eventually. K had been doing wonders for him.

But he still had moment like this, when he couldn't accept that he'd done something good. He wasn't used to something he considered backtalk turning into something good.

So, Jean simply wrapped him up in a tighter hug and kissed the top of his head. "Sometimes," she said, "you don't have to do anything special to get people's attention. Maybe it was just the way you said it or maybe Captain Rogers was already thinking about it and you reminded him that he wanted to act. You never know how you're going to help people just by being you and being good."

"I like that," Clint said with a quiet smile, resting his head on her arm.

Jean smirked and leaned in to whisper, "I stole it from the speech Scott gives at the start of every semester to the kids in his human-mutant relations class."

"You did not," Clint giggled.

"I did," she said with a smirk.

Clint grinned up at her. "Don't worry. I won't tell him you're stealing his stuff."

"Are you kidding?" Jean laughed. "He'd be shocked to hear it. He's a lot like you, Clint. He doesn't realize that he says sweet things unless someone points it out to him."

Clint shrugged. "Well, it's a good thing he's got you, huh?"

"And it's a good thing you have us," Jean said, brushing his hair out of his eyes. "Now. I haven't seen you in ages—"

"—it hasn't been that long—"

"—and I want to hear all about how you've taken over the tower and turned Thor into the god of playing with puppies," Jean continued.

At that, though, Clint had to laugh, a mischievous smile spreading over his face. "Oh yeah," he said, nodding seriously. "You gotta hear about the god of puppies."

Jean laughed and rearranged herself so she was giving Clint her full attention. "We need popcorn."