CHAPTER 13 - Back Home

Gamora couldn't explain how Carol did it, but they were passing Pluto around the two day marker, three full days before the Milano would have traveled without the Kree interference. Carol of course tried her best not to brag but everyone could pretty much feel her smug attitude. Clint had taken to hanging out in the cockpit rather than training as he wanted to see everything and certainly wanted to speak with the invading woman (especially as she was more up to date with culture than Quill). Carol was nice enough to name all the planets they passed in both what Earth may call them and what the 'aliens' called them. Loki even tended to watch over everything, curious to learn about the differences between everything. Asgard also happened to have different names of a lot of the planets, and he willingly pointed them out when they came upon it. Quill seemed to sulk more and more as they got closer and Gamora hung out with him, trying to get him over whatever funk he had fallen into.

Rocket, now that he lost much of his enjoyment, spent a lot of time trying to get Groot to stop playing those 'flargging' games. Something the tree had yet to do since Clint and Loki arrived outside of a battle or two. Drax stayed with Mantis, who avoided Clint. For a while Drax had tried to go between both groups but Clint still wasn't all that nice around Mantis. He was civil, but would rather just ignore her, even if she was speaking to him. Mantis at least understood why, so it wasn't too bad. And honestly, Clint felt guilty about it all. But, he would have done the same to Loki had the trickster stayed on Earth.

"We'll be at Earth in maybe another hour or so," Carol informed. Clint huffed a laugh. He never thought he'd get home. Quill and Gamora came up from the 'dinning' area and stopped. "Let me call out to Thor, tell him we're arriving."

"Okay," Clint muttered, backing away so Carol had more room when the woman waved her hand at a console he had been in front of. She nodded her thanks.

"Asgard, Marvel calling," Carol called out. For a moment there was nothing and Clint wondered if she had been wrong. Maybe she couldn't get a hold of anyone. What if she was a trap? But then Thor's voice called back.

"We hear you Marvel," the thunderer replied, his voice booming through the vessel. Loki and Clint sagged in relief at the familiar voice. While it had only been six months, both of which who had been gone longer, it was still gratifying to hear someone familiar after so long of being around strangers and new friends. "Were you successful?"

"Indeed," Carol answered, her gaze flipping back to look at the duo. Clint smiled.

"Brother," Loki said, leaning closer to where Carol had been talking. There was a thunderous laugh of joy that Loki found himself joining with a soft chuckle. Clint smirked, placing a hand on Loki's back when the Lie-Smith backed away.

"And the Eye of Hawk?"

"Dude, it's Hawkeye," Clint corrected with a smile, leaning close enough to be heard. Again, laughter.

"I know, my friend," Thor responded. "We are unfamiliar with the vessel you are traveling in. The Midgardians are worried."

"We are traveling in a ship called the Milano. We all mean no harm," Carol informed, turning to glare at Gamora. Gamora rolled her eyes and crossed her arms but nodded. She wouldn't do anything unless they did something to her or to the others. Carol gave her one more concerning look before moving back to flying.

"You have clear passage to New Asgard!" Thor declared. Clint exhaled a laugh. He was going home. "Friend Barton, your family has been informed about your situation and are waiting for you here."

"Oh, thanks," Clint muttered, relief clear in his voice. Laura, Cooper, Lila, Nate, and Pietro would all be waiting for him. He couldn't wait to see them. Hug them. Kiss them. Hell, he might even cry on them. A quick glance over and Clint could see that Loki was just as excited if not slightly nervous. Thor chuckled.

"We'll be arriving soon," Carol reported.

"We shall await your arrival," Thor replied before the transmission ended. Loki chuckled, looking over at Clint.

"He has grown into his role well," the trickster whispered. Clint smiled, leaning back to look at Loki.

"Never expected he wouldn't."

A little less than an hour later, the Milano was slowly landing just outside the city bounds of New Asgard. Actually, it was the exact spot that the Asgardian ship had crashed into. Since crashing and settling, many of those pieces were getting reused in New Asgard so it was mostly back to an empty field. From the cockpit, Clint could see Tony, Steve, Bucky, Sam, Natasha, Bruce, Wanda, Thor and his family (Pietro included) waiting for them to land. Clint laughed in joy, moving to get to the back faster. Loki happily followed after. The Lie-smith was honestly surprised with how much he missed being with the Barton family, even if it had been for a nearly similar time to being with the guardians. Once the Milano landed, Carol opened the back hatch and everyone exited.

"DADDY!" two young voices screamed. Clint laughed and rushed toward the young figures. He caught them halfway and pulled them into rough hugs. The rest of both groups trailed a bit slower after the kids. Clint looked up to see Cooper hiding partly behind Laura. The boy had grown so much since he had seen him last. Well, all of the kids had grown so much. But Cooper looked so much older than he should be. He was a look he had recognized on himself and on Natasha long ago. A child who grew up too fast.

"Coop," Clint called, getting to his feet and opening his arms up for a hug. Cooper sobbed before rushing to his father, knocking him back down onto the ground. Clint hardly noticed, just wrapped his arms around the boy and squeezed.

"I thought I killed you," Cooper moaned, hugging his father tightly. Clint nearly let out his own sob. Having to have gone through six months of blaming yourself. Clint knew how much that sucked. Cooper should never have had to go through that.

"Nah, buddy. It's hard to kill me," the archer joked, his voice cracking just a bit. The Avengers chuckled at Clint's line. It was something they had said when Hela stole the archer's soul. He was like a cockroach. Looked like he was down but just sprung back up. Slowly, Clint stood up, making sure not to dislodge the teen. Laura and Pietro hugged the archer next and surprisingly, Lila and Nate decided to go and hug Loki, who willingly hugged them back to the surprise of everyone but the Bartons. Cooper refused to let go of his father even after Laura and Pietro moved aside to hug Loki as well. As secretly as she could (which wasn't all that secretly), Laura pecked a kiss on the Lie-Smith's cheek.

"Glad you made it back," Natasha greeted. Clint snorted and pulled her into a hug. There was no way anyone was going to get away without one. Even if Cooper was pulled in as well. The greetings were nice and quick (Clint only getting longer cause he hugged everyone while Loki got a mix of a nod, a verbal hey, or a handshake [outside of Thor]) but very emotional for those who had been missing. Once over though, the ones who had been left behind kinda warily looked the guardians over. In turn, they looked the others over. Rocket actually seemed highly focused on Bucky for 'some reason.'

"These are the guys who helped Loki and me out as much as they could," Clint started. Quill snorted. While it was true, the statement almost rubbed him the wrong way. Gamora shifted her weight and crossed her arms over her chest. Drax glanced at Mantis when the other alien pressed a hand to his arm to make him stop from saying something stupid. Too bad she didn't do the same for Rocket.

"Hey, not our fault you morons messed with the wrong aliens!" Rocket accused. For a moment the guardians wondered if the Avengers would be shocked by a talking raccoon, but none of them seemed phased. Honestly, it wasn't the oddest thing any of them had had to deal with. And it certainly wouldn't be the last.

"What's he talking about? Did the-" Tony started. Clint shook his head, already knowing what the genius was about to say.

"Apparently in '95, Fury hid a whole bunch of aliens called Skrulls from another bunch of aliens called Kree. The Kree are the ones that basically made it extremely hard to get back," Clint explained. Tony blinked his eyes a bit. Hell, Steve and Natasha also seemed surprised. Which was highly odd for Natasha. She knew everything. Or well, mostly everything.

"What?" he called afterwards totally confused. He had been through S.H.I.E.L.D's servers backwards and forwards. Even looked through the sensitive information that Natasha had to leak when dealing with Hydra. But there had been no mention of Skrulls or Kree.

"I'll explain later," Carol promised, waving her hand dismissively. Tony frowned but accepted the deal.

"Anyways, this is Rocket," Clint introduced, pointing down the raccoon. Rocket rolled his eyes but waved a hello. "Drax." Drax nodded his head, unsure what was the wise action to take here. "Mantis." Mantis glanced to Clint in surprise. He hadn't actually sounded mad anymore. There was a pause as Clint looked around the group. After a moment, he sighed and decided to just skip over Groot who was likely still on that damn game somewhere in the ship. "Gamora." Gamora kind of gave everyone a glare until she focused on Natasha and got her glare returned in kind. That made her lips twitch. Natasha mirroring the action. "And Peter Quill."

"Aka, Star Lord," Quill added.

"No one calls you that," Gamora, Loki, and Clint all said at the same time. Quill huffed, giving them a betrayed look.

"I'm still getting it out there," the guardian pouted.

"And, you guys know all of them," Clint replied, not even getting into the other side.

"Wait? How do they know us?" Tony asked.

"Loki and I introduced you through illusion magic," Clint easily replied, something he'd never had done in the past. Something that no one ever thought Clint would just casually mention. Even Laura seemed surprised. Noting the strangeness of it and silently wondering if the man who returned was indeed her husband, Laura glanced to Wanda for help. Frowning, the witchling took a closer look before gasping in shock, a hand flying up to her mouth in surprise. Clint had felt it only a moment before he was able to stop her doing anything. His non-draining spell was currently up, but he had never tested it against anyone but Loki. Even Loki made a face at Wanda's 'invasion' of privacy.

"You!" she cried, ignoring the fact that she had broken her promise of not using her magic on the archer. Clint grimaced, knowing exactly what the teen had seen.

"Not by choice," he muttered to her, looking to the ground. Laura gasped now, her hands quickly covering her mouth. Cooper squeezed Clint a bit, drawing the archer's attention. Silently Clint basically told the teen that he was changed from those six months. And not just physically or mentally.

"What? What are we missing here, now?" Tony demanded, pointing a finger to Clint, Loki and then Wanda. Wanda glanced between Clint, Loki and Tony. She had already betrayed the archer and she wasn't keen on doing any more. Loki focused on Clint and frowned when he noted that Clint had no intention of answering. Sighing, he decided to let the group know.

"Clint has been gifted with very powerful magic that he had locked away. While we were in space, a..." Loki began but paused here, unsure how to explain Ego without insulting Quill. Luckily, Quill had no such issue.

"Egotistical asshole," Quill grumbled, loud enough for everyone to hear. Loki and Clint snorted as Gamora shifted a bit closer to Quill, almost in silently support. That was certainly one way to describe the Celestial. And it was even better that Quill was the one to say it rather than either of them.

"Yes, he decided to unlock that very same magic," Loki finished, watching the Avengers for reactions. Pietro rushed forward and grasped Clint in another hug and the archer found himself tightly held by both boys. Lila and Nate also headed over but neither of them could get close enough to hug Clint themselves.

"Okay, so what does that mean?" Tony wondered, not fully understanding what Loki had been saying. Thor let out a shocked sigh, staring at Loki, almost wondering if this was another of his brother's tricks. Loki subtly shook his head no. Steve and Bucky glanced at each other, frowning and getting into a silent argument. Natasha turned to watch them, not okay to stare at her partner at the moment. Sam frowned, looking between Thor and Loki as if they'd give him some sort of answer. Bruce curled in on himself, understanding the idea of the change Clint must have gone through.

"Means I can use magic. Actually, have to use magic," Clint replied, correcting himself. Laura gasped again. She remembered Loki saying that before. Once Clint attempted to use his magic once, he'd have to regularly do a spell to keep it from 'exploding' out of him.

"No!" Pietro cried, hugging Clint tighter. Clint felt his shirt begin to get wet from two different sides. That was when he realized, it hadn't just been Cooper around when the duo vanished. Pietro would have been the first person to have dealt with Cooper after Loki and Clint were sent away. "You..."

"Again, not by choice," Clint reminded shifting his grip to rub his hands along both boy's backs.

"I've been training Clint in some 'minor' spells so that he can easily practice his magic on his own and not allow a build up," Loki explained as if someone had asked. Only Wanda and Thor seemed to understand what Loki was talking about. But then Thor frowned, remembering something from the past. "Something that could happen to any user if they went too long without casting a spell."

"Is that what happened that day?" Thor questioned. Loki frowned for a moment, trying to think of exactly what day the thunderer meant. Then he got a flash of being in a celebration feast. As he ate, Loki had begun not feeling like himself. Before Frigga could even attempt to ask what was wrong, every item of food and drink on all the tables pretty much exploded all over the room. The trickster chuckled at the memory before nodding. It hadn't been funny or even comfortable at that moment but now he could see the humor and see why other Asgardians believed it had been a trick.

"Okay, so we need the deets, like now," Tony ordered, again pointing his finger to Clint before hitting Loki and then the guardians. Clint rolled his eyes.

"I just got back after nearly a year away. Please, let me just take a minute," the archer muttered, almost put out. Tony scoffed and went to speak but stopped when a hand was placed on his shoulder. The genius looked over to see it was Steve.

"Clint's right, Tony. We need to give him time to hang out with his family," Steve replied. Bucky nodded, glancing quickly at Steve with a knowing eye. Steve saw it and gently nodded his head as well. They were currently in agreement. No matter how much their plan sucked. Thankfully no one else noticed what the duo did. Tony whined.

"But-"

"No, Tony," Steve repeated. Tony whined again but Steve gave him a 'don't mess with me' look. Amazingly enough. It worked.


Hanging out with everyone once again was great for both Clint and Loki. The latter was surprised by how many members of the group had truly missed him. He had assumed maybe Thor, the Barton family and Pietro but never guessed about Wanda, Natasha and Bruce. Loki could only think back to his mother's spell in his memories. The strings had latched onto all the Avengers and the Barton family. Tony and Cooper pretty much refused to let Clint leave their sight. Clint was fine with the latter but tried to avoid the former who kept asking about his various experiences in space (in the interest of science). Eventually Quill (with Gamora at his side) took pity on Clint and began answering Tony's questions. Sadly though, Quill and certainly Gamora didn't understand a lot of what Tony was asking so Bruce had to help translate the 'genius speak.'

Thor ended up inviting everyone to a celebration feast that to his surprise, Val had already started preparing. The feast was as epic as Thor had always told the Avengers that it should have been. Though they were surprised when Loki claimed that the feast they were enjoying was likely not even a quarter of what was normally prepared on Asgard for even a simple supper. But that may have been due to larger meat sources and far many more Asgardians with larger appetites than Midgardians. Though Drax did try his best to compete with one of the more portly Asgardians who had joined.

"And then the idiot calls out 'anyone getting tired?'" Rocket crooned to Bucky, Steve and Sam.

"That sounds like Clint," Steve chuckled, looking over to the archer who had lovingly placed himself so that Cooper was on his left and Laura on his right. But to Cooper's left was Loki. In the entire time the duo had been gone, the poor kid had been traumatized. It had taken them a long time to start getting him better. Then there was news that both of them lived. And it nearly caused a downward spiral all over again. It was only cleared when both Clint and Loki made sure Cooper understood that they didn't blame him.

"Oh, but after that! Jeez, this guy can take a beaten," Rocket praised. Clint looked over.

"You talking about those children who attempt to try torture?" Clint joked. Laura tensed up, as did Cooper. Clint wrapped an arm around his wife and placed a hand on Cooper's shoulder even as Loki wrapped his own arm around the teen. Neither one of them would ever blame Cooper for what had happened to them. It had been an accident. While it had led them into horrible situations, there was nothing that could have been done. Rocket cackled.

"I have never seen someone stand up to a truth collar for so long," Gamora added, a smile on her own face. Clint shook his head.

"Yeah, bet anyone one of these guys could do it longer," Clint brushed off, nodding his head toward the assembled Asgardians. Many of whom had stopped eating and listened to the conversation. Loki rolled his eyes.

"Thor was tested once. Didn't even hesitate," the trickster informed. Thor turned, finally noting the conversation that had been happening. He had originally locked in a conversation with Drax and Mantis.

"Oh?" the thunderer wondered. Loki mouthed 'truth collar' and Thor 'ahh-ed.' "Yes, those things are very powerful. Hard to fight back." Clint blushed, turning away. Someone had to have done better. "Pray tell, what were they asking about that made you fight?"

Rocket, Gamora, and Loki all looked dead at Cooper. Cooper stiffened. That didn't seem good. Laura huffed a breath of surprise. Though, she really shouldn't have been surprised. Clint would do anything to keep them all safe.

"What?" the teen mumbled.

"They asked about Cooper?" Steve clarified. Cooper frowned, looking to his father.

"They wanted to know the captain of the Milano but they kept asking me 'who is your captain.' So, my captain is you, Steve," Clint informed. Steve nodded, figuring that's what Clint would have said. Beside him, Bucky stiffened and then quickly looked away from the archer. "Well... The alien didn't like that so asked for more details. Mentioned I was from Midgard rather than Earth and then the alien asked who sent Loki and me to space."

"While he could not hold back informing the alien it was his son. When asked the name, Clint held back for a solid three minutes and the question being repeated a few times over," Gamora finished. Clint sighed, looking away from his son even though everyone was now paying attention.

"I have never heard anyone last so long," Val called, surprised. "The longest that I've ever heard of was barely a minute."

"Yes, well, he topped that. Once the alien left, Loki said it was out of distance and so Clint answered to all of us," Gamora continued.

"When the dude came back, we all kept finishing the question before he could finish," Quill chimed in. Bucky laughed.

"What did you ask?" the soldier wondered.

"Uh, Flash Gorden," Quill started.

"The first person he spoke to of our group," Gamora added.

"His best friend," Rocket included.

"Tony Stark," Loki finished. Tony perked up.

"What?"

"It was the first thing I thought of. I needed to be quick," Loki said, shrugging.

"Don't forget the fourth President of the US," Clint chuckled. Quill snorted. And they decided to leave the rest of the half hour unsaid. It wasn't worth everyone knowing how long they had done that for. Heck, they were all still amazed they had thought of so many questions. And that Arath hadn't simply left in anger.

"So, any other interesting stories?" Tony wondered. Clint smirked.

"Met a telepathic dog," the archer stated. The table went silent. Well, mostly so. Many of the Asgardians had begun speaking in whispered tones about Clint being so mentally strong and wondering if all Midgardians were like him. "He's named Cosmo."

"The Russian astronaut? From the Soviet Space program?" Tony asked. Clint frowned, thinking about the dog more carefully. Cosmo had been dressed in an astronaut suit. And there had been highly familiar symbols on the outfit but his brain never caught on the fact that Cosmo wasn't an alien dog. He was a Earth dog that happened to get telepathic and telekinetic powers.

"Would explain the accent," Clint retorted, shifting a hand to rub at the back of his neck in a sheepish way. The Earth half of the table groaned. Only Clint.


"Thank you once again for trying to help us," Clint thanked, shaking Quill's hand. Behind him, the Avengers just silently watched. Cooper finally unlatching himself from his father but had no latched himself to Laura.

"Hey man, just glad you made it," Quill responded and he honestly did look relieved. The man had seriously thought that Clint and Loki would be stuck out there, unable to get home. Hell, he thought that maybe he wouldn't ever be able to return (not that he wanted to).

"Still wanting some units for that," Rocket muttered, his arms crossed and snidely staring at the archer. Clint snorted, shaking his head. Only Rocket.

"Told you, we don't work in that here," Clint replied. Rocket huffed and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I guess I won't miss you too."

"Yup, same here," Rocket snorted. Lightly chuckling, both of them did a small high five.

"Dude, did you just high five a-" Tony started.

"Don't!" Loki, Quill, Clint, and Gamora all cried, spinning on the genius. Tony pouted but did stop.

"Our fights shall be spoken of in legend!" Drax declared, Mantis having already snuck back to the ship. Clint chuckled as Loki shook his head. Gamora simply nodded her head and headed into the Milano. Quill smirked and followed after her. Drax turned and headed after the group but Rocket stayed behind, his eyes on Bucky. Clint followed the sight before sighing. After six months of watching the raccoon trying to weasel any prosthetic off of someone, Clint knew exactly what Rocket was asking.

"He won't and see ya," Clint informed, spinning back to look at the raccoon. Rocket huffed.

"He'll give it sooner or later," Rocket claimed. Clint rolled his eyes.

"I feel I'm missing something," Tony mumbled but Bucky looked down to his arm and frowned deeply. If Bucky did figure it out, he didn't say anything about it. And with that, the last guardian headed into the Milano and Clint noted teenage Groot had come out to find out why Rocket was taking so long.

"See ya!" Clint called out to the typically sheltered tree. Groot looked up to him and gave a half smile and a wave.

"I am Groot!" Groot cried back. Loki, Thor and Clint snorted.

"Uh... Was he trying to introduce himself?" Bucky asked.

"Nah. He knows three words. 'I' and 'am' and 'Groot' in that order. But, his meaning behind each of those words is pretty easy to imply," Clint answered as the back hatch of the Milano closed and the engines started up. Sam and Steve traded looks as Sam mouthed 'easy to imply.'

"So, what did he say?" Bucky continued as the Milano lifted into the air and took off.

"Bye, loser," Loki translated. Clint snorted again but didn't deny it. Instead he looked to Loki.

"Pretty sure it was directed at you," the archer joked. Loki laughed and gave the archer a light slap.

"When did you two get this close?" Natasha noted, her eyebrow raised. Clint shrugged not wanting to get into all the details. A lot had happened with the duo and there was no full need to get into it all. But, Clint figured she was mostly asking if Loki had somehow taken control of him again.

"A mix between Hela and needing to stay together to survive space," Clint retorted before heading up to New Asgard. Yeah, now that the Milano was gone with the guardians and Carol had long ago taken her leave, Clint was ready to head home again. But, no one was gonna let him get away with it just yet.

"Dad, you said you can do magic now. What can you do?" Cooper silently wondered. Clint stiffened a bit before chuckling.

"I'll show ya later," Clint replied. Laura slipped closer to Loki.

"Thank you for being there," she said to the trickster, giving him a hug. Loki nodded and sighed, glancing over to the archer.

"I just wish I stopped the man who did that to him. I knew there was something about that guy that wasn't good," Loki whispered. Laura placed a hand on Loki's arm. "It was difficult to teach Clint magic. I had to go into higher level spells than he should have been learning just to get him used to the idea."

"So, what can he do?" Wanda inquired knowing that if Clint hadn't responded to his son, there was a huge doubt of him answering her. Loki smirked, knowing what the witchling was trying to do. She wasn't as subtle as she thought she was being.

"Maybe he'll show you."


One more chapter. And I can only pray I can post it on time. This coming Thursday, I will be traveling to Disney. While I will have internet and access to this computer, I may completely forget to post. If I do, sorry.

OMG! Have you ever tried typing in a chair with a kid hanging of the arm of the chair, hitting you and pushing you and basically shouting in your ear? If you haven't, YOU ARE SO LUCKY! Darius just won't stop. And when I tell him to he either replies, 'I'm sorry' or 'I want to sit with you.' There is no room in this chair! When I used to type on the couch there was room. But I shifted to a chair and now, no room. And if that wasn't enough. All potty training, thrown out the window and now joined in with CONSTANT LIES! He's almost worse than Loki! He is an Energizer Bunny of annoyance! Meanwhile, I'm tittering on a cliff of anxiety and anger. God, I wish I wasn't.

Baby Jason is currently dealing with teeth coming through and kind of gives his parents a hard time. He isn't crying to much now a days. But, he's sharing Darius's energy apparently as this kid could bounce in his bouncer for like ten minutes straight before stopping for a minute and then doing it again! (probably not that long but totally feels like it when all I want is silence) It's not as annoying as Darius and I totally enjoy that when I look at him, Baby Jason does this huge smile and if I walk up to him a certain way, he laughs at me. Or maybe laughs at what he knows I'm going to do. Probably laughing at me.