I was regretting my poor decisions very heavily this morning as I stared down the archery range with Clint. My stomach churned yet again and I actually thought I might be sick for real this time. It had nothing to do with the bottle of scotch Riley and I shared last night either. Well, maybe a little bit to do with that bottle of scotch we shared. We've gone over the Evans place for dinner last night with most of Bravo team for Riley's birthday. What was meant to be a quiet night quickly turned into a wild one. At least I wasn't going to be the only one with a sore head this morning. When Riley and I had left at 0200, both Sam and Evans were sharing the toilet throwing up. Abby was no help, she was standing there taking photos of them both while laughing hysterically at the drunken antics. I didn't throw up, but when I left home this morning Riley was still passed out in the bathroom. He'd been sick the second we walked back in the door completely cancelling out the plans I had for him for his birthday present. Bravo team obviously weren't going to be at work today.
We'd been back from our mini holiday for 2 weeks and there was nothing happening at work at all. Most mornings I'd just been in the train with Clint and Natasha and we'd go out afterwards. Usually to lunch, or to do Christmas shopping. Coulson still wasn't back so I couldn't see us getting any missions anytime soon. Clint hadn't been kidding when he said Christmas was a big deal in their house. He was the worst culprit of them all. Laura had repeatedly told him to keep it all toned down a little bit. There was no stopping Clint though. I think Natasha was secretly encouraging this as well.
Walking into work this morning hungover as fuck as a bad idea. Trying to gain any sympathy for Clint for said hangover was another bad idea. He went out of his way to make a lot of loud noises which only got worse when Natasha walked in looking as bad as I felt. It seems I wasn't the only one to have a wild night. When Clint announced he and I were going to the archery range to try something new, Natasha simply walked back out of the locker room. When I tried to follow her, Clint picked me up and threw me over his shoulder. Despite my shrieks and protests that hurt my head, he carried me all the way to the archery range and none too gently threw me down next to a target. I tried to make a run for it. I only got about half a dozen steps before he caught me and dumped me back in the same spot.
His evil plan was to shoot arrows at me. Despite his promises of he wouldn't hit me I wasn't feeling to reassured. The second part of his evil plan was I had to freeze the arrows as they came at me. I was definitely not feeling the love coming from Clint this morning.
"Ready?" Clint snapped me from my thoughts. He was standing about 50 yards away, arrow notched and ready to go. He drew the bowstring back and stood there waiting for my answer.
"No!" I yelled back.
Even from the distance I could see Clint just smirk. His left hand released on the string and the arrow flew towards me.
I shrieked and ducked to the ground. A second later the arrow embedded itself in the target behind me.
"I said no Clint!" I screeched at him way too loud for my own sore head. I grimaced and rubbed my temples before standing up. My stomach heaved and for a second I thought I was going to be sick for real. It passed in a few seconds much to my relief. I wasn't going to give Clint the satisfaction of seeing how terrible I was really feeling.
"Too bad, get up," Clint called back as he lazily notched another arrow. "And I know you're pissed at me when you call me Clint and not Hawk. If I'm really in trouble I'm expecting the entire name."
The arrow flew at me with no warning at all. Clint was scary with how fast he could draw and shoot. This time I didn't even have time to react. I felt it fly past my left ear, just missing me by a hair width. This was starting to take things to a new level of stupid.
"Clinton," I warned. "I'm way too fucking hungover for your bullshit this morning."
"There we go, I got Clinton," his grin was infuriating. "I know I'm doing something right to piss you off."
This time I didn't see him even notch the arrow. One second his hand was empty and the next another arrow flew past my right ear this time. I swear I felt the fletching just graze my ear. I snatched my hand to my ear and I wasn't surprised to see a small smear of blood on my fingertips when I pulled away.
"You're an asshole!" I shrieked yet again. This time out of sheer habit from childhood a ball of ice formed in my hand. I hurled it at him without a second thought. It only landed on his arm with a small thwack of it hitting the flesh. I didn't get a flinch or even the tiniest grimace of pain coming from Clint. All he did was laugh. It just made me madder at him.
"Come on you can do better than that," Clint taunted me through his laughter. "Show me what you've got."
He notched an arrow slower than the second time. As much as I hated doing it, sheer determination kicked in and I was going to freeze that next fucking arrow. Just as Clint drew back I focused on that thin little line of carbon.
It was freezing outside with the promise of snow laying heavy in the weather. It was perfect conditions to actually play with my powers. Time felt like it slowed down as I focused everything I had in me on that arrow. Clint's fingers slid off the bow string and the arrow flew forward. It only got a couple of feet before the ice made it too heavy to fly and it fell to the ground. I looked at it in slight amazement. I can't believe I actually did it.
"Good," Clint grabbed another arrow. "Think faster."
I wasn't ready for that next one. I was still staring at the arrow laying frozen on the ground feeling smug and proud that I'd actually done it. The next arrow flew at me and I ducked, throwing my hands up in front of me and pushing my power out. The wall of ice appeared in front of me just as the arrow reached the mark. The arrow embedded itself halfway into the few inch thick wall. It was as tall as I was and managed to cover my entire body. My breath misted in front of me as I stared at it in total shock. I wasn't expecting to be able to make something so big in a split second like that.
"Hey!" Clint pouted. "Cheater. Make it go away."
"No!" I was protected behind my little wall of ice. Here Clint couldn't shoot anything else at me. Unless he knew how to shoot around corners. I don't think even the great Hawkeye had learnt the bend the laws of physics quite yet.
"Don't make me come back there," Clint threatened playfully. I stuck my head around the wall of ice and poked my tongue out at him. I quickly poked my head back around so he couldn't shoot me.
"I told you I'm too hungover for your shit," I made another ball of ice in my hands and tossed it back and forth casually. "Don't be a child just because you can't get your own way."
"Fuck it I'm going to drag you out from behind there," Clint was already striding over before he finished the sentence. Running really wasn't an option because he would always catch me. So I just waited for my perfect opportunity. It only took a few moments before Clint appeared behind the wall of ice. I wound up and smacked him right in the face with the ball of ice in my hands. With a surprised yelp Clint fell to the ground and then didn't move.
"Oh fuck," I scrambled on the slippery ground over towards him. Panic clawed at my chest at the thought of me knocking him out. I mentally prepared myself for the long run back inside to get help. I crouched down beside him and gave him a hard shake. "Clint."
Clint's eyes flew open and the blank expression on his face was quickly replaced by a mischievous one. I was in so much trouble. I didn't even fight what I knew was coming. Clint pulled me down onto the muddy ground and easily got me onto my stomach and pinned on the ground. He was straddling my back and had my shoulders pushed down.
"You're so dead Knucklehead," Clint's laugh was pure evil as he shoved my face into the mud. I squirmed underneath his iron grip to no effect. I was stuck and my face was shoved into the ground getting rubbed in the mud. I coughed and spluttered as the soggy ground got in my mouth. I could feel the mud already sliding off my face.
"Get off," my voice was strangled with contained laughter. I spat out the mouthful of mud I'd gotten while still wriggling around underneath Clint. I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of hearing me laugh at his tormenting behaviour.
"You know if you weren't so skinny I might find all that wiggling a turn on," I could hear the smirk in Clint's voice even though I couldn't see him. "Tell your boyfriend to stop fucking all the weight off you."
"Get off me asshole," I snorted into the mud as a laugh nearly escaped from me. God he was such a flirt. I don't know how Laura put up with him sometimes. "You're just jealous because I get sex 4 times a day and you don't."
"Wanna bet?" Clint chuckled as he twisted my right arm behind me in an instant. I was supporting most of my weight on my arms and him yanking it from underneath me sent me face first into the ground. I spluttered as I got another mouthful of mud for my sass. "Come on you can do better than that. You can actually land punches on me now."
Clint was right. I was improving slowly with my hand to hand. I could without fail land a few hits on Clint every day. He was so proud of the first bruise I actually left on him. Most of the time I was glancing blows off Natasha because she was still too fast for me to actually land a proper hit. Natasha even promised to start showing me how to use a knife while we spar.
I clenched my fingers around the little skin I could contact on his wrist and focused. I let the ice build up around his hand. The effect was instant. Clint yanked his grip off my arm in surprise and let out a small yelp. His weight shifted off me slightly and I used it to my advantage quickly. With all my strength I threw my shoulder up and rolled. Clint still had a loose grip on me so he was quickly thrown off my back and I landed with a thud on his front with him now lying in the mud. We both lay there panting for a few seconds.
"Nice move," Clint smacked my thigh hard. "I knew you had it in you. Come on, lets go a few more times."
I groaned in disgust but got up anyway. There was no getting out of this. As I climbed to my feet I made sure I landed my elbow good and proper into his stomach. His hard abs felt like they'd leave a bruise on my arm. The grunt of pain I got was worth the small amount of pain I put myself through. I loved hearing Clint actually get hurt from something I did to him. It wasn't often I could make it happen.
"By the way, we're going Christmas light shopping after work and Laura insisted you and Riley need to come over for dinner," Clint got to his own feet after I was done clambering all over him. "But I swear to god if you encourage Lila to play anything from the Nutcracker she's going to live with you. If I hear the Sugar Plum Fairy one more time I'm going to go crazy."
"She can live with me any day," I chuckled briefly. "It might be an interesting story to tell Riley where she came from though."
I'd kept Lila and Cooper a pretty good secret from Riley all this time. I thought he might have heard my comment at Thanksgiving but he never said anything about it. Clint didn't tell anyone at work he was married. Let alone had 2 children.
"You're so blonde sometimes," Clint rolled his eyes at me. "Riley knows about them. He walked in while I was Skyping with them in Bagram. He's sworn to secrecy but I think I'm pretty safe that you guys aren't splitting up anytime soon."
"I hope not," I really was oblivious to so many things. While I might consider myself intelligent I really lacked the ability to see what was going on in the world around me. I was definitely never going to be a super spy like Natasha or Jared. Thankfully I could shoot well and fly really fast to make up for that.
"Trust me, he's not going anywhere," Clint chuckled. "You two are so sickeningly in love it makes me want to spew."
The second Clint said the word spew, my stomach rebelled in a big way. I didn't even have time to turn away it happened so quickly. All the scotch and dinner from last night made an appearance. All over Clint's boots.
My explosive vomit ended as quickly as it came. I stood there horrified and slightly embarrassed at what I'd just done. I couldn't take my eyes off the mess I'd just made all over the ground and over his boots. It was lucky Clint actually wore his combat boots nearly everywhere except when he worked out. Otherwise it'd be one smelly mess to try and get out of his Nike sneakers.
"Aren't you lucky you didn't do that to Natasha," Clint barely looked perturbed as he kicked the worst of it off. "She's a sympathetic vomiter. It still doesn't get you out of another few rounds of training, or Christmas light shopping."
Of course it didn't. I sighed in defeat and looked over to my wall of ice. I focused on it and poured my power into it. After a second the wall shattered into thousands of pieces, littering the ground in little shards of ice. Clint strode back to his position and picked his bow up again. This time I was ready for the arrow.
Clint notched and fired with his usual amazing speed. With all my concentration the arrow iced over and then shattered a few feet in front of me. Instead of celebrating my small victory I quickly focused back on Clint who had just fired another arrow. I let a small smile creep onto my face as I shattered that one with my powers closer than the last. I wasn't ever going to admit it but this was a little bit fun.
After tormenting me for another hour on the range, then dragging me all over what I swear was every single shop in DC we were finally done for the day. Clint promised me a lift to work in the morning so I didn't have to drag my Kawasaki all over town with him. It was well after lunchtime when Riley finally sent me a text letting me know he was still in the land of the living. He didn't complain about dinner plans and promised to meet me there and at least look presentable. Like me, Riley had just learnt to roll with whatever Clint had in mind.
Walking in the door to Clint's home with arms full of more Christmas lights earned me a withering look from Laura. I managed to ignore it by letting Lucy and Lucky jump all over me, barking excitedly. I had to stop and give them both a pat before they'd leave me alone enough to actually speak to Laura.
"Your oldest child was left without supervision," I supplied with a shrug as I dumped the shopping contents on the kitchen table. "Not my fault he swiped your credit card after you told him no more Christmas decorations."
Laura looked torn between laughing and being pretty angry about it. Clint walked in behind me and shot his wife a very charming smile as he held a smaller bag up. The little white bag had a Pandora label on it.
"I couldn't wait until Christmas day to show you it," Clint's smile made me melt with how fucking charming he could really be. I knew what was in the bag and Clint's excitement was a little contagious. "So this is part of your present."
Any traces of annoyance was quickly gone from Laura's face as she took the bag. She was fighting very hard to keep the smile off her lips as she opened it and took out the box that was in the bag. As soon as she flipped it open, she let out a surprised shriek and threw herself onto Clint.
"Oh Clint," Laura was laughing as she hugged Clint hard. "You shit. Stop spoiling me. How did you find it?"
The Pandora charm Clint had gotten Laura was meant to have been sold out for months. It was only pure chance that I noticed it sitting behind the counter while I was browsing the jewellery store while Clint was paying for something. I couldn't believe it myself when I saw it shoved at the back of the display cabinet. The special edition diamond charm's price made me choke. But apparently Laura loved them. She wore an ankle bracelet so she could always have it on. Even at work. Neither of them wore wedding rings so Clint joked this was his version of her wedding ring. She'd been trying to track this certain one down but with no luck at all.
"Kari did actually," Clint hugged his wife hard. "So you have her to thank. I just paid for it."
"Thank you!" Laura quickly let go of Clint and latched onto me instead. I hugged her back just as hard as she was clinging to me. "Thank you so much. Good god woman, you're actually starting to get some muscle. When is Riley going to be over?"
"As soon as he can function properly," I chuckled as we both pulled away from each other. "He got a bit too drunk last night and spent most of it throwing up."
"Just Riley?" Clint teased me. "You might look a bit more normal now but I distinctly remember someone throwing up on my boots during training this morning."
"You deserved it," I bit back. "Firing arrows at me and making me freeze them. How did you even come up with that?"
"Under my good looks and perfect charm, I do happen to have a brain which I can actually use to think occasionally," Clint smirked at me. If he wasn't standing a few paces away I would have smacked him one for his cocky attitude.
"Only very occasionally," Laura was quick to deflate his ego. She reached up and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Doesn't mean I love you any less."
I smiled watching the 2 interact. If Riley and I got married and made it to 7 years into our relationship, I hoped we were just as happy as Clint and Laura. Despite the crazy lives they both lead, they always seemed to have a perfect happy balance with everything. I'm sure they had their snaps and arguments like everyone else. But I'd never seen, or heard about any arguments.
"I'm cooking spaghetti bolognese from scratch for dinner," Laura was still beaming as she pulled away from Clint. "Tell that gorgeous boy of yours to get his ass over here Kari."
With that she bounced away with a definite spring in her step. I glanced over to Clint who was looking so proud of himself as he watched her retreating figure.
"I'm so getting whatever I want for the next month," Clint smirked as he caught me looking at him. "Maybe even 2 months after I give her the rest of the Christmas present as well."
"I don't need to picture anything to do with your sex life thank you," I said dryly. "Where are the kids?"
"At a birthday party," Clint checked his watch quickly. "Actually due to be picked up. Do you want to come with me?"
A knock on the door interrupted anything I was going to say. The only person who would be knocking would be Riley. I bolted for the door, just as the dogs ran through the hallway barking. I laughed at them skidding on the floorboards. It was the first time I'd actually heard or seen them get to the door before anyone else. Flinging the door open I launched myself into Riley for a hug. It'd been a long day and I'd missed him.
'Hi," Riley laughed as I nearly sent him toppling backwards. He staggered to keep his footing. "Miss me?"
"Clint was a shit all day," I hugged him hard. "But I threw up on his boots and got him back for being an ass. How are you feeling?"
"Better than I did this morning," Riley still didn't look very well. "Seeing you makes everything better though."
He brushed his lips against my cheek, making me smile
"Stomp humping on my porch," Clint yelled from inside the house, making both of us jump apart. "Go get my kids."
In other words Clint and Laura wanted half an hour to themselves. I wasn't even game enough to walk back into the house. At the sound of Clint's voice the dogs ran back inside, Lucy doing most of the barking this time.
"Text me the address," I called back. I gave Riley a gentle shove towards his car. It was parked behind Laura's SUV. "Trust me, we do not need to be in there right now."
"I feel like I've passed this massive test," Riley said with a small smile as we both got into his car. "I've been invited here for dinner, not just crashing here because of tequila night. I'm finally meeting Clint's kids which no one has any idea exists."
"You can finally talk to Hawk without feeling like you're going to swoon," I teased Riley. He was so unimpressed Lynette had told me that. I'd spared him any embarrassment by never mentioning it to Clint. But I couldn't help myself by having a small dig at him about it every so often. A text came through on my phone of the address of where we had to pick Lila and Cooper up from.
"That I can," Riley chuckled as he started his BMW up. "You have no idea how honoured I feel to be trusted with this."
I put the address into the GPS while Riley backed onto the street. I waited until we were going to ask the question that had been bugging me for ages. It wasn't something I could ask Clint straight out.
"I don't understand why Clint hides his family," I started carefully. Riley looked over to me in surprise but didn't say anything. It gave me the courage to keep going with my line of questioning. "If we had kids would you do the same?"
"No I wouldn't," Riley shook his head. "But look at it from this point of view. Barton has done a lot of undercover work. I don't know about his time before SHIELD but I'm sure it wasn't very nice from the rumours I've heard. He has a lot of people in the world pissed at him. Bad guys don't play by the rules. What if one of them found out about his family and used it as leverage?"
Just the thought of that made my blood run cold. The mental image of someone using the kids and Laura against him made me shudder. I'd never considered that even in my wildest dreams. I couldn't imagine someone so bad that they would use Clint's family against him. But then again he rarely spoke of his past. I had no idea beyond what was in his file what skeletons were actually lurking there.
"I never thought about that," I admitted quietly. "This all still blows my mind occasionally."
"The world is a lot crazier than whats on the surface," Riley shot me a small smile. "And maybe we're a bit crazy for being in SHIELD. But who knows whats around the corner? For all we could know aliens could drop from the sky at any second. Seeing some of that shit about Hydra at your Grandparents gave me a shudder too. Definitely not someone I'd like to be fighting."
"Me either," I'd heard plenty of those stories growing up. "Then again Jared pointed out back in Afghanistan nothing in our lives has ever been normal. And here I am dragging you into an even crazier world."
"Yeah because I'm definitely being dragged kicking and screaming," Riley joked. He reached over and took my hand giving it a squeeze. "Though I do have to admit I kind of like the way you asked about us having kids."
I squeezed Riley's hand back giving him a small smile.
"Easy there tiger," I chuckled briefly. "It was just the line of thought because of Lila and Cooper."
"No, I know," Riley looked a little embarrassed as he quickly answered me. "I just like the thought of it thats all."
My mind wandered back to that time we had a massive conversation in the car as well. I hadn't thought about anything that Riley told me until now. The thought of us having a life together, getting married and having kids. It all hit me very suddenly. For once I was actually excited about the future. Not terrified of what might come of it. I still pinched myself some days to see if this was all real or not. I couldn't remember a time that I was ever this happy with my life. Deep down there was a small part of me that was really liking the idea of getting married and having a family. What might have been a fleeting whisper was now starting to be heard a little louder. I don't think I could ever do any better than Riley. He was just perfect in my eyes.
"Am I pushing you too fast?" Riley glanced over at me suddenly looking worried. I mentally smacked myself and came back into this conversation. My silence could have easily been taken for something else besides me just thinking.
"No, god no," I quickly reassured him with a smile. "Nothing like that at all. Stop looking so worried."
"Just checking," Riley's chuckle had a tinge of nerves spread through it. "I don't want to fuck things up and scare you off just when I feel like my life is falling into place."
"I was actually just thinking of how well everything is falling into place," I said smiling at him. "I'd never really given much thought to what we talked about. But I think I'm kind of liking the idea."
"Really?" Riley's eyebrows shot up nearly into his hairline as he glanced over towards me. I could feel the car jerk sideways in his surprise. He quickly corrected the car, but he was still gaping at me slightly.
"Eyes front," I laughed at his shocked expression. "Yes really. Just lets get through Christmas first before we go crazy and run to Vegas or something really insane."
"Sorry you miss out of Vegas," Riley relaxed and his face broke into a broad grin. "You got stuck with the guy who has it all planned out already."
"I'm happy I'm stuck with the guy who has it all planned out," I reached over and gave Riley a kiss on the cheek. "Besides, I finally found you a Christmas present so you aren't allowed to go anywhere."
I'd finally found Riley's present today. It'd taken me forever to actually come up with something. It was really hard to buy something for someone who had everything he wanted. If he wanted something, he simply brought it for himself. This had been the only thing I actually hadn't seen him buy just yet.
"I told you not to buy me anything," Riley tried to scold me. But I could see the smile playing across his face.
The GPS told us we were at our destination before I could reply to Riley. The house we pulled up at was in a really nice neighbourhood. There were a lot of cars parked out the front and balloons strewn everywhere. The big 'Happy Birthday' sign was definitely not hard to miss plastered at the front of the large porch at the front of the house.
"I'm guessing Barton's kids go to a fancy school," Riley expression of surprise mirrored my own as we both stared at the house. "Do you want me to come in?"
"Sure," I wasn't looking forward to walking into a backyard with people I didn't know and a lot of screaming kids. I just hoped Clint let whoever was hosting this party know that we were coming.
Getting out of the car and walking towards the increasing noise, I didn't have to worry about trying to find Lila. She spied me as soon as I stepped foot in the backyard. With a squeal that could easily be heard over the general noise she ran towards me.
"Kari!" she definitely made herself heard. It didn't take long for her little legs to make it either. I scooped her up and twirled her around.
"Hey my favourite Disney princess," I hugged Lila tightly as she clung onto my neck. Her high pitched laughter was contagious as we spun around together. "Ready to go home?"
"Yep," Lila nodded vigorously. She hugged me again wrapping his legs around me as well. "Is that Riley?"
"Hi, yeah I'm Kari's boyfriend, Riley," Riley was at my side grinning at me. "And you must be Lila."
Before Lila could respond, another voice called her name. A women dressed immaculately with not a dyed blonde hair out of place came running over.
"Hi," the woman rushed out. "I'm Kim, you must be Kari. Laura sent me a message and told me you were picking the kids up."
"And that's Riley," Lila raised her head which had been resting on my shoulder. "He's Kari's boyfriend. Dad likes him because he can shoot the wings off a fly with the fucking big CheyTac."
I closed my eyes and bit my lip really hard to stop myself bursting out laughing at Lila's very honest statement. I didn't doubt those were Clint's exact words too. Beside me Riley sounded like he was being strangled from trying to hold his own laughter in.
"That's not a nice word to use Lila. You owe a dollar in the swear jar," I finally managed to choke out as I opened my eyes. In front of me Kim was standing there with her hand covering her own mouth. Her shoulders shook in silent laughter as she looked between Riley and I.
"So nice to meet some of Clint's workmates," Kim uncovered her mouth and forced herself to sound normal. "I'll go get Cooper."
"COOPER!" Lila yelled. I cringed as she was right near my ear. "We're going!"
As much as Lila looked like her mother, she definitely got her attitude from Clint. I pitied both her parents when she hit her teenage years. I could see her being a definite handful. At least her yelling was a pretty quick effect. Cooper appeared in a few short seconds, running towards us just like Lila had done. He didn't miss me either. He slammed into me with enough force to stagger me backwards a step, wrapping his arms around my waist. I hugged him as best as I could with Lila still wrapped around me.
"Hey dude," I ruffled his hair. "Ready to go home? This is Riley."
"Hi Riley," Cooper let go of me and turned to face Riley. He hesitated only for a few seconds before grabbing Riley and hugging him as well.
"Aunty Nat said if I ask you really nicely you'll take me to the range and show me how a sniper rifle works," Cooper looked very hopeful and a little sly as he glanced up at Riley.
"Say goodbye to Kim," I quickly cut in before Cooper could ask anything else. I could tell by the look on Riley's face he was about to have a very hard time saying no to the dark haired boy grinning up at him. "And everyone else."
Both of the children did as they were told and said their hurried goodbyes. Kim had gone and gotten cake for us to take home, along with the kids party bags filled with way too much sugar and lollies. If we weren't staying for dinner I would have let both of them eat their way through it all and leave Clint to deal with their sugar highs as revenge for today. Lila and I finished our pieces of cake before we made it to the car. Cooper was too busy talking Riley's ear off to notice that we stole half of his as well.
As soon as both of them were in the backseat of the car and settled, Lila was fast asleep. Not even the chocolate cake we'd just scoffed down was enough to keep her little eyelids open . Cooper hadn't stopped the questions firing off to Riley. It was all about his time in the Navy as a SEAL. Cooper seemed absolutely fascinated about it. I didn't get a word in the entire way home. I didn't mind though. Riley seemed to be just as happy to entertain Cooper's questions as Cooper was throwing them at him. By the time we'd pulled into the driveway of Clint's house, I'm sure Cooper now had his heart set on being a SEAL. Here's hoping Clint wasn't planning on Cooper following in his footsteps and become a SHIELD agent. Natasha's Corvette was here, along with Lola much to my surprise. Last we'd heard from Coulson he wasn't going to be back for another week yet. Things in Afghanistan had kept him well and truly tied up a lot longer than anticipated. It a good surprise to have him back unexpectedly. I really hoped tonight didn't turn into something wild. My body couldn't handle anymore alcohol, even if I was starting to feel pretty normal by now.
By the time Riley had pulled up, Cooper was already out of the car running inside calling for Uncle Coulson. I looked over to Riley with a small grin.
"I guess Uncle Coulson is way cooler than Uncle Riley," I teased him.
"I can live with that," Riley chuckled. "Do you want to get Lila out?"
Despite the noise Cooper had made the entire way home, Lila had stayed fast asleep. Even now she was slumped against her seatbelt looking like nothing would disturb her. Riley was giving me a hopeful look that I'd turn down that offer.
"You can take her if you want," I wasn't going to disappoint him. I'd seen snatches of it back at my Grandparents about how much Riley loved kids. All my relatives had figured it out pretty quickly so had no problems handing any of my younger relatives over to him. Even last night he'd barely put Alexi down except when it was time for her to go to bed. Even I had to admit it was a very adorable side to him.
Riley just grinned at me as he bounced out of the car. Lila only stirred briefly as Riley lifted her out of the car. She wrapped her arms around his neck and fell asleep right on his shoulder. Even I couldn't help myself but to grin at the very cute site of him carrying Lila. It wasn't until we made our way into the house she actually stirred. She was awake, but still in the process of waking up, blinking sleepily in the afternoon light. At the sound of the front door opening, Laura and Natasha's heads poked around from the kitchen. Laura was definitely looked a lot more dishevelled than when we left her.
"Great," Laura had a small grumble in her voice while she looked at Lila. "She'll be up all night now. You're on Disney movie duties Riley."
"Sounds like fun to me," Riley hiked Lila up on his hip a little higher. She giggled at the motion, wrapping her arms around his neck. "What do you want to watch?"
"The Lion King," Lila informed him. "And you have to sing with me."
"Done," Riley strode off into the lounge room without any hesitation or complaint. Sucker. Now Lila wouldn't leave him alone ever again. Lila would have him wrapped around her little finger within minutes. My eyes weren't the only ones following his nicely formed ass as he left the room. As soon as Riley was out of earshot Natasha turned to me.
"Your boyfriend makes my ovaries hurt."
I burst out laughing at Natasha's honest statement. She wasn't wrong there at all.
Another thing I learnt over the next 2 weeks was that SHIELD knew how to throw a Christmas party. For some reason, SHIELD also seemed to like to throw multiple parties. There was the enormous general one for the entire workforce in the Triskelion. The free wine, beer and food had been a complete gorge but I managed to not get trashed like a lot of people. The Enforcement division had their own Christmas party as well. For some reason that one had an entirely open bar. I wasn't going to drink a lot but Natasha persuaded me to have Long Island ice tea with her. Natasha and I had ended up holding each others hair while we threw up at Clint's place. It'd been a big surprise to see Coulson get wasted as well and end up passed out on Clint's lounge. It was an entirely new side of Coulson I'd never seen before. STRIKE had their own party, along with the individual teams seeming to be doing something as well. I'd never drunk so much in my life. Our training schedules had all slowed right down as well as we all over indulged for the festive season far too much. The only thing missing was Jared, who'd been sent on a mission somewhere in Asia for an undetermined amount of time. He'd managed to be there for 2 hours for the Enforcement Christmas party but otherwise he wasn't to be seen at all. He promised to try and make it to Christmas day but had no promises it'd happen.
Christmas morning saw us sitting in Clint's lounge room surrounded by piles and piles of presents. Riley, Natasha and I had all stayed the night. In hindsight it probably wasn't a great idea. Lila had come into Riley and I at 3am asking if Santa had been yet. Then she decided to curl up in bed with us while she waited for Santa. It'd taken a lot of persuading and blackmail to get her back to sleep. Not that it lasted long. She was up and bouncing at 5am anyway. We'd all been reluctantly dragged out of bed and gotten the Santa presents out of the way until Coulson got here at 7am.
Cooper was in charge of distributing the presents to everyone. Lila was being unhelpful with trying to star unwrapped presents. Whether they were her own or not. It was crazy and noisy but I felt more at home right now than I'd ever done before. I was sitting between Riley's legs on the floor, he had his arms casually draped around my shoulders keeping me pulled in close to him. Our pile of presents was growing on the floor in front of us.
"Are you sure this is all for us?" I asked Cooper as he put yet another box down in front of me. It seemed the mountain of presents underneath the tree never seemed to shrink.
"This is all Clint's fault," Natasha chipped in. She was lounging in one of the single chairs with a ridiculously massive coffee cup. I'd never seen it before and I was fairly envious of it. I don't think I'd had enough coffee to properly wake up yet.
"No, it's not," Clint started to argue.
"Yes it is," Coulson cut him off with a small chuckle. "I remember your first Christmas when you were still living with me."
For the first time I'd known him, Clint actually blushed. It wasn't much except for his ears going red but he genuinely looked embarrassed for what Coulson was about to tell. The look of utter defeat and resignation on his face was hilarious. This was going to be good.
"I'd been gone for 36 hours," Coulson started as he lent back smirking at Clint. "With the express instruction to put up a small Christmas tree and not to go overboard with anything. I come back to my apartment and find the entire thing decorated in tinsel and a Christmas tree so big we couldn't get it back out the door and ended up throwing it out the window onto the street."
I tried really hard to stop myself laughing obnoxiously, but I couldn't help it. Considering how nuts Clint went with Christmas decorations at his own place I could only imagine a 17 year old Barton left alone. At least Laura tried to keep him a little in check these days.
"And he gave me about 30 different presents," although Coulson was still teasing him there was a very fond look on his face. "He just can't settle on one thing. He has to buy lots of little things instead. Hence why there's about 50 presents under the tree for everyone."
"Who wants to open presents?" Clint quickly jumped to his feet. He reached down and scooped up a few that were at his feet. "I say we all go nuts."
Lila and Cooper didn't need to be told twice. Both of them started to rip into the wrapping of their own piles. Us adults started a little more sedately. Not too much though.
I eagerly ripped into my first few presents. Season pass for Capitols games from Laura and Clint made me jump up from Riley and shriek in excitement. I was ordered to sit back down and save the hugs for later until all the presents were open. Natasha got me a set of gorgeous sapphire and silver drop earrings. A limited edition Mulan DVD from Cooper and Lila. A gorgeous switchblade stiletto from Clint and Natasha which I was handling with uttermost care. The thin knife was gorgeous. The black handle had midnight blue vine etchings on it making it look like calligraphy. I touched the button to make the blade flick out of the handle, admiring the shine of the blade.
"Kari?" Coulson's voice made me look up from admiring my new toy. He was holding the well worn leather cover of the book Grams had given me. "Whats this?"
"Just something I dug up from some of Gram's old things," I tried to keep the excitement out of my voice as I spoke. "I thought you might like it."
"Is this?" Coulson's hands were actually shaking as he flipped through the first few pages.
"Steve Rogers personal sketching book? Signed and dated?" I asked innocently. The room had gone silent as everyone looked at Coulson who was currently looking from the pages of the book and up to me. Repeatedly.
"This belongs in a museum," Coulson's voice was mixed with awe and amazement. "This is…."
"One of the few times I've ever seen you speechless Phil?" it was Clint's turn to tease our handler.
Coulson clutched the book to his chest like a lovesick teenager holding a binder with their crushes name on it. It took him about 20 seconds before his mouth stopped opening and closing like a fish out of water. Instead of words, Coulson got out of the chair and much to my surprise came over and hugged me. Hard. Clinging onto me and not letting me go until it got beyond awkward.
"Does this give me brownie points?" I asked as Coulson finally let me go.
Any reply from Coulson was cut off by Jared's very sudden appearance in the lounge room. His arms full of presents and a huge grin on his face.
"I didn't miss anything did I?"
By the end of the day I was all gifted out. Coulson hadn't been wrong on all the gifts that Clint liked to get. It ranged from everything to small personal pieces like a shot glass from the gift store in Bagram to the amazing braided leather bracelet that Clint had made himself. Natasha had a silver arrow necklace she always wore than Clint had gotten her years before. So he thought he'd get me something small and memorable as well.
Riley had been just as speechless as Coulson when I gave him the watch I'd gotten for him. While I couldn't replace the sporty Tag Heuer watch he had before. The Victorniox Maverick watch certainly came close. Natasha hadn't taken off her pair of Jimmy Choo's that I'd found all those weeks ago. They looked ridiculous with her casual jeans but I didn't blame her for not wanting to take them off. Cooper had gotten every piece of Star Wars lego that Riley and I could find in every shop. Lila had been the tricky one but I finally got something made for her. It was a necklace with her name on it, done in the Disney script. Clint had gotten his DVD box collection of John Wayne cowboy movies. There was nearly a small argument about him putting one on right now but in the end Laura had put her foot down over it and Clint didn't argue. I had a feeling that Clint would be enjoying those DVD's while Laura indulged in the luxury organic spa package I'd gotten her. Jared got his usual gift card to the Apple store that he wanted every single birthday and Christmas. At least he was easy.
We had eaten far too much food and indulged in a day of doing nothing but enjoying each others company. Riley and I were sitting out on the back porch steps watching the sun set on the horizon. It'd been a perfect day.
"I wanted to give this to you alone," Riley broke the comfortable silence that had engulfed us for the last few minutes. I turned to look at him questionably. He'd already gotten me a day at the spa with Laura. Sneaky shit he was organising that with Clint. Even though we'd both said no presents we both broke that rule pretty easily. Riley reached into his jacket and pulled out a thinly wrapped package. I smiled as I took it off him, not wanting to argue about him not meant to be getting me anything. I ripped into the shiny packing and pulled out a jewellery box. My heart stopped for a second and then I mentally smacked myself for my own stupidity. It was far too big for a ring box. I opened it up to find a simple silver necklace in it. On it was a brass disc. Nothing fancy at all. It just looked like a perfect circle of brass charm.
"What is it?" I picked up the delicate chain and looked at the charm, gently fingering it.
"That is," Riley reached over and took it out of my hands. He moved behind me and put the chain around my neck. "The bottom of a .338 Lapua Magnum bullet from your AWSM. More importantly, it was one of the bullet you were shooting when you beat me in that shooting contest."
I was blown away by such a simple gesture. Riley fastened the chain and it dropped on my skin, the metal heating up instantly. It was perfect. Nothing flashy or ostentatious. Just a simple little gift that was just me.
"Its perfect. Thank you," the smile I couldn't wipe off my face. I craned my neck around so I could give Riley a kiss. Our lips brushed together in a small chaste kiss.
"So is my watch," Riley pulled away, glancing down to his wrist with his own smile. "And so are you.
I had nothing to say to that. I just reached over and kissed him again. Perfect didn't quite describe today. Right now, in this moment. Life was perfect. Nothing could change that.
Authors Note
I'm so sorry for the delay everyone! Life is a bit crazy at the moment not leaving a lot of time for writing. Also please excuse any errors for this one. It's been edited but by me and I have a bad habit of glancing over problems like words in silly places. I did plan on some pretty major events happening in chapter 30 but I've pushed my storyline out a bit. Sorry everyone. You'll just have to wait a few more chapters for it.
Next update should be out in the next 2 weeks! At the moment all I can do is a fortnightly update so thanks to sticking with it everyone. Also welcome to all the new followers! I don't know how but I managed to get a pretty steady influx over the last few weeks.
Until next time!