Notes: CC, I agree with you entirely. When Clint forgets to be scared, he's so much more of the little heartbreaker that we know and love ;) He's such a little butt too, when he wants to be.

Griezz, the reason the circus hasn't come up yet is that Clint is trying not to give too many details that could lead people back to Barney. After all, he has been used as bait before, and Barney was used by Jacques to get to K. He's wary. As for Kurt... yes, the circus connection is there, but... you'll see in this chapter. It's not quite so easy to get close to Clint when he hasn't decided to trust you...

Chapter 6: Scared Little Boy

For as clearly enchanted as both Storm and Jean were with the newest, youngest mansion resident, the other X-Men were curious to see what the fuss was about.

They didn't have to look too hard to find Clint, at least, especially when Sicem needed to get out of the house. The students at the school were usually helping to spoil Sicem rotten, too, so more often than not, Clint and the dog were out on the lawn playing fetch, running around, or just exploring the grounds.

When Kurt found Clint, it looked like the little boy was in between bouts of playing, lying sprawled out in the grass, looking up at the sky and grinning.

"Guten abend," Kurt said gently, catching Clint's attention.

Clint sat up so that he was resting on his elbows and tipped his head to the side a bit. "Hi," he said softly, the big grin dying, even if he was trying to give Kurt a polite smile.

"Have you found your way down to the lake yet?" Kurt asked cheerfully.

Clint nodded quietly. "Yeah." He glanced toward where Sicem was playing with the students and let his gaze drop to his hands. "It's okay. Not as big as mine back home."

"Oh?" Kurt asked, his eyebrows high on his head. "That must be a very big lake then."

"Uh-huh," Clint said. He sat up all the way and looked Kurt over for a moment. "Am I not s'pposed to go without a lifeguard or something? 'Cause I can ask next time…"

"No, no, nothing like that," Kurt said. "At least, not if you're just staying on the shoreline. I simply wanted to see how you liked it here."

Clint bit his lip and seemed to try to look smaller. "I'm okay," he said softly.

"I'm sure you are," Kurt said, though he was trying to see what it was he'd done to shut the boy down. He crouched down nearby, but didn't get too close, sure that his appearance had at least something to do with it. He would never quite get used to the sinking feeling of scaring innocents, but it was par for the course. "You know, this is the first dog to be here at the institute," he said, trying to cajole Clint into a different topic that he knew made him happy.

"Yeah, I guess that's why everyone's spoiling him," Clint said, glancing toward Kurt and then Sicem. "He's my best friend — except maybe Barney, my brother."

"I had a brother and a sister," Kurt said with a little grin. "They were wonderful."

Clint smiled quietly. "Yeah, my brother's gonna be the best at swords and knives and stuff," he said.

"That sounds like a lot for a young man to take on," Kurt said, grinning a little bit wider now. "Wonderful to hear all the same, though."

"He can do it," Clint said. "He's the best."

"Then he'll have no trouble," Kurt agreed. "Where does one learn such wonderful things?"

Clint glanced up at Kurt for just a moment before his eyes went wide and he shook his head. "No… no … that's not … I'm not gonna tell anybody nothin'," he said quickly, his arms wrapped around his knees.

Kurt's smile slipped away and he tipped his head to the side. "I didn't mean to pry," he said quietly.

Clint got to his feet, his eyes still wide. "You just — you just stay away from my brother," he said before he simply took off, running toward Sicem. And the dog, to his credit, seemed to know how upset Clint was and immediately started trying to play with Clint, bouncing around him and bunting his hand for pets.

Kurt felt awful about derailing Clint and as he watched the boy take off with his dog, Kurt teleported to the control booth where Scott was setting up for a team practice. Of course, he appeared mere inches from Scott's shoulder. "I think I startled our young man."

Scott raised an eyebrow — though he didn't jump nearly as much as he had done when Kurt had first joined the group of X-Men. So at least someone was getting used to Kurt, he supposed.

"Did you teleport this close?" Scott asked dryly.

"Of course not," Kurt scoffed. "I only do that to you. When there is a problem."

Scott let out a long sigh and gestured for Kurt to sit with him. "What happened?"

"I found him outside with the dog, and I tried to chat with him. He mentioned that his brother is learning to handle swords and knives..." Kurt let out a sigh. "I tried to ask about his brother, but I don't see what I did to upset him. Storm says he can be so enchanting and engaging…"

Scott nodded slowly. "Jean's been trying to get him to open up a little more," he said. "But he and his mom are pretty protective of each other. Might be that he's extending that to his brother. I can talk to him, make sure he knows you didn't mean anything by it."

"That would probably be wise," Kurt agreed.

Scott smirked Kurt's way. "Jean's in love with him," he said. "She wants to win him over and convince them both to stay, I think if we can prove that he can trust us, that will be half the battle."

"Then I wish you luck," Kurt replied. "I'm sure it was just my appearance that set him off. It wouldn't be the first time." He gestured to himself. "A blue demon asking where your missing brother is … might be off-putting."

Scott softened his stance and nodded slowly. "Give him time."

It was obvious throughout the team practice that followed that Scott was thinking about what Kurt had told him — he was preoccupied enough that Jean had to smirk at him and give him a little mental nudge, letting him know that she thought it was probably just what Kurt and Scott were thinking — that Clint was just being protective of his brother.

It probably doesn't help that his mom is keeping her distance too, Jean pointed out. He can see that she doesn't trust us.

And that's not at just about him either, Scott replied.

Jean nodded. I know Charles has been working with her.

The professor has been getting dragged.

I could try talking to her, Jean offered.

Great, I'll talk to Clint. Scott gave her a little smirk and stole a kiss.

Jean had to laugh when she realized that he was pleased with how that had turned it. You did that on purpose!

Scott just smiled a little wider at that but didn't confirm or deny it either way. Instead, he simply made it a point to seek Clint out after the practice — not at all surprised to find him in the kitchen breaking open a bag of pretzels.

Clint didn't seem to notice Scott until he was in his line of sight — he must not have noticed the door opening — and when he did, he froze.

"Jean said I could eat any snacks I wanted," he blurted out quickly, holding onto the bag a little tighter. Scott could also see that he had a few packets of snacks in his pockets, too. And the whole picture was familiar enough that Scott thought he had an idea of at least part of the problem.

"You can have whatever snacks you want," Scott said, holding up one hand palm out. "I wasn't going to stop you."

Clint watched him for a long moment, almost holding his breath, before he nodded quickly and held the bag a little tighter. "Okay. Okay, good," he breathed out.

"You had a few rotten fosters before you found your mom, didn't you?" Scott asked as he tried to keep an even tone.

Clint bit his lip and then nodded. "Uh-huh"

"I don't know why people like that even offer to take kids in," Scott said.

Clint shrugged. "I dunno," he said quietly. "But I got Mom now so …. so I don't need nobody else."

Scott smirked at him and nodded. "You got lucky."

Clint nodded more enthusiastically. "Oh yeah. I'm real glad she found me. We had a real Christmas and everything," he said, smiling shyly.

"We make sure all the kids here get that too," Scott said. "It's always something special when it's a kid that hasn't had a decent Christmas in years."

"I don't want a Christmas here; I want it with my mom," Clint said quickly.

"No, I wasn't … that's not what I was saying," Scott said. "I was just … pointing out that I know how important that is."

Clint nodded, watching Scott with measured suspicion. "Are you gonna ask me more questions, because that's all anybody does around here."

"I was going to try, but if you don't want me to, then I won't," Scott admitted.

"I just don't get how come you wanna know so much," Clint said.

"We like to know about the kids that come here," Scott said. "We don't want to mess anything up for you. Especially when you've got a family."

Clint nodded carefully. "Well… okay," he said slowly. "I just don't wanna ... I don't wanna get my mom in trouble."

"She's not going to get in trouble," Scott said as he started to pull out the chair nearest Clint.

Clint froze when he saw how close Scott was to him and then took a few steps back before, just as he'd done with Kurt, he took off running, leaving Scott more than a little frustrated on how that had gone — especially when it had really felt like he was at least getting a conversation out of him.

When Clint came down to the game room, he wasn't surprised to see that the TV was on and that it looked like Kurt and Logan had already occupied the couch in front of it, joking around with each other as they watched a hockey game.

At first, Clint didn't really pay them much attention. He'd come down to find the dart board and play darts, because he'd found out he was pretty good at it. Instead of caring about the adults and their game, he simply gathered up the darts and the board and made sure it was at a height he could actually reach without throwing off his aim and went to town.

He had to drag one of the chairs over so that he could reach the board, though when Jean reached out to telekinetically pull the dartboard down for him, he frowned her way. "I got it," he said even as he caught the board in both hands. "I don't need the help."

"Leave him alone, Jeannie; he had it covered just fine on his own," Logan muttered, not looking their way.

"Mother duck," Kurt said quietly with a little giggle.

Jean frowned at both of them and then looked over at Clint, who still looked determined, and shook her head. "Are you sure?"

"I do it all the time," Clint insisted, climbing down from his chair so he could re-hang the dartboard at the right height and then grab his handful of red and blue darts, dragging the chair back into place when he was done.

Kurt tipped his head slightly to the side and barely lifted up a hand. "I can't reach that pillow …" he said before he looked over at Jean with a massive grin as Logan tried to keep from laughing. "Whatever shall I do?"

"You're both hilarious," Jean said, shaking her head at them.

"That's entirely beside the point," Kurt said, still grinning her way.

Jean rolled her eyes at that and then reached out to pick up the pillow and positively bean Kurt in the face with it.

Clint flashed Jean a thumbs-up. "Ten points."

"You're … really only earning five over that," Logan said, shaking his head.

"Naw, if it was dead center it'd be fifty, come on. I'm playing darts, not archery."

Logan chuckled and nodded as Kurt shoved his shoulder. "Fair enough."

Clint grinned and went back to his game of darts, leaving the adults to keep messing around with each other and relentlessly teasing each other. He couldn't help but smirk to himself at a lot of the teasing being tossed back and forth over not only the game but each other. Even if he wasn't so sure about these people, he could still appreciate their senses of humor. And boy, did they have them.

It went on like that for a little while until Clint heard the unmistakeable sort of pop-crack of a beer can opening, and he froze without even thinking about it, his gaze snapping to the two men still joking around with each other.

He was almost holding his breath when Logan, still smiling, looked over his shoulder at Clint, and for just a second, Clint watched him from where he was standing before he split, still holding onto the darts and clearly on the quickest path out — and to his mom's room.

Logan's smile fell in an instant, and he watched the spot where the kid had disappeared, thinking to himself about what exactly triggered the response. He looked around the room, trying to see what it was — or where it had come from — but he had a sinking suspicion brewing already. He thought about it for a long moment before he simply looked over to Jean. "You catch that, or was it pure reaction?"

She nodded slowly. "Pure reaction," she said, her smile gone as well.

"I'll give him some time before I dig into it," Logan decided.

"He's checking on his mom," Jean told him.

"Of course he is," Logan said, nodding as he tried to settle back into his seat, frowning and not really able to concentrate on the game.

Kurt dipped his head down to catch Logan's attention after he entirely missed teasing Kurt when his team missed a goal. "Was is los?"

"Dunno," Logan said. "But I've got an idea or two."

Kurt nodded, looking back to the game for a moment before he shook his head and got to his feet. "Play pool with me," he said. "There's no reason to watch a game you're not watching."

"Not much else I can do right now if he's going to react that strong, that fast. Just make it worse."

Kurt nodded and put a hand on Logan's shoulder before he simply teleported them both to the pool table. "In the meantime," he said, holding a cue out to his friend.

"Sure, I'll wipe the floor with you," Logan replied with a little smirk.

"Lächerlich."

Logan shrugged and got to his feet. "Money where your mouth is, Elf."

And while the two of them were talking smack back and forth, setting up for their pool game, Clint had found K and was very quietly trying to act like there was a solid reason that he had a handful of darts.

Clint twisted the red dart around a few times as he tried to come up with something to say. "I … was… practicing… my thievery… skills…"

"You know you can't lie to me," K said, giving him a raised eyebrow look. "Did you need someone to play with?"

"No," he said and set the darts down on the desk.

"Are you sure? Because when I miss, it's usually a spectacular miss." She gave him a little smile. "You know … like in the backside of whoever spooked you." She shrugged with both hands up. "Oops."

Clint couldn't help but smile at that and nodded lightly. "Yeah. Oops." He took a deep breath and let it out. "I'll ... I'll put 'em back tomorrow. It's ... there's too many people there."

"You sure? It's not any trouble to play a game or two."

Clint nodded. "Can we just stay here and maybe watch a movie instead?"

"Of course. Want me to grab the popcorn?"

"No," Clint said quickly. "No, it's okay, I got it," he promised before he rushed off to do just that, not leaving K with much time to ask him any other questions.

The next morning, Clint came down to grab some breakfast before his lessons with Jean and Storm, like he'd done for the past several days since he and K arrived there — but when he saw that Logan was already there and had coffee, he paused, not sure if Logan was the kind of guy who was meaner with a hangover or not.

"Mornin'," Logan said as he peeked up at Clint, then went right back to his paper.

"Hi," Clint said softly, padding around the outside of the kitchen to grab a Pop-Tart — something he didn't have to eat at the table.

"Jeannie's settin' up to make pancakes if you're interested."

"I do like pancakes," he said with a small nod, pausing at the pantry before he put the Pop-Tart back.

"Then it's smart to grab 'em early before Bobby gets down here and ticks her off."

Clint nodded at that and stayed off to the side, waiting without a word until Jean and Scott arrived — and Jean gave him a warm smile when she saw him.

"Do you like chocolate chips in yours? I can make a few with chocolate or blueberries if you want," Jean offered as she started to pull out the supplies.

"Can I help?" Clint offered.

Jean nodded — even though it was clear with the various ingredients telekinetically flying to her that she didn't need a helping hand. "How are you at breaking eggs?

"I can do that," he said, seeming to relax once he was in the kitchen and not the dining room. It wasn't long before he was cheerfully working alongside Jean and even made it a point to serve a plate of pancakes to his mom when she came downstairs.

"Little chef," K said as she gave him a quick kiss on top of his head.

Clint grinned up at her. "Well, you make me pancakes all the time, so I thought it would be nice if I gave you some!"

"You're a darling young man," K agreed. "Thank you; they look wonderful." She quickly made her way over to grab a cup of coffee before she headed for the dining room. "Are you having some with me, or are you just going to play short order cook this morning?"

Clint glanced up at Jean, who gave him an encouraging smile, and he nodded happily, grabbing a plate full of pancakes for himself and climbing up into the seat next to K. "Storm found me some Hardy Boys books that I can work on reading," he told her. "They've got more chapters in 'em, but they're way more interesting than the kiddie books."

K nodded at that. "So, which one are you?" she asked. "Everyone has a favorite …"

"Well, I'm probably Joe, 'cause I'm blonde and a little brother," Clint said.

"That makes sense," K said.

"Do you got a favorite?"

"No, they both get into enough trouble for me."

Clint grinned at that and nodded. "Storm's helping me with my writing too, and — and ooh! Jean said that we can work on some multiplication stuff 'cause I did so good on adding and subtracting."

"That doesn't surprise me. They'll all be convinced you're a genius by the time you start geometry."

Clint giggled and shook his head. "You're just saying that because you want me to wipe the floor with everybody."

"Although that is true," K said, shaking her head slowly with one eye closed, "I don't really 'just say' much."

"Yeah, that's true," Clint had to admit. He smiled at her as he swirled his pancakes in the syrup on his plate. "I bet… I bet I could be Indiana Jones," he told her quietly. "You said I gotta go to college for that, so… I bet I could."

"You'll be better than that," K said, then switched to sign. You're Clint Barton. Who needs Indy?

Clint grinned at that. I need a cool hat, he told her.

And cover up those blond locks? No.

You like my duck fluff way too much, he giggled.

"Not possible," she argued.

Clint grinned and leaned into her in a small snuggle as they finished up their breakfast, in a grand mood by the time he headed off to meet up with Storm and do some more reading.

"He's really amazing, you know," Jean said as she finally got to sit down by K with her own breakfast.

"Well-aware," K replied. "Thanks for letting him help. That's a big thing for him."

Jean smiled a little wider at that. "I love having him help," she said. "And I've been loving having him here …. teaching him math… all I hear from him is how amazing you are, too."

"He's biased. Don't listen to that nonsense."

Jean smiled and shook her head. "Really, he's amazing." She paused and then let her shoulders drop. "He's… a little skittish. None of us are trying to upset him."

"So am I. Skittish, that is."

"It's just that he's seven and innocent," Jean tried to explain. "And we're only trying to make him feel welcome."

K readjusted how she was seated and primly folded her hands at her knees as she straightened up slightly. "Where is it you think you're failing, exactly?"

"Well…" Jean glanced to Scott, who was unsuccessfully pretending not to be paying attention. "We're not entirely sure."

"You've dealt with traumatized people before, haven't you?"

"We usually know the trauma — and have an idea of the background."

"And even if the people you deal with aren't usually seven or innocent, do you always try to find and hit every trigger in their history before you wonder what might have gone wrong?"

Jean straightened up and narrowed her eyes. "That's not what we're doing. We're just trying to figure out why he's so happy and fun around some people and skittish around others."

"And if the kid isn't ready to talk and share, then you wait until he is," K said. "Or am I wrong?"

"That's why I'm asking you," Jean said, shaking her head.

"I'm not giving anything to people I don't trust myself," K replied. "Especially on him."

When Jean looked frustrated, Scott cleared his throat. "He's had a bad string of fosters," he said.

"Yes he did," K agreed.

"That's why Jean's asking you to help," Scott said. "It's pretty clear he's still dealing with that. The last thing we want is to scare him."

K hadn't blinked yet as she turned her focus to Scott. "So, who did what to scare him?"

"At first, we thought it might have been that Kurt asked about Barney, but Jean's talked with him about his brother and didn't get that reaction," Scott said. "He ran out when I tried to talk to him in the kitchen, and then there was last night with the darts."

"I offered to play a game with him, but he didn't want to be around the crowd," K said. "Connect some dots."

Scott nodded. "To be honest, we thought we had it figured out — back off of questions — until last night. He was fine with Jean and Kurt and Logan — he's usually fine with Jean."

"He loves his teachers," K said, trying to let them figure it out on their own.

"We're trying to give him more exposure to the rest of us so he can see we're not a threat; we're not going to separate you two."

"No, you're not," K agreed.

"And I know it's hard to trust someone when you can't look them in the eye, and we've had problems from others with Kurt's appearance—"

"It's not your eyes," K said. "And it's not his looks."

"He doesn't like men," Storm said, one eyebrow raised as she cut in, looking almost disappointed at the revelation.

"Of course, it was a woman that figured it out," K said, gesturing to Storm.

Scott leaned back and let out a breath. "That's not… something we can change."

"Not with an attitude like that, it's not."

Storm shook her head with a little smile. "Still, that's something we can get past. Trust can still be earned." She smirked Logan's way for a second and then Jean's. "This is why Jean and I are always saying we need more women on the team."

"Oh, you mean someone that can point out that just because they're guys, they're not infallible? Yeah. You need more of that." K was perfectly dry in her delivery.

"As I said — more women," Storm laughed.

"Well good luck with that," K said before she turned the focus back to Clint. "He's got solid reason not to trust men. So … your testosterone squad isn't going to get too far."

"Then it's a good thing he has us for teachers," Jean said. She gave K a warm smile — relaxed more now that there was an explanation she could wrap her head around. "I meant what I said; he's really amazing. I love teaching him."

"Good," K replied. "Is there anything else you wanted to try to be sly about asking me? It's a lot quicker if you cut the crap and just say what's on your mind."

Jean frowned at that but let out a breath. "Just that I hope you'll consider staying ... or at least… consider not acting like we're the enemy. It's hard to earn Clint's trust when his mother treats us like we're supervillains."

"I don't know what you are," K replied.

"And we don't know much about you. But if we try to build up some mutual respect instead of treating each other like enemies, don't you think that's better if we want to trust each other?"

"Still not sure I want to," K said. She put her hands on the table, palms down, and pushed herself to her feet. "Now … I'm sure that it's just a matter of time before your big guns decides I need to spend another five or six hours getting my brain picked. So I'm going to step outside while I can."

Jean let out a sigh as K left, leaning back against Scott and looking frustrated. "Well that went well."

"Tell Charlie to back off," Logan said. "She just told you it's really just tickin' her off. And if you want the kid to stick around …"

Jean looked his way and then sighed again. "I really do," she admitted. "I'll talk to him."