Notes: Seriously, that pop-crack is by far one of the best onomatopoetic moments I've ever written, and I am exceedingly proud of it. So it tickles me to no end that it makes you as happy as it makes me ;)

And the boys... aww man. You have to feel for them, I hear you. Kurt tries so hard, Scott did all the right things, and Logan wasn't even doing anything out of the ordinary. But as sweet as Clint is, he comes with some pretty Clint-specific baggage. Bless his soul. I just want to hug ALL of them.

Chapter 7: Sweet Little Orphan Boys

Clint and K had only been at the institute for a couple weeks, but Clint was fast falling in love with his classes. He had never felt smart before — not when it came to school anyway, even if he felt smart when K would help him — but Jean and Storm had a way of making him feel like he… might actually… not be stupid.

And it was beyond obvious that Jean was in love with having a little boy around to shower with attention — so the math classes were a great meeting of the mutual admiration society.

They were part of the way through some multiplication problems when Clint glanced up at Jean and gave her a shy smile. "Thanks," he said.

"For what?" Jean asked, her eyebrows raised.

"Well, you haven't been asking lotsa questions, and everybody's kinda backed off, so… thanks for talking to 'em," Clint said, still with that same shy smile. "I know you did it."

Jean smiled at him lightly. "Actually, Scott talked to the team about backing off," she said, knowing that even if she had been part of that decision, giving Scott the credit would help a lot.

Clint didn't bother to hide his surprise as his eyebrows shot up. "Really?"

"Really," she said.

"Why… why would he do that?"

"Well," Jean said slowly. "For one thing, Scott lost his parents when he was just a little older than you. He spent a lot of time in an orphanage, so he's …. He knows about that stuff."

Clint looked even more wide-eyed. "I didn't know that," he said softly. It was more than obvious that he had lost a lot of his defensiveness, and Jean couldn't help but give herself a mental high-five, even if she kept her gentle smile and didn't give away her excitement.

"It's not the easiest thing for anyone to talk about," Jean replied.

Clint nodded. "Yeah… yeah, I know," he said. He glanced up at Jean for a moment and bit his lip. "Did he find someone like I found Mom?" he asked. "It's real hard to be in a place like that."

"Kind of," Jean said. "He ran away from there when he was sixteen. Eventually, he found the professor."

Clint looked far more interested as he leaned forward. "Really?" he almost breathed out. "That's… that's a lot like me."

"Really," Jean told him with a soft sort of smile.

Clint thought about it for a long time before he nodded to himself. "So… so he wouldn't get me in trouble if he knew … someone who ran away too? If… if I did, that is."

"Absolutely not," Jean promised. "He knows what those places are like — and the one person that took him in before the professor was worse than the orphanage in a lot of ways."

Clint nodded. "Yeah… some people are mean," he said, watching Jean with an open expression. "I ran away from my foster dad — he was not nice," he added in a whisper. "I ran away from lots of 'em, actually."

"Sweet kid like you?" Jean said, gently reaching up to brush the loose hair out of his eyes. Even in the short time they had been together, Jean couldn't stop herself from those small expressions of affection. "Who would have a problem with you?"

Clint bit his lip and shrugged. "Well... I … I wasn't real smart or real polite or nothing like that," he said.

"Was this before or after they separated you from your brother?" Jean asked before she leaned in closer. "Because you know, Scott was separated from his little brother too."

Clint's eyes were wide. "I… Me and Barney fought back," he whispered. "That's how come we kept getting bounced around, and they said he was harder to place."

"Yeah, that's what Scott said," Jean agreed. "Older kids have a harder time. Siblings want to go together, but it doesn't always happen." She paused and tipped her head to the side. "I'm sure he'd tell you about it if you asked."

Clint thought about it for a long moment before he nodded slowly. "Yeah, okay, maybe I will," he said before he ducked his head and went back to his math problems.

Scott knew because of Jean's tickled commentary what she and Clint had been talking about — but he hadn't expected any immediate results. It was nice to know that Clint was starting to open up a little more and to know where he was coming from, of course. He'd suspected a lot of it, but it was good to have it confirmed — and it would explain why he said K had 'found' him if he was a runaway.

But he wasn't going to push, not when it was obvious that pushing was only making the two of them more wary. So when Clint came in with Sicem after playing outside for a while to grab something to drink — for Sicem as well, who went right to the water bowl — Scott was content to give Clint his space. He was keeping in mind what K had said about Clint's real fears, and he knew there was a lot to unpack, unlearn there. A tall guy that you couldn't look in the eye wasn't exactly an easy pick for trusting men, and Scott knew it.

So he absolutely wasn't expecting it when Clint sat down with his water bottle and his potato chips and looked up at him, clearly sizing him up before he nodded to himself. "Okay, so… what happened to your brother?" he asked, not even giving Scott any kind of preamble.

Scott blinked at Clint in obvious surprise before he smiled. "Alex? He's in Hawaii now."

"That's really far away," Clint said, looking almost upset at the thought. "There's a whole ocean in between you and him!"

"That's where he ended up getting adopted. It's home to him now," Scott explained with an almost imperceptible shrug.

"I can't imagine being that far away from my brother," Clint said earnestly.

"Neither could I when it happened," Scott agreed.

"I'm real sorry they split you up," Clint said. "That's how come me and Barney got split. I'm still little, so they said they could get me a home — but he's bigger and meaner sometimes."

"Well, see," Scott said, pausing for a moment. "We had an accident, and when I woke up from it, he was gone. So it was a little different."

Clint stared at Scott before he glanced over both shoulders and then leaned forward. "If you tell my mom who made you have an accident, she can make him have an accident too even if you're grown up now."

"This is entirely true," K said from the doorway, her arms crossed over her chest, getting both of them to look up at her unexpected appearance.

Clint smiled up at K from where he was sitting close to Scott. "Hi, Mom," he said. "Didja know that Scott had a little brother that got adopted in Hawaii? That's real far, huh?"

"I did not," K said as she made her way over to the coffee pot. "And yeah, that's a very long swim."

"I'm not good enough at swimming to do that, so I'm real glad Barney didn't go there," Clint said, nodding seriously.

"I'm pretty sure you'd have to be half fish to do that one," K said, coming over to the table. She set down a cup of coffee for Scott and a mug of cocoa for Clint before pulling out a chair with her own mug.

Scott raised an eyebrow before he tipped his head K's way. "Thanks," he said, though he was even more surprised when he found it was prepared the way he liked it, too — she must have been paying attention.

"You're welcome," she replied, lifting her cup to her lips.

"Mom, guess what else," Clint said, tugging on her sleeve.

"I don't even know where to start," K admitted. "What?"

He leaned forward and signed the rest of it. Scott ran away too. Just like me!

She raised an eyebrow at that. That is kind of surprising.

Miss Jean said it was because the orphanage was not a nice place, so he ran away, and that's how he found Mr. Professor Xavier.

K nodded and looked over at Scott. "You two are bonding nicely."

Scott nodded and smiled lightly. "Clint's easy to like."

"And you both spent time with rude Midwesterners," she said. "It's because you were both too far into the plains. North is always better."

Scott raised an eyebrow and then smirked lightly. "I'm actually from Alaska," he said. "So I tend to agree."

She smiled at that. "Oh, good. Then you have to have a little sense."

"I like to think so," Scott said. He leaned back slightly and tipped his head her way. "What about you? Alaska too, or a little further south?"

"Close enough on the area codes," she said with a smirk. "Southern shore of Lake Superior."

"It's a real big lake," Clint put in helpfully. "You can't see the end of it! And it's cold!"

Scott nodded and smiled Clint's way. "Yeah, we used to go diving into the lakes even when it was cold, just to prove we could do it. It drove my mom nuts."

"I had to wait to pull that crap until I was older," K said. "There was a little paranoia about the lake when I was home."

"Bad history or just being careful?"

"That's where my dad died," K replied easily. "Superior is a little unforgiving — and she doesn't give up her dead."

"Ah." Scott nodded quietly. "It took me a while to get back to flying too, yeah."

She waved a hand. "It was forever ago. The lake hasn't changed. It was a mistake on his part."

Scott simply nodded at that, not sure where to pick it up from there — though Clint seemed perfectly content to fill the silence. "So is that how you had an accident?" the little boy blurted out. "Like, a real one in an airplane not a thing that people call accidents but aren't really?"

"Yeah," Scott said before he cleared his throat. "That's how I lost my family."

Clint bit his lip and then leaned forward. "My dad crashed his car and killed my mom too," he said softly.

"Were you apart from your brother for a long time, Scott?" K asked, not looking his way, though she watched him out of the corner of her eyes.

"I didn't see him again until I was older," Scott said with a nod — though he had taken a moment before he did. "I was an X-Man by then."

"That's a shame," she replied in a much softer tone than he'd heard before.

Scott shrugged lightly and shook his head. "That's just how it happened," he said. "I'm just glad I know where he is."

Clint nodded seriously. "Yeah, I like knowing where my brother is too."

"We keep track of Barney pretty closely," K said.

"I'm glad to hear that," Scott said honestly. "I don't think brothers should be split up."

"Well, Barney wants to be a circus performer, but we make sure and see him plenty," Clint said. He grinned and leaned forward. "He's real good, and the ringmaster got him a much nicer teacher to teach him about swords and stuff, so next time we see him, he'll probably be running things."

"Probably," Scott said, unable to stop the smirk at Clint's perfectly matter-of-fact insistence. It was no wonder Jean liked the kid as much as she did.

"I know better than to try and make a kid stay when he's got a history of running away," K told Scott "He's got good people around him. That's about as good as I can manage … considering."

Scott gave her an honest smile at that. "That's great to hear, really. Knowing that they've both got someone who gets it — that would have meant a lot to any of us kids when I was growing up too. It's a big deal."

"Be the person you needed as a kid, right?" K replied.

Scott nodded. "Exactly. Try and make sure the future is brighter so they don't have to deal with what we did."

K nodded, though she didn't seem to have anything further to say on the subject. "Well, I've interrupted you two long enough. Enjoy your chat." She got to her feet and ruffled Clint's hair on her way to put her cup in the sink, leaving them alone without a backward glance — though Scott couldn't help but smirk to himself. After all, this was progress… and he knew Jean would be thrilled, too.

Clint grinned up at Scott as soon as K was gone. "Maybe next time you go see your brother, you can have a Christmas tree like we got. We put popcorn strings up — and Barney gets to spend weeks and weeks with us. It's pretty great!"

"That does sound great," Scott said with a nod, turning his attention back to the little boy.

"Yep. It's important to have your family," Clint said.

Scott couldn't help but agree, then leaned forward. "Everyone here — we all treat each other like family too. Not everyone has brothers or even parents to take care of them."

"Yeah, that's what Miss Storm said," Clint agreed. He tipped his head to the side as he considered Scott and then grinned. "You guys got a good setup here. I'm glad you got a family," he informed Scott. And just like that, he rushed off again to go play with Sicem now that they had both gotten a break and were well-hydrated — completely tossing aside the conversation once more so he could play fetch.

Which left Scott still feeling rather shocked before he smirked to himself. He got to his feet and reached out to Jean to find where she was — rushing more once he knew she was outside herself. And once he found her, he was sure to wrap her in a kiss.

You are brilliant, he told her.

Yes. I am. What did I do now?

Telling Clint what you did — he walked right up to me and struck up a conversation, and K jumped right in… He grinned at her and projected out to her how it had gone down so that she could see for herself. With an outlook like hers, I'm surprised we haven't found her sooner.

You know ferals are harder to pin down, Mr. Summers.

I know, he said. But… thanks, Jean. Really.

I saw a common ground you two could reach. I didn't know about her, though. But clearly, she's got some sneakiness we've missed if she's been into the personnel files like that.

There's a lot we still don't know, he said, looking a bit more thoughtful. We still don't know exactly what she was trained for. That could be part of it.

I'm sure, Jean replied. So … work your magic, Mr. Summers.

I had a lot of help from you, Mrs. Summers, he pointed out with a smirk before he simply pulled her into another, much longer kiss.