Notes: Seriously, that whole chapter was so stressful. Someone save the duck fluff and hide him away where no one can ever touch her ever again! That was so upsetting.

But the happy stuff thrown in there was GREAT. Really, Scott and Jean deserve to be parents and be happy too so you know... fix all the things ;)

Chapter 14: Therapy Via Acrobat (Not Via Charlie)

Once K and Clint were all cleaned up — washed several times over and dressed in clean clothes — they took a few movies up to their room. They had popcorn, and Sicem was more than happy to climb up and curl up on Clint's feet as the movie started up, though the dog had spent a solid five minutes whining and licking Clint's face before he could get fully settled in. Sicem had an excellent sense of when Clint was upset, and it was clear he was trying to help.

They were almost through the first movie when Logan came in, obviously freshly washed up and redressed as well — and carting a couple of pizzas and a brown bag that he tossed to Clint when he passed him by. He didn't say much as he looked both of them over and sat down on K's opposite side, waiting to see if either of them needed anything before he got too comfortable.

Clint, for his part, peered into the brown bag and had to grin when he saw that Logan had brought him some chocolate bars. He pulled out a few and glanced over at K before he went ahead and unwrapped one to eat before the pizza, curling a little more into her side — though he did shoot a "thanks, Logan" over the top of her stomach from where he was tucked in.

Logan didn't respond more than to smirk at him and then lean back with a sigh, not wanting to wreck the kid's moment while he was obviously pretty content where he was.

The three of them stayed fairly curled up together, though by the end of the second movie, Clint was starting to drift off, and his eyes had shut a few times before the end of the movie. When K turned the TV off, Clint let out a little sigh and shifted so that he was more or less falling asleep in her lap.

"I'm glad we live here, Mom," he said quietly.

"Yeah," she agreed as she ran a hand through his hair. "Good company."

"Yeah," he said. He glanced up at her for a moment and then smirked tiredly. "And Jean's almost as scary as you."

"Oh, she's positively terrifying right now. But me?" she said, shaking her head with a put-on frown. "Nope."

Clint smirked at that and then pulled the blanket up over his shoulders. "Okay, Mom. You can think that, I guess," he said in a yawn.

"Goodnight, sweetheart," she said with a smirk.

Even though Clint had fallen asleep — from pure exhaustion — it was clear Logan wasn't leaving the two of them alone, either. K settled in, using Logan as a solid spot to lean and once it was clear that Clint was soundly asleep, she tossed a blanket over herself and Logan, then invited Sicem up to lay on Clint's legs. Not one of them intended to move for a good, long time.

The next morning, Clint was more subdued than the residents of Xavier's were used to seeing from him. Sicem stayed close by, and Clint would still sneak his good friend bits of his meal. But he was mostly just sticking to himself, even turning down Jean's offer of playing darts — which had her honestly worried about him, since he usually relished the chance to wipe the floor with any of the adults.

They all knew that he couldn't be handling it well — not that any seven-year-old could be expected to handle being kidnapped by Sabretooth well, of course.

But for all their concern, the staff at Xavier's weren't entirely sure what to do with Clint — though he seemed content to either stay attached to K or Sicem. And after breakfast, he just headed outside to play with Sicem, away from anyone else, and not coming in until he was tired enough that he really needed to lie down away from the heat and get something to eat.

"Clint," Charles said as he finally found Clint tucked away. "You've been hard to find today."

Clint glanced up at him for a moment and then went back to spoiling Sicem. "Yeah," he said quietly.

"I have to admit, I was worried with everything that Ororo told me," Charles continued. "I know it had to be hard, not only going through that — but having to watch out for your mother as well. Is she alright? I haven't seen much of her either."

Clint glanced up with an obvious look of concern and bit his lip. "She's with Logan," he said at last. "I know she was real mad."

"At Sabretooth," Charles said, nodding. "I'm sure she was."

"She gets mad at anyone like that," Clint said. "Anyone who hurts kids, she'll just beat 'em up." He shrugged lightly and looked back down at Sicem.

"You're more important to her than just any kid," Charles pointed out.

Clint nodded and then scrunched up his shoulders. "I wasn't trying to get her in trouble," he muttered. "It just happened, and he hurt her because of me."

"You didn't do anything wrong," Charles said warmly. "He was going after her anyhow. I'm just sorry he used you to get to her. We'll do all we can to stop that from happening again."

"Yeah, okay," Clint said, though his tone screamed that he didn't exactly believe that.

"Clint, we can stop him," Charles insisted. "He's particularly wary of Jean and Scott."

A slight smirk touched Clint's expression. "Like a bull? Scareda red?" l

Charles couldn't help but laugh. "Something like that, yes," he said, smiling in spite of the serious conversation. "And Scott has blasted him out of sight on many occasions."

"Good, 'cause no one wants to look at him," Clint said with a sniff.

Charles smiled warmer at that and then reached out to rest his hand on Clint's arm, though as soon as he did, the entire tenor of the conversation shifted, and Clint positively froze before he yanked his arm away and positively ran as fast as he could, with Sicem not far behind trying to keep up.

Logan and K were working on the bike — though the insistence for 'please' wasn't being upheld quite as much as the last time — when Clint came tearing around the corner and all but attached to Logan's side, halfway hiding underneath Logan's arm and clutched on tight.

"Woah," Logan almost breathed out before he rested his arm across Clint's back. "What happened, bud?"

Clint buried his face in Logan's side before he muttered out a little, "It's okay. I'm okay."

"'Course you are," Logan agreed, though he didn't lift his arm up at all.

Clint stayed right there for a long while, even when Sicem joined them, before he finally relaxed his grip a bit and sniffed. "Sorry," he muttered as he took a step back, scrubbing a hand over his nose.

"What for?" Logan asked with a little frown. "You didn't do anything wrong."

"I … you were doin' stuff," Clint said.

"I don't mind," Logan replied. "And your mom was makin' sure I wasn't getting much done already."

Clint nodded again before he looked over to where K was and settled his shoulders. "Oh. Um. Charles is looking for you 'cause he's all worried about yesterday," he said.

"Typical," K said with an easy shrug. "He can find me if he wants to. Maybe. If I let him."

"Nobody can find you if you don't want 'em to," Clint said with a nod.

"As it should be," Logan agreed.

Clint nodded and then stepped back from Logan and scratched Sicem behind the ears. "You guys can just… yeah," he said, obviously embarrassed.

"Wanna help?" K asked with a little smile. "Always room for another grease monkey."

"Okay, yeah. I'm good with my hands," Clint agreed.

K got up from where she was seated and handed Clint the wrenches she was keeping from Logan. "You two have fun. I'll go see what's got Charlie's hair on fire."

Clint waved at her as she headed out, and thankfully, Logan didn't try to press him on anything — just told him what tools he needed and showed him what he was doing.

K, on the other hand, marched right up to Charles in his office and put her hands on her hips. "What the hell? You can't possibly … what happened?"

Charles held up both hands in a peaceful gesture. "We were only talking. He's concerned about you, and of course I'm concerned about how he's taking the whole affair. He simply ran as soon as I made any contact with him — but I assure you, he was doing well before then. Cracking jokes, even, as we're used to seeing."

"He always cracks jokes," K pointed out. "Especially when he's trying to deflect. Or do I need to tell you how that works?" She held up a hand and turned her head to the side. "Nevermind. I'm sure there's not a pattern here that a trained person could figure out."

"I know when you both arrived here that he had issues trusting people, but he's adjusted wonderfully since that time," Charles said evenly. "Just look at the progress he's made with Logan."

"You are surprisingly bad at this," K said, frowning hard at him. "Logan's put in the time. And the effort." She looked around the room and took the seat nearest him. "He's got issues with men. You have to see that. He was doing well, yes. But then the actual embodiment of every jackass in the world materialized and snatched him — and alluded to the fact that the big creep thinks he's his dad. Connect the freakin' dots, doc."

"Thus my concern," Charles replied. He shook his head. "I only want to be sure that he's dealing with what happened, and I wanted to be sure there was no further trauma. There was no indication before he ran away; he was at least talking to me, which is far better than what he's done for the rest of the mansion. And you know he can't just isolate — not with how social the boy is."

"He's with Logan," K said. "The one person on the planet that Creed openly and absolutely hates. So. Go figure that logic out. Or don't. I can draw you a flowchart if it helps matters."

But at that, Charles actually started to smile. "And what was Logan's reaction?" he asked, genuinely curious.

K stopped and turned his way slowly, tipping her head up as she openly looked him over. "That would fall into not your business. Ask Logan."

"I'm simply pleased that you and Clint have found him and made him part of your lives," Charles said calmly.

"Put that into the checklist of things I'm not looking for approval over," she said as she started to walk off. "Give Clint some space."

"Believe me, K — I have no desire to do anything that would set him back," Charles promised.

"Good," she replied. "Because in spite of everything that's flipped him out in the past couple of days, he likes it here. It's pretty easy to see."

"And you must see how loved he is here as well," Charles said.

"I do," she agreed. "But if it comes down to hurting everyone's feelings or getting him to safety? Well. It's been nice knowing you."

"No one would expect anything different," Charles assured her. "We know how you both are protective of each other, and we know how rare and important it is."

"Common, human decency isn't rare," she argued. "You're just looking in the wrong places."

"Perhaps," Charles said. "But second chances at loving families are."

"Maybe work on fixing that," she said.

Charles let out a long and weary sigh. "I truly am sorry that I startled him."

"Well, the next time you get the chance to talk to him — just talk. Let him initiate contact," she said. "Like any grad student has learned to do with any traumatized person."

"Of course," Charles said, sounding more weary still.

K didn't respond beyond that as she made her way back toward the garage, though once she was away from Charles, she did slow down a bit, weighing out everything she knew from the intel that Scott had shown her earlier on everything they thought Creed was up to. And considering all of the risks that place in Westchester had, she couldn't help but start to mentally plot out a new exit strategy. Which would have been a lot easier if she still had her truck.

When she got to the garage though, she wasn't surprised at all to find that Logan and Clint were still working on the bike. "Haven't you two changed the pipes yet?" she asked, pulling together a smile.

Clint shook his head, giving her a smile that let her know he was at least feeling a little better. "Not yet. Logan says we'll do that next," he said. "You got good timing, like always."

"Have you been making him say please for all the tools?" K had to tease.

Clint pulled a face. "No, Mom. That's your game, and I'm not after kisses."

She leaned over and kissed his temple. "Are you sure?"

He grinned. "Okay, well… not from him anyway," he amended.

Logan chuckled at that as K pulled up a seat next to Clint. "Always have to make exceptions to your rule .."

"Just for Mom," Clint said.

"Well if it's just for me, you don't have to amend it."

Clint shrugged. "Sure I do. You're my mom."

She put her arms around his shoulders and pulled him in for another quick kiss on the temple — and a solid bear hug. "You're the best little troublemaker around."

"Not little much longer," Clint said with a smile as he clutched her in the hug. "I'm almost as tall as you. Jean says if I keep growing so fast, I'm gonna be taller than anybody, even Scott!"

"Oh, like it's hard to be taller than me," she scoffed. "Scott though … you might want an apple crate."

"I was pretty short when you met me," he pointed out. "And now…"

"You were a little bitty snot-nosed kid," she said. "Now you're not."

"Nope," he agreed, then glanced between them. "So I was kinda thinking maybe since I'm not too little… I could learn more stuff like fighting and... I'm pretty good at shooting stuff?" It was obvious it was something he'd been thinking about for a long time from the way he hesitated over the request, obviously worried that they might turn him down. Not that it was hard to figure out what had prompted that particular request.

"I don't see why not," K said. "We're living at a school for now. Might as well learn something."

"Good," Clint said with one sharp nod. "I don't want to get grabbed again. And I'm real good at throwing knives and stuff, but I'd rather shoot someone, because I like bows more."

"Just a few years short of moving up to firearms," K said.

"I like my bow," Clint said. "It's got purple arrows."

"Still a good idea to know basic safety," Logan added as he wrenched off the old pipes. "If nothing else to be able to disarm. And it's fun."

"Yeah, I'll learn that," Clint agreed. "And more stuff with my pocketknife, right?"

"Pocketknife, sure," K said, nodding.

"I'll bet Kurt would fall over with a small heart attack if you told him you wanted to sword fight," Logan said in a very casual tone.

"Ooh,really?" Clint asked. "I want to see that!"

"The big, dramatic overreaction?" Logan asked with a laugh. "He does that for everything."

"But it's still fun," Clint said.

Logan looked up at the clock and frowned. "He's in a drama rehearsal right now. I can tell him we're supposed to be drinking, and he'll show up."

"Alright," Clint said with a crooked sort of almost-smile. "Or I could go get him. You don't gotta do anything."

Logan shook his head and wiped his hands off before he took out his phone and started on the text. "It's worth the show," he told Clint. "And it'll be a more dramatic reaction, I'm sure."

Clint was already laughing by the time Kurt teleported into the garage — which, considering how withdrawn he had been that morning, had Kurt raising an eyebrow.

"What … I thought you said we were supposed to be …" Kurt paused and glanced over at Clint for a moment. "What's going on?"

"Logan said you'd get here faster if he asked you," Clint said. "And he said you'd teach me how to use swords."

Kurt looked ready to deliver a snappy retort, but at the mention of swordplay, he paused and did an outright doubletake. "What?"

"Well, I wanna learn more about how to fight, and Mom's already teaching me about archery and knives, so are you gonna teach me about swords or what?" Clint asked, tipping his chin up.

Kurt's shock turned into an incredibly pleased-looking grin before he disappeared and then reappeared with all three of his swords. "When do we start?" he asked.

And at that, Clint simply burst out laughing, clutching his stomach and completely, totally thrilled with the whole thing.

"Toldja," Logan said as he shook his head at Kurt, which really only had Clint laughing harder.