Notes: Yay, I'm back! While I was gone, CC went on a spree with her 'Age of Magneto' stuff and you should so read it ;) Also, speaking of CC - hope you enjoy this one, m'dear. There is more Clint playing pretend and being sneaky and just general tomfoolery :P

Chapter 4: The Walls Have Little Ears

Clint was still grinning to himself as he scooted forward, using the flats of his arms to pull himself along the path of the air ducts, a little paper clutched in his hand with all of the best pathways marked in purple pen.

This was, he was pretty sure, the best idea his mom had had in a long string of best ideas. Because not only was Sabretooth way too big to fit into the vents and try to get to him but K had also outlined the paths that would lead to different Avengers' rooms. So if the worst happened and Sabretooth did somehow manage to get out… all he had to do was follow the purple lines to the room marked with a big "THOR" so he could hide with the thunder god.

Clint felt safest with his mom, obviously — except when it came to Sabretooth. Then, he wanted Logan around. And if he couldn't find Logan, Thor was a good substitute. After all, those were the only two people that he knew without a doubt could actually take Sabretooth down.

He was glad his mom seemed to know that without him having to say anything, too, because he didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. He really did like hanging out with the Avengers — all of them! Wasp was his favorite besides Thor, because she liked to play with him and didn't try to treat him like he was a baby, especially since she knew that he was good at knives and stuff. And Captain America didn't mind that Clint asked him a million stories about what it was like to fight in the war and stuff.

So he didn't want the rest of the Avengers to know that he liked Thor the best. Just like he didn't want his teachers at Mr. Professor Xavier's school to know that Storm was his favorite, because Jean tried a lot too, and Kurt was really fun to learn swords with.

K had marked where every single room was, and she had made sure to tell him that this was only for emergencies, but she had given him that look where he could see the laughter in her eyes and all the trouble there, and he was pretty sure that meant he wouldn't get in trouble if he did just a little bit of snooping around.

Just a little bit.

So, Clint climbed into the walls that morning and took himself on a little tour, pretending he was an Avenger and that the tower had been infiltrated by Hydra, so he had to go on a mission to rescue Captain America from the Red Skull, who had captured him.

As he imagined it, the bad guys had Captain America in the kitchen — because that's where the knives were easily accessible — and Clint had to go rescue him. And when he pulled off his daring do, then he'd get to have some ice cream — because you always have ice cream when you beat a bad guy.

Clint knew that was kinda sorta cheating, because he was only fighting Hydra for pretend, but he also really wanted ice cream.

K had even made sure to mark the best paths for Clint, so he knew how to get to the big places, like the living room or the kitchen or Tony's labs, which K said were really well protected, so if he couldn't find Thor, then he could hide there too. The notes were even sorta kinda written in code, just for Clint. He was pretty sure that nobody else would be able to understand the arrows that led to "your favorite dogsitter" and "the handsome one" — which were Steve and Thor, but in K-speak.

There was a sign that just had a smiley face with wings, but then Tony was just "Mister Eye Holes," complete with a glittery bearded smiley face. That one was probably Clint's favorite.

But then there was "this way to pizza," so he knew he was going the right way toward the kitchen in his ongoing game, and he pulled himself forward a little bit farther down the ducts.

He had to be careful when he crawled out of the ducts — not just because K didn't want anyone else to know about his secret hideaways but because in his game, he wanted to get the element of surprise and sneak up behind the Hydra bad guys so that he could get Captain America free and give him his shield.

He slid out of the ductwork with a smile and a somersault that he wished Kurt could have seen. He probably would have been proud of that somersault. But Clint only ever saw Logan from the other team, which was really too bad, because he missed his friends.

But he was clearly sneaky enough that Jan and Tony hadn't noticed him somersault into the room, and Clint grinned to himself, darting behind the island so that he could listen in. He wanted to see how long it would take for anyone to notice that he was there — and to see if he could be as sneaky as his mom.

"They're still curled up together, Tony," Jan was saying as Clint snuck up on them. "Every time he comes to the tower, I swear, K just… parks on him."

"Lucky man," Tony said, which had Clint wrinkling his nose and shaking his head. Tony, he had decided, was an idiot — even if he did have way cool armor.

Jan reached over to shove Tony in the arm. "Seriously, though," she said. "I'm telling you — if Logan can just … if he can take two seconds to think and to see how good he has it? I will be designing a wedding dress for her."

"Getting a little ahead of yourself, aren't you?" Tony asked, and Clint suddenly found himself mentally apologizing for ever thinking Tony was stupid when clearly Jan was so wrong.

"No, I am not," Jan insisted. "You know Logan — you know how he gets when he knows something's right."

Tony paused for a long moment, clearly thinking over her argument, before he nodded slowly. "You know… you're not wrong."

"Obviously," Jan said, sounding perfectly insulted that he could ever think she was anything but right. "You should know this by now!"

Tony chuckled. "Alright, but here's the deal: when this happens, I have plenty of contacts to make it a real party."

Jan let out a delighted sort of sound before she threw her arms around Tony in a hug. "Aww, I knew I could count on you!" she gushed.

"Hey, what are friends for if not planning each other's weddings, apparently?" Tony laughed. "Which reminds me, Jan. How long have you and Hank been circling?"

"Oh. Well. Hank… he's distracted with—"

"He's always distracted," Tony said, shaking his head. "If I had a girl like you hanging on me every second of every day, I would not be distracted."

Jan shook her head and then laughed as she leaned over and punched Tony's arm. "You're too sweet — you know that?"

"Really? All of my good qualities to choose from and you go with 'sweet'?"

"Well, it's true!"

"You could have gone with charming… or handsome… or both! Both would have been great too!"

"Tony, shut up. We were having a moment."

Tony just laughed. "Right. Bonding over someone else's wedding. That isn't even on the horizon yet. Because you're banking on Wolverine getting tired of curling up with a gorgeous girl and wanting to change that up. Smart."

Jan shoved Tony. "Oh come on," she said. "Even if that was the case, you can't think he'd do that when there's a little boy involved!"

"Yeah, because a kid being involved really speeds things along."

"Tony! I thought you were on my side!"

Tony started laughing even harder at that. "Of course, right, what was I thinking? You absolutely need to design a dress. Clearly. And I'm one hundred percent behind you."

"If I didn't know that you and I would plan the best party, I'd totally cut you out just for being a pain in my backside," Jan told him.

"Good thing I'm irresistible, then," Tony teased.

"You're something, alright," Jan laughed.

The two of them kept right on teasing each other back and forth as they eventually slipped out of the kitchen — and not once did they ever notice that Clint was there listening in.

Of course, that wasn't all entirely down to Clint being sneaky by that point. He had more or less frozen when he heard what the conversation was about, and he was having a hard time getting his body to respond to any of his commands. He did not want to have to share his mom, and he couldn't believe Jan would do this to him. He thought that she was his friend! But instead, she just wanted to dress him and his mom up like dolls.

He let out a little noise and picked himself up, forgetting about his game of pretend entirely as he headed back to Logan's room — where he knew Jan was right and his mom was curled up with Logan.

Clint made a face and then nodded to himself, climbing up the side of the bed to sit on his mom's other side and pull on her arm. "Come on," he whined. "You've been here forever and I wanna play with you!"

"Okay," she said before she stole a quick kiss from Logan, then made a point to sit up and stretch out. "What did you want to do?"

Clint paused — he hadn't actually thought this part out. He just didn't want her to be curled up with Logan anymore. "Umm." He bit his lip. "I ..."

"Want to screw with Tony?"

"Yeah," he said, quickly latching onto that option. "Uh-huh. Let's do that, please."

"I thought we could put glitter in the registers of his car," K said. "Then when he turns on the air — he'll glitter himself."

Clint started to giggle despite himself. "Oooh, I like that!"

K smirked and leaned over to give Logan a kiss before she slid out of bed, and Clint couldn't help but grin triumphantly. He stopped short of actually looking like he was gloating, though, because he was pretty sure he wasn't supposed to do that, and he was with the Avengers. And he wanted to be an Avenger.

So, he tried very, very hard to be diplomatic.

"My… um… my mom likes you a lot," Clint said when K slipped off to change, though Logan looked like he was perfectly comfortable where he was.

"Feelin's mutual," Logan replied as he settled in.

Clint nodded, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "And… and um… I guess you're okay," he said slowly. "But… she's my mom."

"I won't argue it," Logan said, slowly shaking his head.

"Yeah, I just… I just … don't forget I saw her first," Clint muttered, feeling his face flush red.

"Couldn't forget that. Tell you what — I'll bring your bow with me next time," Logan said.

Clint smiled despite himself. "Yeah, okay," he said. "That would be fun."

Logan nodded and got up as K came out. "Pretty sure Jan'd supply the glitter if you need another accomplice. I should probably get back to work."

"No, that's… that's okay," Clint said, biting his lip. "Jan doesn't gotta — she's doing other stuff."

"Just a suggestion," Logan said.

"Yeah, well, she and Tony are…"

"Idiots."

"Uh-huh," Clint said, nodding fervently.

"Not a shock to me," Logan said. "Just ignore 'em. That's for the best."

"Yeah. Well. They're just… saying stuff," Clint said, shifting a little more before he glanced up at K. "Can we just… let's glitter bomb him."

"You wanna glitter bomb Jan too?" K asked. "If she's getting to you, it's probably time to get her out of her bubble of protection."

"Okay, yeah," Clint said, starting to grin a little more. "She's just being pushy."

"Don't let her push you," Logan said. "Give that woman an inch, and she'll railroad you."

"She's not pushing me," Clint said. "She wants to push Mom.'

"Oh," Logan said, turning toward K with a smirk. "Guess it's her funeral."

"So true," K agreed before she put her arm across Clint's shoulders. "Don't worry about it. Whatever she's pushing for, the answer is no."

"Okay, good," Clint said, relaxing substantially before he tugged on her arm. "C'mon, Mom. Let's go."

The two of them headed off, though K didn't even try to take time for a quick kiss with how insistent Clint was to get moving. She waited until they had a shoebox worth of glitter and were headed to the parking area where the Avengers all stashed their vehicles before she had to ask. "So, my little spy, what is it you overheard that has you so upset?"

Clint bit his lip and shifted guiltily. "I … I was real sneaky, Mom. They didn't even know I was there!" he said, trying to shift to something he did want to talk about.

"I'm sure," she agreed. "But I need to know what these people are up to. So ... you can just tell me, or you can find me in the ventilation system one of these days eavesdropping for myself."

Clint took a deep breath and let it out before he glanced up at K with one eye shut. "D'youwannagetmarried?" he asked in a breath faster than he'd actually meant to.

"You're a little young for me, son." K couldn't help but smirk. "And also … I love you too. No."

Clint rolled his eyes. "I wasn't asking about me."

"Where is this coming from? Is this what Jan's worked up about?"

Clint nodded quietly. "She says… she says … She says Logan really likes you and that … I dunno." He scuffed the ground with the toe of his shoe. "It's stupid."

"It is. But it's not you being stupid. It's her," K said, shaking her head lightly. "The subject hasn't come up, and I can't speak for him, but I'm not there."

"But you really like him," Clint pointed out. "You're together all the time!"

"Want me to dump him?"

Clint froze for a second and then shook his head. "No… that's not… really fair," he said finally.

"I've been relaxing," K admitted. "But … he's headed out on some kind of … thing in Japan soon. So he won't be around for a while, okay?"

"Oh, okay," Clint said, trying not to look too happy about it. "That's… okay."

"Look at it more like … getting time in while I can. Then, we'll have nothing to do but pick on people for a while."

"I do like picking on people," Clint said with a crooked sort of smile.

K nodded and then glanced around the garage, frowning slightly. "Alright. I know we came down here to hit Tony, but … I think Jan actually pulls rank here if that's how she's pushing." She pointed to a car parked in the far corner. "That one."

Clint glanced up at K, still smiling. "You sure? I know you like to hit Tony…"

"Oh, we'll get him too," she promised. "But if we happen to get caught … I'd rather get caught on his car and let them think that's all I was doing."

"You're real smart, you know that?" Clint said, giggling delightedly.

"When it comes to this stuff? Yeah. I know," she agreed, then they headed over to get started as K explained why exactly this was such a devious plan. "They step in … all hot and sweaty or just cleaned up from a mission … and as soon as they start up the car — poof. Glitter sticks. To everything." She was dumping yellow and black glitter into the vents as fast as Clint could hand the bottles to her. "And all that's left is to make sure that the blower is turned all the way up before we leave it alone."

Clint was still giggling as he helped K. "How come you know about stuff like glitter and also stuff like spying? You know, like…. everything."

"I've been around a long time. You get bored if you sit still for too long, and there are always new and exciting things to do to prank people," K said, making a few little adjustments to be sure the vents were pointed to the driver seat.

"D'you think I'm gonna get to be as cool as you?" Clint asked.

"Already a done deal," she said.

"You really think so?" Clint asked, his eyes wide. "D'you think I could be an Avenger? Because I wanna be. I'm trying real hard to be nice and stuff."

"I think you can, if you want to be," she said. "You're smart enough, and clever enough … by the time you're fifteen, you'll be able to fight any one of them."

"Not Captain America," Clint said, shaking his head.

"Just for that, we're gonna hit his car, too," K said. "And yes. You will be able to if you want to. Fight smarter, not harder."

Clint shook his head again. "I don't wanna fight Captain America. I like Captain America!"

"I like him too, but I wouldn't turn down a spar."

"Oh, well… that's different," Clint said, shaking his head. "That's just messing around."

"No, it's learning. And testing yourself. Just because you fight doesn't mean it has to be until someone is knocked out or … worse."

"Yeah, I don't wanna hurt anybody," Clint agreed seriously. "I just wanna help people and — and fight bad guys."

She headed over to the Jeep, though she frowned when she saw the top was off — which would make the blower trick harder to achieve. "I know. You're a good boy. Now … hand me the red and blue … and silver … and probably the lid to that box."

Clint passed her everything she'd asked for, his eyes wide and his eyebrows high. "You been planning this, huh? You got colors for everyone."

"Not really," she said. "There's green and orange and pink in there too … no plans on those. But … I'm just gonna dump this on his visor and cover it with the box. Then when he puts it down, it'll dump on him."

"That's why you're so cool, Mom. You got backup plans for just about everything," Clint giggled.

"I just know how to cause trouble."

"And have fun," Clint said. He darted over to kiss her cheek. "I love you a lot, okay?"

"Love you too, handsome. Now … nail Iron Man, angel face."

Clint snorted and held up his fingers to imitate a demon instead and darted off to go find Tony's car, cackling to himself the whole way over.