Chapter 3: Do You Want to Go on a Date?

Clint had to endure a lot of teasing from Katie, but actually… he was pretty sure he liked Gail enough that he was willing to put up with it.

Not that he didn't tease her back just as much as he could, whenever he saw the opportunity. But it didn't bother him as much as it did before because… it wasn't a secret. He and Gail were hanging out a lot lately.

And he was going to ask her out on a real date.

Sure, they'd gone on lots of walks. They'd spent time together. They did homework together. They sat together at meals. But he wanted to actually go out with her, once he figured out where to take her and how to do it safely.

That was the hard part: finding a way to do it safely. He'd explained to her as much as he was willing to tell her about his family and the department and how badly people wanted weapons that could heal, but he wasn't sure she'd really understood how much it affected every decision. She kinda figured it was like being a mutant out in public.

And it kinda was, but it was kinda different, too.

He'd already had a few false starts. He kept thinking he was going to ask her out after class, and then, she was talking to one of her friends, and he chickened out. He didn't know what it was about a group of girls that big that turned him into a scaredy-Hawkeye, but he couldn't seem to stop imagining them laughing at him every time he got close.

"You know they don't bite," Jean said, her smile too wide to be allowed as she put her hand on his shoulder after one of those failed attempts and steered him out of the busy hallway so no one could see him blushing that red.

Tell the whole school, why don't you, Clint said once he had his heart rate back under control.

Jean laughed. Clint, if you think people don't know about you and Gail by now…

Great. So there's already gossip.

It's not as bad as you think it is.

I'm in middle school.

Fair point. Jean squeezed his shoulder reassuringly as they walked down the hall together. You know if you ask her-

No offense, Jean, but I don't want to cheat, you know? It's not fair to ask the teachers if she'll say yes.

Jean broke into a grin that had Clint barely restraining himself from rolling his eyes at her — and only because he knew she did, actually, mean well. You're turning into such a romantic.

Please don't go around saying things like that. My mom is bad enough claiming I'm a heartbreaker since I was, what, eight?

Weren't you just telling the professor that your mother calls them like she sees them? Jean couldn't resist teasing him.

Wow. Called out.

Now you see what it's like from the other side.

Don't go thinking that means I'll let up.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

Good. Clint walked with her for a moment longer before he came to a stop. "Okay, I do actually have to get to my next class."

"Right." Jean pulled him into a side hug that he halfheartedly tried to escape from, even though he knew he'd give in. This was Jean, and he'd known her for years, after all. "Good luck," she said, her expression far too knowing for his liking.

So, he pulled a face at her and took off, trying hard to ignore that she was probably going to be telepathically following him around until he asked Gail out.

But no pressure or anything, right?

As it happened, Clint hadn't been able to ask Gail out after class, because one of the newer kids in the school had some kind of accident with his powers. Clint didn't know all the details, yet, but he did know that about half a dozen kids, including Gail, had ended up in the medical wing with a few burns and broken bones between them after some kind of explosion.

And that, at least, Clint knew what to do with. He'd been taking care of the people he cared about for as long as he could remember. So, he grabbed some sweets from the kitchen and made his way down to the medical wing to say hello.

And there, he was confronted by the fact that, once again, Gail had a flock of her friends around her.

He just couldn't catch a break, could he?

A couple of the girls around Gail giggled when they saw Clint, and Gail turned bright pink even as she waved him over. "Hi, Clint," she said — which set off another round of giggles.

"Hey," he said, awkwardly holding the handful of chocolate bars he'd brought. Belatedly, he held them out to her, wishing he'd thought of something impressive to say. Anything would have been better than just standing there.

"Are those for me?" Gail asked, and Clint bit back the thought that at least she wasn't any more eloquent than he was.

"Yeah. Um. You okay?" Clint asked, gingerly moving closer so he could hand her the chocolate, his ears bright red and ringing as Gail's friends giggled at him. Why did they have to stick around to watch him make a fool of himself?

Gail held up her arm to show Clint the bandages wrapped around her hand, wrist, and arm. "Yeah, I wasn't too close to Carlos when he blew," she said. "Dr. McCoy says I might not even have any scars when all is said and done."

"Even if you do, you'll have a cool story," Clint offered.

"Oh, sure. I was walking to class, and the kid a few feet ahead of me blew up. That's not a real story," Gail said, rolling her eyes.

"Just think how nice it'll be to pull out that embarrassing story when he's on the team and you want to remind him not to get a fat head."

"Okay, that's a little bit better." Gail smiled his way, readjusting how she was leaning into the pillows so she could sit up taller. "Did you come all the way down here to check on me?"

"Well, um, yeah?"

"That's really sweet."

"Thanks." Clint rubbed the back of his neck and cleared his throat a few times, too-aware of the fact that this was a public place. "And, um, you'll be out of here soon, right?"

"As soon as Dr. McCoy okays me, yes," she said, nodding. "He wanted everyone to stay for a little bit longer to make sure no one had any complications."

"And probably to check for shock," Clint said, nodding.

Gail shook her head at him. "Every time you say things like that, I remember that you've been doing this longer than most of us have been at the school."

"Yeah, since I was little," Clint said. He winced. "Is that weird? That feels weird."

"It's not weird," she promised.

"Okay, good." He blew out his breath through his cheeks and then thumbed over his shoulder. "I'm just… I'm just gonna go, okay?"

Her shoulders dropped. "Oh, really?"

"Yeah, you need to focus on getting better. I'll come find you after you're out of here, huh?"

"Okay," she said, and Clint didn't miss that her friends were whispering back and forth to one another. They were no longer giggling. He must have screwed up. But he couldn't figure out what he was supposed to do!

He made a few awkward motions toward the door before he did, finally, leave — and as soon as he was outside the medical wing, he dragged a hand down his face and slumped against the wall. "Stupid," he muttered under his breath.

"Calling yourself names?" Kitty asked, and Clint nearly came out of his skin as she materialized through the wall, smirking at him.

Clint clutched at his chest and heaved a few dramatic breaths. "Don't do that!"

"But it's funny every time!" Kitty insisted, grinning wider the more Clint huffed and puffed. "Wow, you're high-strung today."

Clint glared at her and then, because it was Kitty and she was sorta kinda basically like an adopted big sister, he slumped over so that he was leaning with his elbow against the wall. "I don't get girls," he groaned.

Kitty gave him a bracing, sympathetic look and leaned against the wall with him. "We are mysterious," she said, but she was grinning too widely for it to be anything other than the tease it was.

"This is serious."

"I'm being serious. Girls are awesome, and we know it. What's the problem?"

Clint rolled his eyes and pushed off from the wall. "Forget it."

Kitty sighed and caught up with him in a few steps. "Okay, okay, no need to be dramatic," she said, which had him rolling his eyes at her. "Seriously, what's up?"

"Nothing, Kitty."

But at that, she grabbed hold of his arm, and the next thing he knew, she had phased him through all of the walls between them and the outside, only stopping when they were on the other side of a wall far from any windows with no one else around. And then, before he could really recover from the surprise phasing, she said, "Is this about Gail?"

Clint groaned and covered his face with both hands. "How does everyone know?"

"You're not subtle," she said dryly.

"Yeah, but everyone?"

"I mean, between how much you don't have a poker face at all and how much your little sister loves to bust you out…"

"Aww, Katie, no," he groaned.

"Susie too, actually," Kitty said, and Clint could swear she was getting a kick out of how much deeper the hole was than he'd realized it was.

"Susie too?"

"You're not subtle."

Clint groaned and sank down to sit with his back against the wall, and Kitty sank down with him, knocking his shoulder in a way that he figured she meant to be supportive, but he was too miserable to feel like she was big sistering him correctly.

"You know she'll say yes if you ask her to go out, right?" Kitty said after a while, the amusement finally leaving her voice.

"I don't want any cheating help," Clint said.

Kitty pulled a face. "It's not cheating," she said.

"Jean-"

"Oh, god, no, I didn't ask Jean about your little preteen romance problems. You're like a cute baby brother to me, and I'm not going to subject you to her sticking her nose in," Kitty said, messing up his hair enough that he had to duck away from her.

"Yeah, yeah, love you too," he said, trying to flatten his hair and failing — but he was also smiling more than he had been when she'd come to talk to him.

"Good. Then you know you should listen to your big sister when she says just ask the girl out already, huh?"

"I was actually trying to do that when I came down here!"

"Then what stopped you? I didn't think you were a scaredy-hawk," she said.

He stuck his tongue out at her. "Am not."

"Oh, real mature, Clint."

"You're the one name-calling."

"You're the one chickening out of asking her out even though you know she wants you to."

"I'm not very good at words!"

"Since when?" Kitty gestured to him. "Literally since the day we met, you've been busting people out, making people laugh. There is no universe in which you aren't good at saying what's on your mind."

"Yeah, well, apparently it's different when it's a cute girl, okay?"

Kitty burst into a laugh, shook her head, and then put her arm around his shoulders. "You are so cute and so ridiculous, and I can't help you, clearly."

"Thanks, Kitty. You're real helpful."

"I am, and you don't even realize it yet," she said, phasing back into the wall and leaving him stranded outside.

He stared at the wall for a long moment before he sighed out all of his breath, tipped his head back to glare up at the sky, and then headed inside with his hands shoved in his pockets, muttering under his breath about sisters.

He was pretty convinced that he'd messed things up in the medical wing, so he didn't try to find Gail again, instead heading for the kitchen to grab something to snack on while he tried to figure out his next move.

He had just grabbed some beef jerky — he was snacking more on protein lately, which meant he was probably either healing from a flu he'd managed to blow past or he was overdoing it in team practice — when he heard a quiet cough from the doorway and looked up to see Gail.

"Oh, hi," he said — and immediately regretted not being smoother.

"Hi," she said, and he felt a little better about not being smooth when he saw how obviously she was blushing.

Clint shifted his weight a few times, opened and closed his mouth, and then, with a quiet nod, said, "I … was coming down there to … I mean, I…" He blushed brilliantly. "Do you want to go out with me? Like, on a date?"

Gail blushed and nodded wordlessly, and Clint broke into a crooked grin.

He had no idea what he was supposed to do now, but, hey, she'd said yes.