Chapter 5: Rodeo Return

To Clint's delight, K didn't waste any time following through on her promise to take him and the rest of the family to a rodeo. She didn't even wait for school to be on a break — though she did, for his sake, ask him what his schedule was like so that he didn't miss anything important himself. Katie was still young enough that yanking her to go out for fun wasn't going to affect anything.

Susie had been offended by the idea of missing school — she was trying her best to get good grades because she had her whole life planned out and wanted to go to medical school — but K roped Hank into convincing her that taking care of her mental health was good too. Apparently, Hank thought she needed a break and to be a kid for a while and had been worried for some time that she wasn't coping as well as she seemed to be with all the changes in her life in the past few years.

"I might know a thing or two about throwing oneself into work rather than looking inward," he'd told K privately, and she had simply nodded and patted his arm, promising that Susie would be well-looked-after, as he knew.

So, with everyone packed up and with instructions left with Kurt for what to do if they weren't home by a certain date and time, off they went.

And about halfway through the drive, Clint realized that Logan hadn't been to the rodeo with him and his mom when they last went. And while he didn't have any delusions that Logan needed any explanations, he couldn't quite stop himself from telling him everything about it. Because even though he was twelve, he still loved his dad, and he loved the smile Logan got whenever Clint would get genuinely excited about something.

That, and Katie was hanging onto his every word, and there was just something cool about being the big brother who knew everything, the way Barney had been for him when they'd been growing up together.

They stopped to camp on the way out to the rodeo, and Clint could hear Susie shushing Katie from the next tent over. He wasn't at all sorry about hyping her up with stories, and he also wasn't sorry about all the sugar. That was on his parents, even if he'd been slipping Katie extra chocolate for her s'mores.

And while Katie was staying up half the night with excitement, James slept like a rock. It was kind of funny seeing just how much he was like his parents, how much the outdoors was like a security blanket for him, the way it seemed to be for Logan and K.

Clint didn't feel the same way about it. He loved being outside, and he loved camping… but he associated it with the good memories he'd built with his family. Even after Sinister had given him part of his mom, he didn't have the same… whatever it was that seemed to drive his parents and now his baby brother to the outdoors.

He wasn't quite sure how to feel about that, if he was honest. When he'd been little, he'd been terrified of Logan and K having any kids of their own, because he'd been worried he'd be tossed aside. He was no longer scared of that happening, but now…

Well, he was different. And there was something about having literally been giving K's DNA and still not being like James that … he couldn't put a name to how he felt about it.

So, he didn't think about it too hard. He had a good family, and that was what mattered. The fact that it was just a little bit different didn't matter. Not in the long run.

That morning, Kate slept in later than everyone else, so Clint helped with packing up the car to drive the rest of the way to the rodeo. K packed everything she could without waking Katie, and then, when she had to get the rest of it, Logan transferred her to the car and bundled her up with blankets. She hardly woke up enough to realize that she was moving — and then, she fell back asleep.

Susie wasn't much of a morning person either, and she took what was left of the blankets to build herself a little cocoon and go to sleep as well. But Clint wasn't wired that way. Once he was awake, he was up, and he wanted to help.

With the girls dozing through the first part of the drive, Clint sat with James and helped him reach a few of his favorite toys. And from his vantage point, he could see Logan and K holding hands. He couldn't hear what they were saying to each other, but he could see them occasionally leaning toward each other and talking. He caught a few words just lip reading, but Logan was facing forward to drive, and K had her head turned the same way.

He could have leaned into the seat to eavesdrop, but then they would have known what he was doing. And he wasn't sure he wanted to know if they were flirting. He was old enough to know what they were talking about — not that he hadn't known before, but he was old enough to feel weird about it.

Not that he didn't like that his mom had someone she loved. Not that he didn't like seeing how happy his dad was. He did. But he was twelve, and some of the shine had lost its luster and had been replaced by the hangups of a preteen boy.

James fell asleep in the car at about the same time the girls stopped napping, and from there, he ended up getting sucked into some car games with his sisters. Katie was old enough that she was starting to learn to read, so while she couldn't play the alphabet game the same way Clint and Susie did (only looking for words that started with each letter of the alphabet in order), she did shout out any time she saw a letter she knew that one of the other two was looking for. Which was actually helpful when one of them was stuck — but less helpful if the letter was in the middle of the word instead of the start.

The only exception to the rule that the letter had to be at the start of the word, of course, was the letter 'x,' because practically nothing started with it. That was easy to find; they just had to look for an exit sign. But Z… Z was another story.

Clint and Susie both were racing to find the last letter, scrutinizing every billboard, until they realized that Logan was turning off the freeway.

"We're almost there," K said, smirking to herself, knowing that the kids would be excited to get there but also knowing that those kids were all so competitive that the idea of arriving without finding that last letter and crowning a winner was practically physically painful to them.

Sure enough, Clint let out a quiet groan. "That was fast."

"No, it wasn't," Katie said, dramatically throwing her head back. "It took forever."

"I know," K said bracingly, grinning at the littlest girl in the car. "But you were so brave about it."

"Uh-huh, because of how I'm so awesome and brave and smart and stuff," Katie said, immediately gobbling up the compliment.

"Zack!" Susie shouted.

It was such a change from the rest of the conversation that it took Clint several seconds to realize what had happened. And then, he saw the sign advertising one of those ambulance-chasing lawyers… whose first name was Zack. And he'd been distracted, so she'd won the alphabet game.

He groaned loudly, even as K immediately started to celebrate her win. And he couldn't say anything, because he knew what his mom was doing. He knew that she always made it a point to celebrate wins, big and small. He knew she would have done the same thing for him if he'd won, even if he was twelve and didn't need the bucking up. And she would have told Susie to keep her chin up and try again next time if Susie complained.

So, he kept his mouth shut other than a muttered, "Rematch on the way home," under his breath toward Susie.

She met his gaze, raised both eyebrows, and whispered, "You're on."

And K and Logan shared a look in the front of the car, smirked, and let the kids get hyped up as they got farther away from the interstate toward the rodeo itself.

They couldn't get to the rodeo fast enough for James, who decided he was done being cooped up in the car when they were still about half an hour out from the rodeo. No manner of reassuring words from his parents or toys or games with his siblings would do; he wanted to get out of the car.

Katie wrinkled her nose after only five minutes of James crying and covered her ears. "He's loud," she complained — which only set James off some more, because she'd said it so loud in order to be heard.

K nodded patiently. "Yeah, but we're almost there."

"And then he'll stop crying?"

"Yeah. He's just tired. Road trips make people grumpy and sleepy sometimes, huh?"

"They really do," Katie agreed — and yawned and rubbed her eyes to complete the picture.

K smirked and reached back to squeeze Katie's knee and drum on her shoes, which always got Katie to smile. And that helped cheer her up for a little bit, but the truth was that by the time they pulled into the rodeo and found a place to park, everyone's nerves were a little frayed from all the time in the car and from James's crying.

They all tumbled out of the car, and K scooped James up, letting the little guy attach to her and climb all over her as if he was trying to remind himself that he could touch her. Katie and Susie rushed ahead with Logan to run to the bathroom, and Clint hung back, watching his family, smiling because they were his… but hanging back because he was twelve and they were a lot.

Eventually, James calmed down, and the girls and Logan joined up with them. And that meant that Katie had grabbed onto Clint's arm and was practically dragging him with her as she looked for the pen full of sheep, determined to do exactly as her big brother had done and to win a competition.

And Clint was more than happy to help her do that, even volunteering to stick with her… because he realized now, as he watched his mom sign up for a few events and helped Katie find hers, that he was twelve. He wasn't a kid. He was too big for the stuff he'd done before, and he'd been spending so much time on team-related skills that he wasn't sure if he'd be any good at the stuff for his age class.

Still, it was fun to stick around with Katie and to see her hang onto a sheep for everything she was worth. Despite her determination, though, the first sharp turn the sheep made startled her badly enough that she let go, and she fell into the dirt with a plop — and an angry scowl that turned into angry tears.

Clint winced and went to the fence to help her out, then walked with her further away from the sheep pen so she could get a hold of herself. To her credit, she wasn't throwing a tantrum or causing a scene — but her lower lip was trembling, and her hands were in fists.

"Hey, you did great," Clint assured her, even though she was sniffling and rubbing her eyes with closed fists.

"No, I didn't," she said angrily. "I didn't win."

"Yeah, but that's okay," he said, sitting down at her level. "Seriously, you did great. That first turn can be something else."

"But you won," Kate said.

"Yeah, well, I don't think it's the same," Clint said, thinking of how often he'd had to grit his teeth through terror by the time he was Katie's age. It really wasn't fair to compare. He cleared his throat and made a decision on the spot for how to cheer her up. "Besides, now, it's your turn to come watch me lose. I know I haven't been practicing enough, but I'm gonna try out some of the stuff for kids my age. Want to be my cheerleader?"

Katie glanced up at him, tipped her head to the side as if she were trying to spot a lie, and then, slowly, nodded. "Uh-huh."

Clint let her be upset for a minute longer before he offered her a hand up. "C'mon," he said with a winning smile. "Let's go find Mom and Dad, huh?"

When the two of them caught up to the rest of their family, Clint recognized Joe from the last rodeo and wasn't at all surprised to find that he was already making friends with James — or, more accurately, that James was making friends with the Aussie shepherd puppy Joe had while Joe laughed and kept an eye on things while talking to K and Logan.

"I didn't win," Katie told Logan bitterly, practically climbing into his arms to pout and hide her face in his shoulder.

"Can't win 'em all, kiddo," Logan told her, letting her snuggle in.

"I told her she can come watch me lose too," Clint said with a sheepish grin toward his mom.

"What makes you think you'll lose?" Joe asked. "You're taking one of my horses, right?"

Clint blinked and then quickly nodded. "Yeah, good point," he said, running with it, too embarrassed to say that he wasn't practicing as much as he could have been when his mom was so good at this stuff.

"Alright then," Joe said, waving Clint over. "Your mom is letting me ride my own horse for a change, and she said you get to pick which one you want. So … your pick. The grey or the buckskin?"

Clint glanced toward his mom. "What do you think, Mom?"

"I think it doesn't matter which one you pick; I'm still gonna wipe the floor with Joe."

"Okay, well, what about the grey one?"

"Fleck is a fine choice," K replied. "He is fast, but … he's got a good head on his shoulders, and he's sensible."

"Okay, perfect," Clint said, bouncing slightly with nerves.

"And that leaves me with Paco," K said, smiling as she reached over to run her hand down the buckskin's forehead.

"There's no way in hell," Joe started to say.

"That you're going to beat me? I know. It's hard to be you," she teased, cutting him off before he could get too far into it.

"Excuse me, Mr. Horse Man," Katie said, looking between the two of them. "Are you gonna try to win against my mom? Cause she's real good."

Joe grinned down at her before he crouched to her level. "Well, little miss, I'm going to do my best," he told her. "But your mom is some kind of magician on these horses, so it's going to be tough."

Katie glanced toward Clint and then gave Joe a bracing smile. "My Clint says that's okay if you don't win." She leaned closer. "But I'm gonna win next time."

Joe grinned wider somehow at that. "You listen to your mom on how to ride, and you sure will," he agreed.

"You got it," Katie agreed fervently, leaning back into Logan and in a much better mood now as she watched K and Clint get ready for their events.

"You know the rules," K told Clint as they rode to the warm up pen. "He'll keep a cool head for you, but he'll also do exactly as he's directed, so be clear in your cues, kiddo."

"Got it," Clint said, though he blushed lightly and added, "But, um, maybe we should find more time to do this stuff. I sort of got distracted with the team, I guess."

"You bet," she replied, smiling. "Just remember: this is supposed to be fun, too. If you're not having fun, we should find something else for you to do."

"No, I am," Clint promised quickly. "I just… I forgot to have fun when I've been working hard? If that makes sense?"

"It does. Stop it."

"Okay."

The two of them took a solid fifteen minutes listening to the announcers so they had a better idea of when they had to be where. It was just enough time to get into the swing of things for Clint and for K to reacquaint herself with the horse she was riding. As she'd said, Fleck was perfectly focused for Clint and fast to follow his cues. Much faster than the school horses he'd been riding, anyhow. Paco, however, was a different story. The horse seemed almost asleep in warmups and looked entirely relaxed as he lazily followed the cues she gave him. It was such a deviation from Bonnie, who she'd swept her classes with last time, that the other riders in the warm-up pen were wondering what she was doing even entering those classes.

"Lookin' serious, kiddo," K said to Clint when they managed to synch up in their circles. "What's on your mind. Fleck being too … Fleck-ish?"

Clint blinked out of his thoughts and then smiled quietly her way. "I dunno," he said after a minute. "I really thought I could do everything when I was Katie's age, and I lost my first girlfriend after one real date, and I'm terrible at doing hobbies for fun and not for team-related goals…"

"She was a weirdo. Saw a young, up-and-coming hero and thought she'd tag along."

"She got mad I didn't want to talk about stuff like how I got my powers," Clint admitted.

"See? Weirdo."

"Yeah." He shrugged. "I dunno, Mom. It's just… hard."

"Maybe she thought your dad was cute."

He pulled a face. "You're so weird."

"Maybe she thought I was cute."

"You are, though," Clint had to tease, almost like a reflex.

She gasped theatrically, and Paco turned an ear her way. "Weirdo. You fit right in."

Clint smiled wider, knowing exactly what she was doing and appreciating it anyway. "Love you too."

There was a shrill whistle from outside the pen, and both of them turned toward the noise to find Joe waving for K to get over there. "Bareback riding!" he shouted, which prompted her to swear.

"Ooh, I gotta go make some cowboys cry," she said, then leaned over to kiss his cheek. "Come on. I think you two are about as settled as you're gonna be on short notice."

When they got to the fence, Logan took a hold of the reins so K could get down and give him a quick kiss, and then, she and Joe took off running for the gate, leaving Clint with his dad and siblings.

"If you wanna watch, we can tie 'em up," Logan offered.

"Yeah, we definitely gotta watch her kick their trash," Clint said immediately.

The little group got to the families' box just when the group of riders had pulled their numbers out of the hat. Like before, the cowboys were comparing their draws while Joe and K shared serious smirks, nodding to themselves away from the crowd. The two of them stuck together until they each took their turns, but unlike last time … the scores between them were very close. What surprised the other cowboys, though, was that — even for as close as the scores were — they were both loudly cheering each other on.

It took a while, but in the end, the two of them placed first and second, with Joe laughing that he'd get her in the saddle bronc ride.

Both of them came over to the box, and for a moment, Clint was sure it was going to be the same kind of chat they'd had the first time around … until Logan handed James to K with a kiss and he and Joe headed off together.

"This will be fun," K told Clint and Katie. "They've never practiced together, so this will either be pretty good or an absolute train wreck. Place your bets kids."

"I think they'll do great," Susie said, which was itself enough to get K smiling to herself, since it wasn't that long ago Susie didn't trust Logan

When Joe and Logan made their way to the arena, there was a group of cattle in the pen milling around and a few cowboys on horseback dotting the edges to step in if there was trouble - which gave K a chance to tell the kids what the story was while Joe and Logan discussed strategy. "This … okay, this is probably going to go well if they pick their jobs right. So … one of them is going to be a hazer. They kind of help isolate the cow they drew, okay?" She waited until the girls nodded. Susie was cautious about it, and Katie was confident — as always.

"What about the other one?" Susie asked.

"The other one is the bulldogger; they have to jump off the horse and wrestle it onto its back." She tipped her head toward the two of them. "If they're smart, Joe will haze. And it would be more hilarious that way, since it's usually the really tall, stocked guys that do the bulldogging."

"Then they gotta do it, 'cause of how Dad's actually really funny," Katie said, only following some of it but knowing that if something would make K smile, Logan would do it.

The announcer seemed to chime in at the perfect time talking about Joe and Logan, too; it was obvious that he assumed by looking at the two of them that the team-up was going to go exactly the other way. But then, Clint saw Joe and Logan share a smile that looked like entirely too much trouble. They didn't bother trying to correct the announcer, but the commentary got very muddled and confused when the two of them broke into their agreed-upon jobs that did not follow the status quo.

Some of the other competitors were even making their jokes loudly enough for the kids to catch, which only had K smiling wider all the way up until they made their move. Joe's roping was clean, and Bonnie was harsh on her stop to make the cow slow down. But that was nowhere near as harsh as the flip that happened when Logan jumped off and set his elbow properly. It was over so fast, the announcer wasn't exactly sure what had happened. Even with Joe raucously celebrating.

The two of them made their way up to the box — laughing all the while before their official score was announced, to Joe's absolute delight. And the competitions continued going his way all night … except for the ones he was facing off against K for.

When all the hard cowboy riding was done, Clint was up for his barrel race. It was a little awkward at first … especially since there was only one other boy riding in any of the barrel races. But, he waited his turn and tried to keep his calm when the music shifted to a song he knew for his run.

He thought he started out pretty good. The music had helped him a little, and by that time, he was a lot more confident on Fleck than he'd been to start with. He just … hadn't had time to practice some specific skills. When he turned the first barrel, it tipped. Hard. He knew it would tip a little — his mom had said tipping it was fine as long as you didn't knock it over. The second barrel, he turned too wide, trying to adjust for going too close last time … but the third one, he overcompensated the wrong way entirely. He saw it tip … but he was too focused on the finish line to see when it finally fell over. The five second penalty was just too much in a tight class like that, though.

K tried to give him a bracing congratulations on his run before she lined up for her turn, but she knew he wouldn't be happy with how that run went down. And that was the wrong mindset to go into that race on that horse.

It looked like Paco was falling asleep as they waited their turn, and he moved like an old school horse up to the gate when they were ready to run. And then, K turned him to face away from the barrels. He was perfectly calm. Quiet, even. All the way up until she kicked him hard and turned him to face the pattern. The second he realized what they were doing, it was like a switch flipped. He reared up and dove forward, his belly all but scraping the ground as he dug in to run. If Clint tipped the barrels hard, K pushed it to the absolute limit, even going so far as to reach out with one hand as they turned to stop it from going over. It still rocked heavily but barely stayed upright … and that repeated for every single barrel.

Bonnie had run hard when they did this last time, but Paco was a monster when it was a speed class. It was a surprising twist for the little buckskin, and Clint had to laugh when it even looked like K had to be more careful holding on for that final stretch. The cowboys and clowns were all lined up to try and help stop the near runaway horse — but K started shouting at them to move, waving one arm to signal for them to clear out … just before Paco nearly sat down, slid toward the fence out, and jumped over it cleanly.

Once he hit the other side and let out a snort, he seemed to settle right down, thankfully. And that was when Joe leaned over to Clint. "And that is why I rode Fleck last time we played this game." Joe bumped Clint's shoulder with his own. "Don't worry. She wouldn't have let you ride Paco if you'd picked him. She barely lets me ride him, and he's my horse."

"Wow," Clint said under his breath, though he was still smiling as he watched his mom come back and smirk at the surprised looks on all the cowboys' faces.

When it was all said and done, Katie made it a point to throw herself into a hug with Clint and to give him all sorts of reassurances that he did great — basically parroting back what he'd said to her. But he was surprised by how much he was grinning and enjoying himself anyway… after he was finished being frustrated with himself for not keeping up with a skill that his whole family could be part of, something that was theirs. It was always fun to watch his mom wipe the floor with people, for one thing, but for another… it had been nice to do something that had nothing to do with their powers, with teams, with the Avengers or the X-Men or anything like that.

And with everything else going on in Clint's life, he'd clearly needed this.