25 Unicorn Street, Monday Morning

There were very few birthdays that Clint could look back on happily, and today had started off as par for the course. It had been months since Loki and his invasion and still, every once in a while, Clint fell back into having nightmares. It was the same kind of dream every time - he was back on the Helicarrier, but this time, he killed everyone who stood in his way. For a while, it was just Natasha, and sometimes Tony or Steve. Then it became Natasha and Kitty getting taken down together. Last night, for the first time, Natalie had been in the mix, and Clint had tried not to interpret that too much when he'd woken up.

Thankfully, unlike the first months after the invasion, Clint had a furry distraction now. Lucky had taken to sleeping in Clint's room almost immediately, and had started sleeping on Clint's bed as soon as he was able to physically get up there. Clint didn't mind - Lucky rarely made noise and almost never barked, which was also something Clint tried not to analyze too much, knowing who his previous owners were - and on mornings like this one, Lucky seemed to know that Clint needed him at his side instead of curled up by his feet.

After a few minutes of regulating his breathing and running his hand along Lucky's fur, Clint knew he wasn't going to fall back asleep. It was late enough that he could justify getting out of bed and, remembering what day it was, he plopped himself down on the couch with Lucky and a whole box of cereal. Later, there would be coffee straight out of the machine's pot because hey, birthdays were for doing that kind of stuff without being judged, right?

[Open for the housemate and visitors and such! Yes, I gave him Jeremy Renner's birthday so I'd remember when it was.]