25 Unicorn Street, Monday Morning

[so_hawkward]

Clint knew he wasn't particularly book smart, but he was good with his hands (not dirty). He'd built shelters out of nothing, taken apart mechanical structures in foreign languages... and yet, he was being thwarted by a freaking crib. He'd offered to build it while Kitty set up other parts of the nursery, since it seemed more suited for his skills, but now there were extra screws and pieces that didn't look like the picture, and at least one side was definitely backwards.

"Isn't there a thing where new parents keep the baby with them in the bed so the baby bonds with them? Maybe we should consider that," he said.

Comments

[throughaphase]

"Sure, if you don't mind me never sleeping out of paranoia that I'll roll on her," Kitty said from where she was attempting to pick up the extra trash to put in a bag.

Attempting. This was harder now.

"Also I think that's probably a good way to have her sleeping with us when she's five."

[so_hawkward]

"Okay, that's probably a good point," Clint said. "I guess this doesn't need to be perfect today... no, I'm going to defeat this thing." He glanced up at her and smiled. "How are you feeling?"

[throughaphase]

"Tired and I can't bend," she said, pointing to the plastic wrap at her feet. "Help."

[so_hawkward]

Clint made a sympathetic noise and grabbed the plastic wrap, holding it up for her. "It won't be too much longer, and then you'll be able to move again," he said. "And you won't have a tiny person crushing your internal organs."

[throughaphase]

She took the plastic gratefully and tossed it in the bag, which she could now never put down. "I love her. But she is in my way."

[so_hawkward]

"You just need to do a little less," Clint said, like he had any concept of how that worked. "Relax and leave moving stuff to me."

[throughaphase]

"But there's too much to do," Kitty pointed out. "And ten weeks is not a lot of time."

That's right. Ten weeks. Ten.

[so_hawkward]

Oh yeah, Clint had that terrifying countdown going in his own head as well. "We'll have everything ready," he said, as much for himself as for Kitty. "We've got time, and we can enlist help if we need to, I'm sure."

[throughaphase]

Kitty had to smile at that thought. "We absolutely could, and I don't think anything would actually get done, but it'd be hilarious. And I'm not sure how many of them would make progress on the crib, either."

[so_hawkward]

"This thing is awful. It's such a good thing Lexi is going to turn out cute and wonderful," Clint said. "Tony might know how to do this. We might also end up with a robotic crib so..."

[throughaphase]

"I'd bet on Steve. He's the get-it-done type, and there's less chance the crib would fly," Kitty said, and came over to stand next to him. "Okay. What are we looking at here?"

[so_hawkward]

Clint sighed with resignation as he looked around. "All of those screws are supposed to be in the crib somewhere, and I'm pretty sure the side shouldn't come down unless we want it to, or we're going to have a free range baby crawling around the house, or one of the dogs using it as a bed. Which could be adorable, but still. I'm just going to take it apart and start over. I'm sorry, I'm really not trying to stress you out more."

[throughaphase]

"No, it's okay. I can direct," she said, getting on her knees first so she could sit on the floor next to him. "Teamwork and all."

[so_hawkward]

"You're going to be so good at this," Clint said, unscrewing the parts that were clearly wrong. "You already have the patience of a saint, I've just been prepping you for being a mom."

[throughaphase]

"I'm not gonna argue that," she teased, laughing. "There's also the chance I get tired and frustrated five steps in, throw the directions and cry."