25 Unicorn Street, Thursday Evening

[so_hawkward]

When you made your living running around with a bow and arrow, Valentine's Day ended up being kind of a weird holiday. People at SHIELD had liked to make Cupid jokes to Clint all day, all seemingly thinking they were the first ones to do it, and Clint had to admit that he almost missed the teasing. Tony, of course, hadn't missed out on the opportunity to text remarks to Clint, until Clint had replied that he needed to get ready for his date. Apparently, the surprise that Kitty was still dating him was enough to shut Tony up.

Yeah, Clint was kind of surprised too, shhh.

It wasn't often that Clint had a girlfriend on Valentine's Day and was in the same time zone as her and wanted to actually spend the evening with her, so he figured he was supposed to make this dinner pretty special. Hopefully, ordering in Chinese instead of pizza would count.

[For the girlfriend!]

Comments

[so_hawkward]

That got Kitty another kiss, and a bit of a filthy grin. "Are you hungry? I might have gotten enough Chinese food for three people." Thankfully, Lucky was purely a pizza-tarian, so their food was safe.

[throughaphase]

"I am definitely hungry," Kitty smiled. "Did you get chopsticks? Tell me you're going to attempt chopsticks."

[so_hawkward]

"Just because it came with chopsticks doesn't mean I have to use them," Clint said defensively. "We live in America, land of forks."

[throughaphase]

"Spoilsport," Kitty replied. "Can I still use them to show off?"

[so_hawkward]

"If you can get food in your mouth that way, you go right ahead." Clint wouldn't be at all jealous, really. He went into the kitchen and grabbed the delivery bags, then set all the boxes out on the table, where he'd already set up plates and glasses and clearly too much silverware.

[throughaphase]

If he'd already set it out, she'd use actual forks, but that didn't mean she couldn't tease. "You're all prepared," she said, a little impressed since she usually worried about that stuff at the last minute.

[so_hawkward]

"I, uh, wanted it to seem romantic," Clint admitted, ducking his head a little as he set everything out. "Not that I know what romantic looks like except from movies, but..."

[throughaphase]

And now Kitty was smiling again. See what you did, Clint? "I'm a little biased, but I'd say you're doing a pretty good job."

[so_hawkward]

"I think you're easy to please. Not that I'm complaining," Clint said, setting the bags aside and motioning for Kitty to sit down. "So, did anyone else send you flowers?"

[throughaphase]

"Uhh, Mike, Jake, Laurie, and Stiles, who asks that you not kill him, Mr. Barton," she said as she sat down. The Mr. Barton thing never failed to amuse her. "What about you?"

[so_hawkward]

"I got some from Natalie, and from Jaina, the teacher who had to deal with me at the picnic in January, and a whole bunch of roses with no name on them," Clint said. "Maybe I should leave some of them for Stiles so he'll know I won't kill him. If anything, I feel kind of bad for him."

[throughaphase]

"He knows you won't kill him," Kitty assured him. "Why do you feel bad?"

[so_hawkward]

"It doesn't seem like he has many friends his own age," Clint said, sitting down and starting to dig food out of one of the boxes onto his plate. "I mean, it was fun to have him at that party. He's a good kid, really. But... I've been there, but at least I had the excuse of not having a lot of kids my own age around. He does."

[throughaphase]

"I was like that. It's not so bad," Kitty said. "I had a few friends my own age, but when they tried to move me to a team full of teenagers rather than the adults, I threw fits." Which was probably proof she shouldn't have been hanging out with the adults, but hey. "I don't know if he prefers it this way, but he seemed to like being included in the group."

[so_hawkward]

"Maybe he just liked being included at all. Especially by people who aren't creepers." Not that Kitty knew any of those around here, surely.

[throughaphase]

"Why do you care so much?" she asked, totally out of curiosity, as she grabbed a plate.

[so_hawkward]

Well, sure Kitty, go ahead and ask him the same question he asked himself sometimes. "I don't care a lot," he said, a little defensively. "But he's your friend and... okay, he never calls me anything but Mr. Barton, he's still kind of my friend too, in the same way Natalie and Alec and Kate are and--I've surrounded myself with teenagers, haven't I?"

[throughaphase]

At least his girlfriend wasn't a teenager anymore!

"Not entirely," she said with a smile, patting his knee. "I will point out that that list makes you sound a little like nega-Stiles there, but as long as you can still hold adult conversations, you're fine."

[so_hawkward]

"Hey, I can hold conversations with you, can't I?" Clint said, shaking his head a little. "I just feel like some of these kids don't have a lot of people looking out for them, you know? I know it sounds stupid."

[throughaphase]

"No, it doesn't," Kitty insisted. "They're here without like any adult supervision, the island throws different kinds of trauma at them at least a couple times a month, and you like to help. It's one of the things I love about you. But it also means they're going to frustrate you while they try to work things out."

[so_hawkward]

"It doesn't seem right to not help. Although yeah, I could probably stand a little less frustration," Clint said. "Which is yet another reason to stick to forks."

[throughaphase]

"But that's the funny kind of frustration," Kitty teased, leaning over to kiss his cheek. "At least for me."

[so_hawkward]

"Stabbing the food with the chopstick doesn't count, right? I just want to understand the boundaries here," Clint said, although he was smiling at that little kiss.

[throughaphase]

"You don't have to," she said, "but I think I've just decided food stabbing is a valid method if that's what works for you."

[so_hawkward]

"You're so nice," Clint teased, taking the chopsticks and at least trying to pick up one of the pieces of chicken on his plate. Oh, the things he was willing to do to impress a woman. "Did you have fun baking with Derek this week?"