New York City, Thursday

[so_hawkward]

Rooftop potlucks were a typical event at Clint's apartment building, so he hadn't been terribly surprised that Thanksgiving was treated as a more special version of that. There weren't many residents who had family around to visit, or to invite over, but that at least meant they were spending the holiday around people they actually liked. It also meant Kitty was getting a lot of fascinated attention, which Clint was trying not to notice or worry about. Besides, he had bigger things to worry about, like the fact that Grills had somehow acquired a deep fryer for the turkey, and was poking away at it.

"Are you sure those things are allowed here?" he asked for possibly the third time. Or fifth.

"I told you, it's totally safe up here. And besides, the cops have better things to do on Thanksgiving than come up here, and they certainly ain't gonna arrest you, right Hawkguy?"

Clint... wasn't entirely sure about that, to be honest. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said, awkwardly ducking away to look for Kitty. Someday, that answer would get old, but he was pretty sure it was still okay now.

[For Kitty! NFB and all that jazz.]

Comments

[throughaphase]

Kitty was having a great time so far meeting all the neighbors and maybe trying to get any good stories about Clint, which was why her smile was totally innocent really when she saw him. "So your friends are great," she decided.

[so_hawkward]

"My friends are going to burn our building down," Clint said. "But they're being nice to you, right? Not bugging you too much or anything?"

[throughaphase]

"Nope, they've been awesome," she assured him. "Somehow friendlier than I thought they'd be, actually."

[so_hawkward]

"It's okay, it's always a surprise when New Yorkers are nice, I know," Clint said. "Also, anything they say about me is a lie." That covered his bases nicely, Clint thought.

[throughaphase]

"What if they say you're really awesome and the best landlord they ever had?" she challenged.

[so_hawkward]

"Barney's probably a better landlord than me," Clint said, "which reminds me, we need to get him to come out of the apartment. He's gonna insist he shouldn't come up because he didn't cook anything and we can't let him."

[throughaphase]

"I brought enough for both of us, so his argument's invalidated," Kitty decided. "Does he do this a lot?"

[so_hawkward]

"I don't know. He didn't use to?" Clint said uncertainly. "He likes being around people, or at least he always has. But I'm also still figuring out what he's like after not seeing him for a while. I think maybe everyone being friendly weirds him out."

[throughaphase]

"Ah. Well, at least on Thanksgivukkah it's kind of supposed to be that way," she tried.

[so_hawkward]

"True. Is that what we're calling it?" Clint asked with a smirk.

[throughaphase]

"I'm pretty sure that's its official name. There's a Wiki page on it." No seriously, there was a Wiki page on it. "Figured it out while doing recipe searches."

[so_hawkward]

*googles* Dear Wikipedia: OMG

"You know you didn't have to make so much food, right? I mean, I know I'm going to appreciate it and everyone else will too but... it was really nice of you," Clint said. "And anything you want to do for Hanukkah tonight, I'm totally game for. If that's not religiously offensive or anything."

[throughaphase]

"I know. I maybe overdid but I was kind of excited at how I wasn't making food poisoning." Also she wanted to impress people, shh. "And that's not offensive. This is one of our fun holidays, so I figure the overlap in Thanksgiving means the plan for later might be 'food coma.'"

[so_hawkward]

"Food coma plus cuddling with Lucky?" And him, but Clint wasn't going to include himself out loud. "That does sound kind of festive."

[throughaphase]

"I love that plan. I don't suppose you do the Christmas tree or anything on Thanksgiving, huh?" She was going to guess no, but she'd check.

[so_hawkward]

"No. I, uh, don't usually have much of a Christmas tree." Would she be surprised? Probably not.

[throughaphase]

Nope, so not surprised. "Why not?"

[so_hawkward]

Clint shrugged. "Lots of reasons. I'm not super religious, I haven't always had a steady place to stay at the holidays, it's a lot of work to keep a tree alive and all that... it's just never been a big deal."

[throughaphase]

"It's not really a religious thing, you have a steady place now and trees come fake and pre-lit these days," she pointed out. It wasn't really her holiday so she didn't really care, but still.

[so_hawkward]

Clint ducked his head a little, looking embarrassed. "Yeah, I know. One of those pre-lit ones might be nice. I was more thinking about lights for the place, in Fandom. 'Cause a tree would just be for me and Natasha, but lights would be... you know, normal. Is that weird?" He really shouldn't have had to ask someone else for verification of proper celebrating - especially someone who didn't even really celebrate the holiday - but that was Clint's life.

[throughaphase]

"Nope. Lights are pretty. That's why they're going to be all over my bar," she said. "Go for it. You might as well do something to celebrate if you'll be around for the holiday."

[so_hawkward]

"I don't know what I'm doing next week, let alone next holiday. But I might be around," Clint said, smiling a little. "Really, it depends on what you're doing, I think."

[throughaphase]

"Well, if you give me that kind of power I'm gonna say right off that I'm spending it with you," Kitty smiled. "Otherwise I hadn't thought about it."

[so_hawkward]

"Then let's say I'm going to spend it with you, and we can figure out the rest later?" Clint suggested.

[throughaphase]

"Sure. Does this mean I get to book you for New Year's, too?" she checked.