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]

"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.

[so_hawkward]

"I don't see why not. Especially New Year's Eve. Any holiday that involves kissing, I'm laying claim to right now," Clint said.

[throughaphase]

"So that means Valentine's Day, too," Kitty told him. "...We need more kissing holidays."

[so_hawkward]

"Birthdays count too," Clint said with a grin. "And there could be Christmas kissing or something."

[throughaphase]

"Ooh, mistletoe. We can keep that up from now until like, January, I think," she said with a smile.

[so_hawkward]

"See, you're so smart," Clint said, leaning over to give Kitty a kiss on the cheek.

From over by the fryer, that got a "Woo!" from Grills.

"Okay, we can't come here anymore," Clint said.

[throughaphase]

Kitty laughed and gave Grills a wave, slipping her arm around Clint's waist. "They're just having fun. We can come back as much as you want and they'll be so used to it that they won't say a word."

[so_hawkward]

"They're going to talk about us, and it's going to be weird," Clint said. "I'm not a center of attention type of guy."

[throughaphase]

"And what are they going to say?" she asked. It was possible she was entirely used to her friends taking too much of an interest in her love life.