ficlet february 11: "what are you looking for?"
So, this is an idea that I first had a while ago after looking too quickly at a piece of fanart. It's a weird amalgamation of comicsverse Hawkguy and Young Avengers but with the timelines put in a blender and a sort of X-Men Movieverse mash-up that has nothing to do with actual X-Men comics? idk, whatever. IT'S ABOUT KATE AND BILLY AND CLINT AND CHARLES AND ERIK.
***
Ficlet February 11: "what are you looking for?"
Kate picks up the mug during one of her regular arguments with Clint.
Conversations, whatever.
She's at Clint's and they're doing their usual thing--arguing over something stupid, something that happened on Dog Cops or something happening in the building or some kind of archery something, with the intention to eventually stop arguing long enough to share a pizza and channel surf. Clint is gesticulating with the coffee pot, which Kate grabs from him to pour herself some. There are two clean mugs to choose from--she pauses mid-quip to berate him for that--and decides the cream mug with the purple "H" is the best choice, given the other isn't exactly safe for work.
Clint takes the pot back when she's done and drinks right from it--ugh, she hates it when he does that, he's probably been doing it all morning, she's probably drinking his backwash right now, why oh why is this loser her stupid best friend--just as Kate's phone buzzes in her jeans' tiny excuse for a pocket. She digs it out--it's a text from Billy.
SOS. Please come over NOW!!!
"Ugh, fine," she says to the phone, as if Billy can hear her.
"Ha!" Clint says. "Told you I was right!"
"Not you, idiot," she says. "Billy. I'll see you later--don't watch it without me."
"I won't," Clint lies.
"Don't let him watch it without me," she says sternly to Lucky, who opens one eye and looks at her. Then, to Clint, as she holds up his mug, "I'm taking this."
"That's my favorite mug!" he protests, but she's already halfway out the door and she doesn't actually care that much.
*
Billy, it turns out, is having a crisis of confidence about college.
"It's just, what if I'm really not good enough?" he says. He's pacing around the room. Teddy is sitting silently at the edge of Billy's bed, playing a game on his phone. She gets the impression he's heard all of this about a dozen times so far.
"Then you say 'fuck it,' drop out, and we get an apartment together while we try to figure out what we do with our lives," Kate says. "Come on. You're smart. You know you're smart."
"I know," Billy says. "But...sometimes it seems so pointless, you know?"
Kate does know. She wasn't lying about the trying to figure out what to do with her life, though these days it mostly involves hanging out at Clint's, which is simultaneously the opposite of and exactly where she wants to end up.
She and Teddy spend an hour or so alternating with comforting Billy, which culminates in an ice cream break. Kate leaves Clint's mug on Billy's desk when they head out and doesn't think about it again until she's on her way back home.
Oh well. She'll get it back eventually.
***
It's funny, Billy thinks, that he's so nervous about going out to the Xavier school.
He shouldn't be. He's been there before. He sat in their weird war room thing with Teddy and Kate and Eli and Tommy and all of them, their little group and Professor X and the X-Men and some of the Avengers and...it was cool. They were all pretty cool, actually, and none of them treated him and the others like kids. He figures they're used to working with kids and fighting with kids and they know that sometimes you need to take kids seriously. He knows, too, that some of the X-Men have been on the team since they were younger than he was at the time.
He is nervous, though. He's so nervous. Because this isn't going out there to fight a battle--this is going out there to prove he's a good student.
"It will be fine," Teddy assures him as they get ready. Billy can hear his parents chatting excitedly in the living room. They're excited. Teddy is excited. Billy's going to be excited the moment he stops feeling like he's gonna puke. "Your grandad said it would be fine."
"He's not...really my grandad," Billy says. He's not really not Billy's grandad either, of course. He tries not to think about his lineage too closely if he can help it. "Besides, he's not the headmaster."
"Yeah, but he's like, married to the headmaster," Teddy says. "You know how that goes."
He doesn't, not yet, but...well, maybe one day. Maybe one day soon.
He smiles weakly at Teddy, who steps over to the coffeepot and pours him a mug of coffee.
"Here," Teddy says, and hands him the mug. "Drink this. It'll settle your nerves."
Billy doesn't recognize the mug--cream with a purple "H" on it--but he can guess it belongs to Kate. He must have picked it up somewhere.
"Caffiene is gonna settle my nerves?" Billy asks, and Teddy just presses it further into his hands.
"Boys?" his mom calls from the living room. "It's time to go!"
Billy takes a deep breath, steels himself, picks up his portfolio, and heads out towards the car, coffee still in hand. He can do this. He can absolutely do this.
*
It's strange to be so starstuck by someone he's worked with as like, a professional superhero, but Billy is definitely starstruck sitting in Professor X's office, listening to him talk about how great Billy is.
He's always kind of preferred the Avengers to the X-Men but...it's Professor X!
"...and of course we would be thrilled to offer you a place here," he's saying, and Billy's mouth hurts from smiling. "We can easily have someone work with you to design a curriculum that fits the dual purposes of enhancing your abilities and filling in the gaps in your education before starting college."
"Seriously?" Billy says.
Behind Professor X, Magneto--his sort of grandad--smirks.
"Seriously," he says, and Billy has a feeling Magneto's kind of mocking him, but he doesn't care. He grabs Teddy's hand and squeezes it and Teddy squeezes back.
"Now, there's lots of paperwork and scheduling and such to be done, but first, why don't we go on a brief tour? I know you've seen some of the X-Men's areas of the mansion, but I don't think you've seen much of the school," Professor X says. He elbows Magneto, who rolls his eyes.
"That sounds great," Billy manages to say.
"Excellent," Professor X says. "Erik, why don't you lead the way?"
Magneto heads out into the hallway and Billy jumps to his feet. He still has Teddy's hand and ends up pulling him along, but he doesn't even care. This is...this is really, really cool.
He doesn't even realize he's left the mug behind in his haste to follow Magneto out.
***
Charles is in danger of nodding off at his desk and he knows it, but if he can just finish this last stack of paperwork, he'll reward himself with--
Erik knocks at his door and Charles glances up. In Erik's hands are a mug and a tiny plate of cookies.
Sometimes it's hard to tell which one of them is the psychic.
"You need to take a break," Erik says as he approaches the desk. He sets the mug down gently and Charles can smell his favorite tea.
"You're lovely," he says. The mug is warm on his chilly fingers. There's a large purple "H" on the side. "Did you steal this from Hank, darling?"
"It was in the cabinet," Erik says. He shrugs and places the cookies down as well, then leans over to kiss the corner of Charles' mouth. "Take a break."
"I just have a few more forms to get through," Charles says. "Your grandson is going to be an excellent first candidate for our pre-college program, you know."
"He's not really my grandson," Erik lies. While Billy and Tommy's lineage might be too complicated to fit on a family tree, Charles knows that Erik thinks of them as his blood. He's proud of them, and he's happy to have Billy moving to campus, even if it's just for a year. "And anyway, I don't care how many forms you have left. You have people for that. Put your pen down and have some tea."
"In a moment," Charles says, but he's already lifting the mug to his mouth. He's suddenly bone tired. The idea of curling up in bed with Erik and his tea and maybe a movie....
"Okay, okay," he relents. He takes his glasses off and rubs his eyes. He can finish the rest in the morning. "Take the tea and let's go to bed."
"Good decision," Erik says, and leans down to kiss the top of his head.
***
Two months worth of Dog Cops and pizza, two months worth of classes and practice sessions, two months worth of grading and facilitating later, something is wrong somewhere in New York.
Again.
Of course.
So there's the usual chaos and the usual panic and the usual mistrust and once everyone has worked through all of the drama and come to the eventual conclusion that they should be working together, the Avengers and Kate and Billy and their friends and the X-Men are once again gathered together in the war room.
***
"I need coffee," Clint mutters to Nat.
"You always need coffee," Kate mutters from his other side, and Natasha smirks in response. She has a point, but Clint's been out of his apartment for a week, now, running around trying to stop this threat, and while Simone feeds the dog whenever he's out, that doesn't mean that he's been fed anything like regularly.
All the superheroing is rough.
"Do you want me to go get coffee?" Billy Kaplan whispers, leaning around the other side of Kate. Right. Billy goes to school here now. He remembers Kate saying something like that.
"All of you shut up," the feisty one with her eye on Katie mutters.
"America, chill," the tall, buff one says.
"I'm sorry, are we interrupting?"
They all look up. Magneto is standing at the front of the table, regarding them all with raised eyebrows. Everyone is staring at them, actually.
Clint is sure this is Kate's fault.
"You know," Xavier says, laying a hand on Magneto's arm, "Perhaps they're right. It might be time for refreshments."
Magneto rolls his eyes, but there seems to be murmured agreement among the others, and before long, there are mugs of coffee and tea and cans of soda being passed out, along with some snacks. Clint does the gentlemanly thing and passes mug after mug down the side of the big round table, until he glances down and does a double take.
"Wait a second..." he mutters. "This is--"
His mug. It's definitely his mug. His stupid mug that went missing months ago. Kate stole it, he thought, even though she said she brought it back and, okay, it's not unheard of for dishes to go missing inside his place, but...they are definitely miles from Brooklyn. And it didn't walk here by itself.
Probably. Anything's possible. It's been a weird couple weeks.
"Is the coffee to your liking, Mr. Barton?" Xavier asks.
"Uh," he says.
His mind can only handle so much weirdness before it self-destructs. The first coping method he had to learn as an Avenger was how to just go with it sometimes.
He sips his coffee.
"It's fine," he says.
He can look on the bright side sometimes. The world might end in the next couple days, but at least he has his favorite mug back.
*
ficlet february!
Get some sleep
Five minutes away
Faint recognition
Half an hour before sunrise
Useless, but beautiful
Something’s broken
Surprise celebration
There were signs and signals
Rituals
Write about a postcard
What are you looking for?
You remind me of someone
A meeting, a beginning
Lasting impression
Long drive
Behind closed doors
Ask questions later
Six impossible things
Day off
Lost in a city
A door key
A late night phone call
Someone else’s mortification
Something from music
Something from a picture
***
Ficlet February 11: "what are you looking for?"
Kate picks up the mug during one of her regular arguments with Clint.
Conversations, whatever.
She's at Clint's and they're doing their usual thing--arguing over something stupid, something that happened on Dog Cops or something happening in the building or some kind of archery something, with the intention to eventually stop arguing long enough to share a pizza and channel surf. Clint is gesticulating with the coffee pot, which Kate grabs from him to pour herself some. There are two clean mugs to choose from--she pauses mid-quip to berate him for that--and decides the cream mug with the purple "H" is the best choice, given the other isn't exactly safe for work.
Clint takes the pot back when she's done and drinks right from it--ugh, she hates it when he does that, he's probably been doing it all morning, she's probably drinking his backwash right now, why oh why is this loser her stupid best friend--just as Kate's phone buzzes in her jeans' tiny excuse for a pocket. She digs it out--it's a text from Billy.
SOS. Please come over NOW!!!
"Ugh, fine," she says to the phone, as if Billy can hear her.
"Ha!" Clint says. "Told you I was right!"
"Not you, idiot," she says. "Billy. I'll see you later--don't watch it without me."
"I won't," Clint lies.
"Don't let him watch it without me," she says sternly to Lucky, who opens one eye and looks at her. Then, to Clint, as she holds up his mug, "I'm taking this."
"That's my favorite mug!" he protests, but she's already halfway out the door and she doesn't actually care that much.
*
Billy, it turns out, is having a crisis of confidence about college.
"It's just, what if I'm really not good enough?" he says. He's pacing around the room. Teddy is sitting silently at the edge of Billy's bed, playing a game on his phone. She gets the impression he's heard all of this about a dozen times so far.
"Then you say 'fuck it,' drop out, and we get an apartment together while we try to figure out what we do with our lives," Kate says. "Come on. You're smart. You know you're smart."
"I know," Billy says. "But...sometimes it seems so pointless, you know?"
Kate does know. She wasn't lying about the trying to figure out what to do with her life, though these days it mostly involves hanging out at Clint's, which is simultaneously the opposite of and exactly where she wants to end up.
She and Teddy spend an hour or so alternating with comforting Billy, which culminates in an ice cream break. Kate leaves Clint's mug on Billy's desk when they head out and doesn't think about it again until she's on her way back home.
Oh well. She'll get it back eventually.
***
It's funny, Billy thinks, that he's so nervous about going out to the Xavier school.
He shouldn't be. He's been there before. He sat in their weird war room thing with Teddy and Kate and Eli and Tommy and all of them, their little group and Professor X and the X-Men and some of the Avengers and...it was cool. They were all pretty cool, actually, and none of them treated him and the others like kids. He figures they're used to working with kids and fighting with kids and they know that sometimes you need to take kids seriously. He knows, too, that some of the X-Men have been on the team since they were younger than he was at the time.
He is nervous, though. He's so nervous. Because this isn't going out there to fight a battle--this is going out there to prove he's a good student.
"It will be fine," Teddy assures him as they get ready. Billy can hear his parents chatting excitedly in the living room. They're excited. Teddy is excited. Billy's going to be excited the moment he stops feeling like he's gonna puke. "Your grandad said it would be fine."
"He's not...really my grandad," Billy says. He's not really not Billy's grandad either, of course. He tries not to think about his lineage too closely if he can help it. "Besides, he's not the headmaster."
"Yeah, but he's like, married to the headmaster," Teddy says. "You know how that goes."
He doesn't, not yet, but...well, maybe one day. Maybe one day soon.
He smiles weakly at Teddy, who steps over to the coffeepot and pours him a mug of coffee.
"Here," Teddy says, and hands him the mug. "Drink this. It'll settle your nerves."
Billy doesn't recognize the mug--cream with a purple "H" on it--but he can guess it belongs to Kate. He must have picked it up somewhere.
"Caffiene is gonna settle my nerves?" Billy asks, and Teddy just presses it further into his hands.
"Boys?" his mom calls from the living room. "It's time to go!"
Billy takes a deep breath, steels himself, picks up his portfolio, and heads out towards the car, coffee still in hand. He can do this. He can absolutely do this.
*
It's strange to be so starstuck by someone he's worked with as like, a professional superhero, but Billy is definitely starstruck sitting in Professor X's office, listening to him talk about how great Billy is.
He's always kind of preferred the Avengers to the X-Men but...it's Professor X!
"...and of course we would be thrilled to offer you a place here," he's saying, and Billy's mouth hurts from smiling. "We can easily have someone work with you to design a curriculum that fits the dual purposes of enhancing your abilities and filling in the gaps in your education before starting college."
"Seriously?" Billy says.
Behind Professor X, Magneto--his sort of grandad--smirks.
"Seriously," he says, and Billy has a feeling Magneto's kind of mocking him, but he doesn't care. He grabs Teddy's hand and squeezes it and Teddy squeezes back.
"Now, there's lots of paperwork and scheduling and such to be done, but first, why don't we go on a brief tour? I know you've seen some of the X-Men's areas of the mansion, but I don't think you've seen much of the school," Professor X says. He elbows Magneto, who rolls his eyes.
"That sounds great," Billy manages to say.
"Excellent," Professor X says. "Erik, why don't you lead the way?"
Magneto heads out into the hallway and Billy jumps to his feet. He still has Teddy's hand and ends up pulling him along, but he doesn't even care. This is...this is really, really cool.
He doesn't even realize he's left the mug behind in his haste to follow Magneto out.
***
Charles is in danger of nodding off at his desk and he knows it, but if he can just finish this last stack of paperwork, he'll reward himself with--
Erik knocks at his door and Charles glances up. In Erik's hands are a mug and a tiny plate of cookies.
Sometimes it's hard to tell which one of them is the psychic.
"You need to take a break," Erik says as he approaches the desk. He sets the mug down gently and Charles can smell his favorite tea.
"You're lovely," he says. The mug is warm on his chilly fingers. There's a large purple "H" on the side. "Did you steal this from Hank, darling?"
"It was in the cabinet," Erik says. He shrugs and places the cookies down as well, then leans over to kiss the corner of Charles' mouth. "Take a break."
"I just have a few more forms to get through," Charles says. "Your grandson is going to be an excellent first candidate for our pre-college program, you know."
"He's not really my grandson," Erik lies. While Billy and Tommy's lineage might be too complicated to fit on a family tree, Charles knows that Erik thinks of them as his blood. He's proud of them, and he's happy to have Billy moving to campus, even if it's just for a year. "And anyway, I don't care how many forms you have left. You have people for that. Put your pen down and have some tea."
"In a moment," Charles says, but he's already lifting the mug to his mouth. He's suddenly bone tired. The idea of curling up in bed with Erik and his tea and maybe a movie....
"Okay, okay," he relents. He takes his glasses off and rubs his eyes. He can finish the rest in the morning. "Take the tea and let's go to bed."
"Good decision," Erik says, and leans down to kiss the top of his head.
***
Two months worth of Dog Cops and pizza, two months worth of classes and practice sessions, two months worth of grading and facilitating later, something is wrong somewhere in New York.
Again.
Of course.
So there's the usual chaos and the usual panic and the usual mistrust and once everyone has worked through all of the drama and come to the eventual conclusion that they should be working together, the Avengers and Kate and Billy and their friends and the X-Men are once again gathered together in the war room.
***
"I need coffee," Clint mutters to Nat.
"You always need coffee," Kate mutters from his other side, and Natasha smirks in response. She has a point, but Clint's been out of his apartment for a week, now, running around trying to stop this threat, and while Simone feeds the dog whenever he's out, that doesn't mean that he's been fed anything like regularly.
All the superheroing is rough.
"Do you want me to go get coffee?" Billy Kaplan whispers, leaning around the other side of Kate. Right. Billy goes to school here now. He remembers Kate saying something like that.
"All of you shut up," the feisty one with her eye on Katie mutters.
"America, chill," the tall, buff one says.
"I'm sorry, are we interrupting?"
They all look up. Magneto is standing at the front of the table, regarding them all with raised eyebrows. Everyone is staring at them, actually.
Clint is sure this is Kate's fault.
"You know," Xavier says, laying a hand on Magneto's arm, "Perhaps they're right. It might be time for refreshments."
Magneto rolls his eyes, but there seems to be murmured agreement among the others, and before long, there are mugs of coffee and tea and cans of soda being passed out, along with some snacks. Clint does the gentlemanly thing and passes mug after mug down the side of the big round table, until he glances down and does a double take.
"Wait a second..." he mutters. "This is--"
His mug. It's definitely his mug. His stupid mug that went missing months ago. Kate stole it, he thought, even though she said she brought it back and, okay, it's not unheard of for dishes to go missing inside his place, but...they are definitely miles from Brooklyn. And it didn't walk here by itself.
Probably. Anything's possible. It's been a weird couple weeks.
"Is the coffee to your liking, Mr. Barton?" Xavier asks.
"Uh," he says.
His mind can only handle so much weirdness before it self-destructs. The first coping method he had to learn as an Avenger was how to just go with it sometimes.
He sips his coffee.
"It's fine," he says.
He can look on the bright side sometimes. The world might end in the next couple days, but at least he has his favorite mug back.
*
ficlet february!
Get some sleep
Five minutes away
Faint recognition
Half an hour before sunrise
Useless, but beautiful
Something’s broken
Surprise celebration
There were signs and signals
Rituals
Write about a postcard
What are you looking for?
You remind me of someone
A meeting, a beginning
Lasting impression
Long drive
Behind closed doors
Ask questions later
Six impossible things
Day off
Lost in a city
A door key
A late night phone call
Someone else’s mortification
Something from music
Something from a picture