The Perk, Saturday Evening

[so_hawkward]

Since Clint was actually expecting Barney this time around, he was in a much better mood this weekend than he'd been last year. It had been nice to spend the day catching up, and rather than go to one of the bars, Clint had decided they should go out and get coffee instead. Barney had insisted on normal, black coffee, so of course Clint had flashed a smile and gotten the barista to silently add a shot of pumpkin spice to Barney's drink. It was like little brother law, okay?

[Open!]

Comments

[throughaphase]

Yesterday had been busy, and today Kitty hadn't done much to make up for it. Which meant by evening she was ready to get out for a bit.

"Oh, look, Bartons in the wild," she greeted them.

[so-tricky.livejournal.com]

"Now there's the sight I really came here to see," Barney said, smiling at Kitty. "Come on over and have a seat before I have to kill your boyfriend for destroying my coffee."

[throughaphase]

"Oh, god, what'd he do?" Kitty asked, coming on over to have a seat. "Also hi."

[so-tricky.livejournal.com]

"I don't know yet, but I'll find out when I drink it. How have you been?" Barney asked. "Clint said you've been more than a little busy lately."

[throughaphase]

"Stressed and busy, yeah. I'm basically hoarding jobs at this point, but it'll get easier once I get used to it," she said. "How much did he tell you?"

Since she wasn't sure how much he actually knew about the whole X-Men thing.

[so-tricky.livejournal.com]

"He said you've been teaching at a second school for kids with superpowers and people are being dicks. There might have been more too it than that, but I sort of stopped listening once I got the gist," Barney explained.

[throughaphase]

"That's the bulk of it," Kitty said. "There's a lot of discrimination and general terribleness so I'm trying to help teenagers be rational about it. And then I come back here where everyone's nice to each other, and that's basically my weeks now."

[so_hawkward]

"Did you tell her we agreed she's crazy for this?" Clint asked, handing Barney his drink before sitting down next to Kitty. "Nice, and wonderful, but slightly crazy."

Don't mind Clint watching Barney drink, he was totally focused on you, Kitty.

[throughaphase]

"Oh, I am totally not denying that I'm crazy. Hopefully everything else you've said about me is all good things."

She was totally watching Barney too, since she was wondering how bad this was going to be.

[so_hawkward]

"Of course I said good things. I just wanted to make sure he understood if you were like, wiped out this weekend," Clint said.

Barney took a sip of his drink and nearly spit it back out, glaring at Clint. "Pumpkin and coffee do not go together. You're like a toddler."

[throughaphase]

"Pumpkin and coffee is mainstream now," Kitty pointed out. "You're probably lucky he didn't do something worse."

[so-tricky.livejournal.com]

"Tell me about it. You weren't blessed with siblings, were you?" Barney asked, kicking Clint under the table like a mature adult.

[throughaphase]

"Nope, just me," Kitty said. "I think my parents knew giving me more people to annoy would have been a huge mistake."

[so_hawkward]

"See, it's the older siblings who are the annoying ones, she understands," Clint said, kicking Barney back.

[throughaphase]

"Children, behave, we're in public," Kitty teased.

[so_hawkward]

"I bought him a drink that is both delicious and non-alcoholic. I'm being the nicest brother," Clint said. "I'm disappointed no one is visiting you so I can be a good boyfriend too in front of them."

[throughaphase]

"You can come with me when I go to Westchester," Kitty said. "You can show off in front of everybody."

[so-tricky.livejournal.com]

"Do you make him walk around shirtless and flex at people?" Barney asked, laughing.

[throughaphase]

"No, but I totally should. Thanks for that idea," Kitty grinned.

[so_hawkward]

"You are the worst," Clint said to Barney, before turning to Kitty and giving her a sad look. "Don't listen to him, he's an idiot with terrible ideas."

[throughaphase]

"I still think this should totally be negotiated later," Kitty said.

[so-tricky.livejournal.com]

Barney laughed, drinking his tainted coffee because it was worth it for that look on Clint's face. "I like the way you think. I wish Clint had found you sooner." Of course, that would have required him to be around too but shhh, details.

[throughaphase]

"He had pretty amazing timing in finding me," Kitty said. "Besides, I'm sticking around, so we can gang up to tease him indefinitely."

[so_hawkward]

"You know, I can just go if you need me to," Clint said, "and you two can stay and be mean."

[throughaphase]

"No, I think we've gotten it out of our systems for now," Kitty said, leaning in to drape her arm over his shoulders. "Would you like to tease Barney for a while instead?"

[so_hawkward]

"I like that idea so much more," Clint said. "He's old and not fun anymore. How's that for a start?"

[throughaphase]

"Teasing you was about you running around shirtless where all the teenage girls could crush on you. I think we can start with something tamer, like pumpkin sensitivity," Kitty said.

[so-tricky.livejournal.com]

"I'm not sensitive," Barney said. "Coffee is meant to be black and strong and not flavored with anything, end of story."

[throughaphase]

"So if I were to get an iced coffee with milk and ice, would that be an abomination?" Kitty wondered. "What are your thoughts on soy milk?"

This is why she was an only child, probably.

[so-tricky.livejournal.com]

"Coffee's also not supposed to be cold," Barney said, "and it doesn't need milk. How do you feel about coffee cups and mugs?"

[throughaphase]

"I think they're pretty necessary for the drinking of coffee." Clint.

[so_hawkward]

"We're supposed to be picking on Barney," Clint said. "Just because a guy doesn't want a ton of dishes lying around doesn't mean he's wrong."

[throughaphase]

"I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying I would happily take on the responsibility of washing your coffee mugs," Kitty said, and looked to Barney. "This is the only point of contention in our relationship."

[so-tricky.livejournal.com]

"Seriously? No wonder this relationship is working so well, you didn't tell me you're a saint," Barney said, only half teasing.

[throughaphase]

"He's not so bad," Kitty said, smiling at Clint. "Besides, he puts up with all my drama."

[so-tricky.livejournal.com]

"Right, I'm sure you have a ton of drama," Barney said, laughing. "Way more than we ever do."

Hey, if Clint never bothered to tell him anything, how could he know?

[throughaphase]

"You'd be surprised," Kitty said after a pause.

[so_hawkward]

"Our drama is... well, about the same," Clint said. "Thankfully, the people we have to deal with haven't synced themselves up yet, so we can take turns backing each other up."

[throughaphase]

"And it is not allowed to sync up," Kitty said. "One thing at a time."

[so_hawkward]

Clint smiled and leaned over the table to give Kitty a kiss, even with Barney sitting there. "Absolutely. As crazy as it is, I like the way things are just fine."

[throughaphase]

"I'm so remembering you said that," Kitty said.