Log: Matt & Clint

[x-daredevil.livejournal.com]

Backdated to last Saturday. A familiar face from Clint's past is already living at Xavier's bringing up memories of some unpleasant times for them both

Warning: possible triggers



Clint had most of his stuff set up in boxes, having shooed Steve and Andre out of the mansion after they helped him bring it upstairs. They'd taken him to lunch, then headed back into the city. Keeping everything in the room he was going to be sharing wasn't difficult, given he hadn't brought much more than clothes and books.

He'd put up a couple pictures, one framed on his bedside table of his biological family and another beside it of his foster dads. A couple posters were still rolled up and situated at the end of his bed, since he thought it'd probably be considerate to make sure his roommate didn't mind them.

Which left Clint with two suitcases and several boxes to unpack. Rubbing the back of his neck, he decided to just go ahead and get it over with.

Wandering in from lunch, Matt didn't recognize the heartbeat of the guy in his suite. There had been a mention of a possible new boy in school though. "Hey," he said, leaning on the door frame of the other bedroom. "You must be the new guy."

Turning from his consideration of the bookshelf near his desk, Clint had a pleasant response all lined up. Only it got derailed when he recognized the other boy. "Matt?"

How did this guy know his name? "Who're you?" He asked, on the defensive. He didn't recognize this guy's scent or heartbeat.

"Clint," he answered, still surprised. "Clint Barton." A trace of wariness crept up his spine, but he ignored it for the moment. "We roomed together for a while."

Oh. OH. That was a name he never thought he'd hear again. "It's been awhile," Matt acknowledged warily. "You only have to share a suite with me now. I've got my own room," the door to which was currently closed. He wasn't sure how he felt about this development. He didn't have good memories from that time, though it wasn't Clint's fault.

"Yeah, they told me there was another guy in the suite," Clint said, shoving his hands in his pockets. Awkward. So awkward. "So... how long have you been here?"

"About 18 months. My longest placement in a while," and he turned 18 in May. "You, uh...been okay then?" What was he supposed to say?

"That's good," Clint said, shifting a little awkwardly. "I've been okay. My foster dads are pretty cool. Been with them since... you know. Everything happened." Excellent. Even more awkward. "How are things here? The teachers and stuff?"

Euphemism much? "It's pretty good," Matt replied, ignoring the giant elephant in the room for a while longer. "They expect you to do school work and all that, but it's not so bad. Lived worse places." Okay, this was getting ridiculous, even for him. "Glad you got a good placement after we lived together. I got sent to a group home," well, after he got out of juvie.

"Homework's never been an issue for me," Clint said, shaking his head a little. "How'd you wind up here?" Just to have something to do with his hands, he started taking clothing from one of his suitcases and putting them in the chest of drawers near his bed.

"I'm a mutant?" Matt replied, a little confused, "Remember those migraines I used to get? Turns out they were from my powers, I was being overloaded and had no idea. So instead of me learning to control them, the doctors doped me up to suppress them. A doctor finally figured it out and sent me here," he didn't mention that it had been a rehab doctor. "I've been off the painkillers for over a year now," and on ecstasy for a while, but why mention that?

Clint didn't arch an eyebrow. He didn't scoff. He didn't even snort. He just asked, "No fights prior to your placement?"

Coming in, Matt turned Billy's desk chair around before he straddled it. "You got something to say?" he asked, levelly. "Because if we're gonna share a suite, just say it now and let's get it over with."

Clint put another shirt away before turning to face Matt. "Look, I don't know most of what happened before. I figured some of it out, but mostly I kept my head down. But if you're gonna take a bat to some guy again, I gotta know you're working with a hair trigger, alright? I got sent here for one fight and I don't need anything else in my files that'll make my foster dads decide I'm not worth the hassle."

Licking his lips nervously, Matt stared straight ahead. He didn't care if he was facing Clint or not. "So long as you don't go molesting little kids, I won't need to get a baseball bat," he replied. "because that's what happened. I didn't tell anyone, but I could hear it. Who'd believe me? Except that's the thing - I wasn't wrong. So I stopped it because that was the right thing to do. And I did my time in juvie for it," Matt didn't mention his recovering drug addiction to Clint. Right now, he didn't need to know. He didn't mention the required self defense classes or Genosha either. "And I will absolutely do it again."

"Anybody here likely to do that?"

"Nope," Matt stated, "Well, we played baseball as a group over the summer. I did pretty well since we used the beeping ball." He'd done better than he had expected and it'd been a lot of fun. "Anyways, my new cane's titanium. Lighter and withstands more shit than carbon fiber." It was also rather noticeably absent. He didn't usually carry it anymore in the building.

"So no child molesters - good to know," Clint said, shifting jeans over into the bottom drawer. "Congrats on the cane, I guess. You're... what? A senior?"

"Yeah," Matt nodded, pleased by that. He'd managed to cram two years of school into one school year and two summers. It hadn't been easy, but it had been worth it. "I got held back a year with juvie and rehab and all that, but I made it up with summer schools so I get to graduate pretty much on time. And...you're a sophomore? I think? Or freshman?" Matt had no idea.

"Yeah, a sophomore," Clint answered, eyebrows rising a little at the 'juvie' comment. He let it go, though. "I'll... y'know. I'll make sure stuff stays where it's supposed to in the main part of the suite. Do you have any weird things I should know about? Like, foods or whatever that shouldn't be brought in?"

"Yeah," Matt appreciated them keeping the common area free of debris. While he usually didn't have problems thanks to his powers, things that were closer to the ground were harder for him to 'see' with his sonar unless he directed it there intentionally, "I'm not a fan of really spicy stuff, but so long as it's in your food and not mind it's fine. My room's soundproofed, but try to keep noise down to a reasonable level if I'm not in my room."

"Okay. I think I can handle that," Clint said, nodding. "Thanks. Are there any weird rules or anything I need to be sure not to break? Stuff that wasn't covered in the meet and greet by the welcoming committee?"

Ah, shit. "No drugs," Matt replied. "They're not allowed in the suite. Not even advil or whatever. I'm an addict. I'm clean, but...don't tempt, me, okay? Remember all those painkillers and meds I used to take when we lived together? I got addicted, even though it was prescribed by doctors. It was all turtles from there," he didn't want to tell Clint about his more recent relapse and he had been addicted to the painkillers. "No one knew I was a mutant back then and thought the migraines I got were from the accident when I was blinded. Turns out they were from my powers overloading my brain and I couldn't control it. So they put me on all those painkillers and stuff to suppress it all. Now that I've got better control, I don't need them, but I really don't want to go back to using and it's as much psychological as it is physiological."

Clint considered that for a moment. "No spicy food or drugs for you, got it," he said, some of the wariness leaving him. It was weird, but having Matt be honest about his problems was more reassuring than anything else had been since this whole debacle began. At least now Clint knew what he might be in for, what to expect. "I gotta finish unpacking, but we can finish catching up later. If you want." Not that there'd probably be much talking about what they'd been doing for the last five years. But having a familiar face around, even one that he didn't have particularly fond memories of, was better than nothing at this point.

"Yeah..." Matt got up and headed out of the room, kinda amused that they hadn't asked each other what their powers were. That seemed to be the default question around here. "Well, you know where I'll be."