Maddie & Clint | Wednesday Evening (backdated)

[x-hawkeye.livejournal.com]

While attempting to study, Clint and Maddie discuss various items of interest and Maddie tells Clint about her new relationship with Sue.

Clint frowned at his history textbook before sighing and dropping his forehead onto the semi-gloss pages detailing various German military moves during World War II. Without raising his head, he flailed around with one arm until he found a pillow. Still not looking, he tossed the pillow in Maddie's general direction and mumbled, "I can feel you smiling from over here - how can you smile when reading about the Holocaust? Are you even actually reading? I don't think you've turned a page in like ten minutes. And you like this military stuff."

While she hadn't actually been reading about the Holocaust, Maddie couldn't deny the fact that she had been smiling over her history reading. Which turned into outright laughter when Clint chucked a pillow at her head; he had scarily good aim for someone who wasn't even looking. "I'm not reading about the Holocaust," she explained, lobbing the pillow back in his direction. "I'm reading about how the Allies totally owned the Germans about the intelligence surrounding D-Day. You know, I really need an "I Like Ike" pin..."

Her voice trailed off and Maddie focused on a section of hair, twirling it with her fingers, smiling to herself. She thought back to the most recent program that had aired on the Military Channel, which she missed most of. But considering she had already seen those episodes, Maddie wasn't upset over the whole ordeal. "Besides, I'm a TK," she added dreamily. "I don't need to turn the pages. I do it with my mind."

Batting the pillow away from his head as it sailed back toward him, Clint grinned over at his friend and said, "I maintain that's some kind of cheating. Undefined at the moment, but totally there." He poked at his textbook with one finger before closing it and elbow crawling over to where Maddie sat so he could drop his forehead onto her leg. Ostensibly, it was more comfortable than the book. "Isn't there a movie about this? Netflix has Auschwitz, doesn't it? Can you just like. Put the information in my brain? Is that legal? I'll sign a piece of paper saying I told you you could do it and everything."

Maddie sighed and nudged the book to the side now that her focus was firmly off homework. Not that it took much to convince her to put homework aside, but a frustrated Clint definitely warranted her attention. "What's going on in your brain that has you so frazzled," she asked gently as she ran her fingers through his hair and massaged his scalp. "I'm usually the one in need of stealing all your brain."

"History's just so complicated. Dates and times and bullets and spies. The spies are kind of cool, I'll give them that, but wars are just depressing. Steve called - the adoption stuff's going well. Andre's sending a massive end-of-year care package for exams. I think he's trying to feed you and Billy, too. There's just a lot going on and this history stuff's not sticking. I can usually stare at it and memorize it, but it's not working." Clint stopped talking, some of the tension easing from his shoulders. "And Hitler was a rat bastard."

"Mhmm." The redhead nodded in agreement of her friend's assessment of the leader of Germany's Third Reich. "That's pretty much the general consensus right there. Although Stalin was a complete power-hungry asshole. Pol Pot was a dick. They're still building camps in North Korea." As she spoke, Maddie's hands traveled down Clint's neck to his shoulders and her fingers pressed into his flesh, working to relax the muscles it covered. "History is full of jackasses. Every so often one of them manages to persuade others to listen to them and they gain all the power. Then they are unstoppable."

"Think of it like Chemistry, maybe? Or Physics? Hitler kept rolling through Europe unhindered by basically everyone. No friction. Or what do you get when you take one part charismatic man, one part desperate country, and add beer? Nazi Germany!" Oversimplification to be sure, but Clint's brain was already fried by trying to learn everything and failing.

"You can't let me beat you and become Valedictorian."

"That's like two years and some change away," Clint said, suppressing a laugh. "It's mostly the dates that're the problem. I can keep a general idea of chronology straight, but the specific dates keep getting mixed up. Like that diplomat guy gets shot and starts the war and then shit hits the fan - but I can't remember the right date or the dude's name. I wish this was like Chemistry. Or math."

"Bitch, you don't think I can graduate first in the class?" She pressed her thumb harder into his back (there was a pesky knot there anyways, but the timing of this action was entirely her choosing), but could not fight back her own laughter. With brainiacs like Clint and studious kids like Billy and Hope, Maddie just enjoyed proposing this preposterous scenario as motivation, with both her and her friends knowing that if it indeed became reality she would never let them live it down. Just because she could.

"And no wonder you're having trouble!" The sniggering continued. "You're trying to link the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir presumptive of the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife Sophie in June of 1914 by a Bosnian-Serb who was part of a movement which wanted to break the southern Slav provinces away from the A-H empire and form their own country with World War II!" Maddie shook her head and tutted in mock disappointment.

"You bring shame upon this house, Clinton Barton. Shaaaaaaaaaaame."

Flipping over so he could look up at Maddie, Clint made a face. "I hate History." He caught his textbook with his heel, though, and dragged it over so he could reach it. "Unless it's scientific history. That I can totally do. But mostly because I think of it in terms of discoveries and famous experiments rather than dates and people. The dates just kind of fall into place with scientific history. Why can't the rest of history be that way, too?"

"Your face is going to get stuck like that one of these days. You ain't got much goin' on in the looks department as it is," she teased. "So, you know, be careful of that."

Returning to the serious conversation at hand, the redhead wiped the smile off her face and replaced it with a very somber look. "Military Channel, man," she continued, trying to sound wise and serious. "Military Channel. Mostly they talk about World War II shit, some World War I, but every so often you get stuff about the Pharaohs or Black Ops missions or Vietnam or Korea. The History Channel is like all about pawning shit and restoring shit, so that is mostly out, but H2 has some good shit too. You should watch. I mean, I introduced Sue to it as a way to help her with her history homework. That's why we missed that movie night you bugged me about."

"Well. Sorta. Mostly it was because we were making out," she added nonchalantly. "But there was homework being completed before that part."

Clint's mouth was open to respond to the part about him not having much going on in the looks department, but his thought process got entirely derailed at the making out comment. "Hey, wait - are you and Sue dating now?" His eyebrows were up and he couldn't help the smile he was sporting.

The enthusiastic reaction to the news made Maddie blush. Not tomato red, but more the flush after being in a steam room or having completed a bout of vigorous exercise. For while she was totally cool about first announcing it, the fact is this was kinda a big deal for the teenager. She really enjoyed spending time with Sue and just thinking about it made Maddie feel all bubbly inside, and the whole thing made her very bashful. Not because she was embarrassed, that couldn't be further from the truth, but because she just felt all giggly and girly, which she definitely wasn't in normal circumstances. It was self-preservation (she had a reputation to maintain after all) that kept her response to Clint's question down to a silent nod while a dreamy smile played on her lips.

Expression morphing into one of utmost seriousness, Clint said, "You know what this means, right?" Before Maddie could actually answer, he held up his free hand, pointer finger held high, and said, "We're going on a double date."

"We can't do that," Maddie was less annoyed and more tinged with sadness. She sighed heavily. "It's not fair to Billy. You know? It'd be all of us who normally hang out together anyways excluding him because he's single, and him tagging along with us alone wouldn't be fair to him either."

"Hm..." Clint pondered that for a moment, head tilted back as he tapped his fingertips on his stomach. "Okay, well. The solution to that's simple. We need to find him a boyfriend so we can all hang out together on triple dates."

Not knowing whether or not Billy had informed his roommate of the kiss with Josh, Maddie decided to play it safe and not mention the possibility of triple dates being more possible than not. So instead she just shrugged and resumed running her fingers through his hair. "Sue and I haven't really had time to go on an 'official date' yet, anyways. And, yeah, I'm a little concerned about people giving us shit when we're together in public, but more for her sake than for my own. I can deal with dumbasses saying shit, I've totally been called a dyke anyways before...."

She wrinkled her nose and shook her head at the first memory that popped into her head. It was after a soccer match where she and another female teammate had kissed each other's cheeks and were embracing, celebrating the win. A couple of guys from the opposing team had walked past and one of them (the one she had been facing off against all game, who had tried to take her down with some cheap fouls, a few of which the ref hadn't seen) had spat some insult about them being dykes then laughed about it with his friends. Maddie was used to comments like that, which didn't mean they didn't upset her (more for the fact that someone was using sexuality as an insult than anything else), but she didn't know how Sue would react. The blonde had only dated Matt, which Maddie was sure had come with its own set of judgments from people who saw them together, what with him being blind and all, but they were probably silent judgments.

"She says she's not doing this for the novelty of shocking her family and being able to say she dated a girl, that she really does care about me and wants to be with me. And that it already feels different than whatever she and Matt had, or didn't have," she added, remembering the conversations the girls had shared at the time about what was lacking in Sue's feelings toward Matt. "But, I don't know. I mean, she may decide that it's really just some phase and she doesn't want to deal with the harassment of being romantically linked with another female in public could bring. Which, I mean, is fine," Maddie was quick to add, sounding defensive. Over Sue, over the situation, or what, she wasn't quite sure. "I don't want to see her getting hurt. Like at all. Or any of you. I mean, how many stare-downs did I have with bigoted students at the beginning of the year for calling us 'muties'? Not many considering the school's size, but still."

It was now Maddie's turn to flop back onto the floor; she was exhausted from all this heavy thinking. When she was with Sue it was different, things were easy, enjoyable, fun. It was only when she started contemplating things like this that everything felt so big and confusing. "I'm totally rambling," she sighed heavily again. It felt like a freaking elephant was sitting on her chest and squishing her feelings. "I'm sorry, Clint."

"Hey," Clint said, sitting up so he could look down at Maddie. "You don't have to apologize. Rambling's totally allowed. I ramble at you all the time. And this is some pretty big stuff. It's important that you get it all figured out in your head, right?" He paused, then reached over and tapped his fingertip against Maddie's nose twice. "First off, you totally don't have to do anything you don't want to, not with me and not with anybody else. If you and Sue want to chill here at the mansion, that's awesome. I'm not gonna make you guys go out to a restaurant or whatever. I'd be cool with having a movie night or something simple here.

"Second... I don't actually know, I didn't have a second except to say that I'd totally punch somebody for saying things like that to you and you should trust what Sue says about wanting to be with you until she gives you a reason not to." Clint shrugged, then finished, "You and Billy get me worried sometimes. I know you guys can take care of yourselves, it's just when it comes to stuff like this, you shouldn't have to worry about people being jerks. You should be able to be happy."

Maddie groaned and lay both of her arms across her eyes, as if blocking out the light would also make the world, and its worries, disappear. Not that it helped any. But she did feel a little less overwhelmed. Of course that could have been thanks to the words of wisdom of her best friend. "I like her, Clint." Her voice was small and the way she said it made it clear that this was the first time she admitted this truth, even to herself. "I do. And I wish I knew what was going to happen here, but I know, well we both know really, that we'll always be friends. Sue and me, I mean. I just don't want to pour my heart into this and end up getting hurt. Even though I know that Sue would never do something to hurt me. Just sometimes things happen."

"Yeah, sometimes things happen," Clint agreed. "But sometimes those things are good. You can't freeze up to avoid the possibility of being hurt because if you do, you might miss out on the future where you two grow up and have three test-tube babies and make me a Godfather." He smiled. "It's not easy, but... as cheesy as it sounds, you're not alone. You've got me and Billy and your family. So y'know. Take a chance on it and if it doesn't work out, we'll all still be here to help out. If it does work out, I totally call being Godfather to Mini Maddie Number One."

"Not gonna happen," Maddie replied sharply, eyes still covered. "I don't have birthing hips. Fucking babies."

"I think you sort of missed the point of that," Clint said, laughing a little. "Anyway, I'm here for you whenever, wherever, for whatever."

With a sigh, Maddie pushed herself back up and reached out to take Clint's hand in hers. "I know," she replied with a reassuring squeeze. "And I'm here for you too."

"Cool," Clint said, giving Maddie's forehead a quick peck before raising his eyebrows and asking, "So's that mean you'll stick all that History stuff directly in my brain?"

"Ha!" She rolled her eyes and gave him a very pointed look. "Not on your life, Birdbrain. But I will show you my Super Nifty Timeline of World War II. Maybe seeing it will help your brain."

"Come on, it's in my room."