om_main | Sharon and Clint (April 17)

After consoling two friends through their relationship woes (and then breakup) Sharon starts thinking about romance again, and goes to Clint for a second opinion.

Having just finished up at the range, Clint had decided to duck into the shower before dinner, hoping upon hope that tonight would be pizza night. He lived for pizza night. Alex had ducked out, so he had the room all to himself, singing Bon Jovi at the top of his lungs as he ran a comb over his hair. "My heart is like an open highway, like Frankie said, I did it my way, I just want to live while I'm alive!"

Sharon was in a mood, and since she'd already had this conversation once with Steve, she went looking for someone else to talk to about the subject that was bothering her. She knocked on Clint's door in case Alex was home, but she didn't knock very loudly, and when she got no immediate answer she tried the door handle to confirm if it wasn't locked and let herself in.

Just as she walked in, Clint had been strolling out of the bathroom in a towel, still singing into a comb, "Cause it's my life, it's now orrr…."

He paused, blinking at her.

She went to sprawl on his bed, huffing as she did so. "Don't mind me," she said, flicking a disregarding hand at his state of undress. Any close friend was going to have to endure some nudity in the course of friendship, and if Clint could handle her shifting from cat to human, hopefully he understood that his own lack of clothing wasn't a big deal. Truth told, was a good look for him. He had very nice muscle. Shame he didn't expose it more often.

Clint just shrugged and gave another pass of his comb through his hair (not like it ever did any good, then headed for his dresser. "No, really, kitten, make yourself at home," he grinned.

"Doing so," she pointed out. "You should sing more. Nice voice. When Steve's not here, maybe make you sing lullabies if no one will read and I can't sleep."

He blinked again and glanced over his shoulder as he grabbed a pair of boxers from the drawer. "Sure, I could do that. But I don't know any lullabies."

"Neither do I," she pointed out with the ghost of a smile.

"Guess I'll have to learn some?" He grinned at her, then shrugged and dropped the towel, sliding awkwardly into the boxers. She was a cat. What did she care about his junk?

She didn't even both to avert her eyes, just kept lounging, looking completely nonplussed. "Anything would do, probably. If it's nice and soothing. Loud songs probably not. No Iron Maiden."

Clint cocked his head and grabbed a pair of jeans, hopping into them before heading over to the bed. He hooked the button just before sprawling down beside her. "You ever heard 'Mr. Tambourine Man?'"

She shook her head. She pretty much knew Tony and Steve's music, and not much else.

He leaned back, twining her hair around one finger and hummed a little before he sang, soft and a lilting tenor, "Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me. I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to. Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me, in the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you."

She purred approval, leaning to nuzzle at Clint's shoulder. She'd been edgy before coming over, but his voice really was very soothing. "Yes. That will work," she murmured. His skin was still damp from the shower. She flicked her tongue out at the crook of his shoulder.

He was about to keep singing, but cut off when she licked him, his voice dying off in the middle of a word. "Oh, uh, hey…"

She gave a small purring-hum of question.

"I uh," Clint hadn't bothered to pull away. She was nice, and warm, and they always cuddled. Besides, he wasn't sure what was going on, and he and Abby weren't actually in a relationship, right, so…he didn't know what that meant. "I thought we were just friends?"

She leaned back at that, looking at him questioningly. "Licking you implies we're not friends?" she asked.

"Well, licking with humans usually means making out. Sex. You know, getting busy," Clint grinned at her, winking.

She wrinkled her nose at that and huffed. "Why I'm here. Really. People. Why do you make everything so complicated?"

He laughed and stretched. "I dunno. Which people are you talking about?"

She leaned and nipped softly at his shoulder, not caring if it apparently gave signals. "Vance and Yana this week. Everyone else usually. Know that Steve and Tony love each other, but even they do really stupid things when upset. Convinced that 'relationship' means being ridiculous, and maybe hurting yourself because you stop seeing the other person."

"Mmn," Clint could see where she got that from. He leaned back and just enjoyed the attention, because what else could he do? "I don't know much about that kind of stuff. Anytime I try and figure it out, I end up fucking up. That's why me and Abby are just fooling around and not really taking it seriously."

She looked at him contemplatively. "Not sure what the big deal is."

"With what? Love?" Clint asked. "Don't ask me. I've never figured that part out."

"All of it," Sharon said with a small, frustrated sound. She flicked her tail. "Love makes sense, when you accept someone as they are. No clue about romance, but if it's anything like actual love, then maybe it would make sense too. From what I've seen, romance is a lot of people wanting things from other people that they can't get. Seems kind of stupid."

Clint hummed. "Never thought of them as two different things, but I guess it makes sense. Illyana definitely wanted more from Vance, seems like."

Sharon shook her head. "Wanted different things maybe. Go about them different ways. Can both feel very strongly, even if someone feels very quietly. Still. Wreck waiting to happen."

"No kidding," Clint agreed. He'd seen that one coming. Especially since Illyana thought that he couldn't even take care of his own dog. He was still a little bitter about that, maybe.

"Have you liked anyone like that before?" Sharon asked. She clarified by adding, "Loud and not caring if its stupid, probably going to get hurt?"

"Uh," Clint viciously stomped on a niggling thought that had started to worm its way into his brain. He wasn't there yet. "Nope. I guess I've never really had a chance to get close to someone well enough to know 'em that well, you know? You gotta know someone to like them like that, and I never wanted to get close to anyone."

"Not everyone seems to wait until then. They know the parts they like, but it's the pieces they don't understand that hurt them." She hummed thoughtfully, quiet for a moment. "I know you now. Don't want to be stupid over it though."

"That's okay," Clint grinned. "I like you a lot, but I don't want to ruin it with relationship crap either."

"Good," she said soundly.

"But…you still wanna lick me?" Clint asked curiously.

"Right now I want to bite you," Sharon said pointedly, giving him the 'why do people ask stupid questions' look.

He just grinned at her. "Want me to sing instead?"

She reached and tapped his chest. "So what's the big deal with the other stuff?" she asked, since they were already on the subject, and romance she could talk about with Steve--sex and snogging, was usually the subject where Steve broke out the large disclaimers. She wanted a second opinion.

"It feels good?" Clint tried. "Like hugging, but better."

She snorted at that. "Well, duh. Is that all though? Pleasure with another person?"

"Well, that's kind of a lot," Clint pointed out. "And I guess, I dunno, being close to someone else? Knowing you're not alone. Maybe it's even better with someone you super care about?"

She considered that. "And it off-sets if things go wrong? Like, if one person gets wrong impression? If it's just pleasure, can do that yourself."

"It's different with another person, trust me. It's…you get to feel someone else's reaction, right? And that makes you feel good because you made them feel that," Clint tried to explain.

She continued to look very contemplative, taking in that information. "Okay." She wasn't convinced it countered the problem most people had with falling fast and hard for a bad idea. Like, maybe Abby and Clint had achieved that mystical place where no one would get hurt. She wasn't sure many people would be good at that. If she tried to think about people she might consider snogging.... right. They were all people that she didn't want to be complicated with. People she didn't want to hurt or lose.

"Okay?" he asked. Cause it looked like she was thinking pretty hard.

"Not sure how you know it's worth the risk."

Clint shrugged. "You don't."

"That sucks," she said with a frown.

"Yeah," he agreed. "I mean, mostly I just do it with pretty girls I wanna get to know? So there's not a lot of risk there. If I screw it up, then no harm."

She snorted. "So weren't friends with Abby first? Snogged her, then maybe friends?"

He grinned at her. "Kind of? I mean, she was friends with Phil, and I liked him, so I figured I'd like her too."

She eyed Clint again. "Just girls?"

He rolled his eyes a little. "So far."

Sharon gave a little nod. "Normally if I want to get to know someone better I just use them as furniture."

"Oh, that how it works, huh?" he grinned. "So you've been cheating on me by sleeping on other people?"

"All the time," she pointed out. "Ianto even feeds me bananas and cheese. Guess I need to find more pretty girls, though. Don't know as many of those."

"You thinking of practicing snogging on girls?" Clint asked curiously.

"Eventually, maybe," Sharon said. "No different than boys. Not sure if I'll like either."

Clint dropped his head back against the pillow in thought. "Don't think you should just give it up without trying it. You've seen some bad examples yeah, but there are people here who make it work."

"I don't want kittens," Sharon said wryly.

He turned his head to stare at her. "Uh, well, I wasn't really talking about going all the way."

She looked nonplussed for a solid moment before snickering at the expression on his face.

Clint rolled his eyes. "Brat."

She poked him in the side with her tail before draping across his chest, arms propped against him.

Without thinking about it, he slipped an arm around her waist, wrapped around her comfortably. "Besides, they've got these things called condoms. Kittens aren't a necessity."

"Condoms are 98% effective," Sharon quoted, because, yes, Steve had given her literature to peruse.

He started to laugh. "You've been talking to Rogers, haven't you?"

She nodded. "He gave me literature. Read whenever I wanted to. About as interesting as civics class, don't tell him I said that."

"Well, your choice. I'm not saying, hey, go out and have sex," Clint grinned. "I don't blame you for not wanting kittens. But there's lots you can do without that risk."

"Maybe," she said with a small nod. "If it's not weird. And hopefully not bad."

He gave a small nod. He got it. It could be hard figuring out how to get close to people, especially when she was just earning friends that were human for the first time.

She leaned and nuzzled her cheek against Clint's.

He nuzzled back. "Wanna crash here for awhile?" Since she was already on his chest…

She nodded. "I'll stay. You're warm."

"Hey, if it's one thing I do well, it's stay warm," Clint hummed, closing his eyes. It was a complete lie, of course. He'd had more than his fare share of cold, wet nights. Probably just as many as her, but it was a nice thought.

She stretched more comfortably across him, limbs tangling as she snuggled. She tucked her face against Clint's throat.

He smiled a little, then resumed singing, a low, quiet sound: "Though I know that evenin's empire has returned to sand, vanished from my hand, left me blindly here to stand but still not sleeping…my weariness amazes me, I'm branded on my feet. I have no one to meet, and the ancient empty street's too dead for dreaming.

"Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me, I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to. Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me, in the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you."