We're Not Dead Yet (Split Souls part 2)

6: Bartonlings

At the sound of others climbing onto the roof, Loki stood and brushed himself off in a casual manner. As Clint and Natasha appeared, he made his way to the other side of the roof so as to give them some form of privacy.

Katha tried to keep a frown off her face as they approached. Whatever Loki had done made them look weird, and it was uncomfortable. The pair sat down on either side of her.

"Hey Kat." Clint greeted.

"Kat. Oh my gods I'm a Kat." She blurted.

Clint snorted and Natasha gained a small smile. 

"Would you rather be 'dog'?" Clint teased.

"Is that a really bad nickname for 'doug'?" Kat wondered.

"Probably a mispronunciation." Natasha chimed in.

"That turned into a nickname." Clint added.

Natasha and Kat gave a nod of acceptance.

"So. What now?" Clint asked after a slightly awkward silence.

"Now? I want to get out of this damned thing."  Kat scrunched the fabric in her hands.

"I have some clothes that might fit you for now. We can go shopping and get you your own later." Natasha offered. 

"Sounds great." Kat said, gratefully.

~~~~~~

Kat was taller than Natasha. Which meant that Natasha's shirts were a bit short. They covered, sure, but if she bent over skin would show. Kat shrugged. "It's still better than that fucking dress."

Kat rolled up the cuffs of the jeans a little bit, and she had functional capris. "Girls wear them like this, right?"

Natasha fixed the uneven cuffs. "There."

Barefoot, Kat made her way downstairs. Two kids were in the living room playing with legos. As she stopped by the bottom banister, they looked up. 

"Oh, hey. You woke up." Cooper said.

"Yeah. I did. Finally." Kat agreed.

"They said you were like Sleeping Beauty." lila said suspiciously.

"Oh man. I even had this crazy dress." Kat shook her whole body with (only slightly) exaggerated disgust.

"Crazy dress or pretty dress? There's a difference." Lila said.

Kat thought for a second. "Well, I guess it was a pretty dress. But the number of times I tripped in it was crazy."

That earned her a giggle from Lila, and a smirk from Cooper.

Cooper gave her a testing look. "Do you play with legos?"

Kat grinned. "When I was younger, all the time. But then I got too busy."

She seemed to have passed Cooper's test, because he smiled and waved her over to the pile.  When Kat sat down, her eye caught on a particular piece, and she snatched it up. "Whaaa? What is this? I never had something that did that!"

"Oh! That's new, it's from the-" Cooper began to explain the set, while Lila took his distraction as an opportunity to steal some of the cooler parts from her big brother's hoard reserve.

The adults smiled at how quickly they had become friends. Especially when they saw Kat steal back some of the parts from Lila, and steal some of the other ones from Cooper. As that was happening, they introduced themselves to each other. Then the siblings got in an argument over the parts,  and Laura sent them outside. Kat followed them out.