Ruby Barton

shieldshawk

(clintsdottir) "...I um. I did a bad thing. I think. Probably."

"…Kiddo, com’re. What happened?" Clint frowned, grabbing the first aid kit, and a bucket of water. "Please tell me that’s not your blood."

idonotneedthisrightnow-deactiva

Ruby went over and sat down, still staring at her hands. "There is no good answer to that," she said, frowning. "Most of it? I think I'm going to be in trouble for this. Can we move."

#shieldshawk

myheadisloud

you are acute coffee pie

bonerfart

you are narrow, scalding and irrational

#ohmygod #skylar #i'm using this on skylar #Skylarlukecoulson

Someone's been living in my Gym!

"They did what they thought they had to do!" Skylar glared back across the table at her. "Hey, I skipped outta my time and dimension to come live here because I thought it was what I had to do that was best for me, are you gonna smack me too? And as for Uncle Tony, you’ve already made it clear we’re from two very different timelines, dimensions, whatever. Your Uncle Tony isn’t the same as mine. Yeah, he probably had a rocky start with me, but he’s the best Uncle I could have ever asked for. He raised me and loves me just as much as if I were his own. So don’t go saying he’s not the kind you leave a baby with."

Ruby grinned at that. "Then what're you upset about the nightmare part of your history for? You got time with them, but you got time when you didn't have to feel that loss, either. Even if your dad's being a weenie and running off - you got stability out of that." she said with a flippant wave of her hand.

#Skylarlukecoulson

Someone's been living in my Gym!

"What?" Skylar’s face scrunched up in confusion and defense. "No, hey, you leave my dad alone. He did what he thought was best for himself and for me at the time. Hawk’s the one that completely booked it and took off to God knows where! And I don’t hate him for that anymore than I hate my dad for trying to look out for himself and for me."

He could feel his blood boil just a bit. “I don’t blame him for not trusting himself enough to take care of the toddler me when he got back from being MIA. He’s still trying to recover from the nightmares and panic and anxiety attacks, both in this time and the time I’m from. And I had the best damn childhood I could have ever wanted being raised by Tony and Clint. And Dad and Pops would come to see me whenever they could, I’d get to come spend time with them here growing up, but Dad’s still trying to recover. He still has days where something’ll trigger and we’ll find him curled up in the bathroom on the floor of the shower shaking and crying. So, no. You are not going to slap him. Got it?”

#skylarlukecoulson #she has no idea #none #she's #feeling protective.

"It's. Crap," Ruby said again, looking him in the eye. "You think my dad and mom don't have PTSD problems? And I swear to god, if I come across this Hawk guy, I WILL slap him, because what the actual crap, Sky. I love Uncle Tony as much as anyone, but he's not the kind of guy you leave with a baby."

Someone's been living in my Gym!

"That’s kinda how it is. I have these memories that now just feel like they’d been a really horrible nightmare. Being raised by my birth parents until I was nine and then they went off somewhere together and their plane went down and I spent the rest of my growing up years raised by my Uncles Tony and Clint," Skylar explained, voice soft and face scrunched in thought.

Looking up, his smile grew a little, though still held a hint of sadness behind it. “When I was fifteen I tried to create a way to travel back in time so I could stop them before they got on the plane…only I over shot by a few years and wound up getting stuck back in time. With my parents, and me as a baby. I mean, it worked, I was able to finally tell them about the plane and everything…but….then things went wrong other ways. Dad went missing for awhile and Hawk…I guess kind of lost it. He couldn’t handle it. So he left baby me and me-me,” He motioned to himself to indicate he meant the teenaged him, “With Tony and Clint and split. Went off the grid and no one’s been able to find him since.”

Skylar frowned, looking back down at his hands. “So instead of getting nine years with both of them, I only got a few months. And the only memories I think I still have of Hawk are of the bit of time I spent with him when I was fifteen…but I still feel like I remember more from those nine original years…but nothing solid. Like faded dreams and stuff. ….Dad came home, found out Hawk had left and abandoned us, so he decided to split too. Left baby me to be raised by Tony and Clint, took fifteen year old me with him. We came here. So…my head is really just this kind of mixed up mesh of all these different memories melding and trying to make sense of each other. And all because I actually was able to get the time devise to work and came back in time.”

Ruby looked somewhat horrified. "Okay. I'm going to slap your father the next time I see him - because that's crap," she told him point blank. "He's a grown man, he can handle it."

Someone's been living in my Gym!

"Yeah?" she asked, curious. "How come?"

"It’s kind of like…ya know how you can have a really bad nightmare and years later still be able to tell people what it had been about and still see parts of it in your mind?" He asked, fiddling with the straw to his drink.

"Yeah, I do. Got some of those that I wish were just nightmares, too." She watched him curiously.

Someone's been living in my Gym!

"Yeah, kinda," He shrugged. "But, without it I wouldn’t be here right now. And actually, a lot of lives would be a whole lot different if I hadn’t accidentally done it."

"Yeah?" she asked, curious. "How come?"

Someone's been living in my Gym!

Laughing, Skylar shook his head with a smile, picking up the crumbs that had fallen from the muffin. “I would try it, but I don’t see him all that often anymore. Living here now and everything. Plus, he’s sorta off doing his own thing lately. But,” Looking up to meet her gaze, he shrugged one shoulder up. “If I happen across him again, I’ll see what I can do.”

"Aww. Yeah That whole time travel thing makes for suck," Ruby commented, finishing up her food and smiling.

Someone's been living in my Gym!

Skylar blinked, his jaw slightly slacked. “How did I never think to try that before?”

"Oh my god, it's AWESOME. You gotta sneak up and see how many you get on him before he notices, I got his WHOLE BICEP covered once, it was amazing!" Ruby grinned delightedly. "It was Dad's idea," she added off handed.

Someone's been living in my Gym!

"Heh, yeah. Pretty sure if your parents are supers, you better not expect to have a normal childhood. Heck, I spent most of mine chasing robots through the Tower and creating my own." He took another bite of his muffin and shrugged. "Ya know, in between trying to outwit my tutors, getting trained by Aunt Natasha, Uncle Steve, and Uncle Bucky."

Ruby grinned. "Uncle Bucky's training is the BEST. He's just as sneaky as Mom, but sneaking magnets onto his arm is so fun."

Someone's been living in my Gym!

Laughing softly, Skylar nodded. “Got me there. Alright, well…” Pressing his lips together much in the same way his father would when thinking something through carefully, he shrugged. “Time travel. Only way to explain it. I’m from seventeen years in the future. I was actually raised by my Uncles Tony and Clint in a parallel dimension. When I was fifteen Uncle Tony helped me create a way to travel through time —only he figured it’d never work and it did and I got stuck in the past for a few months before getting to go home. I waited a couple of years and came back just a couple months ago to live with my dad and go to college here.” He shrugged, taking a quick swig from his drink. “That’s the less complicated version of the story.”

"See? That wasn't so bad. LEssee. Mom's the Widow, Dad's Hawkeye - we live in an apartment at the Mansion with everyone else - blah blah - sometimes we live in the apartment NOT at the mansion, etcetera, etcetera," she giggled around it and shrugged. "I'm a gymnist and can hold my own, same as you. Kinda a requirement for super-parents, huh?"

shieldshawk

(clintsdottir) "Daddy!" Ruby cried out as she was suddenly shoved against a low garden wall and flipped over it to safety. Her mother suddenly disappeared and she popped around the side to try and drag Clint to safety. "Daddy, don't you... Dammit, Daddy," she said, tears streaking her cheeks as she bunched up the cloth from her long skirt and pushed it against the wound to try and stop the bleeding. She hadn't seen her mom since the first shots went off. "Daddy, if you die I'ma kill you."

"Sweetheart, I’m not gonna die." Clint muttered, crabwalking backward with his daughter’s hands hauling him when he stumbled. "You remember how to hold a gun, and to aim?" He asked, pulling out his own piece with hands that managed to not shake. "I want you to promise me something, alright, sweetie?"

"Not gonna promise anything until I know what it is," she replied, "But yeah, I remember."

#shieldshawk

Someone's been living in my Gym!

Skylar chuckled softly as he watched her dig into the waffles. “Uh, well…It’s gonna sound really pretty crazy if I do tell you more.” He glanced around the small cafe’, taking in where people were sitting and just how close the nearest pair of ears were that might pick up on their conversation.

She gave him The Look. "Skylar - think for a second about how the futz I'm here, and try again," she teased.

#Skylarlukecoulson

Someone's been living in my Gym!

"Oh!" Skylar shook his head, sitting down with a slight shrug to his shoulders. "It’s not. I’m just sayin’, mine is probably the most complicated in the world. It’s pretty amazing I grew up as well adjusted as I am."

"Tell me more?" she asked as she accepted her waffles and cut into them, eating both delicately and voraciously.

Someone's been living in my Gym!

A quirky little smirk crossed Skylar’s face as he reached to pick up his own cup of coffee and his muffin, stepping aside for Ruby to grab her stuff. “Oh, if we’re gonna share complicated upbringing stories, pretty sure mine would win.” He nodded off towards a table and chairs by the window, lots of sunlight streaming in on the table.

"I wasn't aware it was a competition," she teased, following him to the table, glancing around briefly before sitting down, letting him have what her uncle Mal called the 'John Wayne Seat' - the one with the best sight lines.

Someone's been living in my Gym!

"Welcome." He answered, ordering his own things before stepping off to the side to let others through. He stuffed his hands back into his pockets, looking around the place quietly, taking after his father far too much by scouting out exits.

"So…what’s it like growing up with your dad married to Natasha and not a version of my dad?"

"Huh?" She grinned and shook her head. "No, mom and daddy aren't married. - but they did raise me together." She patted his arm. "It's complicated."