#autisticcrashout

Lohen blinked his eyes a few times before tilting his head ever so slightly, taking note of the bite to his neck. His eyes glimmer as he spoke out, curious of their actions.

“Oh?~ this is a sudden gesture you’re giving to me, do you always bite those you just met?~”

" Don't remind me of the piss poor economy. If ya can't hold good eye contact, you'll be mauled in other social situations. Guess it doesn't matter if you can fight your way through things. Beats being a civilian. "

He leaned his head against the dog's, running slow fingers across his ear. If asked by anyone with a voice, Kaji would deny that he'd been struggling not to cry out on the fire escape, but Lucky surely saw right through him. Animals usually did. But the dog had kept him company, a soothing presence in the lonely dark.

"You just want my pizza," Kaji chuckled against the dog's fur, smiling weakly as the dog's ear twitched. The blonde leaned back and pulled free a slice from the small box and held it out for the dog. "But you're such a good boy..."

Lucky panted heavily, unable to stop the small high pitched whine that came with the joy of being pet. He had been happy that Kaji was home but smelled his upset upon entry and therefore Kaji needed to be investigated. The golden's tongue darted out to lick at the teen's nose, a single brown friendly eye meeting grey.

Pizza? Pizza. Pizza. Pizza

Okay, maybe there was some truth about the pizza.

Lucky's ears perked immediately at the mere mention of his favorite food, his fluffy tail swishing excitedly. Even in his excitement, he delicately took the pizza from Kaji as if he was being handed some sort of holy grail. Once it had been taken, he chomped on it eagerly as the door to the apartment opened. Upon Clint's entry however, Lucky briefly considered his options and determined Kaji was sad and had pizza, so Clint was left ungreeted.

There was the barest twitch of the agent's eyes, nothing more than a squint in reaction to the fist slamming into the metal table between them. The man sighed, regarding the archer as if he was little more than a misbehaving child. "It is necessary. Captain America will not always be here, we need more like him, we need to know if we can make a serum again."

The agent tilted his head, placing his own hands onto the table, folding them over one another. "You're showing far too much attachment to him, Agent Barton. You would be better off if you treated him as simply a grain of rice in the scheme of things." Another sigh followed by a dismissive wave of a hand. "But if you want to take care of him so badly, you're more than welcome to do so, but I will not put a stop to the experiment. You can be his mentor all you want, but he's still our test subject." (SHIELD anon)

A continuation ask from here.

Barton leaned forward in his seat, intense steel blue eyes narrowing with irritation. The hawk's head tilted ever so slightly as he listened but his eyes remained locked on his target. "If anyone thinks that you've stopped trying to recreate the serum, they're naive. But returning Kaji to The Hand isn't an option. Period. Serum or not," he stated matter-of-factly.

While the squint could scarcely be called a flinch, Barton felt a small sense of satisfaction, even with the agent's pitying gaze.

"Treating that kid like some sort of pin cushion is necessary? What an insane thing to say," he scoffed, throwing his hands up again in exasperation. He then leaned back against his metal perch and shrugged. "Aww, you know what? You're right." The Avenger's mouth then pulled down into a resigned frown, brows arching as if he was truly going to take that as an acceptable answer. "Cap won't always be there, but there will always be others, adults, to pick up the slack."

"If he's just a grain of rice, you should have no problem dropping him then," he snapped, his mouth straightening into a grim line. Clint knew that arguing wasn't going to get him far, but wanted to make it clear that this wasn't going to be forgotten. Eyes closed as he pulled himself to his feet, pushing the chair back with more aggression than he intended. "Whatever, I'll be sure to keep a leash on your dog. At the very least, I'll be a good handler."

The archer made his way towards the door, his hand resting on the lever in a pause. "By the way, if you were actually capable of recreating the serum, it would have been done already. If Banner couldn't crack it, I don't think anyone in your lab has the capacity."

If Clint didn't know that the hydraulic door closer would prevent him from slamming it, he would have. As he walked down the long corridor, his mind still reeling, the spy couldn't help but feel like a caged bird. Being apart of an intelligence agency was like being in a gang, there was no such thing as quitting, not without a funeral to follow. Even long term members such as himself weren't immune to this, in fact, in some ways his veteran status made him even more of a liability.

@autisticcrashout

He was still actively bleeding from above his eye and his nose. His knuckles were a nice gory red as well. None of that even registered with him, though -- nor did his inability to stand. The way he swayed on his feet seemed to be something that only other people could notice.

Sakura hadn't had plans of sitting down anytime soon, but when he heard Kaji through a watery haze that must have come from when he'd been kicked in the ear, he figured he needed to say something; he was ready to fight back against that order before his voice softened.

He put his fists down (not that they'd been raised very high to begin with,) and helped himself to a spot on the floor so that he could stretch out and be more comfortable than he had been while standing up. Had that been because he couldn't stand up in that moment? Whatever.

"Just so you know... I'm only sittin' down here because the floor is cool to the touch. Not because you told me to."

A not so friendly anon regarding @autisticcrashout

The blonde's jaw went slack, aghast at the words that were spilling out of the agent that sat across from him. They both were sitting in an isolated interrogation room, the uncomfortable cold metal chairs and table biting any exposed skin, a design by choice. Clint wasn't on trial but he sure as hell would make the organization feel like it was. "That boy already put up with a lot of shit, but I suppose that's why you picked him up, yeah?"

Barton wasn't ignorant of what the agency was capable of and this was their track record, their pattern. Taking in the lost and waywards like some sort of cult. Maybe it was because Clint had been the one to hand Kaji over to them, or maybe it just hit too close to home. When he had joined SHIELD, he had been young, yes, but he still was an adult who made a decision.

Even with his own experiences, SHIELD's rapaciousness never failed to surprise him.

"It's one thing if you want to give the brat some Flintstone vitamins but this is beyond messed up and you know it. Why keep it on the down low if it's for a noble cause?" The irony of a spy who was discontent about secrets being kept was not missed on him.

A tightly balled fist slammed onto the table, his breath labored with rage. He was angry with his employer but he was even angrier with himself for foolishly entrusting them with Kaji. "There is a lot of fucked up shit that gets pulled around here but this one really takes the cake," he spat. "This isn't some sacrifice for the greater good, it's greed under the guise of necessity."

"Mooorrrning," Clint sung, glancing over his shoulder at the teenager before letting go of the taught string, the broad tipped arrow hitting the foam target with a sharp thunk! "Didn't mean to wake you up, sorry 'bout that." The archer lowered the weapon slowly as he turned to face Kaji fully, his other hand resting on his hip as he considered him. "Classes? Pfhh, no," he snorted before he had caught sight of the flames in Kaji's cheeks. Giving him a sympathetic smile, he jerked his head towards the target. "But I don't mind teaching you, so come give it a shot. Pun intended."