Welcome home
This is Clint's 6th foster home. He expected it to be another in and out trip. He'll be there for a few months then they realize he's too much for them to take care of and his medicine will be too expensive and they'll send him back. It's nothing new. Mrs. Potts, his social worker, was explaining details about the new home he'd be staying at.
"They had a lot of money, one of them is a doctor!" She said trying to keep Clint's attention as they drove to his new house.
"You'll have 2 dads named Steve and James and they are happily married." That's new. He's been in a family with 2 moms before but never two dads.
"They already have 3 kids." That was interesting, "What are their names?" Clint asked quietly. He still isn't used to have his new hearing aids which are actually cochlear implants, so he finds himself accidentally mumbling a lot.
"Well, you'll have an older sister. Her name is Natasha and she's 15," Wow. 14. She must know a lot. "You'll have an older brother. His name is Tony and He's 13." Clint smiled, he missed having an older brother. "And you'll have a younger brother, Bruce. He's 7." Well this would be an interesting family.
"Mrs. Potts?" Clint asked,
"Yes?"
'Do you think I'll get sent away again?" Clint was comfortable asking her this question because he did feel pretty close with his social worker.
"If I'm being honest, Clint..." She paused for a second to think, "No, I don't think you'll get sent back. I think this is where you're meant to be. You'll understand soon enough." Clint nodded not exactly believing her, even while knowing that she couldn't see him. He's willing to give anyone who even remotely considers fostering him a chance, He's pretty old to be in foster care so his chances of being adopted are getting slimmer and slimmer each day, plus with all his disorders and conditions he's very lucky to even be considered.
"alright, we're here." Mrs. Potts announced while putting the car in park. The house was huge. The paneling was a light blue with white trim, and there was a large wooden deck covered in toys and chalk and jump ropes and hula-hoops. We made our way up the steps and Mrs. Potts knocked on the door. Clint could feel the rumble of multiple sets of footsteps running to the door. when it opened he was greeted with 5 smiling faces.
"Hi! You must be Clinton! I'm Steve, this is James, he goes by Bucky, and we'll introduce you to everyone in a moment. Come on inside," He had swishy blonde hair and Bucky had long dark brown hair pulled up into a man bun. Bucky was holding the youngest kid who seemed to be half asleep on his shoulder. All the kids turned and scrambled and Steve put his hand on Clint's back and his body went slightly tense, the familiar feeling of his skin crawling and his stomach going cold sank into Clint as he swatted the hand away.
"I wouldn't do that sir, He has a thing about being touched." Mrs. Potts said and Steve smiled down apologetically,
"My bad, kiddo. It won't happen again." He put his hands up in a defensive position and Clint giggled, the bad feelings washing out of him just as quickly as they came. "Do you have a bag?" Steve asked, Clit shook his head no, earning a small frown from both Steve and Bucky.
They all sat down in the dining room area, the house was so big Clint was afraid he's get lost. Bucky dismissed the other kids saying they needed to have a quick talk, then they could all come meet their new brother.
"So, I'm sure you all know Clint has a few disabilities." Steve frowned at Mrs. Potts' words
"I wouldn't say disability, I'd just say different ability." Clint liked that, it made him feel more normal.
"Well, here's a list of everything including his medications. Insurance convers most of it but it can still get a little pricy." Mrs. Potts took out a piece of paper, "Let's see, I'm Mrs. Potts but you can call me Pepper, Clinton Francis Barton was born on August 5th, he has Epilepsy, he mainly only suffers from absence seizures. He takes a medication called Depakote for it. He is deaf, but he has cochlear implants so unless something is wrong with the devices themselves that shouldn't be a problem. He does mumble sometimes, just ask him to speak up. His implants have receivers connected to his head via magnet and if you pull them off too quickly it will cause a fair amount of pain but he does it sometimes when he gets overwhelmed. He does have Tourette's syndrome but it seemed to fade more as he got older and the medication he's on does really help, he's down to only muscular tics now but they're very rare. The medication he takes for Tourette's is called Concerta. He also has been recently diagnosed with OCD, he has his routines and it's best to let them be. He takes Anafranil for that. Finally, he has Asperger's syndrome. We haven't been able to find a medication to work with him on that so we found it's best to let his Asperger's do it's thing. You'll know when he's having his bad days because he won't wear his implants. He says that it makes everything too much. He also doesn't like when things get too quiet, so he'll tap his fingers on the table, we were gonna get him checked for anxiety but never got around to it. I have a printed out schedule that has all the times he takes his medications and his medication are in his book bag. He takes Depakote, which is the one for epilepsy, twice a day, that one isn't printed on the sheet. He's already taken it once today so he'll need to take it again after dinner tonight. If he doesn't take his medicine nothing bad really happens other than whatever the medication was for will progressively get worse, the Tourette's syndrome is most effected by that. He also has a food allergy to coconut but it's not severe, it'll only give him a stomach ache. But I think we covered everything, any questions?" Clint couldn't look them in the eyes. He was so afraid he's find that look of Pity or of regret that they'd chosen him. "I'm sorry if it seems like too much." Mrs. Potts' concluded with.
"Too much? Nothing is too much for us. Our oldest, Natasha, she goes by Tasha or Nat, she has OCD as well. She has routine's and once we interrupted one of them and she had quite the nasty breakdown. She's an immigrant from Russia. We had to teach her English when she was 9. Our son, Tony, has ADHD and really bad social anxiety. We know how to keep him calm. He also has a pacemaker so he can't walk through metal detectors and he has to go quickly through automatic doors so that the signals don't mess with it. Our youngest, Bruce, he's autistic. He doesn't speak to anyone even though he knows how. I'm pretty sure we'd know how to deal with a breakdown or two. They all take medications. Now that that's out of the way, what are his talents or his quirks?" Steve said very calmly, Mrs. Potts was taken aback for a second but then smiled.
"He's quite good at drawing, and he plays the piano. His favorite color is purple and he knows American Sign Language. He is 12 years old and when he starts warming up to you he is very talkative. He also is amazing in archery. He was on an Archery Club Team called the Hawkeyes, and went to state twice. He was runner up both times." Clint loved taking about archery, he hadn't been able to participate much recently with all the moving around from family to family but he was hoping to make the team again.
"Well how about I stay here and talk to Mrs. Potts some more and Bucky can go show you to your new room." Steve smiled, Clint guessed that Bucky was more of an observer than a socializer. Bucky gave a small smile down to Clint as they headed out of the dining room.
When they arrived at Clint's new room he was awestruck. It was huge. He had his own bed in the left corner and a desk and chair in the right corner. He even had a desktop on the desk and on the back of the chair was a bookbag, it was dark grey. There were two doors along the righthand wall, he'd have to explore them later. There was even a wrapped package sitting on his bed
"You might be a little old for it but we've gotten one for all of our kids on their first day here. You can open it now or you can open it later." That was the first time he had heard Bucky speak, Clint nodded
"I think I'll open it later" That was the first time Clint had spoken since he'd gotten here.
"I'll leave you to look around and send up the other kids in a bit." Bucky turned and headed back down the hall.
He walked over to the two mystery doors opening the farthest one first, it seemed to be a closet. It was pretty big but not big enough to be a walk-in. He saw their were some clothes hanging up already, they seemed slightly worn so he guessed they were Tony's old ones. The second door was a small bathroom, the walls were painted with wavy lines and the shower curtain was filled with colorful polka dots. There was another door on the other side of the bathroom but Clint guessed it went to someone else's room so he'd leave that one unopened. Two pairs of racing footsteps could be heard coming towards his new room. To kids burst in his room smiling and giggling and out of breath.
"Hi! I'm tony!" The boy said, He had black hair and brown eyes. "I'm 13 years old, and I'm your new room-neighbor." Tony seemed very up beat and hyper.
"What's a room neighbor?"
"It means I'm the room next to yours, I thought it was pretty self explanatory since it was right there in the name but oh well, anyways welcome to the family!" Tony went in for a hug but Clint backed up,
"Sorry, I don't liked being touched." Tony laughed, for a second that hurt Clint. Sure, he'd been laughed at before but he set his hopes high for this all American family but the hurt feeling disappeared when Tony smiled at him in a way that Clint hadn't seen in a while.
"I get that, sometimes Brucie doesn't like to be touched either." Tony said with a sympathetic look.
"Hi, I'm Natasha. You can call me Tasha. I heard most of the conversation Papa and Dad had with the lady and I just wanted you to know that you can always come to me. I'm the door right across the hall, Bruicie is next to me on the left and Papa and dad are on the left of Brucie." The girl said, she hair wavy red hair and a Russian accent, her eyes were soft and understanding, her smile was loving and Clint knew he was gonna get along great with her. She didn't force a response out of him so she kept talking, Clint liked her accent it was easy on his ears, or maybe that was just her voice.
"So I heard you had Asperger's. Bruce has autism too. He has signs so we know when he's feeling upset. He likes to hum really loudly and cover his ears. Sometimes when it's really bad he likes to rock back and forth. If we don't do something about it then it can get pretty bad, he hits his legs sometimes and leaves bruises. And when something triggers my OCD I pace back and forth but Papa and Dad know how to calm us down. Papa will hold my face and Dad will hum music and Papa will help get my mind off of what upset me. Do you have any signs we could look out for?" Clint was kind of speechless, he wasn't used to people accepting his disabilities like this, he was more used to people expecting him to suppress everything.
"Umm.. well sometimes when I don't feel good and things are too much around me I will take out my hearing aids or I'll wring my hands. Sometimes if it gets bad then I bite my hands and it draws blood but bandaids help when that happens and it doesn't happen often. When something triggers my OCD I shut myself down and don't talk to anyone. I don't know my routines yet since it's my first day in a new place but I'll probably have them figured out and in place by tomorrow morning. Also, sometimes before I have seizures I repeat myself a lot which we'll have to look out for today because I didn't take my medicine this morning. My seizures aren't scary, I just stare forward and if you bump me a few times then I should wake up. That's really it I think." Natasha nodded and said something about school work and waved bye and headed out Tony said he was gonna get a snack even if dinner was almost done. Clint decided he'd make his way back down to Bucky and Steve. Making his way down wasn't all that hard. He did have to go down a set of stairs through a library/study room and through a living room before he made it back to the dining room. He heard voices talking but none of them were female so he guessed that Mrs. Potts had left already. He put his ear up to the door.
"-But 3 medications isn't that many we can keep track of that, Plus she told me warning signs for everything, let me pull the paper out." It was Steve's voice he was obviously talk to Bucky.
"Ok, for Tourette's syndrome he tries to suppress his tics but that just makes the worse, his legs starts bouncing when he's holding them back and he'll normally asked to be excused. His tics are clearing his throat, snapping his fingers, and shaking his head. but they're subject to change at literally any second. Oh, and you heard about the repeating thing? She said there's o way to stop a seizure but just make sure he doesn't have anything in his mouth, and sometimes he holds his breath." He listened to Steve and Bucky talk some more about when they'll enroll him in school and when they hope he'll be settled by and when they'll go shopping with him for new clothes. They finished talking and Steve walked over to the kitchen door where he called 'Dinner's Ready' to everyone in the house. It was only frozen Pizza, they wanted to go easy on Clint for his first day.
"So Clint, how's everyone treating ya?" Steve joked.
"Umm.. pretty good." It was short, sweet, and right to the point.
"Do you like your new room?"
"Oh of course I do! It's the biggest one I've ever had! You guys are seriously rich!" Steve and Bucky smiled and let out a laugh. Clint hate 3 slices of pizza when he felt his toes start to tingle some. By this time Bucky was doing some dishes and Steve was giving Bruce a bath.
"So what's your favorite TV show?" Tony asked him.
"I like watching The big bang theory, My brother used to watch it and it's really funny." Natasha jumped into the conversation saying something about Disney channel when Clint's mouth felt dry and sticky
"I like watching the big bang theory." Well shit, it's happening again. Clint new that within a few minutes he'd be out of it and completely unable to respond to his surroundings for up to 30 seconds. Natasha gave him an unsure smile.
"The big bang theory." Clint eyes started blinking really fast "Theory" "The big bang theory" He felt himself repeating the same sentence over and over, he forget to tell them that he can feel and hear everything during a seizure.
"Papa, something's wrong with Clint." Natasha yelled into the kitchen. Bucky came in at almost a run, laid eyes on Clint and yelled, "Steve, get down here." Steve must've just put Bruce to bed because he was down in the dining room within the next few seconds. He could feel his body slow down as he stared at nothing. The clock started in his mind,
1 second
"Hey bud, It's me, It's Steve, it's gonna be alright." Steve was holding his face rubbing his thumb up and down on his cheek.
5 seconds
"Come on, come back to us kiddo" Bucky was ruffling his hair from behind. He could feel his own heartbeat in his throat. So many hands were on him. So many things to focus on. So much to take in.
15 seconds
Tony put his hand on Clint's shoulder. He knew they were all trying to be helpful but this was the last thing he wanted.
26 seconds
He felt a had pat his arm and with a jolt he woke up, he stood up so fast falling forward to get away from all of the hands, knocking over a chair and spilling his plate on the floor.
"Bud, calm down. It's ok." Steve grabbed him trying to steady the flailing child. Clint twisted away from Steve's hands elbowing him in the forearm, not hard but Steve must've got the message. The hands instantly went away. The sound of falling silverware hitting the ground made Clint's hands shoot up to his ears, knowing that it wouldn't help, he let out a soft strangled cry. His knees shot up to his chest and his nails dug into his temples. He heard Bucky send away Tony and Natasha but he didn't process it. His eyes were squeezed shut but he still saw against his eyelids when they dimmed slightly, He heard a soft soothing voice above his head, this time it wasn't Steve it was Bucky.
"It's alright, Clint. Take your nails away from your head. Come on, oh there we go, That's it, good boy ." he moved his hands from on his ears and looked up at Bucky.
"There are those baby blues. Hey Clint welcome back," Bucky said softly, "We're gonna take you to your room, you must be tired. You've had one heck of a first day." He laughed on the inside but Clint remained the same on the outside. "Just let us know when we can pick you up, there's no rush." They all sat together for about 10 more minutes when Steve got him his medicine, And bucky carried him bridal style up to his room, laying him on his bed and kissing his forehead gently.
"Goodnight champ" He whispered and shut off the lights