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.

"So if you were a Sleeping Beauty, then did a prince wake you up?" Lila asked.

"Well, actually, a prince did wake me up." Kat said.

"Really? Did he kiss you?" Lila asked. Right after Lila asked, Cooper mumbled 'gross' under his breath.

Kat recoiled and gave the younger girl a look that sent the child into laughter. "No! He did not kiss me! No, nope, no-thank-you!"

"What if he did?" Lila asked.

"Then I'd punch him." Kat responded.

"You're not supposed to just punch people." Cooper frowned.

Kat blinked a couple times, before squatting down to talk to them at their level. "If you don't want someone to kiss you, and they do, you punch them. Or kick them. Or both. Because kissing someone without their O-K is bad. Otherwise, unless they hit you first, yeah, punching people is bad."

"Have you ever punched someone?" Cooper asked.

"Yes, I have." Kat answered.

"Did they kiss you?" Lila grumped.

"No. They hurt someone important to me, and I had to protect them." Kat said.

"Oh." 

"Yeah. Fighting doesn't make a lot of sense when you try to give it rules, huh?" Kat said.

They both shook their heads. Lila looked at Kat. "Do you know how to fight?"

Kat tilted her head. "What kind of fight?"

"I dunno." Lila shrugged.

"Can you wrestle?" Cooper asked.

"Only if you want me to win." Kat replied.

Cooper grinned and dove, tackling her. They play wrestled for a while. Cooper was giving it his all, and Kat was doing her damnedest not to go overboard. They were mortal, after all. Lila joined in after the first minute, and Kat had to beg for mercy to get them to release her.

She stood up and bolted as soon as they had, much to the delighted outrage of the kids. "I have no idea where I'm going!" Kat yelled as she ran in some random direction. The kids gave chase.

~~~~~~

"She's great with kids." Laura smiled as she saw Kat running from Cooper and Lila.

"Yeah. Percy is too." Clint said.

"I hope they don't hurt her." Laura frowned as Cooper tackled Kat, who dramatized the fall.

"They won't." Natasha assured her. "Kat is a lot tougher than she looks."

Cooper held Kat down while Lila dove in for the kill, trying to tickle the older girl. The adults laughed as Kat tried not to thrash too wildly when Lila made her mark. Kat must've loosened Cooper's hold, because then she was tickling Lila while Cooper tried to tug her off his sister.

After the three broke apart and just lied down on the grass, exhausted, Clint stopped filming. "Who are you sending that to?" Laura asked.

"Tony. He's freaking out." Clint replied.

"Why would he be freaking out?" Laura asked, confused.

"'Cause that's his niece." Clint answered.

Laura frowned for a second. "He has a niece?"

"Nephew, too. That's Percy. Percy and Kat are... Twins. Clones. Something like that, anyway." Clint frowned, before it disappeared. 

"Clones?"

"Yeah. Kat is kind of a clone of Percy. It's weird and I don't understand it. Just, we're not supposed to mention Percy around her 'cause she'll go all insane and stuff." Clint said.

"I used to think your work was complicated. Now I know that it is." Laura said, rubbing her forehead.

~~~~~~

Tony nearly dove for his phone when he got a notification from Clint. The archer had been giving him updates on Katha. Last night he'd been told that she would wake up this morning, but he hadn't received news until this point.

He got a picture. Jarvis pulled it up on one of the larger screens. It was Kat, playing Legos with some kids. He'd expected to see something more like sitting in a bed, tucked under the covers with a sassy, indignant expression.

He got a little clip that was maybe 50 seconds long where they were talking with each other and stealing pieces without the others noticing. He laughed. Pepper came in at that moment, and came beside him. He pulled her into a one armed hug and replayed the clip.

Later, a video came in. Of course he played it.  And there was Kat, running around with the kids. Like a big sister. The couple laughed at the trio.

And maybe, Tony wondered what it would be like to be a father. If he could be a good one.

~~~~~~

The kids insisted on a pillow fort in the living room that night. Kat tried to fall asleep like the other two had done, but it just wouldn't come.

"Having difficulties?" An accented voice lilted quietly.

Kat sat up. "I can't sleep."

"Obviously." 

"Are you here to brag or help?" Kat asked.

The entire conversation was quiet, so as not to wake the littles.

"Considering I can't get any sleep with your mind whirring like that, I'd say it's in my best interest to help you." Loki said.

"What do you mean?" Kat narrowed her eyes.

Loki sighed. "I can feel the power of your thought. It's obnoxious."

"Okay. Kinda creepy. What do I do?" Kat replied.

"You learn to meditate."

"You're asking the ADHD to meditate?"

"I am."

"I thought you were smart."

"I am realizing that I underestimated your stubbornness. Just listen to what I tell you."

They kind-of got there. Kat learned how to enter her own mindscape, and that's when Loki called it quits and went to sleep anyway. Kat, however, went outside to practice in the cold hours of the early morning.

She did some 'normal' workout things to warm up, and then tried to summon a pair of haladies. it didn't work. Instead, she found two sticks and ran through the movements. Attack sequences, dodges, maneuvers, tricks, stances.

~~~~~~

Over the following days, Kat settled into her body. It was weird to go from a 6' male to a 5'6" female. Loki tried to teach her how to meditate, but it just wasn't working out. In the mornings, she helped Laura get the kids ready for school, and tidied around the house where she could.

The first day the kids went to school, the assassins dropped them off and continued into town to go clothes shopping. Clint came because of a bet he made with Natasha, and because he wanted to get a few things for himself as well. Apparently there had been a prank involving clothes, and he wanted to make sure that he had a set or two hidden where they wouldn't be compromised. Kat made note of that.

"What kind of style are you interested in?" Natasha asked her as they walked into a store.

Clint wandered off a few paces. With a troublemaker grin, he held up a tube top. "I dare one of you to wear it."

Natasha glared at him. Kat however, barely contained her maniacal grin. "How much will you give me if I do?"

Clint looked taken aback. "Wait, you actually would?"

"Depends. How much?" Kat asked.

"Ten bucks, final offer." Clint replied.

"Deal." Kat grinned, and began to look for the proper size. 

After Natasha had helped her find it, Kat took the blue sequin-fronted tube top to the changing room. Kat looked at the 'ladies' sign with apprehension. "This seems wrong." She whispered to Natasha, who lightly laughed and pushed her inside.

"What do you think?" Kat asked Natasha when she'd gotten it on.

"It's ridiculous." Natasha replied, and took a picture to show Clint for proof.

"Perfect." Kat whispered delightedly.

"Why is it perfect?" Natasha asked, worried.

"I'll explain in a minute. Let's get back to Uncle Clint, he'll wanna hear this too."

Lila and Cooper called them 'Uncle Clint' and 'Auntie Tasha'. Kat had slipped into it as well, and just shrugged when asked about it. 'Do you want me to stop?' She had asked, and received a 'no' in response. The 'no' wasn't directly said.

When Kat plopped the ridiculous tube top into the cart, Clint's jaw nearly hit the floor. "Wait, you're buying that?" 

"Okay, okay. So, you know how I'm super sassy, right?" Kat asked.

"Yeah." Clint nodded.

"Well, Loki always has a response, and he sounds really smart when he does, and it's kind of making me mad."

"What does this have to do with a tube top?" Clint asked.

"I'm getting there." Kat said, giving Clint a 'chill' gesture. "I found that Asgardian women usually dress very modestly, unless they're of a certain standing where... You can guess where that's going. Anyway, I noticed that when I would wear more revealing clothes, he was a bit off his game."

"You're going to wear questionable clothes in order to fluster a god?" Natasha asked.

"Exactly." Kat grinned maliciously.

Clint looked like he'd just won a million dollars. "Please, please, please let me be there when it happens."

"Oh yeah." Kat assured him.

"Children." Natasha commented.

"We have to film it." Clint stated.

"This is a full out prank. Where are the booty shorts?" Kat stood straighter, searching for her new objective.

~~~~~~

Clint earned his twenty bucks from the bet with Nat. She thought he'd call it quits and sit in the car to wait before they'd finished. Clint however, trekked along, excited at the prospect of pranking the god of lies.

Once they'd finished and gotten the car loaded up, Natasha passed twenty to Clint, who passed a ten to Kat in the backseat. "Yess! Ice cream!" She said, pointing ahead with the ten.

Natasha shook her head and smiled. Kat got her tub of triple fudge ice cream, and it took a lot of convincing for her to wait to eat it until they got home.

A/N

What do you think?