Chapter Text
Phil and Clint were one of the first couples to marry after New York legalized same-sex unions. It was just a small courthouse ceremony with a couple of their close friends as witnesses. But they didn’t need anything bigger. It just wasn’t them, and getting married didn’t change anything about their relationship. They had already been together for years, living together for most of that time.
And now they were standing here at an adoption agency event, preparing to start a family. They had already been approved and were here today to meet some of the children at one of the local group homes. All the children and prospective parents were milling about on the lawn. Well, most of them. Phil had been about to join the crowd when Clint had elbowed him gently and directed his attention to the older kids on the outskirts of the group saying, “people don’t usually want to adopt the older kids.”
Phil looked at his husband and recognized that this was important to Clint. He knew that Clint was remembering his own childhood, spent being shunted from group home to foster care to group home.
“Okay, let’s talk to the older kids then,” Phil replied.
A small smile graced Clint’s features, and he began to lead the way towards the far side of the lawn.
Some of the oldest kids, who looked to be in their teens, seemed to be chatting away pretty happily and playing some kind of card game. But Phil saw a young girl sitting alone in a shadowy corner. She looked like she was maybe ten or eleven, and her dress was wrinkled and dirty from where she had been sitting on the ground. As they approached, she looked up, and Phil could see the tell-tale signs of tears even from a relative distance. She looked angry and hurt.
“Hello, my name is Phil. What’s yours?” Phil asked, sitting down near the girl.
“Marion,” she said, somehow both shyly and angrily.
“It’s nice to meet you, Marion. That’s a lovely name. Just like Robin Hood’s friend, Maid Marian.”
Marion glared angrily.
“You don’t like your name?”
“Everybody always says I’m like Maid Marian, but I want to be Robin Hood,” she responded firmly.
“I wanted to be Robin Hood when I was your age too,” Clint said, speaking to Marion for the first time. “He was my favorite hero, so I learned how to use a bow and arrow.”
“Wow. That’s so cool. Could you teach me?”
“Sure, kid. I can try and make that happen.”
Marion got up then and ran off, disappearing into the building. But she reappeared a minute later holding a toy bow and arrow, smile on her face.
“Hello, Robin. I guess you want to get started on those archery lessons now,” Clint said with a smile.
She nodded enthusiastically in reply and attempted to shoot. But the bow and arrow both were poorly crafted, and she was in too much of a rush, so the arrow flopped to the ground mere feet away.
Clint picked it up and moved to stand beside Marion. “Let’s try again. Slower this time.”
He showed her how to nock the arrow properly and guided her arm as she drew. The arrow still didn’t fly far or in a straight line, but it made it about fifteen feet, and Marion clapped and cheered, rushing to get the arrow so she could try again.
Phil sat contentedly nearby, watching his husband play with the young girl until they had to go. And when they were forced to leave, Clint and Marion parted with a hug and a promise--on Clint’s part--to return soon.