Alexis tossed him a grin and held out her hand for the plate. "Hand it over, I'm almost done with the rest of them," she said.

"Need an extra pair of hands?" Clint asked, grinning. "I'm not half-bad with a drying towel."

"Sure, go for it." Alexis nodded to the towels. "I figure we've got at least a few more minutes before they decide on anything."

"On it," Clint said, grabbing the drying towel and setting to work. Hey, it was easy work, and it meant he got to stay close. Not that he needed to, he just wanted to, and-- Shit. Okay. Maybe Nat was right. Not that he would admit that quite yet.

Alexis worked quietly for a minute before she glanced at him.

"Things are going to get ugly again soon," she said quietly. "I know you know that. But you've got the backing of a whole team, no one would blame you if you decided to take a step back from this."

Clint was quiet for a moment.

"HYDRA screwed us all over," he said. "I'm not going to let them get away with that. Much as I hate to admit it, I owe a lot to SHIELD, so I'm not going to back out now. HYDRA made it personal." He glanced at her, squashing down the thought that bubbled up that they had made it personal when they attacked her, rather than when they went after SHIELD itself.

Alexis nodded. "Yeah, I get it," she said quietly. "Just wanted to offer you an out in case you wanted it." She smiled a little. "Kind of glad you didn't take it, though." And she was glad, moreso than she thought was normal, but she was ignoring that for now.

"I wouldn't back out like that," Clint said. "Way too much at stake, here, and HYDRA needs to get its ass kicked."

"Damn straight." Alexis grinned briefly at that, relaxing a bit. "We'll figure everything out, it'll be fine. We'll manage."

"Yup," Clint said. He didn't doubt it. That was just how SHIELD agents worked: if it could be handled, it would be.

Alexis finished up the dishes and waited for him to finish drying, leaning back against the counter next to him. She was in no rush to go rejoin the others. She rather liked having a bit of time with him, actually.

Clint stretched a bit and absently threw some trash into the can from across the kitchen, only watching to make sure the trajectory was right before looking away again. It went in perfectly, not even touching the sides. He wasn't showing off. Really. Only a little.

Alexis's lips twitched but she didn't say anything about it.

"You want to watch whatever movie they're working on picking?"

Clint shrugged a bit.

"We can, if you want," he said. "Guess it depends on what they finally agreed on."

"Not in much of a movie mood anymore," Alexis said with a shrug. "I was thinking of finding somewhere else to go for a little while. Up on the roof or something." She grinned suddenly. "Or I could go rearrange your pillow nest, one of the two."

"You leave it alone," Clint said, though he was grinning a bit. "Make your own."

"No, that's too much work. I'll just rearrange yours to make it more comfortable," Alexis said with a grin. Although now that she thought about it, she wouldn't mind taking a nap in the pillow nest.

"Oh no, it was not designed for more than one person," Clint said, shaking his head. He was still grinning a bit, though. "Go make your own. I'll even buy you the first pillow."

"Oh please," Alexis said with a snort. "For one thing, plenty of things have been designed for one person that can fit two, and for another, there aren't any other good spots in the tower."

"There are plenty of spots," Clint said. "Mine isn't the only one." But it was the best, he wasn't going to deny that.

"Nope, too bad, I'm going to steal it." Alexis grinned and headed for the elevator. Because now it was kind of a game, and she didn't feel like sprawling and watching a movie anymore.

"Oh no you don't," Clint said, following her. He wasn't making that much of an effort to catch her, though.

Alexis caught the first elevator and grinned as she headed up to the correct floor, and then scrambled for the pillow nest.

Clint caught the next elevator, grinning, and followed her. By the time he got up there, she was already burrowing into his pillow nest, and he went over to see about digging her out. He grinned as he started moving pillows aside.

Alexis had gotten herself well and truly buried in the pillow nest, although she did try to smother a grin when he tried excavating her.

"Nope, too bad, mine now," she said, grabbing the nearest pillows and curling around them.