The kid avengers

An Awful Evening

"Right, I think its bedtime" Phil announced after Thor's third bowl of ice cream.

"Not fair!"

"Come on! Ten more minutes? Please!"

"But I'm not tired yet!"
Came the responses of various children, the noise startled Bruce in the other room, causing another bout of crying.

"Damn" Phil sighed, looking at the two women, pleading with them but they both shook their heads. He got up and with a sigh approached the crying child in the lounge.

Pepper and Maria turned back to the children at the table. Three sets of eyes looked up at them, pleading for more time.

"Not again!" Pepper exclaimed. She didn't understand how they'd disappeared so suddenly and silently.

"Clint! Natalia! Where are you?!" she cried, exhaustion showing on both her face and in her voice.

Maria shrugged, rather unhelpfully, and turned to Thor and Tony. "You both need to go clean your hands and faces" she instructed sternly, as their protests started, she cut them off; "and if you do, you can watch TV until Pepper finds the terrible twosome"

"Okay deal!" Tony said, jumping down from the stool and running to the bathroom, so fast he slipped and fell. Thor right behind him leapt over him; "Ill race you there!" he shouted behind him.
Maria turned and smiled smugly at Pepper, a look which said 'my kids behave better than yours'.

"Come on Steve" Pepper sighed, as she started the hunt for the two former assassins in a game of 'hide and seek' she could really do without.

Two hours later and Phil was sound asleep on the sofa, Bruce using him as a climbing frame, but at least quiet.

Maria was banging on the bathroom door, Tony had somehow tripped Thor during the race, beating him to the bathroom and locking the door firmly behind him.

"Come on Tony! Open the door!" Thor was now slumped on the floor behind Maria, leaning on the opposite wall, clearly crashing from all the sugar he'd eaten.

"I already told you! I can't! Its stuck!" Tony's muffled voice came from the other side of the door.

"Urgh, great!"

"Lady Hill, I do not feel well" Thor moaned from the floor behind her. "I feel really very sick"

"TONY!" Maria screamed; "get out of that bathroom right now!"
And just at that moment, Thor was sick. Everywhere.

Steve really was a sweet kid Pepper thought, watching him check all the cupboards, under the beds and tables, and anywhere a normal child might think to hide. But they weren't looking for normal children...

"JARVIS?" Pepper suddenly thought to ask.
Nothing. Damn, she'd forgotten; Tony was updating the whole system, uploading it while he was away on his mission, some new protocol which would supposedly make their lives easier... But without adult Tony to reactivate it, JARVIS was unable to respond, effectively turned off until adult Tony could sort it out.
Pepper hadn't felt so alone in a very long time. Between the six Avengers, herself, Coulson and on occasion Jane Foster, Darcy Lewis and Maria Hill visiting; the tower had felt so full and lively. But now; six of the people she cared the most for had no memory of her, two of them were hiding (far too successfully), and to top it all off; JARVIS was down.

The elevator suddenly opened revealing a soaking wet Clint and Natasha. Pepper looked at them in disbelief as they stepped onto the landing, hand in hand, both of them had their eyes guiltily fixed on the floor by their feet, a steadily forming puddle appeared underneath them as water dripped from their clothing and hair.

"There they are!" Steve said, and then added "finally"...

"Yes, thanks for that Steve, please could you get me two towels from the bathroom?" Pepper asked, not taking her eyes off the two sodden children at the other end of the room for fear they'd bolt again.

"Erm, Tony is still locked in the bathroom" Steve answered.

"Theres an en suite in the master bedroom, thanks Steve"

Pepper approached the two children slowly, hands up, like you might approach a scared animal.
She took one in each hand and lead them gently to the sofa which wasn't currently occupied by a sleeping Coulson. Damn him she thought.
Pepper sat down, still gripping Clint and Natasha's hands.

"So" she began, hoping for some eye contact, but got none. "Please will one of you tell me what happened?"

Silence.

At this point Steve reappeared, wrapped a towel round each child and went to try and help free Tony from the bathroom down the hall.

"Clint?" she asked nicely, and then again a little firmer.

"It was accident" Natasha stammered, her voice shaking from the cold.

"Okay, I believe you. It's okay, you're not in trouble, i just need to know what happened"

"You won't hit us?" Clint asked, barely a whisper.

"No, of course not!" Pepper responded, slightly aghast. She took Clint into her arms and pulled him onto one of her legs, then pulled Natasha onto the other. Holding them tight, she looked at them, and said "You're safe here, no one will hurt you now."
Tears ran down Clint's face. "You promise" asked Natasha. "I promise" Pepper nodded, tears forming in her own eyes as she looked at the small faces of two people she admired and missed. She realised she never truly understood them. At least not until now.

"Okay, so come on, tell me, why are you guys so wet?" She asked, forcing a smile on her face to lighten the mood.

"We went downstairs, to the pool. We wanted to see who could balance better on the edge of the high up board" Clint began, still looking scared, but less so now.

"The diving board?" Pepper clarified, to which Natasha nodded, her hair dripping water all over Pepper's suit at the movement.

Clint continued: "I slipped, and fell, but I don't know how to swim. My brother was gonna teach me, but he didn't yet..."

Pepper turned her head to look at Natasha. "Can you swim?" she asked the tiny shivering girl in her lap. She nodded; "we had to learn where i came from"

"She jumped in after me, she saved my life!" Clint said.

"Okay, well I'm glad you're both okay. And how about no more swimming for a while?"
They both nodded.

"Pepper, theres something else..." Clint began, but suddenly stopped at a glare from Natasha.

"What is it?"

"Is nothing" Natasha said

"Clint?"

"Natalia hurt her wrist again when she jumped in" Clint said quickly, avoiding all eye contact with Natasha.
This exchange reminded Pepper very much of the adult Clint and Natasha.

"Let me see?" Pepper asked, concerned.

"Is okay. I do not want go back to doctor. Please don't make me go back!" Natasha pleaded desperately, she looked on the verge of tears.
Pepper looked at her wrist, the bandage SHIELD medics had put on had come off in the water, and her wrist was swollen and badly bruised. Pepper was fairly certain Coulson or Hill would have enough first aid training to prevent taking her back to SHIELD.

"Okay, we don't have to go back" Pepper said, gaining a grateful smile from both children.

"But, you do have to wake him up" she added, gesturing to the snoring Coulson opposite.

The two children smiled at each other, and without warning; pounced.