The kid avengers

The Beach

Summer grew closer and before the schools broke up; Pepper, Phil and Maria decided to take the kids to the beach. Between them, Steve and Pepper had taught Clint to swim and Tony was desperate to try out surfing. Natasha; being Russian, and Thor; being from Asgard had never been to a beach before. So one sunny Tuesday morning they loaded up the cars and off they went. It was a long drive and Clint and Tony started asking 'are we there yet' way too early in the journey. After stopping twice because Tony felt sick, and once for Clint to go to the toilet, they finally arrived.

Thor bolted from the car; running straight into the water without even getting changed first. Maria just sighed, it was too late to do anything now; his clothes were already soaked. Pepper grabbed Natasha and Clint before they followed, removing their clothes until they were left in their bathing suits and coated them both in sun tan lotion before they too ran off.
Bruce was asleep, Phil positioned his stroller in the shade while Tony begged for an ice cream.

The three adults enjoyed some time alone with their books and newspapers; while Steve, Tony and Thor took a surfing lesson. Clint and Natasha happily spent the whole morning carefully creating the biggest sand-castle fort Pepper had ever seen. Bruce spent most of the day stood by the waters edge, laughing hysterically everytime the water lapped at his feet.

Maria got some great photos; Bruce smiling manically by the sea, Natasha and Clint covered in sand by their fort, Steve and Thor on the surf board with Tony in the water; his surf board somewhat in the distance.

The eight of them spent most of the afternoon burying Phil in the sand, Bruce carefully wiping any stray sand from his face while the others piled sand on him. Clint brought buckets of water up from the sea; wetting the sand to make ensure it stuck.
When Pepper suggested ice cream all the kids lost interest in freeing Phil and ran after her; leaving Phil struggling under a mound of sand.

When the day reached an end the kids were reluctant to leave. They'd all fallen in love with the beach. Pepper had to promise profusely to Clint that they'd come back again before he would get in the car, and Bruce tried to run away from Steve when he'd tried to put him in his car seat.

"Phil, you can't get in my car like that!" Maria said as she turned to him.

He was still covered in sand. "Come on Hill! What do you expect me to do? Ill sit on a towel!"

"No, the sand will get everywhere! The kids are all clean; so go wash off in the sea!"

"But its freezing! And then ill be wet anyway!" She shook her head, he turned to Pepper for support but her car was already full; she just shrugged at him.

A few minutes later Phil re joined the others, dripping wet and shivering. Maria threw a towel out the window at him. He scowled at her but smiled when he heard Tony and Thor giggling from the back seat, Bruce already asleep in-between them. He settled back into his seat as Maria followed Pepper back to the tower, and saw Natasha waving at them from the back sear of Peppers car.

All the kids, apart from Steve, were flat out by the time they got home and it took more than a few journeys to get them all up to the 63rd floor where they'd been staying.

Once the five sleeping children were in bed Phil excused himself for a shower, still shivering from the cold sea water. He left a pile of sand in the bottom of the shower (which Clint and Natasha would find and use to have an impromptu sand fight the next morning) but felt much better.

"So what tomorrow?" He asked, rejoining the two women and Steve in the kitchen.

"I have no clue! I'm running out of ideas!"