The kid avengers

Poor Pepper

It took a lot of bargaining on Pepper's part to coerce six children into spending the day food shopping and running errands. She'd promised Tony he could disassemble her laptop once they'd finished, and she'd agreed to let Clint stay up after bedtime to watch some bird documentary he desperately wanted to see.

First of all they went to the pharmacy to get some Tylenol for Bruce; he was burning up and was incredibly fussy. Thankfully, he dosed off once he'd been given another dose.

Next they went to replace Steve's broken crutch; to much amusement of the hospital staff as the stories of how exactly it'd broken in the first place got more and more elaborate each time one of the kids recounted it.

After discovering Natasha's jacket was in fact not at the cinema; they went to the theater, indoor play center, the library and the museum before giving up and going to the department store to buy a new one.

Pepper couldn't wait to finally get home; put a film on and allow the kids to occupy themselves for an hour or so and give herself a bit of time to go through the hundreds of emails she needed to respond to. With one last errand to run she hoped she was home-free.
Steve was tired of struggling with his crutches so sat on the bench near the entrance of the store and pulled out his latest book to read.

Bruce had become unsettled again and was whining; Pepper could feel a headache steadily growing.
Clint had climbed in the front of the shopping cart; taking up half the room for the food in the process, but it kept him quiet so Pepper allowed it. Natasha skipped happily alongside him, wearing her new jacket.
This left Tony and Thor trailing behind; talking enthusiastically about the basketball game they'd seen the day before.

Pepper's aim had been to get in and out as quickly as possible, but that proved much harder than initially thought.
Thor tried to sneak several extra boxes of pop tarts in the cart while Pepper had been distracted telling Natasha that she didn't need any more paints, and Tony gradually slipped more and more tools into the cart.
Bruce grabbed at anything and everything within reach; successfully knocking over several displays as they progressed round the store.

Pepper was on the receiving end of more than a few sympathetic looks from parents and staff alike, as well as a couple of disapproving ones.

They'd gotten about halfway round the store and Bruce was in floods of tears; obviously feeling ill and fed up, Clint was asking question after question about things Pepper had no clue how to answer (the topics included British monarchs, space, ancient Egypt and the ice age). In the moments she'd taken her eyes off him; Thor had picked up a soccer ball and lost control of it; chasing after it he ran straight into a member of staff sending her flying before the soccer ball took out one of the shelves; sending bottles of pop rolling in every direction.

Pepper could nothing but stare in disbelief at the chaos unfolding before her. Her mouth open and eyes wide as she took in the scene before her; the one good thing was that the disruption had quietened Bruce and Clint for the moment.
She turned hoping to head quickly to the check-out with the few groceries she had managed to get when she realised she was two children down. 'When will I ever learn?'

Natasha normally didn't go anywhere without Pepper or Clint, and her absence concerned Pepper; mainly because she suspected Tony would be a worse influence than Clint ever was!
She spun the cart, grabbing Thor on her way, who had apologised over and over to the poor woman he'd ran into. If she knew Tony and Natasha she knew one thing was certain; they'd be getting into trouble in no time.

Ten minutes later and Pepper had given up with her shopping; they could live on take outs for the next six months as far as she was concerned, this was so not worth it!
A sniveling Bruce was in her arms and she'd sent Thor and Clint to wait with Steve as she frantically searched the store. Tony was mischievous and Natasha was sneaky; a deadly combination, especially after all the destruction her group had already caused today.

"Erm Ms? You look like you've lost something?" A young girl, only perhaps 16, was stood looking at Pepper.

"Yeah, two kids. A skinny, dark haired boy and a little girl; curly red hair, bright green eyes. Probably both wearing mischievous grins, you seen them?"

"Yeah, they're cute kids! They yours? There were by the baking stuff when I saw them"

"Thanks! Which way?"

Pepper followed the direction the girl had pointed in and soon heard the familiar laughter of Tony and Natasha.
She saw the store manager headed the same direction. Damnit. What could possibly be worse than what Thor had done?!
Hurriedly she rounder the corner to see the two familiar figures, along with as several other children, stood in the middle of a cloud of flour. Broken packets littered the ground; the kids covered in white power. Who knew that Tony and Natasha together were almost as bad as Natasha and Clint?! She'd have to remember that for the future!

Pepper gestured at them manically and they ran towards her before the manager arrived. They heard the manager yelling at the other kids as they made their escape. Getting yelled at by an angry store manager was so not what Pepper needed today.

During the drive home Pepper decided two things:
1) None of them could ever return to that store, ever again!
2) Tomorrow Maria and Phil could have the kids, it was her turn to have a day off!

Once home she allowed the other kids to disperse before tackling the issue at hand; an hour later and Tony and Natasha were finally flour free, mostly, and had both insisted to Pepper that they'd merely stumbled upon the other kids having a flour fight and gotten caught up in the middle when they'd tried to pass. How much of this Pepper believed she wasn't sure, but Phil and Maria were due back any minute now and she decided to let it slide. Just this once...

With that she threw herself on the couch and closed her eyes; awakening a small while later to find Natasha curled up asleep by her side and a cup of tea and a note written by Tony: 'We're sorry'