The kid avengers

Competition

One evening at dinner Tony has started bragging that he used to stay up all night all the time, Thor told everyone how he often attended feasts and celebrations that went on til morning, and Natasha informed everyone that where she came from; sometimes they weren't allowed to sleep for days.
So that night Tony came up with a challenge; they'd wait until the adults were all asleep, and then they'd meet back in the lounge and see who could stay awake the longest, whoever won could draw on the others faces; they all hastily agreed.

That night, just before midnight the six miniature superheroes assesmbled in lounge.

They talked to each other for hours, until Bruce fell asleep; everyone figured he'd be first.
Steve made the mistake of getting too comfortable on the sofa and soon drifted off, and Thor gave in next.
Clint had dozed off a few times throughout the night, but Natasha kept waking him subtly.

"You okay Nat, you're looking tired" Tony teased as she yawned and rubbed her eyes

"I'm fine" she replied sharply, nudging Clint again

It wasn't long until Clint was dead to the world, leaving just Tony and Natasha sat on the floor staring at each other, it was gone 4 am and though neither would admit it, they were getting tired

They'd stopped talking by now, just staring at each other through the dimly lit room.
Tasha yawned again, and Tony subconsciously mimicked the action. Natasha shifted from her position so she was lay down on the floor, and again Tony copied, by the time the clock hit 5am; Tony was asleep and Natasha scrambled off to find a marker, happy her plan had worked.

Darcy woke first the next morning, and in her rush to get to the coffee machine she didn't notice the six sleeping children sprawled out across the sofa, chair and floor. It wasn't until she went to turn on the news did she see them, and she couldn't help but laugh

Natasha had really gone to town with the markers.

She'd left Clint's face free of pen, but the others were covered in it. She'd coloured Bruce's whole face green, she'd turned Tony into a clown; giving him a big red nose, while Steve had the American flag drawn over his face (Natasha had only recently learnt what the US flag looked like) and Thor was made to look like tiger; his face was bright orange and had black stripes across his forehead and cheeks, along with whispers and a pink nose.

Natasha was lay on the floor by Clint, surrounded by markers and her hands covered in ink. How she'd managed to do all that to them without them waking was beyond Darcy.

Snapping a few pictures on her phone, she went to wake the others so they could see the scene.

Tony soon woke, rubbing his eyes and slightly confused as to why he was lay in the lounge, before he remembered the previous nights competition.
Looking up he saw Pepper, Phil, Maria, Darcy and Jane staring down at him

"Why are you all asleep in here?" Phil asked

"We were doing a competition"

"What sort of competition?" Maria pressed

"We wanted to see who could stay awake longest, whoever won could draw on the others faces, but I think me and Tasha went to sleep at the same time..." he trailed off. He obviously hadn't noticed the pile of markers by the young girl, or anyone else's faces

Darcy started laughing again until Jane elbowed her, while still trying to keep her own laughter under control

"Tony, who's idea was this 'competition'?"

"Mine"

"Well then you got everything you deserve" Pepper told him, passing him her compact mirror

Tony took in his appearance in shock; his face was completely while, his nose and mouth were bright red and he had a blue diamonds coloured over each eye in the perfect depiction of the clown they'd seen at the funfair the previous week

He quickly turned to look at the others before waking them up
Steve burst out laughing on seeing Tony's face, as did Thor, before Tony passed them the compact mirror in return

The three of them looked at the still sleeping Natasha and tried to think of a way to get her back. That was until Pepper appeared in-between the three plotting children and the subject of their discussion

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Plotting" Thor told her honestly before Tony could stop him

"I don't think so, you guys all signed up for this and knew what was going to happen, you leave Tasha alone"

"Okay Lady Pepper" Thor agreed, running off when he saw Jane holding out a plate of pop tarts for him

Steve nodded and went to join Bruce, Thor and the others at the table for breakfast

"Okay?" Pepper pressed

"Okay Pepper... But did she have to make me a clown of all things?!" Tony asked grumpily, he didn't like clowns

"I think it suits you" Clint told him as he woke

"How come you don't have any pen on your face?" Tony asked, "You was asleep too, I saw you!"

Clint shrugged; "Maybe Tasha just likes me better than you" he said, sticking his tongue out before racing Tony to the table

An hour or so later Natasha was woken gently by Pepper;

"Natasha, Tasha sweetie, where did you get these markers from?"

Natasha slowly sat up and shielded her eyes from the bright sun streaming in through the windows. Yawning, she replied "From your office, I couldn't reach mine, they were up too high"

"Ot oh" Pepper replied, getting up to walk back down toward the bathroom; "It's no good Maria, it's permanent marker" she called through the bathroom door

"Nice!" Clint beamed at Natasha, giving her a high five and a cheeky grin