The kid avengers

Shopping Trip

The Avengers had been children a whole of two months and the staff at Stark Industries were really starting to struggle without their CEO.
With Darcy and Jane there to help out for now, Pepper went back to work for 1 day a week, as did Phil and Maria.

Her first day back at work, Pepper woke up to find Natasha asleep beside her; she'd been climbing into Pepper's bed in the middle of the more and more frequently. Usually Clint followed, but last night was one of those nights where he'd been in too deep a sleep to wake when she got up.

Pepper's alarm started ringing and she shut it off as quickly as possible, but it was too late; Natasha was stirring anyway.

"Natasha, go back to sleep. I've got to get up but it's still too early" Pepper whispered, stroking her hair and watching her eyelids flutter closed again.

She went to get some coffee, before jumping in the shower and getting dressed.
While she was eating her breakfast, Natasha appeared beside her;

"Pepper, can't I come with you?"

"Natasha, we talked about this... You'll have a fun day with the others while I'm at work, and then I'll be home in time for dinner, okay?"
Natasha frowned but nodded.

Pepper decided she'd be a bit late in order to stay to make Natasha breakfast and put her hair into two long French plaits. Maybe they should consider taking some of the kids for hair cuts...

By the time she left, the others were all up and Natasha was dozing again on the sofa, using Clint as a pillow.

Darcy decided she needed to go and get some more clothes, she was sick of wearing the same things over and over having not brought enough with her to New York. Phil and Jane went along with her to the mall while Maria opted out; choosing to stay at the tower and do some desperately needed tidying.

When they got to the mall they split up.

"I'm going to head towards the clothes stores, meet you later?" Darcy told them, slipping away quickly

"Darcy, can I come with you?" Natasha shouted, running after her with Clint on her heels. For an awful moment Phil thought they'd gotten lost in the crowds, but he saw Darcy swing Natasha up to sit on her hip and Clint gripped her free hand.

Phil had Bruce in his arms. When they'd first arrived at the mall Bruce had ran after a man selling balloons, squealing excitedly but disappearing into the throng of shoppers. It took 10 minutes to locate him again and they only managed to coax him away from the balloon stall was to buy him an Iron Man shaped balloon. He clutched it fondly as Phil kept a tight grasp on him.

"Steve, do you want to head to the bookstore and get some new books?" Phil asked the oldest Avenger. He'd noticed how Steve had been re-reading some of the material they'd bought him when he'd first been de-aged, but hadn't voiced out loud the fact he'd obviously run out of new things to read.

"Yeah! I mean, if that's okay?"

"Sure, come on" Phil smiled.

"Where are we going to go Jane?" Tony asked

"I know just where to go" she smiled, leading the remaining two Avengers to their destination.

Jane led the two boys, who were arguing about what they should have for lunch, to her favourite shop in the whole of the mall; she visited it every time she came to New York, and had dragged a few of the Avengers there before now. She could spend hours in there... In fact, she usually did.

The small store was hidden away by the side of a large new Starbucks, and Jane watched as the two boys faces lit up as they approached; OptiStar was one of the best astronomy stores Jane had ever been to. It sold telescopes, books, camera's, lenses...
The guy who ran it, Daniel Sloan, was an old guy who loved to talk to anyone about his love of astronomy. Jane had no doubt he could keep the kids occupied where even the most skilled shield agents couldn't.