Hadrian Romanoff and the Beginning

Chapter-5

Natasha easily side stepped out of the way of her hyperactive son.

Looking him over even as he raced around the room, Natasha could tell that Tony had been allowed to dress him - at least that's what the ACDC shirt and jeans with deliberate grease stains told her. Someone had tried to style Hadrian's hair but as usual it refused to be tamed and just stuck out in all directions.

"Hurry, Mommy! We got tos hurry!" Hadrian cried out. "Loki leave if we don'ts hurry!"

Natasha smiled softly. "Who told you that?"

"Unca Tony!"

"Well, I guess you better pick up the pace. I would hate it if we got left behind because of your short, little legs." Natasha teased, hiding a smile at the horrified look her son sent her before looking down at his legs.

"Hurry!" Hadrian yelled as he started running around the room aimlessly again, not doing much else except hurrying.

Natasha watched in amusement for several moments before turning on her heel to hunt down a certain genius.

-

Bruce was the first to notice it.

He figured that the others would have noticed it before him if it hadn't started off so inconspicously. Hindsight showed that it was a little strange, but when it had been happening in real time it wasn't worth considering.

Bruce only noticed it after he tripped over it - literally.

Mjolnir was sitting innocently in front of the sink in the penthouse kitchen. Bruce had been going to wash his hands before making breakfast when his foot caught on the hammer and he fell harshly to the floor.

"Thor," Bruce muttered, shaking his head. He attempted to nudge the hammer out of the way before remembering just what he was dealing with and stood next to it while he washed his hands.

Just as he was drying his hands off Hadrian came bounding in, his hands covered in a glittery purple sludge that Bruce was almost certain had once been regular Play-Doh.

"Hi, Unca 'Ruce," Hadrian greeted.

Bruce smiled and made to lift the boy up so he could reach the sink when Hadrian stepped on top of Mjolnir. Shocked at seeing the mighty and revered weapon being used as a foot stool Bruce didn't say anything while Hadrian cleaned his hands then ran out of the kitchen, laughing happily.

"Thanks, Mimi!"

He didn't get a chance to think about it because not long after Hadrian ran from the kitchen there was the sound of a chair exploding - something Bruce thought he shouldn't be able to identify by sound alone.

"Glitter!"

"Hadrian!"

The second time he noticed it he wasn't the only one.

Hadrian was laying on his stomach with a coloring book open in front of him, crayons scattered around him. Bruce sat on the couch, reading, while Clint laid upside down on the armchair, tossing a tennis ball up in the air.

The microwave beeped, startling Clint enough that he missed and the tennis ball hit him square in the nose. Bruce didn't understand how the man who was considered the greatest marksman in the world always managed to get hit in the face when it came to simple things like that. He supposed it was how Tony was an absolute genius when it came to science and math but still had to ask JARVIS or Pepper how to spell 'necessary.'

Loki had taken to putting up teaching aides one might find in an elementary classroom in Tony's lab which could only be taken down by magic - unforunately Sirius and Remus thought it was too funny to help the inventor out.