Past Friends

Part 76: Stains And Games

The next day you were surprised to find that Clint Barton had returned and that he brought his lovely wife and kids to visit. You were hanging out in Natasha's room, wearing your light jean jacket, a plain white t-shirt, light grey jeans cropped and ripped at the bottom, your ballet flats, and your green scarf. You were sitting on the bed with Wanda and Natasha when Clint walked in to come to say hi. You weren't as close with him as the other Avengers but you were still happy to see him and meet his family. They all seemed really nice, you liked seeing Clint play with his children, especially with his youngest; Nathaniel. You wished you had a family like his growing up, you wished you had siblings, and part of you even wished to be a part of his family. Even though you loved your life, even though you were happy with Loki and the Avengers, sometimes you still felt like something was missing. 

The dream you had last night wasn't helping; you were sitting in a castle courtyard watching a little boy and girl play together while holding a baby. You couldn't remember the names of the two small children running around but you did remember the name of the baby, it was Lynn. You couldn't get over the feeling that they were your children, they felt like yours and for some reason that made you very sad. You started to wonder if these visions and dreams you were having were real or not; maybe they were the memories of someone else and for some reason or another you were experiencing them. It wouldn't be too far of a stretch, would it? 

You weren't even sure if you wanted to have children, but the more you thought about it, the more you became okay with the idea. Having a bunch of little Lokis running around would be wonderful; you imagine all the classic family moments like baby's first steps, learning how to ride a bike, and reading them to sleep. As much as you enjoyed peace and quiet you liked the idea of a loud and crazy house full of love. You thought Loki would make a great dad, you could picture him teaching them how to read or him scaring off their suitors, insisting they are far too young and that they weren't good enough for his child even though they'd be all grown up. You could see him holding the baby for the first time, them grabbing his finger or how he would make them smile and giggle as he showed them his magic. How they would look at him with awe and wonder, with love and affection, and think the world of him, the way you did. These thoughts drifting in and out of your mind for the rest of the day as you did one activity after another. 

After hanging out with Natasha and Wanda in the early morning you ended up taking Hulk's chair outside to sand and stain it. It took a while to get every nook and cranny but it was well worth it and before you knew it someone stopped by to tell you lunch was ready. "That looks really good" a voice said, you already knew who it was and quickly turned around to greet the doctor, smiling at Bruce before asking if he'd think Hulk would like it. Bruce looked surprised for a moment, seeing as he would rarely remember his time as Hulk he didn't know you were making a chair for him. Bruce looks at the chair and smiled, thinking it was funny how he didn't put it together by himself; the chair was huge and the seat itself was deep, it was clearly meant for someone who was quite large. "I'm sure Hulk will like it, but I'm also pretty sure he'll break it" Bruce admitted but you just smile replying with "Hulk can be pretty gentle when he wants to be". You see a confused look cross Bruce's face and you tell him about breakfast, hanging out with Hulk and Peter, meeting Rick, the hug you had with Hulk, and even how Hulk picked you up and held you like he was about to run and make a touchdown. Bruce looked quite shocked, he was informed at a meeting this morning with Steve and Tony about the attack from yesterday but no one told him about this. Bruce didn't know what to say, he ended up just blurting out that lunch was ready and that he was asked to come and get you. 

After lunch, you went back to your room to start on the cushion for Hulk's chair and it didn't take you too long considering you were pretty much just sewing two squares filled with padding together. You were just about to take it downstairs to see if it fit when Bucky and Steve stopped by to ask you a favour. They came to ask you if you could show them how to play video games something you never thought they would ask. Your eyes go wide and you look at them quite shocked before the biggest grin they had ever seen made its way onto your face. You get incredibly excited as you drop what you're doing and run off with them in tow to the storage closet to get everything you needed. You made it clear in the past how much you loved video games but neither of them ever showed any interest in trying before today and you were over the moon to finally play with them. 

You weren't sure how Bucky and Steve would handle intense fighting or horror games so you stuck with relatively family-friendly ones. You popped on the x-box 360 and first took the time to make them little avatars, informing them that there were some games where you could play as your character. You first showed them Minecraft, the hands-down most popular game selling two hundred million copies worldwide. You started them off on peaceful mode and together you ended up building a cute little house. You ended up playing Sonic & Sega All-Star Racing next, it was your favourite racing game, plus you could play as your avatar. They had a harder time with that one, they thought all the characters looked very strange, but they think the music is interesting. Bucky kept making comments about how these games were for babies so after Steve excused himself to go to the bathroom you made Bucky watch as you played Dead Space 2 until Steve got back about 15 minutes later. After that traumatizing event, you switched to the Wii to play Mario Party 8 and of course, they insisted on you being Princess Peach. 

You ended up playing with them all afternoon until dinner and they ended up ordering from the place that makes your favourite wonton soup. After dinner, Tony asked you to come to discuss and go over everything for Prom down in the lab so he could book everything with you. Wanda and Natasha soon stopped by while you were finishing up with Tony and asked to see some of the vintage clothes you brought back from your storage unit, so you took them back up to your room to basically play dress-up. They look through the several dresses you had complimenting them before telling you to try them on. They ended up dolling you all up, doing your hair and makeup but the fun was cut short however when Friday alerted them to an emergency. There was some kind of Hydra attack happening in New Jersey and you can already hear Tony complaining as they headed off to save the day.