Back Before the Start of Us (on hold)

Time moves faster

The kids walked into the room after Coulson, heads held high and expressions serious.

But the Avengers could see the tiredness that sat heavily on all of them.
The two youngest children were barely awake, clinging to their siblings who looked as though they were using all of their strength to not drop the kids.

"So?" James asked, fed up with the fact that every other time they had been in the room the Avengers had just been arguing the same points over and over again.

"We've decided to trust you." Tony said.

The whole group of kids seemed to release a sigh of relief at the same time. Already they seemed brighter. Still tired but more alert.

"So you'll help us?" Charlotte asked, hoisting Immy higher on her hip.

Tony glanced at Clint. The movement lasted barely a millisecond but it was enough for the huddle of time travellers to tense up again.

"We'll try." Tony replied.
He didn't sound overly confident which was strange: Tony was nothing if not a complete believer in his own abilities. And anyone would have assumed that he would be ecstatic when he heard that he managed to create a fully functioning time machine in the future.

He was probably just exhausted. They all were. A complete lack of sleep and the emotional turmoil of the last hours had twisted their tiredness into a physical ache, a blankness in everyone's eyes.

"I suggest we all get some rest," Coulson spoke softly, herding the children back out of the room.

One by one, the Avengers filtered out of the meeting room until only Wanda was left.

She took a deep breath.

It was a lot to take in and she didn't have the energy to process any of it. But she felt lighter. Since Pietro's death, she had felt like she was falling. Like her grief was a well and she was the stone that had been tossed into it, never slowing, forever tumbling blindly down.

But now...
But now.
Now she felt like she could breathe just a tiny bit easier. Existing felt just a tiny bit easier.

Wanda stood up, pushing in her chair. She walked out the room and gently closed the door behind her. The corridors were like an endless maze but she had spent enough time wandering aimlessly around the compound that she could walk the route to the lifts blindfolded.

She pressed the button and after a couple of seconds, the lift doors pinged open.

It was going to be okay.

—————————————————————

A couple of days had passed and nothing had happened. Tony from either timeline hadn't seemed to make any progress with the time machine and everyone was growing restless.

"Maybe we should go and check in. You know, she how he's getting on," Nate suggested, pacing in the huge bedroom that the kids had been given to share.

"You know how he hates people messing with his "flow". It'll just annoy him," Leo rolled his eyes, flopping backwards onto the bed.

"Okay... then what if we —"

"Whatever you're going to suggest, it won't work," Morgan chipped in.

"That's rude."

"I'm not wrong."

"Don't fight," Tatum drawled, his voice a mix of boredom and exhaustion.

The room was silent for a couple of minutes.

"We could just go and ask one of our parents," Katia suggested.

They all looked at each other.
"Alright yeah."
"That's actually a good idea."
"Finally something to do."

"Alright, let's go," Katia swung the door open and they all filed out of the bedroom.

Since they had had nothing with them when they got stuck back in time, all of them were dressed in practically identical training uniforms worn by S.H.I.E.L.D cadets. The smallest uniforms were a bit big on Lena and definitely big on Immy but Charlotte had managed to make them work.

They all got into the same lift and Noah pressed the button for the training rooms, figuring that's where it was most likely they would find one of their parents.

The doors dinged open and immediately they heard voices coming from the nearest training room.

"I'm not saying I don't trust them, because I do, it's just that the whole thing is really weird. And I have this gut feeling that something's wrong." The voice was quiet but it sounded like Natasha.

"I know. It's strange. But we should be helping them, spending time with them, I don't know. They're only kids and they're cooped up in their room with nothing to do. But if you say something's wrong, then I believe you. We just have to figure out what." That was definitely Steve.

The kids hung back, no longer eager to speak to their future parents.

What did Natasha mean by something was wrong? Did she think that they were planning something?

But her voice was odd. The tiniest bit of fear had weaved its way into it and that set all of them on edge: Natasha never got scared.

As the words sunk in and the silence of the corridor settled around them, Morgan got the sudden unnerving feeling that there was something going on. Something that was bigger than all of them.