The Littlest Avenger (Avengers x Fem!OC Age Regression)

🛝Chapter Eight🛝

Author's Note: Sorry for the lack of updates, it's been crazy in my house and I am working on writing more. This story is not forgotten in the slightest, I just have the time management skills of a potato. I also just wanted to know if you guys can see the photos I include in the chapter's header?

The walk back to the tower was unfortunately not as long as Niall hoped it would be. The whole time back, someone always had their hands on her whether it was a hand in her hair or a pair of lips landing a quick kiss on her head or face some where. Niall wanted nothing more than to throw herself in front of all the busy cars in the street next to her but being attached to Yelena put those plans on the back burner. Just as Niall was about to snap, they made it back to the lobby of the tower and into the elevator.
     Upon reaching their floor, Niall is quickly removed from Yelena's chest carrier and placed into her high chair. "Ok baby, we let you get away with putting off breakfast but it's time to eat." Bucky reasons while sitting in front of her with a bowl of fruit and yogurt. "I'm not hungry." Niall growls out. "Niall, you're having breakfast. You can have it either before or after the punishment you're about to get if you don't eat." Maria jumps in, seeing the impending argument. Seeing the serious look in her eyes and not wanting to find out what their crazy idea of of punishment was, Niall sighs and decides to go along with it for now. After breakfast, she is told that they are giving her a chance to find her headspace without the pills but if she starts to misbehave they will go back to the pills. She is also told that the next couple of weeks or so will be time to bond with each of them in the sense that she is getting a mommy/daddy and baby day everyday for the next few weeks. Niall almost groaned out loud at that but one warning look from Pepper had her avoiding eye contact and trying to hold her tongue.
     The rest of the day was spent relatively similar to how the past month has one. Increasingly more suffocating cuddles, hovering caregivers, and zero chance to plot an escape. Niall had also found out that she had been restricted from the labs and computer rooms without supervision or permission from one of her caregivers and is only allowed to travel between the team and common floor by herself and in turn also slowing down her progress in an escape plan. The longer she spent sitting on one of their laps, the more she resented them for doing this. Niall can understand why they are like this now, not that she condones it, but she realizes that they have spent years looking for a little only to find one and lose her in a month. Between that and the fact that they all have their own past trauma and issues with abandonment, neglect, and just an unfair hand in life, it's not hard for Niall to see how this could have become what it is now. Especially when faced with the thought of losing the one thing they fought tooth and nail to have one day. She's no stranger to the soulmates' late night talks about retirement and raising a family outside the city with a few dogs and cats to round out the family. Knowing all this makes Niall realize that escaping won't be easy in the slightest and even making a plan to leave won't be the easiest thing to do either.
     Before they restricted her access, Niall was planning to quietly hack into and shut down Jarvis and leave the avengers trapped on their floor while she made her way out of the building and into hiding or even using the computers to find them another little that would be more willing to be their little and focus their attention on. Those ideas are down the drain for now though, or at least until she could find a way into the lab by herself. Despite everything stacked against her, Niall is determined to get out of here. Especially after seeing all the new onesies and nursing bras being put away in the drawers.
     The next morning, Niall finds herself being woken up in her crib by one smiling Kate Bishop, leaving her to assume that she is who Niall is spending the day with today and forces herself not to grimace at the hands undressing her or the cooing coming from above her as those same hands put her in a new diaper with a new onesie and baby overalls. Once she is changed, rather than bringing her into the abnormally empty kitchen, Kate instead takes her down to the garage where she is placed in a rear-facing car seat. Once strapped into the unnecessarily complicated car seat, Kate leaves her and slides into the driver's seat of the car. Instead of playing along with the baby talk and cooing happening around her, Niall stares out the window while trying to figure out where they're going. If Kate is offended by the lack of response from her baby, she doesn't acknowledge it and continues with her own conversation with her. Pretty soon, Niall notices them pulling into a nearby diner and almost cries at the thought of being seen in public like this. Rather than give Kate the satisfaction of a mental breakdown, Niall decides that she won't be leaving the car and when Kate comes around back to get Niall out, Niall instead just holds onto her car seat with a death grip. "Niall, cutie, you have to let go of your seat baby. I have a whole day planned for us but we need to get some food in that belly of yours before we can get started on our adventure." Kate coos as she continues to try to pry Niall out of her car seat. After ten unsuccessful minutes, Kate decides to go about it another way. "Ok cutie, you win this round. What if I said you can get whipped cream and extra chocolate chips on your waffles today, huh?" Kate tries bribing. Niall just stares back blankly before turning away. "Niall, I'm serious now. Either let me get you out or you will have a very unfortunate punishment waiting for you at home if I have to pry you out of your car seat." If Niall hears the threat, she doesn't acknowledge it instead opting to stare out the other window silently. "I didn't want to do this Niall but you've left me no choice." Kate sighs before roughly pulling Niall from the seat harshly. Niall gasps as she's placed on Kate's hip and carried into the diner.
     Upon walking into the diner, Kate and Niall are greeted by the hostess almost instantaneously who quickly sets them up in a booth with a high chair and kids menu. Niall frowns at the cooing from strangers as well as the kids menu and high chair. She is a grown adult, an avenger dammit and she should be treated like one. Breakfast takes longer than usual due to the fact that Niall is no longer allowed to feed herself and at this point, Niall would rather go hungry than have one more passing stranger stop to coo and pinch her cheeks. At some point during breakfast, Niall was moved to Kates lap which makes it even worse as Kate goes along with the strangers and usually ends up bouncing her on her knee with a grin before feeding her another bite of breakfast. Niall will admit, she doesn't hate all the extra cuddling but the baby talk and knee bouncing is enough to send her running so unfortunately, in Niall's mind, they should not get used to having her around.
     Once breakfast is done and the bill paid, Niall is strapped back into her car seat as Kate gets back into the driver's seat. Rather than going back to the tower like Niall thought they were, they instead head in the opposite direction and up until they pull up to the gates, Niall has no clue where they are. Looking out the window, Niall notices the sign for the zoo and internally smirks as she starts thinking up escape plans. Instead of fighting Kate, Niall lets her remove her from the car seat relatively easy and place her in the stroller. Once Niall is settled in the stroller, they begin making their way into the zoo. The two wander around the zoo for at least two hours, seeing the penguins, alligators, and monkeys along with the other animals until Kate pulls over to a nearby map to try and find the bear exhibit. Niall internally grins as this was the exact moment she was waiting for. Kate looks away for what must have been just thirty seconds, only to find an empty stroller and no Niall in sight after looking back. Upon this discovery, Kate pulls aside a wandering park employee and informs him of the missing little as well as passing over a recent photo they have of her. Quickly realizing the situation and who exactly he is dealing with, he calls an immediate lockdown of the park before getting officers to carry out a search for the missing girl while Kate regrettably calls one of the other avengers. Learning of the situation, she is met by immediate yelling and threats of violence against her if they don't find Niall from the rest of the group as they decided on their own bonding day. Ten minutes later and the rest of the group makes it to the zoo and immediately find Kate. "Remind us to never let you out with her alone again. Now what happened?" Clint growls upon approaching the hysterical archer as the others trail behind him. "I don't know, I really don't know. We were here for two hours seeing all the animals and I was saving her favorites for last so we were gonna go see the bears and cats next but I couldn't find them and I stopped at the map to find them. I looked away for at most, thirty seconds. Plus, she was strapped into the stroller. I don't know how she could have gone missing, especially so quickly and without me noticing." Kate rambles nervously as the rest stared back unimpressed. It is all but ten seconds of silence before Bucky launches himself at her but is quickly held back by Steve, who drags him away. Kate sniffs as she tries to keep her tears at bay while mumbling how sorry she is about a thousand times. Eventually, Thor takes pity on her and pulls her into him while reassuring her that they would find her. "There is good news and there is bad news. Good news is there is a camera right there so we were able to determine that she wasn't taken. Bad news is the stroller wasn't facing the camera so we can't see exactly where she went or what happened." Nick Fury spoke up as he got closer to the group. Nick smirked to himself knowing exactly how Niall managed to escape the way she did but decided to keep that information to himself. He watched as mixed emotions filled each of their faces before being called away by another agent. He left them to themselves as they made plans to find their little without him, knowing he wouldn't be of much help. As the Avengers were given copies of all the materials and information law enforcement had on the matter at the moment, they left to the tower to begin their own investigation. They couldn't let her get away that easy, what kind of caregivers would they be. Just the thought of their little girl out there by herself, cold and afraid, was enough to light a fire under their asses so bright it would burn for months if not years. They'll find her.