Just a Little Time

Hungry

"Cap' we will find him," Tony reassured. "Patchy the pirate from SHIELD authorized full access facial recognition software. Every traffic camera, every online security camera in the city is looking for him. It helps that every drop of that kid's genetic makeup is a state secret."

"Sheila from CPS says whether it was intentional or not when I disappeared for over a month so soon after, after he just met me and transferred into my custody, it was likely a serious breach of trust in the bonding process. It's all pretty confusing for him. CPS apparently sees a lot of runaways when children are first introduced into a new home."

"What did you tell her about the Robin thing?" asked Clint.

"I just told her there was a fault in Jarvis and he and Richard helped rescue us and that I, we spoke to him that we didn't want him putting himself in danger and that he got very emotional. She said... um.. "

"Steve, you're shaking," observed Natasha gently. "We will find him."

Steve nodded and huffed getting up to go hit the streets. Jarvis could check cameras until he shorted himself out. Steve was going to go look for himself.

Dick slept in the day, patrolled in the early evening and worked the late shift from 11 pm to 4 am at Lovely Bamboo. He got things cleaner than they'd been in years, discretely filtered the fruit flies out of the liquor bottles when things were slow, fixed the toilet in the bathroom so it flushed properly and stopped leaking. He didn't manage to eat everyday because that would have required stealing and Richard wouldn't steal. He'd eat the leftovers when people didn't want doggy bags. The owner noticed but she didn't object other than to say not to let the customers see him and that if he ever started stealing something other than garbage, she'd call the cops on him. Richard's only response was an embarrassed, "Yes ma'am." His pants were getting loose but eventually he'd get paid, hopefully.

The Avengers had tracked Richard pretty far. Steve and the police even showed up at the apartment of the woman he'd spoken to at the park to ask about him. After the park he'd taken to rooftops and shadows. Jarvis searched everything with a camera and a web connection in a huge radius but it got no more hits.

"We'll find him Steve," Clint reassured. Clint had kids of his own.

Daredevil was less than impressed when the Avengers showed up in Hell's Kitchen. Their very presence unsettled things. Black Widow landed on a rooftop beside him. He'd almost missed her approach it was so stealthy.

"We're not interested in what's going on here," she spoke. "We're looking for a lost child." She held out a photo to him. Matt took the photo silently.

"You know this territory. If you find him, call the number on the back."

"Why would the mighty Avengers be interested in a lost child?" Daredevil called out just before Black Widow left. Daredevil could hear her communications unit asking her for an update, the subtle hum of the charging circuit in her taser, the soft creaking of her high tech protective gear. Almost no one knew Daredevil was actually blind. Apparently the Avengers hadn't figured it out.

"He's family," answered Black Widow. She didn't know a lot about Daredevil but she knew he was one of the good guys. He was supposed to be smart. Hopefully he was smart enough to know that her answer was privileged information that could put the child at risk.

Matt Murdock aka Daredevil smirked a bit at the paper in his hand. Maybe he could get Foggy to describe the kid to him. He listened to the cityscape around him and headed towards trouble but it wasn't trouble of the small lost boy kind.