A young couple walked briskly down the school corridor. Her red hair, carefully done to fall in waves over her petite shoulders bounced with each step while her dress skirt shifted with every move her high-heeled feet made. The man was dressed in all black, but this wasn't the most distracting feature of his appearance.

In fact neither the man nor the woman blended in, but the man stood out for the sole reason that instead of his left arm being made up of flesh and blood it was made out of metal. It gleamed as he strode along and occasionally reached across the woman, but that was his only sign of affection. His steely gaze was fixated on the sole doorway in their path. They came to a stop in front of it, and the woman gave the man a reassuring look. The door opened.

'Ms Romanoff, Mr Barnes, do come in'.

Natasha cleared her throat as she stepped gracefully into the room. In front of her was Mrs Lainsworth, the straight-as-a-line, no nonsense headmistress. Natasha really didn't like her, but soon she would retire and some other unfortunate one would take her place. Of course she didn't focus for long on the old woman in front of her, rather the two children standing on newspaper to the side of her desk dripping wet with paint and looking more colourful than the Bifrost Bridge, looking at her with glum faces. She heard James sigh.

'Anastasia, Alexei since you are incapable of speaking at the present time without having a giggling fit, I will tell your parents what you oh-so precariously decided to do this afternoon'.

Anastasia was her father's daughter, although the spitting image of her mother, her grey-blue eyes which were James' remained on the floor. Alexei, on the other hand, had every inch of his mother's defiance and his green-blue eyes glared at the old woman, with dark strands of hair occasionally falling in the way. Yes, he looked very much like his father, but much less calm.

' The children were doing painting this afternoon and the twins decided to get particularly creative ' Mrs Lainsworth informed, gesturing to the paint splatters all over their clothes 'Of course they weren't the only ones affected by this sudden outburst' she continued. ' This behaviour, as I'm sure you'll agree is totally unacceptable and there will be severe con-'

'You do realise they're in preschool, right?' James asked as he cut her off, earning a wide smile from his son and a glare from his wife.

And it started from there. Turns out James was just as good as wrangling cranky headmistresses as he could shoot. He managed to get the children out of a month's worth of detention and instead Mrs Lainsworth settled for an apology letter which Natasha would end up writing anyway. Apart from the fact that they had to somehow get their paint-smeared children in the back of her Stingray without ruining the leather, it had been a successful afternoon.

' What exactly were you thinking when you decided to paint eachother?' Natasha asked her children once they were firmly strapped in the back seat.

' Well Mommy, you know how Uncle Steve is always telling us to be creative in tricky times…' Anastasia started

'How the he- how was that at all a bad situation?' James countered, correcting his language.

'The teacher is so STUPID' Alexei groaned, 'She always wants us to paint stuff of tree and birds but I wanna paint pictures of Daddy beating bad guys up'

'Don't forget Mommy' Anastasia urged

'And Mommy' Alexei confirmed.

'маленькие, I don't care what other things you paint in art class but don't paint on eachother ever again, ok?' James said as he turned to his children who were nodding in reply.

Natasha sighed and leaned back against the headrest. She reached out for her husband's hand, and the cold metal comforted her as they sped along the streets of New York. She had a hell of a headache coming around and she'd run out of aspirin so that would make her evening significantly more difficult. Maybe Wanda could do something to her head back at the compound. She glanced behind her. Sure enough, both of her children were fast asleep.

'You seem to be lost in thought, звезда моя'

James' words shook her from her worries. She rubbed her temple with her left hand.

'I'm just a bit tired that's all' she smiled, giving his hand a squeeze.

James glanced back at the twosome in the back seat and then back at his wife as if to emphasise the point of her exhaustion.

'You know, дорогой, they have you wrapped around their little fingers' Natasha teased as they pulled into the driveway that led to the compound's entrance.

It was true, because ever since James had been handed the twins in the delivery room six years ago, he had fallen in love. And no matter how emotionless he may seem, he truly loved his children and Natasha. She often daydreamed about a third child, but considering that their current brood seemed to be more troublesome than most, she decided that they would wait before having another.

James chuckled in reply as they pulled in beside one of Tony's many sports cars. The jolt of the car gave a soft awakening to the twins, but James pulled them out of the car, wrapped in a towel and carried them in his arms to the elevator. Natasha was hoping for at least a quiet reception but all hopes of that were smashed when the sound of Mariah (bleach) Carey filled her ears. Could Sharon not find anything else to listen to? Thy entered the kitchen where the owner of said music along with Wanda and Sam were doing an impromptu dance number to 'Heartbreaker'. Steve was watching the display and noticed them coming in. With a sigh of relief, he went over and turned the song off. He had obviously been looking for an excuse to turn his wife's music off. Sharon shot him a look and inquired into the twin's condition.

'Wanna fill us in on why your kids are dead to the world and covered in paint?'

'I don't know, wanna fill us in on how you offloaded your only child?' Natasha smirked, referring to the bubbly, sweet-as-sugar child that was Steve and Sharon's daughter.

'Thor desperately wanted to take her to the park' Sharon threw over her shoulder as she began to pour two cups of coffee, 'We were more than happy to let him'.

Steve pulled a face, ' Well actually, you were the one who let him, I didn't even know until 20 minutes ago'.

'Yeah, when you freaked out' Wanda added, cutting an apple in mid-air.

'You never know, Thor's idea of a park might be going to some realm and then playing with giant-ass dogs or somethin' Sam said.

Bucky was about to make a snide comment directed at Sam when a booming voice filled the compound.

'SIR BARNES, DID YOU BECOME SO TIREOME OF YOUR OFFSPRING YOU KILLED THEM DURING THE GAME OF BALLS FILLED WITH PAINT?' Thor called out as he strode into the room, Mjolnir in one hand and a very muddy Sarah Rogers in the other. She quickly jumped down and ran into the arms of her father, who lifted her with ease and didn't seem to be bothered by her dirty state. Her big blue eyes widened when she saw the twins.

Bucky glanced at the sleeping six-year-olds in his arms. It did indeed look like they had been killed in a game of paintball.

Thor's proclamation called the whole tower to attention. Tony and Bruce came mouths wide-open out of the lab, Pepper rushed out of her study, Vision and Pietro came in from the balcony and the gym door opened, letting Clint and Scott in.

'WHAT?!' they all shouted collectively.