A/N: Knowledge/viewing of the Age of Ultron movie is not necessary. This is based off the Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow movie. But after this first chapter, the storyline with deviate from the movie, though it will still keep some of the same basic elements.

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Marvel, even a majority of the kids. I do not own anything, nor make any profit from it.

/\\/\\

Chapter 1: Just a Fairytale

"And storybooks are based on what? Imagination. Where does that come from? It has to come from somewhere." -Jefferson 'Once Upon a Time'

"Tell it again! Tell it again!" the red headed kid chants, rocking the upper bunk of the bed in his enthusiasm, crystalline blue eyes alight with a childish joy that neither of his parents had ever expressed.

"More! Please, can we hear it more?" the girl in the bed below him chimes in; wild, pale blonde hair spilling over her shoulders. Beside her, a small boy with dirty blonde hair nods his head, thumb fixed firmly in his mouth, other hand clutching the blanket to his chest, not as vocal as the older two.

"Okay, okay. One more time, and then it's off to bed," Tony agrees, shaking his head in mock exasperation. Removing the infant from its cradle, it observes him with solemn blue-grey eyes, the swatch of dark brown, nearly black, hair contrasting sharply against their hue, quiet in his arms, until a devilishly impish smile (for one so young) breaks its composure, revealing an entirely mischievous nature.

His heart clenches at the sight of them, these four offspring of his friends, so young and unaware, not knowing that the very story they were demanding to hear had happened not so very long ago. It was hard not to see the Avengers in their every look and mien, and it made him wonder. If he'd had a kid… If things had been different… If he'd only been able to save…

But no. They were gone. They were all gone. And it was only him. Him and these kids.

Beginning the story in the fashion he had developed for them, turning it into a fairytale, Tony began, "And there came a day, when Earth's mightiest heroes were united as one. The soldier. The god. The knight. The spy. The ghost. The monster. The agent. And the archer…"

oOo

Her laughter echoes freely, so different from her usual tones, words dying unspoken on her lips as he scoops her up against her wishes.

Regaining her voice, still breathless with giddy happiness, Natasha swats his shoulder affectionately. "You're not old fashioned anymore, Rodgers," she teases, resting her head in the crook between his shoulder and neck, breath ghosting over his skin tantalizingly with each syllable.

"I believe in keeping traditions," Steve answers, low voice steady in her ear, vibrating from his body through hers where he cradles her close, carrying her bridal style. Stepping over the threshold into their new apartment, he makes his way to their bedroom.

"Why the traditions?" she queries sultrily, a coy tilt to her lips, fingers trailing up the back of his neck to stroke the baby soft hairs at the base of his skull.

Smiling down at her, expression heightened to one of utmost happiness, he doesn't answer until they're in the bedroom, setting her small body, which weighs as if nothing in his arms, upon the bed, moving so that she sits next to him with her legs draped across his lap. Cupping her head with both heads, the bones of her jaw delicate against the powerful strength of his hands, Steve presses his forehead to hers, staring deep into the jaded green of her eyes and inhaling her intoxicating scent.

"Marry me," he breathes, voice lost of volume in his consuming desire. "Say you'll marry me and become Mrs. Rodgers."

Laughing faintly, leaning into his touch, Natasha closes her eyes wondrously, emotions soaring at his declaration. "You're stealing pages from Stark and Pepper's book," she murmurs, hands moving with an instinct of their own to find his knee and chest, electricity alighting her veins at the feeling of the hard muscle underneath.

"I don't need a wedding," he murmurs back, husky voice causing shivers to race through her body. "We can run away, right now."

"So drastic," she comments, tracing invisible circles on the inside of his knee, eliciting faint tremors from him, her eyes glinting at the searing look in his eyes. "But yes, I'll marry you."

Catching her mouth, trapping her lips against his, the kiss was fierce, insatiable, burning for more, pulling deeply at their cores, carrying them deeper into the thrall of the choice they had made…

oOo

"…In that day, the Avengers rose as a team, brought together to fight foes that no single hero could withstand."

The children's eyes drooped, the younger ones quickly falling asleep, the story just a fairytale. It couldn't harm them. Voice still speaking with a teller's cadence, Tony no longer told the story for them, it was for him. Fury had woven his plans skillfully, had known which strings to pull, which cards to play, to make them a team. Before any of them realized what nightmare they were entering.

"Alien invaders, masters of evil, power hungry opponents, the Avengers vanquished them all. And when it seemed they had, at last!, gained peace, the heroes built lives of their own."

It had come as a relief, unsought for, unrealized, until it came upon them with sudden clarity. He remembered the months in which they had remained battle ready, anticipating the next attack that never came. And when it struck them that the fight was done, they'd slowly disbanded, tentatively relearning the ways of a normal life. Opening to the possibility of a happier life. A life where love was possible.

"The soldier and spy fell in love. As did the ghost and the agent. The archer found his heart, and the thunder god returned to his kingdom, far away from the world of men."

He didn't mention the love the knight had found. It wasn't relevant. The children needed to hear only their parent's stories, not his. Not how he came to be there. Not how he came to be the last.

"And one by the one, the children of the Avengers came to be. Children, who would one day become a new generation of heroes."

Now, said children were nearly all asleep, the oldest one, his blue eyes still opening in a feign attempt to hear the story to its end, close to the brink of slumber which a few more seconds of telling would carry him to.

"But, evil can never be kept at bay forever, and an evil returned. And evil called Ultron. He wanted nothing less than total dominion of the entire world, but the Avengers stood in his way. Sadly, their defeat was inevitable, and they fell."

He hadn't though. He had survived. Running because the Captain had told him to. Even though everything else he cared about had been lost. Including Pepper.

"But, realizing the direness of the situation, the Avengers had hidden their children, secreting them away to a faraway place, where they knew they would grow up safe from Ultron's grasp. Because as long as the children were alive, there was hope."

Voice falling to a whisper, the four younglings sound asleep in their beds, Tony stood up, stretching the tired muscles in his back and shoulders. It had been a difficult few months. Months which had felt like years. It hadn't been as difficult in the early days, when they'd first retreated, he'd had help then. But Ultron had terrible plans in store for the world, and Tony had strived in vain to find a cure. If only so he wouldn't be alone in his task. If only for the infant's sake.

His grief had been terrible in those early days, close to insurmountable, with the loss of so many dear friends. But he'd had to keep it to himself. Fix his eyes on the little ones who needed him and return their smiles with a vigor he could barely summon. He was all they had left.

Closing the door till it remained open by scarcely an inch, glancing back at them, chest tightening at the sight of their innocent features, fierce determination to protect them burning within, he murmured the final words of the story to himself.

"Hope for the future."