A/N: So, back with Chapter One! The last one was just the prologue. School starts in... 11 and a half hours. Wish me luck! :)
Thanks for the lovely reviews! Oh, and little followers and favorites, I see you over there. ;)
Disclaimer: I do not own any recognizable characters
"When I was younger, shopping helped me discover many new places and many new things." ~Miuccia Prada
Chapter One
"He WHAT?!" a loud voice boomed, waking Steve from his slumber. He was sitting in someone's lap at a large table… oh right. It was Natasha's lap. Steve flinched at the loud voice and Natasha's hand was immediately on top of his head, running her fingers through his hair.
"I've told you two times already, sir," the woman said firmly. "He was hit by something that Dr. Doom made and when we found him, he was like this."
"You're telling me that my soldier—my team leader—is a four year old?" The man with the loud voice had an eye patch and dark skin. Natasha nodded once, along with the men from before. Huh. Steve hadn't realized that they were in the room with them. The man pinched his nose. "God dam—" he started, but was cut off by the man with the bow, Clint.
"Now, now, Fury," he said in a mocking voice. "No cursing in front of the kid."
Steve thanked Clint for that in his head, but it wasn't like he'd never heard them before. His father cursed a lot when he was drunk, even when he wasn't. Steve shuddered at the thought of his father and Natasha looked down at him.
"You alright?" she asked quietly and he nodded. She looked back up at the black guy, Fury, Clint had called him. What an odd name.
Fury turned to the ro—Tony, who was now simply wearing jeans, sneakers and a dark T-shirt. There was a strange, glowing, blue circle in the center of Tony's chest and Steve was instantly curious. He didn't want to be rude though, so he stayed where he was. "You can fix this, can't you Stark?" Tony nodded and said something about a boyfriend, but Steve wasn't really paying attention anymore.
After a few more minutes of listening to the adults yell at each other, they all stood up, Steve slipping onto the floor. He scampered over to Tony and looked up at him. The bearded man stared down at him for a few moments before offering a grin. Steve smiled back. Before he could stop himself, he asked, "What's that thing on your chest?"
His hands immediately went to his mouth, gasping at how rude that had been of him, invading someone's personal information like that. Tony chuckled and ruffled Steve's hair. The child shrunk a little under the weight of the hand but giggled.
"I'll explain it on the way back to our Tower, where we'll be staying," he assured, lifting Steve from the ground. Steve decided that he liked Tony too, just like Natasha. He wrapped his small arms around Tony's neck and fisted his shirt on his back. "You ever been in an airplane?"
Steve shook his head. "I never been in a car, or outta Brooklyn."
"Then this will be a new experience for you!" Tony cheered, switching Steve to his other hip and walking out of the room, followed by the others except Fury. "I'll have someone bring some stuff for you to do and then I'll tell you about the light in my chest. You like drawing, right?"
Steve nodded excitedly. He loved drawing, but back at home, he'd never really had anything to draw on where he lived. Usually he drew on old newspapers or on the back of papers that he'd already used. He didn't have very many crayons, and he was amazed to see that there was a box full of sixty crayons, all of them sharp and ready to be used!
Turns out Steve didn't like planes. Or, he didn't like heights. Either one. After being explained by Tony that the light in his chest was an "arc reactor", Steve had colored in a picture of Iron Man, having been informed by Tony who Iron Man and the Avengers were, staying in the lines until he started to feel a little sick to his stomach. He'd curled up on the chair beside Tony, burrowed into his side and closed his eyes.
Steve had been carried off the plane when they reached their destination, his chin resting on Tony's shoulder and his small fists gripping his shirt. It was late and the next thing he knew, he was lying on a huge, soft bed. It was amazing compared to the lumpy couch he usually slept on. All the four year old wanted to do was curl up and fall asleep, but Tony stopped him. Steve made a sound of protest as he was pulled into a sitting position.
"You should get into pajamas first, kid," he informed him, digging around in the dresser that was in the room and pulling out a large blue T-shirt. Tony yanked Steve's shirt over his head and pulled off his shoes and jeans, leaving him in his underwear and socks. Steve blushed deeply but it went unnoticed by Tony, who simply pulled the T-shirt down over his head. The shirt drowned his small frame, but it was soft and comfy and Steve fell back onto the bed. Tony lifted him up and scooted him further back on the bed, tucking him in with the very warm blanket. The man leaned over and pressed a tender kiss to Steve's forehead before leaving.
Steve was almost asleep when Natasha entered the room almost silently, carrying something in her left hand. She lay whatever it was beside him and kissed his temple. The child made a questioning sound, his eyes opening to slits.
"I found this down in Tony's stuff," she whispered. "I don't know why he had it, nor for how long, but I thought you'd like it."
Steve moved his hand on top of it, running his fingers over it and realizing that it was a blanket. He tugged it closer to his body and buried his nose in it, inhaling deeply. He smiled and thanked Natasha before falling asleep completely.
The next morning, Steve woke up in a strange place. He began to panic a little but then remembered what had happened yesterday. He was with Tony and Natasha and their friends. With a little bit of struggling, he managed to get down off the bed and onto the floor, holding the blankie to his chest. He wrapped it around his shoulders like a cape and ran out of the room, not exactly knowing where he was going.
When he reached what appeared to be the kitchen, he found Natasha sitting at the table sipping something from a mug along with the archer. The two smiled at him and offered him breakfast, but Steve declined for now, saying he wasn't too hungry, which he wasn't. There was never too much food where he lived, so he didn't really have a big appetite.
Steve scurried off, searching for one room in particular. When he found it, he grinned widely. Tony's room. He walked into the room quietly, standing at the side of the bed with the bedside table. He couldn't see Tony over the top of it, but he could hear his steady breathing, maybe even a little bit of snoring. Steve giggled and managed to climb up, sitting on Tony's stomach. The man let out a short grunt and he cracked his eyes open. He grinned when he saw Steve beaming down at him, wrapped in his blanket. The man rolled over, bringing Steve down to his side as he did so.
"Did you sleep well, kid?" he asked, enveloping Steve in his arms. Steve nodded and sighed contently. "I see Natasha gave you a blanket."
Steve nodded again and brought the blanket to his face. "It smells good."
Tony smiled weakly, as if something had saddened him. Steve's happy face immediately fell. "I-I'm sorry! Did I say something wrong?"
"No, no," Tony reassured, sitting up. "No you didn't. You're fine."
Steve let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, good. I don' want you to be sad."
Tony asked Steve if he wanted breakfast after changing into a long-sleeved T-shirt and a pair of jeans. Steve nodded eagerly and darted out of the room, shortly followed by Tony. In the kitchen, Steve climbed up onto a chair at the table and practically vibrated. The man who had had the bow yesterday chuckled.
"Who would have thought food would be that exciting," he snickered, taking a bite out of an apple. Steve blinked at him for a few moments, trying to recall who he was. When he remembered, he frowned and nodded.
"We don't really gots a lot of food at home," he said sadly. "But you guys have lots a food, right?"
Steve almost felt bad for assuming that they did, but the plane he had been on had had the work Stark on it, and then another big word that Steve couldn't read, but it started with an I, so if that plane belonged to Tony, then that meant he probably had a lot of money, right?
Tony trudged into the room and poured water into a black machine. Steve tilted his head in confusion and the man smirked.
"This is a coffee machine," he explained. "You know what coffee is, right?" Steve nodded. "Well, I need coffee every morning so I can function."
Steve nodded before realizing that he was thirsty, too. So, quietly, he asked, "Do you have any milk?"
"Do I?" Tony said loudly, whirling around. "Of course I do! Would you like some?"
Steve nodded again and Tony opened the refrigerator. He pulled out a large, white jug and a plastic cup and poured some milk into the cup. After setting it on the table in front of the four year old, Tony went back to the coffee machine. Steve picked the cup up with two hands and took a sip from it and put it down with a soft, "Ah."
Bruce shuffled into the room then and he picked up a newspaper (finally, something he recognized!) and began to read it. The man with the long hair, Thor, walked in after him with a loud, "Good morning, SHIELD friends!"
The other four adults chorused a "Good morning, Thor" without stopping what they were doing. Clint had begun to cook something, and it smelled so good to Steve. While Clint was doing that, Natasha started to speak.
"We've got a lot to do today," she announced, putting her mug down. "Banner, Stark, one or both of you needs to figure out a way to reverse… our situation. Clint, you can come with me to buy Steve some new clothes that will fit him. Tony, I need your money for that. I don't know how much we're going to end up getting. Thor, I guess you can just do whatever you want today."
Tony nodded, taking a huge gulp of his coffee. "Bruce and I'll go talk to Richard's tomorrow so we can take the kid with us. Until then we'll talk via video chat."
"Sounds like a plan," Clint voiced, placing a plate full of pancakes and bacon in front of Steve. The four year old had never had so much food at once; he took a big bite of his pancake, and then ate half a piece of bacon in one mouthful. The adults around him chuckled.
Later at the mall, Natasha helped Steve out of the car and the little boy slipped his hand into hers. He smiled up at her and she smiled back, while Clint was locking the care behind them. They made their way to the entrance and when they got in, Steve let out a small gasp. There were so many stores in there and it was so big! There were little kids running around and parents chasing after them and some teenagers with a bajillion bags hanging from their arms like the bags were hangers and their arms were bars.
Natasha tugged him to the right and into a store full of clothes for little kids like him. Steve let go of the woman's hand and darted across the room to a rack that had some polo shirts hanging from it and he picked out a blue one, holding it up for Natasha and Clint to see.
"I like this," he stated. Natasha grinned and took the shirt from him, searching for his size of extra small. Clint found a pair of jeans and showed them to the child and Steve shrugged. He was more into khakis than jeans, anyway. Clint nodded once and put them back onto the table from which he got them. Steve picked out two pairs of khaki pants and handed them to Natasha, and then Steve picked a pair of blue converse and then a pair of black Doc Marten boots. And then he froze.
"What's the matter, sweetie?" Natasha asked, bending over to try and see what he was looking at. "What are you looking at?"
Steve pointed to the back of the store where there was a bunch of colorful T-shirts, all of them with the Avengers on them. The child walked up to the Iron Man one and pointed at it, jumping up and down and squealing. Natasha pulled down one in his size and slung it over her arm.
"You like Iron Man, huh," Natasha commented, smiling at how she thought Tony would react to that. Steve nodded excitedly.
"Yeah! He's the bestest Avenger, Tony sayed so. And he told me that Hawkeye sucks!" Steve replied, frowning at the mention of Hawkeye. Clint had a strange look on his face, Steve realized.
"Hawkeye's not that bad," he insisted, but he was ignored by Natasha.
"Don't say sucks, Steve," she scolded. "Do you want any more superhero shirts? There's a Black Widow one, a Thor one, a Captain America one—"
"And a Hawkeye one!"
"—and a Hulk one! Do you like the Hulk?"
Steve nodded uncertainly. "Tony sayed he's pretty cool, but that he's kinda scary. An' I 'member when you found me in the rocks, he was scary. But I think that he's just mis…misu…misin—"
"Misunderstood?" Natasha supplied. Steve nodded.
"Yeah. I think that the Hulk is just miss-un-der-stood," he said, sounding out each syllable. He seemed very proud of himself. "Can I have a Hulk T-shirt an' a Cap'n 'merica T-shirt?"
"Of course you can," Natasha said, pulling them down and thrusting all the clothes into Clint's arms, surprising the man. "We're going to pay for those now."
Clint grumbled something before walking towards the checkout, shortly followed by Tasha and Steve. Steve let out a shrill squeal and he grabbed Natasha's jacket, causing both her and Clint to stop walking. The blonde pointed to a blue jacket hanging on the end of a rack. It had a white star on the chest and a white hood and Steve cried,
"I have to have that!"
He knew that it sounded a little crazy that he "had to have it" but he wanted it so bad! Steve didn't usually get what he wanted because his mother couldn't pay for it with her low-paying job, and his father sure wouldn't buy anything for him, but he thought that now it was different. Because Tony had so much money, Steve thought that it was okay. People in 1926 that had a lot of money bought lots of stuff… right?
Clint grabbed the jacket from the hook and put it onto the pile of clothes in his arms and the lady at the cash register said, "Next!"
When Clint laid all the stuff on the counter, Steve saw the ladies eyes widen just a little bit and then go back to normal. She began doing something to the tags on the clothes… Steve didn't know what. It had a red light involved, though. The lady caught him staring and she smiled at him.
"Hi!" she chirped. "What's your name, cutie?"
"Steve," Steve replied shyly.
"Are all these for you, Steve?"
Steve nodded. The lady looked back at Clint and Tasha.
"Is he yours? He's adorable."
Both shook their heads immediately and Clint turned a light shade of pink.
"N-No, he's my cousin's nephew," Natasha said quickly. The lady looked a bit shocked, but shrugged and went back to scanning the clothes. After she was done, both Tasha and Clint grabbed two bags each and made their way back to their car.
A/N: So... how was that? Enjoyable? Awful? (I hope not the latter). Anyway, yeah. Like I said. School starts again tomorrow, so I'm not positive what my update schedule will be like. Hopefully I won't have to make you wait. :)
Thanks for reading! :)