Phil was certain he'd heard Maria growl, as they pulled up outside Stark Tower. He glanced at her and she slumped down in her seat, he sighed slightly, right now she was behaving like a moody teenager, with a serious attitude problem, something he could do without right now.
Leaving her in the passenger seat, he got out of the car and went round to get the kids out; an effort in itself.
Steve was no trouble at all, already the angel boy of the group. He looked the part too, big blue eyes and a halo of blond hair. He jumped into Phil's arms, and was gently placed on the ground with a small pat on the shoulder.
Natasha and Clint were the next easiest, though it took a while to get them to get their attention at first. Clint was busy plaiting his partner's fiery red locks, she was giggling and singing to herself in Russian. He got them onto the ground soon enough though.
The other four were difficult. Thor wasn't so tricky to get out in theory, but he was certainly difficult to hold, even as a youngster Thor was all muscle. Of course Tony was a natural troublemaker, and had somehow influenced Bruce severely in a mere few hours, they both refused to come out until Phil bribed them with lollipops, (he didn't actually have any, but sometimes you have to play a little underhand to get what you want). Loki was by far the trickiest to get out; it's not that he made a fuss, no screaming or shouting, just silence and a rather timid expression, and certainly no budging from his seat. It had taken them long enough to get Loki into the car, it was only after Thor had dragged him in that they'd managed it, but even Thor's pleas and words of encouragement did little now.
"Ugh!" Maria huffed in annoyance, as she swung the passenger door open. "Loki, come on little man, the sooner you get out of the car, the sooner we can all have dinner and go to bed." The tiredness was beginning to show on her face.
"Ooh dinner!" Thor shouted, "Will there be pop tarts?"
"Anything you want buddy," Phil replied, he meant it this time too, if it meant getting Loki out of the car.
The young Asgardian paused for a second at his brother's enthusiasm before allowing Phil to pull him out of the car.
Maria, smiled slightly, secretly pleased with herself that she's been the one to prompt Loki's departure of the vehicle. She strolled round to the back of the car and popped the boot, herself and Phil emptying it of various bags; their own plus several filled with clothes and toys for the Avengers. Clothes were a necessity as all of them were still in their uniforms, with the exception of Tony, who was deemed to be unsafe to others in his Iron Man suit. Currently his suit, Loki's sceptre, Mjolnir, Steve's shield, Natasha's guns and Clint's bow and arrows were locked away in a SHIELD vault.
The lift ride up to the 'balcony floor' of Stark tower had been uncomfortable, Loki hadn't liked it one bit, it made his tummy feel weird.
"Please, don't throw up, please don't throw up." Maria had prayed, standing way back against the wall just in case he did. Thankfully he didn't, though Maria fetched him a glass of water as soon as they'd got out into the open. He'd looked at her suspiciously, probably because she'd be scowling earlier. Whatever, she didn't care and dismissed him as she would another agent.
Phil was noticeably more cut out for this than she was, somehow managing to get all seven of them rounded up and into pyjamas, there was no point them changing into anything else. It was dark outside already.
"Don't they look cute?" Phil had commented, once they were all dressed. Maria tutted, although she did sort of agree with him, it was almost comical, they'd found pyjamas that reminded her of their uniforms. Tony's were red edged with gold, Natasha's black edged with red, Clint's black and purple, Steve's blue and red, then Bruce's green and purple, Thor's blue and silver and Loki's green and gold.
"So when do we feast?" Thor asked loudly, as he finished buttoning the pyjama shirt, albeit completely wrong. Phil bent down to fix it; "Soon," he said "I'll get started now. Maria can you watch them for a while."
Maria shrugged and settled herself down in the armchair with the book she'd brought with her. She got through a page when she felt a tug on her shirt sleeve.
"Maria, can you help us build a fort." Clint asked, his piercing grey eyes staring up at her. Maria shook her head, deciding she was much too tired for that tonight. "Maybe tomorrow." She said, only half meaning it.
Natasha sighed. "Well what can we do then? I'm bored."
Maria realized then that both she and Phil had forgotten to get the toys out of the bags. She quickly emptied out all of the Lego, board games, footballs, playdoh, toy soldiers, as well as all of their paper and colouring supplies from earlier. Maria noticed that the toys seemed to be mostly boys toys, which made sense, little Natasha was seriously outnumbered by the boys, though Maria figured she'd probably like playing their games anyway. Natasha didn't strike her as a particularly girly girl. Still it slightly pleased her to find a baby doll at the bottom of the bag. Just a simple stuffed body, with plastic limbs and head, wearing a white baby gro and little white hat. Someone must have acknowledged that there was a young girl in the rowdy bunch of toddlers. It still surprised her though when Natasha slowly slid the doll out of Maria's grasp, studying it carefully from every angle. It must have met her standards as she then hugged it tightly to her chest, and trotted off to play with the boys, the doll going with her. Maria's gaze followed her for a moment before going back to her book.
She couldn't get back into the story properly; she kept glancing at the miniature villain and heroes across the room. Bruce and Tony had started a game of monopoly. "Seems fitting for Stark." She muttered. Clint and Natasha were building a tower out of Lego bricks, though the doll was still lying in the red-head's lap. Thor was… "Thor, please don't eat the playdoh, it's bad for you." Maria said quickly before he could put it his mouth. Thor looked at it confused. "Then what is this brightly coloured, squishy stuff for, Lady Maria?" he asked as she walked over to him.
"You make models with it." She replied with a sigh, he continued to look confused, and so she picked up some of the golden yellow playdoh, rolling into various sized sausage shapes and fitting them together, she then made rolled out some more doh and made oval shapes, sticking them to what was fast becoming some sort of animal. She then made a little black nose and two eyes, then took a piece of red for the tongue. Once all assembled the result was a small figure that resembled a golden retriever. Thor was delighted by it, and immediately set about making some of his own.
She turned her attention to the two boys sat at the dining table. Loki was doing a puzzle, under closer inspection it was one of a black cat, with emerald eyes, 1000 pieces. He looked up at her when he sensed her staring.
"That's a lot of pieces." She said simply.
Loki blinked, and then nodded. "I like the picture though."
Maria smiled slightly "It is a very nice looking cat."
"Cat?" Loki repeated, experimenting with the word on his tongue.
Maria had momentarily forgot that he was not a child of Earth, she gently moved past him and ended up stood behind Steve, who was hunched over, tongue poking out of his mouth, as he concentrated on his drawing.
"Hey." She said, more softly than she had intended to. "What are you working on Cap?"
He didn't question her use of address for him, instead slid the piece of paper towards her.
She was impressed, she'd read once that Rogers was a keen artist, though she'd never expected him to be this good. His sketch was of a motorbike, like the one he so proudly owned.
She couldn't help but to smile slightly, when she caught him nervously chewing his lip.
"That's really good." She whispered, passing it back to him.
"Thank you," He said politely, a slight rosy tint creeping into his cheeks.
Maria reached out to ruffle his hair, and then retracted swiftly.
Loki caught her motion and let his eyes fill with an emotion she couldn't recognize.
She was more than happy when Phil called them to dinner.
Authors Notes: Thank you to everyone, who has followed and especially to Magic Iris, ShunKickShunKers & Agent-Hamilton123 who have left reviews. 3
