Author's Note: Hello! Thanks to everyone for all the feedback on last chapter. I'm glad to see that people are actually interested in this story, since I was slightly reticent to post it.
Anyway, this is some more planning, next chapter starts park-going. The Captain America theme song mentioned is from the 1966 Marvel cartoon, and there also exists a hilarious parody version done by How It Should Have Ended. Both are worth checking out if you love Cap ;)
The FastPass system mentioned in this chapter...is NOT the way the current FastPass system works at Walt Disney World. Unfortunately. My family has a distinct loathing for the new system, so in this story/universe, the system remains old-style (with printed pieces of paper that you can get AS MANY OF AS YOU WANT, DANG IT! As opposed to the new system where you can only get three at a time. Boo.)
Chapter Two
It was the night before they were leaving and Christy was completely wound-up. She wasn't even running around so much as simply vibrating with energy. Steve, Bucky, and Sam were busy shoving all their luggage in the front living room. Christy had already moved her things out, and now had nothing constructive to distract her.
"She is never gonna get to sleep." Steve muttered.
Bucky shrugged. "At least she's not bouncing off the walls."
"I wish she was—then maybe she'd tire herself out!"
Christy took a flying leap across the living room. Sam rolled his eyes.
"Right, that's it. Fortunately, we have the wonders of modern medicine."
He grabbed Christy's shoulder and gently steered her into one of the floor's bathrooms.
"Are you gonna be able to sleep?" he asked.
Christy shook her head. "I can't calm down! It's too exciting!"
Sam chuckled. "I know, I know. But you're not pulling an all-nighter." He reached into the bathroom cabinet and pulled out a bottle of pills. He fished one tiny, pink pill out of the bottle and broke it neatly in half. "Take this. It's Benadryl—it'll help you get to sleep." he added, when Christy gave him a skeptical look. "What, did you think I was going to poison you?"
Christy shook her head. "I just like to know what I'm putting in my mouth." she said solemnly, before swallowing the pill with some tap water.
Sam rolled his eyes, but he couldn't fault the kid too much. With an adoptive father and several "relatives" that had enhancements, she was probably smart to be a bit wary of taking medicine.
"That should kick in soon and help you relax." he said.
The two ambled back into the living area. Steve raised an eyebrow at Sam.
"Did you show her some calming technique?" he asked, thinking of Bruce's deep-breath exercises or Sam's own "cool-down" methods for after a flashback.
"Nah, I suggested drugs." Sam said, completely deadpan.
"Drugs?!"
To save himself from the combined wrath of Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes, Sam immediately yelled out, "Benadryl! Like, the stuff you take to stop swelling! It makes you relax and be able to sleep!"
Steve calmed down at that. Bucky looked mildly upset. "You have sleep pills and didn't tell me?"
Bucky had bad nightmares—they all did, but his were, understandably, on another level. They were less frequent than when they'd first found him, but still a regular enough occurrence.
"I didn't think they'd work on you." Sam said, slightly apologetic. "You can try it if you'd like."
Bucky shook his head. "Nah, you're right. With my metabolism, they'd wear off in no time. And they don't do a thing for nightmares."
"So, ah, how long does that stuff take to kick in?" Steve asked, in a blatant attempt at subject change, and also because Christy was currently practicing forward rolls in the space behind the sofa.
Sam smirked. "Twenty minutes. Give or take."
"When…Captain America throws his mighty shield! All those who chose to oppose his shield must yield! When he's led to a fight and a duel is due…"
Steve gave Clint a death glare. "Ya had to teach her my theme song, Barton. Ya had to."
Christy, Lila, and Cooper were currently on the floor of Tony Stark's very expansive private plane. It had a simple, but elegant layout—almost like someone had ripped out all the economy seats on a normal plane and stuffed a lounge in their place. All the "grown-ups" were sitting in leather armchairs and relaxing, thanks to the wonders of autopilot.
Between the three of them, the kids had a pretty decent collection of action figures. So, naturally, they were all playing "Avengers beat the bad guy."
Clint smiled unapologetically. "Hey, at least you have a theme song! Actually, you even have comics! You have everything."
"And they got everything wrong." Steve muttered. "Trust me, I've read those comics."
Bucky snorted. "At least you were a grown man in those things. They turned me into some little kid!"
Sam, Clint, and Wanda all looked like they were trying very hard not to laugh. Pietro didn't even pretend. Natasha smirked.
"It's not anything personal." Steve tried to assure, in his "Captain" voice. But the effect was ruined by a laugh that drowned out half the sentence.
Bucky just gave his best "Winter Soldier scowl" and leaned back with his arms crossed. "When Captain America throws his mighty shield…" he sung under his breath. Steve groaned.
"Boom! Explosion!" Cooper yelled as he moved the Hawkeye action figure over in an exaggerated arc, to imitate a flying arrow. Lila moved a Black Widow figure around in circles, in an imitation of Natasha's kicks and punches.
Wanda frowned. "The poor villain really has no chance…" she muttered. A devious grin snaked across her face. With gentle red tendrils, she reached out and made the Red Skull action figure levitate in the air.
Three sets of eyes suddenly grew to the size of saucers.
"It's the power of the Tesseract!" Christy shrieked. "Red Skull can fly now! But we'll get him! C'mon, team! Avengers, assemble!"
"Black Widow'll kick his butt!" Lila cried.
"And Hawkeye'll shoot his brains out!" Cooper added.
As one, the three began battering away at the Red Skull figure, while Wanda moved it enough to make it pose a challenge.
"Well, we've got the next generation of Avengers lined up for when we all decide to retire…" Natasha said breezily.
"No." Steve said flatly.
Natasha smirked. "Just a thought."
After about two and a half hours of travel time (during which even Steve admitted that flying to Florida was a much better idea than driving to Florida), Clint landed the plane in Tony's privately-owned airfield. Tony being Tony, he already had a rental car waiting for them.
One car might have been a bad idea for ten people. But this wasn't just any car. Actually, it really wasn't technically a car. It was a big, dark blue, fifteen-passenger van. It was nicely kept and appeared to have been recently waxed, which kept it from looking too strange.
But still…
"That thing looks like the lovechild of a hippie van and a school bus." Sam muttered.
Everyone loaded their stuff in the van and Natasha took the wheel.
"Somebody donate their phone for a GPS." she said. Clint, who had chosen shotgun, ended up voluntolding his phone.
The drive to the resort was mostly spent staring out windows at the copious amounts of cars, palm trees, and billboards.
"I wanna ride that one." Cooper said, pointing to a billboard with an image of a fast-moving car filled with screaming people. The caption proclaimed: Test Track.
"Do we get to drive the car?" Pietro asked innocently, though the smirk on his face clashed with his tone.
Steve rolled his eyes. "Not likely."
As the GPS affirmed that they had reached their destination, Natasha turned left onto a road lined with various tropical plants. It led in a winding spiral up to the main building.
"Ooh! They have a swimming pool." Christy said, peering out the window intently. Cooper and Lila followed suit.
"That is not a swimming pool." Bucky muttered to Steve. "That's a swimming lake."
Steve nodded. "This place is ritzy." he mumbled back softly. "Maybe too nice for a kid from Brooklyn."
Bucky rolled his eyes. Shut up, you self-sacrificing punk. "But isn't that the point of America, Captain? That anybody can work their way up from the bottom? I'd say this is exactly the right place for a kid from Brooklyn."
Steve sighed and nodded.
"What about a kid from Sokovia?" Wanda asked.
"Them too." Steve affirmed. "This country was made for immigrants."
Natasha parked the car outside of a large brick building, and went inside for a few minutes. When she came back, she was holding several maps and ten little white cards. "These are our room keys. We're in building 80, right by the giant pool."
All the kids cheered.
After driving over to their building and locating several luggage carts, they hauled everything and everybody up to the second floor, where their rooms were.
"Tony said something about the rooms being interconnected…" Steve said uncertainly.
Natasha nodded. "213, 215, and 217 are all ours. Three rooms. How are we gonna split this up?"
Lila grabbed Christy's arm. "I wanna go with Christy and Wanda."
Natasha looked at Clint and Steve. "We could do girl's side-boy's side."
"You okay with that, baby?" Steve asked Christy.
Christy nodded. "I'll be okay."
"Wanda? You good?" Natasha asked.
Wanda nodded, still a bit shocked at being "requested."
"Okay." Natasha handed over room keys to all the boys. "Have fun." She opened the door to the "girl's" room, and the four of them trooped in.
The room opened into a small hallway with a kitchen on one side and a bedroom and bathroom on the other. Further back was a sitting room with a TV, a door which led out into a balcony, and a master bedroom.
"This is nice…" Christy whispered. Wanda just nodded in mute shock.
This place is for rich people… she thought self-deprecatingly. Not for people like me.
Natasha came up beside her. "It's for you." she said, as though she could hear Wanda's thoughts.
"But I don't deserve it…" The words flew out of Wanda's mouth before she could think, betraying her deepest doubts.
"None of us do…" Natasha replied. "Second chances are funny like that. But I've found that the best response is to just take what you're given and not try to figure out if you deserve it or not. 'Cause…it's usually not about that."
Meanwhile, Christy and Lila had dragged their suitcases into the first room. It had two queen-sized beds and a dresser.
"Let's give Wanda one bed and share the other." Christy said.
Lila nodded. "We've shared a bed before, anyway; when you came."
"Did you look in the big bedroom?" Christy asked. Lila shook her head.
"Is it really big?"
"It's huge!" Christy affirmed. "It's got a big bed and a bathtub with jets in it! And Aunt Tasha gets it all to herself."
Wanda finally entered the room, looking a little dazed.
"You get that bed." Christy said, pointing to the one closest to the door. "We'll share this one."
Wanda couldn't help but smile. Christy definitely had good directional skills.
I wonder where she learned that from… she thought sarcastically, picturing Steve during the last battle with Ultron.
"Okay…" she said, putting her bag on the far bed. Lila looked over at her with excited eyes.
"You wanna go swimming?"
About an hour or so later, they were all unpacked and lounging around the very nice swimming pool(s!) and Jacuzzi.
"We're probably gonna attract every eligible woman on this resort." Natasha hissed to Wanda, gesturing to the admittedly impressive display of Steve, Bucky, Sam, Pietro, and Clint in bathing suits.
Wanda smirked. "Pietro always attracted girls. I shall have to tell him no dating on vacation."
"What about all the eligible men?" Steve tossed back. "Or are you planning to send them off crying?"
Natasha thew her hair back. "You have such little faith in me, Rogers! I don't kill every man I come in contact with! You're still alive, right? Besides, shouldn't you be playing with your daughter?"
Steve's eyes roamed over to where the three kids plus Bucky and Pietro were splashing and diving in the crystal-clear water. Bucky's arm was covered by a realistic-looking "skin" that Tony had developed. Sam and Clint were walking in the direction of the hot tub (and the bar where a baseball game was playing), after Clint had warned his kids to "behave for your uncles and aunt!"
"Yeah, in a minute…" he muttered distractedly.
He walked over to the edge of the pool and tried to act nonchalant as he checked the water depth.
5 feet maximum…you can do this, Rogers. It's not gonna drown ya…
"Dad!" Christy called. "Come swim! We're gonna play water tag!"
Steve clenched his teeth. It's just water. C'mon you stupid idiot, you're on vacation and your daughter wants you to swim with her. Get in the water! You've done it on missions!
But his body wouldn't obey his mind. It had been a long time since he'd been in water not out of necessity.
Christy finally seemed to realize that something was wrong. She swam over to the edge of the pool and looked up at him.
"You don't have to swim, Daddy." she said, quiet. Her brow was furrowed in that unnervingly knowing expression of hers.
By now, Bucky, too, had noticed that something was up and swam over. "Y'alright, punk?"
"Fine…" Steve said shortly. "Just…me and bodies of water don't always get on."
Bucky sighed, guilt coursing through him at the knowledge that he was partially responsible for the last time Steve had almost drowned.
Christy pushed herself out of the pool. "Was the water cold?" she asked, looking up at Steve.
It took Steve a second to figure out what she meant…and then he nodded.
"Did it taste like salt? Or…dirt?"
"Dirt and scummy plants." Steve croaked out, grinning a little.
Christy nodded. "This water's warmer and it tastes like chlorine. Wanna come try it?"
Blinking back tears, Steve followed his daughter to the very shallowest part of the pool. She grabbed his hand and together, they walked down the tiled slope that led into the water.
"I like swimming 'cause you feel like nothing can hold you back." Christy said. "You can do flips and dive and lift stuff that's heavy 'cause of buoyancy. I learned that in school. Did you swim as a kid, Dad?"
To his shock, Steve noticed that they were already four feet in and Christy was paddling to keep afloat.
"You've been taking lessons with Sam, haven't you?" he said wryly, taking a deep breath. The water was only up to his chest, after all. He wasn't in any danger of going under without his desire.
Christy shrugged, her legs furiously kicking. "I wanna be a good counselor when I get older. Was I good, Dad?"
Steve smiled. "The best. I'd come see you any day."
Bucky swam towards them. "You better?" he asked lowly.
Steve nodded. "I'll be okay."
"Christy!" Cooper called. "Are we gonna play? Pietro's gonna get Wanda and maybe Aunt Natasha."
Christy nodded and pushed herself through the water like a powered jet. "Comin'!"
Pietro managed to coax Wanda into the water, but not Natasha, who lay sunning herself and watching the chaos with an amused smile.
After establishing that no one (especially Steve) was to get pushed under the water, the game began in earnest. It started off normal but quickly turned into a free-for-all of splashing and diving.
"Got you!" Christy screamed, as she snagged Pietro's arm. The blonde retaliated by grabbing the girl with his other arm and proceeding to hoist her in the air.
What he was not prepared for was for Christy to suddenly go limp in his grip. In a panic, he lowered her down, only for her to tug out of his grip and swim away cackling.
"Never mess with someone trained by the Black Widow!" she called back.
Pietro groaned. Wanda swam up behind him. "Bested by a ten year old? Really, brother, you need to start training again soon."
"I didn't expect her to know how to do that!" Pietro cried.
Wanda just laughed and lunged through the water after Lila, who was swimming a little too slowly for a game of tag…
"Okay, so do we have a plan?" Sam asked. "'Cause from what I remember, these parks are scarily crowded."
The five "older grown-ups" were gathered around the glass dining room table in Steve, Bucky, and Sam's room like a council of war. The twins and the kids were in front of the TV watching Tangled.
A map of the Magic Kingdom lay spread on the table, the numbers of certain attractions circled in black Sharpie. They might as well have been planning an attack raid on an enemy base.
"We've got the kids' input on what they wanna do." Clint said calmly. "And most of what they wanna do has FastPasses."
Steve frowned. "Explain that thing again?"
"It's a system that lets you bypass the really long lines for rides and wait for a shorter amount of time."
"Sounds kind of…unfair."
Natasha shrugged. "It's not like it's only for some people. That would be unfair. Only thing is, you gotta get 'em fast, before they run out. They only print so many per day."
A strange gleam appeared in Bucky's eye. "What if…?" his eyes drifted over to where Pietro sat on the couch with Cooper and Christy sprawled against him.
"Oh, hell yes!" Sam hissed quietly, ignoring Steve and Clint's twin rebuke of "language!" "It's perfect."
Natasha smirked. "We'll brief him on that later. So, we know our destinations, what's our route for getting there? Go clockwise?"
"We're not just gonna rush." Steve protested.
"We can split up and meet for lunch, and then go from there." Clint said. "You made meal reservations, right?"
"For lunch, yeah." Steve replied, tapping the numbered bullet that read "Tony's Town Square Restaurant". "For dinner…this place looked good. And it didn't say you needed a reservation." He pointed to a number that read "Casey's Corner".
Sam smirked as he read the description. "You would wanna go to an old-fashioned hot dog joint."
"Nothin' wrong with fries and hot dogs." Bucky protested.
"Nah, you're right." Sam agreed.
"I'll second that." Clint said. "But somebody needs to take a picture of the "Tony's" sign for Stark."
"Yeah, and isn't he part Italian anyway?" Steve asked. "I think Howard said something about that."
Natasha shrugged. "Either way, we're totally taking a picture." she leaned back. "You do realize that this is either gonna go really well or really terribly?"
"Nobody invited the pessimist." Bucky snarked.
"Hey, I'm Russian; what do you expect!"
Steve sighed and shook his head. He was excited, honestly. He had good memories of Coney Island as a kid, and this was basically Coney Island times twenty with extra magic.
Never mind Natasha's pessimism. That was just Natasha being Natasha. Tomorrow would be great.
So help me, it will be great…
Can we talk about the fact that my computer wanted to auto correct "Tesseract" to "Actress"?
The "no, I suggested drugs" thing actually happened, ironically because my family had just watched CA:TWS. I was way emotionally wound up (because BUCKY!) and my mom told me to take Benadryl so I could sleep, because I had work the next morning. My Dad asked her if she helped me calm down, to which my Mom replied, "No, I suggested drugs." And I swore to work that line into a story somewhere. :)
Anyway, hope you enjoyed. Next update probably won't be until later next week, because I am headed back to school (AHHHH!) and will be settling in and figuring out my life. Until then...
Reviews are wonderful things...
