AN: I don't own the Avengers.

~Max Banner~

I was really nervous when Marina left Jean and I alone with the past Avengers. Stark, Dad (Bruce Banner), and Steve stayed behind with us. I got the feeling that Steve wanted to talk to Jean, and Dad might be hoping to talk to me. Which I had been hoping to avoid, so thanks Marina.

Stark led us to his lab. I knew the way around-in our time, this was Marina's house, and the lab was the one thing she hadn't changed too much. The furniture was the same, and though the computers weren't as advanced and the punk rock posters Marina loved weren't hung yet, but mostly it was the same lab. Same messy piles of papers, same holographic designs, same tools stacked everywhere.

"Hey, this lab isn't so different." Jean said, glancing around and voicing my thoughts. "It's pretty much the same."

"Sir, might I inquire as to the identity of our guests? They are not in any SHIELD database." The metal computer voice echoed from the ceiling. It was JARVIS.

"Hi, JARVIS." Jean called up. She glanced at the confused past Avengers. "Marina still has him in the future. You gave him to her for her fourteenth birthday. She used his schematics to hack into her middle schools computers and delete her permanent record."

"Yeah, she's definitely Stark's kid." Bruce said drily, sorting through a filing cabinet.

"Yeah, she is." I said, leaning against a wall and sticking my hands in my pockets.

Jean started humming something, and if she had been singing the words would've been, Max and Marina, sitting in a tree… I shot her a glare to shut up. She smiled softly and found a notebook abandoned on a table.

"Mind if I borrow this?" She asked, glancing at Stark.

"Go ahead," Steve answered for him, surprisingly. I guess he wanted to see her art. It really is too bad Fury wouldn't let her go to art school-she's very good, and she would be even better if she hadn't been forced to be an Avenger.

"Thanks." Jean said, finding a seat and pulling a black pen out of her pocket.

I started thinking out loud, ideas for finding the time anomaly. "So for a time anomaly detector, we have to go through the fourth dimension, and the easiest way to do that might be Einstein's equation for gravity times the value of the approximated pull of the anomaly. A wavelength generator, with a jolt from the power grid, which Marina could hack for us, and then all we'd have to do-" Everyone was staring at me.

My face went pink. I ran a hand through my hair to hide my face and turned away a little bit, finding something interesting to look at on the table in front of me. "Or we could, I dunno, try something else…."

"No, those're good ideas," Dad said, still looking a little surprised. "How old did you say you were?"

"He's sixteen." Jean spoke up for me. "Our little genius. Graduated from college… two years ago, right, Max?"

"Um, yeah," I said uncomfortably. "Anyway, we should work on the detector."

We all got to work. I worked on the math of the equations with Dad's help, Stark worked on the machinery itself, and Jean and Steve got things for us. Well, Steve did mostly-Jean spent a lot of her time drawing. It must be something good.

"So, Max," Dad said uncomfortably. I winced internally. This would not be fun. "In the future… what are things like?"

"Um, good. You and Mom have a house in upper New York. It's pretty nice. I live at a SHIELD facility, working in the labs there… and I get called in on Avengers missions sometimes, like this one." I said.

"What was that Jean was humming earlier when you mentioned Marina?" Dad asked, pretending to double check one of his equations. He knew. My face turned red.

"Um, nothing."

"So are you two-"

"No." I said quickly. "Actually I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention any of that to her… she's doesn't… doesn't actually know…."

"Marina doesn't know Max has a crush on her." Jean said in a helpful tone that was not at all helpful. "I keep saying he ought to tell her, but he seems to think-"

"Thank you for your input Jean, please shut up now." I said, knowing my face was bright red.

"Excuse me, what are your intentions for my daughter?" Stark asked, looking over from what he was working on. Even Steve seemed to have heard what we were talking about.

"Can we please not talk about this? Please?" I groaned.

"Now, now, Max. You have to get her father's blessing before you propose." Jean giggled without looking up from her drawing.

"How are things going with… what's his name? Paul?" I asked, raising my eyebrows at her. Jean glared at me, then hid her face behind her notebook.

"Shut up. And since you asked, amazing."

"So you haven't actually talked to him yet, then."

"How are things going with that equation, Banner?" Jean growled. Dad and I glanced at each other.

"Which Banner?" Dad asked nervously.

"The annoying one." Jean said, shooting another glare at me.

"Wait, who's Paul?" Steve asked.

"Yeah, I want to meet Paul." Stark said. "But let's talk about Marina."

Jean and I exchanged a thanks a lot, pal look. "You know, I think if we boosted the power here, it would seriously add to the wavelength generator's recoil potential." I said, turning back to the whiteboard. Jean looked down at her notebook. The grown ups took the hint.

This has already been humiliating, awkward, and worrying. And we've only been here for two hours, I thought miserably. I hoped things were more fun at the mall, and that Marina hadn't gotten the other Avengers in too much trouble yet.

AN: thanks for reading! Please leave a review, or follow/favorite! Thoughts on the possible pairings, please? What do you think of the Maxina ship possibility? I'm still considering it. Later!