AN: I love you guys! I'm so happy with all the reviews I've gotten. To those who've asked if Bruce can hulk out soon, I keep trying to work it in, but it never fits. I'm trying to keep it consistent, and if the other kiddos are without their abilities, I can't let Bruce keep his. That just wouldn't be fair, even though I love mini-Hulk too. :)
Just a heads up: I decided to give Clint a little speech problem, because that is a common result of hearing loss. I had constant ear-infections as a toddler, and it messed up my speech until I had speech therapy. I would say B's instead of R's, which is weird. Haha. When I was writing this, I had trouble figuring out how to write Clint's speech, so I hope it comes off okay.
Happy pulled up in front of Stark Tower. Phil had called ahead, so Pepper and Maria were waiting outside with the five kids. Happy was prepared and had snagged enough booster seats for each kid, minus Thor who was the only one big enough to not need one. They all got buckled in and soon they were on their way. Pepper had instructed Happy to take them out of the city and to a more suburban mall. There would be fewer people and it would be easier to keep track of the kids should they try to run off.
Bruce was chattering on about something they had seen on television before coming downstairs. "I really want it. Tony and I want to play with it. Please, Pepper?"
"What is it?" Phil asked.
"There was a commercial. It's for this gooey sand stuff that I can make monsters out of. It's cheap too. Only $19.99, plus shipping and handling. Can I have it?" Bruce asked.
"I want it too. We promise we'll be really good," Tony added, looking as innocent as he could manage.
"We'll see. If you guys are really, really good all day, maybe I'll order some. Does that sound like a deal?" Pepper finally gave them the answer they wanted. She then turned to Phil. "How did it go?"
"Really well. Watch this," he looked at Clint who was staring out the window at the passing cars. "Hey, Clint," he whispered. Clint turned his head to look at Phil, curiously.
"Why are you bein' do q-iet?" he asked, also whispering. The doctor had mentioned that his time without hearing may have some effects on his speech and articulation. He had noticed that his S's sounded like D's, and words with two sounds before the vowel were also tricky. For example, 'tricky' was 'ticky' and 'store' was 'tore'. Luckily, he was still able to understand the kid.
Pepper smiled. "Hi, Clint."
"Hi," he answered. "Um, whad your name?"
"Pepper. Do you know everyone else's names? Do you want me to tell you their names?" He nodded his head, looking a little bit shy. In a way, he was meeting them all for the first time again. She pointed to them each in turn. "This is Bruce, Tony, Thor, Steven, and the little girl is Natasha. And this is Maria. She's going shopping with us."
Natasha was seated next to Clint. "I'm glad you can hear now. Now we can be friends and I can talk to you too. I'm mad at the other boys. Will you be my friend, Clint?" she asked. She was all business, even as a kid.
"Yeah. Let be f-iend." He turned to Phil. "Thid my f-iend. Nat…Natad…Nata," he said, struggling with her name.
Natasha interrupted. "You can call me Nat, if you want. Since we're friends." Clint nodded, going back to looking out the window. Phil smiled. Best of friends, as usual.
"I do not understand. Where are we heading to?" Thor asked. "In my home, a tailor makes our clothes for us in the palace."
"Well, here, tailors make a lot of clothes and put them all in one building. Then people can go and pick out what ones they want," Pepper explained. Thor nodded his understanding. "You're quiet, Steven. Are you feeling okay?" she asked, looking at the young super-soldier.
"No. I don't feel so good," he answered, his face going a little pale. "I'm going to throw up." Happy heard that and pulled artfully over to the side of the road in record time. It was just enough time for Maria to open the door closest to her and help Steve lean out to empty his stomach. She held his forehead and held him steady until he finished. When he did, he wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. "Sorry," he said, embarrassed.
"You're fine, honey. Probably just a little car sick," Maria said, helping to buckle him back up. Pepper was surprised at this side of Maria. She had always seemed tough and stern. Happy pulled back into traffic after he heard the seatbelt click.
"Let me know if you get to feeling sick again, little man, and I'll pull over for you," Happy said, smiling back at him through the rear view mirror.
"Are we there yet?" Tony said, suddenly. "I'm bored."
"Me too," Bruce said.
"We've been driving for forever," Tony continued.
"That's not possible, Tony. If we were driving for forever, we would have been in the car for, a lot longer," Bruce corrected him.
"I know, Bruce. It's called sarcasm. Read a book," Tony said. They were both probably of genius level intelligence, and that made their arguments terribly entertaining.
"I do read books. Chapter books. You only like books with pictures," Bruce countered. Somehow, when Maria had come over the previous evening, she had brought armfuls of kids' books. She said something about nieces and nephews. Phil didn't even realize they'd looked at the books yet.
"They're non-fiction. For big kids. And you like them too!" Tony said. Bruce glared at him. After a few seconds, Bruce smiled again.
"Remember that car one? With the red car?" he asked, excitedly.
"Yeah! It was so cool. We should get one of those. I could drive it." And with that, the argument was over.
Happy pulled into the mall parking lot and dropped them off at one of the many entrances, telling them he'd pick them up in a few hours.
They helped the kids out of the car and headed into the mall. People started staring almost immediately. It took a minute for Pepper to figure out why. They were still in their pajamas, having not had anything to change into. She shared this information with Phil and Maria, and they quickly guided the kids to the children's section of the large department store. "We should have them pick out an outfit real quick so we can pay for them and have them change clothes. Then we'll shop for the rest."
"Good call," Phil said, smiling sheepishly at a woman who gave them a pitying look. He and Pepper led the Clint, Tony, Thor, Steve, and Bruce to the boys' section and Maria took Natasha to the girls'. At first, Natasha was a little peeved at having to go to another section, but then she saw the colorful displays of adorable clothes and shoes.
Pepper took Clint and Steve to look at some t-shirts while Phil took the three older boys to look at jeans. Before they had even looked at anything, Natasha came running over, followed by Maria. She had already picked out her first outfit. Pepper handed Maria the card and she went to pay.
While Natasha was changing, Clint and Steve had each picked out shirts. Clint's was light blue with a shark on it and Steve chose one that was a red Nike shirt. Pepper grabbed some jeans she thought would fit, according to the size chart and took the boys to the changing room. The shirts didn't need to be tried on, but she wanted to make sure the jeans fit. After several tries, they found pairs that fit. She brought the boys and the clothes up to the counter to pay, with the remaining boys and Phil close behind. After paying, Phil cleared it with the sales lady for them to change the kids into their new clothes.
When they came out of the changing room, Natasha and Maria were sitting in the chairs waiting. Natasha was now wearing some skinny jeans with yellow and pink paint splatter down the legs and a yellow shirt with a bicycle on the front. She looked adorable, and the boys noticed. Clint and Steve ran to meet her. They got kind of shy when they stopped in front of where she was sitting.
Tony and Bruce felt cool in their outfits. Tony had found a red shirt with a sports car on the front, and Bruce picked out a green shirt with Scooby-do on it. Tony swaggered over to everyone else, and Bruce followed, slightly less confident. Thor was not as pleased with this experience. The clothes here were different than he wore back in Asgard, and he'd have to get used to them. He also had jeans on, and a grey thermal shirt.
The three adults looked pleased. These kids were starting to shape up. Next, they needed shoes. Pepper couldn't allow them to walk around in knock-off crocs for any longer. Adult-Tony would die if he could see himself now wearing those things. This time around, Pepper took Natasha and Clint. The two kids were sort of magnetized to each other, and they didn't want to separate. Clint agreed to go to the girls' shoes first, and they went across the aisle. Phil and Maria took the other boys to their respective sections, and the all reconvened at a bank of chairs to try on their selections.
Natasha had picked out some pink sandals, but when she saw Clint's grey low-top Converse, she changed her mind. They ended up with matching shoes. Tony picked some Sperry's that matched his shirt. Steve and Bruce got Velcro tennis-shoes, and Thor chose leather sandals.
Finally, after an hour, the kids were dressed appropriately for being out in public. Now, the real shopping could begin. They took their things and went out to the main mall concourse. Almost immediately, Clint and Natasha rushed forward and towards the inconveniently located toy store. Clint didn't even look back, but Natasha looked over her shoulder. She knew she shouldn't be running off, but soon sided with her rebellious friend. Phil jogged over to them and intercepted.
"Toys later. After we get some more clothes," he instructed. Natasha complied, but Clint side-stepped to try to get away again. Phil grabbed his upper arm and dragged him back to the group.
"P-ease? I don't want any more c-othes," Clint whined. He was getting easier to understand, and Phil wasn't sure if it was actually Clint's speech improving, or just himself getting used to deciphering it. He was still struggling with double-consonant letters, but every once in a while, the 'S' sound would come out correctly.
"Nope. And if you keep running off, you'll have to hold my hand the whole time," Phil informed him. Clint crossed his arms but stuck by him as they walked to another store.
They shopped for clothes for another forty minutes or so, and were headed to the food court for lunch. There was a McDonalds and Phil made an executive decision to order six cheeseburger happymeals and call it good. They pulled three tables together and sat down. Each kid had their meal and a Sprite. For simplicity's sake, Maria, Phil, and Pepper also chose things from the McDonalds menu. After they finished eating, they took a bathroom break. Maria, Pepper, and Natasha went to the girls' bathroom, while Phil herded the five boys into the other door. As they boys were washing their hands, Phil realized Clint wasn't at the sink with the others. Before he had a chance to turn around and look for him, Clint had peeked his head over the stall door, grinning. He pulled himself up further, and Phil had to pull him down. Clint washed his hands and they all headed out the door to where the girls were waiting.
Steve was getting tired, and Phil picked up on this and picked him up to give him a piggyback ride.
When they got close to the toy store, Clint started to run off, but Natasha grabbed his hand and told him to stay. He immediately complied, and they continued to hold hands. Until Tony saw them. "Ooooh, Natasha and Clint are in looove," he mocked. The other boys joined in, though less eagerly than Tony, in the teasing. Natasha quickly ripped her hand out of Clint's and ran towards Pepper. Before she made it to her, however, she turned to Tony and shoved him backwards with both hands. He stumbled backwards a little bit, but Natasha was quite a bit smaller than him.
"We're not in love. He's my friend. You're stupid," she said, turning and walking the rest of the way to Pepper.
"Yeah, Tony. You're a add-hole," Clint added, walking to stand next to Natasha. Natasha went to stand on the opposite side of Pepper from Clint, still embarrassed by the comment and wanting to distance herself from him. The kids gasped, and Phil tried not to laugh.
"Clint. You're too young to use that language," he said. Clint stuck his tongue out and ignored him. Tony was upset.
"He can't even talk! It's ass-hole, not add-hole, stupid," he said, taking a step towards Clint. Tony was taller than Clint, and Clint had to look up at him. Phil intervened by pulling Tony backwards. Clint's eyes welled up with tears, and his face turned red.
Pepper knelt down and wrapped her arm around the young archer.
"Tony, you should not talk to people like that. That was very mean, and you owe Clint an apology. If I hear you say anything like that again, you're not going to get anything from the toy store. Do you understand me?" Phil lectured, genuinely angry with the kid.
"Yes. I'm sorry," Tony said, his lip quivering.
"Don't apologize to me, apologize to Clint."
Tony turned and walked toward Clint whose eyes were still watery and face was starting to fade to pink. "I'm sorry," Tony said to him. He looked back at Phil to see if the apology was sufficient. Phil nodded and they started into the toy store. They were each instructed to pick out one thing, and one thing only. The kids all dispersed, and the adults struggled to keep them all in eyesight. Thor had chosen a stuffed animal, but then he came across the foam weapons. He tossed the stuffed horse aside and chose a foam sword.
Steve wandered up and down the aisles, and he ended up choosing an oversized etch-a-sketch. Tony and Bruce both chose a science kit for kids, and when they saw that they both had the same thing, they decided it would be logical for one of them to pick something else.
"I want to get it. You can have something else," Bruce said. Tony shook his head.
"I'm older than you!"
"I'm bigger than you!"
"I want it, and you can get another toy. A cooler toy!" Tony tried bargaining. Bruce was standing his ground though. Phil was ready to intervene. Bruce looked around.
"Look, Tony! That remote control car is just like the one in that book! If you get that, we can share both. Then it's like we both get two toys," he said, pointing to the red car. Tony turned to look, and bit his lip.
"Fine. But you have to share," he said, unceremoniously dropping the science kit and grabbing the car. "And I get to play with this first." Bruce agreed to the terms, and the crisis was averted.
In the next aisle over, Natasha was looking at the dolls. She had a toy sword like Thor's in her hand, and was torn over whether she wanted that or the baby doll that cried. She decided that she would just steal Thor's if she wanted it and chose the lifelike baby doll. Clint kept trying to stand by her, but she would take a few steps away and ignore him. He was confused.
Instead of asking her why she was mad, he decided to fight fire with fire. He grabbed the bow and arrow he'd picked out and started shooting her with the foam darts. He hit her in the shoulder, and she picked up the discarded sword and ran at him. She starts wailing on him, and pretty soon they're rolling on the ground. Pepper runs over and picks Natasha up off of Clint where she was sitting on his stomach and hitting his face with the sword.
"I thought you guys were friends," she said, laughing a little bit. Clint was sitting on the ground still when Phil and the rest of the kids joined them in the aisle.
"We are!" Clint said, clearly confused at the situation. His face was turning red again, and his eyebrows were scrunched together.
Natasha wriggled her way out of Pepper's hold and went to help Clint up. "I'm sorry I was mad at you. I still want to be your friend. I was mad at Tony," she said. Clint smiled and hugged her. Natasha hugged him back for a few seconds, before pulling away. She went to pick up the baby-doll she had dropped when she'd grabbed the sword.
The kids brought their selections up to the counter, and Phil paid for them. They didn't get bags, because they kids wanted to carry their own toys out of the mall. As promised, Happy was waiting by the door he'd dropped them off at. They all loaded in, and by the time they reached the interstate Natasha, Steve, and Bruce were asleep and the other three weren't far behind.
Review please! Reviews make me write faster.