Sorry if I panicked you guys for not updating... I updated a lot last week and didn't have it in me to do ANOTHER... sorry, sorry

I own nothing recognizable


If Natasha was being honest with herself, she was very very surprised.

After Steve had panicked and left, she decided to lay some ground-work. Thus, she turned to her "guests" with a stern glare set in her eyes. "All right." She growled. Somehow, they responded to her emotionless command without a flinch and with full respect. "We are the Avengers. We do not want to hurt you. However, if you pose a threat, I will not hesitate to bring you down. We are the authority, and you will listen to us. We're trying to find a way for you to go home, but in the meantime we are your… guardians and you will do what we say. If you cannot go home, I don't know what we'll do, but you will become part of this world and will abide by its laws. Understood?"

Without hesitation, the kids nodded. "Yes, Ms. Widow." Knightingale said for his siblings.

She nodded with narrowed eyes, taking a seat beside the cot. "Now, you need to eat or you will not heal." She held up the bowl. Knightingale looked at it warily before suddenly falling limp with a whimper. He drew his cast encased arm to his chest and bit his lip, his starry eyes shimmering.

Natasha had no idea what this meant, and wasn't sure if she were to take it as a good or a bad sign. As if reading her thoughts, someone snorted.

"That mean he likes you. Then again, he's never been able to resist a red-head."

She spun, ready to attack, to find the red-head from earlier leaning on the door-frame. He sighed, strutting over and snatching the bowl from her hands. "Birdy…" he sang, "You need to eat."

Knightingale lifted his chin, blinking before smiling slightly. "R-BA…"

Broken Arrow smiled in response, lifting the spoon into the little guy's mouth. He continued to talk to Natasha as he did so. "I guess you remind them of Bats- I can tell her, right K?"

"Mm hmm…" Knightingale permitted.

"Ok, so I guess you remind them of Bats. He's their… uh, well… mentor-guardian-dad?"

"Yeah, I know." Natasha recalled her "chat" with Echo.

"How'd you know?" Broken Arrow paused feeding his mini friend. Natasha sighed.

"No reason."

"Echo." Blood Jay rolled his eyes. "I'm going to kill him…"

Broken Arrow shrugged and continued. "Anyway, I guess you remind them of Bats a lot. They never trust this easily. Although they do have a strange liking for that assassin-chic Bats is always getting lovey-dovey with-"

"Talia. I like Talia. She's like a snake. She taught me how to kill someone with a plastic spork- fifteen different ways." Knightingale mused suddenly. "Of course, Dad got mad at her so she taught me how to knock people unconscious with a spoon twenty different ways instead. She also taught me how ride a camel."

Natasha tried to hide her surprise and bewilderment. She hoped it worked. Broken Arrow suddenly handed her the bowl. "Uh…" she took it. He smirked.

"Try feeding it to him. It tis the true test of his trust." He said the last part dramatically as if reciting Shakespeare.

Widow grit her teeth, trying to make it look annoyed instead of the actual nervousness. Knight, Jay, and Silver Bat watched her with hawk eyes- ch, the irony, as she scooped a spoon and held it out to the Knight, who was now quite obviously in pain.

She was honestly surprised when he accepted the spoon. Broken Arrow grinned. "Yeah. I don't even know how you did it. Took me months before they'd even show they were in pain around me. Unfortunately, it didn't help that time when Rob had a sprained wrist but wouldn't tell anybody- even when he did handsprings."


The sight Steve beheld was truly a miracle. It was Black Widow sitting on the cot feeding Knightingale, who actually looked somewhat like a normal child in the same predicament. Somewhat. Most would be dead.

Anywho… he didn't understand how it had happened in the few short moments he'd been absent, but was certainly glad it had. The sooner the kids opened up the sooner they could sort all this crap out. He set his jaw, and, not wanting to disrupt the painfully fragile situation, slipped out to check to make sure Tony was doing is job. He made his way to the man's lab, where he found him listening to music as he focused on the screen before him.

Steve sighed, continuing to the kitchen where he was notified that he had a message. He took it, and mentally screamed in panic when the face that dominated the pixels of his screen belonged to a certain director of SHIELD.

"Captain America."

"Director Fury." Steve replied curtly.

"We have reason to believe you came in contact with a SHIELD project."

"I do not recall. Would you be so kind as to elaborate for me, Director?" Steve asked politely,

"Five Universal Anomalies. UA's, if you will. We believe they may have come in contact with the Tesseract, and are a potential threat. We, on behalf of the government, demand any knowledge or resources regarding them, Captain." Fury said silkily.

"Uh… I do not believe we have anything."

"We know you have them. The data signatures prove it." All silkiness was gone now.

"What? I don't understand-"

"Hand them over, or we will have to take them by force."

"They're just kids!" Steve growled.

"So you admit you have custody of them?"

"What?! No! I- you can't-"

"We'll be there in twenty, Rogers, you better be ready."

Director Fury hung up, and Steve sighed in regret. He looked up and called one of his favorite lines: "Avengers, Assemble!"

No way was Fury touching them.


Again, sorry!

Thank you to all who have, but once again I plead: pleeeease review! Thanks!

~Universe

RESPONSES:

JaggerK: Why thank you! And I can't wait either! First we have to deal with SHIELD, then a nice heart-to-heart, and then... TROLL! Can't wait XD

MusicLyric: Just did! (:

BirdFlashIsNotAThing: XD Well if you need ANY help I would absolutely love to do so! And if you just wanna' spit it out I'll do all the editing and polishing for you... keep it up! I love your stories a ton!

Rocker on: Yeah, well, you somehow are way better at this than me 'cause your ideas are awesome. However, unfortunately this was my idea. Yours are awesome!

dizzydaisy37: Thank you!

I'z Nightwing: Lol, so, uh, I tried to read them but I couldn't find them. Try putting spaces, and I'll LOVE to read them!

Bright Anarchy: Haha! Thanks, you're totally right. And I definitely can't wait until the next chapter of Tesseract Child, 'cause seriously, it's amazing!

Princess0Bunny: Me to. It will happen. It HAS to. XD

19-1037992: Whoa... that name was hard to type out. :D As for your review, why thank you! Oh, and I honestly don't mind what kind of fic it is, this is just one of my "see where the story takes me"s. I have a total awesome one all planned out, I'm just way totally having writers block on that one. So if it's a crack-fic, so be it! T^T Thanks for the criticism! (:

guest: NEVAH!

Guest: Will do, and yes, Wall is Echo! Thank you for reviewing!