Chapter Ten

Thank you all for reviewing and following and reading! This chapter is set a month after the last chapter and it is Molly's birthday!

"Happy birthday, sweetie," Steve picked up his niece and kissed her on the cheek. "How old are you? Two? Three?"

Molly giggled. "No! I'm eight! Where's Daddy?"

"He's getting changed then he's taking you to the zoo while we prepare for your birthday party." Steve said and Molly cheered and ran off. Steve walked into the kitchen and looked at Tony, who was fast asleep, his face in a bowl of cereal. "Should we wake him up?" He asked Clint. Clint hopped down from the fridge and glared.

"How did you know I was up there?"

"Heard you and should we wake him up?"

"He's exhausted." Pepper suddenly appeared by her boyfriend and poked his arm. Tony mumbled and snored. "He didn't come to bed last night and he stinks of coffee so I assume he stayed up all night in the lab or fixing his suit again."

"He was making me a new set of missile arrows yesterday. Has he finished them?" Clint asked eagerly.

"Hmm, how am I meant to know? I'm not his assistant. Oh wait…" Pepper rolled her eyes. "Go to his Ironman lab and see."

Clint skipped off happily, humming Happy Birthday. Steve sighed and glanced at Pepper. "I'll make some apple pie when Molly and Bruce go and who's making the cake?"

"Tony and Natasha." Pepper said. "They volunteered and I didn't have the heart to tell them not to even though they can't cook to save their lives." At Steve's face, she added, "I've also bought a three-tier chocolate and cream cake from a shop."

Steve laughed and Tony woke up. "Who's barking?" Tony muttered and as he rose, milk and cornflakes dripped off his face. "Who gave me a cereal facial?"

…

An hour later, Tony had showered, made more cereal and Natasha had joined him in the kitchen for the cake making. Bruce and Molly were at the zoo, Clint was preparing party games and music and Pepper and Steve were decorating. Thor had been kicked out of the party planning process after he broke Tony's CD player and ate all of the mini sausages.

"Right, Nat, do you know how to make a cake?" Tony asked as they both sat down at the table with coffee.

"Uh you put eggs, flour, sugar and butter in."

"Or chocolate."

"What?"

"Do you substitute flour for chocolate if it's a chocolate cake?"

"I don't think so…isn't flour to make it rise or something?"

"Oh yeah. Right so we need to put chocolate powder in as well as the flour."

"Okay, let's get started." Natasha said and got out a bowl. She put a tub of butter in the bowl. "It looks a bit disgusting."

"You're meant to blend everything with a whisk. That's what Pepper says anyway." Tony got out the whisk and almost chopped his finger off by turning it on. "Ah, Nat, you can do this bit."

"You're the technology person and it was your idea." Natasha said quickly and Tony whisked up the butter a bit. Then they poured flour in. "How much? About half a packet?" Tony nodded then blended it.

Then came a lot of sugar and three eggs. "Blend it again." Natasha advised him. When he did, it splattered everywhere. "Oops."

"Idea time! I have an idea! JARVIS do you know how to make a cake?"

"OH! Amazing idea!" Natasha eagerly looked up at the ceiling.

"Sorry sir, I'm afraid Miss Potts has forbidden me from telling you anything about cakes because she said and I quote 'Tony and Natasha insisted they could do it so don't give them any help'."

"Damn you, JARVIS." Tony scowled. "Okay then, how about if we put it in the tray now?"

"Chocolate!" Natasha remembered and poured some chocolate powder in the mixture. "These are looking good! Pepper is going to be so proud of us and Steve is too."

"And why would Steve being proud of us matter?" Tony smirked.

"Oh shut up. I just meant because he likes to bake."

"He's making apple pie."

"I love his apple pies."

"You love him."

"Shut up, Stark." Natasha shoved him. Tony shoved her back and she landed on the bag of chocolate powder. It exploded in her face and she shrieked. "You will DIE!" she yelled and threw flour at him.

Tony coughed and spluttered. "You will DIE EVEN MORE!" He yelled back and soon they were having a food fight, the abandoned cake mix standing, forgotten, on the table.

…..

Half an hour later, Tony finally remembered their job. "Truce, Tasha!" he called.

"Don't call me Tasha."

"Fine, truce though. The cake?"

"Oh shit yeah." Natasha looked at the cake mix. "It's not going to bake in time…."

"I have an idea."

"Your last idea failed because JARVIS is mean."

"No, Pepper is mean." Tony corrected her. "JARVIS is awesome. This idea will work trust me."

The bowl of cake mixture was carried into Tony's Ironman lab and he put it on the testing floor. "Machines, please heat up this cake mixture and make it into a cake in approximately twelve minutes. We need to go get changed and showered." Tony told Natasha.

"Is it okay to leave it here?"

"Trust me."

Famous last words.

…

Bruce and Molly came back a few minutes before all of Molly's friends from the orphanage arrived. The little girls swarmed the room and it had turned out that Molly had boasted all about her new family because everyone seemed to bother each Avenger about something.

Tony got attacked by little girls wanting to know about his Ironman suit. "Are you a robot?"

"What? No. I'm not a robot, as you can clearly see. Jesus, are you stupid?"

"Tony!" Pepper warned him then got bombarded with little girls herself.

"Are you and the robot married?"

"Ha. No."

"Molly said you love each other. And that you work for him. Has he got lots of money? This tower is huge! The elevator is so fast!"

Bruce was keeping out of sight in the kitchen, helping Steve add the finishing touches to the buffet. Soon, however, Steve was dragged out from the kitchen by Molly. "Look, this is my Uncle Steve and he was in World War Two."

"He's old! My Grandma was in World War Two!"

"I'm not old. I was frozen in time and I got unfrozen a couple of years back. It was quite unsettling actually. Anyway. Would you like to hear about my time in the war?"

"No! We want piggy backs!"

Clint and Natasha were in their battle position, back to back. Natasha smiled nervously at one boisterous girl. "Hi there. Please leave me alone."

"Why?" she asked.

"Because," Clint said. "She's an ogre in disguise and if you get close she'll eat you up for lunch!" The little girls squealed and ran off, pestering Thor about Asgard and aliens and hammers and Loki and asking to be carried around.

"Thanks." Natasha said. "I hate kids. Except Molly, of course."

"Don't you want kids someday?"

"No."

"Not even with Steve?"

"I do not fancy Steve. I had this conversation with Tony this morning."

"Oh yeah, how's the cake?" Clint grinned. He knew how bad his friends were at baking and he couldn't wait to taste the monstrosity that would be their cake. Natasha looked confused then ran off.

"Stark!" she hissed. "The cake!" Tony quickly followed her to the Ironman lab.

"It'll be fine. The machines would have stopped baking it by now."

"Hmm." She was unconvinced and as they reached the lab, Tony stared at the smoke surrounding the cake. "Uh, Tony?"

"Yes?"

Natasha hit him on the arm and ran forward to the cake. "It's black! Oh God!"

"Sir we baked the cake in twelve minutes like you asked." Came a robotic voice.

"How many goddamn robots have you got?" Natasha snarled and threw the cake at Tony. A robot caught it before it could hit him.

"Please refrain from throwing our cake at Mr Stark." The robot said.

"Only a few. Thanks, Bucks."

"Bucks?"

"I named it Bucky. I made it the other week. It's clever but not as clever as JARVIS. Speaking of which, JARVIS please tell Pepper that there has been a malfunction with Molly's birthday cake and she can serve the cake she bought now. Also tell her that I will listen to her being smug later and not to be unbearable until I've had a couple of vodkas."

"Oh I think I'll be smug now." Pepper said from the doorway. Her and Steve were looking at the black cake in the robot's hands. "Is that it?"

"The malfunction?" Steve raised an eyebrow. He was definitely spending too much time with Pepper, Tony decided. He preferred the old shy and quiet Steve, not this new snarky one.

"Yes." Natasha said defiantly. "Shall we go upstairs? Molly will be missing us."

They went upstairs, Tony whispering to Pepper about how sweet Natasha and Steve were together and Steve staring at Natasha. When they reached the living room, they stopped and stared at the chaos. Thor was on the floor, covered in screaming little girls demanding for him to play with them. Bruce was playing Disney songs full blast, attempting to get everyone to play Musical Bumps and Clint was hanging, upside-down, from a ceiling tile, being hit with a plastic baseball bat.

"I always thought he'd be a great piñata."