A/N: Just a short one to break into June. :-) I think I mentioned a looooong time ago, like, a year ago, Bruce and Maggie going to IHOP, and for some reason, I've just always assumed that was something they liked to do together? So, yay, IHOP date time!

Thanks for all the faves, follows, and reviews! You guys are all sweeter than maple syrup. :D


Bruce wasn't sure why, but Maggie, in all her energy and craziness, was actually very calming for him.

At the age of four and a half, she was always up to some kind of mischief, of course, that was a given - after all, she was the daughter of top-spy-but-actual-dork Natasha Romanoff and innocent-kid-always-looking-for-trouble Steve Rogers. The two co-leaders of the Avengers, their individual ages easily surpassing everyone else's, save for Thor. Two youngsters who lost their lives to a time warp. And, despite all that, they turned out to be quite goofy, as seen by the reflection of both of them in Maggie.

So, that was how Bruce ended up spending the longest period of time alone with Maggie he had to date today - an IHOP lunch date with the kid.

He had been feeling stressed and exhausted after the Avengers' most recent mission, which had quickly gone 'Code Green.' The mission itself wasn't too bad, but sometimes part of the de-Hulking process, he just needed a reminder that he was still human. Maggie tended to help with that.

As the polite waitress led them to a booth, Maggie happily climbed into one side, Bruce sitting across the table from her. She was up on her knees, leaning over the wooden surface, in an instant, her eyes following the movement of the waitress as she laid the menus down, followed by a box of crayons for Maggie.

"I'll be back in a few minutes for drink orders," the young woman said politely before walking away to see to her other tables.

Bruce immediately snatched the kids menu before Maggie could deface it with her crayons. "Okay, Maggie, what do you want to eat?"

"Chocolate chip pancakes!" she answered without hesitation, staring intently at the small cardboard box of crayons as she carefully pried it open with her fingers.

"What do you want with your pancakes?" Bruce inquired next, pulling out his glasses so he could read the fun print. He had a feeling Natasha and Steve may kill him for bringing Maggie back on a sugar rush, but, oh, whatever. "You can have scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns-"

"I want bacon, like Daddy makes," Maggie insisted, now reaching for the paper. "Uncle Brucie, I wanna color."

With a chuckle, Bruce returned the menu to her, watching as she slapped it down to the table and began studying it. He then turned to his own menu, and figured out what he should order.

The waitress returned about a minute later, as she promised, and Bruce realized he had forgotten to ask Maggie what she wanted to drink.

"I want juice," she decided when the waitress prompted them.

"What kind of juice, hon?" the woman asked with an amused smile, glancing over at Bruce momentarily as if to comment on how adorable she was finding Maggie.

Bruce could only smirk knowingly, wondering what most people would say if they found out who Maggie's parents really were. Would that make her more or less cute? he wondered to himself.

"Um, I don't know," Maggie admitted, turning shyly to Bruce. "Uncle Brucie, I don't know."

"She'll have apple juice," Bruce answered for her, which Maggie immediately approved of with an aggressive nod. She took simple things like food way too seriously sometimes. "I'll just have water, myself."

"Okay," the dark haired woman nodded, jotting down the easy requests, "are you also ready to order your meals?"

"I think so," Bruce decided. "She'll have a stack of three chocolate chip pancakes, made with the buttermilk batter, with a side of bacon."

"How many pieces of bacon does she want? Two or four?"

Bruce looked to Maggie, who answered confidently, "One."

"I guess that means two, then," he translated, amused. "I'll have a stack of three pancakes, with hash browns."

"Alright, I'll have your drinks out here in a sec, and your food in a little bit," she promised, taking the menu Bruce was offering back to her and walking away.

"Uncle Brucie, help," Maggie requested as soon as she was gone. "Where does the maze start?"

Bruce leaned over so he could get a better look, still wearing his reading glasses. "I think it starts there." He pointed to the spot that said 'START.'

"Oh, okay."

The maze occupied Maggie for a while, and it was very entertaining to watch. She didn't follow the rules at all. For one thing, she drew lines through the barriers as if they weren't there, which Bruce questioned curiously.

"I'm an Avenger, I can go where I want," she explained, not even bothering to look up from her paper.

Bruce figured she meant something along the lines of being an Avenger gave her the power to break through all walls and barriers in her way. He reflected briefly on Steve, and how he tended to, literally, run through obstacles on his path during a chase. The soldier had recapped the story of Fury's supposed 'death' and his subsequent chase after Bucky through the building next to his apartment, which included a lot of barreling through obstacles and knocking things over. In this moment, Bruce could definitely see the Steve in Maggie, as he also thought back on her own clumsy, jittery behavior.

His fingertip lingered on the paper a moment longer, before sliding over to another part. "Okay… Then what's that line?"

He pointed to where she had drawn a line from the 'START' point around the entire maze, looping around the puzzle and just ending lazily in the 'FINISH' area.

"I walked around," Maggie answered simply, now coloring in the puzzle with another color.

And then there was the Natasha in Maggie.

Bruce just shook his head with an amused chuckle. Maggie always had this laid-backness about her that was refreshing, even in her high moments. She didn't seem to take herself or the world too seriously, while still taking it very seriously in that four-year-old way at the same time. Such a paradox could only be described as childhood innocence, Bruce figured.

The waitress returned, dropping off their respective drinks, and admiring little Maggie once more. Bruce had a feeling once Maggie grew mature enough to recognize how others could be caught up in her charm, she may begin using that to her advantage for mischief. Hell, she'd already been doing that with all of the Avengers ever since she could talk.

Suddenly, Maggie looked up at Bruce with an elated expression. "Uncle Brucie, Daddy taught me a new game."

Following her excitement, Bruce raised his eyebrows curiously. "Really? What'd he teach you?"

"Tic-tac-toe!"

That must have been an interesting lesson with Maggie, Bruce reflected. Teaching her how to match three symbols in a row vertically, horizontally, or diagonally, while knowing how to prevent your opponent from winning, must have been an adventure. Steve was especially patient with her, though, which was probably why he was able to accomplish it. (He claimed to have mastered this patience by just interacting with Natasha over the years, even from the time of their simple mission partnership; Bruce had a feeling Natasha would probably kill Steve if his words ever reached her.)

"That's a very fun game. Do you want to play?" Bruce smiled, sharing her enthusiasm.

"Uh-huh, I can draw it." Maggie nodded, looking up at Bruce, then her paper again. "Uncle Brucie, watch."

"I'm watching," he assured her.

She managed to draw the four lines pretty well for a four and a half year old, Bruce assessed. He was impressed, and complimented her.

"Those are very nice lines, Maggie."

She nodded happily. "Do you wanna be 'X's or 'O's?" she asked next, looking up at him again.

"I'll be whichever one you don't want to be," Bruce answered, but then clarified. "You choose first."

"Okay… I wanna be 'O,' 'cause that's the shape of Daddy's shield."

Bruce wondered if Steve had had a hand in Maggie making that connection in her mind. He smiled as Maggie offered him a green crayon. "That's nice. I'll be 'X,' then. Do you know any words that start with 'x'?"

Even though she wasn't really in school yet, Bruce liked to get Maggie's brain going with some basic concepts of numbers and letters. She already knew her alphabet and was quickly learning how to count to one hundred, the latter being mostly a courtesy of himself and Tony. ("Kids these days learn how to count to, like, ten in kindergarten. Maggie's going to blow all of them out of the water, Banner and I are making sure of it," Tony had told Natasha and Steve when Maggie surprised them with the sudden growth of her counting ability.)

"X-ray!" Maggie answered excitedly. "It's the thing when doctors can see bones."

Offering her a high-five, Bruce nodded and smiled his approval. "Very good, Maggie. You're super smart."

She clapped his hand enthusiastically. "Mama taught me about x-rays 'cause we saw it on TV."

"Well, your mom is also very smart," Bruce commented. "So is your dad, for that matter."

"I wanna be smarter," Maggie announced, and Bruce wondered if she would actually try to reach that level some day. "Can we play now?"

It was kind of torturous, leaving Maggie hanging like this when she wanted to play a game. Bruce laughed a little. "Yes, yes, go ahead; you can make the first move."

"'Kay." Maggie didn't hesitate at all, marking the middle box as her territory. Bruce thought that to be a smart move for a four year old, as it meant she was able to make three in a row in any way and from anywhere she liked.

He then decided to just play along casually with her, and not try to turn this into a huge mind game. With his green crayon against her blue, he marked the box to the right of hers.

She frowned as she studied the new move, before going for the box above his, diagonally up and to the right of her initial middle box. Bruce cut off her diagonal three in a row with an 'x' in the lower left-hand corner box.

It was getting intense now. Or, at least, judging by the look on Maggie's face. Her frown deepened thoughtfully as she marked the box above the middle, above her first mark and to the left of her second. Bruce then stopped both her potential diagonal and horizontal lines with a mark in the top left-hand corner box, wondering if she was able to see all the possible outcomes and ways to win with each turn. He made a mental note to later research if anyone had ever conducted studies on human development by playing tic-tac-toe with four year olds. Maggie had a chance to either win right now, or block Bruce's growing row of three. He wanted Maggie to win, honestly.

Just as he had hoped, Maggie grabbed victory, as opposed to getting caught up in the idea of blocking Bruce's potential three in a row. She went for the lowest box in the middle column, making three in a row vertically.

Bruce later reflected on how accurate of a testament this move choice was to Maggie's personality. She had been given the choice of either winning by spotting her chance, or being so caught up in the actions of others that she focused on blocking them out, which would ultimately prevent her from winning as well. That was just how Maggie was - she loved to win more than she loved to beat others, if that made sense. To Bruce, at least, it did.

Though, then again, this was just a game of tic-tac-toe with a four year old, not a psychoanalysis of Maggie's way of thinking.

"Ha! I won!" Maggie cheered, shooting both hands up above her head victoriously. Bruce chuckled good-naturedly at the sight.

"Congratulations, Maggie," he offered, then thought this moment was too cute of one to pass up for a photo to later look back on. "Do you want to take a picture to send to your mom and dad?"

Maggie nodded excitedly, grabbing the children's menu and holding it up for Bruce to see. She was practically beaming as Bruce retrieved his phone from his pocket, and took a picture to send to the others.

"You hafta tell them that I won," Maggie reminded him, and he nodded as he typed the message out to the other Avengers.

"Don't worry, Maggie, I will," he assured her.

After that exchange, their food arrived, and Bruce just sighed as he watched Maggie dig into her syrup-heavy pancakes. (Bruce poured the syrup for her, promising only to stop when she commanded he do so - unfortunately, she really loved maple syrup, so her pancakes were soaked in it by the time Bruce forced her to say stop. Not to mention, she already had chocolate chips in her pancakes. What more could she want?) He knew going in he would have to deal with a sticky and hyper child afterward, but, now that he was at that point, he found himself not feeling as compelled to tackle that today.