Chapter 23 got split into two chapters. Don't know why, fanfiction kept posting it as html when I posted it together. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

"Alright, next one." Ava looks to see both assassin and mercenary listening intently. "I'm tall when I'm young, and I'm short when I'm old. What am I?"

Barnes eyes glaze over as he stares into the corner mouthing the words.

"Okay, okay, okay. Tall when I'm young. Don't give me any hints!" Wade taps his chin. "Tall when I'm young."

Elli arranges a pack of skittles into their respective colors while she waits.

"Tall when I'm young," Wade looks up at the ceiling. "Short when I'm young. Am I a giraffe? Wait no that doesn't make sense."

"Am I a type animal?" Barnes looks up.

"Nope." Elli pops the 'p' while the assassin nods to himself.

"Hey! No hints!"

"A candle."

"You got it!" Elli adds a tally under Barnes' name as Wade complains.

"Okay," the small girl bites her lips as she thinks. "What is something you have, but once you tell someone about it, it's gone?"

"What the hell, how the hell—" Barnes smacks Wade upside the head.

"No swearing in front of the kid."

Grumbling, Wade rocks back and forth as Barnes resumes his stare into the corner.

"Gah!" The mercenary throws his arms into the air before falling onto his back. "I hate riddles!"

"Wade!" A loud whisper has his eyebrow up as he lifts his head to look at the Stark child. Once she had his attention, she cups her hands around her mouth and pretends to speak in someone's ear.

"Oh! Oh! Oh!" He sits up fast and points at her. "A rumor!"

She shakes her head.

"Wait, no. Wait, a—"

"A secret!" Barnes interjects.

"GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!"

~~~~~oOo~~~~~

Tony sat at the table opposite Fury waiting for the man to finish reading Maria's report. Then he could finally leave this flying hunk of junk.

"Quit fidgeting." The genius stopped spinning in his chair to see Fury's eye looking at him over the data pad.

"I'm not fidgeting," Tony mumbled to himself as his phone began to ring.

"Green bean! What's up?"

"Elli stepped out." Tony could practically see the air quotes.

"What does that mean."

"Means she created a portal and is somewhere on the helicarrier." The man paused. "I hope."

"JARVIS scan the helicarrier's cameras," Tony stands up pinching his nose as Fury puts down the report having caught the last of what was said. Waiting for JARVIS, the genius scans the room, his eyes landing on the monitor of what should have been the security feed for the two prisoners.

"Fury, I swear to Thor if that is the same man playing Galaga…"

~~~~~oOo~~~~~

"See this one looks like a Laffey taffy!"

"That's so cool!" Wade takes the bundle of rubberbands in his hand to inspect it.

Barnes wasn't sure when, but at some point, the child had stuck her hand into a portal and pulled out a box, Wonderloom in bright rainbow letters informing him of its contents. She pulled out a circle of rubber bands woven together.

"And I can make bracelets too! Want one?"

"HEL-I MEAN HECK YEAH I DO!" Wade sticks his arm out to receive a pink, purple, and white bracelet. "It's beautiful, I'll wear it forever!"

"Do you want one mister Barnes?" Jumping at his name, the Winter Soldier looks down to see big golden eyes staring up at him. He can't do anything but stick his arm out and nod.

Grinning, the youngest Stark slides a rainbow bracelet onto his wrist before showing him her matching one.

"ELLI!" The door slams open as Stark and Director Fury storm in.

"Daddy! Papa!" Running through the glass, Elli jumps into her father's arms. "We had a tea party!"

Clinging to her tightly, Tony breathes her in, knowing she is safe as he tries not to yell.

"Eleanor Maria Stark, what did I say about having tea parties with prisoners?" He pulls her out of his arms and stares at her as she somewhat deflates. Barnes raises an eyebrow; this has happened before?

"That it's dangerous and not to do it?" He nods.

"And what did I say would happen if you did it again?" A pout that nearly breaks him trembles on her lower lip.

"That I would be grounded for a week."

He nods.

"And you'll apologize to Bruce when we get home. That wasn't fair of you to leave without asking his permission."

"I'm sorry," Elli sniffles and rubs her eyes as her father picks her up.

"It's okay, baby girl. We're just gonna work on not doing that again, right?"

She nods into his shoulder as he glares at the two men now in the same cell. His eyes widen at the number of wrappers on the ground.

"How much candy did you eat!?"

"Oh, sorry," Wade finishes a KitKat and drops yet another wrapper on the ground. "That was mostly me. Kid's got good taste in snacks."

~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~

Thanks for sticking with me and reading! Also, I've started crossposting this story on archiveofourown-same author name. I really like the format on that site but I also wanted to rewrite some chapters while I'm uploading it there. (like small rewrites, nothing drastic I just think you can really tell the difference in how comfortable I am writing between new and older chapters). I'll still post on both platforms and this version will be finished-eventually lol.

Also, did anyone else know that wonderlooms are making a comeback? Like Bucky, I'm rocking a sweet rainbow rubberband bracelet as a grown ass adult and I AM LOVING IT