Bruce eventually gets to their table, handing the sheet out and watching as the older blonde boy grabs it. He eyes them, but they seem to be doing fine, so he moves on, passing out the remaining papers before circling back to the microphone.
"Alright, you may begin! Remember to pass the paper along after each question, and everyone has to answer each one."
He steps back and watches as the kids settle in.
—
Clint grabs the paper and looks it over. There are 20 questions and 5 of them, so each person gets to ask four. He looks at the first question and rolls his eyes.
"Alright," he says, eyeing the group, "the first groundbreaking question is… How old are you?"
The answers come quickly.
Tony: "I'm 18"
Clint: "I'm 17"
Natasha: "I'm 16"
Bucky: "Hey me too! I'm 16."
Their eyes turn towards Steve whose face is flushed red, and head cocked slightly to the left. "Oh.. I'm uh, I'm almost 15. This July."
"'You're 14?" Tony asks a bit skeptically, "Well, honestly I thought you could have been like 12. I mean not in a mean way you're just…"
Clint watches as Steve winces. "Yeah, I've always been a bit behind on the growth spurts." He looks down at his hands and Clint jumps in.
Clint passes the paper to Natasha, who takes it gingerly studying question number two.
"Where were you born and where would you like to live if you could live anywhere?"
This one makes them pause a bit, but Steve is the first one to answer.
"I was born here in Brooklyn, and my ma always—" he cuts off and clears his throat. "The ocean, I think I want to live near the ocean."
They consider this and Tony is speaking next. "I was born in Manhattan, and I want to live somewhere sunny, probably Malibu."
"Russia," Natasha says quietly, "And I want to live in London someday." Surprise flits across the collective group but Bucky speaks next, breaking the silence.
"I was born here in Brooklyn too, and I think I wanna live here forever. No better borough or city in the world."
"Iowa." Clint chimes in, "I want to travel, never live anywhere for too long, but I do prefer the mountains."
They sit there, digesting the information and Natasha passes the paper to Tony.
—
Tony regards out the third question with a roll of his eyes. "What is your most frequently used app your phone?"
He clicks his phone open to a programming app. "I made this app as a way to work on the AI I'm developing. Takes up most of my time." He clicks his phone off and looks at Natasha who stares at her phone that rests on her thigh.
"Probably the messaging app, SHIELD?" He nods, his dad had actually had a hand in developing the security protocols and programming for that app.
Clint just whips out a flip phone and laughs. "I don't really use apps. I do text a lot though."
Tony groans and snags the phone from his hands. "You're using this kind of technology? This is ancient, like when dinosaurs ruled the earth, man."
"Hey," Clint acts affronted, but just chuckles, "Not all of us can afford fancy StarkPhones."
"StarkPhones?" Steve says in a small voice. "Like your last name?"
Tony's eyes widen and it hits him that the kid wasn't pretending or being nonchalant, he actually didn't know.
"Yeah, my dad helped develop a phone."
"Oh." For some unknowable reason, Steve's cheeks tinge red.
Bucky takes that at his cue and brings out his phone. "I've been playing this new game, I'll be honest with you, I'm a little addicted. It's called Hail Hydra. And you have to fight all these crazy mad-scientist nazi villains and its set in like the 1940's. You can be a super soldier who's like crazy strong or like an undercover spy. Definitely takes up the majority of my screen time."
Tony makes a mental note to check out that game before turning to Steve whose cheeks are flushing darker red.
"I—" he swallows and his eyes don't meet there's, "probably just texting the most."
Tony's not an idiot. But he pretends to be in order to help the kid out.
"Okay, next question. Barnes?" Tony hands the paper over.
—-
Bucky reads the fourth question, "What is your favorite thing to do over the weekends?"
He waits but when no answer is immediately forthcoming he decides to answer first.
"I love going to baseball games, sometimes with my dad or little sister."
He watches as Steve's head, which was tilted to the left, snaps back straight, "You've been to a baseball game?" The incredulous tone of his voice has the others looking at him.
"Yeah, a Yankees game just a few weeks ago." Steve's eyes actually twinkle and he smiles.
"Wow, that's so cool." Steve leans back, his head tilting back to the side and Bucky watches as Clint and Natasha share a look.
Tony scratches at the back of his neck. "I like working in my lab, or hanging out with my friends."
Natasha still has her eyes on Steve as she speaks. "I enjoy exploring the city, and finding new cool places to hang out."
Clint twists his fork in his fingers, looking at the ceiling, "I like finding the highest points I can, roofs, or fire escapes or whatever, and just watching the city."
He's about to hand the paper off to Steve when he realizes he didn't answer the question. "What about you, Steve?"
"Oh, I like to charcoal draw mostly, or paint if I can find—" He cuts himself off, "Or exploring the city too." He avoids their gaze and takes the paper from Bucky.
He looks at it for a moment and all four of them watch as his cheeks flush yet again. His eyes glance up at them, and seeing their gaze on him makes him flush deeper. He looks back at the paper, and Bucky watches as he squints, pulling the paper ever so slightly closer to his face.
"Would—" he starts. He rubs his eyes as if he has something in them and brings the paper even closer. "Would you rather dance or sing in front of people?" He rushes through the question and quickly sets the paper back in front of Clint. His head tilting back to the left.
"Dance." Comes Natasha's quick answer.
"Dance." Clint says easily.
"Neither." Tony says, challenging them to question his answer. They don't.
"My answer is dance too." Bucky adds.
The look at Steve who scrunches his nose. "Sing. I can't dance to save my life."
—
Steve tries not to feel embarrassed that the print is killer on his eyes. It's small and printed close together, making it really hard to read. He looks up to notice the four of them staring at him. His cheeks heat up and he can feel the warmth rising. He tries not to feel a sense of dread at having to read three more questions.
—-
Natasha sits back, her fingers resting lightly on the table. Something about Clint disarms her, it's like he's observing everything and can read her thoughts through a single look. While that's frightening, it's also a new puzzle that she can't help wonder about.
Not that what she's been thinking about is very hard to decipher. If the looks around the table are any indication, they're all thinking along the same lines. Why doesn't this kid have glasses?
She watches as Clint asks the 6th question. But he doesn't relinquish the paper. He suddenly somehow has a pencil in his hands and he's twiddling it between his middle and pointer finger.
"What's your preferred drink of choice?" He asks, staring at Bucky, indicating for him to answer first. While Bucky speaks, she watches as Clint starts writing something on the paper with barely a glance downward. He does it while everyone else is talking and if she didn't know any better, she would assume he was just a fidgeter, a doodler. That his brain was talking but his hands were keeping occupied.
It's not until the paper is in her hands that she sees he's rewritten a few of the questions in large letters, little squiggles and doodles around them, making it look like he was just copying words at random. Like kids do in textbooks. She can't help but notice that all three of Steve's questions are included in the bunch. Something in her heart softens and she can't help but feel the corner of her mouth quirk up as she looks at her next question.
—