I glance at my selection of t-shirts trying to figure out what to wear to dinner. I shake my head. I'm having dinner with the Avengers. Rhodey and Kayla were suppose to come but he decided to let her get settled at his place and not to overwhelm her. Lucky her. I always thought it would be a gradual meeting, not like this. At least some of them have kids.

I turn my head as I hear a knock on my door, "Come in."

Pepper smiles as she enters my room, "Hey, I just wanted" her smile falters a brief moment as I realize that I'm shirtless and she can see the damage the last couple of months did to me, "to tell you that people are going to arrive soon."

"Um...thanks," I mumble, kind of impressed she managed to conceal her reaction at the bruises on my ribs.

She gestured towards the bed, "Do you want help? What you had on earlier was fine, except the paint fo course."

I rub the back of my neck, "Yeah, I know. I'm uh…"

"Nervous?"

I nod.

She walks in and takes my "I'm Not A Nerd. I'm just Smarter than You." t-shirt that Tony bought me and hand's it to me, "Don't be. Be yourself. They're all going to love you."

I nod, "Thanks."

We're silent for a few moments before I say, "None of them are recent. They were a few weeks ago."

"I know, I can tell by the coloring. That still doesn't change the damage. Did they hit you often?"

I swallow, "Only when I broke rules. And a lot more at the beginning "

She nods and pulls me into a hug, "That's never happening again."

"I know."

She looks me in the eyes, "If you ever want to talk, Tony and I are willing to listen."

I nod, "Thanks."

She looks at me satisfied and gestures towards the shirt, "Get dressed. I'll have Bruce check you out tomorrow."

I nod as I grab the shirt, "Ok."

She walks out and leaves me to get dressed.

Ten minutes later I emerge from my room to find Morgan bouncing impatiently on the couch.

She groans dramatically at Tony, "Daddy, when are they going to get here? I want to play with Nate!"

"They get here when they get here," Tony says with a smirk growing on his face.

I raise an eyebrow as I go to sit next to Morgan on the couch, "The Incredibles? Really? I would've never pegged Tony Stark as that guy."

He glares, "Yeah, well, tell anybody and you're dead."

I smirk and was about too retort when the elevator door rang. I looked up to see Sam, a guy with long straggly hair and a metal arm, a woman with long red hair, and a timid looking man walk through the door.

Tony turns and grins, "What's up guys?"

Morgan screams, "Auntie Tasha!" as she runs over to the woman, who quickly scoops her.

"Hi детка. How was your trip?"

She shrugs, "Alright."

Sam looked over at her, "What, the rest of us don't get a greeting after you scare us half to death?"

"Sorry Uncle Sam," she said as she reaches over to hug him.

"You too Uncle Bucky and Uncle Bruce," she said giving them smiles.

My eyebrows raise at that. I squint at the timid guy and I'm surprised to see Dr. Banner back to his human self, and that his arm is around the Black Widow.

Tony claps his hands as he walks over to greet his friends and take his daughter back, "Well now that you guys have seen Morgan's alive and well, you can go now."

"He's kidding," Pepper says as she walks over to greet them.

"No I wasn't," Tony shoots back as Peter and Harley run over to say hi.

I hang back awkwardly watching them. They all look...normal. It's weird.

Tony glances back in my direction when he sees that I hadn't immediately come over. He shoots me a smile and clears his throat, "Nat, I want to introduce you guys to someone. I was going to wait until everyone else arrives but people with kids are never on time so, Nat meet AJ. J, this is Natasha Romanoff."

"AKA the Black Widow," Peter chimes in before Harley elbows him in the side.

I extend my hand, "Nice to meet you Miss Romanoff."

She smiles at me, "Bruce was right, you are way more polite than your father. You can call me Natasha."

"Uh cool," I say.

Tony turns to whom I presume is Bucky and says, "And this is Bucky Barnes. You've already met Sam and Bruce."

"Nice to meet you Mr. Barnes," I say shaking his human hand, even though I really wanted to shake the metal one.

"Call me Bucky," he says kindly.

I nod to Sam and turn to Bruce, "It's nice to see you again Dr. Banner. Did you do something different with your…" I gesture to his body, "...everything?"

Natasha chuckles as Bruce blushes, "Yeah Tony. He's yours."

Bruce ignores the two, "I suppose I did. Hulk and I worked it out."

"That's good," I say awkwardly, looking downwards.

I look up when the elevator door opens again and everyone turns around to see a man with sandy blonde hair, a woman with long brown hair, a teenaged boy and girl, and a little boy.

Morgan wiggled out of Tony's grip and her face broke out into a huge grin, "Nate!"

The little boy, apparently named Nate, grinned and ran forward to greet Morgan, "Hi Morgan! Can we go play?"

Morgan looked like she was about to say yes when she spotted her mother's look from the corner of her eye. She shakes her head sadly at Nate, "Not yet. We have to wait until after dinner."

He nods understanding his smile dimming a little.

"Hey wait, I want you to meet someone," Morgan says and starts to drag him towards me.

"This is my brother AJ," she says happily.

He smiles up at me, "Hi, I'm Nate."

I give him a small wave, "AJ."

He glances behind him and gestures to his siblings, "That's my brother Cooper and my sister Lila."

They walk over as well with their parents behind them coming to greet the rest of the adults.

Lila smiles at me, "Nice to meet you AJ."

I nod, "You too."

Cooper nods and I nod back.

Peter and Harley come over and greet Cooper and Lila with grins as well. They start talking about something but I'm not really paying attention. I'm staring at their dad and he looks familiar.

Tony breaks my thoughts by saying, "AJ, this is Clint Barton and his wife Laura. You've already met their kids. Bartons, this is my son AJ."

I give them a smile, "Hi. It's nice to meet you Mr. and Mrs. Barton."

Clint grins, "You can call me Clint. You're much more polite than my kids."

"Hey," Cooper says playfully glaring at his dad.

Clint grins back, "I wish I could say I was kidding."

"He's older, that doesn't count!"

"We don't know that," he says turning back to me, "AJ, how old are you?"

"14. I'll be fifteen in January."

"Ha! He's only a few months older than you. Therefore, you have no excuse!"

"You raised me," Cooper says.

"Your m-" Clint stops short when he says Laura glaring at him. Natasha starts to laugh her friend's predicament.

Laura glares at Clint and Cooper before turning to me and saying, "Anyways...AJ it's lovely to meet you."

"You two ma'am," I say.

I see Clint mouth something to Cooper which then gets him a smack from Natasha.

"What was that for?!"

"For acting like a child," she says calmly.

"Speaking of kids," Pepper says with a smile at us, "Why don't you guys go hang out on the rec floor? Friday will tell you guys when dinner's ready."

Peter smiles, "Come on guys."

I follow them slowly to the stairs, still feeling a little bit left out. I'm surprised when Cooper walks over to me.

"So, have you always been this polite?"

I shrug, "Only when I want to make an impression. My mother would've killed me if I wasn't a gentleman."

He nods, "My mom almost did."

"I know," I chuckle.

We enter the stair way where everyone else had rushed down.

He clears his throat, "Thanks for bringing Mo back. Uncle Tony and Aunt Pep were really worried."

"It's was no problem. She's pretty clever to have gotten out."

He nods, "I know. I've run away before but I've never gotten to a whole other side of the city."

He pauses, "Well county. We live on a farm."

"With like horses and stuff?"

He gives me an amused smile, "Do you think all farms have horses?"

I shrug, "I'm a city kid, through and through."

"Well then, I have a lot to teach you," he says as his smirk starts to grow. I'm not sure I want to learn what he's teaching.


After we got to the game room, Cooper started animatedly telling me out his life on the farm. I told him a few limited things about mine. Turns out, we both love basketball and video games. We started to play Mario cart, while Harley and Peter played with Nate and Lila with Morgan. I know the girls are talking about the latest Disney princess movie with the rest of us don't have that much interest in. I think Harley and Peter are showing Nate a new remote control car.

About twenty minutes into our game, the elevator dinged and I glanced over. A girl about mine and Cooper's age walked off. She was wearing a violet shirt, a hoodie, and jeans. Her hair was long and brown and she had chocolate brown eye.

Cooper glanced over and grinned, "Cassie, over here!"

The girl turned and smiled. She has a great smile, "Hey Cooper. It's been awhile."

She came over and collapsed on the couch next to him.

She looked over at me and I feel my heart start beating faster.

She points, "Who are you?"

"My brother!" Morgan calls from where she's showing Lila something.

She grins, "You're Mr. Stark's new kid? My Dad mentioned that he had a new one. Hope wasn't surprised at all."

All I can do is nod mutely.

Cooper looks at me briefly confused before turning and proceeding to official introduce us, "Cassie, this is AJ. AJ, this is Cassie Lang. Ant-man's daughter."

"Hi," I say lamely. My tongue feels like it's in sand-paper. Talking shouldn't be this hard.

"Hi," she says back. She gestures to the extra controller, "Can I play?"

I shrug, "Sure."

She proceeds to cream us the first match.

She smirks, "You guys suck."

"You cheat!" I exclaim.

Cooper nods in agreement.

She shrugs, "Just because I know all the short cuts does not mean I cheated."

"Yes it does!"

She grins, "Ok, I won't use any short cuts this time. If I win, you have to give me your dessert."

"Best of three games and if I win, you give me your dessert," I counter.

She smirks, "Deal."

I turn back towards the tv and we begin to race.


Thirty minutes later we wander upstairs to find the table filled with boxes of pizza, drinks, and sweets.

Pepper glances over from where the adults are talking, "Help yourself everyone. It's buffet style."

Everyone rushes towards the food and I go to reach for a cookie but Cassie grabs it from me with a smirk.

"I won, fair and square," she says.

"Oh come on!" I say.

She gestures towards the pizza, "You can have plenty of pizza. No sweets. You wouldn't want me to think you weren't a man of you word, would you?"

I glare before snatching some pizza before going to find Cooper. Most of the adults had sectioned off into their little groups. So had the kids, all sitting together on the couch.

Cooper laughs when he sees my face, "Dude, I told you that you were going to loose."

"Lose what?" Harley asks curiously.

"Nothing," I quickly say as Cooper says, "He lost Mario Cart to Cassie."

"Ooh," Peter says.

"And I get his dessert the rest of the night," Cassie says walking over triumphantly.

"Why would you bet that?" Lila says shaking her head.

"I didn't think I would lose!"

"But ya did," Cassie said braggingly.

I glare at her.

"Yeah well I don't plan to let that happen again."

"You didn't plan for it to happen the first time," she says.

"Ouch," Lila mumbles.

We drift into silence for a few moments while Cassie just smirks at me.

Suddenly I get an idea, "Cassie, have you ever seen A Bug's Life?"

She looks at me, "No."

Harley glances over at me and he just shakes his head.

"Great we should watch it. Hey Morgan, do you want to see a new movie?"

She nods enthusiastically and so does Nate.

Peter leans forward and whispers in my ear, "Cassie might kill you but I respect your decision."

"Friday, play A Bug's Life."

Twenty minutes later, "Oh come on! Ant's don't even do that!"

I try to hold back my laugh.

At that, her dad, Hope, and Tony walked over, "What are you guys?"

"Some evil crap," Cassie mumbles darkly.

Hope looks at the screen, "That's not what ants do."

"That's what I said, but AJ insists it gets better."

Scott looks over, "You've never seen this before?"

Cassie shakes her head, along with Hope, the Barton kids, and Morgan.

"Really?" Scott says looking at Hope in surprise.

He looks back at his daughter, "It doesn't get better. And it's not that accurate."

Cassie turns to me sharply, "You lied to me."

I shrug, "You took away my dessert. I wanted to have some fun."

She glares.

Hope glances at Tony, "Yep, definitely your kid."

"I'm not denying that."


The rest of the evening went pretty well and everyone was leaving.

"Nice meeting you guys," I say to Cooper and Lila as their parents and Tony and Pepper try to pull Nate and Morgan apart.

"You too. Messing with Cassie was fun," Cooper says.

"Yeah," Lila agreed.

"No it wasn't," Cassie mumbles from behind them.

Cooper glances at her, "I'll text you later AJ. We should go say goodbye Peter and Harley."

"Bye AJ. Bye Cassie," Lila says as she walks away with Cooper to find Peter and Harley.

I give Cassie a small smile as they leave, "So...I apologize for making you watch a film that you would consider offensive. I had no idea."

"Yeah, I don't believe you at all. You knew exactly what you were doing."

I shrug, "Maybe. I mean, you did steal my dessert."

"I got it fair and square, Stark."

"That's not my last name."

She shrugs as she turns handing me something from her hand, "Maybe it should be."

I look at what she put in my hand, "What's this?"

"Wow, Stark's really are dense," she says as she walks away.

I watch her leave before opening the wrapped napkin. It was a cookie. I chuckle before I notice their was numbers written on the napkin.

Peter walks over to me, "Why do you have a grin on your face?"

I shrug, "No reason," as I take a bite of the cookie.


"So did you have a good time tonight, Cassie?" Scott asks as they walk to the car to head to the airport.

"Hmm?" she asks looking at her dad. She had been spaced out.

"I asked if you had a good time."

"Oh yeah! It was nice seeing that Morgan was alright and the Bartons."

They drift into silence before Hope says, "What did you think of AJ?"

A small smile comes to her face as she says, "He's annoying, just like Tony."

Hope smirks at the suspicious look on Scott's face, "Hey Cass, give us a moment. We'll meet you at the car."

She nods and Hope turns to Scott, who by now looked like he was freaking out.

"Does...does...she like a boy?"

"Yes. She's fourteen and about to be a freshman in high school. It's completely normal."

"But...but..."

Hope patted his shoulder, "Relax. We live in San Francisco and he lives in New York. It'll be fine."

He breathes, "Your right."

Suddenly he get's a goofy grin on his face.

"What?"

"Well not that I'm advocating for my daughter to date or anything but, wouldn't Hank's reaction be hilarious if she dated AJ."

Hope begins to laugh, "He would literally die."

Scott begins to laugh as they head back towards the car, praying that his daughter wasn't crushing on a Stark.