A/N: Reading time with our favorite gamma physicist! Also, pool party!
"One, day, a man, and, his, ro-bot, robot, dog, went, for, a, wa-l-k, walk, and-" Allie sighed and pushed the book towards Bruce. "You wead it," she sighed. "I's too slow."
Bruce smiled and pushed the book back in her direction. "You've got to read it, sweetheart, or else you're not going to learn to read fast. You just have to be patient."
"No patient," Allie pouted, and turned into a dog.
Bruce resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Allie, you can be a dog, but you're still going to practice reading."
She double-pouted and gave him puppy-eyes, as a puppy. It was highly effective.
Bruce frowned. "Allie, that might work with Tony or Steve, but your puppy-eyes aren't going to work with me."
She pouted some more, and rolled on her back, asking for belly-rubs.
He picked her up and cradled her in his lap. "You're still going to practice reading," he told her.
She whined.
He sighed. "How about this?" he asked. "I'll read you the story, so you'll know how it ends, and then you can re-read it, okay?"
She jumped out of his lap and paced around the edges of the rug, obviously thinking about it.
Bruce had to hide his grin.
Allie turned into a girl again after a few more seconds. "Okay," she said, and sat down again. "Tank you," she added. She crawled into his lap and looked at him expectantly.
He read her the story, talked it over with her, they had a snack, and then she carefully read the entire story. He had to say; at least she knew how to stick to her compromises.
After that, learning-time was over and she went off to play with her real robot-dog in the living room.
Bruce found Clint and Natasha in the kitchen, making eyes at each other over the salad they were making. "Did you know you're raising a miniature manipulative spy?" he asked, amused.
Natasha grinned. "That's my girl. What did she do?"
Bruce told them, and the adults all laughed.
"As long as she's doing her schoolwork and not completely trying to get her own way," Clint said seriously.
Bruce nodded. "We'll keep an eye out."
Natasha smiled at him. "Thank you Bruce."
He returned the smile.
Allie ran in to the kitchen, her robot-dog under her arm like a football. "Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom."
"Yes kotenok?"
Allie stopped and blinked at her, confused. "I'm not a kitten right now, mama."
Clint snickered and Natasha smirked. "What is it, baby?"
She frowned. "I fowgot."
"All right, well, tell me when you remember, okay?"
"Kay." She zoomed out again, and then zoomed back in a second later. "I remember!" she announced. "Can we go swimming, mommy?"
"Swimming?" Natasha echoed. There was a pool but no one really used it. Tony hadn't had a 'pool party' since before the Battle of Manhattan. "I don't see why not." She looked at Clint. "Did we get her a swim suit?"
"Yep." Clint scooped Allie up and kissed her forehead. "Let's go look for it and we'll go swimming thirty minutes after lunch. Okay?"
"Why thirty minutes?" she asked.
"To let lunch settle down."
"Oh."
They came back a few minutes later, Allie wearing an adorable one-piece swimsuit with polka-dots and a pair of cotton shorts over it. Clint was wearing outrageous Hawaiian print shorts and a black T-shirt.
"Lunch!" Natasha said, putting the grilled cheese and the salad in front of Allie.
Allie cleaned her plate, put it in the sink, and looked at them expectantly.
"What, sweetie?" Bruce asked.
"Aren't you going to put on your swimsuit too?" Allie asked.
Bruce raised an eyebrow. "You want me to come too?"
"Everybody," Allie said. "Steeb and Tony and Pepper and Thor and Darcy and Jane, and Cou-son, and you. Everybody's gotta come to the pool party. Tony said. Pwease Bwuce?"
"All right," Bruce said, giving her a smile. "Just as soon as I finish my sandwich."
Allie watched cartoons and kept one eye on the digital clock JARVIS obligingly displayed for her. She wanted to see everybody in their swimsuits, and made sure they all followed her down to the pool when it was thirty minutes after lunch.
Darcy looked great in her zigzag one piece swimsuit, and she enthusiastically taught Allie the doggy paddle. Jane wore a dark blue bikini, and talked buoyancy equations with Bruce and Thor in the deep end of the pool. Thor was wearing an equally-outrageous pair of swim shorts, and Bruce wore a pair of conservative dark green shorts, to Tony's everlasting glee. Tony chose bright red and gold ones, and a dark red T-shirt to cover the arc reactor, predictably, and Pepper was amazing in a light blue one-piece. Steve was wearing a pair of black swim shorts, and his abs alone were making Darcy increasingly incoherent. Natasha was wearing a perfect black one-piece that was tailored to her form, with a single dark purple stripe down the side, and Clint could barely keep his eyes off her.
"Newlyweds," Tony scoffed under his breath, scooping Allie away from the awestruck Darcy and taking her on a piggyback ride around the shallow end of the pool.
Allie giggled and hung onto him tightly. "Hi Cou-son," she said, waving as they passed the lounge chair where Coulson sat in a T-shirt and a pair of black swim shorts. He looked completely relaxed and he was even reading a paperback instead of his eternal series of reports.
"Hi Allie," Coulson replied, waving back at her.
Tony dropped her in Bruce's arms after the piggy back ride. "Here, Brucie, have a present." He swam back to Pepper's side and pressed a kiss to her neck. "Hello, dear."
"Hey Bruce?" Allie asked, floating easily with her arm floaties.
"Yeah?"
"Why did Tony and Pepper get married if she calls him not-grownup?" Allie asked innocently.
Bruce laughed, almost slipped on the pool tiles, and hung onto Thor's bicep, trying to stop his chuckles. Thor laughed, and helped Bruce back to his feet, and encircled Jane when she almost doubled over with snickers.
Allie frowned at the laughing trio. "What?" she asked indignantly. "Why's funny?"
Bruce steadied, and gave her a hug. "It's funny because Tony isn't the get-married type."
"Why?"
"Because... I don't know."
"Why?"
Bruce sighed and snickered again. "I don't know."
"Maybe you should ask Tony," Thor suggested, his eyes twinkling.
"Good idea," Bruce said, grinning. "Go ask Tony, baby."
Allie nodded solemnly, and doggy-paddled away to where Tony, Pepper, Steve, and the two super spies were chatting.
Jane laughed and hid her face in Thor's shoulder. "You are such a troll, son of Odin," she snickered.
From across the pool, Bruce watched in amusement as Tony turned red, Pepper started to giggle, Clint started howling, Steve joined him, and Natasha went stone-faced trying to keep from laughing. Coulson, curious, put down his book to stare at the group, confused.
Bruce started to snicker, and laugh, and he laughed until tears were running down his face. He felt the Other Guy startle from the amount of emotion, but he subsided into a pleased grumble after a moment, and Bruce continued laughing.
"Sure, sure, laugh it up," Tony muttered, his ears turning red. "Pepper, why did you marry me?"
Pepper laughed and put her arms around his neck. "I think you know why."
"Because I'm a mature individual," he replied confidently.
She rolled her eyes. "Sure, Tony."
Clint wrapped an arm around Natasha's waist. "Did you marry me because I'm mature, babe?"
She raised a delicate eyebrow. "Since just yesterday were drinking Allie's juice boxes, I'm going to have to say no, Agent Barton."
He gave an exaggerated sigh. "Good." He kissed her temple and moved away. "All right, Allie-bear, do you want to learn how to do the breaststroke?" He grabbed Allie's hands gently and walked backwards, tugging her into a clear part of the pool.
Once Allie got tired of swimming and sat with Coulson on a lounge chair, Steve and Thor had a swimming contest, twenty laps across the pool. Thor won, by a smidgen, and was crowned king of the pool.
After that, Tony decided to fire up the grill on the roof, and they adjourned outside to grill hot dogs and steaks. Allie took a nap, comfortably held by Thor, who could keep holding her forever and never even get tired, and they all were comfortably stuffing their faces, when the elevator door opened to the roof and a trenchcoat-ed Fury stepped onto the roof.
The relaxed air of the party vanished immediately and the superheroes stiffened.
"Well," Fury drawled, "I never thought I'd see my best agent in swim gear, or a god cuddling a mutant child."
Thor's grip on Allie tightened protectively, and Clint stepped in front of the thunder god.
"What's up, Dread-Pirate Roberts?" Tony asked expansively, his cold gaze completely at odds with his tone.
"Just wanted to see how my right hand is doing," Fury said calmly. "If he's ready to get back to work."
"He is working," Tony retorted, holding out a hand to stop Coulson from answering. "Can't you see out of that one eye, Fury? He's the adult influence in this group."
"Your two months of light duty are up," Fury said, looking at Coulson. "We need you on a mission in Bosnia-"
"No," Tony said flatly.
"No, what?" Fury asked. "I don't think you have any say over what I do with my agents."
"Uh, yes, I do," Tony said. "He's not your agent, he's our handler. No takesie-backsies."
The other Avengers made a protective circle around Coulson. They all knew that even though Coulson didn't say anything, he was not ready for anything concerning active agent duty. He still got tired much too easily.
"No takesie-backsies," Allie echoed, from Thor's arms.
Fury raised an eyebrow at her. "What do you know about it, Miss Barton?"
She raised her chin defiantly. "I know dat Cou-son is a superhero, and he's part of de Avengers. And you can't hab him, pirate spy."
Fury gave her his best glare.
She glared right back at him, all four-year-old righteous fury, no pun intended, and stuck her tongue out at him.
Pepper bit the inside of her cheek so hard to stop from smiling, she drew blood, but she managed to keep her poker face.
Fury sighed. "Fine. You can keep Coulson as your handler." He glared at Clint and Natasha instead. "You two had better be giving her the necessary self-defense training to go with that attitude, or she's going to have too many problems for even you to handle." He turned on his heel, and left the tower.
"His face," Pepper said, her voice choked. "Did you see his face?"
Coulson walked over and solemnly planted a kiss on Allie's forehead. "Allie, thank you very much."
"You stay wif family," Allie said firmly, hugging him.
"Yeah. Family." He drew back after a moment. "Want a s'more?"
"Yeah."
A~A~A~A
The next day, Natasha started her daughter on self-defense training. For some unknown reason, every other Avengers was also in the gym when Natasha and Allie hit the mats, Allie dressed in a tiny pair of gym shorts and a tank top.
"All right Allie, first we're going to warm up, okay?"
They ran laps around the gym, and then did some stretching, and then Natasha started her on some simple boxing combinations. "Now if someone tries to grab you, you have to aim for their vulnerable parts, okay?"
"What's vulnable?" Allie asked, scrunching up her nose.
"Uh, weak."
"Like deir private parts?"
"Yes."
"But that's owie."
"That's why you have to hit them there," Natasha explained patiently. "That way they'll focus on their owie instead of on you."
"Oh. Okay." Allie put up her little fists and squared up. "Do it again?"
They practiced, and then Natasha called Tony over to spar against her.
"Why me?" Tony whined. "I don't wanna get hit."
"You're the only one here that isn't trained in actual fighting styles besides boxing, which doesn't work in your suit. You need training, also, by the way."
"I'm on that," Steve called, from the weights area on the other side of the room.
Tony frowned. "So I'm the only normal one in this whole group?"
"Yes." Natasha adjusted Allie's posture gently, and stepped off the mat. "Okay. Go."
To no one's surprise, Allie knocked Tony down, ran like the wind, turned into a bird, and flew up to the highest spot on the ceiling.
Everyone clapped, and Steve helped a wincing Tony off the ground. "We'll start tomorrow, 0700," Steve said, clapping the billionaire on the back.
Tony groaned. "Ow."
Allie flew back to her mother's side, turned into her human form, and looked up at Natasha expectantly.
Natasha gave her a high-five. "Good job, sweetheart."
They finished off the workout with stretches, and Natasha promised that tomorrow, Steve would show her how to use the punching bag.
Her self-defense classes continued, and Allie was capable of shape-shifting to have a heavier mass, which would take her possible attackers by surprise.
JARVIS also had a good idea, and showed her various holograms of Dobermans and German Shepherds. With JARVIS's help, and Clint taking her to a local dog shelter, Allie learned how to shift into the forms of those two ferocious looking dogs, and actually managed to scare a maintenance worker when she was trotting down the hall.
A~A~A~A
Allie got interested in her special powers, after that, and when Clint walked into the living room one day, he was confronted by a small dragon; an honest-to-Thor dragon, with red scales and a four-foot wingspan, breathing little puffs of smoke into the air. The ventilation system was whirring full blast.
"Whoa," Clint said, impressed. "How'd you do that?"
"That was actually my fault," Tony said, from the other sofa. "We were watching Sinbad and the Seven Seas. There were dragons."
"Rawr," Allie said, folding her wings and wrapping her tail around Clint's ankle.
"Hi, punkin," Clint said. "That's awesome, by the way."
The dragon hid her face in embarrassment.
"Aww," Tony cooed, and snapped a picture with his tablet.
Clint scratched the dragon's soft scaled head. "Let's not tell your mom you can do this, kay baby?"
A~A~A~A