A/N: Hiya. Have some fluff :)

"Whatcha doin' Steeb?"

Steve let Allie crawl over the couch and curl into his side, and put an arm around her. "Homework," he replied placidly, scrolling down on the tablet.

"You not in school," Allie said, "why do you have homework?"

He gave her a brief smile. "I've only been out of the ice for three months, baby, I've got lots of catching up to do."

"What ice?"

He sighed, and explained what had happened in the war for him to end up in the 21st century. His chest ached as he told Allie stories about the brave Peggy Carter and the dashing Bucky Barnes, and he found himself choking up when he told her that he'd woken up, alone, in this new century.

"No," Allie said, wiping away his tears gently. "No, no, you not alone, Steeb." She wiped her own tears on his shirt, and cuddled into his arms. "You has me, and the team, and everybody."

"Yes I do," he said, kissing the top of her head, feeling some of that ache go away. "But sometimes it still makes me sad, to remember."

She nodded. "Like when you have nightmares?" she asked.

Steve winced. "How do you know about my nightmares, Allie?"

"I was puppy, sleeping, and I heard you yelling." She buried her face in his shoulder. "It's okay, Steeb."

"Yeah." He put a gentle hand on the back of her head. "It's okay now." He felt her breathing slow, and she turned into a puppy, curled up on the crook of his neck. She whimpered, buried her cold nose into his neck, and fell asleep. He smiled. "All right then." He bent his head to his tablet again, and then he heard a soft snort. He looked up.

Clint was standing there, leaning against the doorframe, his smirk on full blast but his eyes tender as he looked at his little girl. "She's something else," he remarked. "We've been trying to get you to open up and heal since the day after the battle but Allie can get you to cry in half an hour."

"It's not-" Steve started, bristling.

"And yeah, we get it, you're the leader of this misfit band, and you think you have to do it all by yourself, but for Pete's sake, Steve, it's not going to kill you to let us help you." Clint matched Steve's glare, and glared right back at him until Steve dropped his gaze. Suddenly he looked just like the twenty-six-year-old that he was, and Clint's gaze softened. "Aw, Steve, don't do the kicked puppy look, you know we can't handle it."

Steve gave him a wry grin. "Thanks, Clint."

"Don't mention it." Clint reached out for Allie. "Here, I'll let you study in peace."

"Wait." Steve put out a hand. "What's the deal with Croatia? I don't understand why there's so much fighting. Were you ever on a mission there? Can you-"

Clint grinned and sat down. "Allow me to tell you a thing."

When Allie woke up from her nap, she was surprised to hear Clint and Steve talking strategy at a hundred miles per hour. She jumped off Steve's shoulder, stretched, turned into a cat, stretched some more, all the way to the end of her tail, and pounced on the stuffed duck which was still her favorite toy. She picked it up in her mouth and trotted out of the living room, leaving the two semi-military types to their discussion.

A~A~A~A

After that, there was a shift in the dynamics in the tower. Steve opened up, started to ask questions by the dozen, and even contemplated going to college for that art degree he'd started seventy years ago. Tony got intensely interested in making sure that Steve Rogers was up to date, and pushed for the military to release Captain Rogers' back pay ("actually you're a Brigadier General, now, Steve, since you were listed MIA and not KIA, thanks to dear old dad"), get him discharged with full honors and a pension, and got all his records updated to list him as a living person ("because SOMEBODY whose name starts with F and ends with URY was trying to keep you firmly under his thumb by having to depend on SHIELD for all your expenses and if there's one thing I hate it's people trying to control my friends, so there, Fury").

And in return, Steve was there every time someone needed to talk. Every time Tony wanted to get drunk and was missing Pepper and absolutely did not want to talk about his horrible childhood. Every time Bruce was having a hard time controlling his inner rage or uncertainty about his place on the team. Every time Clint was worried that Loki's mind control wasn't fully gone, or that he'd fail Natasha or Allie. Every time that Natasha worried that the Red Room had broken her. Every time that Thor felt unworthy of being on the team if he couldn't even help his own brother. Every time Coulson woke up, gasping, a hand over the hole in his chest.

And they were there for him. And Allie loved them all unconditionally, and always had time for cuddles.

A~A~A~A

"I's got a lovely bunch of co-ker-nuts, doodly-doodly, here dey are standing in a row, bum bum bum..." Allie painted another line of green onto her paper, singing along to The Lion King happily. "Big ones, small ones, ones dat fall on your head... bum bum bum."

Thor followed the sound of happy singing and went into the kitchen, where Allie was watching Disney sing-alongs on her tablet and painting on big pieces of paper on the table. He watched in amusement as she absently pushed her hair away from her face, leaving a bright pink streak of paint across her forehead. "What are you making?" he asked.

She gave a shriek and dropped belly-down on her painting, hiding it from his view. "Nuuuuu," she said, covering it desperately. "Itsa surprise, Thor, go'way."

He smiled and kissed her hair. "I only came for a snack, dear heart, I promise I will not look."

She gave him a doubtful look. "You promise?"

"I promise." He grabbed a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter, and left the kitchen. He heard the strains of Aladdin come on.

"A whole new wooooold," Allie started singing.

He poked his head back in, and snapped a picture with his phone. "You are supervising, JARVIS?" he asked quietly, standing outside the door.

"Yes, your highness," JARVIS assured him.

It wasn't two hours later that the Avengers were called to a Very Important Meeting. JARVIS wouldn't tell anyone what it was about, only that it was Allie's wish that they gather on the common floor. Naturally, everyone went.

They all sat down on the couches and chairs, and waited curiously for their littlest resident to appear.

Allie shuffled in a moment later, carrying a large stack of papers and looking very serious. The illusion was spoiled by the fact that she was covered nearly head-to-toe in paint. "Tank you all for coming," she said seriously, setting the stack of papers down as she faced her superhero family.

"Why are we here, sweetheart?" Pepper asked.

"Today is the fwee-month annivewsary of being a family," Allie replied, picking at a spot of paint on her shirt. "And I made everybody a painting. To com- como- JARBIS?"

"Commemorate," JARVIS said gently.

"Dat." She held up the first painting. "Dis is for mommy. And dis is for daddy. And dis one's for you, and you, and you, wait no dis is Tony's, dis one's yours..." She handed them all out quickly, and went to snuggle with her daddy, getting paint on Clint's T-shirt.

He didn't mind though. He was too busy smiling at the picture. It was a four-year-old's version of an archery range. There was an archer (him) shooting targets while a smaller figure (Allie) sat on his shoulders. That had been a great day.

Everoyne else received similar one-on-one portraits. In Natasha's, mother and daughter were reading a bedtime story. Bruce had one of him and Allie doing math together. Tony's picture plainly depicted him and Allie building her robo-dog. Thor's was of her and Thor playing catch. Steve and Allie were drawing together. Coulson's was of him doing reports and holding a blob (puppy?) in his lap. Jane's took place in space, and Darcy's was at the park. And Pepper's was of her and Allie at a desk. Even JARVIS got one: Allie surrounded by blue shapes that were clearly holograms.

Thor was the first to speak up. "I will cherish this," he said gently. "Thank you Allie. Thank you very much."

She blushed and hid behind Clint as everyone else joined in, thanking her and praising her artwork.

"Maybe we should send her to art school instead of MIT," Tony said, inspecting the accuracy of the robo-dog.

Clint shifted her to sit on his lap and kissed a clean spot on her hair. "Guess what, pumpkin?"

"What?"

"Your mom and I had the same idea." He grinned as Natasha presented Allie with a small box.

"For me?" Allie asked, eyes lighting up.

"Go ahead and open it baby," Natasha urged.

She opened it eagerly, and giggled happily when she saw it: a beautiful bracelet with little charms on it of different animals. "Is so pretty, mommy," she said, showing it to Darcy, who 'aww'ed appreciatively. "Can I wear it?"

Natasha smiled slightly. "Maybe you should take a bath first, okay?"

Allie nodded. "Yeah."

Natasha carefully handed her painting to Coulson, scooped up her daughter, and carried her away for bath-time.

Tony got up to go to the kitchen, and stopped in the doorway. "Uhhhhh... not it!" He turned tail and ran out the door, painting fluttering in his wake.

"What?" Darcy got up to investigate, let out a yelp, took a picture, and hot-footed it out of there.

The remaining adults shared a wary glance and went into the kitchen. The table was covered in paint. So was the floor. The cabinets were splattered by random paint sprays. Even the ceiling had two bright drips of paint.

"Not it!" half a dozen people chorused, and suddenly it was only Clint and Thor standing in the kitchen.

Clint sighed. "All righty then."

Thor chuckled. "Supervising, JARVIS?"

JARVIS sounded smug. "Well I don't exactly have arms, your highness."

Thor chuckled and scooped up a bunch of paint brushes to wash in the sink. He looked back at Clint, who was smiling crookedly at the paint splashes on the table. "What is on your mind, friend archer?" he asked. "You're not going to punish Allie for making a mess, are you?"

"No, no way, man." Clint shook his head vehemently. "It's all washable. No," the smile returned to his lips, "I was just thinking that I'm really glad the Avengers came together. That we have Allie."

"As am I," Thor agreed, letting the warm water run over the brushes. "She has a great capacity to love, and with our scarce childhoods, we need that innocence in our lives, to remind us of what we fight for, what we live for."

"Yeah."

The two men finished cleaning the kitchen, and Clint started on grilled cheese sandwiches for Allie and Natasha. He finished just in time for his two favorite girls in the whole world to come down. Allie was dressed in a clean pair of shorts and a T-shirt, and took to her grilled cheese ravenously.

"What do we say?" Natasha reminded the girl.

"Thank you daddy," Allie said, giving Clint a huge, cheesy (literally) smile.

No one was surprised, later on, to see all ten paintings carefully framed and hung up in various spots in the Tower. And all visitors to Pepper's office wondered why a painting of an orange-haired blob and a brown-haired blob was in the place of honor even above what looked like an original Monet. "Modern art," another CEO concluded sagely. "The Maria Stark Foundation funds all kinds of up-and-coming artists."

A/N 2: Some Hulk and puppy fluff next chapter :)