It was the first night in the new Avengers facility. There was a huge control room with wall to wall screens and holographic interfaces for Maria Hill to work from. And a huge training room for everyone to exercise and train in. All their apartments had lofty ceilings and Tony had left the decorations to each individual.

Allie was tucked into bed by her parents, reminded that they were right next door, and left her to sleep. She managed to sleep for about two hours before waking up from a bad dream. "Lights!" she called softly, clutching Bucky Bear to her chest.

FRIDAY turned the lights on at 50% as per nighttime protocol.

Allie inspected the room for dangers. Nothing visible. It was just, unfamiliar, and that made it scary. She jumped out of bed and crossed to her parents' room.

Clint and Natasha were sound asleep.

Allie knew she was being silly, and she didn't want to wake them, but- she was only six years old and she needed reassurance. She closed the door quietly and headed to the labs.

Tony was still there, working on a piece of his suit, when he heard the tap of little feet. He turned just in time to catch an armful of Allie as she hugged him desperately. He hauled her into his lap and kissed her head. "What's up, buttercup?"

She squished her face into his neck as he smoothed her hair. "I'm scared."

He tensed slightly. "Of what?"

"Everything," she whispered. "I think there's monsters in my room."

Tony bit back a smile and dropped another kiss on her hair. "But that's impossible," he said, rubbing her back gently. "There can't be monsters."

"Why not?"

"Because, Steve, Vision, Clint and I built the security system for this place," Tony replied, bringing up a schematic with his free hand. "And it's totally monster-proof."

She eyed it thoughtfully. "Are you sure?"

"Should we go check?" Tony asked her.

She nodded.

He walked back to the apartment with her, and they swept the room for monsters with a handheld scanner and checked in all the crevices. "All clear," he reported, sitting next to Allie on the bed. "The only monster here is the tickle monster." He poked at her feet playfully.

She stifled a happy shriek into the pillow as she scrambled away, and then a second later she hugged him tightly. "Thank you, Tony. I love you lots."

"Love you too, sweetheart," he replied, hugging her tightly. "So. Back to bed?"

"No," she decided, "I'm not sleepy no more."

"Okay. How about some basic repairs then?"

"Yeah!"

Back to the workshop. Tony did repairs while Allie made a blanket nest in the corner for her and Dummy-E. The next time Tony looked over Allie was sound asleep. He smiled. "FRIDAY."

"Sir?"

"When the superspies wake up tell them the baby spy is with me, safe and sound."

"Yes sir."

A~A~A~A

Allie got to pick out all the decorations for her room the next day (purple and light blue, with smatterings of orange and pink), and Tony, without telling anyone, got her a bunch of new toys to go along with her old ones. "New place, new things," was his rationalization to Clint. "It's like a welcome home present."

"You got her an entire fleet of robots."

"Yeah but she has to build them. It's educational!"

"I love them," Allie piped up from the floor, where she was reacquainting herself with her stuffed animals that had been left behind in the Tower till then.

Tony smiled smugly at Clint. "See? I'm the cool uncle."

The next few days were full of decorating. Allie flitted from one suite to the next, helping them pick out colors and lamps and bedspreads. She liked Steve's room, because it was homey and comfy and full of art supplies, and she liked Wanda's room, because it had little knick-knacks to play with. Pietro's room was already super messy, and Sam's room had bits of wings and machinery in it. "I'm building myself a sidekick," he told her. Bucky's was great - it had pictures of space in it, and she liked to stare at the galaxies.

Allie didn't particularly like Bruce's room. "It's too blah," she told him seriously.

He tried not to smile. "Is that the technical term for it?"

"Yes." She bounced onto the bed and stared at the white walls. "It needs a personality."

"What do you suggest?" he asked.

She frowned and put her chin on her fist, thinking about decorations. "I think you should paint the walls a nice light brown. And have a nice comfy chair to read in. And some cool looking lights. And, some pictures. Everybody needs pictures on their wall."

"That's true," Bruce said.

She nodded sagely. "I'll help you pick out some nice pictures of everybody and we can print 'em out."

"Sounds like a plan."

They worked on the room the entire day. Tony's robots did the painting, with the Stark-ified quick-drying one-coat formula, and as soon as that had dried, they shopped for furniture. Bruce picked a recliner, Allie picked a standing lamp that had three lights on it that you could move around, and a shelf so he could put things. She also ordered a bunch of picture frames, all deep brown to match the rest of his furniture.

Bruce smiled as they went through the albums. He hadn't realized just how many pictures JARVIS, and then FRIDAY, had stored up of the Avengers. Lots of good shots, goofy shots, and tender moments. Lots of people sleeping in odd places.

There was a picture of Steve sitting at the table, his head on his hand, completely asleep, holding a cup of coffee in the other hand. What that picture didn't show, was that two minutes later when he awoke, he automatically moved his hand and tipped the coffee all over himself. Bucky had nearly peed himself laughing.

A~A~A~A

It had been four days when Allie remembered something important. "Hey dad?"

"Yes munchkin?"

"When am I gonna go to school?"

Clint put down the tablet and stared at her. "Uh... that's a good question baby." He stood up and held out a hand. "Let's go ask your mom."

"Okay." She held his hand as they walked down the hall to find Natasha.

They found her and Steve talking Avengers stuff in one of the conference rooms. "Hey, Allie," Steve said, smiling at her.

"Hi Steve." She scrambled into her mom's lap. "When am I going to school?"

Natasha's brow furrowed. "Good question."

"That's what daddy said."

"Wait a second," Clint said, "It's June."

"So?" Allie asked.

"You don't have school," Clint realized, face palming. "You're on summer vacation. You don't have to do school till September."

Allie gaped. "What? That's three whole months!"

"Yep."

Allie flopped dramatically over the table. "What am I gonna dooo for three whole months? I'm already boreeeeddd... maybe Tony would let me play with his suit scraps again... can I ask him daddy?"

The adults shared a glance. That sounded like a bad idea. "How about not?" Clint suggested. "What if we made cupcakes instead?"

"You burn water, Clint," Natasha said flatly, her mouth tugging into a smile.

"Okay, then Steve can make cupcakes with you."

"Yes!" She slid across the table and threw herself at Steve. "Cupcakes!"

He slung her across his shoulder and stood up, smirking as she shrieked. "Cupcakes," he echoed. "While your parents decide grown up things."

"Save me one!" Clint called after his daughter.

"No!" she giggled, waving.

He shook his head. "She's too cute," he complained to his wife.

Natasha kissed his forehead. "You're just a pushover," she told him.

"I know." He sat on the edge of the table and took her hand, playing with the wedding ring on her finger. "So, what do you think we should do about summer vacation?"

"We could send her to Laura's for a week or two," Natasha suggested.

"And the other two and a half months?"

"I have no idea. Could we get her a tutor? Is that what normal people do with their smart children?"

"Clint, you're asking the wrong person."

They asked Tony.

"Yup," he said, and his eyes softened. "I had this tutor, Anna, she was great. Taught me how to make bottle rockets." He clapped his hands together. "So. Tutor for Allie. FRIDAY will find us some people. I'm sure there's at least one person in the world that can handle a shapeshifting six-year-old and her crazy family."

"And in the meantime, Allie can go visit her cousins," Clint decided.

They sent Bruce with her, as security/grown-up-helper-to-Laura. Laura was thankful for the extra pair of grownup hands, and Bruce found that the quiet countryside and green fields were very soothing - even with the shrieking of happy children in the area.

FRIDAY scanned the entire industry, found twenty people. Natasha and Tony did deeper background checks and dropped it to ten. Steve and Clint did the "vibe" test and dropped it to five. The finalists were interviewed by Natasha and Steve, as the two Avengers who could literally sense when someone was lying. Four of them were disqualified as not being able to handle the Avengers' crazy lifestyle without freaking out.

The only person left was a young high schooler named Peter Parker. He was initially alight with hero-worshipping but he managed to play it cool, and he was nerdy, funny, and absolutely sincere.

"All right, last interview is with Allie," Clint said, guiding the gangly teenager down to the living room.

"Cool." He tugged at the straps of his backpack.

Allie was waiting for them with Natasha, and they were chatting about what color nail polish they would use when they had mom-n-Allie spa day later. As soon as Clint and Peter walked in, she ran right up to them. "Hello," she said.

Peter grinned at her. "Hi."

"I'm Allie. What's your name?"

"Peter."

"Nice to meet you Peter."

He smiled at her. "Nice to meet you too." He crouched down so he was at her level. "So. What's your favorite school subject?"

"Everything."

"Really?"

"Yup. What's yours?"

"Mine is science."

Allie's smile widened. "You're a scientist? Like Bruce and Tony?"

"I want to be, yup."

"Awesome. What kind of scientist are you gonna be?"

"Biochemistry or biophysics."

She tilted her head and studied him. "Teach me something about that?"

"Okay." Peter didn't know if this was part of the test or not, but he pulled out his summer science homework. "I'm writing a paper right now about genomes. Do you know what those are?"

"DNA?" She'd heard Bruce talking about how Hulking out changed his genome.

"You're right." He smiled at her. "You know, I think you might have to write the paper instead of me."

She giggled. "But I'm not in high school, silly. I'm six."

"What? Are you sure?"

"Pretty sure."

"Hm. Well, I think you're the smartest six-year-old I've ever met." He turned a page in his notebook. "So, this is a picture of a human genome..."

They talked science for a little bit, and Allie invited him to play tea party.

"Sure," he said cheerfully. "I love tea."

"And we have cookies," she informed him in a stage whisper. "Bucky makes the best cookies!"

Peter's eyes went wide. "Bucky Barnes made cookies?"

"Yeah." Allie looked at her dad. "I like him. Can we keep him?"

Clint looked at Natasha. She nodded. "Sure," he said.

"Yay!" Allie grabbed Peter's hand. "Cookies."

"Thank you for this opportunity," Peter told her parents, before he was dragged away to playtime.

A~A~A~A

Allie's tutor was great. He was patient and dorky and worshipped Tony. He usually spent from 9 to 3 with Allie doing educational activities that ranged from reading to blowing up sodas, and then he'd spend the rest of the day in R&D. Tony didn't mind at all, having a mini-me. Everyone else thought it was adorable.

About a month later, Peter had to help his aunt, so "school" was cancelled. Allie played with the twins, and followed them to the training room. There was a trampoline in the corner where she played while she watched her mom and Steve teach the twins hand to hand.

Only an hour in though, and Steve called it a day.

"Where you goin', Steve?" Allie asked, jumping off the trampoline and following him out the door.

"To DC, baby. Sam's old VA is doing a meeting for some war veterans, and Captain America has been invited to give a speech and meet some people."

"Is it a fund-raising-er?"

"It's a fundraiser, yeah," Steve said, smiling at her.

"Can I come?"

He wrinkled his nose at her. "It'll be boring, sweetheart."

"Please?" She gave him puppy eyes and wrapped her arms around his waist, hugging tightly. "Please can I come? I'll be super quiet during your speech."

He ran his fingers through his hair. "Well, if you ask your mom and she says yes, then yes, I'd love to have you come with me."

"Awesome! Don' move Steeb!" She zoomed back to the training room and bounced up and down in front of Natasha. "Mom mom mom mommy can I go with Steve to the VA with Sam to give a speech please please?"

Natasha raised an eyebrow at her. "Is he okay with it?"

"Yup!"

"Why do you want to go?" she asked.

Allie tugged at her sleeve to get her to bend down, and whispered something into her ear.

Natasha laughed and kissed her baby girl's cheek. "That sounds perfect. You can go, malyshka."

"Yay thank you mommy!" She kissed her mom goodbye and zoomed out again. "Steve!"

He hadn't moved from his spot in the hallway. "What's the word?" he asked.

"She said yes!"

"Cool." He gave her a high five. "Okay. Can you put on something nice to show respect?"

"Yeah. Can you do my hair in the fishy braid?"

"Sure."

Allie ran to her room and changed out of her play clothes into a pretty black and white polkadot dress with a bright blue ribbon, and her little black Mary Janes. She grabbed Bucky Bear too.

Steve had changed, not into his Captain America uniform, but a dark blue suit with a grey tie, and his tie clip was his circular shield.

"I like your clip," Allie said, giggling when she saw it.

Steve grinned wryly. "Thanks, doll. Guess who gave it to me?"

"Coulson?"

"Nope."

"Bucky."

"Nope."

She scrunched her face, thinking about who else would give him his own merchandise. "Mommy?"

"Yep."

She giggled. "Yeah. She gave daddy Hawkeye socks."

Steve did her hair into a neat fishtail braid, and they got in the car. Steve would be murdered in his sleep if he took Allie on his motorcycle, even if he put her in the sidecar.

They got to DC in good time, and Steve parked the car next to Sam's. "All right, doll, ready?" he asked, turning to look at her in the backseat.

There was a small grey fluff of a bird sitting in the booster seat instead, wearing a little blue ribbon. She cheeped.

Steve smiled. It was a baby bald eagle. "Really?"

She cheeped, and hopped to the front seat.

He grinned. "You can't do a full bald eagle, yet?"

The baby eagle squinted sideways, flashed into a full size bald eagle for a second, and then reverted to the ball of fluff. She shook her head emphatically.

He kissed her downy head. "All right. Sam's guys are gonna love you." He perched her on his shoulder, and they walked inside.

Sam started grinning as soon as he spotted them. "Captain America and a bald eagle," he said, shaking his head. "This is epic." He gestured towards the gym. "We're ready."

"Thanks Sam."

"Cap."

As soon as Steve walked in, all eyes were on him. He smiled and nodded at them, and made his way to the front.

Allie ruffled her feathers and hopped onto the speaker stand when Steve got there.

"This is my friend, Allie," Steve started, smoothing his fingers down her back. "We're honored to be here today..."

As he gave his speech (he was very good at speeches), Allie entertained herself by looking at all the attendants, and figuring out what she wanted for snacks. There were some brownies on the table in the back that looked delectilicious, as she and Pietro liked to say.

Suddenly everyone was clapping and Steve was saluting the room. Allie did a little salute with her wing, and everyone aww'ed. He held out a hand for Allie and she hopped into his palm.

Everyone wanted to shake hands with Steve and pet the little bald eagle. She accepted cuddles eagerly, and then sat on Steve's shoulder, nestled into the curve of his neck.

He tickled her little neck. "Should we get some snacks to go?" he asked.

She nodded, and tapped at his cheek until he picked up a brownie.

He chuckled and wrapped it in a napkin for her.

Sam came over to them. "How about lunch in the old diner down the street?" he asked. "They make some amazing chicken nuggets."

Allie bobbed her head yes. Yes yes yes.

Sam snickered. "Great. I'll meet you guys there."

Steve walked back to the car, and put Allie in the car seat.

She transformed back into a little girl and accepted the brownie eagerly. "Yay, thank you. You did awesome on your speech."

"Thanks, sweetheart. You did awesome as a bald eagle."

She mumbled her thanks through a mouthful of brownie. "Chicken nuggets?" she asked, once she'd swallowed.

He laughed. "All right, let's go eat."

The three of them had lunch, and Allie fell asleep in the car on the way back. She only woke up when Steve transferred her to Clint's arms. "Daddy?" she murmured sleepily.

Clint kissed her cheek. "Hey sweetheart." He started walking towards the living room. "How come you were a bald eagle for Steve but you've never been a hawk for me?"

"I dunno," Allie replied drowsily. "I'll pwactice sometin' for you, daddy."

He laid her down on the sofa and covered her with a blanket. "All right baby. Finish your nap first."

"Kay."

A~A~A~A