Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, they are the property of their creators, nor am I seeking to make a profit from this.

Chapter 2

Natasha woke up in a bad mood the next morning. It was probably because there was a multitude of loud and decidedly high-pitched screams and screeches coming from the living room.

"JARVIS, what time is it?" She asked, her voice thick with sleep.

"Six-fifteen am, Miss Romanoff."

"Oh my god," she groaned. She was able to wake up early when she needed to for work, but other than that she prized her sleep – probably because she never seemed to get enough of it. "JARVIS how many of them are awake?

"All five, as well as Mr. Barton and Ms. Potts."

Natasha got out of her bed and stretched. She pulled the blankets up and messily made the bed before she folded it back into the couch. She took a deep breath as the squeals got louder, and were accompanied by a low-pitched on that couldn't be anyone other than Barton. Natasha swore under her breath in Russian, and vowed to kill him when this was all over.
When she was dressed in a pair of jeans and the first t-shirt she found in her duffel bag, she went out into the living room.
She was greeted with the sight of Steve, Tony, and Thor attacking Barton from all sides. Despite herself she chuckled when Thor jumped onto his back from on top of the couch. He may be in a five-year-old body, but Thor was still a big boy.

She glanced around and saw Bruce and Loki working on a puzzle. Every time Bruce looked away to find another piece that fit Loki would remove one and put it behind his back. Even as a three-year-old he's causing problems. She sighed, and glanced towards the kitchen. She could hear Pepper moving around, cooking breakfast before she left for work.

She went and sat down next to Loki and Bruce. "Hey guys, what're you doing?"

"Making a puzzle!" Bruce said enthusiastically. Natasha picked up the box; it was a picture of the New York skyline – 1000 pieces. When and why did Tony get this? She wondered idly as she put it down and looked at Loki. He stared back, and she smirked and gestured behind his back and then pointed to the puzzle. Loki grinned, and reached back to grab the ten-or-so pieces he had removed.

"Hey!" Bruce yelled, slapping Loki on the arm. Natasha's eyes grew wide with alarm and silently pleaded that with whatever deity would listen that Bruce didn't get too upset.

"Hey Loki, why don't we go see what Pepper's making in the kitchen," she quickly stood and picked Loki up, ignoring the absurdity that she was carrying the man who had threatened to kill her the year before.

"Well, hey there," Pepper said, looking up from the eggs being scrambled in a pan as Natasha walking into the kitchen.
"Good morning, Pepper," Natasha replied. Loki mumbled good morning and fiddled with Natasha's hair. "Loki was playing a little prank on Bruce, weren't you?"

"No," he replied. Natasha looked at Pepper, who was smiling and nodded her head. Pepper's smile faltered as she remembered the Other Guy. She turned back to the stove.

"Loki, do you like eggs?"

"I don't know," he said, and he started wiggling to get out of Natasha's grip. She let him down and he ran into the other room, where Clint was still wrestling Thor, Tony and Steve. Natasha frowned.

As much as she didn't really like kids, it irritated her that Barton seemed to be better with them than she was. She chalked it up to her competitive personality.

"Loki's just as stubborn now as he was when he was an adult." Pepper said, turning the stove off. She put the eggs in a large bowl and took the bacon that had been frying out of the skillet. "I hope I made enough. Boys eat a lot..." Natasha helped her take everything they needed to the table, and called to Barton to gather everyone together at the table.

"Alright everyone, let's eat!" There was a chorus of "yeah!" from the boys in the living room, and they all ran to the table.

"What're we having?" Tony's loud voice asked, and as Pepper enlightened them all Natasha looked around the table. Loki was missing. She finished spooning eggs and bacon onto Steve's plate, and went to look for him. As she walked away she could hear Pepper yell "Thor, save some bacon for the rest of us!"

She found him in Tony's office/library. He was sitting with an astronomy book on his lap, looking at the pictures.

"Hey," she said, crouching down beside him. "Breakfast is ready." He looked up at her, and blinked.

"Why isn't Asgard in here?" His voice was high-pitched, young, and so innocent that Natasha just looked at him, taken aback. He remembers Asgard?

"I don't know, Loki," she finally said. "But I have an idea. How about after breakfast you draw Asgard and we'll add it to the book. How does that sound?"

"Good!" He closed the book and jumped up, and ran back to where the table was bustling with activity. Loki jumped onto his seat and waited as Natasha served him his food. She sat down next to him and dished herself the remaining eggs and took the last piece of bacon.

After breakfast, the boys and Clint went back to the living room, where he turned on the television. Tony and Bruce immediately began to fight over what they should watch, each yelling at JARVIS, so causing the screen to constantly flicker back and forth between a soccer game and Teletubbies. Eventually Steve caught on and joined in, backing up the gunning for Teletubbies. Natasha prayed that the soccer game won out.

It didn't.

She felt a tugging on her t-shirt. Looking down, she saw it was Loki. "Can I have paper please?"

"Of course," she said, heading towards Tony's office. Loki followed behind. "JARVIS, where is plain white paper?"

"In the printer," he said, and Tony's huge custom printer opened and the paper tray was shown. She grabbed a stack of it and walked to the desk and found a pen.

She led Loki back into the living room and set the paper and pen down on the glass coffee table. "Have fun, honey."

A few hours later Natasha was interrupted from the book she was reading on the couch by JARVIS's calm voice.

"Miss Romanoff," the voice rang out. "Director Fury is on the line." Natasha sighed.

"I'll get it in the office." She walked back to the office, and closed the door. "Agent Romanoff," she stated as she put her book on the desk.

"Good morning, Natasha," Fury's deep voice greeted her.

"Good morning, Director. What can I do for you?"

"I called to check in and inform you on the present situation outside your new happy family." Natasha's eyes narrowed and she frowned. Thankfully Nick Fury couldn't see her. "The press has gotten hold of pictures that were taken as you confronted Loki yesterday. So far they haven't run any stories, but they will, and we want you to give a statement so that they can get it. . .right."

Natasha couldn't help but let her eyes go wide. Has it really only been one day?

"Natasha?"

"Yes, of course. I'll talk to them. Do you have a contact?" She asked, feeling a slight well of dread start to pool in her stomach. She usually had no trouble with interviews, but she really had no answers. She knew only a little more than her fellow New Yorkers. They had zero idea how long they would be in this situation, and they still didn't know how changed the boys' memories were. Obviously they still retained some of themselves. Steve had responded to Captain, Loki remembered Asgard, and Tony remembered Pepper.

"You're going to talk to Jason Baker on Saturday." Tomorrow, Natasha thought. "And you just need to tell him what happened, and that we don't know very much yet."

Natasha was just about to reply when there was a loud yell and a crash from the living room.

"What was that?" Nick Fury demanded, but Natasha had already left the room.

She had thrown the phone down and run into the living room. She paused for half a second to see Clint putting everything he had into restraining a Great Dane-sized Hulk who was thrashing around in the broken glass that used to be the coffee table. The four other boys were watching from on top of the couch, eyes wide and faces shocked.

Natasha threw herself next to Clint and the Hulk and grabbed the arm that kept getting out of Clint's grasp. She started up a string of soothing words, trying to calm him down.

"Why is he green?" Tony yelled over the Hulk's roars.

"Tony, go to your room! All of you!" Natasha ordered, and something in her voice must have cowed them, because they all ran to their room without a complaint. Loki lingered for a moment longer, looking confused, but he too went to his room.

It took ten solid minutes of brute strength and a steady stream of calming words before he calmed back down and the Hulk shrunk down to Bruce. He looked up at Natasha, eyes wide, and promptly passed out. Clint unwound himself from Bruce's limbs and let the boy slump against his chest.

"What happened?" Natasha said, finally. Clint started laughing. "What?" Natasha ground out, irritated. She stood up and went to grab a broom and dustpan to clean up the broken coffee table. Clint had wrapped Bruce up in a blanket on the couch and laid him down. He took the dustpan from Natasha and held it against the floor.

"Loki took his toy."

"What?" Natasha said, becoming exasperated with Clint's cheery attitude.

"Loki took Bruce's toy, that's why he hulked out," Clint clarified, looking up at Natasha from his crouched position on the living room floor. The absurdity of the whole situation was keeping him from taking the smile off of his face.

Suddenly Natasha started to laugh, loudly, bordering on hysterics. She clutched the broom in both hands and collapsed on the couch, careful not to sit on Bruce. She laughed at the situation, at the events of the past two days, and at the utter absurdity of her life at the moment. She had never in her life thought that she would be cleaning up a broken coffee table in Tony Stark's house while a tiny Bruce Banner slept off his latest Hulk episode. She laughed for a good five minutes, Clint laughing with her, before she calmed down and tried to get her breathing in check.

"Never," she gasped out, "never in my life have I wanted children. I started my training when I was young; I never thought my life would have any "normal" in it."

"If this is what normal people go through, I don't want normal," Clint said as he moved to sit on the couch next to her; Bruce slept on in between them.

"Me either," Natasha said, taking a deep breath to let out the last of the hysteria that had built in her chest. "Right, well. Obviously they aren't ours, but like it or not, we have kids now. JARVIS?"

"Yes, Miss Romanoff?"

"Please order me some books dealing with how to raise toddlers. Use Tony's money."

"I have found six that come with very high recommendations. I will order them now."

"Thank you." She looked over at Clint, he had both eyebrows raised slightly, an incredulous look on his face. "Are you going to help me clean up this mess or not," she said.

They stood up and finished cleaning up the glass on the carpet.

Natasha handed the broom to Clint, and he took it and the dustpan back into the kitchen. Natasha picked Bruce up and made her way to the boys' room. When she entered the room all four boys looked up. Tony and Steve had been playing with hot wheels, and it looked like Thor had been trying to wrestle with Loki – he was sitting on Loki's chest when Natasha walked in.

"Hey guys," she said, setting Bruce down on his bed. "We've got to talk about something. Thor, let Loki up." Thor got off, and Loki shot up and jumped on to his bed. Natasha sat on Thor's bed and motioned for everyone to join her.

"Why did Bruce turn green?" Steve asked – he sounded genuinely concerned.

"It was so cool!" Tony yelled, Thor loudly agreeing.

Loki was silent, looking at Natasha warily, as if he expected to be reprimanded. Natasha was slightly bemused at the look, because he was only three - but then again, he had lived many lifetimes and had been reprimanded many times if the myths were anything to go by. Humans didn't call him the God of Mischief for nothing.

"Loki, come here. You're not in trouble." The tiny trickster slid off his bed and went to sit on Thor's bed in front of Natasha with his brother and the other Avengers.

"So, Bruce has this problem" she started, not quite sure whether or not to try to explain why Bruce became the Hulk. She decided against it. "He can't get mad, or else he turns into the Hulk."

"Is that the green thing?" Tony asked.

"Yes, Tony. And the thing is, is that the Hulk is not a nice guy. So I'm going to need you guys to not be mean to him, or take his toys-" she directed that one at Loki; he looked down at his hands. "Okay?"

"Okay," Tony, Steve, and Thor chorused. Natasha lifted Loki's chin so that he was looking at her. "Okay, Natasha," he said.

"Alright, now go play," she said. "And Thor, no more sitting on Loki!"

"Okay!" He yelled from the other side of the room, but she didn't expect him to really listen.
She stood up from the bed and turned around to leave the room. Clint was standing in the doorway. "Nice job," he said, smiling. "For a woman who never wanted kids, you're kind of good with them."

"Oh shut up," she pushed past him and headed for the office.

"No seriously," he continued from behind her.

"Clint, go make them lunch. I kind of hung up on Fury when Bruce hulked out." Clint laughed and headed back down the hall towards the kitchen.

"Good luck!" He called. She heard him yell, "Who's hungry?" before she closed the office door.

The phone was still on the floor where she had thrown it. She picked it up and saw that the line was dead – she hadn't even hung up before she ran into the living room. She hit the end button and then dialed the number Fury had given her to use the day before. It rang once before he answered.

"Natasha, what the hell is going on?"

"Loki pissed Bruce off and the Hulk broke Tony's glass coffee table," she said, her voice as stoic as always. Nick stayed silent for a few seconds before he laughed.

"Well I'll be damned. How big was he?"

"About the size of a fully grown Great Dane," she couldn't help the chuckle that escaped as she spoke.

"Right, well. Tomorrow Jason Baker will be at Stark Tower at 1300. He's allowed to take pictures but you have veto power, so if you don't think the picture is flattering enough of the situation you are allowed to delete it from his camera; and he's only allowed to use one picture in the story."

"Is he coming alone?"

"Yes. He has worked for SHIELD before, so he knows what we like and what we don't like. Also mention that we have convinced Dr. Reid and the Fantastic Four to agree to mobilize should we need them."

"Alright, sounds like nothing I can't handle. Is there anything else, sir?" Natasha sat down behind Tony's obnoxiously large desk and leant her elbows against it, running one hand through her hair. She glanced at the clock and saw that it was already twelve.

"How are you coping?" Nick asked, his slightly softer than usual. He had known both Clint and Natasha for a long time, and knew that this whole situation was not a cup of tea for either of them.

"I'm doing fine, so is Barton. It's a lot to handle, but we can handle it. We have to hope that episodes like the one today with Bruce won't be everyday events. I think we will have to keep a very close eye on Loki. He's not the trickster god for nothing – and now I'm seeing that he's probably been like that his whole life." Fury made an affirming grunt on the other end.

"They – and you for that matter – will probably start to go stir-crazy soon, so as soon as your article runs you can start to leave the tower."

"That will be a welcome relief."

Natasha and Fury ended the call not long after that – neither one for idle chitchat. Natasha hung up the phone and sat for a few moments, staring at the closed office door.

"JARVIS, show me the security footage of the living room and the kitchen, real time please."

"Of course, Miss Romanoff." Instantly two holographic video screens flared to life above the desk in front of her. She looked at the kitchen feed first and smiled when she saw Clint making grilled cheese sandwiches on the stove. Bruce had woken up and was sitting on the counter next to him, wearing only a pair of shorts. She turned her attention to the living room feed. She laughed at the sight of Thor once again sitting on someone, only this time it was Tony, who was actually putting up a fight. She watched as Steve climbed on the couch and jumped on top of Thor and Tony; she heard the resulting "oof!" and yelling from Thor and Tony down the hall.

Loki was sitting alone on the armchair adjacent to both the couch and the television. He had his legs drawn up, and she couldn't see exactly what was in his lap, but she guessed it was the same paper he had been drawing on earlier in the morning.

"You can turn them off now, JARVIS." Natasha stood up as the screens faded away. She headed to the kitchen, stopping in the boys' room to grab a shirt for Bruce.

"Hey guys," she said when she got into the kitchen. "I got a shirt for you, buddy," she stood in front of Bruce. "Arms up."

"What did Fury have to say?" Clint asked as she slipped Bruce's shirt over his small body.

"He said that I'm supposed to let this guy interview me so that the public can have the full story. He's coming over here tomorrow at 1300. He's also going to take pictures, so don't wear that," she gestured to his old jeans and t-shirt he had on.

"Yes ma'am," he said, flipping the grilled cheese without using a spatula.

"Whoa!" Bruce said, "Do it again!" Clint flipped the sandwich a few more times.

"Is that the last one?" Natasha asked.

"Yeah, unless you want one too." Natasha considered it for a moment, and shrugged.

"Why not? Come on Bruce, why don't you help me set the table?" She lifted him down to the floor, and handed him seven paper plates. She grabbed the plate with a stack of sandwiches on it and followed Bruce into the dining Room.

A few minutes later the table was set and Natasha was gathering all the boys to the table.

She lingered in the living room after all five boys had left, looking at whatever it was that Loki had been doing.

He had been drawing, she saw, confirming her prior observation. And he was pretty damn good – for a three year old. Natasha guessed that he had retained the skill that he had had centuries to perfect. He had drawn a landscape – it was a bit crude and under-detailed, but she could tell that he definitely had an idea of where he had grown up. She wondered if Thor remembered as much. In fact, she wanted to know how much any of them actually knew of their own lives.

As she returned to the dining room, she vowed to find out.

Clint lay on his couch that night staring at the ceiling long after everyone had gone to bed. His thoughts were running back over the events of the day.
After lunch, things had been (what he presumed was considered) a calm day to a normal family. Nat had herded all of the boys into the living room and had settled the dispute over which movie they would watch. While Clint had been cleaning the table, she had called Pepper to see where Tony kept his movies. Natasha had told him later that Tony owned pretty much every movie ever made, archived within JARVIS's seemingly infinite system.

Tony had insisted on Star Wars, and so they had spent the entirety of the afternoon watching A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and The Return of the Jedi.
Clint had never seen them before, so he hadn't complained. After the movies Natasha and Pepper made dinner while Clint rough-housed with the boys again – he, of course, was deemed Darth Vader, and they were the Jedi trying to defeat him. Loki was no exception, proudly faking his death dramatically, while Thor avenged his death, landing the "final" blow on Clint.

After dinner it had been bath time. The three adults had conferred for a few minutes, and in the end Natasha and Clint decided to take two each – Pepper would take just Tony – and they would all go at the same time and get everyone done at once so that they could actually go to bed afterwards. Luckily Tony had three full baths on his floor – though why he needed three full bathrooms, Clint had no idea.

"Just get over it Barton! It's nothing you haven't seen before," Natasha said when he tried to find swim trunks for Steve and Bruce to wear in the tub.

"That's not the problem!"

"Then what is?"

"They're my friends, teammates, and maybe I don't want to see that much of them!"

"They're four!"

"I really hope they don't hit me when they're big again..." He muttered as he ushered Steve and Bruce into the bathroom adjacent to the boys' room.

He filled the bath with warm water, and then looked at Steve and Bruce, who stood behind him as he kneeled next to the big bathtub. Ah, fuck it. If they remember later, we'll just cross that bridge when we come to it.

"Alright guys, strip." He had helped Steve pull his shirt off and then recoiled as Bruce jumped into the tub, effectively drenching Clint.

"Thanks." he said dryly. Bruce flashed him a wide smile. Steve jumped in next, but he garnered less of a splash than his darker-haired friend.

It hadn't been as awkward as he had thought – three and four year-olds have no shame. Clint wryly thought about how modesty did not seem to be a trait they had retained in their de-aged states.

He made sure that they got all of the shampoo out of their hair, helped them dry off, and put on their pjs after they were done.

He followed them back out of the bathroom and could not contain his laughter when he saw Pepper looking as exasperated as Tony usually made her. She was standing in the middle of the room while Tony jumped on his bed, stark naked.

"Would you help me hold him down?" She asked, trying to control her tone.

"Come on, Tony, let's get ready for bed."

"Nope!"

Clint laughed before leaping onto the bed and grabbing Tony around the middle. There had been a struggle – during which Natasha and the Asgardian brothers had entered.

After Clint and Pepper succeeded in getting Tony dressed for bed, they spent another twenty minutes trying to convince all five of them to go to sleep. Finally, after telling them a harrowing, and mostly true story of a time when Clint and Natasha had worked in Russia together, all five boys were still in bed and on their way to passing out.

Now, as Clint lay in bed, he thought about another time he and Natasha had worked together – in Budapest, fighting side by side – but with completely different ends in mind.

He didn't think about it often, but whenever he did, he always became sad.

He didn't regret hesitating when he had been in position to end her like SHIELD had wanted, and he didn't regret the night they had spent together – during which he had been prepared to carry out his mission and kill her. But he hadn't, and he didn't regret it at all.

What he did regret was letting her get away afterwards. He hadn't seen her for three years after that, until SHIELD had called him back in and she was there, completely on SHIELD's side now. Clint had been happy to see her again – hoping that they could pick up where they had left off, but Natasha had never treated him as anything other than a fellow SHIELD agent since.

He had been more pleased than was probably professional when he learned that she had been worried about him while he was under Loki's control.

He wiped a hand over his face, trying to dispel the creeping feelings. He rolled over, but it took him a while to fall asleep.

The next morning, Clint woke to someone poking him on the face – the same way he had been wakened the previous day.
"Clint," Tony's voice broke through his sleep-ridden haze.

"What is it?"

"We're hungry." Clint sighed and opened his eyes.

"JARVIS, what time is it?"

"Seven am, sir."

"Dammit," Clint muttered as he sat up. He looked over at Tony, Steve, and Bruce, all standing in front of the couch. "Alright, what do you guys want?"

"Bacon!" Bruce said.

"And pancakes," Tony said, his tone so serious you would think that there was nothing on earth as important as pancakes.

"What about you, Cap?" Clint stood and the boys trailed after him into the kitchen.

"Can I have eggs?"

" 'Course you can," Clint said through a yawn. "You guys go play quietly while I make breakfast. Where are Thor and Loki?

"I dunno," Tony said with a shrug. Clint suspected it was less that he didn't know and more that he didn't care.

"They must still be asleep." Clint said. It was Saturday so he expected Pepper to sleep in a little, but he really didn't know when Natasha would wake up.

As he was mixing the pancake batter he heard a loud crash from the living room. He ran out of the kitchen, praying that Bruce hadn't gotten pissed off again. It turned that Tony had just dumped a lego bin upside down, pouring all of his legos onto the ground.

"Come on, Tony, I asked you guys to be quiet. People are still sleeping."
"Sorry Clint!" Tony stage whispered.

Clint went back into the kitchen and made breakfast listening to the soft sounds of the boys playing in the living room. They stayed quiet, save for a small argument over who gets which lego spaceship. He was relieved that they seemed to be heeding Natasha's warning about not making Bruce angry – it also helped that the kid seemed just as zen as he had been as an adult. Keeping himself calm had been such a huge part of his life for the past six years that it seemed it would take a lot more than being turned into a child for him to lose his cool.

After a little while, Clint heard another child join the three in the living room. It didn't take long to hear that it was Thor.

At eight o'clock, Clint had finished cooking up a stack of pancakes, a pile of bacon, and a huge bowl of scrambled eggs. As he took all of it to the breakfast table and told the four boys to dig in, he saw that Loki still had not joined them.

He stuck his head into the boys' room and saw that Loki was sitting in the corner of the room with several sheets of printer paper strewn around him. He had a book three times the size of his head balanced on his lap, and another piece of paper on the book. He had a pen in his hand, and was concentrating very hard.

Clint went over and sat down in front of him. "Hey buddy, what're you drawing?"

"Why do you and Natasha and Pepper keep calling me 'buddy'? That's not my name, it's Loki." He sounded genuinely concerned that they did not know what his name was.

"I'm sorry Loki, on, uh, Midgard," he hesitated when for a split second, trying to remember the Asgardian name for Earth, "buddy is just a nickname." Loki didn't reply for a minute.

"I'm drawing the nine realms. They aren't in this Midgardian book of stars." Clint's eyebrows rose. It was strange hearing this come from the mouth of a three-year-old. But then again, he reminded himself, Loki is actually a few thousand years old – it makes sense that he's more advanced than the others. Clint wondered why Thor wasn't the same, but attributed it to Loki just generally being more intelligent than his brother.

"So, you like drawing?" Loki just nodded. "Well, why don't you take a break and come eat breakfast?" Clint patted the top of Loki's head and stood up. He realized that it was a bit patronizing, but he couldn't bring himself to care – when it came to Loki Clint's brain worked just a bit differently than it did with the others. He couldn't tell if it was remnant from Loki's mind control, or his grudge against the man for the mind control.

Loki looked up at him with a curious look on his face. "Is there pancakes?"

"Of course."

Loki smiled, carefully closed the huge astronomy book and stood up, catching Clint's hand and effectively dragging him out in to the living room.

An hour later the boys (all five of them) were either playing with legos and hotwheels in a miniature town they had built or watching The Lion King in the living room. Clint was sitting on the couch next to Pepper; both were nursing their second cups of coffee.

"Clint, why did Scar kill Mufasa?" Steve asked him. He sounded genuinely distressed about this plot point.

"Because he's an asshole," Clint replied. He had never actually seen The Lion King before.

"Language!" Pepper admonished.

"Sorry, sorry," Clint said half-heartedly. A few minutes later Pepper said goodbye to the boys and Clint and headed out make her 9am massage – living with Tony was stressful, and she figured she didn't need to be there for the interview.

"Okay guys!" Natasha said as she entered the living room. "The journalist is going to be here at one, and when he gets here you will all be on your best behavior." She directed a pointed look first at Tony, then at Loki. "Clint could you get them all dressed before he gets here?" Clint nodded as Natasha headed to the kitchen to get her own cup of coffee.

"JARVIS, pause the movie," The screen stopped and Steve, Bruce, and Loki all rose in a chorus of protestation.

"Come on, guys, let's go get dressed." It took quite a while, but eventually all five boys (plus Clint) were dressed and back in the living room.

At one o'clock the boys were still playing. They had roped Clint into a game of hide and seek, and he was counting to one hundred (one, two, ten, fifteen. . .) when JARVIS announced that a visitor was waiting in the first-floor lobby of Stark Tower.

"Get the boys together in their room, and please keep them quiet," Natasha said as she went to the intercom near the door that led to the hallway containing the elevator. "Actually, keep Tony and Thor quiet, the others aren't much of a problem. Mr. Baker?" She said into the intercom. Clint couldn't hear the reply. "Yes, come on up. JARVIS, please let him in."

"Yes, Miss Romanoff." A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door, and Clint herded the boys into their room. Natasha didn't want to "unveil" the boys until she got a feel for the story this guy was going to write, and Clint didn't blame her. There was no way to tell how the public was going to react to the fact that four of the six people who had saved them from a megalomaniac alien (from a place that most, if not all of them, hadn't known about or believed in), had been turned into toddlers by the same vainglorious alien. It would be best to break it to them in a way that wouldn't cause as much of a media uproar. So Clint entertained the boys quietly in their room for an hour, until Natasha poked her head in to summon them into the living room.

"Hey guys," She said, and the boys looked up at her. "Come on out here."

The four Avengers jumped up and ran out of the room, bored with the toys they had brought into the room. Loki, however, closed the book he had been flipping through – Clint had no idea which it had been – and walked to the door to survey the living room before he entered it. Clint moved so that he was just behind him and put his hand on top of his head.

"What's up, Loki?" Loki turned his head up to look at Clint.

"Who's that?" He sounded somewhat apprehensive, but mostly curious. Clint noted that he had always had a tendency to ask the hows and whys of everything before he made any moves.

"That's Jason Baker. He's a writer here to write a story about us."

"Why?"

Clint hesitated on this one. If the boys had any inkling about their superhero (or supervillain) states, they didn't show it. And Clint suspected that even as a three-year-old Loki wouldn't be as satisfied with a bullshit answer like "because we're awesome" like the others might. Perhaps he would sit them down later and tell them what had happened. But not now. Natasha was giving him a look from where she was standing in the living room.

"Come on, I'll tell you later." Loki took his offered hand and followed him out. Natasha was seating the boys on the couch, and the journalist was sitting on one of the adjacent armchairs. He lifted Loki onto the couch, who settled down next to Thor. Clint walked over to Jason Baker.

"Clint Barton," he said, his hand outstretched. The other man stood and shook his hand, introducing himself. He started to say something, but his words were cut off by an outburst from Tony.

"No, you may not have grilled cheese now. I don't care how nicely you ask."

"But I'm hungry!" tony whined. Clint couldn't help the smile that cracked across his face. Natasha put her hand on top of Tony's head.

"You can eat after this, okay?" Natasha tried her best not to let the exasperation Clint knew she was feeling creep into her voice.

"Okay, let's get this done. How do you want us for the photo?" She asked Jason, turning around, her hand still on Tony's head. Clint thought it looked like she was trying to hold him down.

Fifteen minutes later, Clint was in the kitchen with Steve and Bruce. They were sitting on the counter as Clint made hot dogs in the microwave.

He could hear Natasha in the living room giving Jason some guidelines for the article that he suspected Fury had given her. Clint understood the need to inform the public in a way that was truthful and accurate, but he wished that there didn't have to be an entire story on them. As a spy, it unnerved him to have his name available for public viewing – he was used to being undercover and he suspected Natasha felt the same. He wished that the public could be happy with the fact of what happened and be done with it.

He heard the main door open and heard Pepper enter. She tried to introduce herself to Jason, but was drowned out by Tony's boisterous greeting.

"Hi, Pepper!" Tony cried. Clint laughed. Tony sounded like he hadn't seen her in a few years, instead of only about five hours. Tony then launched into an epic tale of everything he'd done since he last saw her. After an apologetic grin and nod to Jason, Pepper herded Tony away from where Natasha and Jason were.

"Hey Pepper," Clint said when she entered the kitchen and Tony stopped for breath. She returned his greeting and those from Steve and Bruce.

"How did it go?" She asked.

"It went well," Clint replied. "They all behaved and I'm pretty sure Natasha's interview went well – at least I hope it did," he added under his breath. It was then that Natasha appeared in the entryway to the kitchen.

"Did he leave?" Clint asked her, taking the finished hot dogs out of the microwave. He put them on a plate and set to getting out buns to defrost.

"Yeah. It went well," Natasha said, going to the oven as it beeped. She pulled on an oven mitt and took the tray of French fries out and set them on top of the stove. Natasha filled Clint and Pepper in on what the reporter had asked about after shooing the boys back into the living room. When she was done, the three adults stood in silence for a few moments.

"What are we going to do if SHIELD can't figure out how to turn them back?" Pepper asked in a low voice. "I mean, sure, I wanted to settle down and have a family – but I wanted to have kids with Tony, not have Tony as a kid!"

"None of us wanted this, Pepper," Natasha said, her voice short. "I never wanted children period, but here we are."

"Guys, come on. They'll figure it out." Natasha and Pepper turned to him and he could feel the color draining a little from his face from their respective glares. "At least, I hope. But for now we've just got to deal. We've got five kids in there who need us, regardless of whether we want to be here or not." He picked up the plate of buns from the microwave and began preparing eight plates of hotdogs.

He heard a sigh from Natasha.

"You're right." He glanced at Natasha, who was regarding him with what he could only describe as resignation on her usually stoic face, "They need us."

He glanced at Pepper, who also looked resigned. Suddenly Tony bounded into the kitchen announcing his ravenous hunger, as he latched onto Pepper's leg. She laughed and ruffled his hair.
"I know sweetie, it's almost ready. Why don't you help me set the table?" Clint noticed the wide, genuine smile across her face, and thought that at least she might be able to be happy even if they never figured out how to put the Avengers, and Loki, back to normal.

Much later that night, Clint sat on the couch, watching a low-volume recorded soccer game. He was reclined with his arm stretched out across the back of the couch, trying to will himself to become tired. His mind just wouldn't shut up. What if they never figured out how to change them back? Well, he thought as a frown creased his brow, they'll probably be raised by SHIELD into agents – even Loki. Especially Loki... shape-shifting and magic would be useful... Clint turned his attention back to the TV, intent on putting aside thoughts of the future for now. SHIELD was working on it, and there's nothing he could do for now. He felt the couch dip beside him. He looked over to see Natasha dressed in a baggy sweatshirt and yoga pants. Clint couldn't help but think how pretty she looked.

"Can't sleep either?"

"No," she grumbled, her voice low and tired. "JARVIS, what time is it?"

"One fifteen am."

"Shit," he looked over to see Natasha wipe her face with both hands. "You know they'll be up early."

"They always are." Clint gave her a wry smile. "Why can't you sleep?"

Natasha didn't answer for a minute. She finally looked up at him and sighed. "I'm just thinking of the strange turns my life has taken." Clint nodded. His own life had been a roller coaster from the time he was a child and his parents died, and it hadn't stopped since. "And the thing that gets me," Natasha continued, "is that out of everything I've done and been through, living domestic here with you and Pepper and five little boys is the strangest part.

Clint could help the chuckle that escaped as she finished speaking. She shot him a look.

"Sorry, sorry, it's just that I completely understand. I feel the same way," he tried to sound sincere but a yawn ate his last few words. There was a moment of silence between them. "But things change. And you know, not constantly risking your life and being shot at and captured and. . . tortured sounds kind of okay to me. If not permanently, then at least for now." He tried to gauge Natasha's reaction as she stared down at the loose string on her sweatshirt that she was picking at. After a minute, he looked down and leaned forward so that he could look into her eyes.

"Maybe you're right. Not almost dying everyday is nice." She smiled at him and cautiously unfolded her legs from under her so that she could lean against him. Clint smiled and looked down at the top of her head as she got comfortable.

"Just like Budapest all over again," she mumbled.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! I'm sorry it's up so late in the day, I just got back from vacation. Updates will usually be earlier in the day, I promise.

As always I'd like to thank my WONDERFUL beta, applewings. This story wouldn't be half as good without her help.

Any questions or concerns please don't hesitate to pm me or message me on tumblr, the link is on my profile.

Also, please feel free to suggest anything that you want to see! I can't guarantee that I'll include it, but I will definitely consider it!