A/N: Well, it's an hour early, it's still Monday here on the west coast, but in the rest of the WORLD it's already Tuesday so here y'all go. Enjoy!

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

Chapter 3

Natasha woke to something poking her cheek. She figured it was one of the boys, and hoped that if she stayed still, he would go away. After a moment the poking stopped, but her mattress dipped as if something large were climbing on top of it. She groaned and rolled over to her back, intending to see what whoever it is was. When she opened her eyes, she was greeted by a pair of green eyes surrounded by a green face. Natasha's eyes went wide and she shot out of bed, breathing deeply to quell her rising panic.

As she stood there on the other side of her bed, ready to defend herself, the Hulk simply sat there, looking up at her.

What the hell is going on!? Natasha thought, bewildered.

Suddenly the Hulk smiled and shrank back down to small child size – only it wasn't Bruce.

"Loki!" Natasha admonished. Loki gave a smile and laughed. Natasha moved around the bed so that she could grab Loki's chin. "You cannot do that. You cannot scare me like that."

Suddenly Clint burst through the door to Natasha's room.

"What happened?" He asked, sounding as panicked as Natasha felt.

"Loki played another prank," she said, shaking her head as Loki laughed again. She didn't like how shaky her voice sounded.

"It was funny though!" Loki defended, still smiling.

"You can play pranks, and turn into other people, but don't scare us, okay? And do not turn into the green guy!"

"Okay," he agreed begrudgingly. He jumped off the bed and ran out of the room, dodging Clint's hand as he tried to ruffle Loki's hair.

Natasha sat down heavily on her bed and looked at Clint. She wanted to remark on his incredibly slow response to her yell, but she was too tired.

It had been twenty-one days since this whole journey started.

A few days ago, Loki had realized that he could turn into just about anything, and had enjoyed pranking them all with it ever since. The other boys got a kick out of it and it kept them occupied, so Natasha, Clint, and Pepper hadn't tried to limit it too much.

Natasha got up and called "JARVIS, what's the time?"

"Eight-oh-two am, Miss Romanoff."

"Well, at least he let me sleep past seven today," she mumbled.

"Breakfast is almost ready," Clint said as he left the room to let her get dressed in peace.

As Natasha pulled on jeans and a t-shirt, she remembered that today was the day that Jason Baker's article was supposed to run. She was anxious to read it, and finished dressing quickly so that she could go down to the first floor and get it out of Tony's mailbox.

As she rode the elevator back up to the floor they lived on she flipped through the paper , locating the story on page two. At first glance she was pleased with it. It was relatively short, proving that Jason had stuck to the facts as he had agreed. What pleased her the most was that the picture was small and not the focus of the page. She could see each boy, but it was black and white and hard to distinguish everyone's features, so they could go out without risk of being recognized immediately.

She re-entered the apartment to the smell of pancakes and bacon, and to the sound of Thor and Tony arguing – every now and then another boy would join in with their input.

When she sat down at the table, Steve, who sat next to her, offered her a pancake.

"Thank you, Steve," she held out her plate as Steve stood up on his chair to grab a pancake for her.

"That the article?" Clint said, sitting down across from her, between Pepper and Bruce. Natasha nodded.

"Thor, save some for everyone else!" Pepper said over her coffee mug. Natasha looked over to see Thor shoveling a whole pancake into his mouth.

"You like those?" Natasha said, smiling at him over the newspaper. He smiled widely, mouth opening as he nodded vigorously. Natasha grimaced at the lump of chewed pancake he was displaying.

Natasha turned her attention to the article and started reading.

Baby Avengers?

None of us are likely to forget the events of one year ago, when aliens attacked New York City. Neither are we going to forget how the Avengers team came together to protect us. New York City is finally starting to look like its old self again, as citizens and superheroes alike come together to repair it – despite the occasional prank by the somewhat tamed Trickster known as Loki.

But is the Statue of Liberty going to stay helmeted forever?

Early Monday morning, the city awoke to see that Loki had struck again, putting a self-matching helmet onto our beloved statue. The Avengers set out to capture him and have him to remove the helmet. However, in the process of apprehending him, Loki cast a spell that turned the Avengers into children (save for agents Black Widow and Hawkeye, who were aboard a helicopter near the scene). Loki too was caught in a backlash of the spell, and lives in similar status as our heroes.

I spoke with the Black Widow, who stated that they have specialists working on how to return the Avengers to normal. "For now we are waiting in Stark Tower for this whole situation to be remedied. We appreciate the public's understanding and respect of our privacy." It is unknown how long the Avengers and their adversary will remain in their current conditions; however, specialists employed to solve the problem are working night and day in order to solve the problem." The Black Widow also wanted to inform the public that they are still being protected, as the Fantastic Four have agreed to re-emerge in order to fill the Avengers' absence.

Natasha closed the newspaper, satisfied with the brevity of the article.

"How is it?" Clint asked from across the table.

"Good. Short, sweet, and to the point."

"Awesome," he took a big bite of pancake. Natasha started eating her own breakfast, smiling as Thor finished his own pancakes and demanded more.

Natasha was sitting on the couch later that day reading when she heard a loud cry from the boys' room. She marked her place in the book and closed it as the arguing coming from the other room intensified. Bruce and Tony were sitting a little ways away from her playing with legos and Steve was in the kitchen with Pepper making lunch. She didn't know where Clint was, but she guessed that he was taking a shower. That left Thor and Loki.

By the time she made it into the boys' room, Loki had turned into a dog - well, a puppy - and was biting Thor as he held a book, presumably the one Loki had been reading, up out of his reach.

"Hey!" She admonished, grabbing the puppy that was Loki and pulling him off of Thor. She looked him in the face and said, "Change back." The puppy whined as Loki once again became himself. Thor turned to leave, no doubt thinking that he could take the moment to escape, but Natasha grabbed him by the arm.

She set Loki down onto the nearest bed and gestured to Thor to do the same. "Alright, what happened?"

"Thor took my book!"

"Loki bit me!"

Natasha shook her head. "Thor, no stealing. Loki, no biting, okay?" They both nodded begrudgingly, not making eye contact with her. "Look me in the eye and promise." She waited, but neither looked up. "Thor," she warned. He shifted in his seat. "Loki?" He looked up slowly and gave a quick nod. Thor glanced over at him and did the same. "You may go." They both jumped up and ran out of the room, Thor joining Tony and Bruce. Loki climbed up on the couch and went back to flipping through his book - which Natasha was pretty sure was Grimm's Fairytales. Interesting choice, she thought absently. She went back into her room and grabbed one of the books she had ordered through JARVIS on how to raise kids. It was informative, but didn't help as much as she had hoped, as the boys were not quite the same as normal toddlers. Either way, Natasha thought, it's got some helpful tips. A few minutes later Clint joined her on the couch and turned on Mission Impossible. He and Natasha enjoyed it, laughing at the inaccuracies.

The boys played calmly for another twenty minutes until Pepper called everyone for lunch, Steve trailing behind her as she exited the kitchen. Natasha closed her book and walked over to the table. The four boys in the living room got up from what they were doing and ran back up into their spots at the table, clambering over each other for their grilled cheese and potato chips.

That night Clint sat on the couch, blearily staring at the television. The boys had chosen a cartoon movie that Clint had unsurprisingly never heard of, but he wasn't paying attention. Pepper had already gone to bed, citing a headache, and Clint could hear Natasha in the kitchen talking to Fury on the phone.

He wanted to go to bed himself, but the boys all insisted they weren't tired and wanted to stay up. He had given them five minutes, but that five kept increasing every time it was almost up – so he had finally given in and allowed them to watch the rest of the movie.

Well, Clint amended, all of them except Loki. He had fallen asleep on his side facing the back of the couch, with his feet pressed against Clint's thigh. Clint sighed, and propped his elbow up on the arm of the couch. He hadn't really interacted with Loki much in the past three weeks, because, truth be told, he was still angry at Loki for what he had done to him the previous year. Clint knew that inside that childish frame was the same insane demi-god who had invaded his most private space and forced something else in. And even though Loki may not remember much about himself, Clint did; and he wasn't one to forgive and forget so quickly.

Even as he wanted to stick an arrow through Loki's eye, Clint couldn't help but feel sorry for him. From what Thor had told them all, of Loki he hasn't always been so crazy – always the trickster and always looking to cause trouble, but never enough to try and subjugate an entire race.

Natasha had speculated that Loki was being controlled by the Chitauri, which would explain his change in behavior right after being Hulk-smashed, just as Clint had after being knocked around by Natasha.

If Loki had been controlled the whole time, Clint really felt for him. Having someone control your mind was not fun – and Clint suspected that the Chitauri weren't nearly as benign with Loki as he had been with Clint, Selvig, and the others. Clint remembered how horrible Loki had looked when he had first come through the portal. If Loki hadn't gotten away before they could really get any information out of him, they might know for sure.

Clint wondered if – no... It wouldn't be ethical to purposefully keep Loki young if they found a way to fix everyone, even if it could mean that they could raise him into a more "normal" person. We don't even know how fast he and Thor age, because Thor mentioned being several thousand years old and he sure didn't look over twenty-seven. And Loki looked younger still. Clint sighed and rubbed his palms over his eyes. You're going crazy, Barton.

The longer he watched Loki's sleeping form, the less resentment he felt towards him – even if it was only marginal. He didn't want to make excuses for him, but Clint knew what it's like to do bad things for the people you work for. . .

Actually, he thought, I just want to forget that whole thing ever happened.

Clint looked up just as the credits started rolling, and smiled in relief. "Alright boys, time for bed," he announced as he stood up. He bent over, back cracking, and picked up Loki. He started walking to the boys' room, ignoring Tony and Thor's protestations as Bruce and Steve both yawned.

Ten minutes later, Clint exited the room, but not before threatening a disgusting breakfast to anyone out of bed before eight in the morning.

He made his way to the bathroom to get ready, and found Natasha brushing her teeth. She spat the minty foam out of her mouth and asked, "Are the boys asleep?"
"Bruce, Steve and Loki are. Tony and Thor are probably going to be in a few minutes. What'd Fury want?" Clint waited as Natasha spit out the last of the toothpaste from her mouth. Then she relayed her conversation with Fury to Clint while he brushed his own teeth.

Now that the public had been filled in on what happened Fury gave them the OK to go out every now and then. "Thank god too," Clint said. "I'm starting to get cabin fever."

The next morning, Clint woke up to the feeling of something jumping onto his chest. He scrunched up his face, still tired and confused, grudgingly opening his eyes. When he did, he was greeted by a pair of green eyes surrounded by black fur. When he realized that it was a kitten sitting on his chest, his eyes went wide. The kitten just stared calmly back at him.

"JARVIS, when did Tony get a cat?"

"Mr. Stark does not own a cat, sir," the AI replied in its usual neutral voice.
Then what the hell is this? Then it hit him.
"Good morning, Loki." He scratched Loki's ear and smiled as the kitten started purring softly. "Were you just feeling like a cat today?" The kitten deliberately nodded its head. "Well, alright then." He sat up and adjusted Loki to his lap, swinging his legs over the edge of the couch so he was sitting normally. "JARVIS, what time is it?"

"Eight forty-five, sir."

"Wow," he said looking over his shoulder at the door to the boys' room, which was slightly ajar. The boys had yet to sleep so late, but Clint put it down to the extra hour he allowed them the night before.

He shifted around so that he could see down the hall towards Nat's room, but her door was still closed so he assumed she was still asleep.

His stomach made a very unattractive sound, so he stood up – Loki in his arms – and headed over to the kitchen. As he walked, he glanced out the wall-sized windows. It was sunny with minimal clouds. Perfect, he thought. He had no plans on staying inside, not now that they were allowed out.

He set Loki down on the counter and set about making scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast. Loki sat on the counter watching quietly. It unsettled Clint a little, but he tried to ignore it as best he could.

A few minutes later Clint heard movement from the living room, and guessed that the others were up. He poked his head out, and saw Pepper sitting on the couch holding one of Tony's toy trucks while Tony held another two and chattered away about what each truck was for and showing her the sound it made.

"Good morning," he called. Pepper looked over and smiled, mouthing "good morning" so as to not interrupt Tony's speech.

Clint saw Bruce and Steve getting out legos, while Thor sat on the armchair playing on the iPad that Pepper had used Tony's money to buy for them.

World War III had nearly started over the iPad several times already, and Pepper was considering buying each of the boys their own – and it wasn't like Tony couldn't afford it.

Clint re-entered the kitchen right as he heard Natasha's door open. He smiled and went to flip the bacon.

"Good morning," Clint said as Natasha entered the kitchen mid-yawn. She was still in the sweatpants she slept in and a t-shirt that looked suspiciously like one of his that had gone missing years ago. Her hair was a mess, she had no makeup on, and Clint thought she looked amazing.

"I haven't gotten that much sleep in – I don't know how long," she said as she leaned against the counter across from him.

"Yeah, I say we let them stay up later more often."

"Agreed. How did-" she stopped mid-sentence. "Why is there a cat on the counter?"

Clint chuckled. "Look really hard at it." He glanced around as she went over and picked Loki up and held him against her chest, petting him under the chin and studying his face.

"Ahhh, hello, Loki."

"I woke up to him jumping on my chest this morning. He was the first one up."

"Why are you still a cat? You don't usually stay changed for so long."

"Maybe he's getting more control over it. It seemed like the first few times he changed, he changed back without meaning to."

Natasha nodded her agreement, still petting Loki.

"Maybe if he's somehow re-teaching himself shapeshifting, he can relearn his other magic and change everyone back." She bent down and let Loki go after he started squirming. He darted out into the living room and smoothly shifted back into himself.

"That would be great," Clint responded.

He finished getting breakfast ready and carried it to the table. Natasha followed close behind, plates and forks in her hands. "Come on guys, breakfast's ready." All five boys ran from the living room to the elevated dining room. Natasha feared that one of them would run too quickly and trip on the step and crack their heads open, and although Clint didn't want to admit it, he shared her fear. Pepper followed a few seconds behind, still holding one of Tony's trucks in one hand and stifling a yawn with the other.
Clint was halfway through his second helping of eggs when Natasha cleared her throat. "Well, where do we want to go today? Fury said that once the article runs, we are free to leave the Tower every now and then."

"We could go see a movie?" Clint suggested.

"Yeah!" Bruce and Steve agreed simultaneously.

"Okay, what do you want to see?"

"BATMAN!" Four out of five boys yelled; a few days prior they had decided to watch the first two movies in the series, and were very excited to see the final installment, which had just been released.

"Well then!" Pepper said, laughing. "Loki, do you want to see Batman?"

"Yes," he said decisively, taking a bite of bacon. Pepper looked at Clint and Natasha. Clint was perfectly okay with seeing Batman, though personally he wanted to see Brave. A bow and arrow wielding ginger? Hell yes, he thought. That's a perfect combination of Tasha and me. Immediately after the thought, he was mortified and felt his face go red; he hid his face behind his coffee mug so that he didn't have to look at Natasha, who was giving him a strange look.

At the theater Clint could see that Natasha was nervous. He could understand why, but at the same time he thought she was being a bit paranoid. While he and Pepper bought a large popcorn and a few small drinks for the boys to share, Natasha's eyes were wide open and flitting around the lobby.

"Nat, can you come grab one of these drinks?" He asked. His hands were full of a gigantic bucket of popcorn and a cup of coke that was supposed to be a small but was huge – it had been a while since Clint had been to the cinema. After everything was gathered together and Pepper had dragged Tony and Thor away from the arcade games, they made their way into the line to get their tickets ripped and from there into theater number seven. They had gotten there a lot earlier than Clint had wanted, but the consensus was to get good seats that were all together. With all eight of them, they took up the better half of a row. Pepper sat on one end, Tony and Steve next to her, with Clint in the middle, and Bruce, Loki and Thor next to him and Natasha bringing up the rear.

The time before the movie passed quickly as Clint tried to keep the boys from eating all the popcorn and drinking everything before the movie even started. He ended up being very thankful that they had arrived so early, because the theater filled up quickly; if they had arrived any later they would not have gotten seats together.

"Alright, you guys have to be quiet when the movie's on, okay? You can't talk and ask questions like you do when we're at home," Clint said a few minutes before the movie was supposed to start. To his surprise, all were so excited to see the movie that they immediately agreed. He shared a relieved smile with Natasha, and the lights began to dim.

I hope you liked this chapter, even if it's a bit shorter than usual. Please review! It really makes me want to write more. As I said last week, if any of you have ideas for things you want to see in later chapters I'd love to consider them.