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

Chapter 4

That night, as Pepper drove home from Olive Garden, Natasha was smiling. The movie had been excellent, and all of the boys (and Pepper) had agreed.

They had had a good and blessedly uneventful dinner afterwards, and Natasha had to say that for their first outing since the whole thing started, it went really well.

She had noticed SHIELD agents both at the theater and the restaurant, but she had expected Fury to send people just in case something did happen.

Natasha listened in contented silence as the boys chattered on about the movie, Clint right along with them. She looked behind her into the back of the van. Clint sat directly behind her and Steve and Tony sat next to him; Thor, Bruce, and Loki sat in the back row. She smiled when she saw that Loki and Bruce were both out cold, their heads lolling on either side of their car seats, Bruce's mouth wide open.

When they reached Stark Tower, Pepper ushered Thor, Tony, and Steve to the elevator while Clint unbuckled Loki, handed him to Natasha, and then unbuckled Bruce. They carried the two sleeping boys side by side to join the others in the elevator.

Once they reached their floor they set about getting the boys ready for bed. Twenty minutes later Clint, Natasha, and Pepper were sitting at the table, drinks in hand.

"How are you coping with all this, Pepper?" Natasha asked after taking a long sip of her tequila.

"It's. . . weird. A month ago we were together," Natasha took that to mean that they were screwing like rabbits, "and now he's four years old. It's weird."

"Agreed," Clint said. "A year ago I was being mind-controlled by a guy that is now asleep with the rest of the team in that room over there. Not gonna lie, I thought about drowning him in the bathtub last week." Pepper looked appalled, but Natasha nodded – she knew that he wouldn't do anything like that, but she knew him well enough to not be surprised. "But then last night when he fell asleep on the couch, and then this morning woke me up as a kitten, I'm just not angry at him anymore. Which is different for me, I usually don't just let things go that easily. Maybe I'm just getting old." He finished the last of his scotch in one go.

"I don't know how on earth SHIELD is going to fix them. They don't have that kind of knowledge, and the only people who could maybe figure it out are asleep in the other room."

"Yeah, if anyone could figure it out it's Tony and Bruce," Pepper said, and she heaved a sigh. "On a lighter note, that was a really good movie. And nothing bad happened with the little ones."

"Agreed. We're lucky that no one recognized us," Natasha said. There had been a lot of media coverage of Loki's first attack and subsequent antics around New York since then. Natasha and Clint had been able to escape most of it, with Steve and Tony being at the forefront, but she was fairly sure that everyone in America who watched the news at least vaguely knew her and Clint's faces.

"You're paranoid," Clint said. He stood up and collected the three empty glasses and took them to the kitchen. Natasha followed him and leaned against the counter.

"I may be paranoid, but sometimes I need to be. I'm paranoid enough for the both of us." Clint put the glasses in the dishwasher and started it. "You forgot the dishwasher detergent."

"Shit," he quickly opened it before it could properly begin the cycle. Natasha handed him the jug that she had grabbed from under the sink and he squirted some in and restarted it. She stared at him as he looked up and smiled at her. "No harm done."

She continued to stare into his eyes, and he stared right back. She knew that he was still in love with her. She knew, and she wanted to tell him that she returned those feelings, but she just couldn't. She had lived her whole life keeping everything locked inside; it was so hard to let them out. She didn't know how! It could never be as simple as just saying those three words she knew he wanted to hear.

So, instead, she went with the physical – the physical was safe and familiar. She took a slow step forward and kissed him. When she pulled back and looked into his eyes they were wide, surprised, and a little confused, but then he smiled and went in for another.

After a minute Natasha pulled back and grabbed Clint's hand, pulling him out of the kitchen and towards her room. She noted that Pepper had already gone to bed. Good, she thought.

When they got to her room she pushed Clint down onto her bed and locked the door. She turned around, took a breath, and, forcing herself to forget the consequences, smiled at him. She climbed on top of Clint and kissed him again. He kissed back, snaking his hands under her shirt and up over her abs. She laughed. "That tickles," she purred.

"Sorry."

"No you're not."

"No, I'm not." They laughed breathily, and Clint took the opportunity to take control. He flipped them over so that he was on top, pulled his shirt off and threw it on the floor before kissing her fiercely. Natasha followed suit, wriggling out of her shirt in between kissing Clint, and tossed it off the side of the bed. He released her wrists so that he could fumble with the button on his jeans and Natasha flipped them back over again. She gave a smug grin and smoothly unbuttoned her own pants; she slowly unzipped them before leaning down and capturing Clint's lips in a fierce kiss. They both pulled their pants off, trying to keep their lips together. Somehow Clint managed to get back on top, but Natasha didn't mind as she arched her back up so that she could unclasp her bra. Clint pulled it off and threw it off her shoulder. It landed on the top shelf on the opposite wall, about a foot below the ceiling.

The next morning, Natasha woke first. She was lying on her side with Clint wrapped around her, his arm around her waist. She lay there for a few minutes, her eyes closed, reveling in the warmth of having another human body that close. It had been a long time – too long , she thought – since she had been with another person, and even longer still since it had been for fun and not for a job. Using her body was not her first choice on missions, but sometimes it had to be done.

If she was honest with herself, she wished that this could be the start of something good in her life. She could use some stability, and she thought that Clint's presence could provide that for her. In the ten or so years that they had known each other, he had never faltered in his feelings for her, as far as she could tell. It had broken her heart to leave him after he had spared her life in Budapest – because she knew that he was there to kill her. Either he would have succeeded, or she would have killed him trying to stop him; and she was so grateful that he had decided to go down another path. She hadn't wanted to leave him, but she didn't know at the time that in a few years she was doing to defect to the other side. She thought that he was going to be gone from her life as fast as she could blink, and that he would move on after. But he hadn't, and neither had she really. Plus, she thought with a smirk, he's amazing in the sack.

She carefully maneuvered so that she was facing him, thankful that he was a heavy sleeper. His face looked so smooth when he slept, all of the lines erased and peaceful.

Natasha stayed where she was for a minute, looking at Clint and reveling in the early morning quiet. She wanted the time, but didn't want to ask JARVIS and risk waking Clint up, and her pullout couch-bed didn't have a bedside table or clock. After a few more minutes she carefully wriggled out of the bed. She felt energized despite the early time. She located her workout clothes quickly and grabbed her phone from where it was plugged in next to the door; as an afterthought she also grabbed her iPod and headphones. She saw that it was 6:45 and wondered, perplexed, why she was awake so early when she didn't have to be. She decided that she didn't care and unlocked the door, exiting the room quietly. Once she shut the door again she started down the hallway towards the main door so that she could go one floor down to the full gym that Pepper had mentioned was down there during their first tour of Tony's apartment. Before she left she turned around and wrote a note, leaving it on the kitchen table in case she was still gone by the time Clint or Pepper woke up.

Once she reached the 79th floor she entered the gym and was pleased to note that all of the equipment faced the floor-to-ceiling windows along the east wall. She had a perfect view of the sunrise.

Natasha headed for one of the treadmills. She put on Sergei Rachmaninov's Symphony No. 2 and started running. She loved running in particular to this symphony because she had hazy memories of her mother playing it when she was very young. It took her back to a time before her memories, when she was still innocent. She had always favored classical music; she found solitude in it - that it has no words to define its meaning, and so she can feel and believe anything within it. So much of her life is out of her control – she must always do what she is told by SHIELD, and before that by whoever hired her to carry out their dirty work, and even before that by her teachers. There is no objective in understanding music. It pulls at the heartstrings without cause, and is a quiet solitude. In some way, it helped her to stop lying to herself - if only during the course of the piece. It is her truth, and her escape.

She had been running for just over thirty minutes when she started to feel the consequences of not exercising for a few weeks. This was the first time she had really had a chance since this whole thing started; thought that didn't stop her from cursing herself for not running at least three times a week like she should have. Nevertheless she pushed through and finished her run. It was now seven forty-five and she had no doubt that at least one of the boys would be up and hungry.

Natasha headed back to the 80th floor; she wrapped her headphones around her iPod as the elevator went up. When she re-entered the apartment it was relatively quiet. She didn't see anyone at first, but when she walked around the couch she saw Steve sitting on the floor. He was playing with the little green army men that had come in a bucket of one hundred that Pepper had bought a few days ago.

"Hey Steve," she said, sitting down on the couch.
"I'm playing army," he said happily. "These," he gestured to a platoon of upright and carefully arranged soldiers, "are us. And these," he gestured to a scattered and mostly knocked over group of soldiers, "are the Nazis!" Natasha's eyes shot up. So he remembers that much.

"And are we beating the Nazis?"

"Of course!" He yelled, scandalized at the thought that it could go any other way.

"Shhh," she said, her finger over her lips. "The others are still sleeping."

"Sorry," he whispered. She watched him play for a few more minutes. "I need a red guy," he said suddenly.

"What for?"

"For HYDRA!"

"Oh, so we beat the Nazis, and now we need to beat HYDRA?" Steve nodded as he rummaged through their rapidly filling toy box. Eventually he found an action figure with red hair – Natasha didn't know who it was supposed to be but he was big and muscular.

"This works," he said, holding the action figure up for her to inspect. She smiled and nodded her approval. He went back and stood over his "American" soldiers and threw the action figure down on them. "Ahhhh!" he stage whispered, "HYDRA!" The HYDRA figure was dragged all around the platoon, scattering everyone. He dropped the HYDRA figure and ran over to the toy box. He pulled out a Captain America action figure. Natasha smiled, Pepper had bought all of their action figures; even her own likeness was in that toy box. After she and Clint had explained simply what had happened Tony had been very excited about being a superhero. Pepper had taken him down to where he kept all of his outdated Iron Man suits. He had been very eager to use one, but he understood that he was too small for them. Along the same vein, Clint had flown Thor up to the top of the Statue of Liberty to retrieve Mjolnir. Even as a five year old he could lift something that the full-sized Hulk could not. It was currently on lock-down from Thor so that he could not hit anyone with it – and God forbid he figure out that he can fly with it.

"Don't worry, Captain America will save you!" Steve and the action figure swooped in and knocked that HYDRA action figure away. He then proceeded to smash the two action figures together until the HYDRA action figure was thrown onto the couch next to Natasha. "Victory!" He said jubilantly and Natasha cheered.

"How about breakfast?" She asked as the door to the boys' room opened. Tony exited mid-yawn and the other three followed within minutes. "Good morning boys," Natasha said when they came around the couch.

"Good morning Natasha!" Tony said, suddenly wide awake in the way that kids usually are.

"Are you guys hungry? Steve and I were just about to decide what to have."

"I'm starving!" Thor said, suddenly awake himself.

"Okay boys, let me just go take a really quick shower and I'll make you breakfast. Don't break anything." She stood up and made her way to the bathroom across from her room. Quickly undressing she stepped into the shower and turned the water onto hot. She simply stood there for a few minutes, enjoying the heat soaking into her sore muscles. She resolved to run more often. After a while she started washing her hair and body but stopped short when she heard the door open. She poked her head out and saw Clint.

"What are you doing?"

"Morning constitution," he replied through a yawn. Thankfully he didn't sit down. Natasha went back to scrubbing the conditioner in her hair. A few minutes later as Clint was finishing up brushing his teeth the fire alarm blared to life.

"Mr. Barton, Miss Romanoff, Mr. Stark has set fire to the couch. I have extinguished it, though I was unable to stop the couch from suffering some damage. However I assure you that it is minimal.

Natasha heard Clint groan. "I'll deal with it. . . What the hell did he do?" She heard him grumble as he shut the door behind himself.

Clint didn't question Natasha's sudden desire to take their relationship to the next level (the lever that Clint wanted so badly to be at). He was just happy that suddenly their desires lined up and he could finally show her how he felt about her – how he's felt for years. Well, at least he could show her in private.

He and Natasha were sitting in a conference room at SHIELD headquarters with Fury, Agent Hill, and the scientists in charge of trying to fix the boys.

It had been five weeks since Loki had changed them all. Clint didn't follow much of what they were saying, but it sounded like they weren't any closer to finding a solution than they were five weeks ago. It looked like Natasha was following, so he'd have her explain it to him later.

They had been called by Fury very short-notice – thirty minutes before their impromptu meeting had started. Luckily their new HQ wasn't far from Stark Tower. It normally wouldn't have been a problem on a Saturday, except that Pepper had gone on a business trip and wouldn't be back for a few days. So, Fury had called and told them that their babysitter was on the way.

Apparently, Peter Parker had just become as associate of SHIELD's – another superhero recruit – and had been itching for something to do. Clint had laughed hysterically – Peter had wanted to join the Avengers, not babysit them. Nevertheless, when Peter's initial shock at his "assignment" had worn off (because Fury had just told him to go to Stark Tower, not why) he had agreed to watch the boys while Natasha and Clint went to their meeting.

After the meeting was over Fury asked Clint and Natasha to stay behind.

"How is everything going?" He asked.

"Everything is just fine, Director," Natasha replied. Clint nodded, everything had been fine. Bruce hadn't had an episode recently, the boys got along, neither of them felt like killing any of them. Of course, it would be even better if they didn't throw little temper tantrums when they didn't get what they wanted or wake Clint up at six in the morning most days.

"I wanted to talk to you about Loki."

"What about him, sir?" Clint said, his brow furrowing slightly.

"When we do figure out how to make the Avengers adults again, we plan on leaving Loki at his present age." Clint's eyebrows shot up. He had just thought about this, and had dismissed it. Didn't Fury see the flaws?

"Sir, with all due respect that's a bad idea."

"Oh really, Agent Barton, why is that?" He said, a look in his eye that told Clint he was treading in dangerous waters.

"Well, for one we don't know if he is going to age like a human, he could be three for fifty years for all we know." He forced himself to stop there, not wanting to push too far at the beginning.

"We have thought about that. But we believe that it is best for the world if he stays that way. He can't cause too much trouble as a child, and we can raise him to be good-"

"Raise him to be a soldier, you mean."

"Barton, this is not open to your input. I didn't say we think we should do this, I said we plan on doing it, your opinion is not necessary."

"Then why tell us, sir?" Clint didn't know why he was so angry all the sudden, and when he glanced at Natasha he saw that she, too, was staring at him with anger in her eyes.

"Because you are directly involved, and I was going to ask you and Agent Romanoff to take care of him. He knows you and he trusts you, I assume, and you two can raise him into a good little SHIELD agent like you. Take some time to think it over. That's all I need from you now, you two can go."

Clint nodded curtly to Fury and walked out, hoping that Natasha was following. Thankfully, she did.

When they reached the car ten minutes later it was almost six o'clock. Clint had pushed Fury's suggestion to the edge of his mind – a problem to be dealt with later, and suggested they go out to eat since they hadn't received a call from Peter Parker frantically begging them to return.

"I feel like having Greek food," Natasha said when Clint inquired as to where she wanted to go.

"That sounds good, there's a place not too far from home." They drove to the restaurant; it was small, but fairly well known so there were a lot of people there. They parked a few blocks away and walked, shoulders touching but not holding hands to the restaurant.

"Just the two this evening?" A petite blonde woman asked when Clint and Natasha walked up. Clint nodded. "And the name?"

"Barton," Clint replied.

"Alright, thank you, it'll probably be around fifteen to twenty minutes." Clint nodded again and he and Natasha went to wait outside – there were a lot of people in the waiting area.

There was a bench outside the door that was unoccupied so Clint quickly claimed it, stretching his arms out across its back. Natasha sat down next to him, crossing her legs.

"I hope the boys are okay," Natasha said after a few moments. It was the first time she had said anything about them since they left the meeting.

"I hope Peter's okay," Clint countered. "Tony and Thor can be a handful, and God forbid he tries to make Loki do something he doesn't want to do." Peter had been pretty unnerved to see Loki, but Natasha had explained about their limited and sometimes erratic memories of their lives so far.

It seemed that the bulk of their memories were from when they were actually young, except for Bruce, who remembered at least that he turned into the Hulk when he got angry and some of his techniques for staying calm. So far they had only had three episodes, two at the hands of Loki and one because Tony wouldn't leave him alone one morning when he was still tired and cranky.

Clint hoped they wouldn't have many more, he was a pain in the ass to calm down, and none of them helped Natasha's fear of the Hulk – not that she'd admit she had a fear, but Clint could see the look in her eyes each time. Clint hated seeing it.

"Remember when we had a mission in Greece?" He asked, changing the subject – at least for himself. Natasha smiled and looked over at him.

"That was a fun one." They had been tasked to take out an American national who had done something big and bad – Clint honestly couldn't remember the exact details. It had been tough to find him and even tougher to take him out, so afterwards Fury had given them each a week off; they had stayed in Greece for some rest and relaxation.

"The job was fun or the vacation was fun? I can never tell with you."

Natasha laughed, "Both were fun."

"Barton, party of two," Clint heard from inside. He and Natasha stood and made their way to be seated.

An hour later they were finishing their respective drinks, a glass of red wine for Natasha and a beer for Clint, and waiting for the check. Clint plucked up the courage and asked, "What do you think about Fury's request?"

Natasha looked up at him, she had been staring into space behind him. She pursed her lips and picked up her drink. She took a sip and put it back down. "Well, it's difficult. I'm inclined to do my duty, which is whatever SHIELD needs me to do, but at the same time I was awaiting the day when they're all back to normal and I can go back to my job. I mean, obviously things would be much different because we couldn't be constantly putting our lives at risk." She gulped down the rest of her wine. "I don't like it much at all, but if that's what my duty is then I'll do it."

"But when about Thor? What about Asgard? Surely they won't let us just keep him? I suppose Asgard might be willing to let him go, but Thor wouldn't. And I'd rather not get on his bad side." Clint forced himself to not get too heated, he took a gulp of his beer. He didn't want to argue, but he was irritated that no one saw the complications to SHIELD's plan that he saw – there was no way that Thor would leave Loki behind when he returned to Asgard. When he escaped from them the first time Thor had been very angry, and had ranted about how incompetent mortals are. He had later apologized and over the months had grown extremely fond of each Avenger. Even so, he remained extremely anxious over his brother's state of mind and was desperate to get him back to Asgard. He didn't say as much to Natasha, though. He'd save it for when they weren't in a crowded restaurant. So he changed the subject, and they talked peacefully until their check came.

It was about eleven when Clint and Natasha got back to Stark Tower. Clint hoped that all the boys were asleep, but he doubted it. When he voiced this concern Natasha agreed with him.

"We can barely get them down sometimes and they're used to us."

"True. But on the bright side, if they're still up now they'll sleep in tomorrow." Together they boarded the elevator and made their way up to the 80th floor. Clint opened the door mid-yawn and stopped.

He was greeted by the sight of Tony hanging by the back of his shirt from the ceiling by a thin whitish rope. Peter was sitting on the armchair playing with Steve, Bruce, and Thor. Loki was on the couch watching The Lion King again.

"Hi Clint!" Tony yelled when he saw him. "I can fly!" He tried to swing in a circle, but mostly ended up wigging, his shirt sliding up over his belly and it looked like he was dangerously close to slipping out of it. That didn't stop Clint from bursting into laughter. Natasha nudged him aside so she could see in, and her eyes went wide.

"Hey," Peter said standing up. "I hope you guys don't mind, he wouldn't leave Bruce alone and I was afraid of. . . yeah."

"How was everyone otherwise? Don't do that!" Natasha admonished. Clint, who was still snickering, had walked up to Tony and had given him a push.

"They were great, we had pizza for dinner – there's still some in the kitchen – and we watched 'Superman.'"

"WEEEE!"

"Clint stop pushing him! Could you please get him down?"

"Sure thing," Peter said. He walked over and plucked the super-strong web from off Tony's back, catching him swiftly and setting him on the floor.

After that Peter said goodbye to the boys and to Clint and Natasha, and left them to get the boys ready for bed. They were still excited from making a new friend but were rapidly fading. It wasn't long before all five were sound asleep.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! I'm probably going to write Natasha and Clint's sexy-scene in its entirety and upload it as a separate story, and if I do I'll link you guys in next week's chapter. See you all next week! Please review! It really makes my day to see that I got another review, and I'm overwhelmed with the response to this story so far, I've almost got more reviews on this than any other story in the past and I'm so thankful for everyone who reads and favorites/follows/reviews. :)