This is it, the big one (No not the last chapter!) This is Clint's party and his last night as a kid! I really loved writing him as a kid and I've gotten a lot of great suggestions on what to write next, some of them are so good that while they might not be the next thing I work on I still want to get to them on down the road!

Clint awoke the next morning to find Natasha gone but that was alright. He stretched out and sighed. It was his last day and he was afraid. Still he knew that there was nothing he could do. So instead he tried to think about the party. Tony had said he was inviting some other children. He thought that that could be fun. Swinging his legs out of bed he went and took a bath and eventually made his way down to breakfast, surprised when the door to the living room was closed.

Steve came around the corner and found him trying to open it. "Not yet." He said with a grin. "Party doesn't start until noon and Tony wants the decorations to be a surprise."

Reluctantly Clint turned away and followed him to the kitchen, taking his hand as he did. Steve gave his fingers a small squeeze, picking up on the boy's nervousness. They ate breakfast together and then Barney offered to take Clint to the park.

As they walked down the street, Clint began to feel a tightness in his chest. He felt like he'd been punched and as he thought more and more about what was to come the feeling grew worse until he felt a hot tear splash onto his wrist and he stopped in his tracks, crying.

Barney turned around in surprise and stopped. "Clint?"

But Clint's face was screwed up and he was crying, trying to stay quiet. Barney felt a sudden stab of pain and knelt down next to him. "Hey, what's wrong?" He poked at Clint's arm, trying to get his attention and Clint buried his head in his brother's chest.

"I-I know I have to g-go change but can you stay with me until I do?"

Barney put a hand on the back of his head and sighed. "Yeah. Of course." He put his arms around his brother and hugged him. "I'll stay with you. I promise."

Clint sniffed and the two of them relaxed. "I'm scared."

"I know. Who wouldn't be? But I promise that nothing scary is going to happen. I'll make sure of it."

Clint wiped his eyes and instead of going to the park the two of them went to a movie. It took less energy and Clint sat through it, leaning on his brother's shoulder.

After the movie Barney found a shopping mall and the two of them wondered around, killing time. Tony had told him to keep Clint occupied until noon so he would have time to get everything ready. He dragged his brother to a pet store and let him play with the puppies for a while. They wondered further through the mall, stopping to look in different stores until noon rolled around and rather than call Tony for a ride they took a cab.

With a few more minutes left to kill they walked around the block, Clint sitting on his brother's shoulders, laughing about the taxi driver's expression when they'd given him the address. When they made it up to the pent house there was noise coming from the living room. Putting his arms around his brother's head Clint held on nervously. It occurred to Barney that at this age Clint had never even had a birthday party.

Barney squeezed his brother's hand. "It's okay. You'll have fun."

A round of greetings met them as they stepped in. Barney felt Clint tighten his hold and slowly pried him off. "Go meet the other kids." He said.

Slowly Clint walked towards the other children. A little girl with pig tails greeted him with a smile. She introduced herself as Katie and took him to go and play with Franklin and Valeria Richards who were sitting near by messing with a holographic devise. Both of them greeted Clint enthusiastically.

Barney smiled and walked over to the adults, shaking hands with Reed Richards nervously. He was used to superheroes treating him suspiciously. He accepted it. Hopefully however, at the end of the night Clint would be back to normal and he could go back the apartment and all of the suspicious looks would be over.

Reed and Hank were talking rather aggressively about how hank had figured out how to manage the particles. Tony and Bruce listened with interest. Across the room Sue Storm was talking to Steve and Thor. Barney held back and watched them. Nearly everyone looked as though they were having a good time. After his initial shyness Clint was getting along well with the other children. Valeria RIchards in particular. He took a seat at the bar and watched the others. Eventually Natasha pulled herself away from a conversation and came and sat next to him.

"How are you?" she asked.

He shrugged. "I'm okay."

"Clint is having fun."

"Yeah, when he was little he got along pretty well with other kids. He changed a little in the orphanage but. . ." He made a made a motion with his hand to say what could you expect?

She poured herself a drink and nodded.

"I wanna stay with him tonight. I mean, he asked if I would. . ."

"That's fine. Bruce wants to keep him in the med lab for observation anyway. You can just stay in the room with him."

"Thanks. I'll be gone once he's back to normal."

She gave him a long look through very beautiful eyes and Barney saw again why Clint had gone so crazy for her. "It hasn't been bad having you here and I think the others have a new respect for you."

He smiled slightly over his drink. "You think?"

"Yes."

He sat back. "I kind a feel like I got a second chance."

She leaned forward. "I feel like I got a chance too." She smiled and laughed. "I almost wish it could last." It was something akin to confession for her to say it aloud. A part of her had even kept from stringing the words together in her mind.

He looked at her and somehow understood. "Yeah."

They sat in silence, watching the party. Clint had become pretty good friends with Katie Power and was now locked in a game of virtual race cars with Franklin Richards.

She laughed as the children cried out in delight and Barney found himself laughing as well.

Across the room Tony was sitting with Bruce, Reed and Hank. They had moved on from the particles to another subject and were fostering some serious academic tension.

As the party wore down and the younger kids began to wear out, Reed and Sue gathered up Franklin and Valeria and reminded the kids from the Power Pack that they needed to get home before ten. Tony asked the kids if they wanted to fly in a Quin Jet and when Katie and Jack clamored at the idea he set up a jet for JARVIS to fly over for them.

After a quick clean up, Tony sat down at the bar and folded his hands. Clint was dozing on the couch. He glanced around at the others and cleared his throat. "It's after ten."

Hank Pym stood against the wall, arms folded. He felt a prickle go down his spine as all eyes glanced suddenly in his direction and the quickly away.

Barney brushed Clint's bangs back with a finger and scoped him up. "Okay."

Everyone followed Tony down to the med lab where he opened the doors to a room he'd refitted for Clint. Behind a glass window was a long glass cylinder with a bed in it. Pym fitted a cannister containing the particles into the side and waited.

With some hesitance Tony gestured towards the cylinder. "Clint goes in there, Pym releases the particles into the chamber and he returns to normal." There was a heavy pause as all eyes fell to Barney.

He sighed and gently nudged his brother. "Hey, time to wake up." He whispered.

Clint opened his eyes slowly and looked around. "Where am I?" He asked.

"You're in the med lab." Steve said, crouching down.

Clint rubbed his eye and looked up at the chamber. "Is the party over?"

"Yeah."

The boy bit his lip. "And I gotta go?"

"You don't have to go, but you do have to grow up again."

Clint hung his head, eyes downcast. Steve squeezed his shoulder. "Hey, it's alright. You'll go to sleep and when you wake up everything will be normal."

Clint shook slightly and put his arms around Steve, hugging him tightly. "I don't wanna."

"I know, but you gotta."

There final way he said it seemed to strengthen the boy and he sniffed. "I know."

He then went and gave each member of the team a hug, ending the circle with his brother. Hank held back to give them some privacy. When he was done Tony opened the cylinder and patted the bed. "You climb up here, take off your clothes and get under the blanket." Clint gave him a curious look through his tears. "Your clothes won't fit when you turn back."

The boy nodded and climbed up on the bed, pulling his shirt off and then his pants. The others turned their backs to give him some privacy. When he was done Natasha drew up the blanket to his chin and just as she hesitated over him he leaned up and kissed her chin. She smiled warmly and kissed his forehead, smiling sadly at the way he blushed. "Goodbye little one. I'll see you in the morning."

He nodded and she drew back, a tight pain in her chest.

Steve gripped his hand and squeezed as Tony lowered the lid of the cylinder. "See you in the morning, man."

As the chamber was closed Tony pressed a button a gas was released. Clint's eyelids drooped and with one last look at team he closed them.

"You're putting him under?" Steve asked.

Tony nodded. "It was painful the first time. Hank says it shouldn't be this time but I don't want to take any chances. Ready when you are." he said, nodding to Hank.

Hank pressed a button, releasing the particles in the chamber. He then moved to stand behind the pane of glass with the rest of the Avengers. They watched silently as Clint's body began to grow, his features lengthening, his body gaining muscle. After a few minutes a grown man lay in the cylinder, fast asleep.

An audible sigh ran through Avengers and quite suddenly everything was awkward. It was no longer a little boy in the chamber, it was their team mate. Bruce cleared his throat and took a step back, Hank rushed forward and opened the chamber, taking his pulse and then peeling Clint's eyelids open to check his pupils. "He's fine. When he wakes up we'll know if he's completely back to normal. You want to move him to another room?"

Tony nodded and came around to help move Clint to a gurney. "Thor, we could use some muscle here." Thor came around as well and with a strange look helped them move the gurney to a second room. They deposited Clint on the bed and draped a hospital gown over him. Bruce took a moment to hook up an iv just in case and then they stepped back. "All good." Tony said.

There was an awkward moment where no one seemed to know what to do and then Barney took a seat in a chair near the bed and sighed. "I'm gonna stay here. He asked me to."

The others nodded and Steve squeezed his shoulder as they filed out. It would be a long night.

To me this was a pretty sad chapter, I feel like Clint came a long way in this story and I think so did the others, I really hope I captured that! The next few chapters will deal with how he feels having returned to normal and how the others feel and him dealing with so much personal information out in the open!

So like i said, i got lots of good ideas on what to write next, I really liked the Guest review that suggested that i write one of Steve and Clint getting closer as friends. I might do that either as a kind of epilogue to this or as a separate story soon, i really liked it. I also liked the one where he's a teenager, that would be a fun angle to take. I got a couple people asking for deaged Tony and i really would love to do that and might still yet but I'm a little concerned because there are already a few out there and they're pretty good so i don't know if i can measure up to them, I might still try and if i do we'll see if it's any good! I got a deaged Fury and Loki and Coulson suggestion which could be fun. A personal friend suggested an agents of SHIELD story so I might do that. Also, another firends suggested deaged Natasha which I thought would be fun and a while ago I started writing a Scott Summers one and I've been considering finishing it. I don't know, that's just what I have now and I'm looking for something good! I'd love to hear from you guys, I've hears so much good already!

Thanks for reading!