A/N: I know. It's been a month.
So, story goes like this. A few weeks ago, my husband lost his job. No warning, no severance pay, nothing. I started working super early morning shifts and taking on extra projects (and am still working those shifts), and he started looking for a new job. Two weeks after that, he got an interview with a place in Atlanta and got a great new job. (YAY)
But it doesn't start til January, and in the meantime, he's still got to graduate, so I'm over here literally trying to get our house packed up and work extra shifts and find time to sleep while he's desperately trying to pass a class with a professor who I swear would dock you a full grade for putting a comma where a period should be.
So yeah. Life happened. Sorry about that. If you're inclined to pray, I would appreciate any help with the whole keeping my sanity thing for the next two months.
This also means fic writing is kinda on the backburner, so I'm very sorry about that. I am trying to write as often as possible (though obviously freelance and Real Life projects that can actually bring in some revenue are taking precedent right now) but I swear as soon as the craziness of moving is over and the New Year begins, I will get back to regular updating. I'll need the break and the chance to do something not-stressful. :)
Anyway, in the meantime, here's a new chapter! I'm excited about it because little Tony finally makes his debut ;)
Disclaimer: I don't own the Avengers or Marvel or any of the related rights.
Clint wasn't going to pass out, no he wasn't, because that would be like giving up and that wasn't okay. Instead, he was going to get up and see why the green and gold man set Clint on fire.
He heard Natasha whimper, and a seething rage blinded him as he struck out and punched at eye level. Didn't matter if the guy was magic or not—he knew that hurt.
The green and gold guy bent over slightly, but he tried to cover up for it. Clint had seen that look lots of times, usually in the mirror. "Whelp," the green and gold guy said, pushing Clint away and into the cabinets. Clint's mask fell off, but it didn't seem to matter because he didn't feel like coughing anymore.
A container of some kind fell into Clint's lap—which gave him an idea.
Because floating there, in the air where Clint used to be standing, was a huge cloud of dust, and from the way it sort of sparkled and shimmered like it wasn't really there, well, Clint figured it had to be important.
It took him exactly three tries to unscrew the blue lid from the clear cylinder, but Clint got it off eventually. He watched as the green and gold guy waved his hands through the dust and it got somehow sparklier, and Clint figured maybe it was time to jump.
He didn't know what the stuff was, but he knew that it was important to the green and gold guy, so he swung his clear cup through the air and got as much of the dust in there as he could, then took off running down the hall.
"Ignorant fool." Clint heard the shout behind him. "You don't know the powers you are dealing with."
"Yeah, well, no one ever said I was smart!" Clint shouted, because wasn't that the truth. Clint was an idiot. He was dumb. He was a moron. He was lots of other words that Clint didn't understand but Barney said didn't matter even though they sounded like they mattered a lot.
Clint kept the cup with the blue lid jammed on as tightly as he could get it (because the sparkling dust looked dangerous) and ran as fast as he could and as far away from Natasha as he could go because maybe that meant the bad guy wouldn't come back for him.
He almost ran right into Steve . . . or at least, someone who was wearing the colorful outfit thingy that Steve wore. He looked kinda young, like maybe he was in high school.
"Steve!" he gasped.
Steve looked down, surprised. "What are . . . who are . . . what's . . . ?"
Clint heard an unnerving chuckle behind him and spun around to see the green and gold guy leaning casually against a wall like chasing Clint hadn't taken any effort at all. And Clint didn't mean to do it, but Steve was bigger than him and already sort of stepping in front of Clint and putting out a hand to push Clint even more behind him, and Clint figured Steve was a good person to hide behind. Steve might have been younger than Clint remembered him, but he looked really big still, and he looked nice. That hadn't changed just because he got younger.
"Give me the dust now, boy, and you may live to see another day," the green and gold guy said.
And there was something about standing behind Steve that made Clint feel braver, because he shouted, "You have to catch me first!"
And then very suddenly, the green and gold guy was right behind Clint and had a handful of the purple shirt and he probably meant to lift Clint up and shout in his face, because he had that kind of look, but the joke was on him because Clint was actually too little for that shirt anyway and he didn't care that he wasn't wearing anything underneath. He fell out of the shirt and tumbled to the ground, gripping the clear little cup tightly and streaking out of the way. He would have been scareder if he hadn't turned a corner and saw Steve fighting with the green and gold guy out of the corner of his eye.
Clint kept running and hoped that maybe he would find Bruce because even monster Bruce protected him and maybe he would also know how to keep Natasha safe because he was dumb and he left her behind and that was really, really stupid but he wasn't big enough to carry her and the dust at the same time.
He thought he heard something and ran right into the living room and right into a new kid.
Clint didn't know this guy, but he had dark hair and sunglasses and he looked like maybe he was ten or eleven, but he was kind of short and skinny so maybe he was older—it was hard to tell. But he had been standing in front of an open fridge and had half a slice of cold pizza in his mouth, and it dropped out of his mouth when he saw Clint standing in front of him.
Clint remembered that he wasn't wearing anything and frowned. "Who are you?" he demanded, mostly to keep his dignity.
The other guy quickly recovered. "Tony," he said curtly, looking Clint over with the kind of look Clint had seen when other kids that weren't from Clint's neighborhood saw him and Barney looking at the bikes at the store when Dad wasn't home and Mom hadn't noticed them leave.
"Clint," he said. "What are you doing here?"
But Tony sighed and took off his shirt and handed it to Clint. "Please," he said, then waited for Clint to put it on before he added, "What are you doing here?"
"Running from a magic guy with a helmet," Clint said. The shirt was still too big for him, but he could run in it if he had to. He started to add that he was hiding magic dust from the magic helmet guy, but he got distracted by the big, glowing, blue circle in the middle of Tony's chest.
Tony looked down at it and sucked air in through his teeth. "Yeah, I don't know what that is, either," Tony admitted. "But I think it's inside me, and I don't like the idea of what might happen if I take it out." He took another bite of pizza, then, suddenly, coughed violently. He looked like he might throw up.
Clint rushed forward. "Are you okay?" he asked. Now that he thought about it, his throat felt kinda dry and scratchy, too. "Try not to cough," he said.
"Yeah, thanks, that's helpful," Tony said angrily.
"No, I mean it. Bruce said—"
"Who's Bruce?" Tony asked.
"He's a doctor and also maybe a superhero monster," Clint said. "Try to keep up."
"Right, yeah," Tony said, but he didn't look like he was keeping up.
"Anyway, Bruce said that there is stuff in the air and it's making us younger when we cough, so don't do that," Clint said.
"Making us younger? Stuff in the air?" Tony followed after Clint, who had decided that maybe hanging out in the kitchen was dangerous for too long.
Clint sighed. "I don't know. That's what he said." He looked Tony over, then held up his little jar full of dust. "I stole some of it. I don't know what it is or how it works, but this is the stuff that we breathed in." He threw out his chest and tried to look important. "We used to be grown-ups."
For just a second, Tony looked like he might laugh, and Clint hated that more than most things because he wasn't a circus attraction, he wasn't, but then Tony said, "Okay. Let's say I believe you. What's going on with the magic dust, and why us?"
"I don't know!" Clint said, frustrated this time. "There's you and me and Steve and Natasha—"
"There's like a never-ending supply of you, isn't there?" Tony asked, and he looked disappointed.
"Well, then there's also Bruce, and he turns into a giant monster, so maybe he can keep us safe," Clint assured him. He started running now, and Tony kept up with him as they went down the next hallway, probably because Tony looked interested and had a look on his face like maybe he was thinking. "But Steve is only a little older than you, and Natasha is still in the hospital and she's just a baby, so we need to get her out of there but I have this dust stuff and I don't want the bad guy to get it so maybe you can help me?" The more he talked, the faster Clint talked, but when he finished, he gave Tony his best smile.
Tony blinked once, then twice. "Okay," he said slowly. "I'll give you this: this is the most creative kidnaping that's ever happened to me."
"Well?" Clint demanded, because Tony wasn't making sense and people didn't treat getting kidnaped like it was normal.
"Yeah, sure, I'll help. Let's go save the day or something," Tony said, but he didn't sound that enthusiastic.
"Great," Clint said. "You go to the hospital and save Natasha. I'll keep the bad guy away from his magic dust."
"Yes sir, captain, sir," Tony said with a mock salute. It felt like maybe he was teasing Clint, but Clint was too busy to care.
"When you get Natasha, find Steve. He's the big kid in the colorful suit. He can keep her safe," Clint said. He didn't add "and I trust Steve," but he made sure Tony knew he meant to say it.
"Kid, there is something seriously not normal about you," Tony said.
Clint grinned. That wasn't news to him.