"Well he was kidnapped," Bruce started. He was worried about his lab partner, his closest friend, so it goes without saying that he was probably the most concerned person on the team, along with Natasha. However, even he was a little uneasy about relaying all the information.
"When?" Rhodey questioned right away.
"2 weeks ago," Natasha replied, calmly as she walked back into the room. She had just taken the child-Tony-out of the room so that he was out of earshot for the conversation.
"And no one thought to inform us?" Sam had a small harsh bite in his voice that was hard not to notice. He and Tony weren't exactly dating, but they had been flirting with each other and became very close over the past few months. It doesn't take a genius to see what was going on and Clint even tried to start a betting pool as to when they would get together. The only person still in the dark about it was Steve. Partly because he probably didn't realize that their mutual flirting went beyond jokes, and also because no one told him. Tony probably didn't want them to know, let alone a man from the 30's.
"You were on a mission! And we... well we didn't think it would take so long." Bruce explained. When he wasn't interrupted, he continued, "We don't know how it happened, but Thor said he felt the magic. He went to Asgard."
"So what," Rhodey started calmly and tiredly, "We're just going to wait? Let him stay like this?"
"Well... for right now, yes." Bruce appreciated how calm the colonel was, as he was already focussing hard on not hulking out.
"Okay," Sam still sounded short, but he had begun to calm down, "Okay, we should go get him from the other room and figure this out. We need to know what we're going to do about him for the next while."
"Yeah... yes, that's a good idea." Bruce agreed and began walking to the other room, followed by the other Avengers. When the arrived in the other room, they found him staring absentmindedly at the wall across the room.
"Uh, what's wrong with him?" Clint asked. Bruce automatically going into doctor mode became worried about te possibility that he was having a seizure,
"Shit. Rhodes, do you know if he has a history of seizures?"
"Seizures? No. This is actually pretty normal for him, he used to do it all the time in college. He just checks out." Rhodey eyed Tony carefully, taking in all of his body language.
"Checked out?" Steve wondered, speaking for the first time since they arrived at the tower, still confused as to why Tony would be afraid of him.
"Yeah... kind of like a loading computer," Rhodey chuckled at what was obviously Tony's description of the action, "At times of high stress or when he has a lot to take in, he just zones out so he can process all the information. But he is still aware of everything going on around him, subconsciously."
"Huh... like a sleeping cat." Clint snorted.
"Now that I think about, I've seen him do that in the lab before a "Eureka" moment." Bruce relayed fondly, relieved that it wasn't a seizure.
"He's done it in battle, but I don't think it has gone on this long before," Natasha said, almost as if the statement was a prediction, Tony turned to them and blinked.
"Are you hungry?" Rhodey asked, approaching the boy slowly. Tony's face scrunched up and looked past Rhodey at Steve, skeptically. Natasha stepped in to assist him,
"Va tutto bene. Non preoccuparti per lui, lui non farà nulla perché noi siamo qui." Tony looked from Natasha to Rhodey and back again, then nodded and slid off of the couch, waiting for them to lead him to the kitchen.
"The kitchen is this way." Rhodey and Natasha took the lead, seeing as he seemed to trust them. When in the kitchen, Rhodey began taking out the ingredients for pancakes. There was a box of mix, but Tony considered pre-made mix to be blasphemous. He also took out white chocolate chips-not milk or semisweet or dark because that would be a mortal sin-fresh blueberries-not the disgusting frozen kind- and apple sauce. Everyone knows that apple sauce is the key to a fluffy pancake. The other ingredients were pastry flour, cinnamon, sugar, baking powder, vanilla, eggs, butter, and milk. The dry ingredients were all premixed and the rest of the ingredients were all measured out, so all he had to do was mix the wet ingredients and the fillers in with the dry ingredients.
" That seems like a lot of work for pancakes," Steve commented and watched Tony tense at the sound of his voice. He couldn't help but feel slightly offended.
"Not if you've ever had Tony's pancakes." Bruce hummed with a small smile on his face at the thought of them. Natasha and Rhodey nodded in agreement.
" Well, how come I have never had them?" Clint asked.
"He only cooks for certain people," Rhodey told him as he was heating up the pan.
"Right." Clint turned to the child Tony, "So why the radio silence huh?" The boy just frowned and turned back to watch Rhodey. He tried again, "Non devi avere paura. Noi siamo i buoni."
This time the boy squirmed a bit in his chair. It looked like he wanted to say something, but he stopped himself. Pretty soon the first batch was done and he threw them into the refrigerator, explaining that he likes his pancakes to cool off before he eats them, when they are filled with something. The same rule applies to every other baked good, except for bread. Raisin bread, cinnamon bread, and other sweet bread could be warm.
When he revived his food, he tenatively ate them as Rhodey made the rest of the team theirs. After a while, he turned to Natash and stared at her for a while. As if they had communicated telepathically, she nodded and led him to the bathroom,
"Seguimi. Io vi porterà al bagno."
He seemed old enough to go on his own, so Natasha let him close the door and was about to walk away when she heard him cry out in pain and collapse.
Translations- "Va tutto bene. Non preoccuparti per lui, lui non farà nulla perché noi siamo qui."- It's alright. Do not worry abouthim, he will not do anything because we are here.
"Non devi avere paura. Noi siamo i buoni."- Do not be afraid. We're the good guys.
Seguimi. Io vi porterà al bagno."- Follow me. I will take you to the bathroom.