The next few days, as far as Clint and Natasha were concerned at least, were relatively good fun. Steve taught them to play basketball after lowering the basket so Natasha had a chance of scoring, Tony taught them to ride the bikes he'd bought for them; taking them to the park for the afternoon when the weather was nice, Pepper took them to the museum (which was an eventful day in itself until Clint got them kicked out), and Bruce took them to the zoo for the day when Tony convinced him to have a day off and leave the lab.
Jane was due to fly out sometime over the next few days and Bruce was looking forward to getting a fresh set of eyes on the problem, knowing they would start running sort of time soon where Natasha was concerned
XxX
Natasha was sat painting while Pepper worked on her laptop in the lounge; Clint was restless, and had taken to purposely bugging Natasha for something to do
"What's that?"
"It's a flower Clint"
"What's that?"
"A tiger"
"Well what's that?"
"Clint! Stop it"
"Stop what?"
"Asking stupid questions"
"We're not supposed to say 'stupid'"
"Well don't be stupid then"
"Tasha?"
"What Clint?"
"Tasha"
"What?"
"Tasha"
"Stop it Clint"
"Stop what?"
"That!"
"What?"
"You're doing it on purpose!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"Clint!"
"Tasha!" he whined, imitating her voice
"Стоп его!" she stuttered, frustrated. When she was annoyed she slipped back into Russian and Clint grinned knowing he'd managed to wind her up enough to cause her to
"Geez Tasha calm down"
"You're so annoying!"
"That's not nice!"
"Leave me alone Clint"
"Pepper! Natasha is being mean to me!"
"Natasha be nice" Pepper called back absently in the middle of a phone conversation
Clint grinned again and Natasha narrowed her eyes, that was when Clint knew he'd pushed her too far; he was too slow to suck when a blob of purple pain hit him in the face
Natasha stuck her tongue out at him, satisfied she'd finally shut him up
He stared in her in disbelief for a second while she went back to painting her picture
She was suddenly interrupted however when Clint retaliated by wiping a smear of red paint across her face. She turned quickly and her paintbrush of green paint covered Clint's sweater
He grinned wickedly; this wasn't quite what he'd imagined but at least he had something to do now. Natasha threw black paint in Clint's hair and he coated her sleeve in yellow, she poured a pot of orange down his back while he rubbed pink paint into her hair. By the time Steve returned from the shops and saw them they were each covered
One stern glare (which he'd been perfecting over the past few days) was enough to make the two kids freeze in place
"He started it!" "It was her fault!" they said in unison, glaring at one another
"Oh my God!" Pepper exclaimed on seeing the state of them, and her dining area, following a five minute conversation on the phone
"Go and run a bath, and then come back and help us clean up" Pepper informed Clint and Natasha clearly before grabbing starting to clear the table
"Wow, you can't take your eyes off them for more than a minute" Steve took in the scene in slight disbelief
"I wouldn't even chance the 60 seconds with those two" Pepper answered back as the two kids in question walked back down the hallway; leaving a trail of rainbow coloured footprints on their way and Pepper sighed
"Socks off!"
Clint sat on the floor to remove the socks; leaving a giant blob of blue paint where'd he'd sat down
"On second thought, just don't move!"
Steve volunteered to clear the table while Pepper went to help Natasha get the paint out of her hair; it would take forever to remove, and even longer if they left it to dry, so Pepper carried Natasha back down the hallway, glad she wasn't wearing one of her good suits now it was covered in paint.
As they opened the bathroom door Pepper sighed again; though the bath was only half full, the whole bathroom was full of bubbles; they'd overflowed the bath, filled the floor and were now reaching levels close to Pepper's waist
"Cool!" Natasha said excitedly, trying to climb down from where she sat on Pepper's hip, but Pepper kept a tight grip and Natasha soon remembered that she was in trouble
"Clint dropped the bubbles in the bath"
"The entire bottle?"
Natasha nodded, glad it hadn't been her to spill the bubble bath
Pepper had no choice but to venture into the bubble filled bathroom in order to switch off the taps which were still running. When the two of them emerged (Pepper had decided it wasn't worth putting Natasha down) they were both covered in bubbles; Pepper was less than pleased about that fact but Natasha loved it, blowing a handful of bubbles at Clint as they went back through to the lounge
"Steve, can you take Clint up to your floor to get cleaned up, I'll use the en suit to sort Natasha out"
Steve nodded, slightly taken aback by the appearance of the two of them covered in bubbles, but he thought it'd be easier not to ask
Clint tried to sneak off to investigate the bathroom a few times but Steve managed to stop him and eventually finished clearing up the table before taking Clint down to his floor so he could use the shower there
It was a bit of a surprise for Tony when he ventured up to his floor to see how the kids were and finding it empty; it was an even bigger surprise when he went into the bathroom...