Jane arrived the day after Thor, and once again couldn't believe her eyes; as if it wasn't bad enough The Avengers had been de-aged once, it had happened again, and it was still happening... Continuous de-aging; that was certainly new. She was filled in promptly by Bruce and Tony who gave her a copy of all the scientific data they'd been collating over the past two weeks and Bruce sat with her to go through it.

"Wow, they're de aging fast" she commented, looking at the figures as Natasha ran past. The little girl ran straight into Pepper as she was too busy watching Thor behind her, the tray of drinks Pepper had been carrying toppled over, soaking Natasha with iced tea. She stood up quickly, unfazed and continued to run before Thor could catch her. Not watching where she was going once again she inadvertently ran straight into Tony's arms who scooped her up and held the wriggling child under his arm

"How this child grows up to be the ninja-like Natasha Romanoff we all know and fear I will never know; she's as clumsy as they come"

"Tony! Let go!" the child in question demanded, but it was less effective than she'd intended as she laughed as he tickled her

"Okay then" Tony told her, faking a movement to drop her, causing Natasha to squealed and he laughed

"I think someone needs a bath" Pepper informed her, looking at her long red hair in pigtails, dripping juice on the floor as she shook her head

"No Pepper! Please?" she begged, eager to continue the game she'd been playing with Thor and Clint who seemed to have continue without her

Tony passed her over to Pepper, allowing her to make the final decision as he went to rejoin Bruce and Jane's discussion

"5 minutes, but then you really need a bath, you smell like peaches" Pepper told her, placing her back on the floor. She instantly ran off to find Clint, tripping over Steve's feet as she went

"Sorry Steve" she muttered as she untangled herself from the floor and skidded round the corner

Steve smiled at her before turning to help Pepper clear up the mess

It was a bit more relaxed around the tower now no new injuries had occurred in a while, the de-aging had slowed a little and Tony and Bruce thought they were making some progress in fixing this whole mess

At that moment there was a loud crash in the other room and Pepper sighed as Tony, Bruce and Jane looked up from their work and Steve muttered "It's your turn"

What could they have possibly broken this time?

Pepper threw the juice soaked cloth at Steve with a smile and made her way to the other room. She rounded the corner to see the brand new television in pieces on the floor while Natasha, Clint and Thor looked on guiltily

Natasha was sat on the floor by the broken television while Clint clutched the basketball and moved to hide behind Thor's large form

"Which one of you was it this time?" Pepper asked, remembering the previous TV which had broken when Natasha crashed her bike into it, plus the glass table that shattered when Clint and Natasha's pillow fight got out of hand and the several photo frames Clint had smashed with his plastic bow and arrow set

The two kids glanced at each other, before looking to Pepper and back at each other again. Pepper turned the question on Thor since neither child would answer, but he just shrugged

"I'm afraid I do not know Lady Pepper"

"It just broke!" Clint insisted

"On its own?"

Clint nodded and Natasha blushed further

"Do I need to ask Jarvis?" Pepper threatened, going to the ultimate back up

"Я извините Pepper" Natasha muttered, slipping back into her native tongue. She'd been doing this more and more the younger she got; he accent showing through and her speech becoming more stunted as she struggled to think of the right words. Pepper worried she'd lose the ability to speak English all together soon if she got much younger. The Red Room taught her the language from the moment they'd took her at age four; forced her to speak it perfectly so she could be utilised to infiltrate American industries and corporations

"Oh Natasha" Pepper sighed, picking up the young girl from the floor. She'd cut her hands when she'd fallen over the basketball and flown into the TV and she whimpered slightly as Pepper picked out the small shards of plastic stuck in her palms

"Let's go get Bruce to look at you okay?"

XxX

Clint watched the two girls leave before turning back to Thor

"Thor, why is Tasha always falling over?"

"I believe Tony referred to her as a 'klutz'"

"What's one of those?"

"No idea"

Clint shrugged and pulled out some of Natasha's art supplied;

"I'm going to make her a card to make her feel better" he informed Thor, while Thor began gathering the pieces of television off the floor

XxX

Pepper strolled into the lab holding Natasha as Tony, Bruce and Jane seemed to be getting over excited about something

"Bruce, could you come take a look at Tasha's hands?"

"What happened?" he asked, gently pulling another shard of plastic from her hand

Natasha tried to be and not cry, but tears still escaped her eyes. Pepper felt awful at having to hold her wrists so she couldn't move; allowing Bruce to do his job so Tony came over and perched Natasha on his lap, he talked to her to distract her and whispered her favourite song. He promised he wasn't mad about the TV and that he would take her and Clint out for ice cream if she was brave and let Bruce bandage her hands.

XxX

By the time they returned to the main floor, there was a whole other kind of mess. Tony, holding Natasha in one arm and Pepper's hand in the other gaped at just how much paint Clint had got everywhere. He smiled proudly as he presented Natasha with a card he'd made all by himself. Inside he'd scrawled;

'I hope you feel better Tasha. I love you from Clint x'

She wore the biggest grin on her face as Tony read it out to her and she blushed a furious shade of red, matching the paint covering the floor where Clint had been painting

"Right, come on. It's ice cream time!" Tony announced, lifting Clint into his free arm and heading towards the elevator

"But Tony" Pepper protested, running after him when he didn't stop

"But Pepper" he whined, causing the two kids to laugh

"Tony, Natasha is still covered in peach tea and Clint's wearing almost as much paint as the floor"

"They don't mind" he told Pepper, "You don't mind do you" he asked the kids, and smiled when he got the response of shaking heads which he'd expected. "See, they don't mind"

Tony set the two of them on the ground as they exited the tower and took a small hand in each of his. They headed down the street to their favourite ice cream store as Natasha skipped, Tony caught her as she tripped and held tightly to Clint as he tried to run on ahead

"And hopefully, by the time we get back Bruce and Jane will have a surprise for you" Tony informed them with a smile.