"Tony! Tony! Tony!" Natasha shouted from the kitchen. The billionaire strolled in, followed by Steve and both men took a moment to take in the mess before them

"I made you dinner Tony!" she told him proudly, which when a long way to explaining the mess. She dragged him over to the table and made him sit down and passed him a plate with a sandwich on it. Steve grabbed a mug of coffee, taking a seat by Tony. The two of them had just eaten an hour ago at Shield, so he wasn't so bothered no one had made him dinner, but looked at the gooey mess on the plate in front of Tony with avid interest.

"Thanks Tasha" Tony said, picking up the food from the plate. He was just about to take a bite when he caught Clint's eye; he was shaking his head and waving his hands behind Natasha's back, signalling to him not to eat it

"Natasha, sweetie, what's on this sandwich?" he asked, hoping to find an excuse not to eat it and to pass it over to Steve,

"It's all your favourite things!" she told him happily, eagerly waiting him to eat the meal she'd spent forty minutes making for him

Clint was still glaring a warning at him, but there was no other option that wouldn't upset Natasha, so he took a bite, and it was possibly the most disgusting thing Tony had ever eaten, but he forced a smile on his face and continued to chew, struggling to swallow the random mix of things Natasha had stuffed between two pieces of bread

Natasha looked relieved he'd eaten it, and seemed to like it while Steve asked; "So Natasha, what did you put on that sandwich for Tony?"

"Tuna, grapes, garlic, jam, cheese, marshmallows, olives and chocolate sauce" she told him, counting off the items on her hand

"Natasha, Clint, do you guys want some jam sandwiches?" Pepper called, entering the kitchen following a business meeting that morning

Both kids ran off to help and Tony slid the rest of the sandwich subtly in the bin without either child noticing, while Steve tried to suppress his laughter

"That was awful" he whispered to Steve who almost choked on his coffee when his laughter returned

Clint and Natasha rejoined them at the table a few moments later

"You ate that fast" Clint said suspiciously

"I was hungry" Tony answered, hoping Clint caught the tone and didn't push it

"Did you like it?" Natasha asked, taking a bite of her own dinner and smearing raspberry jam on her cheeks

"I can honestly say that was the best tuna-grape-chocolate-cheese-marshmallow-olive-garlic and jam sandwich I've ever had"

Pepper gave him a strange look before going back to tidying up the kitchen.

Following lunch Thor and Jane took the kids to play basket ball, Natasha sitting on Thor's shoulders while Clint happily clung to Jane's hand; he'd become really attached to her recently

"You know you were lucky with that sandwich" Pepper told him, wiping the counters down

"Oh yeah? You would say that, you didn't have to eat it!"

"All I can tell you is she got lemon, chillies, salami and hummus out the fridge as well"

Tony laughed, Natasha was not a great cook when she was an adult, but she was terrible as a child

"You know because you said you liked it she's going to want to make you dinner again in the future" Pepper warned

"That's okay, I'll just tell her you and Steve were jealous she didn't make you guys one"

Pepper rolled her eyes before taking a seat beside him

"You know you're great with her"

"Just don't tell adult Natasha that when we get her back"

"Speaking of which, how long do you think that's going to take? Seeing as you're here and not in the lab with Bruce?"

"No idea, we were working all night and just can't figure out how to re-age them. We want to make sure we get our Clint and Natasha back, and not just grown up versions of the kids downstairs"

Pepper nodded in agreement, it wasn't worth rushing, not now they'd stopped the de-aging process

"This is starting to remind me a lot of last time..."

"Why?"

"Well just the ages they are, last time I looked after you all as kids Natasha was five and Clint was seven, now they're four and eight, it's not too dissimilar"

"Except you have significantly less kids this time" Steve joined in, having washed all the plates

"True" Pepper agreed

"Yeah, plus this time you're not Tasha's favourite"

Pepper roller her eyes but had to agree, Natasha and Tony had formed a strong bond; one no one would have ever guessed at, just like Clint had formed with Jane, they certainly kept you guessing.

XxX

In the gym Thor was currently being chased by Clint while Natasha clung to his back. Basketball had fast descended into madness when Clint and Jane got sick of losing (37-1)

Thor quickly dodged out of Clint's attempt to grab hold of him and instead grabbed the young boy, flipping him upside down. Clint laughed as Natasha tickled his feet and shouted for Jane to come and save him, but she was too busy videoing them to come over and help

"Miss Foster, you have a visitor" came Jarvis' polite voice, interrupting the fun

Natasha jumped down from Thor's back, landing easily by his side before running off towards to elevator; she stumbled however and fell, ruining the gracefulness

Jane grabbed her hand and helped her up before the two girls boarding the elevator, leaving the Thor and Clint play fighting in the middle of the floor

"Jane! What the hell is this message supposed to mean? You take off, without so much as a word and then all I get is a voicemail that's mostly static, going on about Hydra and children and..." Darcy's eyes rolled over the young girl with red hair and green eyes hiding behind Jane's legs and she knew just what the message had meant

"Oh... Not again!"