Okay, so something a little more light hearted again after the last few chapters...
Unfortunately, it won't last...
The mood round the tower had been somewhat down since they'd gotten Clint and Natasha back; Shield hadn't managed to track the jet yet and Tony and Bruce were having little luck coming up with a solution to their problem
Darcy was fed up with everyone moping, so decided to do something fun for the kids
It wasn't so hard to find Natasha, she was in one of her two usual hiding places; under the table. She was lay on her stomach, propped up on her elbows while she flicked through a book. Darcy heard her sigh as she pushed the book away from her and frowned
Darcy climbed under the table and lay on the floor so she was facing the young girl; "What's up pip squeak?"
"I can't do the words" she said, indicating to the book sadly
Darcy picked up the book; The Cat in the Hat... Again. Darcy had had enough of that the last time round...
"Well I'm sure someone will read it to you later sweetie"
"But the day before I know the words. Now I don't"
Darcy looked at Natasha sadly, she couldn't imagine what it would be like to know how to do something one day, and not the next...
"Hey Tasha, you wanna do something fun?"
Natasha finally looked a little bit happy and nodded
"Okay, go find Clint" Darcy said, climbing out from under the table and pulling the four year old with her
Natasha skipped off to go find her friend
He wasn't hard to find either, he was sat on his bed reading the new Avengers comics Steve had got for him
"Clint, you come" Natasha asked, climbing onto the bed beside him
"Okay Tasha, one minute"
Natasha peered over to see what he was reading; "Tony" she said, pointing at the image of Iron Man, "And Steve"
"Yeah, look here's Bruce and Thor, and that's me and you when we're grown ups again"
"Is good?"
"Yeah" he smiled, finishing the page off and closing the comic
"You read to me?"
"Sure I will, later. But come on, Darcy is shouting us"
When the two kids entered the lounge, all the furniture had been moved to either side of the room
"What is we doing?" Natasha queried, as Clint picked up the ball of string from the table and looked at it confused
"We're gonna have some fun" Darcy announced with a grin
It took 20 minutes, but soon the living area on Tony and Pepper's floor resembled something between a net and a spiderweb; the string had been tied from the table to the door, the door to the couch, the couch to the window... and so on and so forth
"What now?" Clint asked when they'd finally finished. He and Natasha were on stuck on one side of the room and Darcy was on the other
"Now you have to get back over here" Darcy told them
Clint smiled and started climbing over the string quickly
"Without touching the string! Go back to the start Clint"
Clint sighed but stared going back towards Natasha
Clint made it halfway over to Darcy before he nudged one of the strings and got sent back to the start
"My go" Natasha said, lying on the ground and crawling across the floor. She made it over to Darcy on her first attempt
"Well if you want to take the easy route..." Clint muttered under his breath. After three more attempts and failing, he copied Natasha's method and dragged himself across the floor
"Okay, see if you can get back without crawling on the floor" Darcy challenged
Half an hour later when Steve, Pepper, Thor and Tony came into the lounge it was to see Clint trying to use the furniture to climb over the string instead of going through it, although now he'd gotten up there, he couldn't get back down. Natasha had almost made it back to the other side when she'd tripped and gotten a little stuck, Darcy was struggling to make it over to her, and that was when the others walked in
"What- what-?" Pepper stuttered as Tony snapped a picture on his phone
"Are you just going to stand there or are you going to help?" Darcy asked, trying to steady herself before she ended up tangled like Natasha
Pepper disappeared to get some scissors while Tony snapped a few more photos
"What were you guys doing?" Steve asked, lifting Clint down off the bookcase
"They decided to race and it all got a bit out of hand" Darcy answered
"But again, what were you doing?" Pepper asked, untangling Natasha with some difficulty
"Just having some fun" Clint answered with a big grin, the first true smile he'd worn in a while
"Was good!" Natasha informed Pepper, matching Clint's smile
"Can we build a fort Steve?" Clint asked as Darcy and Tony gathered up the bit of string littering the lounge "please please please?"
"Da! Please?"
Steve glanced over to Pepper, who, when Natasha tugged on her arm pleadingly, nodded
They spent the better half of the afternoon building a fort, even calling Bruce and Jane up from the lab to help out.
Dragging the table into the center of the room, they draped sheets over the top and down the sides as the wall; the sofa was pushed up behind it as the back while Clint and Natasha collected every pillow they could find to put inside the fort.
Thor carried the TV over, while Bruce went out for pizza and the nine of them watched The Incredibles in the fought, eating pizza, popcorn and chocolate. They were all thankful for a bit of a break, some light hearted fun, and to see everyone else smiling again
Clint and Natasha dissolved into a fit of laughter after a pillow fight got a little out of hand and Clint hit Tony squarely in the face.
They played hide and seek with the kids before the Candyland board game came out. Somehow, even at barely four, Natasha won.
Tony read Natasha her Cat in the Hat book, and she eventually fell asleep under the table in the fort, clutching her stuffed penguin (she'd recently named 'Hawk')
Clint was yawning as he and Thor played snap, rubbing his eyes as he tried to keep awake.
"Okay, I think it's time for bed" Jane said, as Thor won the fourth game in a row
"Can't I sleep here?" Clint asked, glancing over to Natasha who'd been asleep on a pile of pillows for almost two hours now
"I don't see why not, but we've got to tidy all this away in the morning, okay?"
"Okay" Clint answered round a yawn, already lying down and closing his eyes
Clint was asleep before the seven adults had even left the room.