Dawn of New Change

PREVIOUSLY ON: Dawn of New Change

The life of the Avengers Tower is slowly but surely coming to fruition. The Avengers are settling in member by member. We get to see Taeyong slowly understand how hectic his new life is, but he also gets to enjoy it with Mark and Johnny. He meets a Melinda May, almost starstruck in her presence and we get to see some interactions between Taeyong and the Avengers finally.

Bruce is fondly enamoured and Clint is continuously amused. 

The fact that most of S.H.I.E.L.D. had moved into the new Avengers Tower and were becoming part of the new Stark world was an interesting development. Taeyong and Tony had made sure to keep their eye out on the new staff changes. It wasn't so much that they didn't trust their new roommates to play nice, but there seemed to be a work culture that S.H.I.E.L.D. had, which didn't immediately marry well with the long standing and loyal Stark employees.

Mostly that S.H.I.E.L.D. agents took everything very seriously, they were people that thought they would help save the world at some point. But then Hydra infiltrated them from the very roots of their establishment and suddenly they were at the bottom of the barrel. This was hilarious to Taeyong considering Stark Industries was one of the top hardest companies to even apply for.

"It does kind of feel like they fast tracked their way in..." came the reply from one of the interns. Taeyong looked over at the boy, he was a second-year intern who had recently graduated from Nanyang Technological University. He was interning at Stark Industries whilst getting his Ph.D. in Psychometrics and Quantitative Psychology at Fordham University. What he was doing at Stark Industries? Taeyong didn't really know.

Psychometrics and Quantitative Psychology really didn't look like it had anything to do with the giant brown block he was currently working on. Taeyong hummed, rolling on his spinny chair over to the intern, his name was Taeil. "So what... you think they need an exam to enter?"

Taeil snorted, pushing up his chunky glasses and turning away from his brown block. Seriously, what was that thing? He gave Taeyong a gentle smile, "no I don't think that they need an exam. I just... I want to understand why your father finds the need to help everyone?"

"What do you mean?" Taeyong tilted his head, looking up at Taeil.

"Well... I understand that the Avengers are a branch of S.H.I.E.L.D. correct?"

Taeyong smirked, "I am not at liberty to say."

One of the other interns, a female doctor who was looking through some holograms, snorted. "Do you know what that means?"

"I have secrets," Taeyong shrugged, grinning back at her. She shook her head but went back to her work. "So Taeil... say the Avengers Initiative worked directly under S.H.I.E.L.D., what has that got to do with working here?"

Taeil put his little instruments down, they were for electrics so at least whatever that big, brown ugly thing on his desk was, it was currently alive. "S.H.I.E.L.D. is also a branch of the government. Meaning that although all the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents' dirty laundry is now aired for the world to see, should they not move to the government for help? Why did your dad have to give them a place here?" Taeil sighed, looking over to the other side of the intern laboratories.

On the other side was a workplace for the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and Taeyong could see where he was coming from. They were almost stoic and robotic-like when they worked. The interns over at Stark's seemed more carefree, sometimes taking the time to create little humorous projects on the side. A robot that would run around and give everyone peanut butter and jam sandwiches had to be dismantled because one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents had a peanut allergy and they needed an electromagnet really desperately but their new shipment was running late.

So goodbye to Peanut, the best PB&J robot assistant Taeyong had ever seen.

Taeyong leant closer to the brown box, making Taeil push him away a little. "You don't like them then?"

Taeil chuckled, "it's not that I don't like them. I just don't know them. How can I immediately dislike something that I don't understand? That's not what makes us human Yong-ah. Curiosity..." he explained gently. Taeyong grinned, resting his head on the table and letting Taeil return to his work. "They're not all bad I guess. I have a hard time understanding social cues on the best of days and with how unemotional they seem during work hours... at least I can work with them in a pragmatic sense."

"Un huh," Taeyong nodded, he shifted to look back at the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. One of them must have sensed Taeyong's gaze on him because he looked up from his own work. He gave Taeyong a little wave and the boy returned it. Then he went back to his work, eyes scanning over whatever was on his computer like it could have the answers to the world. "They're not all bad... maybe you need to have a co-worker lunch with them or something."

"Maybe," Taeil replied, but Taeyong was sure he was too into his own work to really take in his words.

Taeyong grinned again, looking from the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents focus on the glass water bottle just beside his keyboard. The reflection of his computer screen was small and distorted, but Taeyong could recognise a game of Galaga anywhere.

***

Taeyong stood out on the rooftop with his dad and the other Avengers. They were all outside and waiting for Steve Rogers, Captain America. Taeyong was sweating under the beating sun and even with the sunglasses on to stop the light from blinding him, he just wanted to go inside. Instead, he stood beside his dad, holding his father's hand even if it made the tips of his slightly burn but the helicopter that Steve was arriving on was powerful.

Without holding his dad's hand, Taeyong felt like he could be flung off the side of the bloody building. He shuffled a little behind his dad, coughing up the pieces of dirt and grit that felt like it was all around him from the force of the helicopter blades. "Tastes awful," he mumbled whilst his dad chuckled.

Eventually the helicopter landed in its H zone and whilst everyone waited for it to fully power down, Taeyong fell over. He yelped, falling right on his ass and groaning. Tony had to quickly help him up whilst Natasha, Clint and Bruce all stepped forward, waiting for Steve. "This is so embarrassing," he muttered, grabbing his dad's arms and letting the man simply lift him as if he weighed nothing. Taeyong swayed, eventually shaking his head once all the helicopter noises died down.

Tony turned Taeyong around, batting away the dust and dirt whilst Taeyong's face reddened immediately. "Dad!" he whined, trying to step away whilst Tony simply held onto his shoulder.

"Wait a minute bud," Tony said, turning him around so they were face to face. Taeyong groaned, rolling his eyes and letting Tony flatten his hair.

"Dad, you're embarrassing me in front of Captain America."

Tony stilled, hand's still in Taeyong's hair. Taeyong blinked, taking off his sunglasses and pouting up at the man. "What? Do I have something on my face this time?"

Tony broke away from his little stationary spell, "no it just- you sound like me... whenever my mum did that."

Taeyong snorted, "of course you and grandma would embarrass me in front of a literal superhuman soldier. Figures." Tony was still staring at Taeyong who cleared his throat and marched over to Steve, hand already out and ready for a gentleman-like shake.

"Steven Grant Rogers, I believe we've met," Taeyong said, deepening his voice much to the amusement of the other heroes. Tony was quick to scuffle his way over to the younger boy, who clasped Steve's hand and shook it firmly. "Of course we've never had the pleasure to entertain a full conversation. I was eleven at the time, much too young an age indeed."

"What's with the fancy-shmancy word play here, kiddo?" Tony ruffled the boy's hair.

"Dad, you're so embarrassing, let me talk!" Taeyong swatted at Tony's hands.

"No no," Steve grinned looking down at the boy, "it's fine. We didn't get to talk too much, aliens, a big new apple in the 2000s. I hope we can schedule some time for you to tell me all that I've missed."

"Missed?" Taeyong squinted against the sunlight, his dad put his sunglasses on for him.

Steve nodded, "I've missed out on a lot in these last seventy or so years, gonna need a fresh youngster to get my head 'round these parts."

Taeyong nodded, already thinking of all the pop culture stuff he would have to show. "I won't let you down Mister Grant!" Taeyong didn't even wait for his dad's dismissal or any of the adults before he started running back to the lift. "I'll get started on a list!"

***

"You have to help me, Taeil!" Taeyong practically screamed, racing into the intern Laboratories with skid marks and bumps here and there. Taeyong groaned, gripping his hip bone from where he knocked it against some S.H.I.E.L.D. desk space. Most of the occupants of the room turned to look at Taeyong, watching the short kid run into their space with erratic movements and the flourish of a baby-giraffe trying to walk for the first time.

Taeyong flew into the nearest chair, scrapping the steel wheels against the floor until he slid and bumped into Taeil's table. The intern yelped holding onto a motor looking arm that seemed to whizz in a 360 degree angle. Taeyong ducked when the arm snapped off the joint motor and fly through the air.

Taeil and Taeyong both watched the arm soar through the air until it got the S.H.I.E.L.D. end of the lab and hit the kid that was playing Galaga just that morning. The kid, who was still paying rapid attention to his computer, didn't even glance up. So he was knocked backwards on his chair and with a shrill cry toppled into the nearest trash can.

Taeyong hissed, shaking his head with a small pout. "S'good thing we don't allow food in the labs huh?"

Both Taeil and Taeyong watched as the young S.H.I.E.L.D. agent got up from the trash can that only seemed to store scrunched up pieces of paper. He rubbed at his forehead, holding the broken arm with a scrutinizing look, before he turned back to Taeyong and Taeil. Both of whom decided that instead of taking the fall, they'd simply hide under their table. Taeyong scratched his knee going down and sighed, poking at the scrap and hoped it wasn't deep enough to bleed.

The last thing his dad needed was for Taeyong to bleed in the intern labs. Actually, his dad seriously didn't need to know that Taeyong spent a lot, if not unnecessary amounts of time just down in the labs.

"What was that?!" Taeil hissed, covering his head with his hands.

Taeyong didn't think that was a good hiding tactic. "I don't know. S'not my fault your robot sucks."

"It doesn't suck!"

"Does to," came a voice from above.

Both Taeyong and Taeil slowly looked up to the younger S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, who was still holding the broken arm. There was a visible red mark on his forehead that made Taeil wince and eventually get up. Taeyong decided that he quite liked the ground and so remained down there.

"Sorry about that," Taeil said, taking the broken arm from the agent. Taeil pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, making his eyes temporarily look a lot smaller than they were for a second before his hand went down to his lanyard and he held it up. "I'm Taeil Moon, a Second-year."

The agent gave a nod, "I know. I made it a personal mission of mine to know everyone on this floor." He then brought up his own lanyard, one that also held the S.H.I.E.L.D. ID badge. "Kim Jungwoo, I just started S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Sci-Tech Division before Project Insight and we fell."

"I'm Taeyong Lee-Stark!" the younger boy called from below. Taeil and Jungwoo peered down at him, "...son of Tony Stark and eventual heir to this empire. Help me up!" he held out his hands. Taeil and Jungwoo grabbed one each and hauled the younger one. Taeyong cleared most of Taeil's stuff from his desk before sitting on the table. Taeil looked crestfallen as his stuff was shoved to the side.

"I'm on a mission, people!" Taeyong clapped, gaining both men's attention. "Captain America wants me to help integrate him into the modern world. What do I have to show him first?"

Jungwoo blinked, looking back at Taeil who simply shrugged and sat back down. The agent looked between the Stark heir and the Second-year intern before he eventually sat down in the spinny chair Taeyong had crashed into. "Michael Jackson," Jungwoo said immediately.

Taeyong nodded, "music is always good. He's from the 20s right?"

Taeil shook his head, "World War 2, so late 30s into the early forties. I say you show him like three of the most popular artists in each decade."

Jungwoo arched his brow impressed. "Yeah... be careful when you hit the 50s and 60s, music had a big shift between those periods. We got introduced to the Rock 'n' Roll genre. Best explain genres of music to him."

"Movies too," came a voice from their left. All three boys turned to find another Stark intern, who had just come back from her break. She went to start writing down something probably important on a notepad, but none of them could see. "Best explain genres of films. He doesn't have to watch all the classics though... I haven't seen The Godfather."

"Irene..." Taeil gaped. "You haven't seen The Godfather?"

Jungwoo nodded, leaning closer to Taeil who sniffed, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his again. "How have you not seen The Godfather?"

Irene, who tied her hair up and was starting to put on latex gloves, stopped her work a second to stare at three boys. "Have any of you seen The Thief Lord? Pan's Labyrinth? Ember City?" At their blank stares she rolled her eyes and smirked, "thought so."

Taeyong pulled up a hologram and started to type what needed to search for. "Should we tell him about technological advancements? The wars? General history? Our presidents?"

Taeil and Jungwoo thought for a second.

"Nahhh."

***

"Yeah!" Taeyong said excitedly, sitting on the couch with his legs crossed as he explained the entirety of the 2012, end of the world conspiracy to Steve. "Then of course, aliens decided to attack the world and then a whole bunch of Christians had that weird Rebirth thing in Texas... wild times. How are you taking this?"

Steve was sitting on their arm chair, blinking almost robotically. Taeyong had Jarvis play snippets of different music that shifted through each decade. Taeyong had a grand time explaining his favourite TV shows and films to Steve. Together they decided to watch 'Lost' and 'Murder, She Wrote' together and eventually Taeyong decided to just talk about the general everyday life stuff that seemed important to him.

"Um... so you all just thought that the end of the world would happen last year... and you just did... nothing?"

Tony snorted from where he was currently making a smoothie in the kitchen. "Basically, I'm just glad we've moved on from wearing neon anything."

"Neon?" Steve asked.

Taeyong clicked his fingers and Jarvis showcased a bunch of neon coloured clothing that people sported for a short period of time. "I hear that neon's something that just won't die out dad. Anyway, we've gone over quite a lot. I mean, who knew people would be that scared of the Exorcists, am I right?"

Steve shrugged, "Scarier things have happened."

"Yeah and the quality sucks," Taeyong said, falling back on the sofa as Tony walked over to them.

There was some clunking from overhead before Clint jumped out of the nearest vent. Tony startled, almost close to dropping his smoothie before he sat down properly. Taeyong crawled over to his dad, taking the smoothie and sipping on it. Tony rolled his eyes and took it back.

"Oh yeah! There's food!" Taeyong said, watching Steve pick up a banana from their fruit bowl. "We need to show you all the food that's come round from your time. What did you used to eat?"

Steve hummed for a while, peeling the banana. "Potato donuts, potato cake, potato... everything? It's very easy to grow potatoes when there's a decline in food rations."

Taeyong nodded, "potato donuts actually sound nice."

Tony scrunched up his face, "they do?!"

Steve shrugged, "very sugary if I remember. Which is what you wanted when you were on a sugar ration." He bit into the banana before his face soured and he spat it back out into his hand.

Clint snorted, "what the hell happened?"

Steve looked at the banana and then back at the others, "that... is not what a banana is supposed to taste like!"

Before Taeyong could ask what he meant by that Jarvis piped up. "Ah, it seems we have forgotten to mention to the Captain here that we had a slight banana pandemic in 1965."

"We what?!"

NEXT TIME ON: Dawn of New Change

The younger boy pouted and shrugged off his brother's arm. "Don't worry Taeyong hyung," (also a new development, Mrs. Seo wanted her boys to delve further into their Korean heritage and got Mark to address boy Taeyong and Johnny with 'hyung') Mark placed a hand over Taeyong's own. "I was exactly like this when mum told me."

"Bu-but," Taeyong shook his head, trying to gather his almost scattered thoughts. "This entire time? You guys- you both- what in the actual fu-"