Farmhouse Blues

Staying in Clint's house was an unexpected occurence. Tony had never gone through any personal files in SHIELD before the organization failed and had never had an inkling of a clue about his friend having a wife or children. He couldn't deny that it hurt him a little that his prank buddy didn't tell him about his secret life, but at the same time, he could understand. His family was a well kept secret and Tony could get not wanting it to reach the wrong ears by accident. But did his friend really think he would tell anyone?

He had tried sticking to the corners at first, not wanting to be more of a bother than he had become in the past few days. He had even tried to help, but that hadn't worked out when he and Steve started arguing again while chopping up logs for firewood. Tony was thankful that he was asked to look at the tractor, not knowing how long he would have been able to hold up his confident front against Steve.

He had fixed the cobb web covered tractor after his impromptu meeting with the one eyed pirate himself and had even taken it out for a test run. The look on Clint's face when he saw a tractor thought to be dead seven years ago still working was priceless and Tony had never wished for a camera more in his life.

But going off the grid meant going completely off the grid, so he had no phone or tablet. Just a suit that was packed away in pieces.

He had fixed the tractor at the cost of his clothes, but it had been a small price to pay and Tony was used to his clothes being destroyed in the lab. He had changed and had only then noticed how late it was getting, the sun becoming low in the sky. A ball of anxiety that had been forming since they arrived increased in size for a few seconds before he fought it down as best he could.

His anxiety stemmed from being in a new and totally different place. It had eased when he was fixing the tractor, engineering being his element, but then he was back in a farmhouse with children running around. Children who didn't realize he was a former weapons manufacturer. Children who didn't realize that they were in the presence of the Merchant of Death. Such an old moniker, yet it stuck so well. No matter how many lives he saved, he couldn't make up for the ones who died at his hands, no matter how unintentional. (He could almost hear Obadiah's laughter in the back of his mind.)

He had tried to make up for what he'd done. He'd tried so hard. He'd shut down the weapons division despite it being against the opinion of everyone he knew. He'd created the Ironman suit to save people. He'd joined the Avengers, hoping to make up for a lot more things he'd done in his past.

The partying, the recklessness, his nativity to what his own godfather was doing, Yinsen's death. He was trying to make up for everything. In creating Ultron, he might be destroying everything. He had tried to protect the world from a threat he'd seen in that wormhole. He had tried to protect the universe and his team from his vision. He had tried to protect the world from himself.

Yet he only succeeded in creating a murder bot.

Taking a deep breath to try and calm his racing heart, he migrated from room to room in the large house soundlessly. He marked spots that needed to be repaired in his mind while making a list of things he needed for said repairs on a notepad and pen he'd had in his pocket. He wasn't sure when he put it there, but he was thankful for it. He wanted to help fix up the house because despite the fact that Clint wasn't terrible with tools, he wasn't the best and some things needed to be redone or restructured. Clint was Tony's friend. He needed to do something for him. Anything. Menial repairs only scratched the surface of payback.

Clint had said they would be staying here for the night, maybe tomorrow night, too. He wasn't sure how he felt about that. On one hand, they needed to go after Ultron, but on the other hand, the team needed to rest up. It would also be good for Clint to be with his family again, if only for a little while.

With his passed two sleepless nights and the exhausting activities, Tony wasn't sure if he'd be able to stay awake for another night, and it wound be a test of his stamina to stay awake for another one on top of it. He wasn't exactly in his college years anymore, and week binges were now harder to pull off.

Steve and Clint were out working in the yard before the sun went completely down. The kids were playing video games on the couch and Tony thought he saw Bruce and Natasha talking on the back porch earlier, so he had decided to let them be for a bit. There was obviously something going on, there had been for a while now, and Tony wasn't one to but in on personal relationships like that. It may seem like he was, but he only eavesdropped when he felt like there was something big and dangerous going on.

He moved to the kitchen, notepad and pen put away. He stuffed his hands in his pockets to try and hide their regular fidgeting. (He never stopped moving. No matter what he tried, he couldn't stop. He had to be doing something.) His tapping on countertops sometimes annoyed people, as well as when his feet tapped or his leg bounced, so he tried to keep himself moving.

Laura, Clint's wife, was cooking dinner. Chicken with a side of salad by the looks of it. She leaned down and opened a cabinet, seeming to have not noticed him quite yet. Or maybe she had and just didn't acknowledge him. Maybe she didn't want him here. The woman reached out and started to pull a heavy duty pan out, letting out a small breath as she struggled. Without thinking, he jumped forward and crouched, pulling the pan out for her. He didn't want her to hurt herself, especially when being so far along in pregnancy. (He was still having trouble wrapping his head around the fact that Clint was a father. It wasn't hard to see - anyone would be lucky to have him as a dad - but it was an adjustment to his thinking.)

"Here," he said as he rubbed at the back of his neck, holding the pan by the handle with his other hand. She took it from him with a small smile. "Uhm," he trailed off for a second. Darn it, the lack of sleep was getting to him. He's better at talking than this. He was the guy who couldn't shut up, right? "Could I help?"

She offered him a bigger smile. "That would be very nice of you. Do you think you could chop those heads of lettuce for the salad over there? And the tomatoes?" She asked as she turned, placing the pan on the stove.

Tony nodded. He was a disaster at most things when it came to cooking (read: omelets), but chopping? He could do that. "Yes ma'am."

He grabbed a knife from the cutlery drawer she pointed to and started chopping up the vegetables, using the cutting board on the island with deft movements. He was careful and precise, but also quick as he possibly could be. He didn't want to keep Mrs. Barton waiting.

He was halfway through the second head of lettuce when he heard a low curse. He put down the knife and turned toward the woman at the stove. As if feeling his questioning gaze, she turned to him. "I don't have enough chicken for so many people."

Tony frowned, looking around at the open cabinets. He could see a lot of noodles and plenty of clean pots. "I think I may have a solution," he said slowly. He explained his plan to her and she nodded with approval at the end of it and started putting away the wrapped chicken. The genius grabbed the largest pot he could find and filled it with water before beginning to heat it on the stove.

As she got out the noodles, Mrs. Barton turned to him. "I think you, Mr. Stark, just saved dinner from being a potluck."

Tony blinked owlishly at her as he accepted the packs she handed to him and started pouring them into the pot. "I don't know about that. You would have come up with a far better solution, Mrs. Barton."

She raised an eyebrow. "I doubt it, and call me Laura."

"Aye aye," Tony said as he poured the last pack of noddles into the pot. As he watched them boil and listened to Laura prepare the meat, he hoped there would be enough food. He couldn't fail again, especially not on something as simple as dinner. He didn't know if he could take it. "And please, call me Tony. Mr. Stark was my father."

"What's cooking?" Cooper asked, walking into the kitchen with Lila just behind him. He looked a little suprised at the sight of Tony in the kitchen, stirring the pot, but the man only smiled.

"A surpise," Laura told her son, ruffling his hair quickly as the meat sizzled. "What have you two been doing?"

The kids ended up sitting on the barstools at the counter, talking to their mother. Tony listened with mild interest, eyes on the noddles that were no longer brittle as twigs. He didn't notice how much he had calmed down until he was carefully pouring out the water into the sink. His anxiety was quelled, and with something to do, he could no longer fidget.

"Mr. Stark, could I ask you a question?" Cooper asked when Laura took over the cooking so Tony could finish chopping vegetables. He paused and turned his attention to the kid who couldn't have been over ten years old.

"Call me Tony, Cooper. And sure, what do you got?"

The boy shuffled a little in his seat, fingers drumming nervously against the countertop. "Could you teach me how to build a circuit board?" He asked so quietly that Tony could barely hear him. He must have took the look of surprise on his face as something else because Cooper began to backtrack. "I mean- you don't have to- sorry, I didn't want to bother-"

"Sure I can teach you," the genius cut him off, finding an easy smile on his face. "Breathe, kid. As soon as I finish helping your mom, I'll show you. That is, if your mother is okay with it." He and Cooper looked at Laura, Lila watching with interest.

The brown haired woman smiled. "Of course. In fact, go on ahead, Tony."

"But-"

"I have it handled from here," she insisted, taking the knife from his hand and placing it by the mostly chopped veggies. She gave him a light shove toward the doorway, the two kids already standing and waiting more or less patiently. "Go."

Tony knew not to argue by that tone. He was a genius who did some reckless things, but he wasn't stupid. Far from it, no matter what some might say.

Ultron came to the forefront of his mind, but he pushed the thoughts away for now. Cooper wanted to learn how to build a circuit board, so he would teach him how. Tony never thought himself the mentoring type, but here he was, following two children up the stairs into a room that was decorated with Star Wars lego sets, engineering posters, and a desk with a stack of text books all on science and engineering. The bed spread was Star Trek and Tony couldn't help but smile as Cooper dug around under said bed before pulling out a box of metal, wires, gears, glass, and other things of that sort.

Tony sat on the bed beside Cooper and demonstrated how to build a circuit board first, talking the kid through everything he was doing. Lila spun around in the chair at the desk, playing with random blocks of legos that she had settled in her lap.

Half an hour later, Tony clapped with Lila as Cooper finished his first circuit board. "You did amazing kid and you are a really fast learner. Very, very intelligent." The boy blushed as Tony absentmindedly ruffled his hair while dishing out praise. "How about you go show your dad?" He suggested and Cooper enthusiastically jumped up and ran out the door, leaving Lila and Tony to follow on his heels.

Clint, Steve, Bruce, and Natasha were settled on the couches. The first two were wiping sweat from their brows (Steve with noticeably less) while his other two friends were settled beside each other. Tony saw Bruce give her a tentative smile that she reflected and he couldn't help the bud of happiness he felt for them show in the discreet thumbs up he gave his science bro. The man blushed. Tony grinned.

As Cooper went to present his finished engineering project to Clint, Tony had a sense of deja vu of when he tried to present his first circuit board to his dad. Howard hadn't paid him much attention until later on and then his four year old face was plastered across every newspaper. The part that hurt most was that his genius seemed to be the only thing his dad cared about, not Tony himself.

But Tony knew Clint, so he knew that his best friend would not be like that. He mentally shook himself out of the memory as he stood at the bottom of the stairs, not having been noticed yet. Lila had ran ahead and was jumping up and down beside Natasha. The genius watched, leaned against the post at the end of the stairs, as Laura came in and asked what was going on. Cooper excitedly presented his new circuit board and was showered by praise.

"This is amazing," Clint said as he carefully studied it in his son's hands.

"I couldn't have done it without Tony," Cooper said which caused heads to swivel toward him. He gave a wave before speaking.

"Clint, you didn't tell me you had a budding engineer in the house," he said as he walked over to stand behind his friend who still sat on the couch. "Cooper is incredibly smart and it was an honor to show him how to build a circuit board. He's a really quick learner, too."

"Thanks for teaching him, Tony," Clint responded, head turned to look at him. The archer gave him a real smile and Tony couldn't help but smile back.

Laura clapped her hands, getting everyone's attention. "Dinner is ready. It was originally going to be chicken and salad, but I found that I didn't have enough chicken. Tony helped me make spaghetti instead." Cooper and Lila ran to wash up at the kitchen sink while all the other Avengers turned to stare at Tony with surprised eyes. Except Natasha, but he could tell by her raised eyebrow that she was at least a little suprised.

He huffed out a breath of air, pretending to be irritated despite the small smile on his lips. "I can cook some things, you know."

"Not omlets," Natasha interjected.

"Omlets and I have a hate-hate relationship."

Clint laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. They all walked to the kitchen to wash up, per Laura's orders, before trailing into the large dining room to eat.

____

Clint and Laura were getting ready for bed in their bedroom after sorting out where each Avenger would sleep. They didn't have enough guest rooms, so Clint had decided to bunk some together. Natasha and Bruce shared a room with minimal protest (it was actually something Natasha suggested and Bruce went along with it, and the room had separated twin beds so as long as they were okay with it...), Lila slept in his brother's room, so that left Steve and Tony together.

The genius had flat out refused, opting for the couch instead. Clint didn't know how comfortable it would be as the couch was old and lumpy, but Tony had been twiddling his thumbs anxiously since sharing rooms was suggested. That was the reason he let him be.

It had been hard to get Lila and Cooper to bed that night. They still hadn't winded down from the excitement of all the Avengers being in the house and had begged to stay up longer. Clint fell for the puppy eyes and they stayed up past eleven, nearly to midnight.

"Clint," Laura started as she closed the closet door. Clint was settled on the bed as he finished cleaning his arrows. He put them away immeadiately, recognizing her tone, and gave her his full attention. "what exactly happened for you and the others to come here? I know you said it was an emergency and a hide out was needed, but I still don't have details."

"A diabolical AI named Ultron happened. Tony and Bruce created him and he went haywire. I don't exactly know why, but Cap said that Tony was being reckless."

"Do you believe that?" She asked as she rounded the bed and sat down beside him.

It was a moment before he replied. "No."

"What do you believe then?" Laura asked as she settled her head on his shoulder. He wrapped his arm around his wife, looking to the ceiling.

"Tony has always been a little... out there. He would risk his life on the battle field, but whatever he did was always calculated to the best outcome. Sometimes he doesn't have time to tell us what he was doing because he saw something we didn't. He's a genius, Laura, and I don't think he would have created something like Ultron without a push. Something went wrong in that bunker. He's been different ever since. Secretive, running risks he'd never do, and closed off. The Maximoff girl... she's been giving everyone these visions. Tony didn't say anything about her giving him one, but..."

"You think she did," Laura concluded. He nodded. "Talk to him."

Clint looked down at her. "You think I should?"

"Yeah," she replied. "From what I've seen of Tony Stark, he is very nice, charming, but also a little timid. I'm guessing he doesn't act very timid often?" Clint shook his head. "He walks like the weight of the world is on his shoulders when he thinks that no one is looking. Ask him what he was really trying to do when Ultron came to mind."

He bit his lip, considering it. He and Tony were quite close, he could admit. They played pranks on the good captain and Fury together. They had the same sense of humor and snark. The two of them got along well, but Clint had never tried to have a deep conversation with him. Maybe now was the time. "I will," he decided. "Tomorrow, when I can get him alone somewhere."

"How about the barn? Something tells me he's more relaxed around machines."

"Good idea."

Laura turned off the light and they settled into bed. Clint wrapped his arms around her as she pressed her face into his chest. Their breathing synced and it wasn't long before they were both asleep.

____

Tony watched as the light finally cut off in Laura and Clint's bedroom. He was lying on the bumpy couch, one arm behind his head as his other hand was settled on his stomach. He was dressed in his MIT hoodie and sweatpants to try and fight off the small chill he had gotten two hours ago. It had started when he got out of the shower and just wouldn't go away, along with a the weight on his chest that was growing. It was similar to the arc reactor in the way it pressed down on him, except it was more focused on placing a rock at the top of his lungs.

He stared at the ceiling, occasionally glancing at the clock on the wall that he could barely see with the light of the moon outside. The hands slowly moved around the face, tracking the slow passage of time in the dark hours.

At some point, Tony drifted off into a restless sleep. The vision flashed in front of his eyes, the images he saw having been burned into his retinas, but this time everyone said the same thing, at the same time, before they died. 'You could have saved us.' He jerked awake with a gasp, eyes wide and terror filling him. He felt freezing and hot at the same time, his skin clammy with sweat and hands shaking with harsh tremors.

'It's not real. It's not real. It's not real.' He chanted that sentence to himself in his head, but it wasn't working because while that hadn't happened, that didn't mean it couldn't happen. It could happen. It could happen within a week if Ultron got what he wanted.

He pressed his hands to his chest where the arc reactor once was, pressing down on the scarred tissue that he only knew was there by memory. It had been proof that Tony Stark had a heart.

Where was that proof now, when he had created a murder bot?

Where was that proof when Jarvis, his friend, his confidant, his greatest creation, had been destroyed by Tony and his recklessness?

Did Tony Stark have a heart anymore?

"Tony?"

His head snapped up to see Lila Barton standing a couple feet away, holding a bunny stuffed animal in her arms. She was wearing Tinkerbell pjs, which he gathered were her favorite outfit from when Clint was trying to get her to sleep. Her head was tilted to the side with curiosity, but the thing that really stood out were the red splotches around her eyes.

"Lila? What's wrong?" He asked worriedly, instantly on the alert. He got to his feet, still shaky but determined to help the girl.

She sniffed and held her stuffed animal tighter. "I had a nightmare."

"Oh, sweetie," Tony said, adopting an even softer tone than before. "I'm sorry. Do you want to talk about it? You don't have to." It was something similar to what Pepper would ask him after a nightmare. He would nearly always say no, but maybe talking would make him feel better.

Lila shrugged.

"Alright, you don't have to say anything. I think I know something that will help you. It helps me sometimes." He gently placed his hand on her shoulder and lead her toward the kitchen. She looked at him with big green eyes.

"You have nightmares?"

"Yeah," he nodded as he helped her onto a stool at the counter. He turned the lights on dim, not wanting to blind them both, and grabbed the gallon of milk from the fridge. "Everybody has nightmares once in a while." Or every time you sleep, Tony added to himself.

Lila placed her hands on the counter, shoulders slumping. "My nightmare was from the show Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Cooper watches it a lot and so I wanted to see why he liked it so much. The brain things and the ninjas were really scary... they came into the house and got me."

Tony's hands moved on their own as he fixed up the treat for the girl. He turned away from the stove. "That must have been a really bad dream, little red, but I assure you that it wasn't real. They wouldn't get through without a fight because your dad, your mom, your brother, and the Avengers would protect you with everything they had."

"Really?" She asked.

"Really," Tony promised, giving her a sincere smile. He grabbed a mug from the cabinet and poured up the hot chocolate from a pot into it. Then, he spotted some marshmallows sitting in a bag on the counter. He unwrapped the tie holding them closed and poured them in.

He presented the drink to her and watched her study it closely, taking a sniff. "Hot chocolate?"

"Yep. Just trust me, munchkin," Tony was unsure when he started using nicknames for her or Cooper, but he didn't think he was going to stop. She sipped the drink and he watched a smile spread across her face, a chocolate mustache extending with it.

"How much more is there?" She asked. Tony glanced at the pot.

"Enough for another full drink. I don't think you need a refill yet, so why do you ask?" He questioned, genuinely confused.

"For you to drink some, too, silly," she responded. Tony blinked at her.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," she said, staring him down in a dare to challenge her. Tony immeadiately grabbed a mug and filled it, throwing in marshmallows. He sat down beside her and they sipped their drinks quietly. Five minutes later, she yawned as she placed her now empty mug on the counter and Tony very nearly cooed at how cute she was.

"Alright, Lila, time for bed." He didn't need to look at a clock to know it was well past two in the morning, maybe three. He helped her down from her seat and was very surprised when she hugged his legs tightly.

"Thank you, Uncle Tony," she said with a smile before heading upstairs, disappearing from sight a few seconds later. Tony listened until he heard her door shut before returning to the couch to sit.

Uncle Tony. He could get used to that.

(Even if he didn't deserve it.)

____

Tony didn't go back to sleep that night, instead opting to clean up a bit. With the chaos of the night - thinking up battle strategies and trying to get the kids settled - there hadn't been much time to clean. He did so as silently as possible: sweeping the floors, wiping down flat surfaces to free them of grime or dust, and cleaning the load of dishes from dinner.

Most didn't believe that Tony Stark had ever picked up a broom. They were wrong. When living in the Stark family manor, he had his own list of chores given to him by his mother and he got even more practice when cleaning up after his bots. He had people clean his houses when he wasn't there, but otherwise he cleaned. While he might not have been entirely perfect at it (dishes could be a nightmare, the sprayer didn't like him), he did his best.

By the time the first morning rays of sunlight were peeking in through the windows, the bottom floor was spotless.

As it was nearly six in the morning and they had such an exhausting past few days, Tony didn't think anyone would be up this early besides himself. Steve was the only person who regularly woke up extremely early for his runs, but a quick check in the guest room proved that the man was still asleep. For once.

Tony knew he should probably have gone back to sleep. He needed to be ready for battle, but he just couldn't risk someone finding out about his nightmares. There was no telling if Lila saw anything and put everything together. She was a kid, yes, and kids didn't tend to pick up on this kind of thing. (Don't think about the kid who asked about the wormhole, don't think abouf it-). Except, Lila was the daughter of a spy. She probably had tiny-spy training. Maybe. Possibly.

He also knew that his continued shaking wasn't usual. He had calmed down from his nightmare, but now he was shivering with chills. He wanted to bundle up on the couch and sleep for a while, but the cold and the ever increasing weight on his chest would only remind him of being inside those Afghan caves. The only conclusion he had to why he was feeling this way was that he was sick, but he tried to ignore that thought. He couldn't be sick right now. He just couldn't. It wasn't an option. He had to fix his mess.

Currently, he was fixing a broken window in the kitchen to try and keep his mind off of everything. A cough had developed not long before and he tried to stifle it in case he woke someone up. Maybe waking someone would have been a good thing, but he really didn't want to disturb them. He just hoped this cough would leave soon.

"Tony?"

It wasn't Lila's voice that startled him this time, but Cooper's. It took him a moment to realize that the sun was higher in the sky than it had been what felt like moments before. How long had he been staring at the corner of the window? He turned and saw the two Barton children looking at him. "Hey kiddos. What are you doing up so early?" He didn't think any child would get up this early willingly, especially after being up so late.

Cooper shrugged, making his way over to the counter. "We always get up at seven or earlier when Dad is home. It's usually when he is awake and practicing with his arrows outside. We usually go out there with him to watch, but he's not up yet." There was a note of confusion in his voice.

"Your parents were up pretty late last night and had an exhausting day, dealing with a house full of superheroes and whatnot," Tony said, waving an exaggerated hand. "Us three are the only ones awake that I know of."

"Why are you up so early?" Cooper asked with a raised eyebrow. The question caught Tony off-guard and before he could offer a most likely flimsy excuse, Lila intercepted the conversation.

"We should do something for Mom, Dad, and the other Avengers. Uncle Tony, can we make breakfast?" She asked excitedly and Tony had to shush her gently.

"That'd be a good idea, buttercup, but if we really want it to be a surprise, we can't make much noise." The girl nodded and skipped over to the cupboards. Cooper went over to the pantry and opened it.

"What will we make?" The boy asked, looking over his shoulder at Tony.

"Pancakes? That's literally the only breakfast dish I know how to make without lighting something on fire," the genius said. He rifled through the cabinets as quietly as possible before he found four boxes of pancake mix. "The fact that your mom has this many boxes is bizarre, but lucky." He dumped them on the counter. "Get as giant of a bowl as you can, kitchen minions. We have work to do."

In less than three minutes, the kitchen was in a quiet sort of chaos as the three moved about. Ingredients were chucked into the bowl by Cooper after Lila measured everything out with careful precision, tongue sticking out the side of her mouth in concentration. The sun rose higher as they created stacks of delicious fluffy pancakes.

Tony high-fived the cheering kids when they were done. The dishes were in the sink where Tony planned to wash them soon enough and the table was set. Three stacks of pancakes made up the middle of the table, tall as mountains when compared to the multiple bottles of syrup beside them. Orange juice was poured into numerous glasses and Lila had even created a bouquet of flowers.

"What is going on?" They all jumped when the voice of the one and only Natasha Romanoff drifted in, still dressed in pajamas.

"Auntie Nat!" Cooper and Lila said while Tony gave her a wave and a grin, trying to hide the fact that he had nearly jumped out of his skin. The girl took the most deadly assasin in the world by the hand and lead her closer to the table as she rambled excitedly. "Uncle Tony helped me and Cooper make breakfast," she explained.

The red head's eyes landed on Tony and he resisted the urge to shuffle under her gaze. The tickle in the back of his throat that he'd been doing his best to ignore increased, but he didn't dare cough in front of a spy. She would instantly know something was wrong, as with other times Tony was sick and tried to pass it off as something else. Recently, he'd just lock down the lab and not let anyone in.

(Would he be allowed back in his lab when this was over? Would he allow himself back in the lab? Or would he move his bots out and shut it down for good? He deserved it.)

She apparently found whatever she was looking for in his posture as she allowed a small smile to form on her face. He smiled back, tucking his hands in his pockets. An involuntary shiver ran through him and he almost cursed aloud as Natasha's smile turned into a frown. Was that just his mind playing another trick or did she look concerned? "Are you alright?" She asked. "You look pale."

"Morning light. The mortal enemy of my gorgeous appearance," he joked. There was the sound of stumbling and they all saw Bruce come down the stairs. He waved tiredly, rubbing at his eyes, but his cheeks turned a pale red when he saw Natasha. She, too, turned her attention from Tony to Bruce. The genius breathed a silent sigh of relief as she went over to him.

Soon, everyone was coming down the stairs. Some were sleepy and still dressed in their night clothes, others (Cap) were dressed and ready. He got more than a few surprised glances as Lila told the story of them cooking and he pretended to revel in it, trying to act like his typical self. He didn't eat much though, not even half of the one dry pancake he'd gotten, his stomach churning unpleasantly and his hands still uncoordinated. He kept drinking sips of juice to try and somehow wash away the constant urge to cough.

The surprising thing about the meal was that Lila and Cooper insisted on sitting beside him. He listened and talked to both of them as they told different stories about their shenanigans and adventures with their toys and games. He waited until their attention was occupied by others before excusing himself from the table to use the restroom, barely making it there before he stumbled. It was getting harder to breathe, the weight in his lungs increasing with every hour, and his mind took that moment to remind him how prone to bronchitis and pneumonia he was.

Whatever he had, it was not just a cold, at least, not anymore.