the beginnings
At ten years old, Steve could never have imagined that his life would turn out like this, homeless with 12 other kids, but here he is. Well, technically, they were living in an abandoned house, but his point still stands.
At ten, his life completely changed. His mom died and he was put into a kid’s home, where he was pretty much immediately called difficult. He found that quite unfair; it wasn’t his fault that he was always getting into fights, someone had to protect the younger kids. But despite all that, it was a very important stepping stone in his life, because that was where he met Bucky, Natasha, and Clint. It was where he first started to build his family.
The kid’s home was awful; the adults were quite happy to just slap them and shove them into their rooms and out of the way. On top of that, the older kids were more than happy to beat them up. It was run by a guy nicknamed Red Skull, but Steve’s group, who called themselves the Avengers, always got back at the older kids and the adults.
One time,Steve and Bucky poured red paint over Red Skull, and he couldn't get it off for a week. They'd lost food privileges for 3 days after that but it was worth it because it got Clint and Natasha to laugh.
It was the day that Steve turned twelve that Steve, Bucky, Natasha, and Clint decided to make a run for it, despite them only being twelve, eleven, nine, and nine respectively.
And for a little under a year, it was just them. After lots of wandering, they found a house. It had broken windows, no heat, and no electricity, but it was theirs. They scoped it out for weeks and never saw anyone near it, so they decided to take the risk.
To their absolute shock and joy, it had running water. Not hot, mind you, but water all the same. They all agreed that whoever owned the house was an idiot, but they weren’t complaining. The house was completely isolated, which meant that it was a good forty minute walk to get to the shops, but it also meant that it was safe.
Then, they met Thor and Loki. Thor was eleven, and Loki only seven. Thor was carrying Loki on his back, and Loki was covered in black and blue.
Thor had no idea where to go, and he had just been walking for hours until Clint saw them outside their window. He ran and got Steve, who decided to take a risk and ask where they were going. He could still remember how that went.
"Hey, er… Where are you guys going? Are you okay?"
"I have just rescued my brother from our father. I am seeking shelter elsewhere"
"What’re your names?"
"I am Thor, and this is Loki. Who are you?"
"I'm Steve, and in the house is Bucky, Clint, and Natasha."
"Is there any chance that your parents could help my brother?"
"I need you to answer something first."
"Of course"
"Are you running away for good?"
"From our father? Yes."
"Okay then. Well, actually, none of us have parents. We ran away from a kid’s home. If you want, I can talk to the others about you maybe staying. No promises though, as they get a say too, but they’re pretty understanding."
"I'd be most grateful. In the meantime, could any of you help my brother?"
"Yeah, of course! Come in."
At first, it things were tough. Loki wouldn’t talk to any of them; he would just sit and watch, and if they moved too fast, he flinched and ran to his brother.
They knew he could talk, as they heard him talking to Thor at night when he’d wake up screaming from nightmares, but it wasn’t until Thor got sick six months later that Loki finally spoke to them. He came running in the room crying, begging them to help his brother. Fortunately, Thor was fine; it was just a mild case of the flu, but after that, Loki decided to trust them. He started speaking to them, and he even hugged Clint one night after he heard him crying.
Everyone agreed that letting Thor and Loki stay was one of the best decisions they ever made. Loki became quite the prankster once he finally felt safe enough to test their limits, and thor became a huge asset to the group. He was an expert fighter because his father had made him train in hand to hand combat since he was just a toddler.
He taught the others until they were able to fight properly. That meant they were better equipped to take a couple of risks and learn how to pickpocket. With pickpocketing, they could get more food and other essentials, and the group was much better off.
And that was how Steve’s family became him and five other runaway kids. It stayed like this for a year and a half until he met Sam and rhodey.
Sam and Rhodey were a little different. They met because Sam was breaking into their house. Definitely not the best start, he has to admit, but it wasn’t like they didn't originally break into this house themselves, so Steve couldn’t judge him too hard. They managed to over power Sam (pretty quickly too, he was a small ten year old), but then the kid just broke down crying.
"My friend Rhodey won't wake up and I just came to look for somewhere to sleep. I'm sorry, don't hurt me please, I'm sorry I just needed to find somewhere warm. I didn't know that anyone lived here, please, don't call the cops."
Steve looked at Bucky to see what he was thinking. They had all gotten very good at silently communicating at this point, and they tended to know what someone was thinking with just a look. He could see in Bucky’s eyes that he wanted to help this kid, and Steve did too. He nodded at Bucky and let up his hold a bit.
"Hey, it’s okay. We're not gonna call the cops, or hurt you. Can you tell me where your friend is?"
"You can't hurt him, please."
"We won't, we just want to help you"
"Why?"
"Because we lived on the streets too, we know what it’s like. We’re all runaways here. Gotta look after each other, right?"
"...okay."
Sam lead them to Rhodey, who was barely breathing. Bucky and Steve grabbed him and picked him up whilst Sam watched with wide, scared eyes. Sam told him later that he was terrified that they were gonna drag them to the house to kill them both for breaking in, but he had to risk it as it was the only chance that Rhodey had of surviving.
Rhodey slowly came back to health and about two days later when everyone was starting to think that he really would have to go to the hospital, he finally woke up. Sam had hugged Steve that day. Four months later, Rhodey was breathing properly again. However, he did have a slight limp because his leg hadn't healed properly, and would often have nightmares.
Slowly, they worked out a system of who does what. Rhodey, Sam, and Loki took turns cooking (Sam was much better at it than the other two, but Loki was really good at thinking up different meals with what they had available, and Rhodey could follow a recipe perfectly even though they had little to no cooking equipment). Steve, Bucky, Natasha, Clint, and Thor would take turns getting supplies and go out to get more money every week. All of them would help fix up the house to try and make it more like a home. One day a week, one of the older ones would go to the library and check out a bunch of books, both educational and fun. And the older ones always tried to get little presents to hide in one of the bedrooms for birthdays.
For a year and a half, this system worked. Then they met Wanda and Pietro.
Wanda and Pietro were two tiny little seven year olds that they met at the park. The twins were digging through the bins looking for food, and steve went over and handed them his lunch that they had brought with them. Bucky, Rhodey, and Sam followed suit. Natasha and Clint started dividing the food into smaller portions so everyone still had a lunch, and Thor took Loki over to the swings... well, Loki took Thor over to the swings and forced him to push.
“Thank you,” Wanda said in a heavy Sokovian accent, clearly not used to speaking English. Natasha heard the accent and came over speaking russian, which Bucky had started to learn as well. However, he was still very new to it.
“вы оба говорите по русски?”
Do you both speak Russian?
“да! мы из Соковии, нам удается спрятаться на лодке, не могли бы вы помочь нам, пожалуйста? мы не говорим по-английски очень хорошо, и наши родители ... наши родители умерли в Соковии, пожалуйста, помогите нам.”
Yes! we are from Sokovia. We managed to escape by hiding on a boat. Could you help us please? We don’t speak english very well and our parents... our parents died in Sokovia. Please help us.
“сестренка нам не нужна помощь.”
Little sister, we do not need help.
“Мы едим из бункеров, нам нужна помощь.”
We are eating from bins. We need help
“Они отправят нас обратно, мы обещали сбежать, и теперь у нас есть, мне все равно, если мы будем есть из мусорных ведер, мы не вернемся.”
They will send us back. We promised to escape and now we have. I do not care if we eat from bins, we shall not go back.
“Мы не отправим вас назад, все мы здесь бежим от чего-то, что, я обещаю, вы будете в безопасности с нами, и было бы неплохо поговорить на моем родном языке с кем-то, кто понимает, что Баки учится, но он еще не очень хорош”
We won’t send you back. All of us here are running from something. I promise, you will be safe with us, and it would be nice to speak in my native tongue with someone who would understand. Bucky is learning, but he is not very good yet.
“От чего ты бежишь?”
What are you running from?
“Я не буду рассказывать истории других без их разрешения, но я убегаю от своего отца и дома детей, мой отец был оскорбительным”
I will not tell the others’ stories without their permission, but I am running from my father and a kids home. My father was abusive.
“Мы пойдем с тобой”
We will come with you.
“Сестра!”
Sister!
“Я верю ей, нам нужна помощь, пожалуйста, брат”
I believe her, and we need help. Please, brother.
“Хорошо, младшая сестра, для вас, но первые признаки беды мы ушли”
Fine, little sister, for you. But the first sign of trouble, we are gone.
And that was how Wanda and Pietro joined. At first it was very difficult. Pietro would refuse to sleep for days trying to guard over his sister, and Wanda would have to force him to go sleep. He wouldn’t let anybody else in their room and refused to eat anything unless he watched it being prepared, but after a month, he started to let his guard down. Him, Loki, and Wanda would race together (Loki would try to cheat but Wanda somehow always knew what he was going to do). Steve remembers the first time he actually heard Pietro laugh at something.
Bucky was helping to cook, and Loki and Steve decided they were going to prank him. They had found an old newspaper a couple days ago and decided to rip it up into little pieces and throw it at bucky (like confetti). It’d make a mess and wasn’t the most inventive prank, but Loki loved to pull pranks, especially if one of the older ones joined, so they did it whilst Pietro and Wanda where trying to learn English at the table. Bucky without pause just grabbed his cup of water and poured it over Steve.
“That’s what you get for being too loud, punk.”
That’s when they noticed both Pietro and Wanda giggling. Both were trying to hide it (unsuccessfully), so Steve decided being wet was kinda worth it and went to get his own glass of water.
“No, no, Steve come on, Steve,” Bucky said slowly, backing away towards the garden whilst smiling slightly, and then a full on water fight broke out in which steve got their biggest bucket, filled it with water, got as many cups as he could find, and let everyone relax and have a water fight.
After that, Pietro seemed to deem the place as safe and started being himself. They learnt that he was very good at math super fast, and very happy to join Loki in pranking everyone else. Wanda seemed to relax more as well, and started to come to them sometimes when she was upset or just to sit with them.
They reworked the system they originally had; they added in language lessons, English, Russian, and sign language (Clint’s hearing had been getting worse, so it was best if they started learning as soon as possible). Everyday they would do an hour of language lessons and then a couple of hours of other subjects like math, science, history, geography, cooking, fighting, and as they called it, being a homeless kid essentials (aka how to pickpocket, steal, get away from someone, lie). The last was mostly for the older kids, as the younger ones didn’t leave the house alone. Sam, Rhodey, and Loki were still the ones in charge of cooking, but Pietro and Wanda would help out, and Thor, Natasha, Clint, Bucky, and Steve were the ones going out. It worked. They would always make it work. They were a family.
Then about a year and a half later they met the last three members of their family. Their names were Tony, Bruce, and Peter. They met whilst at the park. Steve is still pissed off about how their Foster dad treated them.
The group was at the park when suddenly, a very angry male dragged three kids there with him. The eldest had a giant bruise across his face and the middle child had a split lip. They were clearly terrified and trying to keep up.
The man just started screaming at them. "All of you stay fucking here. I’m done with the lot of you, and if you come back I will kill you. Go bother someone fucking else you worthless brats!"
"But Peter’s only a baby! What are we gonna do?"
"I don't fucking care, I only took you in as a favour you pathetic shit, and now that I can get rid of you I am."
And with that, he stormed off, leaving the three young kids alone.
"Hey kiddo, my name’s Steve, what's yours?" Steve knelt down in front of them.
"I'm Tony, this is bruce. He doesn't speak. And that's Peter. He's only little and he's shy."
"Well hi Tony, Bruce and Peter. You look like you need some help. Do you wanna come stay with us?"
"No thank you."
"How come?"
"We don't know you, and I don't think your parents will let random little kids stay."
"None of us have any parents. We all live together in a house, no adults just us. You'll be safe, I promise. We just want to help."
"I don't trust you."
"Okay, then how about you come play with us for a bit first then? See if we are trustworthy?"
"...Nobody touch us though, alright?"
"Okay, kiddo."
After about an hour of playing together, everyone obeyed Tony's no touching rule. Tony agreed to join them and lifted the rule. He said that it was a test to see if they followed the rule. So Thor carried Bruce after asking him if he wanted to be carried, and Clint carried Peter, who had fallen asleep. Steve noticed that Tony kept shooting first wary, then almost longing looks to the younger boys and decided to take a risk.
"Hey kiddo, do you want me to carry you back?"
"I'm not a baby."
"Hey, I know that. Doesn't mean you can't be carried."
"What age do you stop being carried?"
"Well I’m not too sure to be honest, kiddo."
"My dad said it's when you can walk."
"Well then, I think your dad is stupid."
This shocked a small disbelieving giggle from the kid.
"My dad was a genius!"
"Well, he must have been a very stupid genius, then."
"That doesn't make sense!"
"Sure it does kiddo, he was smart in some ways, stupid in others."
"So I'm not a baby if I get carried?"
"No kiddo, you’re really not, I promise."
At that, he held out his arms to be picked up.
They had to reorganise their system again, and by this point, Steve was starting to wonder if they should scrap it completely; it never lasted long anyway.
Steve, Bucky, Natasha, Clint, and Thor would alternate on who was babysitting and who was going for supplies. Sam, Rhodey, Loki, Pietro, and Wanda would sort the cooking and general cleaning out, and they'd all (except for who ever was babysitting Peter) do three hours of 'school' every day. Overall it worked. If someone wasn't feeling up to it that day, somebody else would take over. The younger ones had a structure to the day (and a bed time no matter how much they hate it) and it worked. Everyone still sometimes had nightmares and their own issues caused by their pasts, but they were all slowly healing. They found each other and nothing would split them up now that they found their home. Their family.