the cycle ends right now
august nineteenth
“Peter, can you grab the last two suitcases?” Tony asked, grunting as he hoisted yet another full bag into the trunk of the car.
Peter nodded. “I’ll be back down in a minute.” He turned and raced towards the elevator.
Tony spun to face May, who stood with her arm wrapped around Happy’s waist. “Are you positive that you don’t mind me stealing your nephew?”
May grinned. “Tony, if I minded, I probably would have said so one of the first five hundred times you asked. It’ll be good for Peter to be somewhere new, and he’s so excited to spend more time with you. Honestly, I should probably be thanking you for taking him off my hands for a little bit,” she joked, stepping forward and hugging Tony tightly. The inventor returned the hug.
“May, you are an angel.”
“I know.” She shot him a smirk.
“Aunt May!” Peter had reappeared, lugging two bags and extremely out of breath. “I’ll miss you!”
May’s eyes immediately started watering. “I’ll miss you more, baby. Have fun, but don’t forget to text me every day. We have a deal,” she said sternly.
“I won’t!” Peter bounced on the balls of his feet.
“And be good for Tony.”
Peter rolled his eyes. “I’m always good.” May stared at him hard. “Fine! I promise!”
“That’s all I was looking for,” May said. “Send me lots of photos, okay?”
Peter grabbed her in a hug. “I will. Thanks again, Aunt May.” He let her go and turned to Tony. “So is it time, then?”
"To be honest, we probably don’t need to leave this early, but I hate being late.” Tony reached for the car door. “Thanks a million, May. I’ll let you know when we get to Colorado. Like I said, it should only be for a few days.”
“Bye, Happy! Bye, Aunt May!” Peter shouted out the window of the car. They waved back to him as Tony pulled out of the lot.
And then they were on their way. Tony was fairly sure he’d never been more scared in his life.
Maria Hill met them at the door. “How was the trip?”
“It was fine,” Tony said. “Not much traffic.”
“Good. And you must be Peter?” Maria asked, gesturing for them to come in.
Peter nodded. “Nice to meet you, Ms. Hill.”
“Not to shit on your introductions,” Tony butted in, “but I would like to get to Colorado today.”
Maria bowed dramatically as Peter rolled his eyes. “Your wish is my command. Right this way.” Tony and Peter followed her through a maze of hallways before she stopped at a door. “They’re all in here.
Are you ready?”
“Absolutely,” Tony deadpanned. “I always dreamed of having eight children and living in Nofuckingwhere, Colorado.”
“I actually think he’s excited,” Peter stage-whispered to Maria, smirking. “He’s literally been preparing nonstop for the last week. He bought like sixty parenting books and made me read all of them too!”
Maria started laughing and Tony glared at Peter. “I’m going to leave you behind. No, I’m going to tell MJ that you have a crush on her.”
Peter’s face turned red. “Are you in first grade? And I don’t have a crush on her! We just do decathlon together.”
“Right.” Tony raised an eyebrow. “I’m sure that’s all it is.”
Maria sighed. “You’re both acting like first graders. And Tony, you were the one who said you wanted to get to Colorado tonight.”
“Thank you!” Peter said. “Let’s just get the kids and go.”
Maria was already scanning her ID on the door’s sensor. With a click, the door unlocked and swung open to reveal eight children. Tony sized them up one by one as he stepped into the room.
A big blond boy with a frown. Thor.
A girl with bare feet and long, tangled red hair. Natasha.
One- no, two boys hiding behind the couch, one with sandy blond hair and one with light brown. Clint and Bucky. Tony realized with a start that Bucky didn’t have a metal arm.
Another girl with wavy brown hair cropped a little past her chin. Wanda.
A boy with black hair sitting sullenly on the floor. Loki.
A second blond boy who seemed to be shielding another kid. Steve and Sam.
Well, they were nothing if not consistent, because as Tony looked around he could see that every single one of them was terrified, although some were definitely hiding it better than others. He probably wouldn’t have been able to tell so easily, but years of Tony’s own anxiety had taught him to easily read other people, and his teammates were no exception.
However, he also had no idea what to say to them. Luckily, Peter saved him.
“Hey, guys!” Peter said brightly. Seemingly unfazed by the lack of response, he carried on. “I’m Peter, and this is Tony next to me. We’re both so excited to get to know all of you better.”
“Like we talked about, you’ll be living with them for a while, all right?” Maria added.
Surprisingly, Sam was the first to say something. “We’re going on a plane, right?” he muttered, not making eye contact with anyone.
Peter nodded. “That’s right! We live a little farther away, so the fastest way to get there is by plane.”
“I’m Steve, and this is my friend Bucky, but he doesn’t like to talk very much!” the smaller blond suddenly announced, as Sam slunk back to the corner.
Peter smiled encouragingly. “It’s nice to meet you both. Steve, I heard that you like to draw. I wish I was a good drawer! Do you want to show me one of your pictures?” Steve nodded eagerly, and Peter crossed the room and knelt down.
Tony was still frozen by the door. Why was Peter so good at this? Luckily, the arrival of Phil meant that he didn’t have to go talk to any of them just yet.
“Tony! I see you’ve met the kids.”
Tony blew out a long breath. “Met is generous. Peter’s done all the talking, and of course they love him already.” He pointed to where Peter was sitting on the floor, listening intently to Steve as he talked.
“Don’t worry,” Phil said, patting him a little awkwardly on the back. “It might take a little bit, but they’ll warm up to you too. And you should keep in mind that of course they’re going to be nice at first, because they don’t want you to give them back. I wouldn’t be surprised if they stopped being so friendly to both you and Peter in a couple of days.”
Tony shrugged but dropped the matter. “So, any new discoveries? Anything I need to know?”
"This should have been in the files, but we’ve told the general public that the team is taking some time off for their mental health. It was the only effective way to explain their sudden disappearance, so don’t be surprised if you see reports of that in the news. We vetted the place you’re going and it doesn’t seem like anyone is going to recognize them or you, but stay alert just in case.”
“Right.” Tony nodded. “Phil?”
“Yes?”
“What if I’m a terrible choice for this? I’m a former playboy and recently recovered alcoholic. Should I really be allowed to have them?” Tony couldn’t stop his fears from escaping.
Phil nodded thoughtfully. “Tony, every good parent is scared of fucking up their kids. No one ever feels ready. When my wife gave birth the first time, I wouldn’t hold our son for three weeks because I was
terrified. And then I finally did, and it was like I’d been holding him my entire life. You’ll know what to do. It sounds like some quote on a pillow, but good parenting really is just following your heart.”
“That was so cheesy, Coulson.” Tony mock shuddered.
Phil just smiled. “It’s true, though.”
"Um. Thanks,” Tony finally said. “Okay, I think I’m ready.”
“Really?”
“No. But I’m Tony fucking Stark and I’m supposed to be good at everything.”
Phil chuckled. “Let’s get moving, then. I’ll round up all the kids while you head up to the private jet and make sure everything is in order.”
"Sounds good.” Tony turned and headed up to SHIELD’s landing strip, where his plane sat waiting, as promised. After checking in with the pilot quickly, he set up the large TV, hoping that all of the kids could watch something and be engrossed for the duration of the flight. After about five minutes, he heard footsteps and turned his head to see Steve, Bucky, and Sam slowly getting on the plane. “Hey, boys.” Tony forced his nerves down. “You can sit wherever you want.”
“Hi,” Steve and Bucky said in unison. Sam said nothing. Tony nodded awkwardly. God, where was Peter?
“Greetings!” a new voice boomed from the front. Tony didn’t have to turn around to know that it was Thor. “It is a pleasure to meet you.”
“Hi, Thor. And you must be Natasha,” Tony said, bending down slightly to look the red-haired girl in the eye. She nodded slowly but didn’t say anything.
“She does not like to talk, sir,” Thor announced. He reached down and gripped her hand. “You can sit next to me, Natasha.”
“You two can pick any seat you want,” Tony said. “The boys are over there.”
“Hey, Mr. Stark.”
Tony turned towards Peter. “You’re finally here!”
“Shh!” Peter jerked his head towards Wanda, who he was holding in his arms. “She just fell asleep.”
“Oh. Uh, okay. Do you want to sit with her then?” Tony asked.
“Yeah, that’d be great. Thanks.”
“Just go with the other kids. I think we’re only waiting for Clint and Loki now.” Tony checked his watch. “They should be here any minute.”
“Ow!”
Tony whipped around. “What happened?”
“Natasha bit me!” Steve shrieked. Bucky nodded.
“Natasha?” Tony asked. “Is this true?” He looked at Peter, who shrugged, indicating that he hadn’t seen anything. Natasha looked sullen. Sighing, Tony walked over. “Steve, can you show me the bite mark?”
Steve immediately held out his arm. “Right here! She bit me right here!” Sure enough, there was the indent of teeth right in the middle of his forearm.
“Natasha,” Tony said. “You can’t bite people, all right?” Natasha didn’t respond. “Natasha?”
“My teachers say biting is acceptable form of attack.”
“Well, you can’t bite anyone here,” Tony said for lack of a better response. “Why don’t you sit on the other side of Peter.”
Surprisingly, Natasha moved without a fight and Steve looked indignant. “How come she isn’t getting in trouble?”
Tony rubbed his face. “I’m not punishing anyone right now. If you all sit down, I’ll put on a movie.” During the altercation, Wanda had woken up, but luckily wasn’t crying. Just then, Phil showed up with Clint and Loki.
“Clint, Loki, this is Tony, and he’ll be your new caretaker. Just like we talked about,” Phil explained. Clint immediately ran to Sam and sat next to him. Loki was a little slower, but he too eventually found a seat. Neither acknowledged Tony or Peter.
“Thanks for everything, Phil,” Tony said grudgingly. “I’ll keep you updated.”
“Thank you, Mr. Coulson!” Peter whisper-shouted from his seat with Wanda.
“Good luck to both of you,” Phil said in a low tone. “Feel free to contact us with any questions or issues. And Tony, remember what we talked about.” Phil began backing out of the plane. The doors closed behind him.
“All right!” Tony said cheerfully. “Who wants to watch something?” There was a pregnant pause, and he resisted the urge to check his watch.
“Me.” The voice had come from Steve. Bucky nodded vigorously from beside him. The rest of the kids made no move to indicate that they had heard or understood.
“Okay.” Tony turned on the TV. “I’m just going to play a movie for you guys then. I’m not sure if Phil told you, but we’re going to be on the plane for about three hours.” Again, none of the kids responded. “I need you all to put on your seatbelts just for takeoff, okay?”
“Here, Wanda,” Peter said, reaching over. “I’ll do yours for you. And then I’ll help you too, Loki.” This seemed to prompt the others into doing theirs, and Tony settled into his seat next to Natasha. The redhead tensed, but didn’t move away from him. Tony figured that was progress.
Everyone went quiet as the plane took off, and Tony thanked whatever deity was out there that none of them seemed scared. Flicking through the movies until he found the one he wanted, he saw Wanda turn her face into Peter’s chest and close her eyes again.
“Lights at thirty percent,” he said softly. Fighting the urge to sleep himself, he instead watched the kids as they watched Elsa lose control and run up the mountain. Surprisingly, Natasha seemed completely engrossed in the story, and Tony even saw a small smile on her face when Kristoff was singing to Sven. Making a mental note to show her more Disney movies, he looked around at the others. Thor also seemed entertained, but Clint kept looking around like he was trying to figure out the best way to escape. At one point, they made eye contact, and Clint immediately flinched and looked away, a full body tremor running through him. Tony sighed. He would have to call Phil later and ask for tips on what to do.
The rest of the plane ride passed without incident, and they had gotten around a third of the way into Mulan (which Natasha seemed to like even more) when the pilot announced that they had touched down in Boulder, Colorado. Getting all the kids off of the plane wasn’t easy, especially because Peter had fallen asleep as well, but Tony managed. From there, he loaded the very groggy children into the car that SHIELD had gotten for them, and drove the fifteen minutes to their new house in Decal Valley, Colorado.
“Wow,” Peter breathed, sounding incredibly impressed even though his eyes were half-lidded. Tony was inclined to agree. The house was even nicer in person, and when he stepped inside, it looked exactly as he had envisioned it. Thank you, Pepper.
“Okay, guys. It’s been a long day, so I’ll take you to your rooms and we can all get some sleep.” He began walking up the stairs with everyone trailing behind him, and sent them into their rooms one by one, promising to come and check on them after he got everyone settled. Peter’s room had a crib in it for Wanda, and after putting the toddler down, he backed out as quietly as possible.
“Hopefully she sleeps through the night,” Peter said in a low tone to Tony, who gestured for him to come into his bedroom so they could talk more freely.
“Thanks for letting her stay with you. We should probably go help the rest of them get ready. Do you want to start bringing in luggage while I start bedtime?”
“Okay,” Peter said. “Did the kids have any stuff or was it just us?”
“Just us.”
Peter shot him a thumbs-up and left. Tony sat down heavily on the bed, relishing the quiet, until it was broken by an ear-piercing scream.
Tony leapt up and ran out of the room, trying to locate the noise. Praying that Wanda wouldn’t wake up, he skidded to a halt in front of Steve and Bucky’s room and threw open the door.
“What the fu-heck is going on?”
Both boys were standing atop their bed as Loki hissed at them from the floor. At the sound of Tony’s voice, all three whipped around.
“Not my fault!” Loki shrieked.
Steve crossed his arms. “He came- he came in our room, and then we tried to get him out, but he wouldn’t leave, and-and-and-”
“No!” Loki screamed again.
“Enough.” Tony held up his hand. “Steve and Bucky, we don’t stand on furniture. You may sit on the bed or stand on the floor. Loki, you need to go back to your own room. I’ll come see you in a second.”
Loki threw himself on the ground. “No!”
Tony desperately tried to remember what the books had said about tantrums. “Loki, you need to get up.”
“No! No! No!” He began to thrash around. Natasha appeared in the doorway.
“Hey!” Tony forced his voice to remain level. “Loki, you have one more chance. Either you can walk out, or I can carry you out. Natasha, I will be with you in a minute.” To Tony’s utter shock, Loki got up off the ground and began dragging himself towards the door. “Thank you, Loki.”
“I need my handcuffs.” Natasha’s raspy voice startled him.
“What?”
“My handcuffs. I cannot sleep without them.”
Tony shook his head. “No. No handcuffs, okay? I’ll come see you as soon as I get Steve and Bucky ready for bed, and we can discuss what to do then.” That seemed to placate Natasha for the moment, and
Tony turned his attention back to the boys. “Okay, you need to get into pajamas. I’ll forego the baths for tonight so we can sleep, but you can’t sleep in those clothes.” He walked over to the twin dressers and pulled out a pair of pajamas for each boy. “Please put these on and get into bed. I’ll check on you in ten minutes.”
Surprisingly, neither of them put up a fight. Tony figured that they were too tired to argue.
“Natasha?” He poked his head into her room. She was sitting on the bed. “It’s time to sleep, okay?”
She shrugged noncommittally.
"How about these pajamas?” Tony held up a pair of soft black shorts and a black tank top. Natasha reached one hand out and took them from him. “Thank you. What were you saying about handcuffs earlier?”
“I slept like that every night in Red Room.”
“Okay. Well, you don’t need them here, all right?”
She stared at him for a long moment. “I want to be the best. Only handcuffed girls are the best.”
Tony sighed heavily. “It doesn’t work like that here. Will it make you feel better if you share a room with someone?” Natasha didn’t respond, just twisted the black pajama set in her hands. “Okay,” Tony said after a few seconds. “I’ll give you twenty minutes to get ready and decide while I check on the others.” When he didn’t get a response to that either, he stood up and backed out of the room, nearly colliding with Peter.
“Mr. Stark! Hey!” Peter sounded slightly out of breath. “I brought in all the luggage.”
“Thank you,” Tony said. “Do you think you could go check on Clint and make sure he’s ready for bed? I get the sense he might respond better to you because you’re younger.”
“Yeah, of course. Is Wanda asleep?”
“Last I checked, yes.”
“Okay.” Peter turned. “I’ll get Clint to bed, and then we should discuss our plans for tomorrow.”
A smile spread over Tony’s face. “Well, look at you, being all domestic and shit. Spider-Man really can do it all, can’t he?”
“First off, I don’t think you’re supposed to swear around the kids. And I just want to be prepared. I’m pretty sure ‘spontaneous’ shouldn’t be our motto. We’ll end up losing one of them.”
“Fair enough,” Tony conceded. “Meet me in my room in thirty minutes.”
“Hey, Clint,” Peter said, trying to make himself sound as nonthreatening as possible. The boy was pressed up against the back of the bed, watching him with wide eyes. “Hey, I’m not going to hurt you, okay? I’m not even going to come near you. I just want to make sure you put on your pajamas.”
“No pajamas.”
“No pajamas?” Peter asked, slowly moving closer. “You have to wear pajamas to bed, okay? Your clothes are dirty.”
Clint shook his head. “Don’t-don’t have pajamas,” he whispered. His voice cracked on the words.
“Oh,” Peter said, understanding. “That’s okay. Tony actually bought you some-” he reached in the dresser- “and they’re right here.” He fished them out and held them out towards Clint, trying not to make any sudden moves.
“Mine?” Clint’s eyes widened.
“Yeah, yours,” Peter said. Clint tentatively reached for them. “Do you mind wearing them?” Clint shook his head once. “Great. Let me know if you need anything. My room is down the hall.” Clint didn’t respond, and Peter frowned. “Clint? Will you be okay?”
Clint seemed to curl in on himself. “Okay.”
Peter almost reached out and patted Clint on the back, before thinking better of it. Heading out into the hall, he could hear Tony talking to Thor. Peter checked in on Wanda quickly before heading into Tony’s room to wait. Turning on his phone, he sent a quick message to May and Ned, although he figured that they would both be asleep by now.
“Natasha?” Tony poked his head in. “Did you decide where you want to sleep?” The redhead was now dressed in her pajamas. The clothes she had been wearing were neatly folded on the chair.
“Yes. I want to sleep here.”
“Okay,” Tony said, trying to sound as gentle as possible. “Come get me if you need anything.”
That hadn’t gone too badly, he reflected as he walked towards his room. All of the kids had seemed tired enough that they had gone to bed relatively easily. However, Tony could clearly see that many of them had underlying issues that would need to be dealt with, and he made a mental note to find time to talk to each of them privately.
“Clint was easy to handle,” Peter informed him as soon as he walked in the room.
“Oh, good.” Tony blew out a relieved breath. “Did he seem scared of you?”
“He seemed really jumpy in general, but yeah, I think me being there definitely elevated it.”
“We’ll definitely have to work on that, especially because he’s going to be more scared of me then he is of you,” Tony mused.
“It’s so weird to call them by their first names.”
“You’ll get used to it.”
“What’s the plan for tomorrow?”
Tony shrugged. “Lazy morning- I want the kids to sleep for as long as they can. After that, I don’t know. Maybe we can get them in the pool or something. We probably need to go grocery shopping as well.”
“Wait, do you think that they can swim?” Peter asked. “I feel like most of them probably can’t.”
“I don’t know, but we should find out so we know who to keep an eye on,” Tony said, before sucking in a quick breath. “Is Wanda wearing a diaper?”
“I don’t know,” Peter said. “I wasn’t really paying attention- should I go check?”
“Not tonight, but definitely tomorrow morning. Wait, I’ll pull up her file-” he reached for his tablet- “it would have said it in there.” Flicking through his emails, he pulled it up and scanned it quickly. “It says she wears Pull-Ups at night, but she’s fine with just underwear during the day.”
“Do we need to buy those?”
“Probably. Like I was saying, we should go to the grocery store anyway. There’s some food in the house, but not that much, and it’ll get eaten fast.”
“I don’t know if we should take all of them to the store, though,” Peter said skeptically. “I feel like all eight of them will be a handful.”
“Agreed.” Tony set down his tablet. “We can figure it out tomorrow, though. I’m setting my alarm for seven, and hopefully the kids sleep much later than that, although I’m willing to bet that some of them aren’t going to be sleeping at all tonight.”
“I hope so,” Peter said. “I usually get up pretty early anyway, so most likely I’ll be up before them.”
“All right, kid. Are you sure you’re good with Wanda?”
“Yeah, she seems really sweet so far,” Peter said, smiling. “Although to be fair, she hasn’t really done much more than sleep.”
“If you’re sure. Don’t stay up late tonight, all right? You’re growing and need your beauty sleep.”
“Mr. Stark!” Peter groaned. “I don’t need beauty sleep. Your jokes are so lame.”
“Watch who you’re calling lame, Pete,” Tony teased, reaching out to ruffle his hair. “Don’t think I can’t take that special suit of yours away.”
Peter’s face suddenly grew solemn. “Do you think Queens’ll be okay without me? The crime rate has gone down and everything but I still feel bad about leaving.”
“Pete.” Tony turned to make eye contact with him. “The cops need something to do anyway. Queens will be fine for now, I promise.”
Peter sighed heavily. “I hope so.”
“It will be.” Tony placed a hand on Peter’s shoulder and steered him towards the door. “Go to bed.”
“Good night, Mr. Stark,” Peter said before disappearing into his bedroom.
“Night, kid.”