keep you safe (forever and ever)

august twentieth

The kids had been so good all afternoon that Peter thought he could be excused for being lulled into a false sense of security. After lunch and several hours in the pool, they had gotten out with only minimal complaining, dried off, and began playing quietly in the playroom. Peter was contemplating whether or not to order pizza for dinner when Steve knocked over Bucky’s block tower, seemingly on purpose, and it all went to shit.

“Fuck off, Steve!” Bucky shrieked, shoving him hard in the chest. 

Steve stumbled backwards, caught himself on the arm of the couch, and kicked Bucky’s legs out from under him. “I hate you!”

“You’re a cunt, Steve,” Natasha said calmly, barely looking up from her book. Peter flinched at the casual way she used the word- why is that even in her vocabulary anyway? 

“Guys,” Peter tried in vain, “Guys, you all need to calm down-”

“My mom says that girls like her grow up to be whores,” Steve sneered, and Natasha actually flinched before she punched him in the face. Steve toppled backwards and smacked his head on the coffee table. Clint turned around and ran out of the room. 

“That was so cool,” Bucky said reverently, staring at Natasha. The corners of her mouth turned up slightly.

“I hate everyone!” Steve had struggled back to his feet,and he spun and shoved Wanda over. She immediately began to cry, and Bucky held out his arms to her.

“Steve!” Peter shouted. “Go to your room!”

Steve glared up at him. “You’re not my dad! You can’t tell me what to do!”

“Well, actually, I am in charge of you for the time being-”

“Ooh, Steve’s a baby,” Bucky interrupted loudly. “He needs to go to his room and take a nap!”

“I agree,” Natasha said, smirking. 

Peter looked back and forth in horror, having a hard time believing that Captain America of all people would be the one starting all of the fights. Of course, Peter reminded himself, he wasn’t really Cap yet, just a majorly fucked-up eleven-year-old with anger issues, and God, Peter wasn’t equipped to handle this.

“Sam, you should sit next to me and Natasha at dinner!” Bucky called, smiling a little too sharply for his intentions to be completely innocent, and really, that was just great, because all Peter needed was for another kid to take sides.

Sam looked wary, but also happy to be included, and he jumped up from where he had been coloring and went over to Bucky. Natasha gently maneuvered Wanda behind her and hunkered down in a clear fighting stance, and Bucky did the same with Sam.

“You need to stop fighting,” Peter said weakly, already mentally preparing to have to lunge at Steve and hold him back so he couldn’t hurt Bucky.

“What’s going on?” 

Everyone froze, and Peter spun to look at the owner of the new voice. “Oh, h-hey, Mr. Stark!” He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “Everything’s fine, don’t worry-”

“I’ve got Steve.” Tony cut him off. “You take the rest.”

Tony had already been having a shitty day. He had had to break up four fights on the way back to New York City, and by the time he got there he was tired and hungry and completely done with Thor and Loki. The reversal seemed fairly easy, and both Thor and Loki were disoriented but came around quickly. Thor gave Tony a huge hug and said that he was “forever indebted to him,” and Loki just disappeared. 

Tony was feeling better by the time the whole thing was over. 

And then Helen Cho asked to speak with him. 

“Tony,” Helen said, “We need to discuss the other kids.”

“Okay,” Tony said. “I don’t know what there is to discuss- I offered to take them, and in like a week you’ll be able to fix them, right? I’ll be fine until then. I’m not totally useless.”

Helen winced, and Tony got a sudden feeling that something was wrong. “See, that’s the thing. We’re going to need more than a week.”

“Well, that’s not good for me or Peter, but we can handle it. How long?”

Helen paused. “Probably closer to a year?”

“I’m sorry, what?” Tony said. “I must have heard that wrong, because surely you can’t be asking me to watch them for a year?”

“The other option is foster care, Tony, and I don’t think you want to do that.”

“I also don’t want to have them for a goddamn year!” Tony shouted.

“Well, we don’t know if it’ll be that long,” Helen said, keeping her voice level. “That’s just an estimate. We have little to no information about what caused this, and so therefore making an antidote will be much tougher.”

“So I’m just supposed to hide out with seven kids for a year?” Tony asked incredulously. “That seems a little suspicious, right? And what are we supposed to tell the media- that the Avengers are taking a vacation?”

“Pepper is dealing with all of the tabloids, so there’s nothing to worry about there.” Helen rested her hand on Tony’s knee. He let her, but only grudgingly. “Wait. Who’s the seventh?” Her eyebrows drew together.

“Peter, obviously,” Tony said.

“Well, Peter would need to come back here because he has school.” 

“No. I need Peter to help me.”

“Peter is going to be a junior,” Helen said. “He can’t just miss school. Besides, the others will be going to school too.”

“I’ll homeschool him if I have to- wait, what?” Tony stared at her. “I can send them to school?”

“There is a school where you’re living, I’m sure.”

“It’s not like I’ve looked into it.” Tony smacked the table. “Because I didn’t think I’d have them for a year!”

“You should definitely send them to school, though,” Helen said. “And you’ll have to talk to Peter and his aunt- I’m sure that they didn’t think this was going to happen.”

“Fine,” Tony conceded. “Anything else I should know?” 

“Look into extracurriculars for all of them. They should all have interests, and you can sign them up for things. It’ll be a good way to make friends, and it’ll cause less fighting when they’re home, too.”

“I can’t believe I’m doing this.”

“It’ll start to feel more natural.”

“If any of them call me daddy I’m done.”

After Peter and Tony got all of the kids under control, they ended up ordering pizza and sitting at the table as Tony did his best to give a lecture on fighting. Bucky was indeed sitting with Sam and Natasha, and Clint, who they had found hiding under his bed, had crammed his chair next to theirs as well. Wanda was in her high chair, and Steve was alone on the other side of the table.

“There will be consequences if you continue to fight,” Tony said. “It’s dangerous and someone could get seriously hurt.” 

“Whatever,” Bucky mumbled. Tony gave him a sharp look.

“I don’t appreciate you talking to me like that.” 

Bucky ignored him, but it wasn’t like Tony had been expecting anything different.

“We actually need to talk about school, though,” Tony said, effectively getting the attention of all the kids. Peter was missing from the table- as soon as Tony had explained the situation, he had gone upstairs to call May and talk about his options with her.

“I don’t want to go to school,” Steve said loudly.

“Okay, it’s not a choice. So you will, but we’ll get that sorted later. Right now we get to talk about the fun part-” Tony held up multiple brochures- “activities that you guys actually get to choose and participate in!” He handed a brochure to everyone except for Wanda. “Look them over and decide on a few things, okay?”

The table was quiet for a while as the kids flipped through them. 

“Sam, so that activity is-” Tony was cut off by Sam scowling at him.

“I can read! I’ve been able to read since I was three!”

“Okay!” Tony held up his hands. “I was just making sure! A lot of kids your age don’t know how to read.”

Sam’s face scrunched up more. “Well, they’re stupid.”

“Don’t say that,” Tony said, massaging his temple.

“I know what I want to do!” Bucky announced.

“What?” Tony opened his laptop to make a note.

“Ice hockey and this cool kicky sport!”

“Can you show me?”

Bucky pointed. “That one!”

“Oh, taekwondo. Okay, you can do those.”

“I’ve decided too,” Natasha said.

Tony smiled at her. “I bet you want to do ballet, right?” 

She tilted her head. “No. I hate ballet.”

“Really?” Tony asked disbelievingly.

“Yes. Where I was before-” she paused for a moment- “they made me do ballet and I didn’t like it. I want to do something else now.”

“That’s totally fine.” Tony was impressed that she was speaking this much at all. “What do you want to do?”

“Football.”

“Great. Wait.” Tony looked up. “What?”

“This one right here.” She jabbed her finger at a glossy photo of boys with helmets.

Tony sighed. Of course she wanted to play a contact sport with only boys in it. “It looks a little dangerous.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I thought we could choose anything.”

It was a test, and Tony knew it, but he couldn’t bring himself to argue. If she was happy, then who was he to stand in her way? Besides, the boys were young enough that they wouldn’t be so much bigger than her, and he knew that years of conditioning in the Red Room meant that she was more than strong enough to hold her ground.

“I’ll sign you up for it, then.”

“And I want to take piano!” she said quickly.

“Wait, me too!” Bucky interrupted.

“Right, piano lessons for both of you. Who’s next?”

Clint mumbled something under his breath, and Tony leaned closer. “Sorry, I didn’t quite catch that, Clint.”

“Gymnastics?”

“That sounds awesome!” Tony knew he was probably being a little over the top, but he was glad that Clint was interacting, even if it wasn’t that much.

“And that thing Bucky is doing.” Clint looked terrified to be asking anything else. 

“Ice hockey?” Clint shook his head no. “Oh, taekwondo?” He nodded and then went back to staring at the ground.

“Alright, this is looking good. Sam?” Tony prompted gently.

“Soccer and swimming,” he said without any hesitation. 

“Perfect. Steve? Yours has to be non-contact, though. Fury- uh, doctor’s orders.”

“I don’t know.” 

“How about ceramics?” Tony asked. “That looks like something you might like.”

“I don’t care. I’ll do whatever.” Steve crammed an entire piece of pizza into his mouth, effectively ending the conversation.

In the end, Tony ended up signing Steve up for ceramics and swimming, and even found a toddler tumbling class for Wanda. He set them all in the living room, turned on Moana, and went back into the kitchen to do cleanup.

“Hey, Mr. Stark.” 

“Oh!” Tony turned around. “Pete! There’s pizza in the fridge for you.”

“Yeah, um, I was just talking to May? And I think I’m going to stay here? If it’s okay with you?”

“Are you serious?” Tony said. “Of course it’s okay with me. I’m so glad you’re staying! I need your help.”

Peter rolled his eyes, but he was smiling. “Yeah, yeah. I’m just staying because I think colleges will be impressed to see that I was homeschooled by Tony Stark.”

“I don’t even care about your reasons, I’m just glad I have another person here who’s older than a pre-teen.”

“What are they doing now?”

“I put on a movie. By the way, we’re going school shopping tomorrow for their things.”

Peter didn’t appear to be paying too much attention as he tapped away on his phone. “Uh, yeah, that’s fine. I’m going to go talk to Ned, okay?”

Tony nodded. “Sure. Can you help with bedtime?”

“Yeah, just get me when you’re ready.” Peter was already heading towards the stairs.

Someone- presumably Bucky, from the way it sounded- shrieked from the living room, and Tony sighed. Honestly, these kids were going to kill him.

august twenty-first

“I don’t want that one,” Steve said. They had been shopping for about an hour now, and all of the kids were clearly getting tired.

“Well, you have to choose one,” Tony responded. “How about this one, then?” He held out a blue backpack enticingly.

Steve folded his arms. “I want the one that Bucky has.”

Bucky scowled. “You can’t have that one! It’s mine!”

“Steve,” Peter said quickly, “I have a great idea! How about you come with me and look for a backpack. You can have the same one that Bucky has, but then people might think that you’re the same age, and you want people to know that you’re the oldest, right?”

This seemed to appease Steve, and he trotted off with Peter, returning with an all-black bag and matching lunchbox.

Tony was reading off school supply lists as they walked up and down the aisles. They were slightly different for each grade, and he was having trouble keeping track of all of it. He wished that he had thought to print them out. 

“Oh, Natasha, your football practices start today, okay? So we’ll go get everyone’s athletic equipment after this.” Tony wasn’t looking forward to dragging all of them into another store, but he knew that they would have to be fitted for equipment.

“What gorgeous children you have!” a lady with a large sunhat on cooed. Natasha stared at her warily, and Clint started backing away.

“Thank you!” Tony said hastily before anything could inevitably happen. “I appreciate it. Come on, guys, let’s go check out.” Peter took Wanda out of the cart and held her as Tony quickly unloaded everything and paid, trying his best to hide the total from Clint and Bucky, who were peering over his shoulders.

“Are you rich?” Clint asked him as they were walking out.

Tony considered before he spoke. “I’m lucky to not have to worry about money, and it’s not something that you need to worry about either. I promise I will always take care of you. Money isn’t a concern.” Clint nodded, but he didn’t look fully convinced.

The car ride to the sports shop was quick (everything in this town was so close together) but Tony could already see a couple of the kids beginning to lag. They had been out all morning, and he wished he had thought to pack snacks for them.

“We’ll get lunch after this,” Tony promised as he herded all of them inside. “Bucky and Clint, Peter will take you to find ice hockey, gymnastics, and taekwondo gear, all right? The rest of you are going to come with me.” The football stuff was right in the front, and Tony stopped there first. “Let’s see-” he consulted his list- “You need pads, a helmet, a mouthguard, cleats, socks, and gloves. They’ll give you a jersey.”

“Thank you,” Natasha whispered as she was trying on the cleats. Tony felt warmth spread through his chest.

“You’re welcome. I hope you have a lot of fun.”

Natasha looked a little confused but nodded anyway, and Tony wanted to punch a wall. She was just a little girl. Fuck the Red Room for ruining her childhood. 

For the first time, he felt something akin to happiness that they would be children for a little longer. 

“I’ll stay the entire time,” Tony told Natasha as he was driving her to football. “It’s your first practice, so I want to see how it’s run.”

“Okay,” Natasha said from the backseat, turning her new helmet over and over in her hands.

“Are you excited?” Tony asked carefully, not wanting to upset her and cause her to shut down right before she had to go interact with a large group of people.

Natasha shrugged, but then nodded. “I think that it will be fun.” 

“I’m glad,” Tony said, smiling at her in the rearview mirror.

“And also-” Natasha broke off, looking uncharacteristically shy, “I want a friend.” Her face became slightly pink as she stared resolutely at her helmet.

“Well, I’m sure that you’ll make friends here,” Tony said. Internally, he was reeling. He couldn’t believe that Natasha had shared something like that with him.

Natasha just shrugged, reverting back to silence. When they got there, Tony introduced himself and Natasha to the coach, a friendly, middle-aged man with two missing teeth, and settled back on the bleachers, keeping one eye on the practice as he texted Peter.

Tony: Everything okay?

Underoos: Theyre eating leftover pizza

Underoos: Nothings broken so far

Underoos: But no promises

Underoos: Nvm Steve just hit Bucky gtg

Tony: Call me if you need me.

Underoos: asufaibngieofsmi

Underoos: Sry that was Wanda

Underoos: She grabbed my phone when i was breaking up the fight

Tony: Is anybody hurt?

Underoos: No but Clint ran off again

Underoos: Gtg find him

Underoos: Is it 2 late 2 go back 2 NYC

Tony: Yes.

He turned off his phone and watched as the kids broke into pairs for drills. It seemed like most of the kids knew each other already, and he could see Natasha biting her lip until a kid with sandy blond hair went up to her. Even from a distance, he could see her shy smile as they began passing to each other. The rest of the practice went by quickly, and Tony watched as Natasha packed up and made a

beeline for him, with the kid that she had been passing with in tow.

“This is Peter,” Natasha announced. 

The kid beamed. “Me and Natasha already made plans to sit next to each other in school and partner for everything!”

“Nice to meet you, Peter,” Tony said. “Will your parents be here soon?” He was anxious to get home, but he also didn’t want to leave the kid here by himself.

Peter’s whole face fell. “My mom died two years ago and I never had a dad, so now I’m with a foster family. They said if I want to do football I have to walk home, because they don’t have time to drive me.”

“We can drive you home if you want,” Tony offered.

“No, it’s okay.” Peter seemed to be closing in on himself. “They might- they might get mad if they see that I got in a car with someone else, so I’ll just walk. It’s not that far.”

“Okay,” Natasha said, shrugging. “I see you soon, then.”

“Bye!” Peter turned, hefting his football bag over his shoulder, and began walking.

Tony watched Natasha as she stared after him, and a funny feeling in the pit of his stomach formed that didn’t go away for the rest of the day.