Chapter 9
"Alright, come on. Today's an out of the tower day." Sam said, getting to his feet, and Stiles, Clint, and Bucky all looked at him in surprise. Then Stiles was on his feet.
"Out of the tower?" He said excitedly, "Where?"
"We'll figure it out," then he looked at Clint and Bucky. "Only 1." He ordered, and both assassins looked at each other for a moment before Clint flopped back on the couch and Bucky stood. Though Clint was nervous about Stiles leaving, Bucky looked downright terrified, the look lingering in the back of his gaze, and Clint understood that. Having someone so fragile rely on you, having them care and want you around for the first time in a while was hard to let go of.
"You guys have fun. Bring me back a souvenir." Stiles ran over and leapt on him with a hug and Clint caught him just in time not to be winded.
"See you later!" And then he was off again, grabbing Bucky's hand to drag him after Sam.
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"Clint, Clint! Guess what Bucky and I made?" The archer rolled to his feet, watching as Stiles ran around the corner, Bucky meandering in on his heels. The boy had nothing in his hands so Clint's gaze moved to Bucky and that's when he saw the container.
"What've you got there?"
"We made thumbprint cookies!"
"With strawberry jam." Bucky added. The words had Clint blinking but he moved right over, hoisting Stiles up when the boy hopped excitedly, wanting to see into the container too.
"Sam gave us the recipe. He said we could pick up the rest later cause he didn't want Bucky to have to carry them all by himself."
"That was pretty nice of him." Clint noted, and Stiles nodded, face split in a huge grin. "Is that all you did today?" Stiles shook his head.
"We went to a giant park first, that all 3 of us could fit on. We played tag! Bucky was the sneakiest and Sam had the best plans, but I was the fastest." Stiles said proudly. "Then we were hungry and Sam said we could make grilled cheeses if we went back to his house so we did cause Bucky didn't like the hotdog guy cause he said he couldn't see what was in the hotdogs and I like grilled cheeses better cause hotdogs are made of the gross stuff and then we saw that Sam had baking books and I thought cookies would be fun and Bucky said his favourite used to be the thumbprint ones and I said I liked the strawberry jam ones so Sam found us a recipe and then let us bake them and he went and found enough strawberry jam to fill them all with." Clint couldn't help but mirror Stiles' grin as the kid talked a mile a minute to recount his day.
"How many cookies did you guys make exactly?"
"We made a box for everyone! Well, everyone but Jarvis cause he can't eat cookies. Sorry Jarvis."
"Your consideration is appreciated." Stiles just beamed again before turning his gaze back on Clint.
"Can we go pick up the rest of them?" Stiles asked. "Pretty please?" Clint just reached into the tin, grabbing one of the cookies to try. He blinked in surprise and didn't miss the smug look in Bucky's eyes. They were really good.
"Sure we can, kid. I'll grab some keys."
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Tony found Stiles sprawled out on the floor, StarkTablet in front of him. What struck him first thought was that the boy was alone: Clint wasn't lounging in the background and Bucky wasn't hovering. He made his way over, intending to ask when he realized just what Stiles was doing. The boy wasn't playing a program they'd installed for him, instead he was staring at a screen of code, tiny fingers scrolling through it. Tony had settled on the ground next to Stiles before he'd realized he'd intended to do so and Stiles looked up with a frown.
“Jarvis didn't want me to go on the internet so I'm going to change the numbers so I can.” that had Tony's eyebrow's winging up.
“Why won't he let you?”
“Clint, Bucky, and Natasha had to go see Phil and told Jarvis to watch over me and make sure I didn't get into trouble. Jarvis said that he did not think the internet would be safe if i was alone.”
“Well, you're not alone now – but this is pretty interesting, what you're doing here – can I see?” Stiles passed over the tablet and Tony felt more and more surprised. “This is pretty impressive, kid. Where'd you learn this?” Stiles just shrugged.
“I dunno, I just know it.” Tony nodded, getting more comfortable.
“Here – look at this-”
Steve found Tony and Stiles huddled over a tablet, and stayed in the doorway, watching. It gave him a warm feeling, seeing Tony like this and seeing Stiles so comfortable, so excited, so child-like after so much hardship. Steve finally moved into the room and Stiles looked up first, offering a smile.
“Hi Steve! Tony's teaching me to code!” Steve couldn't help his startled laugh.
“Is he now?” he crouched down next to them, not missing how Tony avoided his gaze, but made no move to leave. “And how's that going?”
“I broke into the internet all by myself!”
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One month later
Only Tony and Steve had ever heard Stiles really scared, and so the screams of terror had them all moving fast to find him. When silence fell, Clint thought his heart might have stopped for a minute. They found the boy curled up in a corner, hands over his ears, shaking, and Clint moved right in, hands up in surrender when Stiles' eyes flew to him, staring in panic.
"Stiles, it's just me. We heard you scream. What happened?" Stiles pointed a shaky hand towards the window, and all eyes followed his motion. What they saw were scratch marks in the glass that definitely hadn't been there before.
"Jarvis, where the hell did that come from?"
"There was a wolf attempting to get into the room, but at Stiles' scream, it ran."
"How the hell did a wolf get up to the deck?"
"It would seem that he scaled the side as a man." That had everyone going quiet and it was Stiles who finally spoke up, tears on his face, sniffling.
"It was a werewolf." Stiles said, and everyone looked back to him, Clint reaching out to pull him into a hug. "They said a werewolf killed my dad because I wouldn't use magic." And the boy all but sobbed in Clint's arms. Natasha watched with a frown as Bucky went out on the deck already, eyes scanning the area, searching for any sign of the intruder, but there was nothing. What Stiles said didn't match what Charles had showed her. It had been humans to hurt his father, not a werewolf, but the ones who hunted them.
"Anything, Buck?" The man in question shook his head, and Stiles calmed enough then to wipe the tears away.
"Is he here to kill me too?" Stiles asked then, and Natasha moved to put a hand on Bucky's arm before he could outwardly react as Clint answered.
"We won't let anything happen to you, Stiles. I promise. If he wants to get to you, he'll have to go through us, okay?" Stiles shook his head.
"Then you'll get hurt." Clint just gave a smile.
"We're a team, Stiles. We have each other's backs. That includes you too. We'll protect you and each other, okay?" Stiles nodded to that but instead of moving away just cuddled into Clint's embrace. "Come on, let's put Tony to good use and find out who was climbing his building."