Broodmare

The pups were immediately enamored with the friendly strangers before them.

“Oh Oh!” Amadeus pulled away from his parents. “Lemme introduce em, please Sukbu!”

Tony could only smile. “Go ahead.” Cause I don’t think I can right now.

“Okay, okay, this is Kamala; she’s the oldest. She’s holding Nova, he’s the youngest. This is Riri, and that’s Miles. And these two boogers are Petee and Gwennie.”

“WE’RE TWINS!” They were quick to exclaim, their hands clasped together, smiles brilliant and inviting.

“Twins you say, ya?”

“Yip!!”

“That is a quite a coincidence, as so are we!.”Pietro said as he gestured between himself and Wanda.

They both gasped. “ Really?”

“My name is Pietro and this is my sister Wanda.”

“That’s so cool.” They whispered softly.

“You know what’s also cool?” Pietro said conspiratorially.

“What?”

“Pietro is Italian for Peter.”

Peter gasped sharply. “No way!”

“Yes way.”

“That is so coool.”

They all managed to laugh at that.

“I am Thor; of Asgard.”

They all turned to him. But it was the twins that pointed to him and exclaimed. “YOU FLY!”

Tony covered his face with his hands. This was going to be a problem, he just knew it.

“Aye. Indeed I do.”

Nova held his arms out like wings and chirped.

“Of course, but only if your Boba allows it.”

Everyone stilled.

The pups looked at each other and then back at Thor.

“YOU UNDERSTAND HIM!?”

Thor was puzzled. “Of course I understand him.”

Banner couldn’t help but offer a weak smile. “Thor, I can’t understand him.”

Thor raised an eyebrow. “Can no one else understand him as I do?”

“We do.” Riri offered softly. “Deus too.”

Amadeus merely shrugged. “Chalk it up to emersion. I didn’t understand him at first. But I do now.”

Nova chirped curiously.

“Yes, it still means you have to speak English, you silly.”

Nova looked grumpy and curled up in her arms.

“Unbelievable.” Hope muttered.

“I believable.” Scott snarked back. “Hi, I’m Scott, and this is Hope.”

“Hi!” The wins exclaimed enthusiastically.

“YOU was flying too!!!”Gwennie exclaimed.

“You guys was small and then got big. LIKE ‘MALA!!”  Petee added.

“L-like Mala?” Bruce asked.

It was all beginning to be too much for Tony. He didn’t know if this was right or--

“Boba… can I show them?”

Tony swallowed hard against the urge to tell her no, to grab them all and run. Instead he turned to those around them and explained softly. “They… they’re not… they….”

“Enhanced.” Wanda offered. “The word you are looking for is enhanced.” She brought up her hands and made simple scarlet colored orbs appear.

Tony and the pups all gasped.

“Pietro and I are both Mutants. Thor is an Asgardian demigod.”

“Wooah.”

“WE’RE SPIDERS!” The twins exclaimed and Tony wanted the floor to open up and suck them all in.

“Spiders?” Hope asked.

Miles sighed heavily. “I don’t think Boba wants everyone to know, guys.”

The twins deflated, hanging their head and turning to Tony. “We’re sorry, Boba.”

“No no,” he motioned for them to come to him. “It’s okay, it’s okay. Everything is new and exciting, like what we talked about yesterday. But there are… there are people that we can’t trust. We can’t just tell everyone. Not everyone is a good guy.” He said as he snuggled with them and kissed their heads.

“We sorry.” They sniffled softly.

Scott jumped to his feet. He had to do something. If there was one thing in the world that Scott Lang hated more than anything else… even HYDRA… it was upset pups. It made his gut twist.

“One second. I’ll be right back.” He said as he grabbed him suit  and then bolted for the stairs.  They hadn’t let the Dora’s take their gear and boy was he glad they hadn’t..

Hope shook her head and followed. “Just give us a tick. We’ll be right back.” She promised before running off after him.

Tony bit his lip and tried to think of something to steer the conversation back to where it had been.

“Sooo… Asgard? Where is that on the map? I’m not great with--”

Pietro and Wanda were chuckling, Thor smiled brightly.

“Midgardian maps will tell you not where Asgard lays.”

Tony quirked an eyebrow.

Thor pointed up.

Tony looked up at the sky, then back at Thor, then up again.

“Wait…”

“He’s an alien from outer space.”

Riri, Miles, and Kamala were gaping. “For real?”

“Aye.”

“Thor…” Riri whispered thoughtfully. “Like Thor from Mythology? There’s a Thor; he’s the god of Thunder.”

“Thy people have Myths of our people from long long ago.”

“That would make you THOR, and that… that HAMMER…”

“Mjolnir.” He said brightly, holding out his hand and summoning his hammer from the coffee table easily.

Tony couldn’t help but chuckle. “I’ve missed a couple things over the last 9 years or so.”

Suddenly there was a buzz in the air. Pietro, Wanda and Thor were looking about with fond smiles on their faces.

“Whatever you do.” Pietro warned. “Don’t swat the fly.”

The buzzing went around the Tony and the pups before going up in the high up into the air and slowly becoming bigger and bigger until Scott let go of Hopes hand and dropped to the floor next to Thor. Hope landed next to him and they both took off their helmets.

“We’re no Mutants, or demigods, or enhanced.” Hope explained.

“We just have really cool suits and make us REALLY big or REALLY small.”

“YOU FLEW!!” Gwennie exclaimed, suddenly over her momentary melancholy.

Hope laughed. “That I did.”

“I can’t fly tho.” Scott shrugged. “I have to get a lift or find a flying ant that doesn’t mind giving me a ride.”

Peter was looking at them with such wide eyes. “That’s so AWESOME!”

“I think it’s kinda neat too, personally. But I’m kind of biased.

Kamala was practically vibrating with excitement. “Can I show em, Boba? Can I?”

Tony looked to be considering it for a second before nodding. “Just be careful baby. Don’t get to small. You know how it worries me when I can’t see you.”

Amadeus yanked his tank top off over his head and threw it to Kamala. “It’ll shrink with you.” He explained when she looked at him oddly. Her face lit up and ducked behind the chair and put the top on under her clothes.

“Ok, ready…”

-------

“This explains why you didn’t want Banner in this meeting.” Fury said casually as he swiped through two days worth of pictures of the boy that could be his son and the rest of his siblings.

T’Challa gave a small huff at that but never took his eyes off the catacombs in the distance. “I will not apologize again…”

“Wasn’t expecting you too. On the contrary I want to thank you for not just dumping this on my head at crack of ass o’clock yesterday.”

He winced at that. “I will, however, apologize again for that though.”

Fury snickered. “Is that where they were?”

“What’s left of them, yes.” Winter said as he walked up and looked out across the desert. If he never had to trek across the desert ever again he’d be a happy man. But if was for Tony or the pups, he wouldn’t hesitate.

“How many did you get on your way out?”

“Unconfirmable, sadly. We did go out guns blazing, though.”

Fury squinted at him. “You endangered the pups?”

“Never.” He answered sharply. “Tony cleared us a path to where I knew their sand gliders were kept. I picked off the ones that he missed.” He paused. “If you think I’m going to let you question Tony or my devotion to their safety--”

Fury held up a hand. “I take it back. I take it all back.”

There was a long pause wherein Fury thumb through and stopped at a particularly cute picture of Miles sitting beneath a large tree with Peter and Gwen on either side.

He sighed heavily before looking away from the tablet. “You think it’s boobytrapped?”

“Negative.”

“Other captives?”

“Negative.”

“Any other specimens like that container back there we need to seek out and destroy.”

“Negative. Tony and I grabbed everything we could on the way out.”

“Is it possible that there were things you couldn’t get too?”

Winter hesitated. “It’s… it’s possible, but not probable. Like I said; they’re the Ten Rings. They aren’t exactly buddy buddy with any of the other organizations. They tend to burn their bridges as they were being built.”

“So anything they have or get is on sight?”

“Correct. They sent me after the upper echelons of Hydra.”

“Cause the ‘olive branch’ they sent…”

“Extremis…”

“Was a dud.”

“Yeah, kill that many and not many other terrorist organizations are going to be jumping at the bit to buddy up to you.”

Fury nodded.

“So… Riri…” Rhodey said as he ambled towards them.

Winter grimaced. “Maybe we should take this outside.”

T’Challa pointed to a door that lead to a small balcony.

Rhodey sat down on a patio chair heavily. “Okay, lay it on me.”

“I’m not going to tell you--”

“And I respect that. I also appreciate the fact that you’re protecting him so much. I’m glad that he’s had someone like you through this.”

Winter grimaced. “Fat lot of good I did. I couldn’t protect him they way I wanted to. Not without--” he shuddered at the thought. “It would have made everything that much worse.”

Rhodey shook his head.

“Okay, now, tell me what you can.”

((this is where the kind of graphic stuff starts))

“He named her Riri after you. He knew Rhoda would be to close to your actual name. I mean, technically they didn’t ‘allow’ him to name the pups. They…” he winced, he turned and sat on the patio bannister with his shoulders hunched. He was miserable. He hated everything about this and it showed.

“They made him into what he called… what they called ‘Nothing’. No friends, no family, no thoughts or ideas of his own, no opinions. He was Nothing. And a Nothing can’t have pups and the pups can’t have names because that would make them and by extension him, Human.”

“They beat it out of him. When they first got him they made him tell them everything. Names of family and friends. That was a mistake. Every time he listed names they’d torture him, or…” he hesitated, looking at Rhodey under hooded eyes, “they’d rape him. Because they said that no one loved him, that no one was looking for him. He was Nothing.” He clenched his fists. “But I … I wasn’t myself. I knew that he shouldn’t say anything, that he should just say ‘no one’ ‘no one’ to everything, but I couldn’t tell him that. Cause that would have made them angry and…”

Rhodey put his hand on Winter’s knee and squeezed it. “I get it, man. I get it.”

Winter gave a huff and swallowed hard against his own rising emotions. “Eventually he learned. I mean… you tell a kid he’s stupid long enough and he starts to believe it. It works the same way with a terrified 16 year old no matter his intellect. You starve someone of food and water,beat them till their barely conscious, and you call him worthless and tell him no one cares about him long enough, and  it becomes true. If they thought they saw him thinking about the past, when he was Tony and not their Nothing, they’d give him a ‘lesson’ to remind him.”

Rhodey had to put down the tablet, he was about to snap it in two.

“Eventually thinking about the past became physically painful. They thought it was hysterical. They’d force it ‘Who were you?’ They’d ask. But there was no right answer. If he said ‘I was Tony Stark’, he’d get punished. If he said ‘Nothing’, then he’d answered wrong and they’d have to give him a lesson on telling them the truth.”

“And that was just when they first got him.”

Rhodey stood up with an almost violent force.

“How long?”

“How long what?”

“How long did it take to break him?”

“About seven weeks give or take. They did a helluva good job of it too.”

Rhodey turned to him sharply.

“They became his Masters. They alone had say over anything and everything they did. They told him to jump and then they’d beat him until he jumped right. They’d put him in lacy garments and tell him ‘I want to see all of you’” Rhodey swallowed the bile that rose in this throat. “and make him do it over and over and OVER again until he did it right. If he did it right the first time he got ‘rewarded’ but the reward was the same as the punishment.” Bucky looked down shamefully.

“Near the end of initial time they brought him in they made me his ‘Master’ too. I don’t know why. I seriously doubt they understood how utterly broken he was by the time they had me take him back to Yinsen.”

Rhodey clenched his eyes shut and dug his nails into his palm.

“He was afraid of everything. He was afraid of going into the room, of sitting, of being touched.” He paused. “They… when they took him they had a very specific way of doing it. Think of it as ‘maximum humiliation’. They’d lay him on his back, put his legs in stirrups and force him to watch. At first…” he stopped. “I know this is hard for you to hear. It’s not exactly easy for me to remember okay. But you… you are his best man. You are part of Riri and Riri is part of the reason he’s held on as long as he has. I cannot think of another person in this world that could have survived nine years of humiliation, degradation and and… everything else that they put him through that I wasn’t there to see…” he trailed off.

“I just need you to know what you’re dealing with. Because …” he huffed, his voice catching in his throat. “He needs you. He needs you to be able to look at him without disgust or hate or or…”

Rhodey nodded reluctantly. “Ain’t nothing in this world going to make me look at Tony any other way than I did before.”

Winter nodded gratefully. “Good.”

“So…. they…. He was touch-starved.”

“And food starved and…” he grunted. “When I got him back to Yinsen he was terrified of being out of the room with them. He knew it was a mistake. He knew what mistakes meant. It took me three hours to figure out how to get him to calm down.”

“How was that?”

“I… I was his Master. So I… I told him that Yinsen was his Master too. Yinsen was an Alpha. So am I. The guards that broke him… mostly Beta’s... there were a few Alpha's but they all had had vasectomies. The leader of the Ten Rings; whenever he decided to come and play with his favorite toy; was a Beta. Every last one of them. But they had the entire catacombs so drenched in Alpha Pheromones…”

“Tony couldn’t tell because of … everything.”

“Neither could anyone else that visited. And rarely did any of the visitors ever leave in anything but a body bag.”

“So, you told him Yinsen was his Master.”

He nodded. “And that as his Master his word was law. If Yinsen said bathe, he’d bathe. If Yinsen said sleep, he’d sleep.” He shook his head ruefully. “But even that almost wasn’t enough. So Yinsen and I …”

“How sketchy does this get?”

“Define sketchy.”

Rhodey shot him a dirty look.

“He was terrified of breathing because he hadn’t been given permission. And the Ten Rings they did a number on him. They gave him strict rules. One of which was ‘Don’t Touch Yourself Ever’.”

Rhodey's head snapped up. “That explains why he wouldn’t wipe away his tears.” He grumbled.

“They made me their guard. I kept them in and kept the guards out. They weren’t allowed in, but they wanted in. So I kept them out.”

“And you helped.”

Winter sighed heavily. “My only defence is that I was brainwashed and drugged out of my gourd. I know it’s a shitty excuse, but it’s all I have. When my body started to become resistant to the drugs they tried to up the dosage. But my resistance levels were higher than what they expected. They worked, but only to a certain degree.”

“As my mind came back to me and I realized that what I was seeing was wrong I fought back as best as I could. Yinsen and I… we weren’t psychiatrists. I’m a trained assassin. He was scientist, a physicist and an engineer. We did the best we could.”

“And Tony needed it.” He reluctantly admitted.

“Yes. We… he was scared of everything. And we had to order him to do everything. It… it was ages before he started to emerge from the depths of his own mind. And then they’d take him, sometimes for hours, sometimes for days, and we’d have to coax him back out.”

“And …” he hesitated to admit it. “They made me order them to fuck.”

Rhodey turned to him sharply.

“I did as was I was told. They gave me a gun and said ‘tell them to fuck’ so I marched in and told them to fuck.”

Rhodey rubbed his forehead. “And then came the pups…”

“The Ten Rings probably saw them as pawns. As potential weapons or potential blackmail or … I don’t know… bargaining chips. But they… they saved him. They… when Kamala was born it was like the fog had finally lifted. He had this little person to take care of, to protect and hold and feed.” He paused. “And then they threatened to take her out to the desert and leave for dead if he didn’t do exactly what they said.” He added softly.

((((this is where the kind of graphic stuff ends))))))

Rhodey let out a heaving breath. “I need to fucking break something.” He growled as he started to pace. He raked his fingers over his scalpas he tried to process it all.

“Okay, okay. But Riri, how did that…” the look on Winter’s face said so much.

“You ever heard of a breeder? A machine…”

“No no, please, I know what a breeder is. They’ve been illegal longer than slavery.”

“Well… I did the raid on Hydra and they had one…. Plus the samples you saw.” He paused. “I. Am. So. Sorry. This is…”

“No. No no no. See, this is not what you’re doing right now. See, you don’t get to take the blame for this. See, the blame for this goes on the heads of the terrorists, not the brainwashed assassin guard dog that they ordered to do stuff or got tortured if you didn’t. See, you didn’t order them to put in in that place. You didn't make the decision to breed him. So you’re not at fault, so buddy boy, you’re gonna jump right off that guilt train, because Tony needs you and those pups need you, and we need you to point us in the right direction of this contraption so that I can blow it to kingdom COME!” He growled, as he stalked over to Winter and got into his face.

“No, I don’t blame you for this. No one is going to blame you for this. If they do, I will personally correct them in a very painful and thorough way. I’ve been hunted by a madman who was willing to take out the entire Eastern Seaboard just to kill me and my friend. I know things now that I didn’t know back then. And I’m not proud of it, but you have better fucking believe that I’ll use every BIT of that knowledge I have if I need to.”

Winter swallowed thickly.

“Riri… you should know that… they all need to know actually…”

“Know what?”

He sighed again. “The Ten Rings wanted weapons. If they were adorable little kids, then so be it.”

Rhodey went grey. “They… Did they experiment of them?”

“No, no, I…I.. I…” he huffed irritably. “They experimented Tony. The ‘dud’ olive branch from Hydra wasn’t actually a dud. It worked. They used it on Yinsen and it swallowed him into this green gelatinous cocoon and when he broke out he was different. He could stretch his body and do weird shit like make himself look different.”

“It ever occur to him to use that to escape?”

“Without Tony or the pups?”

Rhodey threw back his head and roared. “You have a point and I HATE IT!”

After calming himself he walked away and let out a couple of deep breathes which did very little to calm his inner tumult. “They didn’t weaponize him?”

“I was the only one that knew. And he told me not to tell. The drugs made me suggestible and I did as I was told.”

Rhodey rolled his eyes. “Small mercies.” Winter shrugged helplessly.

“So Kamala can do that too?”

“Yeah, but we didn’t exactly experiment with it a lot. Tony was terrified, and rightly so, that if they found out he’d never see her again.”

“And the rest.”

Winter sighed heavily. He hated having to repeat himself, but he had left a lot out of the story. He patiently retold the story of the arc reactor, the extremis, the radioactive spiders and the powers that the kids had presented.

“Wait, but Riri was before the spiders.”

“But after the Extremis.”

“Soooo… she doesn’t have …”

Winter shook his head ruefully. “She hasn’t presented anything, but there’s something,” he paused and closed his eyes.

“Right before they executed Yinsen something happened. Neither Tony or I can get Miles or Riri to talk about it, but Yinsen protected them from … I don’t know what… and ever since then she’s walled off. She tries to blend in. She doesn’t think either of us have noticed, but we have.”

“Noticed what?”

“Her and Miles, they take special care to be ‘normal’. They’ve both become protective of Nova. Not that they weren’t before, and not that they treat Gwenie or Petee differently… but they are on guard all the time  and …. Just believe me when I say this: Riri is different. She probably knows already. Hell, it’s probably already manifested itself, but both of them. If Yinsen told them not to tell, then they won’t. Especially if they think that they are protecting Tony and their siblings.”

Rhodey turned to him curiously. “What about Nova?”

“Huh?”

“Is he?”

Winter felt heat rise to his cheeks and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Nova… Um… Yeah… he… he’s special too.”

“May I ask how?”

“He… we can’t figure out what or why… but he chirps like a bird.”

“A bird?” Rhodey's eyebrow shot up.

“Yeah, when you hear chirping, he’s talking.”

“And you lot understand him?”

Winter let out a huff of a laugh. “Um… we didn’t realize he wasn’t speaking English until Amadeus pointed it out. I mean, eventually Deus learned what he meant, but… we tried to keep him quiet whenever the guards came around. We didn’t want them to figure it out.”

Rhodey let it all sink in as he sank down onto the patio lounge.

“We should probably go back in and talk about triggers and stuff before we get going.”

“We?” Winter stood up suddenly. “No. I’m not going back.”

Rhodey looked at him quizzically. “I’ll draw you lot a map. If you have one of those two way radio’s I’ll use that. But I am NOT going back there. No, absolutely not. My place is with Tony and the pups. That place…” he took a deep cleansing breath. “You’re going to have to give me a pass on this one. Because I can’t go back there, ever.”

-------

Wanda watched with great curiosity as the children ran around the patio chasing Hope and Scott at their size.

Everyone but Riri.

She was the most curious of them all. Long ago she swore she’d never read the mind of anyone that hadn’t consented to it, but these children… their minds were blaring at her after Pietro had let it slip that she could read minds their minds had sought her out.

“Hellooo?”

“Hi hi hi”

“This is soooo cooooool”

“You’re pretty. I mean…. Hi.”

“Can you hear me dis ways?” That had been Nova as best she could tell.

Everyone's mind but Riri.

Normally it look but a subtle caress to access the mind of a child… but Riri… it was if her mind were made of iron. Even a subtle prod was met with great resistance, it was like nothing she’d ever encountered before. Her own father wore a helmet of iron to protect his mind from Professor Xavier’s prodding, but Riri… it was if she was born with one.

Nova, on the other hand, his mind invited her, as though he knew she could understand him better that way and he wanted her see what he had to offer. She smiled as he squealed internally and verbally. “ TICKLES TICKLES TICKLES!!!” His mind shrieked, while little contented chirps left his lips.

Thor had moved to the couch once it was obvious that Hope and Scott weren’t going to come back, and Tony joined him when Nova started reaching out for him with grabby hands. He had crawled into Thor’s lap after chirping to Tony and Tony had set him down.

Thor, she understood why they had asked for him now. He needed this, after Loki’s betrayal and imprisonment Thor was … almost broken. He might have looked hale and whole, but on the inside, he was battered and bruised. His heart in tatters and soul overwhelmed with grief.

He knew she knew and had thanked her for keeping it to herself. He needed time to heal… and a young pup with raven black curls seemed to sooth his innermost turmoil.

Which brought her back to Riri, who was standing guard over her brother and Boba behind the couch. Tony had tried to get her to join her siblings but she had begged off. She wanted to stay with them, she said, and he had let it rest at that.

Pietro was running around the balcony and would occasionally stop and say “PEEKABOO” to the various children. But he did stop long enough to talk to the Ellen and Amadeus. Bruce was sitting across from Thor on the ottoman attempting to engage Tony; who was reluctant to look at him, let alone speak.

“There must be so much they haven’t experienced.” Said Bruce, which actually got Tony’s attention.

“Yes, and they are excited for it all.”

Thor paused suddenly. “Rain.”

“Huh?”

“Have they experienced rain?”

Both Scott and Hope came to an abrupt stop. They looked at each other, pressed the button on their suits that made them go back to normal size, and took off their helmet.

“Oh man. You gotta.”

“We should probably ask permission to bring a literal storm to T’Challa’s back yard.”

Shuri quirked her eyebrow at Thor. “I control the Thunder, which lowers the barometric pressure…”

“I’ll be dipped, you actually remember what Rhodes and I taught you.”

Shuri couldn’t help but laugh as she pulled out her cell phone.

-----

As Winter was explaining that Tony would be anxious around them and there were certain things he should avoid a shrill ring interrupted them and all eyes turned to T’Challa.

“Pardon me.” He left to go to the corner but everyone was watching. His face went from impassive, to concerned, to pleasant in a matter of seconds. “Yes, I will send him down immediately.” He ended the called and as he tucked his phone away he turned to the others. “Winter, your presence is required in the back garden immediately. Nothing is wrong, but it is a first for the pups that Tony didn’t think you’d want to miss.”

Winter quirked an eyebrow.

Clint jumped to his feet. “Can we watch from the patio. I… I wanna see it too.”

T’Challa nodded. “Of course. We should all watch them.”

As Winter turned to leave T’Challa called out to him. “You may want to wear your hoodie.”

-------

Winter jogged out to the backyard where Tony and all the pups stood. “What’s going on?”

“RAIN!!”

Winter raised an eyebrow as he looked around. “It… it doesn’t look like rain.”

Scott and Hope sidled up to them arms linked and hoodies on zipped up and hoods up. “Yeah, give it a couple of minutes.”

Winter turned to Tony with a look of concern. “It- It’ll be okay. He promised that no lightning would hit us or the pups. And-and it’s only for a couple of minutes.”

Winter furrowed his brow. “Who?”

“Him!!” The kids exclaimed as a dot in the distance became larger and behind him story clouds rolled in. “He’s THOR!! Like in the books!!” Peter proclaimed loudly.

And sure enough the man, Thor, was in the air, hammer aloft in one hand and the other hand looked to be directing bolts of lighting. “Sonova…”

“Yeah, lots of things have changed in 10 years.” Tony sighed.

The kids got more and more excited as the temperature dropped as the first sprinkles fell they squealed and twirled around with the faces raised to the sky and hands out to feel the droplets.

“IT’S RAINING!!!” They squealed and hollered. Even Riri could not contain her excitement.

“It’s fucking raining.”

“LANGUAGE!!” The pups piped up as they spun around around.

But Winter was turned to Tony. At first his head was down as he the feeling of water on his face was something he avoided at all costs. But slowly he lifted his face to the sky and let the rain fall onto his face. He flinched at first, but then he let his hood down and let it wash over him.

Winter smiled inwardly.

Baby steps.

-------

T’Challa watched their reactions with a large smile on his face. Rain, something so simple bringing such joy to the pups made his heart swell. The Avengers watching were in awe and could barely form words.

“They’ve…”

“There are many firsts to be had Natasha.”

Clint looked like he was itching to say something. “What’s on your mind, Barton?”

“Please tell me that you are getting pictures of this.”

T’Challa smiled. “I assure you, pictures and video are being taken.”

--------

Steve was pacing the length of the office as he tried to think of every contingency he could when he saw Thor fly away and thunder roll in the distance. Just as he was about to get on his com to ask what he was doing he saw Tony and his pups zipping up their hoodies and standing in a line as though waiting for … oh…. Rain.

His heart wrenched in his chest as Winter ran out to join them. He watched as Winter and Tony eventually joined their pups in the frivolity of laughing and spinning in the rain.

He sat down in a chair and watched them with an aching heart. He knew they weren’t his. He knew that beyond a shadow of a doubt. But that didn’t take away from the ache he felt when he saw them so young and healthy and perfect.

He knew he shouldn’t watch them but that didn’t mean he could tear his eyes away from the way that pups had joined hands and were spinning around in a big circle as they laughed and screamed.

He swallowed hard against the lump in his throat as he eventually made himself look away. He shoved that painful hollow feeling aside as he turned around and looked at the layout of the catacombs.

If anything, he had more reason than ever to get this done and get it done right.

For the pups.