Kids Stuff

“What are you doing?” Steve asked as soon as he walked into the living room.

“Getting things ready,” Clint answered matter-of-factly. Steve raised an eyebrow, clearly not understanding what Clint was doing.

“Ready for what? What are all those things?” Steve questioned, pointing at everything that was spread on the coffee table.

“Board games,” Clint informed, without stopping checking the content of each box. It had been a while since the last time he had taken those board games out, and he wanted to make sure that any of the game pieces were missing.

“Board games?” Steve echoed, trying to make sense of what was happening.

“Yes, we’re playing board games,” Clint announced, a broad grin on his face.

“How come?”

Taking some minutes off of his task, Clint sat back and chuckled a bit when he saw Steve’s puzzled expression. “Well, we usually watch movies on the rare occasions we’re all home, and I don’t know about you, but I think it’s getting rather boring,” he confessed, crossing his arms, “so, I figured we could do something different for once,” he finished saying, not being completely honest.

It was true that movie nights were becoming a little bit routine in his opinion, but if Clint had decided to change the dynamics that night, it hadn’t been the only reason.

Lately, Tony began to spend too much time in his workshop. Again. It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary – since Clint had moved in, he had noticed the abnormal number of hours Tony used to spend down there. Breaking that habit had been a very hard thing to do when Tony was released from the hospital and had been asked to rest as much as possible. Steve and Thor had to literally carry him several times out of there when he refused to leave, until they could come to an agreement with JARVIS, making the A.I. understand that locking the workshop for a while was for its creator’s own good.

But now that Tony had healed completely, there was no reason to keep that deal any longer. Clint wasn’t going to lie, that habit of his had it perks. Tony usually came up with wonderful upgrades and improvements on their weapons, not even SHIELD’s best engineers could hold a candle to him when it came to technology. Although that didn’t mean he liked that habit. It couldn’t be healthy to spend that amount of time down there.

At first, everybody tried to convince Tony not to spend days in a row in his workshop. Tony just nodded and said he wouldn’t stay there for too long, though he always ended up doing that exact thing. When the team kept insisting on the same request, Tony went from blowing them off to getting angry, which only ensured that Tony would do that thing they didn’t want him to do even more. Clint would somehow get his hands on Tony’s birth certificate, he needed to verify his theory about Tony’s middle name staring with stub and ending with born.

So, the only way to keep Tony away from his workshop was providing him with something he would consider more interesting and entertaining. Not an easy task, the things that Tony considered interesting were limited.

At the beginning, movie-nights had been enough to keep him distracted. Introducing Steve and Thor to one of classic must-see movies was something Tony clearly enjoyed. But recently, it didn’t seem to be enough. Tony would stay just for some minutes, standing behind de couch, and then, he would leave the room excusing himself by saying he had to finish a thing for Pepper – which everybody knew was a lie, since a fuming Pepper would storm into the Tower days later looking for him, demanding why he hadn’t even started working on the projects she had asked for urgently – or that he had seen that movie too many times he didn’t feel like watching it again.

And, since Tony seemed to enjoy playing video games with him – even if he had refused to play with him lately, arguing his time couldn’t be wasted with such childish stuff – he might as well be interested in playing board games.

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Steve told him, folding his arms against his chest, thoughtful.

“Of course it is! Who can resist to board games?” Clint asked confidently.

Before moving into the Tower, Clint used to live in SHIELD’S headquarters. The place wasn’t comfortable in general, but back then, he didn't mind – though now that he had experience living under the roof of someone who didn’t spare no expense when trying to get the best of everything, Clint was more than sure that his definition of comfortable had changed – as missions usually kept him away for quite a long time. But when there were no missions or he was benched for a while due to an injury, time there was eternal, since there was nothing to do. There wasn't even a TV that he could use to entertain himself with. Therefore, he started to like and collect board games.

He would play with anyone who was willing to do so. Not long ago, Phil and Natasha used to play with him in their leisure time. However, both had stopped doing that eventually, arguing he cheated, which he certainly did not. Bending the rules wasn’t the same as cheating.

And, if by any change Clint cheated, it was only because by doing so, things got more fun. Sometimes it was more about entertaining himself than actually winning at the game. What better way to amuse himself than watching the others stress out because they couldn’t tell if the card that had made him win was one from the pile of cards or from his secret stash.

“I can think of someone who would be sure this is an activity for kids,” Steve hinted, frowning, obviously disagreeing, “and he’ll get mad.”

“I’m sure he won’t,” Clint assured, resuming his task of getting everything ready.

“Hopefully, he won’t,” Steve wished, though Clint could detect uncertainty in his voice, “but if he does, you’ll be the one who drag him out of the workshop when he’s the sulking,” he warned, heading toward the door. Clint stuck his tongue out at him, but Steve was already gone.

Around eight p.m. everybody was settled on the floor, around the coffee table in the communal living room. When Clint had announced them the change of activities for the night, nobody had opposed to the idea. Steve had already known, so he didn’t make any comment. Natasha raised an eyebrow, gesture which spoke volumes without having to say actual words; Clint knew she would kick his ass if he dared to cheat. Thor had commented enthusiastically how a marvelous idea this had been, and practically run to the coffee table and sat down, waiting impatiently to experience a leisure time activity migdardians used to do. Bruce just shrugged, as long as what they wanted to do didn’t involve something that might make him hulk out, he was willing to take part in anything.

Of course, Tony was nowhere to be seen, but Clint was confident he would show up eventually to get a refill of his cup of coffee – after almost three days in his workshop, his own supply of coffee must have run out by now.

Monopoly, that was the first game Clint decided to play. He regretted it almost immediately. After almost half an hour of explanation, he was pretty sure Thor and Steve hadn’t understood the rules even if they said they had. Steve was selected to be the banker, since he was the most honest person among everyone there. Another bad idea, because later Clint would find out that it would be hard for Steve to keep up playing two roles at the same time. He would have gladly been the banker, but Natasha didn’t let that happen, arguing he tended to cheat and steal money. Obviously, Clint didn’t do that, he just borrowed money for a while and pay it back as soon as he had the chance. It wasn’t his fault if he never had said chance.

Tony decided to show up when Clint was trying to make Thor understand that the tokens had no especial meaning and that he should just pick one randomly so they could start playing. It took Thor around five more minutes to decide which of the tokens looked the mightiest. Tony made a beeline for the kitchen, going past them and acknowledging their presence until he had refilled his cup and had taken a sip of his coffee.

“What are you doing?” Tony asked while he approached them, his cup of coffee well placed in his hands.

“Playing monopoly,” Clint informed, though they hadn’t even started. Clint refrained himself from rolling his eyes – he didn’t want Tony to think this was anything but fun – when Thor started to look carefully at the houses, as if he was trying to figure out if there was something different between them. “wanna join? We’re about to start,” he proposed.

“Er… sorry, I've got better things to do,” Tony declined the invitation. The hesitation when he answered didn’t go unnoticed by Clint.

“C’mon, what can be more important than spending some quality time with your teammates?” Clint insisted, taking away a house from Thor’s hand.

“Adult stuff,” Tony replied a bit annoyed, “you kids can continue with your toys,” he snorted, walking towards the elevator. Clint could see how Tony took some unnecessary seconds to order JARVIS to take him to the workshop, his eyes laid on them.

After forty minutes, Clint confirmed Monopoly hadn’t been the best choice. Not being the banker meant he couldn’t win that easily. Steve took too much time to roll the dice every time, making sure his money hadn’t mixed with the money of the bank, and counting the bills twice before handing them in so he didn’t give extra money by accident. Natasha slapped Clint on the hand when he tried to take the bills from Steve’s grip, too desperate for his slowness. And Thor didn’t seem to understand he couldn’t borrow money from Bruce, the fact that Bruce seemed to have more money than he was willing to spend didn’t matter.

Even when he was about to take some five-hundred bills from the stash of the bank behind Steve’s back, Tony had given him away. Clint would have gotten mad if he hadn’t been pleased because of Tony’s presence, which he was sure had been due to his desire of being there, not to a coffee-refill. Two refills in forty minutes was too much even for Tony, especially since he could have taken the bag of coffee downstairs and use his own coffee maker.

Sorry! was the next one to be played. Thor’s recommendation, who had been interested in that one just because of its name. Clint was certain Thor had been kind of disappointed when he saw the dynamics of the game. He hadn't wanted to asked him what he had imagined the game like, they had already lost to much time with the explanation of the rules.

Once more, Tony showed up for two refills – and gave him away for a second time when he had placed one of his pawns on an incorrect spot on purpose. By now, Tony should have known it was very obvious that that was just an excuse to be there. There was no need for him to stay behind them for a couple of minutes while he blew on the coffee. However, Clint refrained himself from inviting Tony to play again, afraid that would push him away. If only Tony stopped being so stubborn and sat down already! Clint was getting rather frustrated for not being able to do something about his pouting friend. Yes, even if Tony swore he didn’t pout, what Tony had on his face was definitely a moue.

It was until they started playing Scrabble that Tony gather the enough courage to not go back to his workshop and sit down on the sofa. He sat down on the furthest spot and didn't exactly join in the game, but having him there was a huge step considering the circumstances. Nobody made any comment about his presence, knowing as well as Clint that would just send him away.

“For Fuck’s sake, Steve!” Tony exclaimed after some minutes, startling everyone, “just place the tiles already and kick everyone’s asses!”

“But I don’t have any word,” Steve complained confused. Clint could see how he had refrained himself from commenting on Tony’s vocabulary.

“Yes, you do!” Tony assured, clearly exasperated.

“I just have guy, that won’t make me win,” Steve pointed out, scratching the back of his head.

“Jesus!” Tony shrieked as he stood up suddenly and walked closer to them. Clint had to move to his right when Tony kneeled between him and Steve, snatching the tile holder from Steve’s hands.

“That’s not a word!” Clint accused as soon as Tony had placed the tiles on the board. By the look that everyone else had on their faces – well, everybody but Bruce – he was sure they agreed on his accusation.

“Of course it is!”

“No, it’s not! What the hell does syzygy mean? I’ve never heard that!” Clint asked, trying to recall if there was something in his mind that told him the meaning of it. There was nothing.

“It’s when the sun, the earth and the moon align,” Bruce deadpanned.

“Bruce, my friend! The only one who speaks my language!” Tony declaimed, grinning. Clint rolled his eyes.

“You two must read an encyclopedia when all of us are having fun,” Clint muttered, speaking loud enough to make sure Tony heard.

“I don’t need to read an encyclopedia to beat you in scrabble, Hood,” Tony retorted, leaning a bit so he could gather all the tiles and put them in the bag.

“Let’s see you try,” Clint challenged, trying to hide a smile of satisfaction. As far as he was concerned, he had already won.

OK, Scrabble turned out to be a bad choice too. Tony created words nobody but Bruce understood. Steve hadn’t been able to come up with more than four-letter words in every round, five if he had an s. Clint kept arranging the tiles in order to create acronyms and abbreviations of rude words and expressions. Natasha kept smacking him on the back of his head every time he did that. And Thor, well, it had been very hard to make him understand that he couldn’t use words nobody knew – meaning, Asgardian words. Thor argued that, if Tony and Bruce used words just understood by themselves, he could do the same.

They tried several more games. Bop it, which Thor ended up breaking by accident, hitting it too strongly. Cards Against Humanity, which Steve found extremely insulting and made Clint promise not to ever suggest playing it again – Tony loved it, and made him promise to play it again when mister goody-goody wasn’t around. Jenga, which almost made Bruce hulk out, as he sneezed the moment the was placing a block on the top, making him lose when he was about to win. Pictionary, which made Tony sat down sulkily since his drawings looked like a three-year-old scrawls next to Steve’s. Even a memory game, of which Natasha won every round.

Near midnight, Clint could sense tiredness starting to wreak havoc on his body. He might have as well called it a night if it hadn’t been for the apparent contentment in Tony’s eyes. So, he stood up and went to the kitchen, if they were going to stay there for a little while more, some snacks would be nice. When he was opening the cabinets to grab a package of chips, he closed the door. There wasn’t the slightest doubt that Tony had skipped a few meals, so he decided to make some sandwiches instead of serving any of the junk food he had stashed. Also, Bruce was there, and Clint shivered a little by the thought of Bruce scolding him for providing Tony with junk food after what had happened he last time he did that. Clint was sure as hell he didn’t want to make Tony sick ever again.

When Clint placed the tray with sandwiches in the middle of the coffee table, he thought Tony would complain about the fact he had gotten his own plate and glass with his own portion of food. It was a well-known fact Tony disliked the combination of cheese and ham, so Clint opted to make him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The milkshake had been just a bonus, no matter how hard Tony denied it, Clint knew he loved milkshakes. But being too immersed in the game, Tony’s left hand brought the food automatically to his mouth, while he used his right hand to roll the dice.

At the end, they settled for a card game, Uno. It was easy to understand and there was no way it could cause any problem.

Clint turned his head a little and saw Tony out of the corner of his eye as he placed a Wild Draw Four card with a broad grin on his face. That move prevented Natasha from winning the hand. Clint smiled fondly. He had missed this. He had missed playing with Tony. Clint wasn’t sure if Tony was aware of it, but he relaxed in a way he never did – not even when he was doing his magic in his workshop – whenever he played. The smile that these activities put on his face lacked sarcasm and mockery, and showed nothing but pure enjoyment.

A shame Tony refused to admit he liked it.

Although no one could deny themselves something they liked for a long time. Especially when it was something a far cry from bad. If Clint had to, he would gladly come up with ideas to trick Tony into spending more time doing things like these, until he realized there was nothing wrong with it.

But that would be for other day. Today, Clint would let himself feel proud of the fact that he had been able to keep Tony out of his workshop, at least for a night, and enjoy himself.