Adventures of the Littlevengers!

10) Shopping (2)

“Okay guys, I know you’re probably tired so we’re going home after this, but before we go home, who wants to go to the toy shop?” Maria asked excitedly, and got eight equally excited replies, even Tom joined in the chorus of “Toy shop! Toy shop! Toy shop!”

They were on their way home, but Maria thought it would be nice to give the kids one last treat, as Fury had called her after lunch to let her know that the kids would each have another examination to try and reverse Tony’s “Science stuff”.

It only took a minute to reach the large toy shop, and by that time the words toy shop had been irreversibly imprinted in Maria’s brain to the point that she was beginning to think that it had been a bad idea, but the looks on everyone’s faces as they stepped through the automatic doors was definitely worth it.

Tony ran off almost as soon as they stepped inside, yelling something about a game he had seen on TV that morning, and Thor followed him, but at a slower pace so he could take in the vast rows of brightly coloured boxes. Clint dragged Nat towards the Nerf gun section, although she resisted slightly, staring longingly at a black play-house with a red roof, complete with opening window shutters and it even had a working electronic doorbell.

“Come on Natalia, I wanna show you the cool guns,” Clint said, pulling harder on her small wrist until she followed him.

“Hey, Steve, you want to look at the art supplies?” Maria asked, and picked up Pepper who was almost asleep. Steve nodded shyly, then grabbed Maria’s hand lightly and pulled her over to look at a colouring book.

“Bruce, what do you want to look at?” Tom asked.

“I dunno,” was all he said.

“Oh come on. There has to be something. Do you like Lego? I bet you like Lego.” Tom said, pointing towards the stacks of Lego boxes. They had everything from big complex buildings, to teeny tiny cars, and Tom was more excited about it than Bruce.

“Look at that one,” tom said, pointing at a large Harry Potter set that looked like a caste.

“Oh I get it, it’s supposed to be Hogwarts,” Tom realised, but Bruce just looked at him like he was speaking gibberish.

“Look, I’m gonna get a few Harry Potter sets, for you of course, and I’ll get you the books. There’s seven of them, and the last few are really big.” Tom explained. He was sure that Bruce would love reading about the magical wizarding world. Bruce smiled when he heard about the books, and walked over to look at a Lego train set.

“Could I get the train one?” Bruce asked quietly, looking at the picture on the box that explained how the train was remote controlled, and drove around a little track.

“Sure thing, buddy,” Tom replied. He grabbed a trolley from the front of the store, and then put two Lego train sets, a few packets of extra tracks, and the large box that contained Hogwarts. Tom told himself it was for Bruce, but deep down he was just as much of a kid as any of them, and he wasn’t going to pass up a perfect opportunity to act like one.

Tom pushed the cart up beside the check-out counter, and asked the person behind the till to mind them, so he could find Tony and Thor.

“So, Bruce, any idea where they might be?” Tom asked as they strolled down the aisles, searching for the other boys. He had hoped to start up a conversation with Bruce, who was always very quiet, but he just didn’t want to talk.

“No.”

They walked silently down the next aisle, until they found Maria, Steve and Pepper all looking at various art supplies.

“Did you get anything nice?” Maria asked, wondering why neither of them were holding any toys.

“Uh-hu. I saw this really cool train, and it has a remote so you can make it move, and it’s Lego,” Bruce said quietly but enthusiastically.