Adventures of the Littlevengers!

9) Shopping (1)

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“That will be $248.99 please,” the lady at the till said, and Maria rooted around in her bag for her purse. Easier said than done when you’re carrying one kid, holding the hand of another and pushing a very unbalanced stroller full of clothes at the same time. She eventually handed over the card, paid for the clothes and dragged the stroller full of clothes out of the shop and into the nearest bathroom so she could change the kids’ clothes.

Tom took Tony, Bruce and Thor into the men’s room because they refused to go into the ladies room again, well Tony did anyway. Then he insisted on Bruce coming with him, and Thor, realising that the older boys were going into a different room, followed them saying “I am not a child, I am a god!” which got Tom a few strange looks.

Maria took Steve, Clint, Nat and pepper into the ladies room and, after digging them out from the mountain of shopping bags, handed them each and Avenger’s tee-shirt in their respective sizes.

She then gave them each a pair of jeans, but had to help Steve get his on.

“No, Mawia. I wanna wear my dwess!” Pepper complained, sulking very cutely in her Avengers tee and jeans. Maria sighed, searching through one of the large bags until she found the pink and purple sparkly tutu that Pepper had refused to leave the shop without, calling it “The pwettyest dwess in the ole wold!”

“Here you go, princess,” Maria said, handing Pepper the tutu and helping her pull it on over her jeans.

“Dank you, Mawia,” Pepper said happily, while Nat watched, eyeing the pink tutu. Maria saw this and dug around in the bag once more.

“Here you go, Nat. I thought you might like one too,” Maria explained as she handed a tutu similar to Pepper’s, but in black and red, to Nat and her face lit up like Stark Towers at Christmas.

“Now, to buy shoes,” Maria said to herself, leading the four children out of the bathroom, to where Tom was waiting with Tony, Bruce and Thor, who all looked twice as adorable in their tee-shirts.

“I have to get a picture of this,” Maria exclaimed, pushing all the kids over beside a wall with a large, colourful advertisement.

“Everyone line up in a row. Thor, move over a bit, yea now stay there. Clint, scoot in closer to Nat, good, good. Pepper, you move in front of Bruce, perfect. Now smile,” Maria instructed, before taking a few pictures with her Stark-Phone. They had become standard issue after Tony had joined the Avengers and informed Fury that his agent’s should all be using the best phone in the world.

“Gorgeous. Now we should go get you guys some new shoes,” Tom said, taking the words out of Maria’s mouth.

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“Okay everyone, find a pair of shoes you like and then come back and show us,” Tom said, setting the kids free in the children’s section of the shoe shop. It had been his idea to let the kids pick their own shoes, because Maria looked tired to him, although he knew she wasn’t likely to admit it if she was.

“Hey, Ri? Will you grab us a couple of coffees in Starbucks? I’ll stay here and watch the kids.”

“Sure, just don’t buy any shoes until I get back,” she replied, and strolled over to the coffee shop.

“What would you like to order?” the woman behind the counter asked with a heavy European accent.

“I’ll have two tall black coffees and seven kid’s hot chocolates,” Maria replied, handing the woman her credit card.

“That will be $18 please,” the woman said, pointing at the card-scanner and Maria put the card in and typed out the PIN.

“Name?” the woman asked.

“Excuse me?”

“Your name? So we can call you when your order is ready?”

“Oh, of course, Maria.”

Maria waited for five minutes at the collection counter before her name was called, sort of.

“Martha!” a different person called out.

“Two black coffees and seven hot chocolates,” he called again, and Maria realised it was for her.

“Thanks,” was all she said before she expertly picked up all nine take-away cups and walked back to Tom, muttering under her breath about how they got her name wrong.

She set down the collection of drinks as Pepper came running up to her and Tom with a diamond encrusted stiletto.

“No way, kiddo. What about those ones over there,” Tom said, trying not to laugh at the fact that the little girl had picked not only the most expensive shoe in the store, but the one with the highest heel as well.

“Mmm, I needed that,” he said, taking a big swig of his coffee.

“Tell me about it,” Maria replied, sipping at her own drink.

“I got the kids hot chocolates, figured they might be thirsty or something. Although, now that I think about it, it’s probably not a good idea to give them any more sugar,” Maria said, gesturing to where Tony and Thor seemed to be sword fighting with winter boots.

“Hey, guys. Put those back, okay,” Tom yelled at them, pointing towards the rack of boots that had a gap in the middle.

They shamefully returned the boots, and ran off to look at some “Super cool shoes with racing stripes”.

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“Okay, is everyone happy with their shoes?” Maria asked as they all sat around the large table, waiting for their food orders to arrive.

She got seven, very enthusiastic, yeses in reply.

Tony had gotten red shoes that lit up when he walked, and hadn’t stopped smiling for a second.

Steve had gotten a pair of blue converse, which just made him look more adorable.

Bruce was wearing black Docs with green laces, and was feeling very proud of the fact that he could tie them by himself.

Pepper had chosen a pair of pink Mary-Jane’s that were covered in sequins and sparkled in the sunlight.

Natasha had chosen a pair of red, knee-high leather boots that went adorably with her tutu.

Thor had chosen a pair of brown leather sandals that looked quite Asguardian.

Clint had taken a while to choose, but eventually he picked a pair of shoes just like Tony’s, but in purple.

A waiter set their meals down on the table and they all dug in happily.

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Okay, I know I cut this off a bit suddenly, but originally this was one really long chapter that I decided to split in two, and the second part will be up in a few minutes.

Hope you are all still enjoying the the story, and (as you have probably realised) since so many of you were against swapping Maria for and O/C, Maria will be staying. In fact, I have a cute scene planned that wouldn't work if it was anyone else, so i'm sort of glad about how it worked out.

Net chapter will be up momenarily.

Littlesemble!