Adventures of the Littlevengers!

14) The Park (or, why Clint isn't alowed to play card-games)

Chapter fourteen

It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, birds were singing, and the sound of children’s laughter mingled with the soft tinkling of an ice-cream van. Bobbi and Jan were sprawled on the soft grass in Central Park, giggling as they waved at any boys who passed.

Hank was scrawling messily in a notebook at a park bench, too distracted to notice his wife, who was blatantly flirting with almost every single boy who walked by. Jan knew she would never cheat on Hank, she loved him far too much to even consider it, but a small, hormone riddled part of her hoped that he would at least realise what she was doing, and be mildly jealous, but that just wasn't going to happen.

Sitting at a round table with benches, Maria watched as Steve was (still) drawing, and Bruce was reading ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’. The other children were running around the grassy area, chased by Tom in a game of ‘tag’, although it seemed more like a tickle-war to Maria. Steve had joined in at the start, but had turned bright red after only half a minute of running, and although Maria did have his inhaler just in case, she figured it would be best if he wasn’t quite as active as the others. Since Bruce had Hulked-out, Fury had made Maria promise to not let him get ‘over-excited’ as Fury had put it, and despite his less intimidating appearance, Maria didn't plan on getting on his bad side.

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“Tag! Youwit!” Pepper screamed, laughing as she ‘caught’ Tom (who may or may not have been running slowly so that Pepper could catch him).

“I’m gonna get you,” he mock yelled, running after Thor, who was the fastest, and the only one who could catch him while he was running properly.

“Gottcha!” Tom said, his fingers just barely grazing the back of Thor’s top.

“Nay, you did not tag me. A son of Odin cannot be beaten in a trial of agility,” Thor retorted, but when he stopped to speak, Tom caught up to him properly, and tagged him on the shoulder.

Thor, realising what had just happened, ran after Tony and caught him within a few seconds.

“I’m bored,” Tony grumbled, giving up after he had been caught and deciding to walk over to Maria and Steve.

“Spoilsport,” Clint jeered, running over to Tony as fast as his tiny legs could carry him, almost running into a group of girls sitting on the grass when Tony decided he didn’t feel like being tackled by an angry four-year-old.

“Sowwy,” Clint said cutely. He may have only been four, but he was still a charmer, and he had seen how a lisp can make anyone forgive a small child.

“Aww, it’s alright,” one of the girls replied before turning to the other four and saying, as if he wasn’t still there, “He’s just so adorable.”  The others murmured their agreement, and continued playing their game of cards.

Clint stood there, watching them, as they would go round in a circle, putting down a card face down, and saying a number. He liked cards, he remembered his big brother, Barney, had taught him to play poker, but he didn’t know any other games, so he decided to figure out the rules and get one of the other children to play with him.

“Six!” a pale girl with dark hair called out.

“Fi- uh, seven,” the girl beside her, (who was wearing a purple tee-shirt) said but the words were barely out of her mouth when a girl with dark blond hair interrupted her.