The Avengers: Forever Young.

Chapter 17

The next morning Natasha woke up early and made her way out to go make herself a cup of tea. Walking through the lounge room she saw Tony curled up on the couch, "Tony? You okay?" She asked hesitantly.

Tony looked up from where he was previously staring, smiled a fake small smile and nodded. He kept on nodding until his nods soon turned into him shaking his head and his eyes watering.

In an instant Natasha was seated beside him and holding him close to her chest, "What's the matter? Do you not want to go home?" She questioned the shaking, skinny teen.

Tony let out a shuddering breath and eventually ended up shaking his head slightly.

Natasha grimaced and tightened her hold, "You know I don't want you to be sad right?"

He nodded slowly, his eyes scrunched closed with thin tear tracks running down his face as he silently cried.

"You know I only want what's right for you?"

Tony nodded again.

"Then you know that I wouldn't be sending you home if it wasn't right, am I correct?"

The teen slowly detached from Natasha and wiped away the tears on his face before looking up at her with messy hair and bloodshot eyes. "I know." Tony nodded, "It's just I'm going to miss you."

"Life back home isn't great, dad's barely around and my mum is too busy with work and herself. The only person who really cares about me is Jarvis and he's great and all but it doesn't stop me from feeling lonely." Tony shrugged sadly in defeat, "Everything is just so nice here, I feel like I have more of a family here than I do back home. I feel like this place is more of home to me than back at that place."

Natasha just pulled the teen into another hug with a sigh, "I'm sorry about your parents Tony, I wish it was different. You deserve different, you are magnificent. But you got to remember that this isn't goodbye forever, we will all be back in this tower sooner than you think but we will all just be a bit older. We will all be back together as a family in time; you just got to get through a few more years on your own."

Tony leaned deeper into the hug and nodded slightly.

They sat there in a comforting silence, until the sound of footsteps reached their ears. The two broke apart and Tony sniffled, "Hey Stevie."

Steve rubbed his sleepy eyes and gave the two a lazy grin, he didn't notice the sad scene before due to not functioning probably with tiredness. "Good morning." He said tiredly, he then woke up instantly when thought ran through his head. Shooting up straight Steve let out a big smile, "Hey we go back home today!"

Natasha and Tony both put on small smiles in return, Tony's had a sad vibe to it.

"That's right! Actually I should go wake everyone up." Natasha replied as she stood up and made her way to Clint's room first.

Once they were all up, they sat and ate together around the table. Clint had made pancakes for everyone and Tony actually ate quite a lot. There were smiles all round and jokes told with laughter.

After eating it came apparent that they had lost track on time and were running late. Everyone was rushing to get ready and soon they were all dashing to leave the tower. Upon leaving they ran into someone.

"Natasha? Clint?" Pepper asked confused as she entered the room, she then turned her train of sight towards the group of children. "Children?" She asked with a frown, looking at all of them.

"Greetings fair lady, I am almighty Thor son of Odin! I bid you a wonderful day now for we are-"

"We are running really late! I'm sorry Pepper I will explain everything when we get back!" Natasha blurted out pushing the group of de-aged avengers through the door.