𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗕𝗔𝗕𝗬 𝗔𝗩𝗘𝗡𝗚𝗘𝗥𝗦

chapter ii.

"Jarvis, where's the milk?"

"We appear to be out of milk sir."

It was seven in the morning and currently, five hungry toddlers sat a large table in Stark Towers. Tony gave out a frustrated groan which made Loki snort.

"Jarvis where's the cereal?"

"We appear to be out of cereal too."

"Jesus Christ!" Tony exclaimed, "Do we even have any food?"

"Nothing but breakfast bars sir." Tony looked bashful and then looked away, "We'll have to go shopping." He muttered, glancing at the hungry kids with a slight scowl. Loki sighed loudly.

"Why do you have only breakfast bars in your house?" Loki asked curiously.

Tony pretended not to hear him.

Loki pretended not to mind.

"Seat belts guys!" Loki said, looking behind him at the five children that were sitting in the back seat of one Tony's expensive cars.

"I swear to God if one of them pukes..." Tony muttered to himself and Loki elbowed him. "What?" Tony said, playing innocent and widening his eyes while he rubbed his ribs,

"That hurt you asshole." Loki shrugged with a slight smirk.

The car was constantly filled with bickering (mostly Loki and Tony's) but occasionally a squabble broke out in the back seat. Tony usually settled it with a, "Shut up or get out of my car!" While Loki scowled at him. Natasha hadn't said anything and Tony had started to worry that their was something wrong when he realised that she didn't speak English. At five years old she would still only be able to speak Russian. Deciding to talk to Loki later about how they were to communicate with her, he sped through a red light.

Loki gripped the seat as Tony sped through another red light. He glanced at the speedometer and yelled, "Christ Tony, why are you going eighty miles an hour?!" Tony smirked slightly and didn't bother to even look at the half terrified and half furious God in the seat beside him.

"A car like this is meant to go fast!" Tony replied.

"You have five children in the backseat Tony." Loki growled through gritted teeth.

"They're not children . . . they're— they're—"

"They're what Tony?" Loki demanded, "Heroes? Avengers?" He added with a humorless laugh, "They're children Tony, until you figure out how to change them back."

The car slowed down and Tony said nothing for a long time, which had made Loki start to feel guilty for some reason. "We." He said at last, pulling into the parking lot of the huge shopping centre, "We turn them back."

Perhaps it was that Tony had finally indicated in some way that they were actually working together, perhaps it was the way that the five kids were piling into the trolley (which Steve and Thor were attempting to push) or perhaps it was simply the fact the things looked a hell of a lot better this morning, but Loki was almost smiling as he walked into the store next to Tony.

They split up, Tony taking Bruce, Natasha and Steve, while Loki took Clint and Thor. When they saw something that they needed, they let the kids put it in the trolley, telling them that they were racing against the other team. When Loki finally found Tony again in the vast supermarket he was in the cereal aisle, sweeping an entire shelf of breakfast bars into the trolley. That's when Loki put the pieces of the puzzle together and realised that Tony was eating these bars... and he had no other food.