Adventures of the Littlevengers!

16) Double Choclate Pancakes (and reasons to eat them)

Of course, Bobbi was a much heavier sleeper and was still snoring peacefully when Hank burst into the room.

"I wanted you to be the first to know, well Reed knows, I had to run some numbers by him but he's sure it will work, and obviously I told Fury, he was excited, imagine that. Nick Fury, excited! Must be the teenage hormones, I'll have to see if he's let me run a scan before he takes it. But that doesn't matter because IT'S READY! And technically I'm still telling you first....." Hank was doubled over, gasping for breath, but Jan still saw how happy he looked, even though her sleep addled brain couldn't figure out why.

"What is it Hank? What did you do?"

"I cracked it, I, I," he wheezed, "I figured out how to turn us all back! I did it. It took ages, but I did it!"

"Oh, Hank, I'm so proud of you," Jan squealed, waking up Bobbi, before she grabbed him and kissed him.

"Ugh, you two, get a room would you? Preferably not mine. And why do you both look so happy, its ten am, no one's happy this early." But after they explained everything to Bobbi, she began dancing around the room singing "I'm gonna get my body back, I'm gonna get my body back".

"Now all we have to do is wait for the computer to synthesise the antidote, and that shouldn't take more than a week or two."

Hank ran off to tell Maria and Tom, who were both overjoyed to finally have reassurance that they wouldn't be parents for much longer.

"I don't know how we would have dealt with Tony in the teenage years," Tom joked when he saw Maria was tearing up just a little. She had grown ridiculously attached to these kids, and the thought of having to let them go did upset her a bit.

"Yea, and can you imagine trying to re-train Nat? Or Clint? Every-" Sniffle "Everything will go back to normal, and we can go back on missions again," Maria added, mostly for her own benefit. It was hard to believe she had once hated the Avengers for their childishness and unpredictability, but now it was her favourite thing about them.

"Come on, Ri. I think news this big is double-chocolate-pancake worthy!" Tom said hopefully.

It was a bit of a tradition of theirs that every time either of them arrived back from a mission alive they would make double chocolate pancakes, which was pancake batter with cocoa powder and chocolate chips. Maria preferred keeping it special just for the two of them to celebrate not being dead, but Tom loved to find any excuse to have them, and even Maria could admit that this was a pancake worthy celebration.

"Alright. You round up the kids and I'll get the batter ready," Maria instructed, searching through a cupboard for the ingredients.

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"These are so good," Tony mumbled through a ridiculously large mouthful of pancake.

"Don't eat with your mouth closed," Maria chided.

"Don't eat with your mouth closed?" Tony repeated, giggling.

"Oh you know what I mean," Maria grumbled, the early mornings and frequent middle-of-the-night visits from the kids meant that her sleeping hours had been reduced quite a bit, which wouldn't have been too bad on a mission, but then again, fighting off fifteen armed men with nothing but a piece of rope and a table leg was nothing compared to chasing around after seven kids all day.

"Can I have some more?" Clint asked, despite having already had three large pancaked, as well as cereal and toast for breakfast only a few hours earlier.

"No way, you'll explode," Tom said, poking his tummy.

"Nuh-hu," Clint giggled, almost falling off his chair.

"I'm a big boy, I could eat a hundred more pancakes before I explode," he added, emphasising the hundred by spreading his hands wide above his head.

"Nope, you've had your fill, I'm going to bring the last one down to Hank's lab, to congr- so he doesn't feel left out," Maria said, quickly adding the last part because the kids still didn't know anything about their past lives, and it would be very difficult to explain to seven kids that they were actually a team of superheroes, and a superheroes secretary/girlfriend.

"I'll be back in a minute."

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"Thanks," Hank mumbled tiredly after Maria presented him with the pancake piled high with whipped cream, nutella and maple syrup.

"Anything for our resident genius," Maria replied.

"So, two weeks max, then we get our team back, right?" she continued.

"That's the plan. Currently the, well antidote I suppose, will be complete in about ten days, but even with any delays this whole thing will be over within the fortnight."

"Great, and this will fix you and Jan, and Bobbi as well?"

"Everyone who's been affected by AAR, Age-altering-radiation, will go back to how old they should be, by factoring in how long ago they were changed, and their ages at the time," Hank explained.

"What about their memories?" Maria asked.

"I can't know for sure, but my best guess is that they will remember some of the experience, but like with dreams, most of it will fade. They should go back to exactly as they were before."

"Okay." Maria left then. It was a lot to take in. That these kids she had been raising, for what felt like forever, wouldn't remember her at all. All the love, and care, all the midnight nightmares, and early mornings. It would be like none of it ever happened.

It was probably for the best. Maria didn't need any of the Avengers to treat her any differently, just because she had been their temporary mommy.

Things would go back to the way they had been, and it would be as if none of it had ever happened.

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So, another chapter. I'm so sorry for how long it's been, and I really with I had an excuse for you guys, but I'm not sure that watching Doctor Who and reading fanfic, and starting about fifty bazillion other stories i will never finish, counts, sorry again.

About the contest, It's still happeneing, but I've only got two entries and I was really hoping for more, so I'm extendin the contest to the 31st of September, because that's my first Saturday after starting back at school, and because I have major exams this year, my mum will be enforcing the 'no laptop during the week' rule, and that's when I'm going to write the last chapter.

If I don't get any more entries then I'll pick between the two I have, but I'd love to get some more, anything counts from a hundred word drabble to five thousand word one-shot.

I'll read it all the way through and give advice in the comments no matter what, and I'll add it to my list of one-shots for this story.

So, please, if you have any inspiration at all (or even if you want to take a scene I've written already and change it in any way) let me know and I'll go check it out.

Love you guys

Littlesemble!