Natasha and Clint rushed into the principal's office with matching concerned looks on their faces. Sitting in front of the principal, who was sat deeply in his seat, was Steve, Thor and Bruce. Natasha frowned when she noticed Tony was missing.
"What happened?" Clint finally spoke up from the doorway where he stood.
"Kids, please go wait outside. Mr Burton, Miss Rushman, have a seat." The old, bald man said gesturing towards the now empty seats across from him.
After the kids had left the room and Natasha and Clint were seated the principal got started explaining the situation.
"It seems that your son Tony has been getting bullied." The man said in a soft voice, "Today I caught your children in a bit of a situation in the hallway, I have interviewed all those involved and I have decided to let your kids off with just a simple warning due to the fact that they didn't really get physically back. I have heard the full story and I see no need to punish your children. I have suspended the others involved." He informed them.
"What caused it all?" Natasha questioned, "In what way were they bullying Tony? Where is Tony?"
"Tony is fine; he is getting checked over by the school's nurse." The principal slid a wrinkled piece of paper towards the other two adults in the room, it was the letter the bully had given Tony before the fight. "What I was told was that two classmates of Tony's were forcing him to do their science projects by threatening to beat him up and to even hurt Bruce. Tony decided that he would not do the projects anymore and the others didn't take that very well. They started to punch and kick Tony, Steve then got involved by pulling the other off Tony and the other was about to lash out on Steve but then Thor showed up. Thor did get a little physical but I've decided to just let him off with a warning."
"So you've dealed with the bullies?" Clint asked, his arms were crossed. He knew it was a bad idea to send these kids to school.
"The others involved have been given a lecture by me and have been suspended for two weeks, when they return they will have three weeks detention." The principal explained, "I also believe they have all been grounded by their parents."
It was silent for a bit and Natasha let out an angry sigh, "You let this happen often at this school sir?" Spat out.
"Nat.." Clint said softly, but she just shook her head fuming.
"I'm sincerely sorry this has happened." The principal replied simply.
"We are taking the kids home early." Natasha replied while getting up and leaving the room.
"Thank you sir." Clint said, shaking the other man's hand and then leaving to follow Natasha.
Outside the office Steve and Bruce were standing awkwardly waiting, while Thor had made himself comfortable sitting against the lockers. "Come on guys we are going home, let's go collect Tony." Clint told them, giving Thor a helping hand up.
Natasha led the way to the school nurse and as they arrived Tony was exiting the room.
The boy jumped a bit when he looked up, not expecting the others to be there. His eyes were glassy from crying and he already had two visible bruises, one along his cheek bone and one along his jaw. "Oh hey... We leav-?"
Natasha interrupted Tony's question with a big hug, "глу́пый ма́льчик, next time you better come to me if anyone gives you any trouble. Okay?"
Tony closed his eyes and nodded his head softly while leaning into the hug more.
The drive home was silent.
Tony, Natasha and Thor were just staring out the window.
Steve was fiddling with his hands on his lap, not knowing what to do or say and feeling slightly awkward as usual.
Bruce had fallen asleep almost instantly and Clint was driving.
As soon as they had all gotten to the tower, Tony went straight to his bedroom.
"He's probably exhausted, didn't get a lot of sleep last night." Steve mentioned, the others nodded along in replied.
The afternoon started off as relaxing one.
Natasha had decided to attempt to make cookies, following a recipe on her Stark Industry table.
Thor ended up joining her, curious and interested in Midgardian food.
Clint was lounging out on the couch with the TV on.
Steve was studying for Ancient History, frowning in confusion.
Tony stayed in his room the whole time, everyone thought he was asleep but really he was tinkering with some pieces of metal he found under his future self's bed.
And Bruce had wondered off into the lab.
In the lab Bruce was running around with his Hawkeye figurine, making it jump from bench to bench and making the sound effects. He wasn't looking where he was going when he ran into another body. Looking up, confused, Bruce saw someone he didn't recognise.
The man had shoulder length black hair and bright blue eyes. He wore a long black trench cloak and black pants.
"Hello young Bruce." He grinned down at the boy.
Bruce didn't say anything and just stared up at the stranger.
"I'm a friend of the avengers! I just thought I would come check on your wellbeing." The tall man said as he kneeled down to small Bruce's height. All Bruce did in reply was nod slightly.
"That small man in your hand, he looks Nobel." He grinned gesturing towards the toy.
Again Bruce nodded.
"I have a gift, for both you and the small man. Would you like to see? It's very magical."
Clint was slowly getting more and more tired as the movie on the TV went on. He was so close to falling asleep when a wild Bruce flung in front of him.
"Woah! Watch out bud! You're going to give yourself whiplash!"
Bruce was grinning brightly, an excited glint in his eyes.
Clint reached out for the Stark Industries tablet that was placed on the table next to the couch, opened the drawing app and handed it to Bruce.
Receiving the Tablet, Bruce rushed to write out what he needed to say.
"The small man is alive!"
Clint frowned, he was slightly confused. "The Hawkeye doll is alive?"
Bruce nodded.
Clint raised his eyebrows and smiled, "That's very cool Bruce!"
Bruce grinned and pulled at Clint's arm, trying to get the man to get up and follow.
Sighing Clint finally did what the boy wanted and followed him to the lab where apparently the Hawkeye action figure was alive.
Entering the lab, Clint waited patiently while Bruce looked around for the toy. The small boy looked like he was ready to give up looking, when all of a sudden Clint yelled out.
"Ouch!" The man shouted, pulling a pin like object out of his neck. Inspecting the object that had hit him, Clint noted that it looked like a tiny arrow.
"There!" Bruce suddenly exclaimed, pointing to the direction to the top of a high closet. Clint looked up to where he was gesturing to and what he saw made him jump about a metre back in shock.
"Oh my god, what the f- Oh my... WHAT?!" He yelled, a look of confusion upon his face.
Bruce laughed at the reaction, and jumped up and down in excitement.
The small Hawkeye toy then shot another arrow at the real Hawkeye, but Clint quickly dodged it and it struck the bench next to him. All of the sudden the said arrow exploded and left a hole in the mental bench.
Ducking and shielding Bruce from the explosion at the same time, Clint swore under his breathe.
"Bruce, what did you do to the toy?!"
After the explosion, the small boy was no longer excited and was shaking with a scared look in his eyes.
The toy jumped down from the cupboard and onto the bench, where it ran across quickly and sent a number of arrows Clint and Bruce's way. Dodging all of them but the last, Clint grabbed the closest thing next to him (a hammer) and threw it at the toy. The Hawkeye action figure was hit at first try and it fell down to the floor, falling wrong on its arm causing it to detach from its body. The toy stopped moving.
Clint dropped to the floor in relief and confusion and pulled Bruce protectively into a hug.
What the hell was that?
After Natasha finished successfully baking cookies with Thor, she made her way to Tony's room to check up on the boy.
Opening the door slowly, Natasha looked in to see Tony just sitting on the edge of the bed, staring at a piece of metal in his hand.
"Hey Tony, how are you?" She asked as she walked into the room.
Tony whipped his head to look at her and sent a very small smile, "Hey Nat, I'm fine."
The two was silent for a while, as Natasha watched the boy just sit there looking miserable.
Making herself comfortable on Tony's bed, Natasha sat up against the headboard.
"Do you want to talk about it?." She spoke up.
Tony looked around to where she was seated, his eyes were glassy from unused tears. "Aw honey, Tony, come here!" Natasha gestured for the boy to come to her. Slowly Tony crawled to the other end of the bed and lied across the bed so that he could lay his head on Natasha's lap, he finally let the tears flow.
"Tony, talk to me." Natasha said softly, "Tell me what's getting to you."
Tony didn't speak at first, he let out a small sniffle. But eventually he decided to give in and talk.
"They saw the fucking belt!" Tony spoke with a trembling voice. "They all fucking laughed! I felt so pathetic!" He continued frowning, angry at himself.
"I-I... I hate it. My.. My dad always tells me about how weak and scrawny I am! He says I'm being a girl when I don't eat... But I- I.. I can't help it! I wish I wasn't like this! I really do! But I can't help it!" Tony was full blown sobbing now as Natasha ran her fingers through his hair in a soothing way. "Everything is just so all over the place and crazy! Overwhelming! And I just... In the end I don't want to eat!... I feel like my life is so out of control and the only thing I have control on is what I eat and I'm so tired.." The teenager had stopped sobbing but the tears were still flowing, he felt exhausted from both having barely any sleep and from life.
"Go to sleep Tony, you need it дорогой." Natasha quietly spoke, still petting the boy's hair, making the boy more and more relaxed and sleepy as she continued. She was going to have a long talk to the boy more about this when he was more awake.
Back in the lounge room Steve, after getting too frustrated with his homework, was watching TV with a bored expression on his face. Thor was also in the lounge room asleep on the single couch. Soon the two were joined by a crazed looking Clint and by Bruce.
Clint rushed over to the Stark Industries tablet, again opened the drawing app and handed it to little Bruce.
"Bruce, how did the Hawkeye toy become that way? What happened?" Clint interrogated the small boy. Steve looked over at the two in curiosity and confusion.
Bruce stared at Clint for a bit before writing down on the tablet.
"The nice tall man said it was a gift."
Clint's frown deepened as he read the writing and he looked up at the boy in confusion "There was a tall man in the tower? What did he look like?"
"He said he was a friend."
"Bruce, buddy, what did he look like? Did he give you a name?" Clint asked desperately.
It took Bruce a while to write down the next thing, as though he was having troubles with the spelling.
"Low key"
Clint froze after he read the writing, oh no... "Does that say Loki?" Clint asked hesitantly.
The little boy nodded.
"Oh god..."