The Zoo

                                    

                                          
The children had been promised a trip to the zoo which they'd been very excited about. Tony had talked none stop for days about polar bears, Clint had been eager to see the birds they had and Thor was just excited to finally see what exactly a zoo was!
The day of the trip arrived; the kids so excited that they'd woken at 5. Steve had managed to keep them relatively quiet for 10 minutes, but the excitement had gotten to him too and he'd rapidly lost control of the others.
                          
Clint and Natasha raced down the hallway; crashing loudly into Pepper's door as they were unable to stop. She'd opened her bedroom door yawning to find two children laughing; tangled together on the floor.
Tony had taken Bruce to Phil's room. He opened the door and let Bruce do the waking while he stood back. Phil couldn't bring himself to yell at Bruce.
Thor had insisted on waking Maria, and seeing as the other adults had already been woken; Steve agreed to accompany him.
                          
By 6am the kids were all fed and dressed; raring to go, despite the fact the zoo didn't open til 10.
Coulson put Despicable Me on the TV to distract them while the adults helped themselves to coffee, and by 7 o'clock; all six kids were fast asleep once again.
                          
"Those little terrors!" Pepper said as she covered them with blankets.
                          
"I just hope they're back to normal by Christmas! Could you image the amount of energy and excitement?!" Maria added as she put a pillow gently under Thor's head.
                          
Pepper looked over the sleeping mound of children and couldn't help but think that it'd be nice to see them this way at Christmas. She suspected most of them had never had a traditional Christmas. She knew Natasha never had. And suspected Clint's, Tony's and Bruce's were all sadly similar; spent alone. Steve had probably had Christmases before but they would have been worlds apart from Pepper's own. And as for Thor; who knew?!
                          
At 9.30 they pulled into the relatively quite zoo; despite it being a nice day, most kids were in school at this time of year.
                          
"Right, we have some rules for today to help keep you safe, okay?"
                          
They all nodded back, tho Pepper could see she wasn't keeping their attention. Natasha's gaze had wondered over to the entrance where there was a man selling balloons and Tony was shifting slowly towards a statue shaped like an elephant.
                          
"You do not under any circumstances go anywhere without me, Maria or Phil! You got it?"
                          
"You told us this already! This morning! Remember" Tony moaned. Pepper ignored him and continued
                          
"You do not ever go anywhere with anyone else okay?"
                          
They nodded, but before Pepper could continue Natasha and Clint grabbed one of her hands each and ran towards the entrance. The rest of the group followed.
                          
"Oh so that's how you get her to be quite?"
                          
"Tony!" Maria said, but she couldn't hide the laugh as she did.
                          
They spent the whole day at the zoo; Tony liked the polar bears the most (Maria got the feeling he'd be quite happy to stand there all day), while Natasha liked the snow leopards. Steve's favourite were the elephants and Clint liked the penguins. Thor said that each animal was his favourite; before changing his mind at the next enclosure.
Thor told the others enthusiastically about the animals on Asgard, gaining some strange looks from passers-by. Phil tried endlessly to get him to lower his voice, but with each new thought Thor seemed to forget about his volume and eventually Phil gave up.
                          
There was almost an incident when Clint and Natasha momentarily lost sight of the group; a security guard had approached them to ask if they knew where their mom was and Clint's response was to kick him forcefully in the shins. Pepper rushed over and offered her apologies (secretly happy that at least someone had been listening to her speech this morning about strangers). Luckily the security guard seemed to melt when Natasha gave him her best puppy dog eyes and he quickly forgave Clint for his violent outburst.
                          
They had a picnic for lunch and went to the 4-D theater and the children's zoo in the afternoon. They'd had their faces painted (Natasha and Clint as tigers, Bruce as a panda, Thor was a dog and Tony had insisted on being Spider-Man. Steve had opted not to get his face painted). And as they left they each chose a gift from the gift shop (Clint chose one for Natasha as she'd fallen asleep in Pepper's arms).
                          
"Well that went better than expected!" the amazement was evident in Maria's voice. "We didn't lose any of them. We didn't have to yell. I think we're turning into pretty good parents!"
                          
"But we're not tho, are we? Pretty soon they'll be back to normal. I'm going to miss them being so small and cute and not having to worry every time they head out the door on a mission" Pepper sighed.
                          
Phil looked at his hands; his home-made by Tony cuff links were in his sleeves. He knew more than anyone the dangers his team faced, but he also knew how much earth needed them. Still, SHIELD hadn't reported any progress as of yet as to how to reverse this, so they still had time to allow their six friends to enjoy a care-free, happy childhood.