"No," Natasha said moodily. "I woke up to them like this." She made a face and absently pulled Clint back when he climbed onto the back of the couch, clearly judging to jump to the nearest air vent.

Kae sighed as she put down Tony so he could go play with Bruce. "So what do we do?"

"I'll call Fury. You two watch them." Natasha got up, pulling out her cell phone as she left.

"Let him know this counts for hazard pay," Elaine called after her as she settled down on the floor amongst the kids. She looked over Thor and Loki briefly to make sure they were alright, aside from being apparently six.

Kae sighed as she sat on the couch, Clint immediately moving over to investigate her. She smiled a little and let him do what he wanted.

Not even five minutes later, Elaine's phone buzzed, only three words in the text message: No it doesn't.

Elaine snorted. Fury thought he was being cute.

Bullshit. Five Avengers and a god all under the age of six. Hazard Pay.

Twenty minutes later, Coulson walked out of the elevator to take a look at the group. Yup, they weren't lying. He turned right around and walked out again.

Kae sighed and massaged her temples. Oh this was going to be a nightmare...

"Agent Coulson, kindly get back in here," Elaine called as she calmly pulled Clint back down from the back of the couch. So help her she was going to tether that boy to the floor if she had to.

Steve perked up at that name and ran over to Coulson, reaching up and grabbing onto his hand with both of his little hands.

"Agent Coulson!" he said, looking up with huge blue eyes.

Coulson closed his eyes for a moment. He was not winning this one. He sighed and looked down at Steve, who smiled up at hi, and internally screamed just a little.

Kae grinned. Yay, more help~! She grabbed Tony from where he was trying to sneak up on Loki, plunking him off to the side.

Elaine watched as all of the boys started to poke and prod at one another, and she stood up again.

"Be right back," she said. Quickly, she went to Thor's room and got the plasma globe they had given him for Christmas. Taking it back into the living room, she plugged it in and set it on the floor.

Tony was the first to approach it, sneaking over and poking it cautiously. They all yelped when it reacted, and then Tony grinned and poked it again.

"At least they're momentarily distracted," Kae muttered.

"Might I suggest a shopping trip?" Coulson said as he let Steve tug him back over towards the girls. "I'm sure they'll be needing more... age-appropriate means of distraction now."

Thor went over to the plasma ball and brazenly put his whole hand on it. He grinned broadly when it reacted, and went to drag his brother over to it as well.

"Agent, I'll give you a first-edition Captain America comic if you help us look after them," Elaine said.

Loki looked at the thing, letting Thor do the physical investigating while he watched. It was an intriguing thing, really, but he wasn't surprised it reacted to Thor.

"Signed?" Coulson pressed with a little smile.

"I can do that," Elaine replied with a nod.

Once Thor was sure the plasma ball wouldn't hurt them, he grabbed Loki's wrist and pulled his brother's hand over until Loki's fingers touched the glass.

Loki knew Thor wouldn't do anything to deliberately hurt him (not much, anyway) so he watched the light with awe. Okay. This was very cool.

Except Tony had gotten bored already, since the two Asgardians were hogging the plasma ball. He wandered over to Kae and clambered up into her lap for attention.

"Done," Coulson agreed.

Thankfully, after that morning, things settled into a sort of routine. Elaine suddenly felt like she understood what Pepper meant when she made a comment once about Stark Industries being like 'herding squirrels', now that she and Kae and Natasha had to somehow look after six little boys.

One morning in particular stuck out to her. She had been woken from a dead sleep. She wasn't sure what had woken her, and it didn't seem important enough to turn her vision chips on until she heard a loud rumble of thunder followed by a soft whimper and a little body squirming under the covers to snuggle up against her. For a moment, she had no idea what was going on, until she recognized the little whimper.

"Steve?" she asked softly. Carefully, she reached out and put her arms around the little boy, pulling him a bit closer. "Steve, what's wrong?" She reminded herself -- again -- that he was only five or six at the moment.

Steve had curled himself into a ball under the covers of Elaine's bed. He knew he shouldn't have, but he was scared and he didn't like the thunder.

"Don't like thunder," he mumbled, caught somewhere between embarrassment and fear. He flinched at another rumbling peal, cowering further into the bed and closer to Elaine.

Thor and Loki, naturally, were both ecstatic about the weather.

Elaine held little Steve a bit closer when he flinched from the thunder.

"I've got you," she said softly. "There's nothing to be afraid of here." Sitting up, she pulled him into her lap, although she kept her arms around him.

Steve clung to her, hiding his face against her. He really didn't like thunderstorms, and he was shaking a little as she held him. But he did feel better there, slowly calming down.

Gently, Elaine just held him and stroked his hair. She could feel him trembling, and did her best to be a solid, supporting presence. She even swayed gently as she sat there with him in her lap.

Steve slowly calmed, though he didn't move away from her, instead keeping his arms wrapped around her and snuggling into her. This wasn't so bad. Of course, not he also wasn't paying as much attention to the storm.

Elaine let him snuggle even as the storm started to fade. The thunder got softer and less frequent and eventually, stopped all together.

Even after the storm passed, Steve didn't move. It was still early, and he was comfy, and he kind of wanted to go back to sleep. With a little yawn, he snuggled closer to Elaine, having no qualms at all about settling down in her lap.

When Elaine realized that he was falling asleep on her, she moved him a bit so she could settle in herself, and then let him snuggle closer again. Then, once he was asleep, she let herself drift off as well.

Steve woke early the next morning, snuggling in closer to Elaine with a little smile. Okay, this he could get used to. He was nice and comfy and warm and it was peaceful and quiet.

At least until he heard Thor and Tony bickering over who got to play with the iPad first (funded by Tony via Pepper). Then Steve pouted a little and tried to snuggle closer to drown them out.

Kae was already up and making breakfast. "Tony!" she growled. "Get over here or no pancakes for you!"

"But--"

"Now!"

Tony pouted and trudged over to her, his lower lip jutting out.

Elaine did her best to ignore them, as well, but Tony was difficult to ignore.

"Come on," she said to Steve, "we may as well get some breakfast."

Steve nodded and squirmed out of her bed, waiting for her before latching onto her hand and leading the way into the main room, where everyone else was waiting for Kae to finish cooking.

Kae flipped the last of the pancakes onto a plate, making Clint laugh, before she put the mound of pancakes on the table. "Alright, breakfast is ready." She was quick to snag a few pancakes for herself before the kids descended on them.