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Elaine had her vision chips turned on by the time they made it out to the kitchen, and let go of Steve's hand so he could attack the pancakes with the rest of the boys. Then she went over to Kae.
"Big storm last night," she commented. |
Kae nodded. "Yeah. Thor and Loki were up half the night dancing around my room. Makes sense for Thor, not so much for Loki." She shrugged. "And I noticed Steve wasn't in their room this morning." She raised a questioning eyebrow.
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"He doesn't like storms," Elaine replied. "He came in to snuggle with me."
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"Ah, okay," Kae said with a nod. She looked tired, but not totally wiped out, and she was quick to start clearing plates once all the food had been devoured.
"Fury said we need to stay for a bit longer, and he'll see if he can't arrange an outing for us sometime. Hopefully sooner rather than later." |
"I hope so," Elaine said. "It's just us today, I think, since Coulson is back with Fury and Natasha is on a mission."
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Kae nodded, watching the kids all go back to their various toys and entertainment. "At least they're not generally too much trouble," she muttered. "I wonder if we should let them down in the gym? To just kind of run around more than they can up here."
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Elaine pondered that.
"In small groups," she decided after a moment. "You take three, I'll take three. That work?" |
Kae nodded. "Yup, that works. I'll take Thor and Loki, they're already pretty good at listening to me, and whoever else you don't want to deal with." She shrugged. She didn't mind taking the trouble-makers.
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"Thor, Loki, and Clint," Elaine said. "I can look after Steve, Tony, and Bruce. Good plan?"
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"Works for me." Kae grinned and went to go round up her group. "I'll let you know when these three tire themselves out."
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Elaine nodded.
"Alright, then," she said. Going over to the pile of unopened toys, she pulled out a big box and set it on the floor amongst the boys. "Tinker toys," she announced. "The biggest set we could find." |
A few hours later, the boys were calmer and were all in the living room. Kae was sitting on the couch with Bruce, her eyes half-closed, enjoying the relative peace while it lasted.
Which turned out to be not long at all. After a while, Loki got bored with drawing, and Tony got bored with playing without Bruce, and they both looked over to see Kae and Bruce almost cuddling on the couch. Since both boys liked attention, both of them scrambled up onto the couch, fighting for the choice position in Kae's lap. They tried shoving each other off, and one of them (no one was quite sure which one) ended up accidentally shoving Bruce off the couch. "Guys..." Steve tried to warn them, frowning. He knew that was a bad idea. He knew it and yet they didn't listen to him. He watched with dismay as Bruce was pushed off the couch, Kae trying vainly to separate the two boys. |
Thor and Clint watched with a sort of morbid fascination as Bruce seemed to first get teary-eyed, and then furious. And, as always with Bruce Banner, rage became something else entirely. There was a loud tearing of fabric as Bruce suddenly became green and three times bigger.
"And we have a Hulk," Elaine said quickly, going to help Kae split the boys up. "We have a Hulk and we're the only two adults here." |
Kae wavered for a moment before she shoved Tony at Steve and Clint. "Watch him," she told the two boys, herding everyone back. "And stay back there."
Loki and Tony were both fascinated by the giant green thing that had been Tony's sciencebro, and both nearly wailed when Kae went over to him. Kae crouched very carefully a few feet away from Hulk. "Hey there," she greeted quietly, trying to keep calm, hoping that if she diverted his attention enough he wouldn't be quite so mad, or at least wouldn't go after the other kids. |
The Hulk tried to roar his rage at her, but it came out more as a high-pitched bleat instead. He did, however, flail his arms around and reach for the tinker toys to rage with.
Elaine went over and gathered up the other boys, making sure to keep them all in sight. Now was not the time for any of them to go wandering off. |
Kae blinked at that and then idly pushed a few of the toys closer to him so he could smash them. Really, she didn't care about the toys. They could be replaced.
And they were all on Stark's tab, anyway. And at least Hulk wasn't going after her or the kids. |
Indeed, the Hulk went about smashing all the toys he could lay his meaty green hands on. Within moments, all of the wooden tinker toys were broken and half of the matchbox cars were considerably flatter. Finally, the Hulk's rage seemed to peter out and he shrank back into Bruce. Bruce wobbled on his feet a little, and looked around the room worriedly. Once he was sure his friends were all okay, he sat down heavily. Now he was tired.
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As soon as he was Bruce again, Kae grabbed him and pulled him into her lap, cradling him there.
"Feeling okay?" she asked quietly, checking him over worriedly. She knew she didn't need to, but it made her feel better. She felt bad that Tony and Loki had pissed him off that much, and she wanted to make sure that little Bruce wasn't going to have an adverse reaction to all of this. |
Bruce cuddled against her, fisting his hands in her shirt and nodding.
"I didn't hurt anyone, did I?" he asked quietly. |
"No, sweetie," Kae said quietly, starting to pet his hair gently. "You didn't hurt anyone. You don't have to worry about that."
Some of her worry abated when he still sounded like him, and she found herself relaxing a little. |
"Good," Bruce said softly, relaxing against her and snuggling in. Within moments, he was asleep.
Once she was sure everything was alright again, Elaine let the other boys go back to playing and started to clean up the remains of the tinker toys. |
Kae shot Elaine a grateful look, not about to get up from where she'd suddenly been turned into a bed. Bruce was asleep, and adorable, and cuddling when he'd barely so much as touched her the past six months. She was having a moment of weakness.
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Once the broken toys were cleaned up, Elaine made her 'rounds' to check on the boys. She had to pause for a moment when she found Clint using a slingshot to fire marshmallows at Thor; Clint's aim was still excellent, but Thor's catching skills were mediocre and he only got about half the marshmallows in his mouth.
"One bag," she said to them as she went by. She also paused when she found Steve with a pile of paper and a pencil, but that was just so she could admire his drawings before going to find Tony and Loki. |
Tony and Loki had hoarded some tinker toys to themselves, and Tony was busy building, Loki helping a bit but mostly watching. And the god looked absolutely fascinated when Tony managed to build a small bot, only without the technology bits. Tony grinned, puffing up proudly.
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Elaine had to admit she was impressed by the bot. It was more of a statue than anything, of course, but it was still kind of impressive, considering it was made out of tinker toys.
"Very good," she commented when she saw it. |
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