Chapter 6- The Hard Stuff

Excited screams echoed around the space as the ten year olds were unleashed onto the playground for their recess.

Sam sprinted outside, Kurt following after him, just a bit slower. He was very wary about being here, looking around for signs of trouble. He didn't want Noah Puckerman to come and disturb the new peace he had with Sam.

It still amazed Kurt how quickly and easily he and Sam had settled into being best friends. Once they had decided to be friends, it was all uphill from there. Sam was still apologising profusely for the bow and arrow incident at the party, despite Kurt's insistence that it was okay and he didn't get in any trouble for it. Sam hadn't told his own parents what had happened. Kurt rather thought that he should keep it that way. The truth was important but not if it was going to get you into trouble.

Kurt had only been back at school after his second hiatus for a few days. The first day he had remained inside, opting to read while the other kids played. Sam had helped to quell his anxieties on the second day, though, and they had played some games outside. It was far away from the other kids, and Kurt still had a ways to go, but it was progress as far as Kurt was concerned. He had explained to Sam that he's always been around adults so he starts to act and think like them, it's just simple conditioning. Sam then vowed to work on Kurt's childhood skills. Rather than Kurt's preferred game of chess, Sam had urged him to play a small game of tag with some other kids, Quinn, Santana, and Finn. Kurt had actually enjoyed himself.

"Are we playing tag again today?"

Sam rubbed his neck. "Everyone's playing a game of kickball today. I don't suppose you want to play?"

Kurt shook his head. "Not really. You can if you want to."

Sam looked like Kurt had just slapped him. "Without you? You're my best friend, Kurt, it wouldn't be any fun."

And that sentiment meant the world to Kurt.

"What should we do instead, then?"

Sam shrugged. "I still don't know how to play chess."

Kurt smiled brightly. "I could teach you if you wanted."

Sam nodded vehemently. "Please!"

In that moment, Kurt thanked the heavens and the Earth for Sam Evans. He was what he needed right now.

Especially when the onslaught of bad news came.

Mr. Danforth came rushing out onto the playground, a tall blonde woman in tow.

"Kurt, over here!"

Kurt huffed, having just finishing explaining the role of the queen to Sam, who was nodding trying to follow Kurt's teaching.

Kurt stood up, walked over to the pair of adults, and frowned. "What's going on?"

Mr. Danforth smiled sadly. "Kurt, this is Pepper Potts, she's been assigned to come and get you from school today."

Kurt saw the teacher's look and tears filled his eyes. "Is it Uncle Tony?"

Pepper shook her head, smiling. "No, Kurt, he's fine. He just got called in earlier than he thought. They all did. Tony told you I was staying at the house, right?"

Kurt nodded. "And he's okay?"

"Perfectly fine," Pepper chirped, swallowing that uneasy feeling that had been creeping up on her ever since Tony made his first suit.

"Okay. Why can't I stay in school?"

Mr. Danforth took over the explanations. "Well, Kurt, given the dangerous nature of your Uncle's job, he thought it best that you were somewhere safe while he's gone."

"Just in case the monsters come," Kurt laughed to himself.

Sam came rushing over. "Is Kurt in trouble?"

"No, Sam, Kurt's going home a bit early today."

Sam frowned sadly. "Oh, that sucks."

"But now you can go and play kickball, Sam," Kurt reminded him.

"Oh yeah. Will you be here tomorrow?"

Kurt looked to Pepper uncertainly.

"I don't know. Your parents have the house number, right?"

Sam nodded.

"Then you call to talk to Kurt after school if he's not here."

Sam grinned. "Awesome!" He gave Kurt a quick hug. "See you later!" And he sprinted off to play with the other kids.

Kurt watched, a little envious as Sam's ability to just drift from one group to another, one situation to another with no anxiety or internal pressures. Kurt masked himself as a fairly confident young child and he was in certain circles, but relating to other kids his own age? That was the most terrifying thing Kurt could imagine.

Mr. Danforth quickly let Pepper leave with Kurt. He silently watched and prayed for Kurt's suffering to end. He thought Kurt was a wonderful, exceptionally bright, child and he didn't deserve the things that continued to happen to him. He looked up at the sky and prayed that Kurt would always land on his feet.

"Are you hungry, Kurt?" Pepper wondered as they left the school.

Kurt came to the realisation that he was craving one of Uncle Tony's sandwiches and didn't think that he could eat anything else. So he shook his head.

"Your Uncle told me a lot about you."

Kurt smiled, liking the thought of Uncle Tony talking about him to other people. He just hoped that he didn't mention the incident at the party. Not Kurt's finest hour.

"I'm guessing he doesn't talk about me very often."

Kurt shrugged. "I think he wants to. My guess is that he doesn't want to freak me out by introducing another caregiver so quickly."

Pepper now understood everything that Tony had told her about Kurt. He was rational beyond his years, probably because he struggled to form many emotional attachments. Her child psychology course at college was finally paying off. "That's smart. He's a very smart man."

"Do you love him?"

Pepper chuckled as she opened the door for Kurt, who climbed into the car.

Happy Hogan smiled at him from the front seat. "Hey, buddy."

"Hi, Harold."

Pepper quirked a brow, amused. "Harold?"

Happy groaned. "He bugged me about my actual name and now refuses to call me 'Happy'."

Kurt grinned. "The nickname is ironic, I don't enjoy it. Harold is a perfectly fine name."

Kurt paused and turned to Pepper, who had opted to get into the backseat with him. "You avoided my question."

Pepper gave him a challenging look. "Are you always this sassy?"

"It's a character flaw."

"I do love your Uncle, yes. It's just complicated. We have terrible timing."

Happy snorted. "I'll say."

Pepper glared at him through the rearview mirror.

Kurt nodded. "That must suck. But surely if you both love each other, it'll work out."

Pepper knew that wasn't Kurt optimism speaking, it was his youth. However put together he may have appeared, he was still young and had a lot to learn about certain realities of the world. She figured that when he began experiencing things like that, he would adjust to them with aplomb. "I hope you're right, Kurt."

Kurt turned to her, more seriously now. "If I ask you something, will you promise to give me a completely honest answer?"

Pepper nodded. "To the best of my ability, yes."

"Will Uncle Tony come home?"

And that's when Pepper's heart broke for Kurt Hummel. The uncertainty that was written on his face, the fear of being abandoned again, it was an unthinkable thing to go through, especially as a child. Because it was easy to assume that Kurt had it all figured out from the way he spoke and the way he conducted himself. It was easy to forget that he was still ten years old, still learning and growing.

Pepper found herself not wanting to answer, but knew that she needed to. Even Happy was flinching as he drove.

"I have to hope so, Kurt. But the work is dangerous. It's never a sure thing. But Tony and the others are the best at what they do. So I don't know, but I hope."

Kurt nodded shortly, filing that information away for later pondering. "Thank you."

Tony charged around the corner, blasting some alien goon with a charged blast. He shot into the air, surveying the scene from above.

Fury had quickly called the Avengers in for their first mission when a large airship had planted itself in the middle of New York. For a while it didn't do anything but when the Avengers got there it had started to open up, letting aliens of all kinds run amuck around the streets.

The police had made quick work of barricading the streets and the Avengers had worked on containing them to a certain location to make them easier to deal with.

Tony had to count his lucky stars that he was on the other side of the city to Kurt and Pepper.

"Got more incoming, Cap," Tony barked as he rocketed down and landed on a bunch of them.

Steve ran into action, launching his shield in the direction Tony had indicated. His father's creation sliced through several of the aliens before somehow returning to Steve. He made a mental note to ask Steve how that worked.

As Clint, Bruce, Thor, and Natasha sprinted into the area, the goons froze, scrambling back inside the ship.

"This feels too easy," Clint muttered, expecting the ship to blast off once again.

But as the goons all settled inside, a large shadow emerged from the ship standing in front of them. It looked human enough, apart from the fact that it was eight feet tall and glowing purple, a golden metallic glove settled on its left hand.

"Avengers," his booming, low voice spoke, sounding much louder than it should have.

"Barney," Tony shot back.

The man(?) chuckled humourlessly. "I know not of this 'Barney'. I am Thanos."

Clint shrugged. "Means nothing to me."

Thanos grunted. "I do take much enjoyment at how wild your planet gets at the simple invasion of a small city."

"Yeah, speaking of invasion, mind telling us what you want here?" Tony wondered.

Thanos almost smiled. "Nothing, for now. Although I will be very likely to return in the future. This place has something I want. Consider this merely a scouting mission."

"And you had to bring your little hyena children?"

"Your wisecracks will soon prove obsolete. When I return, I will be taking everything with me. Your little planet will soon know the righteous balance of the Infinity Stones."

Steve took notice of the gleaming stones on his wrist. Before he could say something, Thanos simply turned and headed back on board the ship, which shot up back into space, leaving a sizeable fissure in the ground upon which it had landed in the first place.

Thor surged forward growling. "The coward fled."

Clint looked at the hole in the concrete. "What the hell was that?"

"I've never met a bad guy that came simply to look at the scenery and then leave," Natasha muttered. "Should we really be scared of this guy?"

Steve nodded. "Look what he managed to accomplish in this little time. People are scared, and I think that's exactly what he wanted. When he comes again, we'll have our work cut out for us."

Tony rolled his eyes. "Well that's exactly the rousing speech I didn't need today, Cap. So are we done here?"

Steve tapped his comms device. "Hill, send in Teams Bravo and Charlie for cleanup." He looked over at Tony. "Yes, Tony, we're done. S.H.I.E.L.D. are going to take care of cornering off the affected areas and deal with the repercussions."

Tony stepped out of the Iron Man suit entirely. He rubbed his hands together. "Well, this has been fun. See you guys at the next apocalypse."

"You mean Clint's birthday party?" Natasha smirked.

Tony, who had clearly forgotten, turned around with a grin. "You bet. Avengers, disassemble!"

Tony stepped back into the Iron Man suit and shot upwards, propelling himself further into the sky, mentally patting himself on the back for a job well done. The more he thought about Thanos, though, the more scared he became.

"Jarvis, find out everything you possibly can about what an Infinity Stone is."

"I'm on it, sir," Jarvis droned back.

As Tony dropped into the landing hatch at the house, he saw Kurt and Pepper waiting for him. They both looked withdrawn, but brightened considerably once he walked back into the house.

Kurt charged at him with an unexpected fervour, crashing into him, hugging him as tight as he could. "You're okay."

His tone made complete sense to Kurt. When Howard and Maria passed, Tony was always filled with dread that the last time he saw someone he cared about would be the last time without him even knowing about it. At the age of ten, that doubt must have been even more terrifying.

"Yeah, I'm okay, Kurt. Everyone is fine. Nobody's hurt."

Pepper joined them, kissing Tony's cheek and burying her head in his neck. He could feel their worries floating out of their bodies as they broke off him.

"So who wants Taco Bell?"

Kurt smiled back at him, feeling his insecurities start to fade away as he realised his Uncle Tony was okay. Pepper had done her best to be realistic with him, but that didn't stop the thoughts. He didn't think anything ever would.

But as long as there were moments like this, ones where Kurt could feel some semblance of normality, he rather thought that he would be okay.

As Tony ordered their food, he got a very unwelcome phone call.

"Nat?"

"Tony. Thor went back to Asgard, he thinks he can find out more about the Infinity Stones there. The only thing he knows is that they're not to be taken lightly. Tony, they could destroy everything. If Thanos finds them…there's not a lot we can do."

"So you're saying these stones can destroy the world?"

"I don't know for sure, but we have to find them first. Or at least stop Thanos from getting them."

"Then we'll do it. No matter what."

"Tony, it might not be so easy."

"I have to have hope, Nat. I have to."