Disclaimer: I don't own Avengers or any of its characters.
Title: May Angels Bring You Home
Rating: K+
Characters [in this chapter]: Steve Rogers, Clint Barton and Natasha Romanov, with appearances from Tony Stark and Bruce Banner
Summary: Six year old Steve just wanted to find his mom and go home.
Warnings: None
Author's Notes: I just adore kid!fics and I couldn't resist writing one for Steve who at that age was very vulnerable to many diseases and conditions, such as asthma, pneumonia, scarlet fever, tuberculosis, palpitation of the heart, rheumatic fever and sinusitus.

May Angels Bring You Home

The last thing Steve Rogers remembered was that he was going into the kitchen to get a glass of water for his mother before there was a sudden shaking of the ground and everything went black and when he opened his eyes, he found himself in the rubble of a half-collapsed building.

Scared that his mother was buried somewhere under the ruins, he tried to stand but soon found himself flat on the ground, having tripped over his suddenly big and bizarre clothing. He stared in surprise at the oversized bright blue, red and white shirt and to his embarrassment, the equally huge and colorful pants slipped right off his bony hips, leaving him only with the large shirt for cover.

But this was no time to be worrying about these strange clothes he was wearing. His mother needed him. And the elderly Mrs Kendricks down the hall and the nice Hartley family too. He even worried about the mean bullies Lester, Ralph and Daniel, despite the fact they called him names and liked to throw mud at him.

He awkwardly manoeuvred himself with the weight of his clothes slowing him down through the scattered concrete pieces. He urgently called for his mother and Mrs Kendricks and every member of the Hartley family and even Lester, Ralph and Daniel and anyone else he could remember.

There was a moan and a body shifted. Excited to find another living being, Steve hurried to their side. It was a man, tall and gangly who was dressed also in strange clothing, in a skin tight suit with splashes of black and purple. At his side was a bow and a quiver of arrows (Steve never thought he would meet someone who would use a bow like Robin Hood).

He wasn't someone Steve recognized but this stranger needed help. " Mister, are you all right?" Steve gently shook the man, his long baggy sleeves completely covering his arms and hands.

The man moaned again and as he tried to open his eyes, he let out a spew of rather foul words that Steve knew his mother would have scrubbed his ears raw for even hearing them. He almost wanted to scold the man for using such language but Steve supposed that if he was an adult and a building suddenly fell on him, he would be in a bad mood too.

" Mister? Can you hear me?" he tried again.

" Cap? Is that you?" the man slurred in something that was remotely English, eyes still closed.

Steve looked around. There was no else other than him and this man. " There isn't another person here, mister," he said, worried that the man had hit his head a bit hard.

The man finally opened his eyes. He blinked at Steve for a moment before abruptly sitting up with a curse, startling Steve.

" Cap?" the man said carefully, staring so transfixed at Steve that it unsettled the boy.

" That's not my name," he politely corrected.

" Steve Rogers?" the man tried next.

It made him frown. How did this stranger manage to guess his first and last name perfectly? " That's right," Steve nodded in confirmation. " Do you know me?" he suspiciously asked.

" I guess you can say that," the man shrugged helplessly, looking just as befuddled as Steve about their situation. " Could you give me a minute?"

Then, the man did something strange where he pressed a gloved hand to his ear, where a deceptively small black device was there. Steve had seen nothing like that before. And to his surprise, the man did another weird thing. He spoke into the black device.

" Guys, we got a situation with Cap. You should see it for yourselves."

Now Steve was getting worried. This man was thinking he could talk into devices and that he was this "Cap" person. He definitely hit his head too hard and needed to see a doctor immediately.

But Steve still had to find his mother and the others still buried under the building. He yanked at the man's hand who thankfully was startled enough to stop talking to himself and turned to him. " We need to help the others," Steve pleaded, whose throat was beginning to itch. " My mom. Everyone. They're all still buried."

The man gave him a look akin to confusion and pity. " Steve, they aren't here," he slowly said.

Steve shook his head frantically. " My mom was in her bedroom. She asked me to get her some water. " His voice rose to a high, panicky pitch and he was coughing in-between sentences without realizing it. " I just saw Mr Hartley when – when he went for his m-m-morning stroll. And – and Lester, Ralph and Daniel stole my – my toy car just this morning and I was going to find them later to get it back and I –"

He stopped when he realized he was very out of breath, his throat itchy and there was a tightness in his chest. " Steve, just breath," the man instructed. He silently obeyed, blinking back tears and fighting back the tickling sensation in his throat. " It's not what – I didn't mean that," the man hastily explained, a dull flush rising under his skin. " I was only saying your mom and everyone else aren't here right now. They're ... somewhere else."

Before Steve could ask where his mom was, the appearance of a red-haired lady made him stammer and lose whatever he was going to say. He had never seen such a pretty dame before, even though he proudly declared his mother was the prettiest girl in the whole world. She, like the strange man, was also wearing skin tight black clothing, except her clothing seemed impossibly tighter and he blushed at how curvy she was.

Her eyes flicked from the man to Steve before they settled back on the man. Something passed between them that Steve didn't know. An adult matter, he supposed.

The lady then knelt next to him and made him turn redder. " Hello Steve," she said in her pretty voice.

He almost wanted to ask how she knew his name too but his stuttering made him settle for a simple "ma'am" instead.

" How old are you, Steve?"

" I'm six and a half, ma'am," he answered, staring hard at the dusty floor while trying not to cough. It wasn't nice to cough on someone who was talking to him.

" My name is Natasha and this is Clint." She indicated to the man who gave an awkward sort of wave. " We're friends and we are going to help you."

Steve looked up at her. " You're going to help me find my mom?" he asked, hope rising.

" We'll do what we can," she replied carefully.

He smiled at her. " Thank you, Miss Natasha. It's awfully kind of you." He looked shyly at Mr Clint, embarrassed of thinking poorly of him before. " Thank you too, Mr Clint," he added as a polite young gentleman would have.

There was an expression that raced across her lovely face, too quick for Steve to decipher. But she was smiling at him and so was Mr Clint and Steve was just glad he met such nice people.

Then, there was a roaring sound and the ground trembled and Steve nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw a gold and red creature encased in metal and a towering green beast approaching them. He let out a choked gasp and he could feel the color leave his face.

Miss Natasha quickly said something, almost angrily, to no one. And the two monstrous beings hesitated, staying where they were but they kept looking straight at Steve and it terrified him. He took a step back and tripped backwards over his baggy clothing. A cloud of dust and sand rose, finding its way into his throat and he started to violently cough.

Mr Clint tried to reassure him but Steve simply couldn't stop coughing. His scraped throat was closing up and he couldn't breathe anymore. His heart drumming painfully against his chest, he couldn't stop staring in fear at the gold and red moving machine and the monstrous green creature as the world around him started haphazardly spinning and his frail body was trembling uncontrollably so much that it hurt.

The next thing he knew, he was being scooped up by the metal monster and there were voices drowning in his ears.

" – crap, he's having an panic attack – "

" – asthma symptoms too – "

" – hospital. Now!"

He tried to yell, that he didn't want to go with the metal creature who could do experiments to him to change him into a monster like it and he was afraid that big green monster would eat him in one gulp but there was no breath left in his lungs to even wheeze. He struggled to escape from the metal monster's grip but it was holding on him too tight and they were already up in the air, flying past the clouds and the speeding motion made him even more sick and dizzy.

The blissful darkness finally claimed him and Steve no longer worried what the metal monster or the green monster was going to do him.