Younger Perspective

Notes: I think I had a point other than magic deages them, but I forgot what it was.

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Magic, Steve has realized, is an annoyance that crops up far too often for his tastes.

This flurry of Sokovian isn't all that new, and Steve watches in bemusement as Wanda reprimands her brother with the same phrases she usually uses just softer and more gentle as she leans down to comfort the small child he's been turned into.

"Have I said how much I hate magic?" Tony asks when he wanders up, faceplate down thankfully because there's no telling if this Pietro knows Tony Stark yet or not. "Lately."

"You said it a few dozen times at the beginning of the fight," Steve feels compelled to point out because Tony had gone on at length about that.

"Let me state it then," Bruce sounds tired. The way he gets when it's been a while since the Hulk came out. Something about the length of time takes it out of the man more than usual. "I hate magic."

Bruce is wearing sweats. Black and standard issue which answers where Black Widow had gone off to after the last combatant went down. He looks as tired as he sounds but it's the sight of the small boy he's holding that makes Steve want echo the sentiment.

The boy is small and scrawny in a worrying way that's eclipsed by the too large and too solemn eyes that look at them all in suspicion. Familiar eyes because Tony's run off over a hundred copies of some young girl's magazine that rated a bunch of guys on the attractiveness of their eyes alone just to annoy Clint that he only made second place.

"SHIELD?" Steve asks hopefully as Natasha materializes at his side. Her arms crossed over her chest and worryingly distant from Bruce and the child Clint.

"They're looking," she says, which isn't as comforting as it should be. Looking means this is something new for them and they don't have anything in place already to deal with it. Her eyes are fixed on Clint who is looking back at her with almost the same look of wariness.

"Alright," Steve wonders why they always seem to run into magic when Thor isn't around. Not that the man is better prepared to deal with it than they all are, but he at least seems to have some insight to it that no one else can match. "Let's head back and see what we can figure out."

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"I don't care what Thor says, magic is not really advanced technology," Tony states as he pokes a finger at Pietro. Hitting his puffed up cheeks a few times before the boy snaps and growls something that's almost adorably threatening at the man. "I can't do anything about this. I don't even know where to start. Dammit Jim, I'm an engineer not a sideshow magician!"

Steve ignores the last sentence, knowing a baiting tactic when he hears it come from Tony. He watches Pietro slap at Tony's hands a bit instead. He's nine or ten as far as any of them can tell, before he lost his family. He's active and energetic without the familiar vibration of energy that seems to envelope the man, and Steve's grateful for that because there's no way this boy wouldn't hurt himself with superspeed.

He follows Wanda around like a duckling. Looking at them all with wide, curious eyes as he pesters her with questions she answers patiently. There's fondness and amusement in Wanda's eyes now that the shock of the whole thing has worn off, but Steve knows it's Vision's handling of Pietro that really caused that change. The android's grasp of language is impeccable, and he answers Pietro with an ease that had gotten Pietro past his initial suspicion.

Pietro is doing fine, and Steve's not worried about him for however long this will last. It's their other teammate that has him leaning on Tony to try something. Anything.

Clint is on the floor next to the couch, leaning into it and almost disappearing into the background. Just a set of eyes peering at them all over a pair of bony knees. He's still and quiet in a way that isn't uncommon to Clint, but is downright terrifying coming from a child. He watches them all. Taking in their every move and waiting. For what, Steve doesn't know but the way he always makes himself the smallest target possible and flinches away when one of them moves too fast is telling in way that makes Steve's teeth grind.

It wasn't until Natasha broke her standoffishness and sat in front of the boy, her hands moving fluidly and sure, that Steve had even realized Clint might not be hearing the questions they'd been asking him. It's startling. Both that the hearing aides Steve knows the man relies on hadn't made the transition, and the fact that Clint had been deaf that young.

Head trauma. That's what the grown archer had told Steve when he'd asked how it happened. Steve had, perhaps naively, assumed it was due to some mission gone wrong. A stupid assumption he now realizes.

Steve looks away from the boy because his face isn't doing anything pleasant right now and he doesn't want Clint to get the wrong idea. "Can you at least do something for Clint? It might be easier for him if he can hear us."

Tony turns away from antagonizing Pietro to give Clint a considering look. "Hearing aides for kids are tricky things."

"We don't have to worry about him growing though," Bruce cuts in. He's sitting on the couch close to Clint. The one person who can be that close to him and not cause the boy to go too tense. Natasha might get the same treatment too if she stops being obviously uncomfortable with Clint's age now that she's proven she can speak to him. "He won't grow out of it so we can make a custom aide just for him."

Tony's eyes are far away and Steve can almost see the calculations running through his mind. Fast and buzzing as he turns to Bruce and they begin to do their thing. Talking with strange gestures and half spoken sentences. "What about-"

Steve stops paying attention before they really get into it and become incomprehensible to the rest of the world. His eyes caught by a sudden movement.

Pietro's attention has shifted with the change of Tony's gaze. He's looking at Clint now and walking over to see him clearly. Pietro moves fast and without care. Not really seeming to understand that there's something inherently wrong with the way Clint's wide eyes snap to him the moment Pietro's course becomes clear, the way those eyes stay fixed on him.

"Wanda," Steve doesn't move to stop Pietro physically because he's found that Clint flinches back from him the most. Eyes fixating on Steve's hands even when he keeps them loose and unthreateningly open.

"No," Natasha cuts in before either Wanda or Vision can intervene. She's watching Pietro's advance just as closely as Steve from across the room. "They're boys. Let them play."

"Pietro doesn't know English," Wanda looks uncertain as Pietro says something to Clint. His hands propped up on his hips as he leans over the seated boy.

"And Clint can't hear," Natasha reminds them all as Clint tilts his head back to look at Pietro. Showing the lower half of his face for the first time in several hours. "They'll be fine. Pietro isn't threatening to Clint."

There's a trace of humor in her voice and Steve blinks as Clint stands suddenly after a solemn moment of study. Pietro says something happily and runs to the doors that lead to the balcony. Clint, with no other exchange, right at his heels.

"Language is a small thing for children to overcome," Natasha says and Steve wonders a little at the almost wistful tone in her voice.

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Tony and Bruce disappear and don't resurface again until dinner. Which they're almost too distracted to eat, but Steve forces them to get some of it down. Bruce just came back, and his weight is still on the worryingly low side. Getting Pietro and Clint to eat is easier relatively speaking.

Steve steers clear of Clint and focuses on Pietro with Wanda. The stern look he fixes on Pietro works well with Clint, but Steve doesn't like the way the boy eats with his shoulders hunched when he uses it on him. He leaves Clint to Vision and Natasha instead. The android is a source of fascination to Clint now, and Natasha's lost enough of her stiffness to be allowed to sit next to him.

"He likes cheese," Steve repeats baffled as Pietro continues to push away the macaroni on his plate. An older Pietro would eat nothing but cheese given the chance. Any and all kinds that he can get his hands on. Steve stops the boy from pushing his plate away with a single finger and a flat look that doesn't impress him much.

"He wants me to have it," Wanda says with a small smile after a brief exchange. She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. "I, we had enough to eat, but it was not always good food. My brother would always give me some of his share when we got something good."

The memories are fond despite the sadness some people would read into them, and Steve shares her smile as Wanda goes back to gently coaxing Pietro to take the food offered. Steve keeps his face angled towards them even as he looks at how Clint is being handled.

Natasha's hands move constantly. Half talking and half non-verbally nudging Clint to eat more. The boy doesn't think he should need to eat anymore despite Vision's firm assessment that the boy needs more calories. Vision signs every bit as well as Natasha but has to to take a few moments to puzzle through the truncated list of signs the child actually knows.

"He didn't fully learn ASL until his teens," Natasha had explained earlier as she laboriously went through the motions of spelling out each word. "It was easier for him to learn to read lips because no one would practice signing with him before."

Clint had parents until age ten or eleven, and an older brother that the records aren't too clear on. Steve knows the brother had stuck around until Clint's late teens, but neither Clint nor the records say when exactly that stopped being true.

He smiles as warmly as he can when Clint catches him staring. Clint ducks his head immediately, and his shoulders go up but Steve thinks the boy might be less wary of him. Just a little.

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Surprisingly, Clint and Pietro get along well as children. The second both boys are deemed to have eaten enough they're running off to play again. Racing to the rather stable fort they've built out of the balcony furniture and all the blankets and sheets no one has admitted to bringing out for the boys. Steve sits with Wanda inside, the doors open, and listens to Pietro's voice as he talks. Fast and almost nonstop. Occasionally Clint will respond with slurred words that are at turns too loud or too soft.

Despite the language difference and the hearing problems, Steve's rather impressed at how well they work together when one of them decides to rearrange the fort. "If only they could work that well together as adults."

Wanda laughs a little and curls up further in the one fluffy blanket Pietro had solemnly brought back in for her. "They work fine together. The arguing is just how they flirt."

Steve turns his head to arch an eyebrow at her.

"And annoy the rest of us," Wanda grudgingly admits with a sigh. The back and forth insults twined with flirtation is nothing new to any of them. They aim it all at each other and normally that wouldn't be any of Steve's business. Wouldn't be anyone's business except for the fact that the arguing doesn't go anywhere.

All that back and forth just keeps building up. Spinning them both up in a tight dance that the whole team can't help feeling caught up in at times. Especially when they start in on the immature pranks to make sure they have each other's attention.

"They're not doing it now," Steve points out because as loud as the boys have been there hasn't been a hint of anger in it at all. No teasing or upset at all. Steve doesn't think that's due entirely to their age either.

"No, he," Wanda frowns, eyes going distant in the way they get when she's reaching out mentally. She shifts to sit up more fully, the blanket draped over her shoulders like a cape now. "When we were young Pietro would play any game with me I wanted. To make me smile and laugh until I forgot everything wrong with the world. Pietro is being protective, of Clint. Arguing will only make Clint sad now and Pietro wants to do everything he can to make him smile and forget right now."

"Does he even know what he might be forgetting?" Steve asks with genuine curiosity. It's not hard to draw conclusions from Clint's reactions, but Steve wonders that Pietro is perceptive enough to figure it out.

"No, but he doesn't need to know," Wanda leans forward over her knees and wraps her arms under her knees. It's a vulnerable looking position that strips years away from her. "My brother always just wanted to help people. He never used to wonder why, he just did it."

It's something that Steve's seen in Pietro. Bits and pieces of a persistent optimism shining through the pessimism that the man views the world through. It comes through strongest during missions that involve saving civilians, and has earned Quicksilver a rather loyal following of fans. Especially in the under ten population, much to the man's embarrassed chagrin.

Pietro lets Clint lead in the incomprehensible games the boys play. He follows along when Clint takes the lead, and will make exaggerated faces when Clint hesitates. Not stopping until the other boy is laughing and stumbling over the pillows they're using for something that looks like a cross between baseball and tag. There's little of the silent boy who kept to small spaces and watched everyone with old eyes in Clint now.

It's enough for Steve to let the boys play long after the sun has gone down until the fort is less a play structure and more a bed.

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Clint flinches when Tony moves to put the small earbud in, and Bruce takes over. Relying on both Natasha and Wanda to get the boy to hold still long enough to slide them in. Clint makes a distressed sound even then until Pietro slides between his sister and Clint. Taking one of Clint's clenched hands and not saying anything though he glares hard at Bruce.

"Ok, let's turn one on first," Bruce says calmly, easily ignoring Pietro's look. "Can you hear me, Clint?"

Clint jerks back. His eyes going comically wide even as Pietro starts to yell at Bruce. Steve watches as the boy touches his ear, the surprise turning to awe quickly as he speaks to them for the first time, "Yes."

"Good," Bruce smiles a little and waits for Wanda to finish explaining to Pietro before reaching for the other ear. "Tell me if anything hurts, alright?"

Clint willingly holds still for the second one, and the awe doesn't seem to be going away as he turns his head all around. Catching all the sounds he can. He snaps his head back around fast though when Pietro asks something. "What?"

"Pietro doesn't know English, Clint," Steve explains and the boy gives him a confused look even as Bruce coughs.

"Actually-" Bruce starts and is neatly cut off by Tony.

"The Lil'Roadrunner doesn't speak English, but these aides have access to a very sophisticated translating program," Tony beams under the eyes turned toward him. He flexes his fingers smugly. "Figured the little love birds don't need any help misunderstanding each other more than they already do. It takes few seconds for the words to translate though. The next version will patch that."

"Next version?" Steve asks with amusement, and enjoys the slight stumble Tony makes as he backtracks.

"Well, no, not the next version, because there will be no next version," Tony frowns and Steve wonders if Pepper's going to come blowing in here eventually demanding to know why Tony's green lighting some new project or another for a new line of technology from Stark Industries. "But just in case-"

"In case this happens again," Bruce easily cuts in to save Tony as he backs away from the boys. Pietro excitedly chattering away at Clint who is paying close attention. "It's not a bad idea to keep them and upgrade them. We might not like magic, but it does seem to like us."

It's, sadly, a sound plan, and Steve spends a moment thinking about all the plans they don't have already for the rest of them.

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The addition of language that they can both understand doesn't change much for the boys. They're louder and Clint speaks more, but nothing more seems to have changed until Wanda, not trusting the dark clouds, forces them both to come inside.

Pietro leads Clint by the hand to take over the small space behind the bar, and they quickly get engrossed into one of the many board games that had appeared mysteriously. Steve makes a few trips around the Tower and checks on them occasionally. Often bringing Wanda something to drink as she perches on the bar top to keep her vigil over them.

The fourth time he brings a few of the boxes of sweet juice that had appeared with the games, and watches as Pietro stands up to snatch them both from him. When he sits back down he does it right next to Clint, nearly on top of him actually, and Clint doesn't seem to mind the closeness at all as he works to get his straw shoved in. Pietro had led Clint in my the hand, and Steve realizes he hasn't exactly let the other boy go since.

"Really?" Steve feels his eyebrows arch up and Wanda gifts him with an all too amused smile. It grows when Clint reaches over with his unoccupied hand to lace their fingers together. "Tell me they'll remember this later."

"They might or might not," she slides off the bar top to stand next to him. "I'll remind my brother that he asked me if he could marry Clint if he does not remember it himself. It will be funny to see him deal with that I think."

Steve laughs and folds his arms over the surface to watch as Wanda wanders off for a break. Pietro and Clint seem oblivious as they chatter on about some new rules that Steve can only half follow. They talk over each other now and then but neither seems to find it a problem. Steve thinks he might almost miss this ease when it does end.

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It ends the way it began. With a shout and flurry of Sokovian. This time from a deeper voice than the one they've all grown used to over the last week.

"I need a drink," Clint grumbles as he blows past Steve coming out of the kitchen to see what's changed. He's dressed in his uniform and white knuckling the bow that had disappeared when the spell hit. He spins around to fix Steve with a baleful look and points at him. "Not one damn word. About any of this. Ever."

Steve doesn't let himself smile until the man is out of sight in deference to the fierce threat in his voice. By the time he makes it out to where he can hear Tony cackling Pietro is long gone. Only the amused looks on the rest of his teammate's faces giving an idea of what had happened.

"They remember?" Steve asks Bruce, the closest person who isn't laughing too hard to breathe.

"Maybe," Bruce smiles slightly. There's relief under it, because they'd been reaching the end of the line as far as research goes. "Going by what little Sokovian I've picked up. I'm sure we'll find out more of what exactly they remember when they're not as... Defensive."

"Embarrassed," Natasha corrects as she stretches out of her seat, and cuts a hard look over at Tony. Tony grins unrepentant at her and Steve doesn't have to wonder how much of the past week or so has been recorded for future teasing purposes. "They'll get over it. Eventually."

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Eventually indeed. After they get over a bout of childish pranks that rivals anything they did while actual children.

"I could lock them in the armory," Tony offers a few days later as Steve helps Bruce wipe off the worst of something he'd been hit with. The cast offs of whatever had hit Clint before he'd chased after a cackling Pietro. Steve thinks it may be some kind of half melted ice-cream. "I'll eat my best suit if either of them can break out of that."

"I don't think locking them in with weapons is a better option," Bruce grimaces as he rubs two fingers together and they stick slightly. "One or both of them will come out of it dead."

"Huh, hadn't thought of that," Tony looks down contemplatively at the floor. Towards where the armory is. "Maybe I should have asked you two before roping Wanda and Natasha into helping."

Bruce's sigh is loud and heartfelt, and Steve can empathize with it. Out of them all the two women, normally so patient with their respective partner, has been growing the most patient with the two men's back and forth fighting. If they agreed to help Tony then it's almost guaranteed that they've already got Clint and Pietro trapped.

"I'll get some medical equipment down there," Bruce eventually says and then winces as he touches his face. The skin pulls away with his finger, as tacky as his hands. "After I take a shower."

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Steve sticks around long enough to see that his two teammates haven't hurt themselves. That they're scowling and promising revenge on everyone. That they're not trying at all to hide the fact that Pietro's fingers are curved easily around Clint's elbow, and that Clint angles his body a little ahead of Pietro. Enough to partially put the man behind him. A strange reversal of protectiveness.

It's enough for Steve, and he wanders away. Whistling faintly as he leaves his team behind to their gloating and arguing. Things will settle now, he's sure of it.

Magic is still a nuisance, but it does occasionally have its uses.

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