"I think it's time for the kids to each get their own space. WIth all their personalities, they need room," Pepper said, once the kids were all asleep. Jane and Darcy had been given rooms on another floor, and Maria went home for the night.

"I agree. It would be nice to be able to say 'go to your room' and actually have rooms for them to go to. Why don't you, Jane, and Darcy work on some plans. You know the layout of the tower," Phil responded. "Fury's requested I be more available for SHIELD business, so I may not be entirely helpful in this endeavor."

Pepper nodded. If Phil was going to be more busy, she was happy to have Jane and Darcy around to help. She liked them. She and Jane had bonded over how strange it is to be taking care of their romantic interests as children. It was quite a strange feeling.

The next morning, Pepper entered the kitchen expecting it to be empty. She was surprised when she saw Darcy sitting at the table with coffee. Next to her was Thor, who was happily eating poptarts. Pepper noticed that he also had a coffee cup that he was drinking out of thirstily.

"Darcy, he's too young for coffee!"

"It's not like we have to worry about it stunting his growth," Darcy answered flatly. "And besides, it's chocolate milk, creamer, and sugar."

While the sugar content of the drink was appalling, it was probably better than Thor on caffeine. Pepper just shook her head and helped herself to a cup of coffee.

"I want more poptarts," Thor stated.

"What's the magic word?" Darcy responded. Thor looked perplexed. "The magic word is 'please'."

"Please," Thor parroted.

"You can't say no to him now," Darcy said. Pepper chuckled and put two more poptarts in the toaster. When the toaster popped up, Thor grinned.

Having heard the toaster, Bruce made his way out of the bedroom.

"Good morning, Bruce," Pepper said. "What would you like for breakfast?"

Bruce yawned and sat at the table. "Poptarts, please."

One by one, the kids all slowly drifted from the bedroom. In favor of simplicity, Pepper offered them each poptarts rather than giving them a choice for breakfast.

The kids were to have a lazy day, not even changing out of their pajamas. Well, that was the intention. It quickly became clear that while adults can choose to have a relaxing day of doing nothing, kids don't see the enjoyment of that. Pepper could feel the energy radiating off of several of the boys.

"Alright, crazies," Pepper interjected to Thor, Tony, and Clint who were jumping off the back of the couch, "Let's go to the park."

Pepper, Darcy, and Jane divided and conquered as far as getting the kids ready to go. Darcy threw clothes at Clint and Thor, making them catch the articles of clothing and then put them on. They were all pretty independent when it came to getting dressed. A few only needed reminders to put shirts on the right direction.

Tying shoes was where the real challenge lay. Tony, Clint, and Bruce could do it independently. Natasha almost had it, as well as Steve. Thor had no clue. To be fair, he hadn't had much exposure to tennis shoes on asgard.

Thirty minutes later, they were headed down the stairs. They easily could have taken the elevator, but the more energy spent the better. Rather than drive, they decided to walk to a nearby park. The moment they got out the front door of the building, Clint took off.

Pepper yelled, dropping Steve's hand. Darcy ran forward and grabbed Clint by the back of his shirt. "You need to stay with us. If you run away, you wont be able to play at the park," Pepper said, firmly, but careful not to trigger a reaction. She had learned that Clint did not respond well to scolding. It usually resulted in a fight or flight response, neither of which she wanted to deal with at that exact moment.

Darcy took Clint's hand and held it tightly as they walked. Clint's jaw was set, and he was clearly brooding.

The other children all exhibited their typical reactions to one of the others getting in trouble. Natasha watched carefully, ready to swoop in and join forces with the accused. Steve watched nervously, being extra careful to make sure he was doing exactly what he was supposed to. Tony observed, poised to argue whichever side he saw fit. Thor didn't seem affected, he was more interested in everything else going on around him. Bruce was the enigma. He was very attuned to the confrontation, but held himself rigidly, pretending to tune it out.

At the park, once they were within a safe distance, all the children were permitted to run towards the playground. Clint however, had not shown he could handle that amount of freedom.

"Let go of me!" he screeched.

"Nope, my little flight risk. You ran away earlier, so now you have to hold my hand until we get there," Darcy said. She had a no-nonsense attitude, and Clint seemed to mesh well with it.

"Wassa f-ight risk?" Clint asked, still attempting to break away, but with far less gumption.

"Being a flight risk means you try to run away when it's not safe." Before Clint could respond, they had reached the playground and Darcy let go of his hand.

Pepper, Jane, and Darcy sat on the park bench where they could keep their eyes on the kids. "You've got quite a way with kids, Darcy," Pepper said, chuckling.

"You think? I don't know. They're just funny. Nothing too tricky about them," Darcy answered before jumping up and running to join the kids on the playground.

Jane laughed as Darcy raced Thor to the slide. "I think she's a natural, because she never actually grew up all the way. There's still a part of her that is pure kid," she said. Steve walked timidly up to them and waited for them to finish talking.

"Can you push me on the swing?" he asked Pepper.

"Of course, sweetie."

The remainder of the park outing was uneventful, until the very end. Tony and Thor were running along the top part of the play structure, chasing Natasha who was enjoying the game. She tripped and landed on her knees and hands, both boys freezing, awaiting her response. Much to their relief, she sprung up and turned to chase the boys back the other way. Clint, who had been hiding in the tunnel, jumped out to join the game. He collided with Thor, sending them both flying. Clint rolled away, on high alert for what was coming next. Before Thor could even say anything, Clint darted. Tony tried to stop him, because he didn't want to stop playing, but when he reached out for him, Clint shoved Tony off the play structure. He landed on his back with a thud.

Clint started to remove himself from the situation, but turned straight into Pepper's arms. She gripped his shoulders, kneeling down. "What just happened?" she asked, though she had seen it all go down.

Clint looked at her with big eyes, like a deer in headlights. Almost like a switch turning on, he snapped into action, freeing himself of her hold and booking it away from the playground. She started to chase after him, but noticed that Darcy was already on the move. As soon as she saw Darcy catch up to him and them both stop running, she turned her attention back to steve on the swing.

Clint had taken up quite a bit of everyone's attention, because of his unpredictable and risky behavior. It wasn't fair to the other kids, and she was trying to focus more on them. Having other people around was definitely helpful.

They played for a while longer before it was time to go. "Okay, boys and Natasha, let's head back!"

"NO! Just because Clint got in trouble doesn't mean we should have to leave," Tony argued. Now that she had an idea of what Tony was like as a child, she was surprised he didn't grow up to be a lawyer. He could argue until he was blue in the face. Pepper sighed.

"We're not leaving because Clint got in trouble. We're leaving because it's time to leave."

Tony argued the whole walk back. Darcy, who continued to hold Clint's hand, put her free hand around Tony's head and over his mouth. "Alright, motor-mouth. The more you argue, the more mad you make Jand and Pepper. And the more mad they are, the less they'll let us go back to the park. So hush up," she said, It worked. Tony was quiet as they got into the elevator.

It was nearly noon now, and Natasha seemed to be getting 'hangry'. 'Hangry' was a term Pepper and Phil had never heard before, but after Darcy explained it, it made complete sense. And Natasha was the queen of hangry.

Six bologna sandwiches later, the kids were surprisingly sprawled and quiet watching a movie.

Their quiet time gave Pepper and Jane time to shop on for some kids' room stuff. Within an hour, they had purchased items to furnish six bedrooms. They were going to have to remodel the floor below the one they currently inhabited to include six child-sized bedrooms and a bathroom. With Tony and Pepper's connections, that should be complete within a week.