An author's note of mine has never been more important. XD Good readers, please read it at the end of the chapter.

Word Count: 1,554

Every summer the Banners rented a cabin by a lake and enjoyed some condensed family time away from the loud and dirty city, away from work and stress, and even to young Bruce's detriment (he was very proud of knowing that word) away from friends. He really did enjoy these trips! It was great going out on the rowboat and they had s'mores outside and even lemonade every day. He got to play backgammon and moncola with his mom, crazy eights with his dad, and to watch his parents play chess; track their strategies as best he could.

Really, the only downside was that he wasn't allowed to use the phone unless it was an emergency. And even then, an adult should call before him. This usually wasn't a BIG problem. He could go a week without talking to Betty or Tony or any of the others easy. He only got bored once in a while. Now was one of those onces. His parents were out back gutting the fish they had just caught, and after watching that process once when he was five, Bruce was planning on dying before seeing it again. So he was out front. Twiddling his thumbs. Shuffling his feet. Singing songs. Watching frogs. Slapping his knees and stomach he like drums. Reciting times tables eventually 'cause why not?

But mainly really really wishing he was at Tony's place playing Uncharted 2. He really did like having this time with his parents; mainly his mom, since she was always so busy with work. It wasn't often they got to be all together like this for more than just dinner, since she even worked most weekends. But while he was happy to have this time with them... he also could only spend so much of it electronicless, friendless and chemistry set-less. He remembered it was too more days (fish tonight and leftovers tomorrow) and he'd be back home. Two more dknew He'd just finished remembering that, though, when his mom rounded the corner of the house holding her cell phone to her ear. Which was unexpected, since the "no phones" rule worked on adults here too.

But then she held the phone out to him. "Bruce, Tony says he needs your help with a glitch in one of your games you let him borrow, and you know your way around it?"

Bruce could feel all his tells immediately shout out as he tried to figure out what to do. Lie so he could talk with Tony about whatever he was really calling for, or be honest and tell his mom he hadn't loaned any games to Tony. In what he was sure was more time than he had, Bruce tried to figure out what Tony could be calling about. He was definitely the most eager to break rules out of any of them, so he might be doing it just for fun, and today rescue Bruce for a bit because he was the best friend ever. But Tony also knew that Bruce hated lying to his parents and usually confessed just a couple hours after he ever did.

So not only would a pointless call be kind of mean to Bruce, making him lie, but it would get at least one of them almost definitely in trouble. So it was probably something serious. But not really serious or an adult would be calling his mom or dad. So kid serious like a fight they needed him to solve or Tony got in another fight with his dad or something like that. So, for better or worse, Bruce nodded and held his hand out, ignoring the small shake in them. "Oh yeah. Can I talk him through it?"

She eyed him funny, like she knew what was up, but gave him the phone. "Make it quick, hon. We're trying to not use cell phones out here, remember?" He nodded and she smiled. "Thanks for being so good with that rule, Bruce. I really appreciate you respecting it for a whole week. It's hard for your dad and me too, but we get through it together, right?" She knew. She knew that Tony and he were lying. She was guilting him instead of calling him out on it, so he'd admit it himself. Which he probably would

But for now, since he'd already done the lying, he smiled back (maybe a little shakily) and said "no problem." And only breathed again when she turned around and went back round the corner of the house.

He held the phone up. "Tony, I really hope this is important."

"Trust me it is. Dude this is really important. And serious. You're on speaker phone, say hi to Thor and Steve!"

Bruce heard a duo of his and tried to be patient in saying hi back but: "Now what's going on, guys? Mom knows I lied to talk to you."

"The Bursens are staying at my house, "Steve said, like that just explained everything.

"So?"

"Sooooo," Tony had his lips against the microphone, if the static was anything to go by. Which it was. "JUST Missus and the kids! Something happened with their dad and like… Mrs. Bursen is crying, and Loki can't really talk unless it's reeeaaaally quiet and -."

There was a scuffle and an angry yell from Tony about the call being his idea, and then Thor had the phone. "Dad freaked out at Loki, like really bad. He even yelled at me. And this time Mom just picked Loki up and took us to the car and… we haven't been back since."

"Well you'll probably go back tonight."

"Mom and Mrs. Stark went back to the house and brought sleepover things."

"Oh. What are your parents saying?"

"Nothing we can hear." Tony grumbled. "I haven't really asked anything yet cause they stop talking whenever we go downstairs. If we asked they'd just say, 'We're just talking through some adult things right now. Why don't you go back upstairs and play?'" Tony's imitation of who Bruce guessed was Steve's mom wasn't anything to clap for, but he was right.

More scuffling, and Steve had the phone. "We're calling 'cause we don't know what to do. Should we like… confront the adults? Or stay out of their way? And what about Loki? He's being really weird and… it's scaring us. He's like- really quiet and jumpy and like he's always gonna start crying."

Bruce thought about this. It was really great being the oldest of their group 'cause even though it was only by two years everyone, even the adults treated him like a big kid. They trusted him more and gave him responsibilities than the other kids. Not that he could think of any real examples now…. Anyway, being the oldest also meant that the other kids looked up to him and usually asked him to solve their fights (before a parent could come in and give out punishments to everyone) and usually listened to him when he thought they were taking a prank too far or were bending the rules a little too much. It was a good responsibility, being the oldest.

But sometimes… like now… it was difficult. Thor and Tony and Steve wanted help. They wanted him to tell them what to do. And being really honest, Bruce didn't know what to do. This was really really big, and kinda scary. It was fun helping your friends by giving advice, and sometimes fibbing and pretending you knew an idea was good when you only thought it was good, but they all trusted you anyway…. But this here was really a pickle Bruce didn't know how to deal with. And this didn't seem like a good time to fib. "I think this is really serious, and the adults know better than us. And they want the best for us. Does my mom know what's going on?"

"No idea," Tony said.

"I'm gonna tell her. I want to be there with you guys and she'll wanna be there too. And you should tell Mrs. Bursen that you're worried about Loki, guys. That's important. But other than that, just… try to give them space to talk. They'll tell us what we need to know."

Thor seemed a little upset that Bruce didn't have a better plan, but Tony and Steve were pretty okay with it. So they hung up and went to talk to their separate (Bruce knew there was a bigger word for that and it sounded like perspective. He just couldn't think of it!) parents about what was going on. It didn't take long for Bruce to find his parents, sitting in the back. And Bruce plugged his nose, remembering they were gutting fish. He persevered, though, and handed the phone back to his mom and taking his hand off his nose. "Tony wasn't calling about a game, Mom."

Bruce's mom looked satisfied and maaaybe a little smug. But definitely proud of him, so Bruce focused on that one. "Thank you for being honest with me, Bruce. I know these week-long trips are hard sometimes, but your dad and I really think they're a good idea."

"No I like them a lot! I mean it's hard sometimes but for the most part it's really great. It's just… Tony did call about something important."

Hi! It's… been a really really long time. Embarrassingly wrong, and I owe you guys an explanation. When I started writing this story I was going through a tough time. The chapters that I wrote and of course my readers responses to them and support for these characters really helped me through some stuff I was going through. But, sadly, the tough times weren't over and it got to a point where I couldn't really write anymore. Believe me, I tried. I really missed this story and you guys, my readers. I felt so guilty for leaving the store for so long but looking back I still don't see how I could have been writing it.

Good news though! I have been really really great recently. Like fantastic. And a couple days ago I realized that I could actually sit down and write this chapter! I've been thinking for LOL literally years about this story and what I had dreamed about doing with it; how I had wanted the story to progress and the characters to change and grow over time. And honestly, I still get so psyched over the plans that I had, but my preferred writing style has drastically changed. And I cringe seeing all the plot holes and inconsistencies already in this story.

But as I've already kind of said, this story really means a lot to me. If just because of the memories it's given me. If no one, Past readers or new readers has an interest in this story I am truly content to call it complete, and remember it very very fondly. However, if old readers and or new have an interest in this story being continued, then I'd be very interested in exploring our options.

One option being still marking this as complete and starting a whole new story with this same premise with my new writing style and much more put together but less focusing on every aspect of a child's simple outlook on life that this sort of had. If we go with this option, I can tell you right now that there are no guarantees for when I'll be able to update. Writing is still a big struggle for me, and I don't work well with deadlines. As you can see. LOL

Another option is continuing with this story in a very relaxed way there will be plot inconsistencies, the story will drag on and on like this has already, and I would be fairly confident in saying that I would have a chapter out every one to two weeks, and the chapters would be about... 7000 words long. I hope.

A third option is kind of a mix of the first two? Like I would probably mark this as complete still and start fresh, fixing the plot holes and giving more logic to some characters and probably focusing less on all the little random conversations and adding a lot more... meat? To the overall story. Like more detail to their surroundings and what's going on and their schedules. Update schedule for this would be pretty uncertain and it takes more time to keep track of all the plot and pacing and writing style for the story. Because LOL I had originally wanted this to end when all these kids we're adults. I was young and adorable and very hopeful.

I really am content to say goodbye to this but I also have fun keeping it around at least while longer. So thank you for reading my very long author's note and to those who have been waiting for an update literally for years, I'm sorry it took this long. Remember to smile! :) And have a good day!

SailorLokiSilver - I'm so sorry it took this long to update. But thank you for your review, and I really hope you see this update!

Antoinette - THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Guest - not evil, no. My plans for Loki are that through the years, he struggles a lot with his place in the family and more specifically with his relationship with Thor since as things continue, Odin kind of drives a wedge between them and a lot of bitterness and resentment happened between them and they both go down separate and more negative then it's good for them. But with time apart and perspective and good advice from good friends they managed to repair the relationship. But Loki is never evil or mean-spirited more than kind. Very different than in the movie. LOL. He's just really hurt and has a hard time figuring out who really cares about him and which relationships are worth fighting for.