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There’s a framed picture that hangs in the common room of Avengers Tower. This isn’t unusual- there are several photos around (a team favorite is the photo of Thor, Bucky and Steve’s reaction to hearing that Vader was Luke’s father) in various common areas. This particular photo though is one of Darcy’s favorites. It’s a photo of the team and a bunch of penguins. Sometimes, things in the tower were bad- the team came back from battles broken and hurting in ways that band aids just couldn’t fix. Sometimes the city burned. Sometimes people died. Sometimes, the team just lost. But then, sometimes, things in the tower were good. The day of the penguins had been a good day.
*
Bucky was feeling paranoid. He knew Jarvis had the tower secure, but he just couldn’t shake the feeling that he kept missing someone or something. He was positive that something other than people was in the building, staying just out of sight. First was the feeling of being watched. Then came to fleeting glances of… something… Then came the smell. He didn’t like not knowing what was lurking in his home. Seeing something behind him out of the corner of his eye Bucky turned to find an empty hallway. Running to the corner he looked both ways and was still alone. Something was wrong. He went to go find Steve.
Natasha was reading a book on the couch when she smelled something. Sniffing she looked up from her book. She scanned the area but didn’t find anything. “Clinton,” she said, wrinkling her nose, “Get down here.”
Clint opened the grate above her and flipped out, landing in a crouch on the sofa next to her. “Yeah, I smell it too.”
They stared at each other for half a beat, each computing who the possible culprits of the smell could be. They both came to the same conclusion at the same moment. “Stark,” they said in unison.
Closing her book, Natasha got up. She and Clint stalked out of the common area together.
You would think that a pair of spysassins would be able to determine where the smell was coming from pretty quickly. But they were spies and assassins. Not bloodhounds (no matter how scary focused Natasha could get. Besides, if she were a dog, she’d totally be a Cocker spaniel. A scary as hell Cocker spaniel. Lady and the Tramp was SO her movie.).
Darcy, Bruce, and Jane (or Darcy and Scientists 2-3) were in the labs (where else would they be?) when something caught their attention. With a collective sniff they all looked up at each other.
Darcy sniffed again. “Is it just me… Or does it smell like…”
“Fish.” Bruce finished for her. “I definitely smell fish.”
Jane nodded and made a face. “Me too.”
Darcy covered her nose with her sweater’s long sleeve. “Ew. It’s not even a normal fish smell- it smells like the seal area at the zoo.”
“Close, Lewis. But not quite right.”
They looked up to see Tony walking in through the lab doors, a bunch of penguins trailing behind him.
“…Tony. What the hell?”
Before Tony could respond, the rest of the team came into the lab. All of them had been wandering the tower and had ultimately ended up at the labs trying to figure out what was going on. Well, all except for Thor. He was there to see Jane. Natasha just stared at Tony before crossing her arms and waiting. Clint looked around confused before hopping on top of a desk and waiting for answers. Steve groaned and put his hands over his eyes before a mumbled “whyyyyyyyy” came out of his mouth while Sam blinked and Bucky stared at the penguins. Thor smiled like this was a normal everyday occurrence and wrapped his arms around Jane.
“Stark,” Bucky said, not bothering to look up at Tony from the penguin he was seemingly in a staring competition with. “Tell me why I’ve been acting like a Scooby Doo cartoon for the past hour trying to figure out what’s in the tower.”
Tony was about to answer when he saw Bucky getting too close to the perturbed looking rockhopper penguin. “Be careful, that’s Mercucio- he’s ornery.”
Bucky continued to look at the grumpy penguin but now narrowed his eyes. Mercucio glared back. Bucky decided he liked him.
Steve looked at Tony hesitantly. “… You named them?”
“Of course I did,” Tony said with a shrug. “Oh, watch out for Ben, he tends to puke when provoked.”
Steve and Sam each took one gigantic step back from Ben.
Natasha pointed down at the king penguin in front of her and raised an eyebrow at Tony in silent question.
“Gladys is a sweetheart,” Tony said, nodding at Natasha’s unasked question.
Natasha picked Gladys up and to everyone’s surprise, cuddled her. Gladys made a happy preening sound and actually nuzzled the spysassin back.
Darcy was rubbing the bridge of her nose. “WHYYYYYYYYYYY?”
“It’s for Make A Wish,” Tony said, turning back around to face her.
That was the last thing she’d expected him to say. “… What?”
“Make A Wish is a-”
“No,” Darcy said. “I know what Make A Wish is, I mean, why would there be penguins for a Make A Wish wish?”
Tony pulled out a letter from his back pocket. Unfolding it, he handed it to Darcy.
Darcy looked at the letter. “…”
“What’s it say, Darcy?”
Darcy read the wish out loud. “Little Rodney Taylor writes, ‘I want to meet the Avenjurs and there pengwends.’”
“… We don’t have penguins.” Steve said, tentatively reaching out to pet a tiny penguin who seemed to be almost too small.
Tony shrugged. “We do now. That’s Pier by the way- he’s a little penguin. And I don’t mean he’s little as in he’s small- that’s literally his breed.”
Clint looked at him with an odd smile. “You bought a group of penguins?”
“Rented,” Tony clarified. “And a bunch of penguins together is referred to as a waddle. I rented a waddle.”
“Why didn’t you tell us sooner?” Bruce asked, petting Gladys.
“I didn’t know it was called a waddle until I ordered them.”
Bruce rolled his eyes. “No, I mean why didn’t you tell us there was a waddle in the building?”
Tony stuck his hands in his pocket and rocked back on his heels. “Honestly? I was busy having fun playing follow the leader.”
“Ok Mr. Popper, when is this meeting taking place?” Darcy asked, handing off the adelie penguin she’d been holding to Thor who was making grabby hands at it.
“Tomorrow at 2pm.”
“Why’d you get them early?” Clint asked.
Tony shrugged. “I figured we could bond.”
Jane looked away from the penguin Thor was cooing over. “How do you bond with penguins?”
Tony shrugged. “I’m sure we’ll figure it out,” he gestured to the air.
Over the course of the rest of that day and evening the team spent time with the penguins. Tony had ordered enough for each of them to have one. Gladys ended up taking a particular liking to Steve and she offered him a pebble. No one understood why Darcy laughed so hard until she had Jarvis play the movie The Pebble and the Penguin. Sam and Tony couldn’t stop laughing. While Gladys may have had a crush on Steve, it was Piere who followed him everywhere. Steve didn’t mind though- he felt an odd connection to the little penguin who seemed to be out of breath every few minutes from chasing after him.
Mercucio and Bucky become good friends- grumpy friends. They spent most of the evening sitting on the couch together looking at grumpy cat memes. Darcy swore they were snickering together. She noticed with a smile that they were also both fussing over Piere whenever he’d start breathing hard while trying to keep up with the other penguins. She wondered if that’s what it looked like to see Bucky and Steve before the serum.
Clint kept trying to teach them to play fetch… particularly a little African penguin named Stomper. Natasha had told him she’d heard that penguins were extremely intelligent and capable of being taught with highly skilled trainers. She didn’t bother to tell him she’d heard it from Darcy who’d made it up on the spot. They got a good 4 hours of entertainment out of watching him before he bothered to ask just who she’d heard that from. “Always check your sources, Clinton,” Natasha had smirked.
Thor and the adelie penguin (that Tony had named Turbo) were having a great time in the kitchen eating sardines together.
Sam had actually managed to get on Ben’s good side and the two of them sat back watching the others run around. Bruce and rather large but gentle emperor penguin named Caesar joined them.
Tony was actually laying on the floor looking at holographic specs talking to a long-tailed gentoo penguin he’d named Larry. Larry was actually nodding and cooing at the things Tony was saying as if he understood him. And who knows, Darcy reasoned, maybe Larry did. Maybe Tony had managed to find the genius billionaire philanthropist of penguindom and little Larry was going to go home and put his own suit together.
When 2pm the next day came around the team suited up and met Rodney and his parents in one of the smaller event rooms that Pepper had had prepared for the meet and greet. Each of them came in either walking next to or holding a penguin. Rodney’s face had lit up like a tree in Rockefeller Center at Christmas. His parents and the Make A Wish Foundation people had all had expressions of shock. They hadn’t expected Tony to actually get penguins. Tony had done it for the kid, but the looks on the adults’ faces were just as great (possibly almost better. Almost.). Grateful for the lack of emergencies that day the team spent hours talking to Rodney before he left.
After the penguins had been returned and the tower aired out (she’d loved the penguins but not the smell) Darcy hung a photo of the team and the penguins (the Penvengers as Clint had taken to calling them) in the common room. She smiled as she stepped back to make sure it was straight before turning and walking away to find some food.
Sometimes things were bad in the tower. But sometimes, things were really, really good.