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Cooper Barton is your average kid. He’s got a little sister, a dog and likes to play outside. His Momma is always at home for them and his Dad is away a lot for work, but when he’s home, Dad always spends all his time in the house. Cooper likes his Momma’s cooking, running around playing on the farm and walking Lucky. He likes books and star charts and staring to the night sky through his telescope. He’s not one for fighting, but he can hit you where it counts if he needs to.
Cooper Barton has four uncles and a grandpapa and grandmamma, but they’re not around very often. He loves them though.
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Cooper Barton is nine years old when the Avengers show up on his family’s doorstep. He hears his Dad yell ‘Honey, I’m home’ and he and Lila go and hug Dad. Momma’s pregnant with a new baby (a boy) and Cooper knows he’ll have to step up his game as a big brother soon.
“Aunty Nat!”
After he and Lila hug Dad they move on to the red-haired spy, tackle her with a hug. She doesn’t topple though, and Cooper finds himself admiring her again. She’s a strong person. Behind her there are three men: two of them he’s seen on TV before, with that really scary thing happening in New York; the other he doesn’t know (but he feels like he should). There’s a tingling down his spine and he runs out, to Lucky on the deck.
“Come on, boy! Let’s go run!”
Despite it being the first time in weeks that his Dad’s home, Cooper stays out all day, in his secret spot near the creek, Lucky watching him with a lazy eye.
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Momma’s told him once that when he was a baby, he was loud. Crying a lot, babbling a lot too. She also told him they lived in a small apartment back then, with Lucky. They’ve only moved after they found out about Lila being on the way, Momma’s told him. He doesn’t really remember anything from back then, but he just knows Lucky was there. There’s a warmth coming from that dog that makes you feel welcome and safe just by being in the same room. Momma tells him all about that time, when he loved throwing his soft building blocks all over the room and squeezed all the squeaking toys all the time. When he used his birdie mobile not only to soothe himself, but to hear the wooden birds clack against each other. She told him she still has no clue of how he managed to do that, since there were no toys to throw about in his crib. (She never tells him that his godmother gave him a small ball and that it’s still stuffed somewhere in the drawer of the night table. She suspects he knows).
Before the New York thing he’s only seen his godmother once. Maria Hill is a woman on a strict schedule and making visits home is difficult enough as is, let alone visiting a child she’s only seen right after birth. Cooper’s five when his Momma makes him sit down with a lady he’s never seen before, tells him to call her ‘Aunty Maria’ and be good. He hears Uncle Phil talking to Momma and Lila’s shrieking with happiness at some toy Uncle Phil gave her. Aunty Maria sees him shuffling his feet. When she realizes he’s not going to speak up, she starts signing to him.
Momma’s taught them how to, and even if Dad’s not home, they still talk this way. Aunty Maria tells him she’s sorry she couldn’t visit him earlier and that she’ll make it up to him. For now she’s got him a present.
“I saved up for this entire series since you were two years old”, she says out loud, when she has to use both hands to take a big stack of books and put it on the table.
It’s a beautiful, wonderful series of books about the world he’s seen once in a catalogue his Momma was leafing through.
“Thank you, Aunty Maria,” he says and grabs the book on top of the stack.
It’s got a lot of words, but also a lot of pictures and together with Aunty Maria he spends hours reading about wonderful things, like what clouds are and where monkeys live and what colour the sky is when the sun goes down.
There is a wonderful picture of the night sky in there too, and Aunty Maria traces invisible lines between the stars and calls them constellations.
Later, when Aunty Maria and Uncle Phil have left and Cooper’s been tucked into bed, he asks Momma if she can show him the night sky once.
“I want to see the stars, Momma.’
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When Cooper’s nine, his Dad’s involved in some unbelievable things in Eastern Europe. But Dad’s back by the time Momma has to give birth. He doesn’t come alone. There’s a girl with him, all dark hair and sad eyes. She looks a bit like Lila does when she’s been crying. Momma’s big now; she’s been cleaning for days. Grandpa Nick says it’s because Nathaniel could be born any minute.
Still, Dad looks exhausted, and Momma hugs him (carefully) and then she pulls the girl into a hug too. Dad goes for a shower, ruffling Lila’s hair and high-fives Cooper on the way to the bathroom.
Momma waddles back to the kitchen to make him something to eat and the girl hovers near the door. Cooper feels for her. She looks scared and sad and she’s been throwing him and Lila painful looks. He wants to go talk to her, but Lila’s pulled him to her crafts table to plan a prank on Dad.
After Lila’s drawn their plans, she goes to find the stuff they need for the prank. Cooper looks at the sofa, where the new girl’s curled up around a pillow. She’s holding onto it for dear life.
“I’m Cooper. I’m nine. Lila’s upstairs now, she’s seven. What’s your name?”
Clearly, she didn’t expect that. Cooper sits down on the sofa, taking one of his books on space.
His ears start ringing, that same weird feeling he gets when he’s nervous.
“My name is… Wanda.”
Behind his book, Cooper sneaks a peek to her. She’s got a shake in her hands; the same kind of shake Dad and Aunty Nat have in their hands sometimes. Time passes slowly, ringing in his ears growing louder. He’s seen her look at him as if something is hurting her really, really bad. Agony. That’s what Momma calls that kind of hurt. The only sounds he hears (aside from the ringing) are Momma chopping up onions in the kitchen and Dad singing in the shower.
“There was this cool new episode of ‘Cosmos’ on TV yesterday. It was all about the stars and pulsars and how stars grow and stuff.”
Wanda sort of smiles at him, a sad smile, but a smile nonetheless.
“That is nice. Is it coming on TV again? I don’t know very much of the stars. You can explain to me.”
So they sit for a while, and Cooper shows her his book.
“I can start now! You see, this is a book the maker of the show told everyone to read!”
He gets excited again, and Wanda’s still smiling so he takes that for a good thing to do. Whatever’s making her sad is not gone though. But he wants to help, and Momma always says she can’t help if she doesn’t know what’s wrong.
“Why is it so quiet in here?” his Dad half-yells and Wanda jumps about a foot in the air.
Dad’s forgotten his aids in the bathroom again and Cooper gets the greatest idea.
He whispers to Wanda that ‘Dad’s kind of deaf, but don’t worry, he can’t hear you be rude.’
That night Dad’s set up a bed for Wanda in Cooper’s room. The guest room is undergoing a new renovation, and Cooper’s room is big enough for it anyway. Cooper went to bed early, but he can’t sleep. Wanda can’t either, and so they sit quietly by the window, listening to the wind chimes hanging from the porch and Momma and Dad quietly conversing.
“Laura, we still haven’t found a middle name for Nathaniel… and I was thinking…” Dad’s voice drifts off. Lucky snorts a bit.
“You found one. Tell me.”
“There was this kid, in … in Sokovia. Wanda’s brother. He saved my life.”
Wanda goes still next to Cooper.
“Pietro. I want his middle name to be Pietro.”
Wanda sobs quietly, Cooper awkwardly trying to soothe her.
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Cooper had just turned six when his dad got called away for another mission with Aunty Maria and Uncle Phil. He had hugged Cooper and Lila, kissed Momma and left, as usual. What wasn’t usual was that Cooper had a weird ringing in his ears. It’s not until Momma gets a phone call from Aunty Maria that he knows something is off. Aunty Maria NEVER calls, not even before visiting. She tells Uncle Phil to tell them she’s coming over.
Momma tells him and Lila to get in the kitchen. Lucky follows them at heel. Lila looks at him, wide-eyed. She’s not even four yet, clutching at the soft Captain America doll Uncle Phil gave her. Cooper holds her other hand, sitting her down on the kitchen floor. Lucky scoots over next to them, lets them lean against his side. Cooper buries his free hand in Lucky’s golden fur and they stay like that until Momma comes back in, looking tired.
“Coop, Lila, if your Dad’s at the door the coming week, just come get me. Don’t let him in; Aunty Maria says he’s not allowed to be home just yet. Can you do that for me, babies?”
Cooper doesn’t quite understand, since Dad never comes home before his work is over. But he nods and Lila nods too, and Momma hugs them and later that night she lets them sleep in her bed.
The next day, after Momma made him do his reading exercises and his math problems, Cooper takes Lucky and goes for a run on the farmyard. He loves running and Lucky’s with him so Momma lets him go.
“Don’t go to the road. And the creek is the very limit!” Momma yells after him, Lila toddling on the porch and waving at him.
Cooper starts running, pumping his little legs in a rhythm Lucky can still follow. He jumps over a wooden plank, left over from one of Dad’s re-no-va-tion things, and looks back at the house. Today it looks sad, seemingly shrinking against the sky. Lucky huffs beside him and he runs back.
At night, Cooper wakes up startled. He feels like he’s being watched, but Momma’s downstairs watching TV. He can’t really see anything in the dark, so he lies back down and tries to calm himself down by recounting what he’s seen on Cosmos today, tracing invisible constellations with his fingers. It almost works. Almost. He’s slipping in a deeper sleep when he hears Lucky growl outside his door. Not exactly outside his door, he thinks. Lila’s door. Lucky’s growling louder now; he recognizes the sound as the ‘last warning’ Lucky issues. He hasn’t heard it very often.
“Oh, shush, you mutt”, he hears and then there’s someone in his room. A very tall someone.
Cooper tries to stay very still under his covers. The door didn’t open, but there’s still someone in his room. And if Lucky didn’t like the someone, neither would he.
“I know you are not asleep, boy.”
Lucky’s still growling, but there’s a desperate whimper in there too.
The someone, the man, it’s a man, but a very tall man, comes closer. In the stream of moonlight coming from the window Cooper sees that the man is very thin, very pale. He looks sick. The ringing in his ears returns and Cooper feels sick himself. His bedroom, warmed by the sun during the day, has gotten cold. The blanket he’s holding feels like ice. The closer the pale man steps to his bed, the colder it gets. And he keeps watching.
Cooper’s never been really afraid of something. Dad’s chased away the monsters under the bed. Dad tells him Grandpa Nick’s scary, but he never felt like that’s true. But now, there’s a feeling that makes him shudder. He is terrified. Lucky’s still growling. ‘Stop growling, Lucky,’ he thinks. A dull thud.
The pale, thin, terrifying man is right next to his bed and the moonlight shining on his face hides just enough of it to make his face look like a skull or a white mask.
‘This is not a man,’ Cooper thinks, tear slipping from his eye, ‘this is a monster’.
The man, monster, whatever he is, smiles. “Well, well. You’ve got your father’s eyes.”
He’s not sure what he did, but the man steps a little back and Cooper’s upright in his bed; the question of ‘how do you know my dad’ burning on the tip of his tongue.
The man smiles again, and this time his face is not an emotionless mask. Cooper’s never seen someone look so evil in real life.
“What a wonderful family. It would be such a shame if Clinton Francis Barton made a mistake while in my… employment. Yes, such a shame.”
Lucky’s full on barking now.
“We will meet again, Cooper Barton.”
‘I hope not,’ Cooper thinks.
The man disappears right as Momma rips open the door. Cooper leaps out of his bed and runs into her waiting arms.
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A few days after Pietro is cleared to walk around again, Cooper prepares for his running training. It’s summer, so the weather is great for running and Dad’s finally put the tractor back in the barn. He hasn’t gotten very far on his usual track when he hears footsteps. He turns around and sees Pietro jogging up to him.
“Are you always this slow?”
“I’m just warming up.”
“I’m already ready to go.”
“I’m nine, Pietro. And Dad said Dr. Cho said you shouldn’t be running, only walking.”
“This is walking to me, Cooper.” Pietro stumbles a bit when he says that.
He scowls at Cooper’s unbelieving face. The boy shrugs and keeps running. It isn’t long until he hears Pietro crash into the bushes along the track. Cooper stops and turns to look back at Pietro. Yup. Definitely in the bushes.
“Do you need help getting out of these brambles or are you going to walk that off?” Cooper teases.
Pietro mumbles something that Cooper is sure Momma would have him wash out his mouth for if it weren’t in Sokovian.
“Give me a hand, will you?” Pietro grumbles. It sounds muffled; maybe he’s got a mouth full of leaves. Cooper giggles.
“You’re the worst little brother I ever had, Coop.”
He grunts as Cooper pulls him to his feet.
“Wow, you’re kind of heavy for such a fast person.”
Pietro swipes at him with his fingers and almost falls over again. Luckily for him, his little brother (finally a little brother!) can keep him on his feet.
“You know, Pietro,” Cooper starts as they walk towards the creek, “I’m glad you’re my big brother. I always wanted a big brother. Kind of difficult when I’m the oldest kid.”
Pietro grins that funny little grin he sometimes does. “I never had a little brother before and now I have two. And another little sister. I’ll be the best big brother ever. Teach you everything I know.”
Cooper thinks this over a bit. “Can you catch frogs?”
Pietro laughs, long and loud and he doubles over. “Can I catch frogs, he asks. I’m the fastest man in the world and he asks if I can catch- Ow ow ow...”
He carefully gets upright again and sees Cooper worrying.
“Don’t do that. Wanda does that enough already,” Pietro grumbles. “Yes, I can catch frogs. I can also catch eels. It’s harder, though. If you help me by keeping the bucket close, I can catch anything you like from the creek.”
They sit a while on the big rock by the creek and look down at the water. Pietro sits on the tire swing Dad had hung in the tree hanging over the water. The rope needs fixing if you actually want to swing, but for sitting it’s still good. Cooper listens while Pietro talks about things he did as a kid. Where he liked to play in the woods outside the city in Sokovia, what his dad showed him about catching fish in a river, how Wanda would turn up her nose at his invitation to join him at the river, but come play there anyway. How angry his mother always was if he came home with frogs in his pockets and mud in his hair, but also how happy she was if he brought back fish.
“If you’re better, I’ll ask Dad if we can go fish for yellow perch. The good time for it is coming up. Momma likes cooking fresh fish too.”
Pietro’s face, a bit gloomy during his remembering, lights up.
“Wanda knows food things with fish too. She makes them really tasty. Thinking about it makes me hungry.”
His stomach growls and they both realise he’s hungry. Cooper’s stomach starts rumbling too.
“We should head back. Momma makes snacks for when I’m done running. She’ll have made some for you too, I think.”
The walk back is fun and animated and Pietro has a bit more of his stability back by the time they can see the farm again.
“You know what we should do?” Cooper says while they’re making their way out of the trees. “We should run home. At least from around here. Not fast, you know, but more my speed.”
Pietro considers this and grins. He looks at the farm, checks if the entire stretch is cleared of big things they could stumble over and nods to Cooper.
“Let’s go. Last one home does the dishes!”
They run and run, shoving each other off the nice path. Pietro almost crashes into the shed, and Cooper almost ends up in a haystack outside of the barn, but they get home together, laughing, shoving, slapping each other on the back and congratulating each other on the good race.
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One day Uncle Steve (and how weird is it to say that to his face, Lila says, that’s Captain America we’re talking to!) comes to the farm with someone only Aunty Nat has met before. Cooper doesn’t know what to think about this man. He’s got a metal arm, but also the same confused look on his face that Wanda had the first time she came to the farm. Uncle Steve introduces him as Bucky and Lila almost faints. Cooper stays back with Pietro and Wanda, while Momma and Dad talk to Steve (and try to talk to Bucky, but he stays silent the entire time). Lucky pads over to Dad, then back to his bed and finally to Cooper.
“Uncle Steve looks tired”, Cooper signs to Lila.
She doesn’t pay attention to him and looks starry-eyed at Bucky. Bucky looks very uncomfortable and Cooper thinks someone needs to distract Lila.
“Lila, come with me. We were going to bake, remember?” Wanda says.
Of course it’s Wanda. She always knows. And Lila really had begged Wanda to bake sweets with her.
Lila doesn’t budge, though. Pietro sighs, hands Nathaniel over to Cooper and goes over to Lila.
“Want to do something cool?” he asks her.
She looks at him for half a second and nods. He picks her up, and whooshes into the kitchen with her. Cooper hears her fussing, and if Pietro doesn’t hush her soon, she’ll start screaming.
“That’s my cue”, Wanda says with a smile and walks into the kitchen.
Bucky’s been watching all of this, Cooper realizes. He readjusts Nathaniel so he holds his little brother a bit better. Nathaniel waves his little hands around a bit, trying to reach and pet Lucky.
“Dad”, he calls out, “Dad, I’m going on the porch with Lucky and Nath. Nath likes the porch swing.”
Dad just nods and Cooper follows Lucky outside. The porch swing creaks a bit when he sits down in it, Nath babbling happily on his lap and Lucky at his feet.
He’s singing Nath a song when the back door opens slowly. Bucky shuffles on the porch, and gingerly sits on the steps. Nath gurgles a bit and lays his little head against Cooper’s shoulder, fully asleep by the time Cooper finishes the song. He sees Bucky watching and pets his little brother on the head before whispering and calling out to him.
“Are you alright, mister?”
Bucky goes still. Hell, for a moment it seems to Cooper everything is going still. He can’t hear anything aside from Nath’s sleepy breathing.
“No. No, I’m… Not at all alright. He keeps calling me Bucky. I don’t even know if that’s my name. I don’t even know who that is.”
Lucky lifts his head and looks at Cooper. He nods and the dog pads over to Bucky, plopping down on his lap and laying his head on the man’s arm.
“You know, mister. Momma said you might be coming. She said your name is James. Is it okay if I call you that? Even if you don’t like Bucky, James is still good. Right?”
The man, buried under a lap full of dog, thinks this over; looks Cooper straight in the eye.
“Sounds good. You can call me James.”
Lucky snorts and Cooper breaks eye contact.
“Great! Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you who I am. I’m Cooper! And I’m almost eleven! This is my little brother Nathaniel, but we call him Nath. And that’s Lucky. He’s the oldest dog in the world.”
Nathaniel wakes up with a giggle and waves at James, who chances a smile and wiggles the fingers on his free hand. Cooper puts Nath’s little mouse hat on the baby’s head.
“Do you want to come sit with me, James? Nath wants to meet you.”
As he says it, he looks around, sees Momma’s smiling face through the kitchen window and he pats the space next to him.
He’s doing something good.
“Dad’s going to be happy. He was looking for an excuse to start renovating again.”
James sits down on the swing seat, Lucky following him and lying down with a huff.
“D’you think he’ll let me help him? I remember renovating things, y’know, before…”
Nath paps James on the metal arm. Cooper grins.
“Are you kidding me? Dad loves having help with his projects. Says having an idea of what they want works better when they can actually see the process of building, or something like that.”
At dinner, Cooper sits next to James. Lila’s on his other side, and she’s being annoying. He kicks her under the table and she howls. Momma’s in the kitchen and she yells something. Dad sighs and moves Lila away from Cooper’s side. Pietro comes to sit next to him. Lila’s put next to Wanda’s chair.
Nath giggles at Steve pulling faces at him. Dad sits down again at the head of the table and Momma and Wanda bring in dinner. It’s Dad’s favourite food tonight. Lila sticks out her tongue at Cooper. Momma gives her the Look and Lila goes back to sulking before she realises that she can actually see James better from this angle. She starts staring at him again.
“Lila, stop playing with your food and eat,” Momma says.
She’s noticed that Lila’s staring and Cooper wonders how James feels.
Dinner passes without too much trouble. Momma and Dad both make sure Cooper and Lila empty their plates and Nath gets his mashed carrots.
“Who wants cake?” Wanda asks, and Lila shoots up and runs to the kitchen.
Cooper feels rather than sees James sagging in his chair. Lila’s staring probably has taken its toll on him. Sure, she stares at Uncle Steve a lot too, but she’s done that since the first time he got to the farm. Uncle Steve is used to it. James, however, is not.
“Lila, careful with that plate, or the cake ends up on the floor,” Wanda stage-whispers and Dad chuckles.
She’s careful enough though, and Momma has the cake plates out faster than Cooper can run. Pietro lays them out and Wanda gets this huge knife to cut the cake with. Lila stands next to her and Cooper finds himself no longer angry at his sister. Wanda cuts a tiny piece of the cake and Lila brings it to Nath, who giggles and smashes his hand in it. Then he picks up the crumbs and happily smears them across his face in an attempt to eat them. Everybody laughs; even James grins a bit and Cooper thinks James should smile more. Wanda keeps cutting the cake she made with Lila, and Lila hands everyone a piece.
“Here Uncle Steve! It’s from a recipe from Wanda’s mom. It’s great, I promise!” Lila all but screams in her enthusiasm to give her childhood hero a piece of cake.
When Cooper gets his piece, he digs in immediately. Lila finally makes it to James, and the plate with cake shakes. She’s still star struck and twitchy. James looks at Laura, really panicky for a split second, then takes the plate.
“Thank you, Lila.”
She yells, loudly and right in Cooper’s ear. He swipes at her.
“Stop fighting kids, or you can go straight to bed without a story or stargazing tonight.”
Sulking, Lila sits back down in her own chair. Cooper’s totally not pouting. He can see from the corner of his eyes that James is smiling. It’s a distant smile, and he’s looking very far away, but it’s a smile. ‘And,’ Cooper thinks, ‘He probably remembers something. That’s good.”
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Since that one time Uncle Tony came to school and explained to the principal lady that the stories Lila told on the playground are more than just a kid’s big imagination talking, the school people all treat Cooper and Lila much nicer. Cooper is somewhat behind in subjects like English and art, but he rocks at science and math. Lila is ahead for English and Social Studies and stuff like that, but her PE and math grades aren’t really that good. Momma did say those are their weaker points, and that they have to work more on these things at school. Cooper runs to the gate on the other side of the playground. Lila’s already there, waiting for him.
“Who do you think is picking us up today?” she asks him, her eyes gleaming with pride. Cooper sees the graded homework she’s holding. She’s got an A, and even he is proud of her.
“Hey, guys! Sorry I’m late, I couldn’t find a parking spot,” Aunty Nat says, running up to them.
“Aunty Nat!” the siblings yell and throw themselves onto their favourite aunt in a weird attempt to hug her.
She walks them to her car. Lila waves goodbye to her friends. Some parents stare dumbfounded at Aunty Nat and Cooper suppresses to laugh in their faces. These parents are the parents that told Momma she was wrong about Dad being an Avenger, and now Aunty Nat, who’s been on TV at least ten times is picking him and Lila up? Cooper smiles sweetly at the mother of a boy in his class who has bullied him before.
When they get home, there are cars parked all over the front yard. Some very expensive car is threatening to roll into the pond and Cooper makes a mental note to warn Uncle Tony.
He follows Lila inside the house and there’s a lot of noise coming from the living room. He hears Uncle Sam whoop and Pietro’s indignant yell; they’re probably playing Super Smash Bros again. Uncle Sam is amazing with Captain Falcon.
“Momma, Dad, we’re home!” Lila yells and Aunty Nat slams the front door shut.
The entire house goes still and then explodes with noise; everyone wants to greet the kids. Lila runs straight to Momma however.
“Look, look, Momma! I have an A on math!” she whoops, and Momma takes the test out of her hand and promises to sign it and put it back in her backpack.
Dad ruffles her hair as he walks past her, and he high fives Cooper. Lila goes and greets the Avengers and all their hangers-on and of course their older brothers and sister.
Cooper kisses Momma on her cheek and puts his schoolbag away.
“We got a new teacher today,” he says and waves at Bucky, who’s really not going by James anymore (which made Uncle Steve happy) and outside, firing up the grill for the Avengers get-together party. Wanda is with him setting up the table for all the side dishes.
“Oh yes? What are they like?” Vision asks while he helps Momma make Wanda’s favourite dessert.
“Miss Harrison is awesome!” Cooper exclaims and the entire room turns to him, Kirby dying on screen in the background.
Uncle Tony grins and turns to him.
“So no more bullying by the principal and that other teacher? Good!”
Nath babbles happily at him from the play pen, where Uncle Bruce was reading him a story (apparently Dad had been joking that Uncle Bruce was safe from the fat mouse baby this way).
“We need a little more elaboration there, Coop,” Darcy says from the kitchen table, where she and Aunty Pepper are looking at Jane’s article in TIME Magazine.
Cooper feels the excitement trying to take over, so he takes a deep breath, looks at Thor and Jane sitting by his telescope (and probably fiddling with the settings again) and starts to talk.
“Today Miss Harrison came in class and started talking to us about Greek mythology because we’re going to read Percy Jackson and the Olympians. We had a pop quiz on what she told us and I got a B on that!”
“Well done,” Aunty Maria says, “Do you have those books yet? Because I was planning on buying the Heroes of Olympus for my collection, but I can buy you both series while I’m at it.”
Cooper thanks her for the books (he really wants those, Greek mythology being in the constellations and all) and goes on to talk about Miss Harrison’s first day with his class.
“Well after the pop quiz, we did math and science and our science lesson had to do with space!”
The excitement takes over and Uncle Steve, finally signing Uncle Phil’s cards (Uncle Phil star-struck next to him), chuckles.
“So today was the best day ever for you, buddy?” he asks.
Cooper grins his widest grin, the Avengers have actually never seen him grin this wide.
“Yeah, told you, Miss Harrison is awesome! She’s from England too! That’s really far away!”
Grandpa Nick, in the kitchen with Momma, has the tiniest twitch of his lips. “That it is, buddy. So is she like Agent Carter was? I know you’ve seen all the footage with your sister.”
Cooper turns to Grandpa Nick. His enthusiasm goes down a bit, but he realises Lila has had class with Miss Harrison today as well.
“Ask Lila, she can explain that better. But I think she’s really cool!”
Later that night, when the stars are out and Dad’s made a fire in the fire pit, everyone goes sit around it. Cooper sits a bit away, looking at the sky. Lucky’s beside him, curling up against his side.
Tonight he’s looking for the meteor showers. He loves meteor showers; the first time he saw one was with Grandma Bunny back when she was still living in an apartment. He almost falls asleep waiting for the telltale tails of the meteorites burning up in the atmosphere, but Dad taps him on his shoulder.
“Look up, space man.”
Cooper does, and there’s meteorites lighting up Aquila. They’re slow but visible.
“Make a wish.”
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Cooper Barton might not exactly be your average kid. Sure, he has a little sister and a little brother and a nice dog and he still likes to play outside. His Momma is still always at home for them and when Dad’s not away for his job that saves the world, he does a lot of fun stuff with Cooper and Lila and Nathaniel. He’s got two big brothers and a big sister, although they don’t have the same last name as him. Cooper likes his Momma’s cooking and his big sister’s baking, running around the farm playing and walking Lucky and doing cross-country runs with his big brothers. He likes science and books and star charts and teaching people what he knows about stars, staring through his big telescope at home or in Dr. Foster’s lab. He’s still not one for fighting, but he doesn’t have to, he’s got his words. Cooper has got four uncles and a grandpapa and grandmamma from his Momma’s side. He’s got seven awesome uncles and four badass aunties and Grandpa Nick and Grandma Bunny on his Dad’s side. He sees them all quite often and visits them often too. Even though he longs for the skies, he’s fine with just running home.