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Okay, problem one… getting Hulk in the building. Pepper had blinked when the giant had grunted at the sudden rain that started pelting down soon after their talk about why Hulk was still out and held out his hands for the young children to gather in so he could keep them warm when it started turning cold. “Hulk take team home?”
“Sure, Hulk… we’ll figure something out,” Pepper mumbled as she kept pace beside the stomping giant, smiling and waving when young Tony scrambled up to sit on his shoulder and grin at her.
Clint was busy trying to climb up with Tony, but the young archer to be kept slipping when the rain came down harder. Tony grabbed his arm and ended up with Hulk catching them both before they could fall. “Tinies be careful.”
“Sowwy, twying to hewp…” Tony mumbled as he held on tighter to Hulk’s hand when the giant lifted them back up to his shoulders. “Tank you.”
Hulk grinned at him, getting a smile back before he stopped when he first saw the tower. “Hulk not fit through door…”
Pepper pressed her palm against her brow, she’d forgotten about that. If Bruce couldn’t come back out they’d have to find a way to get Hulk inside… “I’m sure we’ll think of something. The garage is connected to Tony’s workshop at least. There should be doors big enough for you to get through there. After all, he gets all his cars into his shop,” Pepper mumbled as young Tony blinked at her in confusion.
“Pepper lady take tiny team inside? Hulk stay outside, protect home.”
Well it seemed the tiny team didn’t like that, “Stay wiff Hulk!” Pepper smiled at the absolutely tiny Steve Rogers glaring at Hulk. “Not nice to leave fwiends alone! Specially when it cold, and rainy. They might get sick…” Hulk grunted and looked stunned when the small child gave a hard, deep cough before looking at Pepper for a reason.
“Steve isn’t well Hulk, we need to get him inside out of the rain.” Pepper smiled when Hulk set the children down in front of her. “How about this, I’ll take you all inside the front and Hulk can go to the garage. I promise I’ll take you straight to him. Well, after you all get dry and warm,” Hulk grunted and nodded, making her smile at him agreeing. “Okay?” Pepper slid a hand through blond hair as Steve frowned at her, taking note of the slight temperature before smiling brighter.
“Hulk not staying out in the rain?”
“Nope, he’s going to be safe and warm too. He just has to use a different door ‘cause he’s so big and you all need to get dried off and changed anyway.”
“Hulk wait for tiny team in ‘shop,” Hulk assured, maybe a little too loud, making everyone cover their ears before Steve and the others started nodding and gabbing for Pepper’s hand or sleeve or skirt to keep a point of contact with her.
“JARVIS will show you the way, just walk down that ramp,” Pepper nodded toward the street entrance before smiling at Hulk’s nod while he trudged off.
-
First thing Hulk did after he was led into the workshop was grumble at the row of cars in various stages of rebuild. He growled and, carefully, lifted the two nearest ones to drag them out of his way so he had space to move around. He roared when he stumbled over something, grunting as his hands dented the side of the very shiny and new looking car he was currently moving. “Is everything alright?” Hulk growled at the disembodied voice before remembering who it was and grunted before picking up his foot to see what he’d tripped over. “Hulk, could you please right Dummy? I believe he was attempting to help and got in the way again.”
Hulk grunted at the now moving downed robot attempting to lift some kind of tool at him. He smirked, Bruce had had so many run ins with Tony and Dummy that even Hulk knew the bot was nothing to worry about. In fact, it was kind of like Hulk in a way; wanting to help, but always doing it wrong and getting in the way instead. “Hulk sorry,” Dummy’s arm flailed wide as Hulk tipped the bot back up on its base. “No need help Dummy.”
Dummy whirled at him before making a beeline for the other side of the shop so he would stay out of the way. Apparently being tripped over by the Hulk was enough of a lesson learned for him to stay out of the way when told.
Hulk had just finally gotten a big enough area cleared, and managed not to break anything aside from denting the shiny car, when the doors open to show the tiny team rushing up to him rambling. “Hulk, the wall talked! Is dis place haunted?”
Hulk chuckled and smiled when Natasha climbed up to snuggle under his arm and glare around the room like she expected someone to attack them. “домово́й,” she mumbled and held on tighter.
“JARVIS friend.”
“F-r-end,” Natasha tried to pronounce having heard ‘JARVIS’ enough times to understand that they address the voice by that.
“друг?” JARVIS offered. “I’m not sure if she was taught formal or informal language at this age…”
Hulk chuckled at Natasha blinking at the voice before frowning at him. “F-r-end?”
“Hulk friend.” Natasha smiled, that seemed as much info as she needed to understand, even with the language barrier.
Natasha wanted set down, she started rambling at the ‘домово́й’ in her language until JARVIS finally picked up the level of formality and started responding. Natasha’s smile grew bigger.
Steve was coughing again, Hulk grunted and poked softly at his chest. “I’m okay, I just cough a lot.” Hulk frowned and Steve smiled at him before yawning.
“I gave him something for the fever, it’ll make him sleepy but they could probably all use a nap,” Pepper offered as she handed out small cups of hot chocolate.
Natasha sniffed at hers, JARVIS didn’t even get a syllable out before she was grinning and drinking it. “спасибо”
Pepper smiled and patted her head before frowning at Clint and Tony trying to climb back onto Hulk’s shoulders while holding their full cups. “Careful, don’t spill it, that’s hot.”
“I won’t,” Tony whined, making her smile. Same old Tony, just… Well, younger.
“Hulk have drink too?”
Pepper chuckled, “I’ll see if I can find something big enough for you.”
Hulk smiled as Pepper left the shop, knowing the children would be safe with the abnormally docile giant.
-
Bruce groaned, shifting, trying to inch away from the elbow planted in his ribs. “What happened?”
Pepper was there, smiling, he frowned at her when she help up a newspaper with the headline “Hulk’s Adventures in Babysitting” with a picture of the Other Guy happily wrangling what looked like… children?! “Huh?”
Someone groaned, “Stop moving.”
“Stark, get your foot out of my stomach,” was growled while Bruce tried to scuffle his way out from under the near half dozen bodies he now realized was piled on top of him.
“What happened while I was out?”
“Nothing bad, everything’s okay. Hulk just… well, he likes kids.”
Bruce was still blinking while Clint grumbled and finally untangled himself from Thor’s arm. “Someone tell me what the fuck’s going on?! Stark, I swear to god if you drugged us and performed some stupid experiment-“
“I wouldn’t be here with the rest of you wondering what happened if I did.”
“Yes you would,” Pepper chuckled and smiled. “And for the record, still not the worst thing I’ve walked in on,” Tony jerked at the paper tossed over his arc while Natasha squirmed to cover herself.
“What the hell happened to my clothes?!”
Dummy whirled at them, carrying a blanket while the other blinked down at their own ruined clothes barely covering them. “Welcome to my word,” Bruce chuckled as he, carefully, got out of the pile with the help of Pepper. “Thanks, for… helping us out.”
“So you remember?”
“A little bit.” Bruce blinked at the others still trying to untangle limbs. “They were so cute… what happened?”
“They grew up, it happens.” Pepper laughed as she walked away, “Just don’t expect any more anytime soon.”
Bruce laughed at the others blinking at them both.