Work Text:
Percy hummed, tilting his head to the side curiously as he stared at Clint. He was pacing the room, talking on the phone quickly to someone, occasionally smiling and waving at Percy, who waved back. He had his own room now, on his own floor, though he still stayed with Clint because being alone terrified him. Though he was promised that he could go to any of them should he feel scared or alone.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t leave just yet.” Clint sighed, tilting his head back to stare at the ceiling. He’d asked Jarvis not to record anything in the room, no camera or audio, so that he could take this call. And for a moment, he regretted taking it at all. Laura was trying to get him to come home early for a small break from the team, but with Percy still hesitant around Natasha at best, Clint knew he couldn’t. “Because, this kid needs me, and I don’t want to drag him all over. He’s still terrified of Natasha at times, and she was there when we rescued him.”
Percy was trying to ignore the conversation, because he felt bad that he was causing Clint to be so stressed out. And from the sounds of the call, he was being asked to come home and he couldn’t. He rubbed his eyes as he laid down. A nap sounded really nice right now, and Clint was talking quietly enough to be simple background noise.
He fell asleep clutching the sweatshirt that Clint took off when he started getting overheated a few hours prior.
Percy gasped violently as he moved to a sitting position, frantically looking around him to see if he could recognize his surroundings. He couldn't, at least not immediately, which caused him to panic more as he cried.
“Clint… Clint…” Percy whimpered, struggling to free himself from the blankets that were wrapped around him. “Clint…” Percy cried, yelping as he slipped from the bed and landed on the floor. It startled him enough to just stop and process for a moment before he started crying more. His head hurt terribly now, and more tears slipped into his eyes before spilling down his face. “Natasha?” Percy asked, whimpering as he pushed himself up.
Everything around him spun as he tried to take a step forward, but he ended up tripping over his feet, and knocked into the ground again. He laid there and cried, not entirely sure what to do because slowly, everything was beginning to hurt, and he was alone, and it was so dark.
“Percy!” He looked up, reaching up for Natasha who dropped down beside him and pulled him into her arms. “I got you, I got you.” Natasha gently rocked him, kissing the crown of Percy’s head as she brushed his hair back. He had a small cut on his head and he looked quite a bit confused. Processing slowly and incredibly dazed. “Thank you JARVIS.” Natasha looked towards the camera with a smile.
“Of course, Ms. Romanov.” JARVIS responded. Percy sniffled, clinging to her tightly as she gently rubbed his back.
“You’re okay, Percy, I got you.” Natasha assured as she scooped him up into her arms and carefully got up. She knew Bruce was still up, and she was concerned about the cut on his forehead, and his slow reactions. “JARVIS, will you alert Bruce that I’m on my way down with Percy?” She asked, grabbing a throw blanket and draping it over Percy’s back and shoulders.
“Of course, Ms. Romanov.” JARVIS answered, and Natasha walked out of Percy’s room on Clint’s floor and moved towards the elevator. She hoped to keep Clint from finding out about Percy’s nightmare for a little while at least, because she knew he was going to hate that he missed Percy crying, or JARVIS trying to wake him up.
“Natasha…” Percy murmured, prompting Natasha to hum as she rubbed his back like she’d seen Clint do almost a hundred times by now. Percy relaxed, and looked up at her. “My head hurts… and so does my back, sorta…” Natasha was concerned, moving just a bit quicker when the elevator opened to let them out.
“It’ll be okay,” Natasha assured, stepping into the Lab, where Bruce was waiting.
“Is he okay? What happened?” Bruce asked worriedly. Percy had been at the tower for two weeks now, and he very rarely left Clint’s side. For Natasha to be bringing him down, it meant that something was wrong.
“He must have had a nightmare, fell and hit his head. Said his back sorta hurt too.” Natasha informed, sitting on the medical bed and setting Percy down in front of her. “I’m still here, Percy,” Natasha assured him as he whined, trying to press back against her and look up at her. He calmed down slightly, though he was still a little resistant to Bruce being around. At least he was aware of who was in the room with him and where he was.
Bruce worked quickly though, and having Percy sitting on her lap seemed to help calm him down like when Clint simply sat next to him. The cut on his head had a bandaid on it, and Bruce rubbed a numbing cream across Percy’s back, wrapping a light bandage around his midsection so the cream didn’t smear on his shirt.
“Okay, he’s good to go now. Unless JARVIS found something in his scan?” Bruce looked over to the side.
“Nothing that is abnormal, he’s in perfect health for his current condition.” JARVIS informed, and Bruce nodded towards Natasha, who was holding Percy again in that protective embrace. It was something that would probably be developed by everyone in the Avengers once Percy was comfortable with more of them.
“Thanks Bruce, Thank you JARVIS.” Natasha nodded her head, jumping off the medical bed, and grabbing the blanket and wrapping it around Percy again. Percy hummed, waving shyly to Bruce as Natasha left. Bruce smiled warmly and waved back.
“Hey, Percy?” Clint glanced to the side, catching Percy’s attention as the child smiled brightly at him. Natasha glanced over, giving Clint a look before turning back towards the salad she was eating. They’d gone to a cafe to get something to eat, since Percy’s never been to one, and then they went to the park so they could eat outside. Something about Steve saying that being stuck in the tower all of the time was probably bad for Percy.
“Yeah?” Percy asked, tilting his head to the side. He had a salad in front of him as well, though his had bacon added to it. It seemed that Percy liked it a lot, so Clint hid his own distaste for bacon being added to a salad.
“I wanted to let you know that I’m going away for three weeks, starting next week.” Clint was hesitant and carefully picked his words. Percy stopped moving, blinking and staring at Clint in confusion.
“What?” Clint felt his heart break, and he could see that Natasha was waiting for the inevitable tears or sobs that would appear once Clint finished explaining.
“Well, you know I have a wide, and two small children as well, right?” Clint asked, and Percy nodded. It was apparently a big secret that Clint was keeping from the team, though Natasha was his best friend and Godmother to both of his kids, so she knew about the secret too.
“Yes…”
“My wife needs me to come home, but I don’t want to pull you everywhere across the country when you are still healing.” Clint explained, but it wasn’t quite connecting in Percy’s mind what that meant. “So I need to go home, and you’ll stay with Natasha at the tower.”
“What…” Percy’s eyes widened and water at alarming speeds. He turned to look towards Natasha before back at Clint. “You’re leaving…”
“I’ll come back. It’s for three weeks, and I’ll come back. And the next time I’ll need to go you can come with me, alright?” Clint assured, and although Percy had nodded, they all knew that Percy was not reacting well to the news. Even with the reassurance.
Percy cried against Natasha’s shoulder, almost full body sobs as he clung onto her. Clint had left just fifteen minutes prior, a kiss to his forehead and a hug as he promised to be back soon. Now, Natasha was left with the crying child who was nearly inconsolable.
“He’ll come back,” Natasha murmured. “He always comes back, I promise.” Percy only shook his head as he clung to her. She sat on the ground, gently rocking him as he cried against her. His blanket was abandoned on the ground, and it seemed that Percy either didn’t care about that right now, or hadn’t noticed.
“He’ll always come back, Percy. I promise.”
Percy rubbed his eyes as he wandered through the Avengers Common Floor, blinking tiredly as he pulled the blanket wrapped around his shoulders tighter. Clint had gone home, something that apparently only Natasha and Percy knew and it could only be them two that knew. So he was wandering around for something to do. And it was while he was doing this that he stumbled across Tony and Steve quietly watching a movie together.
“Can I join?” Percy asked, his voice quiet as he blinked towards them.
“Of course, come on in.” Steve smiled, “Where would you like to sit?” He asked. Something the team had quickly learned is that Percy didn’t like choosing options, but given an open ended option he'll make his own choices just fine.
Percy hummed quietly as he made his way over to a nearby chair and climbed onto it, readjusting his blanket as he looked at the movie. It was an action movie, though it was a little fast paced for Percy. He settled as he curled up in his blanket and stared at the screen.
He ended up falling asleep with both Tony and Steve in the room. It was not something he’d done in his month at the tower yet. Steve and Tony both shared small smiles as they waited for the movie to be over before switching over to a disney movie.
“I’ll make dinner,” Tony muttered, getting up and starting towards the kitchen. Steve only hummed as he took a glance at Percy, who was sleeping peacefully. If he slipped away and came back with a stuffed shark, that was between him, Jarvis, and Steve.
Percy stared at the ceiling, a question on the tip of his tongue but refusing to come out. He let out a frustrated noise, rolling onto his side and grabbing the shark plushie that Steve had gotten him and curling up with it.
“JARVIS?” Percy asked, looking towards the camera that was in the room.
“Yes Percy?” JARVIS asked, getting a small smile from Percy. JARVIS had been told to just call Percy by his nickname, despite the other avengers being called by their last names. “Is there something I can help you with?”
“Where are the others?” He asked, still trying to make up his mind on what he was trying to do, or what he was trying to ask.
“Mr. Rogers is in the training room, Mr. Stark is in his lab, Ms. Romanoff is on her floor, and Mr. Banner is on the Common floor.” JARVIS answered, and Percy hummed. He didn’t like any of the training rooms, hated being in them, so going to Steve was not an option. Tony didn’t like people bothering him in his lab, so Percy didn’t want to interrupt anything that he was doing, and Tony listened to his music really loudly when he wasn’t talking with JARVIS. And Percy remembered that Natasha didn’t like others coming to her floor unless she called them down.
Percy pushed himself up, grabbing his shark plushie and his blue blanket, and made his way towards the door.
“Would you like me to inform someone of your arrival?” JARVIS asked, making Percy pause and hesitate.
“Bruce?” Percy asked.
“I will inform him.” JARVIS answered. Percy imagined that JARVIS would have smiled, even just a small one, had the AI had a physical body.
“Thank you.” Percy made his way to the elevator, flinching in surprise when he didn’t have to hit the button like he normally did. When he got to the Avengers floor, he hummed as he walked towards the common room and found Bruce reading a book.
“Hey, Percy, everything okay?” Bruce asked, a gentle smile on his face as Percy stood in the doorway.
“Yeah… I just don’t like being alone.” Percy answered, walking over and climbing up onto the couch next to the doctor. He hesitated for a moment before leaning against Bruce and glancing at his book. He didn’t understand anything on the page, but that was fine.
“Are you hungry?” Bruce asked. Percy shook his head, settling completely against Bruce as his blanket rested over him and his arms were wrapped around his plushie. “Alright, would you like me to read out loud or just companionable silence?”
“I don’t know.” Percy tensed up a little.
“That’s okay, just let me know if I need to do something, okay?” Percy nodded as he relaxed against Bruce once more. Bruce merely smiled as he continued reading his book.
Bruce offered a bigger smile when Clint came into the room, clearly having gotten back and only stopped long enough to put things in his room. Clint was quick to pull out a phone and snap a picture of the two.
“He’s been asleep for about an hour,” Bruce informed him. “Probably should wake him up, anyways.” Bruce offered and Clint nodded, moving forward. He crouched down in front and gently shook Percy awake.
“Hey, Perce. Said I’d come back, didn’t I?” Clint smiled as Percy brightened up.
“Clint!” He lunged forward and clung onto the Archer, who wrapped his arms around Percy. “You’re back!”
“Said I would, didn’t I?” Percy nodded against his chest, a bright smile on his face.
Clint smiled as he let Percy sleep against his side. He’d been video chatting with Laura and his kids, introducing them more to Percy who was excited to meet them. Both of his other kids were asleep as well, resting against their mother with smiles on their faces.
“Bring him home, next time Clint?” Laura smiled at him. “And bring Nat too.”
“I would have, Laur, but he’s still injured from…” Clint stopped. He still couldn’t fully imagine what had happened to Percy. And Percy never talked about it, preferring to instead replace the memories with new ones with the Avengers.
“I know. How is Natasha anyways?” Laura asked, “How’s Percy handling everything?”
“Natasha’s fine, probably should have her head your way for a while sometime soon. Perce reminds her a lot of her childhood, I think.” Clint sighed, using one hand to run through his hair, and another to gently rub Percy’s side. “And I hear Percy is settling. Came back to him plastered to Bruce’s side, and heard he even sought out Steve and Tony for a while too.”
“Thought you said he was terrified of Bruce?” Laura smiled knowingly.
“He was,” Clint huffed with a smile. “But he’s healing. Another three months or so and I could bring him home for a while.” Clint told her, his voice softening as he thought about that. They had a few spare rooms, and one now was reserved for Percy, like Nat’s was for her.
“Soon, Clint.” Laura smiled. “But get some sleep, lord knows I need to get these two in bed too.”
“Goodnight, Laura.”
“Goodnight Clint.”