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It was early July. A light rain fell over Manhattan. A light mist sprayed over the Avengers Tower. Steve woke up. He yawned and coughed. And coughed and coughed and coughed.
“Mommy?” he called, between his coughing. Where was she? Did something happen to her? He tried to get out of bed and fell over. The bed was huge! The room was huge! Had he been kidnapped?
“Mommy?” he called again.
He was cold. He looked in the closet but everything was made for a grown-up. He chose an undershirt and it hung on him like a dress. He wanted to go home.
---
Natasha rolled over and fell off the bed. She woke with a start, her heart pounding. Had anyone heard? When had they un-handcuffed her from the bed? This was a test and they were watching her and she had failed. They would come soon.
The minutes dragged by. Nobody came. Natasha slowly stood up and moved to climb back in the bed. But it wasn’t her bed. It was big and soft and had multiple blankets and pillows. Clearly, this was a much bigger test than she had thought. She needed to find out more.
The door would be booby-trapped but the windows were high up. They opened easily and she swung herself onto a small ledge and started creeping around the building.
---
Thor woke up with a start. He had been up half the night, but something was wrong. He stood up and crossed the room to the door. He started to open it and then stopped at what he saw in the mirror. His beard was gone, replaced by the scraggly stuff he’d been pretending was a beard when he was 17? 18?
“Magic.”
He rushed into the hall.
Steve’s room was the closest, just a floor above his. He knocked on the door. “Friend Steve?”
No answer.
He opened the door and a tiny child jumped back, coughing. It must be Steve. Despite how skinny the youngling was there was something in his eyes that looked like Steve. But there was no recognition.
“Friend Steve,” he said, “It’s me, Thor. We must have all been de-aged. Loki knows a clever trick very similar to this--though it cannot be him.” He sighed. “I wish…” He trailed off. “Friend Steve?”
Steve stood up. He put one hand on his hip and thrust his chest out. “Where’s my mom?” he demanded, still coughing.
---
Natalia slipped. For a moment she hung in the air. Then her foot caught on a ledge lower down. She slipped off that ledge, too, then grabbed it and hauled herself back up. It was beneath a window.
The window looked into a room where a giant man was talking to a tiny child. She couldn’t hear anything through the window, but she marked down what she could see.
The man was young, with long blond hair that reached his mid-back. He was dressed in pajamas that were too big on him. Odd. He looked troubled.
The child was scared of him, but was pretending not to be. He was also blond, but really skinny. Skinny like he was being starved. She needed to hear what the man was saying, but she was in his peripheral sight. If she moved he would see her.
---
The person who had kidnapped him was crazy. Meshugge (like Mrs. Katz said). He really believed that Steve was actually grown-up who had been turned back into a kid with magic. He was saying something about getting Steve medicine. He seemed nice. He was just crazy. And Steve didn’t want to be here.
“Mr. Thor,” he interrupted. “I need to go home.”
The crazy man frowned. “This is your home, Friend Steve. You have abided here for the last three years.”
Steve ignored the last sentence since it wasn’t understandable. “It’s not, Mr. Thor. You’re very nice, but my mom needs me at our home.”
---
Steve wouldn’t believe him and he had doubts about being able to convince Natasha. He could see her, crouching outside the window, but he made no move towards her. The fall was steep and he couldn’t fly.
…He could. As long as he had Mjolnir with him. How had he forgotten about Mjolnir? This magic needed to be reversed quickly.
“Stay here, Steven,” he said. “I need to break Loki out. I’m sure he will help me. I am his brother after all.”
He turned around to leave, then turned back. Steve would not stay here. He did not think Natasha would either. Neither would Tony if he was affected by the magic and he must be. “Friend Steven, we are going to rescue Loki so that he can rescue you.”
He walked to the window and waved. Natasha opened the window and slipped in. She knelt on the floor. He switched to Russian.
“Natasha, you likely do not understand what is happening any more than Steven, but we need to go rescue Loki. My brother.”
Natasha stared at him for a moment, then leapt to her feet. “Yes, sir!”
He smiled at her, but her expression didn’t change. Her eyes were blank. And yet she could not be any older than seven or eight. He knew that her childhood had been terrible, but he did not like to think about such things. Now it was staring him in the face. As was Steven’s unnatural thinness. No child should be that thin.
“Come, Friends Natasha and Steven. We need to find the others.”
Natasha marched after him, but Steven didn’t move, so he gently took his hand.
---
Bruce woke at the sound of his door creaking open. “In a minute, Aunt Susan,” he said, not moving at all.
He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Friend Bruce,” said a voice that was definitely not Aunt Susan’s. And the hand was huge. Had his father escaped? Had he killed Aunt Susan?
He threw off the covers and threw himself off the bed, ready to fight. Across the bed was a guy who looked to be a senior and two skinny kids. It also wasn’t his bed. Or his room. Had he finally cracked like his father had? Like his father had always promised he would?
“Friend Bruce,” the tall guy said again. “I know that this is confusing, but you have been the victim of magic. You have been turned into a child again. Do you remember me?”
Bruce stared at the guy. “Where am I?” he finally said.
“In your home--the Avengers Tower. We are going to go get Tony and Clint and then we will rescue my brother, Loki.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Bruce said. But he kind of did. For some reason the name ‘Tony’ seemed important.
“I know,” the tall guy said. He seemed really sad about it. Bruce needed to think.
Fact 1: He was in a room that wasn’t his.
Fact 2: A guy that was clearly crazy was talking nonsense about magic to him.
Fact 3: The guy knew his name.
Fact 4: Bruce’s father had gone crazy. Bruce was more genetically inclined to go crazy himself.
Conclusion: He had gone crazy and was in a mental hospital.
Now that he wasn’t crazy he should find a member of staff and tell them that. There weren’t any here, but they were probably close by. And the tall guy would probably be calmer if Bruce went with him.
“Let’s go, then,” he said. “Uh, what’s your name, by the way?”
---
Tony sat up. He had just had the most brilliant idea! If he combined the arc reactor with… His thoughts trailed off. He tried to grasp them, but they had vanished. He had had too much to drink last night. He couldn’t even remember where the party had been.
There was a knock at his door and then it opened.
“Hey!” he yelled. “I could’ve been getting dressed in here!”
“Friend Tony,” said a deep voice.
He turned towards it. The guy standing there with two kids and a teenager was not the house mother. And this room wasn’t his dorm room or his room at home. What had happened last night?
“Who are you?” he demanded.
“I am your companion, Thor,” said the guy with the deep voice. “These are Steve, Natasha and Bruce. More friends of yours. We were turned into children by malicious magic. You humans cannot remember who you were.”
“And you can remember? Because you’re not human?”
“I’m Asgardian,” Thor said. “I believe you are correct. We Asgardians are more powerful and able to withstand magic than humans.”
Tony rolled his eyes.
Then he noticed the guy called Bruce waving in his direction, trying to get his attention.
“Mental hospital,” he mouthed.
Well, that made a horrible amount of sense. He had been this close to being expelled so they must have all decided that they would be happier if he was in a mental hospital where he couldn't bother any of them. He would bet it was Howard’s idea to take him in his sleep. They must’ve drugged him. God, he was dumb.
“Um,” said Bruce. “Thor, uh, believes we need to go find two more people.”
Tony shrugged. “Nothing else to do here.”
---
Clint woke up with five people staring down at him. Four of them were kids. He sat up and looked the grown-up straight in the eyes.
“I don’t like social workers.”
Then he realized he was sitting in a huge bed in a gigantic room. He frowned. “Where’s my mom?” He would’ve remembered if they’d taken her to jail.
One of the older kids said something, but Clint didn't hear him. The little girl was staring at him like she could bore a hole through him and he knew he should feel weird about it, but instead he felt like he knew her. Like if he just stared at her long enough he would remember who she was.
He shook his head. He needed to figure out what was happening. He felt under his pillow for his hearing aids. They were there but they weren't his. They were smaller, lighter and black. When he put them in there were no annoying static sounds.
Also, there was a shirt under his pillow. Had someone undressed him? He had pants on but they were too big on him. The shirt was too big on him, too, but he put it on.
“Where's my mom?” he asked again, trying to sound calm but he sounded scared. They weren't going to take him to see his mom. He needed to escape.
The kid who had spoken before stepped forward. “It's okay,” he said uncertainly.
The littlest kid started crying. The grown-up picked him up and started soothing him. Clint wondered how long the other kids had been stuck here. He took a deep breath.
“Either you're a foster parent, and you're too young for that, or you kidnapped me. Which one?” he asked, trying to pretend to be brave but his voice shook. Under the covers, he fisted his hands in the too-big pants.
The grown-up looked weirdly sad. “I am Thor. These are Steve, Bruce, Tony and Natasha. We will go rescue my brother, Loki.”
Clint nearly threw up. He swallowed hard. They must have given him something to make him sleep.
He felt a hand in his under the covers. The little girl--Natasha?--had climbed onto the bed with him. Her gaze was fierce, like he wished his could be.
--
Thor held onto a huge, shiny hammer. Steve held onto his other hand from one side and Bruce's from the other. Then Tony, Natasha and Clint. Clint was clearly only there because Natasha was.
Bruce gave Tony a look. What is this guy doing?
Tony smirked back at him.
Before Bruce could even shrug his arm was wrenched and they were flying. More than flying. They were moving at warp speed through the galaxy, which kept shifting. He heard Steve retching. Then they landed on a rocky outcrop outside a glittering city.
“Ohmygod, magicisreal!” Tony squealed. “Do you know what this means for physics? No, right? Neither do I but I'm going to find out!”
Bruce nodded, but that was not the main thing he was thinking of. “Does this mean everything he told us is real? About us being adults who were turned back into kids?”
Tony stopped running around. “Does that mean my adult self already knows about magic? Do you think he uses it in his work? He must! What do you think he does with it? What can you do with it? I need to find out!”
“Friend Tony,” Thor said. “You will know what you once knew once we rescue Loki.”
“How does that work?” Tony asked. “I don't mean the actual rescuing part, I'm sure you've got that under control, but the him helping us? I'm not sure why, but I have a bad feeling about this guy.”
Bruce nodded. He had the same feeling.
Thor shifted. “Loki is…difficult sometimes. But I am sure he will help us if I explain. I am his brother.”
Tony and Bruce looked at each other. Tony opened his mouth, but Thor continued. “I will rescue him alone. Too many people will draw attention. When we come back he can help Steve.”
Steve had stopped coughing, but he lay dully in Thor’s arms. Bruce didn’t know much about kids but Steve seemed really sick. Plus, they had no other choice. He slowly nodded.
Tony wasn’t so easily convinced. “What do you mean by ‘difficult’? You’re hiding something from us. You know what, I think I’m going to like your brother a lot more than you.”
A strange expression crossed Thor’s face. He handed Steve to Bruce quickly. “I will return soon,” he said and flew away.
Bruce sat down. Steve’s eyes were open but he didn’t look like he was seeing anything. His skin was pale and clammy. Bruce could hear Tony talking to Clint and Natasha in the background, but his focus was on Steve.
“Steve?” he said.
Steve’s body shuddered.
“Steve,” Bruce said again. “I’m Bruce. Can you hear me?”
Steve nodded slowly. “‘m tired,” he mumbled.
Bruce was looking more closely at Steve’s face when he began to answer. Steve’s lips were blue.
“Shit!” he yelled. He put Steve as gently as he could on the ground and began mouth-to-mouth.
The other three ran over. “What happened?”
Bruce paused for as short a time as possible. “He’s losing oxygen.”
“There must be someone around,” Tony said. He ran off.
“Here,” Bruce heard Tony say. “He’s here.”
He ran back to them, followed by three huge men dressed in armor and fur. One of them picked Steve up and ran towards the city.
“The rest of you are fine, right?” one of the others asked.
They nodded.
---
Natasha sat quietly in a tall chair. The others were talking loudly around her, but she only listened with half an ear. Something had gone wrong. Their mission had been to rescue Thor’s brother Loki, but then he had left them without any more information. She had never had this little information on a mission before. It was good that Tony had found Volstagg, Fandral and Hogun. It must be easier to rescue Loki from inside the city.
Volstagg, Fandral and Hogun were obviously very worried about Thor having brought them there though, of course, no one had mentioned why. Tony pretended to not know. Bruce seemed unhappy about this. He was weak.
Clint sat on the arm of her chair. Natasha was happy about this, but she didn’t know why. Being near Clint made her feel like everything was better. She knew some simple ASL, too. She didn’t remember learning it, but her fingers had automatically summarized what Tony said when he talked too fast or with his head constantly moving.
Natasha slipped off the chair and moved towards the door. She had thought that Volstagg, Fandral and Hogun were occupied, but Volstagg said, “Hey, where are you going, princess?”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Steve is our friend. We want to see him.”
“Sure,” Volstagg said. Just like Dreykov always said: people expected little girls to be weak and so they would do anything for them.
“Come, children, let’s go to see your friend, Steve.”
“Are you sure that is wise, Volstagg?” asked Hogun. “The Healer said he needs a lot of healing.”
“What is more healing than friends?”
Hogun nodded. “Sometimes, rarely, you speak wisely, Volstagg.”
Natasha marked their way carefully, trailing at the back of the group. Servants and nobles passed them. She wrinkled her nose in distaste. There was so much…stuff…here. Indulgence led to laziness. This should be easy.
The Healer said that Steve was sleeping, but he would live. They could come in two at a time if they promised to be quiet.
“Can I ask something?” Natasha asked when they left Steve’s room.
The Healer smiled. “Of course.”
“Where do you get all the carpets from? It’s so pretty. In my home we don’t have any carpets.”
“It must be warmer there than it is here,” the Healer said. “We get them from all over. I know this one was made by Vanir craftswomen.”
“It must have cost a lot,” Natasha said. “It’s soooo pretty and soft.” She rubbed it. It was soft.
“Well, I don’t know how much it costs,” the Healer said, clearly a little uncomfortable talking money with a seven-year-old. “It is pretty, though. Freya, our Queen, bought it and she chooses well.”
“Is she pretty, too?”
“Very.”
“She must like you a lot to give you such a pretty carpet.”
The Healer laughed. “I don’t think she’s ever seen me, but she appreciates the healing arts. Her younger son…” She trails off. “I used to think he would become a Healer, too, though it’s an unusual occupation for a man. But that’s not important. Your friend is healing well and will be ready to go home in a week.”
“Can I help you?” Natasha asked quickly.
“An excellent idea!” Volstagg boomed. He was even louder than Thor.
The Healer frowned at him. “There’s not much to do, sweetheart. Your friend just needs rest.”
“Please.” Natasha widened her eyes and poked out her lower lip. “It was so scary when Bruce had to give him mouth to mouth.”
“Fine.” The Healer sighed. “But you need to be quiet.”
Natasha tugged on Clint’s hand and led him after the Healer back to the sickroom. Bruce confirmed they were fine staying alone and left with Tony. Natasha tugged Clint down to sit next to Steve’s bed. There was an emergency exit map on the wall. Natasha studied it, pretending to be focused on Steve.
Finally, the Healer left after warning them again to be quiet. Natasha stood up.
“Where are you going?” Clint signed.
Natasha frowned at him. “To find Thor.”
But before she could take one more step alarms started blaring. Steve sat up. He climbed out of the bed. The Healer rushed back in the room. In a moment, Fandral was there, too.
“We need to get the children to safety,” he told the Healer. “I have a place for them.” Before she could say anything he scooped up all three of them and carried them out. He ran down corridors they hadn’t been down before and into a tunnel, then out into a field. He ran and ran until he reached the rock Thor had left them on. It took much longer than it had to get there. Natasha thought it was a roundabout way.
Thor, Bruce, Tony and Hogun were on the rock along with a skinny man with dark hair.
“What the fuck, Thor,” said Fandral. Bruce covered Steve’s ears.
Volstagg jumped onto the rock and grabbed the skinny man’s arm. THe skinny man tried to jerk away but Volstagg was much stronger than him.
“Get off of me or you will regret it,” the skinny man hissed.
Volstagg laughed bitterly. “What’s going on, Thor? I know he’s your brother, but this is crazy.”
“We need to leave,” said Thor.
Volstagg suddenly turned furious. “So that’s it,” he boomed. “You’re abandoning your friends-”
“I’m going with him,” Hogun interrupted. His mouth and eyes were pinched. He was angry too. Natasha didn’t move.
“We need to leave,” Thor repeated. He grabbed Bruce’s arm. Bruce’s eyes widened and he dropped Steve. Hogun grabbed Steve. Steve kicked him.
Tony looked between the adults and held onto Bruce. Natasha quickly followed his example, dragging Clint with her.
“I’ll meet you there,” Hogun said.
Thor nodded once. Natasha took a breath. And then they were flying again.
---
Hogun arrived not long after they did.
Natasha and Clint vanished together the moment they entered the building.
Thor, who had grabbed his brother from Volstagg right before they flew into space (!) again (!), dragged him to another room. Bruce was glad to see him go.
“I need to go to the bathroom,” he mumbled at Tony and left.
He had been in enough fights to know that Thor hadn’t grabbed him hard enough to leave a bruise but he checked anyways. It was barely red.
---
Natasha and Clint sat in a vent. It was hot and stuffy and loud. Even with these really good hearing aids Clint couldn’t hear anything over the static of the wind. He had taken them out and stuffed them into his pocket. Natasha was tapping his arm over and over in a pattern. Weirdly, it felt like he knew the pattern. Like Natasha had done this a thousand times. There was a word for that. Deja ju?
No, that wasn’t it.
But had he seen Natasha before? He didn’t remember it, but he didn’t remember how he got to this place. It obviously wasn’t a group home or the hospital so what was it? Had he been knocked out, like in the comics, or were his memories erased with magic? Had he seen Natasha before? Had they ever sat together like this?
He hated this. He wanted to go home. Now.
Suddenly, he was big. His head banged against the top of the vent with a crack that made his eyes water.
Natasha slithered out from under him and quickly opened the vent. He dropped down and Loki was in front of him. Loki was there and his head hurt and he reached for his arrows but they weren’t there.
Natasha was in front of him. He tried to move next to her, but she motioned for him to stay back. She had a plan. But Loki had magic. Loki could brainwash her.
Loki was gone.
He had left, with Thor right behind him.
Clint sat suddenly. The kitchen floor was cool against his bare feet. The wall was sturdy.
Natasha sat next to him. She held his hand, tapping it.
---
Bruce blinked and he was taller. He remembered everything all at once. The past day mingled with the memories of the past month and year and decade and his life. It was too much. He needed it to stop.
And it did.
---
“Fuck,” Tony said. His chest hurt. It fucking hurt so much. He knew it had hurt worse once when Obie--
There was a crash from the bathroom. The Hulk. Tony stood up as fast as he could (extremely fast according to him, much slower according to the security cameras), grinning. He loved the Hulk. (He hated thinking about Obie.)
“Jarvis, Iron me up.”
The suit flew to him and he flung his arms out. This was home.
He walked to the bathroom.
“Hey, Big Guy. Being a grown-up sucks, huh?”
---
Steve woke up and nothing hurt. He felt strong, vital.
For a moment, he expected to hear Froggy calling him to dress rehearsal, but there was no sound at all. He looked around and everything fell into place. He was in the Avengers Tower, in his own room, and he was not going to see his mom.
“Captain,” Jarvis said. “Would you like a cup of coffee?”
Steve stared up at the ceiling. “Actually, Jarvis, I think I’m going to go for a run.”
EPILOGUE
“Hey, Dummy!,” Tony said. “Hey, Butterfingers!”
Butterfingers and Dummy held onto his fingers. Butterfingers waved to Bruce.
“Looks like Butterfingers missed you.”
Bruce patted Butterfingers head.
“Hey, Jarvis,” said Tony. “You really abandoned us today. Not like these guys.”
“I did the best I could under the circumstances, sir.” There may have been a slight note of reproach in Jarvis’ voice. “I was afraid that a voice from the walls may have done more harm than good.”
Tony rolled his eyes. “Way to leave a friend hanging. But we have a mission to do. Ready to find the bastard who made me relive being thirteen?”