“You have a what?”
“You have a what?” Clint repeated, a wry grin tugging at his lips.
“Yeah, you heard me,” he said, glancing over at Peter. “I want to introduce you to my kids.”
“You… have kids?” Peter’s brow furrowed. “How come this is the first I’m hearing about it?”
Clint shrugged. “You never asked.”
“Right,” Peter said, a small smile creeping onto his face. “Do you want me to come over? I’ll introduce you to them.”
“Yeah. Sure.”
“Great!” Clint said, already reaching for the car door handle.
————TIME SKIP————
“This is my house, Pete,” Clint said, pulling up to a two-story colonial with a well-manicured lawn. “Cooper is about your age, and Lila is a couple of years younger.”
“Okay.” Peter said, a little too quietly, and followed Clint inside. The scent of cinnamon and old books filled the air.
“Cooper, this is Peter.” Clint announced, stepping into the living room. “Peter, Cooper.” Peter found himself staring at a boy slightly taller than himself, with windswept light brown hair and a dusting of freckles across his nose and cheeks. He was bouncing on the balls of his feet, eyes bright with curiosity.
“Cooper, why don’t you show Peter your room?”
“Okay!” Cooper said cheerfully, already leading Peter up the stairs. His bedroom had a blue and green theme, soccer posters plastered across the walls and trophies gleaming on the shelves.
“Take a seat,” Cooper said, gesturing to a grey beanbag chair in the corner. There was an awkward silence before Cooper said, “So, what do you like to do? Hobbies? Sports?”
“Oh, um, I like to build things,” Peter mumbled, shifting on his feet. “I wanna be an engineer when I’m an adult. I don’t really play any sports.”
“Really? Not even at school?”
“Well, I go to a science school, so we don’t really focus on sports. But we do run a lot in Phys Ed, and sometimes we climb the rope. What’s your favorite subject?”
“I like PE, but Math is pretty fun too. Sometimes we’ll do these trivia games, Kahoot? Have you heard of it?”
“How has anyone *not* heard of Kahoot? It’s one of my most favorite things ever! We do them in decathlon sometimes.”
“Decathlon?”
“It’s kinda like Kahoot except it’s not on screens. Like someone calls out a question and you have to tap the bell…” Peter trailed off, remembering his own first time.
“Oh, like trivia smash.”
“Yeah, like trivia smash. We travel to compete with other teams.”
“That’s cool. Do you like to prank people?”
“Of course I do! Your dad does too. You must have gotten that from him.”
“My dad likes to prank people? Really?” Peter’s eyes widened.
“Oh yeah. Him, Bucky, and Pops are usually the victims. But there was this one time, your dad, Bucky, and I filled up the training room with balloons. We had to blow up so many, but it was worth it to see Uncle Steve’s reaction. He usually exercises in the morning, so he was half asleep. It took him a couple of seconds to realize what was happening. But to make it more funny, we were hiding in the vents, and we jumped down and started popping all the balloons. It was SO funny. He screamed so loud he woke up the entire tower. Amazing.”
“That does sound funny. What’s this about vents? Like in Among Us?”
“Kinda. Your dad uses the vents to get around the tower. It’s kinda funny.” Peter paused. “You like Among Us?”
“Yeah, who doesn’t?”
“Wait, do you have it on your phone?” Cooper said, already halfway out of his chair.
“Yeah.”
“I’ll get my iPad.” Cooper ran out of the room and came back moments later, holding a green iPad close to his chest.
“The code is ADUFJK,” Cooper said, bouncing on his toes.
“Okay,” Peter said, typing in the code.
“Hey Pete, time to go!” Clint called from downstairs, poking his head through the door.
“Aww, c’mon Dad! Can we just play one round of Among Us?”
“No, I’m sorry but Tony really wants you home for dinner.” Clint said, gesturing to Peter.
“Okay,” Peter grumbled, though he sounded much more enthusiastic. “Bye Cooper!”
“Bye Peter!” Cooper said, grinning.
—————————
So, did you like it? Is it what you wanted?
❤️❤️❤️
Chloe