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This story was written for the Asexy Valentines Fest, partly inspired by
aceofannwn. It also fills the "game night" square on my card for the
trope_bingo fest. This fest features fundamental motifs that will be familiar to most readers. It encourages writers to analyze storylines and characters, then reinterpret them in new ways.
Fandom: The Avengers
Characters: Phil Coulson, Clint Barton, Natasha Romanova, Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers, Nick Fury, JARVIS
Medium: Fiction
Warnings: No standard warnings apply.
Summary: Phil Coulson is SHIELD's best handler for a reason: he can deal with the broken people that nobody else can manage but desperately need anyway. So he comes up with an unusual teambuilding idea to shore up the Avengers.
Notes: Asexual character. Aromantic character. Asexual relationship. Flangst. Dysfunctional dynamics. Mention of past abuse. Incidental self-injury. Non-sexual ageplay. Games. Cuteness. Teambuilding. Personal growth. Howard Stark's A+ parenting. Hurt/comfort. Trust issues. Making up for lost time. Odin's A+ parenting. Teamwork. Family of choice.
Begin with Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8. Skip to Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14.
"Love Is for Children" Part 9
Steve was halfway through his piece of cake when Natka slowly crept out from under the coffee table. "Здравствуйте," she said. Hello.
"Здравствуйте," Steve replied in serviceable Russian. Then to Phil's surprise, he continued, "Меня зовут Степан. Как тебя зовут?" My name is Steve. What's your name?
"Меня зовут Натка," she said. My name is Natka.
Phil was thrilled. She almost never spoke Russian outside a mission. He watched the interaction very quietly and very closely, hoping it would unfold well. He'd had such hopes for them, early on, because Steve came from a time when America and Russia were allies. Most people treated Agent Romanova with wary reserve. She returned it with guarded respect, or indifference in the case of people she didn't find respectable. That was tolerable on a mission, but less so on a personal level. She needed allies. She needed friends. Besides, it wouldn't hurt to have a Captain America with more fluency in Russian.
Natka switched back to English and said, "Would you read to me?" She handed Steve a comb-bound booklet that Phil had painstakingly pieced together from English and Russian sources, so that it read Винни-Пух down the left-hand pages and Winnie-the-Pooh down the right.
"Sure," Steve said. The Russian was just simple enough for him to manage it, although he got the most adorable frown-line between his eyes, and it sounded as if he were sight-reading some of the words rather than actually understanding them.
Then he stumbled over слонопатат. "I have no idea what this is," Steve said.
"I know! I know!" said Tony, popping up the from the floor. Because of course he knew Russian from his arms dealing, though where he'd learned that word, Phil had no idea. Phil himself had only found it when making the booklet for Natka. Maybe Tony had seen it there too.
"Let Steve work it out for himself," Phil said. He had a suspicion that Steve was a lot smarter than anyone, including Steve, realized yet. Theoretically, the serum enhanced everything, but nobody had wanted Steve for his brains. Idiots. Phil hoped that Steve was familiar with Winnie-the-Pooh canon, or this wouldn't work. The material was old enough, though. "Steve, what does the first part of the word remind you of?"
Natka watched them expectantly. Maybe Phil wasn't the only one with suspicions about Steve's intelligence.
"Well, слон means elephant," Steve said slowly, "but there aren't any elephants in this -- oh! Heffalump!" He bounced in place on the cushions, causing the entire couch to shake under his weight. His grin was radiant.
Beside him, Natka giggled. "I knew you could get it," she said.
Now Bruce scrambled out from under the coffee table, and Clint dropped the game controller, to turn and stare at her. Even Phil was staring, though he made himself stop as soon as he realized it. Natasha never giggled except when a mission called for it. She rarely even laughed. What she needed most from this exercise was the chance to discover the sweeter aspects of childhood that she had missed. Phil had done his best to provide that, but this was a marked improvement. The "kids" responded differently to each other than they did to him.
Natka nudged Steve to start him reading again, and he picked up where he left off, telling the story of Winnie-the-Pooh and the heffalumps. Tony and Bruce crawled beneath the coffee table to sit by Steve's feet. Clint abandoned the Smurfs to drape himself over the back of the couch. Phil discreetly turned off the video game and settled back to listen himself. He liked Winnie-the-Pooh who, for a bear of very little brain, was uncommonly wise.
"The End," Steve concluded at last.
"Read another," Natka said.
"Let someone else take a turn picking the next story," Phil said. He hated to interfere between Natka and Steve, but he really wanted to emphasize taking turns. The Avengers did poorly at that in combat, and it undercut their tactical potential. Even Steve tended to assign individual tasks based on their skills, rather than directing them to work together. Playing games could help support the idea of taking turns and cooperating.
"Where the Wild Things Are," Tony said, at the same time Bruce and Clint chorused, "The Velveteen Rabbit."
"Okay, I hear two votes for The Velveteen Rabbit, so let's do that one next. I haven't read it in a long time," Steve said. "Then maybe Uncle Phil will read us Where the Wild Things Are. I don't know that one."
It had come out while Steve was under the ice, Phil realized, looking forward to introducing Steve to a favorite book. The Velveteen Rabbit was another 1920s classic, though.
"I'll get it!" Clint said. He scampered to the game closet, brought the book to Steve, then resumed his perch on the back of the couch. Phil made a mental note to revisit the catalogs with an eye toward acquiring a couch that had a wider, firmer back so Clint could be more comfortable in his preferred use of furniture.
Steve read the story in a warm, even voice. Phil could tell from the emotion he put into certain scenes that Steve found the rabbit's transformation especially moving. Phil himself agreed. It amazed him how many children's stories resonated closely with even the more esoteric experiences that his team had. Not everyone seemed to feel the same, though.
By the time Steve finished reading, Natka was frowning faintly. "You don't like this book?" Steve asked.
Natka shook her head. "It's dumb. Life doesn't work that way," she said. Then she sniffed a little. "Love doesn't make things real, no matter how much you want it to."
"Does too," Tony said. "DUM-E is real!" Hard to argue with that one: the clunky little robot had saved Tony's life once, and he loved it with a fiercely burning loyalty.
"What is real?" Bruce quoted softly.
Steve pulled Natka onto his lap and said, "Love is the strongest thing in the world, Natka. It's just confusing sometimes, so we don't always understand it. That doesn't mean it can't work miracles. Bucky and I were brothers, even though we weren't born that way. It was something we chose for ourselves. Being his brother was the best thing that ever happened to me, and it was love that made it real."
Natka said nothing more, but her hand crept up to clasp Clint's fingers. He slid off the back of the couch to pile on top of her and Steve. On the floor, Tony wrapped himself around Steve's legs. Bruce edged over to press against Phil, since little of Steve remained in reach. Phil picked him up and cuddled him. Tony crawled up and somehow wedged himself between Steve and the armrest.
Phil looked around at his team, packed tightly onto the couch, and hoped that Steve knew what he was talking about.
* * *
Notes:
Winnie-the-Pooh is a popular children's character now appearing in many formats. Yes, it has been translated into Russian, and yes, that's the word for heffalump. As far as I know, however, there isn't a half-and-half version bilingual in English and Russian, so I had Uncle Phil make one for Natka.
EDIT:
leiacat says: The word for heffalump is Слонопотам (as in the 1958 translation by Boris Zahoder, which is what anyone Russian-speaking would have grown up with). Also, there does exist a parallel translation version adopted for the Russian students of English, but it's said to be not very good in Russian, and most assuredly would not work for evoking one's childhood. Uncle Phil would have done his research right and selected Zahoder.)
I'm leaving my version intact for reasons of personal nostalgia, because that is what I encountered in Russian class and I don't know what edition it was. I'm including the additional notes so that readers may make an informed decision about their own preferences.
The Velveteen Rabbit and Where the Wild Things Are also top the lists of recommended reading for children.
[To be continued in Part 10 ...]
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Fandom: The Avengers
Characters: Phil Coulson, Clint Barton, Natasha Romanova, Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers, Nick Fury, JARVIS
Medium: Fiction
Warnings: No standard warnings apply.
Summary: Phil Coulson is SHIELD's best handler for a reason: he can deal with the broken people that nobody else can manage but desperately need anyway. So he comes up with an unusual teambuilding idea to shore up the Avengers.
Notes: Asexual character. Aromantic character. Asexual relationship. Flangst. Dysfunctional dynamics. Mention of past abuse. Incidental self-injury. Non-sexual ageplay. Games. Cuteness. Teambuilding. Personal growth. Howard Stark's A+ parenting. Hurt/comfort. Trust issues. Making up for lost time. Odin's A+ parenting. Teamwork. Family of choice.
Begin with Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8. Skip to Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14.
"Love Is for Children" Part 9
Steve was halfway through his piece of cake when Natka slowly crept out from under the coffee table. "Здравствуйте," she said. Hello.
"Здравствуйте," Steve replied in serviceable Russian. Then to Phil's surprise, he continued, "Меня зовут Степан. Как тебя зовут?" My name is Steve. What's your name?
"Меня зовут Натка," she said. My name is Natka.
Phil was thrilled. She almost never spoke Russian outside a mission. He watched the interaction very quietly and very closely, hoping it would unfold well. He'd had such hopes for them, early on, because Steve came from a time when America and Russia were allies. Most people treated Agent Romanova with wary reserve. She returned it with guarded respect, or indifference in the case of people she didn't find respectable. That was tolerable on a mission, but less so on a personal level. She needed allies. She needed friends. Besides, it wouldn't hurt to have a Captain America with more fluency in Russian.
Natka switched back to English and said, "Would you read to me?" She handed Steve a comb-bound booklet that Phil had painstakingly pieced together from English and Russian sources, so that it read Винни-Пух down the left-hand pages and Winnie-the-Pooh down the right.
"Sure," Steve said. The Russian was just simple enough for him to manage it, although he got the most adorable frown-line between his eyes, and it sounded as if he were sight-reading some of the words rather than actually understanding them.
Then he stumbled over слонопатат. "I have no idea what this is," Steve said.
"I know! I know!" said Tony, popping up the from the floor. Because of course he knew Russian from his arms dealing, though where he'd learned that word, Phil had no idea. Phil himself had only found it when making the booklet for Natka. Maybe Tony had seen it there too.
"Let Steve work it out for himself," Phil said. He had a suspicion that Steve was a lot smarter than anyone, including Steve, realized yet. Theoretically, the serum enhanced everything, but nobody had wanted Steve for his brains. Idiots. Phil hoped that Steve was familiar with Winnie-the-Pooh canon, or this wouldn't work. The material was old enough, though. "Steve, what does the first part of the word remind you of?"
Natka watched them expectantly. Maybe Phil wasn't the only one with suspicions about Steve's intelligence.
"Well, слон means elephant," Steve said slowly, "but there aren't any elephants in this -- oh! Heffalump!" He bounced in place on the cushions, causing the entire couch to shake under his weight. His grin was radiant.
Beside him, Natka giggled. "I knew you could get it," she said.
Now Bruce scrambled out from under the coffee table, and Clint dropped the game controller, to turn and stare at her. Even Phil was staring, though he made himself stop as soon as he realized it. Natasha never giggled except when a mission called for it. She rarely even laughed. What she needed most from this exercise was the chance to discover the sweeter aspects of childhood that she had missed. Phil had done his best to provide that, but this was a marked improvement. The "kids" responded differently to each other than they did to him.
Natka nudged Steve to start him reading again, and he picked up where he left off, telling the story of Winnie-the-Pooh and the heffalumps. Tony and Bruce crawled beneath the coffee table to sit by Steve's feet. Clint abandoned the Smurfs to drape himself over the back of the couch. Phil discreetly turned off the video game and settled back to listen himself. He liked Winnie-the-Pooh who, for a bear of very little brain, was uncommonly wise.
"The End," Steve concluded at last.
"Read another," Natka said.
"Let someone else take a turn picking the next story," Phil said. He hated to interfere between Natka and Steve, but he really wanted to emphasize taking turns. The Avengers did poorly at that in combat, and it undercut their tactical potential. Even Steve tended to assign individual tasks based on their skills, rather than directing them to work together. Playing games could help support the idea of taking turns and cooperating.
"Where the Wild Things Are," Tony said, at the same time Bruce and Clint chorused, "The Velveteen Rabbit."
"Okay, I hear two votes for The Velveteen Rabbit, so let's do that one next. I haven't read it in a long time," Steve said. "Then maybe Uncle Phil will read us Where the Wild Things Are. I don't know that one."
It had come out while Steve was under the ice, Phil realized, looking forward to introducing Steve to a favorite book. The Velveteen Rabbit was another 1920s classic, though.
"I'll get it!" Clint said. He scampered to the game closet, brought the book to Steve, then resumed his perch on the back of the couch. Phil made a mental note to revisit the catalogs with an eye toward acquiring a couch that had a wider, firmer back so Clint could be more comfortable in his preferred use of furniture.
Steve read the story in a warm, even voice. Phil could tell from the emotion he put into certain scenes that Steve found the rabbit's transformation especially moving. Phil himself agreed. It amazed him how many children's stories resonated closely with even the more esoteric experiences that his team had. Not everyone seemed to feel the same, though.
By the time Steve finished reading, Natka was frowning faintly. "You don't like this book?" Steve asked.
Natka shook her head. "It's dumb. Life doesn't work that way," she said. Then she sniffed a little. "Love doesn't make things real, no matter how much you want it to."
"Does too," Tony said. "DUM-E is real!" Hard to argue with that one: the clunky little robot had saved Tony's life once, and he loved it with a fiercely burning loyalty.
"What is real?" Bruce quoted softly.
Steve pulled Natka onto his lap and said, "Love is the strongest thing in the world, Natka. It's just confusing sometimes, so we don't always understand it. That doesn't mean it can't work miracles. Bucky and I were brothers, even though we weren't born that way. It was something we chose for ourselves. Being his brother was the best thing that ever happened to me, and it was love that made it real."
Natka said nothing more, but her hand crept up to clasp Clint's fingers. He slid off the back of the couch to pile on top of her and Steve. On the floor, Tony wrapped himself around Steve's legs. Bruce edged over to press against Phil, since little of Steve remained in reach. Phil picked him up and cuddled him. Tony crawled up and somehow wedged himself between Steve and the armrest.
Phil looked around at his team, packed tightly onto the couch, and hoped that Steve knew what he was talking about.
* * *
Notes:
Winnie-the-Pooh is a popular children's character now appearing in many formats. Yes, it has been translated into Russian, and yes, that's the word for heffalump. As far as I know, however, there isn't a half-and-half version bilingual in English and Russian, so I had Uncle Phil make one for Natka.
EDIT:
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I'm leaving my version intact for reasons of personal nostalgia, because that is what I encountered in Russian class and I don't know what edition it was. I'm including the additional notes so that readers may make an informed decision about their own preferences.
The Velveteen Rabbit and Where the Wild Things Are also top the lists of recommended reading for children.
[To be continued in Part 10 ...]
(no subject)
Date: 2013-03-23 11:06 pm (UTC)The Heffalump is Слонопотам (as per the One True Translation, 1958 by Boris Zahoder, which is what anyone Russian-speaking would have grown up with).
(Also, there does exist a parallel translation version adopted for the Russian students of English, but it's said to be not very good in Russian, and most assuredly would not work for evoking one's childhood. Uncle Phil would have done his research right and selected Zahoder.)
Okay...
Date: 2013-03-30 01:44 am (UTC)Re: Okay...
Date: 2013-03-30 03:34 am (UTC)Re: Okay...
Date: 2013-03-30 03:42 am (UTC)You're welcome.
>> It's not often that I immerse in the story strongly enough that a stray detail like that can kick me right out. <<
I try to get details right. I also push my limits; especially in fanfic I'm prone to try things that I'm not sure I can do well. It's useful practice.
>>This was a lovely read.<<
There are several more stories in the series now:
"Eggshells"
"Dolls and Guys"
"Turnabout Is Fair Play"
"Touching Moments"
Bear of very little brain
Date: 2014-09-23 06:57 pm (UTC)Re: Bear of very little brain
Date: 2014-09-24 05:01 am (UTC)Sooth.
>> anyway poor Natka least she has someone to talk Russian to build better memories of <<
Not just the language, but the culture -- someone to remember when Russia and America were allies.
>> does Phil speak Russian can't remember if you said what he knows I see him as polyglot but can't get a handle of which languages except Japanese cause Karate and Akido <<
Yes, I think of him as speaking multiple languages too. Russian and Spanish for sure, and you're probably right about Japanese.
Headcasting
Date: 2015-11-27 02:22 am (UTC)