Story: "Eggshells" (Part 5 of 6)
Mar. 4th, 2013 12:14 am![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis story is a sequel to "Love Is for Children."
Fandom: The Avengers
Characters: Phil Coulson, Clint Barton, Natasha Romanova, Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers, JARVIS
Medium: Fiction
Warnings: No standard warnings apply.
Summary: The Avengers celebrate Easter together.
Notes: Asexual character. Aromantic character. Asexual relationship. Non-sexual ageplay. Flangst. Hurt/comfort. Mention of past issues. Cuteness. Crafts. Holiday traditions. Ethnic traditions. Teambuilding. Personal growth. Howard Stark's A+ parenting. Making up for lost time. Family of choice.
Begin with Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.
"Eggshells" Part 5
Phil finished his task just as the sun came up. He changed into his "World's Mightiest Uncle" t-shirt and pants, then pulled his bathrobe on. Next he settled onto the couch in the common room. "JARVIS, run program Easter Sunday," he said.
The viewscreen divided itself into six sections: one for each of the Avengers, and another for statistics in which the egg timer was already counting down. The "kids" really were adorable. Tony had kicked off the covers and lay curled up in the middle of his enormous bed, his footie-clad toes twitching as he dreamed. Steve was wrapped around his pillow. Bruce had a teddy bear. Clint and Natasha lay tangled with each other.
And they all came scrambling out of bed when the alarm clock went brrrriiinnnggg! Phil chuckled at the commotion.
"Non-hostile intruder alert," JARVIS announced calmly.
"Tony, what the hell?" Clint yelled over the comm. "That's not part of the standard security system! Have we been hacked?"
"Avengers, please turn your attention to your viewscreens," JARVIS instructed. The sixth frame on Phil's display switched to show him what his "kids" saw -- namely, Phil sneaking through the tower dressed as the Easter Bunny. "As you can see, a non-hostile intruder has infiltrated the premises. Your mission is to retrieve all the foreign objects hidden around the tower using the baskets furnished in your rooms. Hazardous areas have been temporarily sealed off as they are not part of this exercise."
"Uh, hiding eggs isn't really sanitary," Bruce said.
"Please note the egg timer in your display. That indicates the safe period for hard-boiled eggs to be outside refrigeration," JARVIS explained.
"Oh, okay," Bruce said.
Phil gave a quiet sigh of relief. He hadn't been quite certain Bruce would go along with this part. It helped that Bruce found the first egg, because Phil had left the bright green, leaf-patterned shape in his bathroom sink. That should reassure Bruce that Phil had planned the exercise to conclude in a timely manner. The counter for the eggs clicked over to read, Traditional Eggs Found: 1 of 18.
This started a minor stampede as the Avengers hustled into action, scanning the tower for more eggs. They were about halfway through the hard-boiled eggs when Clint found something else.
"Hey, this isn't one of the eggs we decorated! It's plastic," Clint said over the comm, accompanied by a rattling sound. "There's something inside it. Uh, should I bring this down to the lab to scan it?"
"All items in this mission may be considered harmless," JARVIS said. "The lab levels are currently off-limits."
Clint popped his egg open and a small object fell out. Prize Eggs Found: 1 of 5, the display read.
"What is it?" Natka asked at the same time Tony said, "What did you get?"
"Some kind of liquid," Clint muttered, then on a brighter note, "Oh! It's bubble soap." He pried the tiny container open, fished out the wand, and blew a cloud of miniature bubbles. "This is possibly the neatest thing I have ever seen."
Then Phil noticed what Tony was doing. "Tony, put the liquid soap back in the bathroom," he said sternly.
"I was just trying to reinvent the slip-n-slide," Tony grumbled.
"Not in the hallway, and not right now. Try to stay focused on the mission. I know you can do it," Phil said. After Howard's inept -- and largely indifferent -- upbringing Tony needed reassurance that he could meet expectations.
Just then, Natka found a different egg. "What is this?" she said. "It's wrapped in pink foil, and it feels heavy!"
Chocolate Eggs Found: 1 of 5, said the display.
Tony tossed the soap back into the bathroom and speeded up his search for more eggs. Steve found another of the chocolate eggs, peeled off the lavender foil, then sat down and began eating it immediately. A shrill noise sounded. Tony had found the prize egg with the snake whistle coiled inside. Smiling, Phil got up to make breakfast.
A little time still remained on the egg timer when the "kids" picked up the last of the eggs and trooped into the kitchen.
Steve's eyes lit up when he saw what breakfast was. "You made biscuits and gravy!" he exclaimed. Phil had thought he'd like that particular meal.
"Found 'em all," Clint announced. Beside him, Natka placed her yellow Easter basket on the table, pink grass spilling out of it.
"Mission incomplete," JARVIS intoned. "There are still foreign objects unrecovered in your search."
"No way!" Clint said, putting his hands on his hips. "We totally searched this whole tower. Unless somebody hid stuff in the no-go zones like they said they wouldn't do."
"There are no such objects in the off-limits areas of the tower," JARVIS said primly, "nor have you looked ... everywhere."
It was Bruce who caught on. "Tony," he said urgently, tugging on Tony's sleeve, "eastereggs!"
"Oh, I get it!" Tony said. He dove for the nearest computer, which happened to be part of the coffee machine, which did not stop him from calling up the rest of the tower software from that screen.
The other Avengers scattered again, each heading for a favorite computing station. Except for Steve -- he sat down at the table and stared longingly at breakfast.
"Aren't you going to rejoin the hunt, Steve?" Phil asked gently.
Steve shook his head. "Naw," he said, tucking his chin against his chest. "I'm no good with computers."
"You won't know unless you try," Phil said.
"All right," Steve said. "JARVIS, could you help me --"
Electronic Eastereggs Found: 1 of 5, read the display. A holographic egg appeared in front of Steve and cracked itself open to reveal the password for a new video game that Phil had bought and placed on the tower system.
"What ...?" Steve said. He poked at the egg, clearly baffled.
"Yours was programmed to appear as soon as you asked for help with the computer search," Phil explained.
"Oh," Steve said. His eyes watered a little. Then he caught Phil in a tight hug. "Thanks, Uncle Phil," he said.
Bruce quickly found one of the electronic eastereggs and returned to the breakfast table. Clint and Natka took longer. Meanwhile Phil put some of the hard-boiled eggs into the refrigerator and arranged the remainder for breakfast.
"Why hasn't Tony found one yet?" Steve whispered to Phil.
Phil smirked. "Possibly because his is programmed to move every five minutes if he doesn't find it," he whispered back. "I had to do something to make it challenging for him."
A happy squeal announced that Tony had finally found his easteregg. "That was sneaky," he said to Phil, "but I found your bunny tracks and followed 'em and got the egg."
"Mission complete," JARVIS declared. "Well done!"
"Well done indeed, now come and eat," Phil said.
Steve grabbed one of the big soup plates and filled it with biscuits. "I love biscuits and gravy," he said. "We used to have it at home, and sometimes in the army, only we never had so much meat or eggs." He picked up a hard-boiled egg, rolled it under his palm to break the purple shell, and stripped the peel off in one piece. He popped it into the egg slicer, pushed down, then dumped the slices over his biscuits. He took a second egg and repeated the process.
"How'd you do that?" Bruce asked. He picked fitfully at the shell of his glittery yellow egg. "Mine's all stuck."
Steve took the egg from Bruce, cleaned it, and handed it back. Natka had no trouble cleaning her own eggs, and Tony was ignoring them. Clint held out his egg, one of the bluish-purple beet-dyed ones. Steve peeled that too.
Clint popped his egg in his mouth and ate it whole.
Tony giggled. "If you liked girls, or even boys, that'd make 'em look at you twice," he said.
"Nah," said Clint, "I just use it to win bets."
* * *
Notes:
For asexuals unfamiliar with the innuendo regarding Clint and the eggs: Some sexuals like to put other people's genitals in their mouth, and these body parts usually aren't very small. So putting things like bananas or eggs in one's mouth can be thought of in a sexual way, and is sometimes used for flirting. Whole eggs imply that one might suck in one or two testicles, or a fair bit of cock.
[To be concluded in Part 6 ...]
Fandom: The Avengers
Characters: Phil Coulson, Clint Barton, Natasha Romanova, Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers, JARVIS
Medium: Fiction
Warnings: No standard warnings apply.
Summary: The Avengers celebrate Easter together.
Notes: Asexual character. Aromantic character. Asexual relationship. Non-sexual ageplay. Flangst. Hurt/comfort. Mention of past issues. Cuteness. Crafts. Holiday traditions. Ethnic traditions. Teambuilding. Personal growth. Howard Stark's A+ parenting. Making up for lost time. Family of choice.
Begin with Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.
"Eggshells" Part 5
Phil finished his task just as the sun came up. He changed into his "World's Mightiest Uncle" t-shirt and pants, then pulled his bathrobe on. Next he settled onto the couch in the common room. "JARVIS, run program Easter Sunday," he said.
The viewscreen divided itself into six sections: one for each of the Avengers, and another for statistics in which the egg timer was already counting down. The "kids" really were adorable. Tony had kicked off the covers and lay curled up in the middle of his enormous bed, his footie-clad toes twitching as he dreamed. Steve was wrapped around his pillow. Bruce had a teddy bear. Clint and Natasha lay tangled with each other.
And they all came scrambling out of bed when the alarm clock went brrrriiinnnggg! Phil chuckled at the commotion.
"Non-hostile intruder alert," JARVIS announced calmly.
"Tony, what the hell?" Clint yelled over the comm. "That's not part of the standard security system! Have we been hacked?"
"Avengers, please turn your attention to your viewscreens," JARVIS instructed. The sixth frame on Phil's display switched to show him what his "kids" saw -- namely, Phil sneaking through the tower dressed as the Easter Bunny. "As you can see, a non-hostile intruder has infiltrated the premises. Your mission is to retrieve all the foreign objects hidden around the tower using the baskets furnished in your rooms. Hazardous areas have been temporarily sealed off as they are not part of this exercise."
"Uh, hiding eggs isn't really sanitary," Bruce said.
"Please note the egg timer in your display. That indicates the safe period for hard-boiled eggs to be outside refrigeration," JARVIS explained.
"Oh, okay," Bruce said.
Phil gave a quiet sigh of relief. He hadn't been quite certain Bruce would go along with this part. It helped that Bruce found the first egg, because Phil had left the bright green, leaf-patterned shape in his bathroom sink. That should reassure Bruce that Phil had planned the exercise to conclude in a timely manner. The counter for the eggs clicked over to read, Traditional Eggs Found: 1 of 18.
This started a minor stampede as the Avengers hustled into action, scanning the tower for more eggs. They were about halfway through the hard-boiled eggs when Clint found something else.
"Hey, this isn't one of the eggs we decorated! It's plastic," Clint said over the comm, accompanied by a rattling sound. "There's something inside it. Uh, should I bring this down to the lab to scan it?"
"All items in this mission may be considered harmless," JARVIS said. "The lab levels are currently off-limits."
Clint popped his egg open and a small object fell out. Prize Eggs Found: 1 of 5, the display read.
"What is it?" Natka asked at the same time Tony said, "What did you get?"
"Some kind of liquid," Clint muttered, then on a brighter note, "Oh! It's bubble soap." He pried the tiny container open, fished out the wand, and blew a cloud of miniature bubbles. "This is possibly the neatest thing I have ever seen."
Then Phil noticed what Tony was doing. "Tony, put the liquid soap back in the bathroom," he said sternly.
"I was just trying to reinvent the slip-n-slide," Tony grumbled.
"Not in the hallway, and not right now. Try to stay focused on the mission. I know you can do it," Phil said. After Howard's inept -- and largely indifferent -- upbringing Tony needed reassurance that he could meet expectations.
Just then, Natka found a different egg. "What is this?" she said. "It's wrapped in pink foil, and it feels heavy!"
Chocolate Eggs Found: 1 of 5, said the display.
Tony tossed the soap back into the bathroom and speeded up his search for more eggs. Steve found another of the chocolate eggs, peeled off the lavender foil, then sat down and began eating it immediately. A shrill noise sounded. Tony had found the prize egg with the snake whistle coiled inside. Smiling, Phil got up to make breakfast.
A little time still remained on the egg timer when the "kids" picked up the last of the eggs and trooped into the kitchen.
Steve's eyes lit up when he saw what breakfast was. "You made biscuits and gravy!" he exclaimed. Phil had thought he'd like that particular meal.
"Found 'em all," Clint announced. Beside him, Natka placed her yellow Easter basket on the table, pink grass spilling out of it.
"Mission incomplete," JARVIS intoned. "There are still foreign objects unrecovered in your search."
"No way!" Clint said, putting his hands on his hips. "We totally searched this whole tower. Unless somebody hid stuff in the no-go zones like they said they wouldn't do."
"There are no such objects in the off-limits areas of the tower," JARVIS said primly, "nor have you looked ... everywhere."
It was Bruce who caught on. "Tony," he said urgently, tugging on Tony's sleeve, "eastereggs!"
"Oh, I get it!" Tony said. He dove for the nearest computer, which happened to be part of the coffee machine, which did not stop him from calling up the rest of the tower software from that screen.
The other Avengers scattered again, each heading for a favorite computing station. Except for Steve -- he sat down at the table and stared longingly at breakfast.
"Aren't you going to rejoin the hunt, Steve?" Phil asked gently.
Steve shook his head. "Naw," he said, tucking his chin against his chest. "I'm no good with computers."
"You won't know unless you try," Phil said.
"All right," Steve said. "JARVIS, could you help me --"
Electronic Eastereggs Found: 1 of 5, read the display. A holographic egg appeared in front of Steve and cracked itself open to reveal the password for a new video game that Phil had bought and placed on the tower system.
"What ...?" Steve said. He poked at the egg, clearly baffled.
"Yours was programmed to appear as soon as you asked for help with the computer search," Phil explained.
"Oh," Steve said. His eyes watered a little. Then he caught Phil in a tight hug. "Thanks, Uncle Phil," he said.
Bruce quickly found one of the electronic eastereggs and returned to the breakfast table. Clint and Natka took longer. Meanwhile Phil put some of the hard-boiled eggs into the refrigerator and arranged the remainder for breakfast.
"Why hasn't Tony found one yet?" Steve whispered to Phil.
Phil smirked. "Possibly because his is programmed to move every five minutes if he doesn't find it," he whispered back. "I had to do something to make it challenging for him."
A happy squeal announced that Tony had finally found his easteregg. "That was sneaky," he said to Phil, "but I found your bunny tracks and followed 'em and got the egg."
"Mission complete," JARVIS declared. "Well done!"
"Well done indeed, now come and eat," Phil said.
Steve grabbed one of the big soup plates and filled it with biscuits. "I love biscuits and gravy," he said. "We used to have it at home, and sometimes in the army, only we never had so much meat or eggs." He picked up a hard-boiled egg, rolled it under his palm to break the purple shell, and stripped the peel off in one piece. He popped it into the egg slicer, pushed down, then dumped the slices over his biscuits. He took a second egg and repeated the process.
"How'd you do that?" Bruce asked. He picked fitfully at the shell of his glittery yellow egg. "Mine's all stuck."
Steve took the egg from Bruce, cleaned it, and handed it back. Natka had no trouble cleaning her own eggs, and Tony was ignoring them. Clint held out his egg, one of the bluish-purple beet-dyed ones. Steve peeled that too.
Clint popped his egg in his mouth and ate it whole.
Tony giggled. "If you liked girls, or even boys, that'd make 'em look at you twice," he said.
"Nah," said Clint, "I just use it to win bets."
* * *
Notes:
For asexuals unfamiliar with the innuendo regarding Clint and the eggs: Some sexuals like to put other people's genitals in their mouth, and these body parts usually aren't very small. So putting things like bananas or eggs in one's mouth can be thought of in a sexual way, and is sometimes used for flirting. Whole eggs imply that one might suck in one or two testicles, or a fair bit of cock.
[To be concluded in Part 6 ...]
![[identity profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2013-03-04 08:20 am (UTC)Phil really knows how to take care of them. Especially Steve :)
Yes...
Date: 2013-03-04 09:00 am (UTC)Phil really knows how to take care of them.<<
They take a lot of looking after.
>> Especially Steve :) <<
Well, that's the one he studied the most before meeting. It gives Phil an advantage in helping Steve.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-03-04 07:58 pm (UTC)Thank you!
Date: 2013-03-04 10:21 pm (UTC)Yay! I'm glad you liked it. Technology can do marvelous things if you stop to think about how to apply it to challenges.
>> Loved how Phil had thought about everything, even for Steve and his computer issue, very sweet. <<
I'm glad that worked for you. Phil has a knack for creative problem-solving. Also he values Steve for more than just muscle and wants to make it possible for him to learn new skills.
>> I'm loving this fic very much, thabk you for sharing! <<
I'm happy to hear that. By the way, I finished the sequel, "Dolls and Guys."
Re: Thank you!
Date: 2013-03-05 12:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-03-04 08:43 pm (UTC)such adorableness
Thank you!
Date: 2013-03-05 12:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-03-05 01:31 am (UTC)Thank you!
Date: 2013-03-05 02:07 am (UTC)I'm glad you liked it.
>> Love the addition of the electronic eggs. :) <<
Wouldn't be much of a hunt in Avengers Tower without 'em. ;)