Story: "Birthday Girl" (Part 9 of 18)
May. 1st, 2013 12:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis story is a sequel to "Love Is for Children," "Eggshells," "Dolls and Guys," "Turnabout Is Fair Play," and "Touching Moments," "Splash," and "Coming Around."
Fandom: The Avengers
Characters: Phil Coulson, Clint Barton, Natasha Romanova, Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Hulk, Steve Rogers, Betty Ross, JARVIS.
Medium: Fiction
Warnings: Inferences of past child abuse. Current environment is safe.
Summary: Doombots crash a beautiful spring day in the park. The Avengers clean up the mess. This includes Natasha's rather confused longing for something she never had: a birthday party.
Notes: Asexual character (Clint). Aromantic character (Natasha). Asexual relationship. Teamwork. Canon-typical violence. Friendship. Confusion. Hulk is a genius too. Fluff. Making up for lost time. Birthday. Cultural traditions. Games. Gifts. Cake. The cake is never a lie! Tickling. Trust issues. Safety and security. Non-sexual touching and intimacy. Personal growth. 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, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18.
"Birthday Girl" Part 9
As promised, Uncle Phil made arrangements for the birthday party. After securing Natka's permission, he issued the rest of the invitations himself so as to minimize stress all around. He notified SHIELD to contact the Fantastic Four in case of incident, and not to interrupt the Avengers during the relevant date, on pain of death by a thousand paperwork cuts. JARVIS turned the whole of cyberspace upside-down without finding a match for the cake, and finally resorted to calling caterers in Moscow until he found someone willing to share the recipe in exchange for a contract to cater a Stark Industries event.
Uncle Phil put careful thought into planning the party and its activities. He wanted to create a blend of traditional and contemporary, things that Natka might have encountered in an ordinary Russian childhood and things particular to New York now. He also hoped to balance the inherent whimsy of a birthday party with Natka's personal sense of reserve. With a little luck, she'll play along if we don't push too far, Phil thought.
They wore party clothes instead of pajamas this time. This meant that Steve was in a button-down shirt and neatly pressed trousers, an example that Phil followed himself. Tony and Bruce wore jeans and t-shirts with cartoons, Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles respectively. Clint insisted on short pants and suspenders for reasons that he refused to disclose. Betty requested a party dress that, to Phil, looked like a fluffy pink cake topper. Natka, as the birthday girl, chose a nice white blouse and trim navy-blue trousers ... over the most ridiculously impractical pair of floppy powder-blue glitter-gel sandals that Phil had ever seen.
She could never run in those, Phil mused, watching Natka kick her heels lazily against the couch. The shoes flapped loosely with every swing of her feet. He had never known her to wear something she couldn't run in if she had to, even in a secure location. Then the realization hit him, squeezing his heart like a velvet fist. Oh. She's wearing them to remind herself that she feels safe -- that she doesn't have to run here. For that alone, he could count the party a success.
Phil included his "little ones" in the decorating process. First they made a Happy Birthday banner. They cut balloon shapes from colorful paper and gave each a ribbon tail. Next Tony ran off giant letters on a portable printer. Natka and Clint cut out the letters.
Steve and Betty did most of the coloring -- she was quite good at staying inside the lines, even if she had little skill at drawing freehand. Bruce pasted one letter on each shape. Then they strung all the letters together with more ribbon.
Finally Steve, as the tallest, went to hang the banner on the wall. "Use the masking tape from the craft supplies; that won't damage the paint," JARVIS prompted. Steve was still trying to learn appropriate uses for the nearly infinite array of supplies in the tower. He was used to making do with much less, and sometimes the results were not optimal.
* * *
Notes:
This is Tony's t-shirt.
This is Bruce's t-shirt.
Betty's dress looks something like this.
EDIT: ReticentGrace found similar dresses for women, one asymmetrical and one even. I think Betty would go for this pink and white one. She likes things that are a little frilly but not completely over the top.
Here are Natka's sandals.
Clothes can express feelings. Here are some tips on showing emotion through clothes.
Read the instructions for making birthday banners.
[To be continued in Part 10 ...]
Fandom: The Avengers
Characters: Phil Coulson, Clint Barton, Natasha Romanova, Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Hulk, Steve Rogers, Betty Ross, JARVIS.
Medium: Fiction
Warnings: Inferences of past child abuse. Current environment is safe.
Summary: Doombots crash a beautiful spring day in the park. The Avengers clean up the mess. This includes Natasha's rather confused longing for something she never had: a birthday party.
Notes: Asexual character (Clint). Aromantic character (Natasha). Asexual relationship. Teamwork. Canon-typical violence. Friendship. Confusion. Hulk is a genius too. Fluff. Making up for lost time. Birthday. Cultural traditions. Games. Gifts. Cake. The cake is never a lie! Tickling. Trust issues. Safety and security. Non-sexual touching and intimacy. Personal growth. 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, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18.
"Birthday Girl" Part 9
As promised, Uncle Phil made arrangements for the birthday party. After securing Natka's permission, he issued the rest of the invitations himself so as to minimize stress all around. He notified SHIELD to contact the Fantastic Four in case of incident, and not to interrupt the Avengers during the relevant date, on pain of death by a thousand paperwork cuts. JARVIS turned the whole of cyberspace upside-down without finding a match for the cake, and finally resorted to calling caterers in Moscow until he found someone willing to share the recipe in exchange for a contract to cater a Stark Industries event.
Uncle Phil put careful thought into planning the party and its activities. He wanted to create a blend of traditional and contemporary, things that Natka might have encountered in an ordinary Russian childhood and things particular to New York now. He also hoped to balance the inherent whimsy of a birthday party with Natka's personal sense of reserve. With a little luck, she'll play along if we don't push too far, Phil thought.
They wore party clothes instead of pajamas this time. This meant that Steve was in a button-down shirt and neatly pressed trousers, an example that Phil followed himself. Tony and Bruce wore jeans and t-shirts with cartoons, Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles respectively. Clint insisted on short pants and suspenders for reasons that he refused to disclose. Betty requested a party dress that, to Phil, looked like a fluffy pink cake topper. Natka, as the birthday girl, chose a nice white blouse and trim navy-blue trousers ... over the most ridiculously impractical pair of floppy powder-blue glitter-gel sandals that Phil had ever seen.
She could never run in those, Phil mused, watching Natka kick her heels lazily against the couch. The shoes flapped loosely with every swing of her feet. He had never known her to wear something she couldn't run in if she had to, even in a secure location. Then the realization hit him, squeezing his heart like a velvet fist. Oh. She's wearing them to remind herself that she feels safe -- that she doesn't have to run here. For that alone, he could count the party a success.
Phil included his "little ones" in the decorating process. First they made a Happy Birthday banner. They cut balloon shapes from colorful paper and gave each a ribbon tail. Next Tony ran off giant letters on a portable printer. Natka and Clint cut out the letters.
Steve and Betty did most of the coloring -- she was quite good at staying inside the lines, even if she had little skill at drawing freehand. Bruce pasted one letter on each shape. Then they strung all the letters together with more ribbon.
Finally Steve, as the tallest, went to hang the banner on the wall. "Use the masking tape from the craft supplies; that won't damage the paint," JARVIS prompted. Steve was still trying to learn appropriate uses for the nearly infinite array of supplies in the tower. He was used to making do with much less, and sometimes the results were not optimal.
* * *
Notes:
This is Tony's t-shirt.
This is Bruce's t-shirt.
Betty's dress looks something like this.
EDIT: ReticentGrace found similar dresses for women, one asymmetrical and one even. I think Betty would go for this pink and white one. She likes things that are a little frilly but not completely over the top.
Here are Natka's sandals.
Clothes can express feelings. Here are some tips on showing emotion through clothes.
Read the instructions for making birthday banners.
[To be continued in Part 10 ...]
Re: Thank you!
Date: 2013-12-27 05:03 am (UTC)Yeah, once somebody replies to a comment, it can't be edited anymore. That's a nuisance.
>> BTW I don't know why I have *kidnap* in my head for how Clint left the orphanage. I may be mixing up a story I read (I am a big Clint fan and tend to look for well written back-stories for him) with canon. <<
It's possible. Canon is varied for many Marvel characters. The relationship between Clint and Barney is very complicated, with a mess of healthy and really unhealthy aspects. I don't think Clint is necessarily a reliable narrator for what happened between them, because he was so young for most of it, Barney often tried to mislead him, and Clint saw things through his own wishful thinking until quite late.
>> Really, it is more likely that Clint followed Barney (his big brother, whom he still trusted) away from the orphanage rather than Barney *taking* him away. <<
I suspect that Clint still wanted to be with Barney then ... but Barney probably talked him into doing things that weren't very prudent. It's murky. Barney got worse as time went on, and that was really hard on Clint. Plus some of the people at the circus were horrible, although others were nice to them.
>> But thanks so much for including the detail of Clint's outfit, and it's meaning, in the story! <<
I'm glad I could help. Clint just doesn't talk about his past very much. As the series progresses, though, you can see more starting to peek out. He's starting to feel safe enough to explore the parts that hurt, and sometimes another person's experience will draw out comments from him.