Back Before the Start of Us (on hold)

Right now, my time is theirs

They had all hardly slept. James had been up half the night staring out of the window and more often than not, Leo and Nate were with him.
Katia had stared holes into the ceiling and Morgan had tossed and turned the duvet into a tangled mess around her.
Only Lena and Immy had truly slept enough although both woke scared in the middle of the night.

Now, they were all trudging tiredly through the corridors on their way back to the meeting room.
None of them spoke but none of them were scared. They were so tired that they simply couldn't care anymore. If the Avengers didn't believe them then they were kind of screwed.
But they knew their parents. And they knew Tony. There was no way they wouldn't try to bring them home.

The door to the meeting room swung open.
10 children dragged their feet through it, tiredness running manically after them and clinging desperately to their shoes.
9 heads turned towards the kids.
2 agents looked like they would rather be anywhere else.

Coulson asked, "So? Have you guys decided to trust the kids or not?" but his words got lost in the thick tension in the room.

"What does Fury think of all this?" Clint crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. Sceptical.

"He said he doesn't want to get involved in any of this. So are you trusting them or not?" Hill was impatient as always.

"Can't Fury run quick background checks on them? Just make sure everything checks out." Clint wasn't as angry as the night before but he also was just as closed minded.

"He's a very busy man."

"I understand that but-"

The argument was pointless.
It's what any other person in that room would have said.
Hill clearly won but Clint had left to take it up with Fury anyway. So Coulson and Hill sent the kids back to their guarded room to wait until Clint was back.

More waiting.

"I feel like there's something they're not telling us," James said once they had all settled down in the room, "there's just something not right about them."

"Yeah, like mum is acting really weirdly," Charlotte agreed.

Noah joined in too, "I'm so glad you noticed it too. Like she hardly spoke and when she did the rest of them couldn't have looked more shocked if she had turned into a dinosaur and ran out the door."

"Weird analogy but he's right, there's something they're hiding," Leo piped up, standing up from his previous position sat on the windowsill.

"What should we do about it?" Morgan asked, looking around, "I mean it's not like we can just go up to them and ask 'hey why are you being so weird'"

"Actually, that's not the worst idea," James answered.
"Yeah like we could totally do that," Nate chimed in.

"No forget I said anything. But we need to figure it out," Morgan sighed, annoyed.

"Well there has to be a reason that our parents are so reluctant to talk about their past. And I bet that it's the same reason they are acting so weird now. We just need to figure out what happened that was so bad that Auntie Wanda hardly speaks," Katia said.

Everyone was silent for a second as her words sank in.
"Okay. So, what does everyone know?" Charlotte asked.

It turned out that they didn't actually know that much.
Nate knew that Wanda, Clint, Sam and Scott spent a bit of time in prison but nobody knew where, why or how long for.

Morgan knew that the Avengers split in two and argued over the Sokovia Accords but nobody knew exactly what happened there or how it was resolved.

And they all knew that the Avengers used Tony's time machine - the same one that had got them stuck where they were now - to get some things called the Infinity Stones before Thanos got them but they didn't know what the Infinity Stones were or why they were so important.

"Well I heard one of the stones controlled time," Leo said proudly but Morgan argued back.
"That's stupid: how could a stone control time?"
"I don't know but dad said he had a wizard friend remember?" Leo fired back.

"A wizard? Do you realise how stupid you sound?" Katia asked.
"Alright let's not fight. What else do we know?" James intervened.

"I know that Thanos was able to wipe out half of the universe with a snap. I read it on an old news site when I was learning about the whole thing at school and had to research it as homework," Tatum said.
Leo coughed and very obviously muttered, "Nerd."

Tatum just glared at him.
"How did Thanos manage to do that?" Charlotte asked.
"No idea. The website just said 'with a snap'."
"Who's Thanos?" Lena asked, walking over and joining the group of them who were sat cross legged in a wonky circle.
"Some big purple space alien dude who tried to wipe out the universe and conquer Earth," Leo explained with a smirk.

"An alien?!" Immy shouted, running over to stand next to Lena.
"Don't worry, he's not anywhere near us," Charlotte reassured her.
"Yeah, Leo's face scared him off," James joked and both kids laughed and went back to colouring on one of the beds.

"So that's it?" Noah asked.
"Yep. That's all we know," Nate replied.
"It's shockingly little," Katia conceded.
"Honestly embarrassing."
"How is it embarrassing Leo?"
"They're our parents Morgan."
Morgan rolled her eyes.
"Well they don't exactly tell us much so-"
"Just shut it," James pinched the bridge of his nose, "we need to come up with a plan."

Everyone paused.

"And who's gonna do that?"
"All of us Leo!" Katia said, slapping him upside the head.
"Alright, chill."
"Wait what are we actually making a plan for?" Nate asked.
"Finding out what happened that made our parents so weird," Noah replied.
"Yeah I thought that was obvious," Tatum added.
"No, it was not obvious," Nate objected.
"It was," Katia argued.
"Yeah it totally was dude," Leo laughed.
"I thought it was perfectly clear."
"Yeah same."
"See it was totally obvious."
"It was just you mate."
"Yeah whatever," Nate grunted grumpily.

For the next ten or so minutes, they started to devise a plan.

It did not go every well.

"So what are we doing again?"
"For the last time Leo, we are just going to ask them," James groaned, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose again.
"I don't see how that's going to work though," Leo continued.
"Well we won't know if we don't try," James said, "we have been over this a million times."
"So we're just gonna walk in there and say 'hey people who don't trust us, why are you so weird and why don't you want to talk about your past?' How is that going to work?" Leo argued.
"We obviously won't phrase it like that, that's how," Katia said exasperatedly.

"It still won't work!" Leo countered.
He was frustrated. They had wasted enough time being herded through endless corridors like cattle.

It was clear that the Avengers didn't trust them. And yeah, fair enough, he probably wouldn't believe it either if a bunch of kids suddenly walked in and two of them claimed that he was their dad. He would admit it was weird. But they at least deserved to know whether or not the Avengers had decided to trust them.

They deserved to know whether it was stupid to get their hopes up about the people from this time helping them get home or whether they would just have to sit tight and hope that their actual parents could figure out how to get them home soon.

They deserved to know.

Then finally, finally, the door to their room swung open.

"Alright kids. This time they've managed to reach an agreement. Follow me," Coulson had already started to walk away before any of them were out of the door.

Finally, they would know something. Katia had been feeling lost since they were sent back in time. She felt like she was stumbling around in the dark and didn't know what she would bump into. She felt utterly helpless.

And now, that helplessness washed over her again as they walked back towards the meeting room. This decision was completely out of her hands.

There was nothing she could do.