My newest Avengers Fic, CAGED!

I'm super excited about it...LET'S GOOOOO!

Disclaimer: I do not nor will I ever own any of characters depicted below that you may recognize...they belong to forces higher then me, and I respect them and applaud them for their beautiful creations.

June 6th, Aaron Rogers fifth birthday

Steve Rogers had fought a war. He was a soldier. He'd saved the world twelve times over. He could handle a five year old's birthday party.

Maybe.

"Hon, could you grab the ice from the freezer?"

"Sure thing babe."

"And make sure the cake is still intact? I saw Aaron eyeing it earlier."

"Of Course."

"Daddy!"

And oh, the sweetest sound in the universe…but maybe not at this exact moment. "Yes, son?"

"Can you play with me?"

"Not just yet, why don't you go outside for a few minutes?"

"But, Daddy,"

"Aaron Grant, you leave your father alone and go outside."

"Awww…yes mommy."

"And Steve?"

"Yes?"

"I think the doorbell just rang, would you go open it please?"

"On it."

Armed with a cake in one hand, ice in the other, Steve opened the front door to his house…and smiled.

"Tony."

Whipping off his sunglasses, Tony Stark smirked at who he considered one of his closest friends. "Hey Steve-o. Wife got you on double-time?"

Steve chuckled. "She's worse than a drill sergeant, but," Steve's voice lowered dramatically, "don't tell her I said that.

"I heard that." Steve winced as his wife's voice reached him. He shrugged and turned to Tony's son; turned five just that February.

"Aunt Nicole is gonna be mad at you." He spoke slowly, and Steve smiled.

"You're right about that, Marco." He agreed. "Why don't you run outside and see if you can find Aaron?" Marco nodded and ran inside after getting a nod of approval from his mother.

Pepper Potts, heavily pregnant and glowing, stepped forward to grab the cake from Steve's hand. "Nicole in the kitchen?" Steve nodded, and Pepper chuckled. She kissed Steve on the cheek as she passed by him. "It's good to see you Steve."

Steve and Tony watched Pepper navigate the hallway for a moment before turning to each other.

"I demanded we show up an hour late, but Pepper demanded to be hear two hours early to help with set up. We compromised," Tony shrugged, checking his watch to confirm that he and his family had arrived only an hour early.

Steve clapped Tony on the shoulder. "I appreciate it. Nicole's been going crazy all morning."

"Not as easy as it look, huh?" Tony joked.

Steve shook his head as he steered Tony into the backyard so they could watch their kids playing. "You think I'd seen enough of these that I would've been prepared, but-"

"Not so much, then?" The two men turned to see a smiling Clint, his daughter set on his shoulders.

"None." Steve and Clint shook hands and Tony sent the man a nod. "Where's the wife?"

"Mama's in the kitchen with Aunt Nicole and Pepper!" Leila held out her hands, and Clint squatted slightly so Tony could lean forward and grab her from his shoulders. Leila hugged him tight in thanks before running to where the other kids played in Steve's large backyard.

"Tasha berating them on their baking skills?" Steve asked. Clint shrugged.

"Of course! What's new?" Steve deposited the bag of ice he'd been hefting around into a nearby cooler and took a seat, the other two men following suit.

"Who're we missing then? Thor and his brood, and Bruce?" Tony asked.

Clint chuckled. "Bruce should be here soon, and Thor will show up fifteen minutes early thinking he did good, then get all upset when he realizes he's still the last one to show up."

Steve laughed. "Then Jane will yell at him because she'll think they're late and blame it on him."

Tony snickered. "And Sam will show up twenty minutes late and pat himself on the back for not being later."

"When did we become so predictable?" Tasha mused as she stepped out into the backyard and moved to Clint's side. He wrapped an arm around her.

"When we became parents." He joked. He looked down at the woman who'd finally said I do just a few short months ago, despite the fact that they'd been living together and raising a child together for five years. "Any regrets?"

Tasha smiled and shook her head.

"To no regrets." Steve leaned forward and handed his guest glasses of lemonade. The group smiled and clinked their glasses together, repeating after Steve.

"To no regrets."

"I can't believe it's been five years since we've had to save the world," Bruce mused, swirling his drink as he watched the kids playing kickball in Steve's backyard. Benjamin, his son, was in the outfield more focused on picking flowers than the game. He chuckled.

Clint, who sat next to him, snorted. "Well I can't believe that we all just decided to have kids within months of each other." Clint pointed to the group of five-year-olds that Sam Wilson and his wife were trying corral.

"The assassins daughter, the God of Thunders twins, and the sons of the hulk, Iron man, and Captain America, all in kindergarten together? Learning to drive at the same time?"

"Dating each other?" Tony teased. Clint narrowed his eyes.

"You keep your boy away from my angel!" He threatened. Tony just laughed.

"Well I think it's Xander you'll have to worry about." Thor chimed in. "My son is quite the flirt, even at five."

"Wonder where he learned that from," Steve ribbed.

"Who learned what?" The Avengers paused in their conversation to welcome their better halves to the patio. Nicole, Steve's was tall, blonde and beautiful, the greenest eyes anyone had ever seen. She sat down next to her husband and Steve grinned.

"Something about a flirting five year old?" Jane Foster, now Odinson, settled herself on her husbands lap. Blue-green eyes met brown and Thor's smile deepened. "

"Our son is a flirt." He admitted seriously.

Pepper laughed as she lowered herself slowly into a chair, her large belly a hindrance. "Well that's no surprise.

"Looks like he's not the one we should really be worried about though," Tasha stood behind Clint's chair, her hands on his shoulders, and she jerked her head toward the kids, where Ben was shyly handing Leila one of the flowers he'd picked.

Clint rolled his eyes. "My baby's surrounded by ruffians…and Rhiannon."

"Who might have a flirt for a twin but is otherwise a doll." Jane smiled. "And she keeps her brother in line."

"I for one am glad this one's a girl." Pepper rubbed her belly softly, and the group smiled at the gesture.

"Well," Thor hesitated as he looked at his wife with a secretive smile, "I would not mind another boy."

Bruce's eyes narrowed. "Should we be expecting another Odinson within the year then?"

Jan flushed, and the group snapped to attention.

"Or sooner?" Clint pressed.

Jane gave her husband a small nod, and Thor's hand landed protectively on his wife's stomach, as if it had wanted to be there all along. "Try in six months." He burst out proudly.

The Avengers began to talk over themselves, laughing and smiling at the happy announcement.

"Please tell me no one else is pregnant!" Tony joked, eyeing the group suspiciously. He passed Clint and Tasha by; knowing that while Clint had taken to his role as a stay at home dad like a duck to water, that Tasha was too busy with work to contemplate another child at the moment, and Tony didn't linger to long on Steve and Nicole, who'd had a rough time of it with Aaron, and under the advisement of doctors had decided not to try again. Tony pointed to Bruce with a raised brow, and Bruce just laughed.

It was common knowledge that while Bruce and Ben's mom had a cordial relationship, Ben had been the result of a one night stand.

Tony shrugged. "Better to ask, am I right?!"

"A toast." Steve proclaimed for the second time that warm June evening. "To our kids; those present and not yet here, to family and friends, to great memories and good times to come, and to five years without an earth-threatening catastrophe." Glasses clinked.

"Not five years just yet." Clint pointed out. "We've still got a few weeks left."

Tasha rolled her eyes. "Yeah, because some crazy alien is going to decided to wage war on earth within the next 24 days."

"Like that's going to happen." Tony snorted.

Clint just shrugged, turning his head slightly to eye the kids playing.

"You never know…"

June 6th, Aaron Rogers 16th Birthday

11 years later

"Aaron Rogers, I don't care if it is your birthday, you get your butt back in here and take out the trash!" Nicole Rogers sighed heavily as she waited with arm outstretched for her only son to hurry back inside and grab the full garbage sack out of her hand.

"Sorry Ma." Aaron flipped his blond hair out of his bright blue eyes, sending his mom a bright grin as he took the bag from her. "Hi Aunt Pepper." He threw out towards the red head seated at his kitchen island.

"Hey Aaron. Happy Birthday." Pepper drawled lightly. Aaron beamed in response, and then he was gone. "They grow up so fast, don't they?" Pepper joked.

Nicole huffed, standing in the middle of her kitchen. "They grow into punks is what they grow into." Pepper laughed in agreement. "That's for sure."

"And you have two of them! How do you do it?" Nicole plopped onto a bar stool, exhausted. Pepper watched her sympathetically.

"What happened…it was hard on all of us." Pepper spoke slowly. "But I think of all of us, you got the worst of it." Nicole's shoulders slumped.

Three weeks after Aaron's fifth birthday, the earthquakes had started. It became relatively obvious that what everyone thought were earthquakes actually were the beginning attack of an alien force bent on destroying Earth.

A month after Aaron's fifth birthday and the Avengers suited up once more to defend their planet. The Avengers fought hard, and valiantly, and they saved earth…..but the final battle gleaned no survivors.

No one was quite sure how the Avengers had fallen, but that battle: The Final Battle, as it was penned, left earth with two certainties.

One: Earth had been defended. And Two….

The Avengers were dead.

The aftermath left three grieving widows, two orphans, six fatherless children, and a planet without it's heroes. It had been a long grueling process, but 11 years later, the Avengers oldest children were sixteen, and everyone had done the best they could to move forward.

Pepper gave birth to her daughter three days after she'd lost her husband. She raised her infant daughter and young son singlehandedly while running a company. She established a childcare center to ensure that the Avengers children had a place that they could grow up together, and founded a High School in honor of America's heroes: The Avengers Academy. She made sure that the eclectic family unit that the Avengers had made when they'd still been alive held strong; which is one reason she sat so comfortably in Nicole Roger's kitchen.

Nicole shrugged in response to Pepper's comment. "Because Aaron's always been so sick? Because his hospital bills nearly bankrupt us? We managed."

Pepper smiled. "You've done more than just manage, Nicole. You're the strongest out of all of us; Jane and I may have lost our husbands as well; but I had a company to support me, and Jane had the support of her second husband, as nice as he was to show up on the scene as quickly as he did." Nicole huffed out a laugh in agreement. "All of a sudden it was just you and your sick son, and instead of letting people take care of you, you went back to school, got your degree, and worked three jobs to pay the bills until you could take a job with a decent salary. You raised Aaron to be a polite, handsome boy. And mostly healthy too."

That got a real laugh out of Nicole. "Despite the fact that Aaron has all of the problems Steve had pre-serum, he's the trouble-maker of the group, mark my words. Speaking of my brat," Nicole changed the subject, "Where are your two?"

"Ah, yes." Pepper leaned back, not caring as her gray suit wrinkled. "Marco is basking in the freedom of officially having his license for six months, and decided to go pick up JJ for the party. He and Nikki have some weird truce going on, so he let her come with him. The three of them should be here soon."

Nicole smiled. "Ah, JJ. The teenager with the smallest amount of punk in her."

"And she's not even a super." Pepper added, referring to what the high schoolers at Avengers Academy liked to call the oldest Avengers kids.

"I have this theory that she's not a punk because she's NOT a super." Nicole countered, and Pepper nodded.

"I'd have to agree with you on that."

"Hey Ma?"

"Yes Aaron?" Nicole called out.

"Xander, Rhiannon, and Max are here with Max's dad. Can he start making the burgers?"

Nicole rolled her eyes. "Sure." Both she and Pepper stood. Looks the party was getting started.

"Alright, birthday boy, before we bust out the smores, do you want to say a few words?"

Aaron, sitting around the fire pit and surrounded by his closest friends, grinned and shook his head. "I want JJ to say a few words for me!"

The group of teenagers jeered and hollered, and the mocha colored teen sitting to Aaron's right shot him a glare. "That's rude." She accused, stuffing her hands into the dark gray hoodie she wore.

"C'mon JJ, it's my birthday." Aaron bat his ridiculously long lashes, and the teen stood, sighing loudly.

"Fine…but only because I didn't get you a present." The teenagers hooted and hollered at this, and JJ shot Nicole a wink.

JJ told Nicole to expect Aaron's present in a few weeks…it was still being weaned. Nicole shook her head amused from where she sat on the deck with the other adults, all of whom were paying close to JJ, who stood on the picnic table…she was shorter than most, and used every opportunity to stand on something.

"Alright, calm down you animals. I'll say a few words." She cleared her throat.

"I was five years old when I ran into this punk." JJ gestured to Aaron. "He was smack dab in the middle of an asthma attack, and in my great wisdom, I ordered him to stop it, right now." JJ winked. "He did, to my great surprise. And just like that we were friends. He introduced me to this group of animals;" The teens hooted and hollered louder, "To his beautiful Mom and his best friends Marco," Tony's son stood and bowed with all the dramatic flair that he'd inherited from his father, dark hair gleaming in the firelight, "and Ben," Ben, was Bruce, in more ways than one, with an olive tint and slant in his eyes that he got from his mother, who'd also died during the final battle. "He made me befriend Xander," Xander was Thor's son, through and through, tall and blond haired (though short and spikey instead of long and flowy,) and all-over dreamy, although JJ didn't seem impressed.

"And then he introduced me to my favorites, Rhiannon and Leila." The two girls, nearly polar opposites, stood and took their own small bows. Rhiannon was tall, slender and dark-haired, the only thing she shared with her twin brother was their bright blue-green eyes. Leila was blond-haired, hazel-eyed and curvy. They were both beautiful. "It wasn't until second grade that I even realized I was in the presence of royalty." JJ winked. "And by then it was too late, not only had the "supers" taken me in, but so had their families.

"All of a sudden I had a Mama Nicole, Mama Pepper, and Mama Jane, younger siblings," Thor's youngest, Lukas, and Tony's daughter, Nikki waved. "And I got to see the family grow; from Jane's new husband and his best friend, all the way from London," Jane leaned over her husband of 9 years to smirk at her co-worker and her husbands best friend, Dr. John Watson. John huffed and John's teenage son Max waved at him. Jane's husband, Sherlock, patted his wife's hand and turned to look his twin daughter's in the eye.

"You may join the teenagers for the last of JJ's speech." The sixth grade girls nodded happily and moved to listen to the rest of JJ's story.

"And that doesn't even include Leila's adopted parents, or Dr. Dean; Ben's guardian." JJ raised her smore in the adult's direction, and they toasted her.

"Aaron, your friendship means the world to me. I wouldn't have met any of these amazing people without you. I know that all of you lost your parents, husbands, heroes 11 years ago, but you've perservered. You've survived. Aaron; you're 16 today. I wish that your dad, your hero, were here with us. But if it's any consolation…my hero IS here tonight. My hero, is you. Happy birthday to my best friend in the world, Aaron Rogers!"

The group of people, gone quiet when JJ got serious, hollered loudly and happily. "Happy Birthday Aaron!"

"JJ doesn't pull any punches." Pepper murmured.

"No she doesn't," Nicole murmured. "She never says the easy thing, but she always says the right thing."

"Now, before my mom comes to pick me up," JJ laughed at the boos that comment got, "I would like to make a toast…to this summer and for our last two years of high school! I have a feeling it's going to be crazy…but awesome. To," JJ paused, then she grinned. "To impossibilities come true, to miracles and magic…to the future!

The kid's lifted their s'mores, and caught up in the excitement, the adults lifted their glasses.

"To the future!"

So, to Recap, there was a time of peace in which the Avengers procreated and started families, and then a Final Battle that happened years later, supposedly killing off the Avengers. Next Chapter up NOW!

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