August 30: Hammer Time
Title: Hammer Time
Author: Beriaearwen
Crossover: Buffy the Vampire Slayer / Avengers
Characters: Mini!Buffy, Mini!Xander, Mini!Willow, Avengers & associates
Rating: FRT
Word count: 2459
Disclaimer: The characters of Buffy the Vampire Slayer belong to Mutant Enemy, etc. The characters of the Avengers belong to Marvel, etc. All are used here without permission. No copyright infringement is intended.
Notes: Warning! Kidfic! Also, not proofed. No time, hoping to get it posted before midnight. It's a bit choppy and missing a lot.
Summary: When the Mini!Scoobies need a hammer, they only go for the best
Hammer Time
By Beriaearwen
The team was sitting in the common area relaxing after a long week. The kids were with them. Xander and Buffy were playing a rousing game of chutes and ladders with their Uncles Rhodey and Sam. Willow was watching from Wanda's lap. The remaining team had managed to restart their never ending argument about how Mjolnir chose who was worthy.
“It's a hammer. It's not like it's a sentient being,” Clint argued.
“How do you know? Would you argue that Vision is not sentient?” Thor asked.
“No,” Clint admitted.
“You accept him as an equal, the only difference is their creation. Vision was made of science and Mjolnir was made of Magic.”
The kids looked over at the raised voices, noticing, Cap quickly waved at everyone to quiet them down and the other adults drew their attention away.
“Mama, what does sent-an-ence mean?” Willow asked.
“Sentience,” Wanda corrected. She repeated it slowly a few more times before Willow could say it correctly. “It means alive and aware, able to think and make decisions.”
“Oh,” Willow said. “It must be hard for a hammer to think but not talk.”
“I'm sure it is,” Wanda agreed, smiling at her daughter.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
Buffy looked at herself in the mirror. Her head tilted to the side. It wasn't something she would normally chose, but, overall, she thought her dad did a good job for his first solo shopping expedition since she came.
A wide smile broke out on her face, followed by an equally brilliant smile on her father's face, which she saw in the mirror.
They were both dressed in “work” jeans, tee-shirts (his gray, hers pink), both were wearing “work” boots and both had their tool belts on. Buffy had to admit, the pink camouflage tool belt she wore was much prettier than her father's plain brown one.
“You ready to get things going?”
“Sure am,” Buffy agreed, turning around and running to her dad to give him a hug. “But I don't have tools in my belt.”
“Don't worry,” Steve said, reaching down to ruffle her hair, which she immediately patted back into place. “They're just waiting in your room.”
Buffy bounced in place. She was going to get her very own room right next to her dad's and they were going to decorate and put up pictures and everything. She'd even gotten to go with him to choose what she wanted to put in it. Of course, it might resemble some of what he'd chosen for his own room, but it only made sense to her for them to have rooms that go together, just like they did.
The work had been tiring for Buffy, but they finally got to the point where they would be able to start hanging the few pictures she'd chosen.
“OK, Buffy. I need you to stand on your desk and hold the nail right there for me. Don't move your fingers.”
“Roger, Dad.”
“Smart alec,” Steve grumbled with a small grin on his face which turned into a true smile when Buffy giggled.
“Just like you,” she sassed back.
Steve shook his head and lightly tapped the nail, avoiding little fingers and ensuring it went in to the correct depth.
“We did it!” Buffy exclaimed excitedly, throwing herself at her father, confident he'd catch her. Which he did.
“We sure did, you're the best nail holder ever.”
“And your the best nail hammer person ever,” she returned, kissing his cheek as she hugged him.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
“Mom! Look what I made!” Xander called, out running toward Natasha.
“Let me see,” she replied, reaching out. It only took her a moment to figure out what it was. “What a beautiful picture frame. Do you know what picture we should put in it?”
Looking shyly down at the floor he nodded.
“Why don't you get it and we'll see what we can do.”
“OK!”
Natasha shook her head and smiled. It hadn't taken her long to discover that, of all the toys he could have had, including ones developed just for him, he was fascinated by a child's workbench and the little toys that went with it. This wasn't the first picture frame he had made, but she enjoyed every one of them because he made them out of love, something she hadn't really understood at first. Slowly she was beginning to understand the interactions as more than just scenarios. She was beginning to feel as she hadn't before, not even for Clint's children.
The soft, slow shuffle of small feet drew her attention to Xander once more. “What picture did you choose?”
When Xander pulled it out from behind his back, she felt a small part of her heart warm. It was a disconcerting feeling for her, but she had to admit, he had chosen well. It was a picture of them cheek to cheek smiling at the camera. It was one of her favorites as well.
With a little maneuvering and a piece of construction paper, they soon had the picture mounted in Xander's frame.
“I know just where to put this,” Nat said, picking up the picture and heading across the room.
She removed a watercolor that was currently hanging over the couch and lifted Xander onto the couch.
“Think you can reach up to hang this?” she asked.
“You bet!” Xander replied, almost dancing in his excitement. His mom liked his gift, liked the picture, was putting it where everyone would see it, let him hang it and let him stand on the couch with shoes on! It was the best day ever!
Reaching up, he gently put it on the nail and let his mom pick him up so they could take a look at it.
“Looks small,” Xander observed, some of his joy leaking out.
“The picture may be small, but the love behind it is big,” Natasha assured, kissing his cheek. “And we can maybe start putting the others up as well as any new ones.”
“Really?” Xander squealed.
“Really,” Natasha assured.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
The young trio were in their classroom, having just been presented with their now completed art project. They had worked hard, but the last step had meant they would have to wait overnight to see the finished result.
Now they stood at their table, staring at it with wide eyes. Looks of awe and amazement on their faces.
Buffy reached out and traced a finger over one of the images. “It's really ready,” she whispered.
“We should hang it up in the living room,” Xander announced decisively.
“Yeah, right now,” Willow agreed.
“OK, but Xan's going to have to help me carry it. It's too big for just me,” Buffy warned.
“No problem. Willow will guide us through the hall.”
“But what about...?” Willow's question trailed off as their teacher got distracted by the phone in the room ringing.
Without hesitation, the three Scoobies took off, out of the classroom and through the halls and toward their living area, specifically their living room, blithely ignoring all of Friday's attempts to talk them into going back to class. They, after all, had a mission and they knew Friday would never keep them out of their home.
Unfortunately for Friday, the phone call that the teacher received was letting her know the team was on their way back to base and would be picking up the children early. Currently there were two adults on base - Thor (who had arrived after the team left on their latest mission) and Jane Foster. Unfortunately, they were on the opposite side of the base in the labs and would take several minutes to arrive. Still, she alerted them to the reason for concern and started recording the actions of the children just in case.
The two adults on-site tore across the compound. They knew exactly what sort of trouble the three children could cause without knowing or even trying. Every adult in their lives had nearly had their heart stop at least once because of their antics.
They reached the living room door and it opened automatically for them. As they took in the sight before them, both Jane and Thor stood in shock as they watched Xander and Buffy standing on the couch with Buffy holding a nail and Xander about to swing Mjolnir at it.
“No!” Jane cried, just as Thor lunged forward. They were too late as Mjolnir swung toward the nail, hitting only the nail and driving it to the perfect depth before stopping.
Startled by the shout, Xander dropped the hammer, Willow shrieked and Buffy turned quickly looking for the threat.
Mjolnir's handle dropped to the couch as the head of the hammer rested gently against the wall behind it, missing little toes completely.
“You scared us!” Buffy shouted, tears gathering in her eyes, now that she realized there wasn't anything wrong.
“Forgive me,” Thor soothed, gathering the small girl into his arms. “I am just not used to seeing Mjolnir used in such a way.”
“But he's a hammer,” Willow observed, tilting her head to the side in curiosity.
“Yes, but his purpose is war, not picture hanging.”
“But he agreed to help us,” Willow pointed out, feeling that if the hammer had offered his help, then surely he was able to hammer nails as well.
“Why don't you tell us why you needed to put a nail in the wall above the couch?” Jane asked, trying to keep Thor from getting into anther argument with Willow.
“We finished our art project and wanted to surprise everyone,” Xander replied, beginning to suspect they might be in trouble.
“Well, since it's come this far, why don't you show it to us and we'll get it on the wall.”
“OK,” Xander replied, cheering up. He jumped down off the couch and tipped the picture they had leaning against it away so they could see some of the front.
Reaching out his free hand, Thor lifted the picture and gently placed it on the nail before taking a step back.
Jane walked up to Thor and placed a hand on his arm as they both just stared at it. In the middle of a large canvas was the word “Family” and all around, overlapping each other were pictures of their family - each of the Avengers, Jane, Darcy, Tony, Pepper, Clint, his wife and kids and the three children. Every picture included a different mix of people, but in all of them you could see the love, laughter and joy they shared.
They had no idea how long they'd examined the picture when the door opened and they turned to see the rest of the team enter.
“Daddy!” Buffy cried, squirming in Thor's hold until the alien prince put her down. She immediately ran over to him, hugging him tightly as he picked her up.
“Mom!”
“Mommy!”
Came two more enthusiastic cries.
“What's going on here?” Steve asked. “You're supposed to be in school.”
“Uh-Oh,” Buffy said.
“Um...” Willow said.
“Look at our art project!” Xander distracted.
It was a good distraction because as the group moved to get a better view, they seemed to forget about the trio being where they shouldn't be. At least for the moment.
The adults stood staring at the picture, just taking it in.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
Later that night, the adults were relaxing in the living room, none of them sitting on the couch beneath the picture because they all wanted to look at it.
“So, what was Mjolnir doing out here?” Sam asked.
“That... Well, Friday, would you please show the footage with audio?” Jane asked from where she was relaxing in Thor's lap.
“Certainly Doctor Foster,” the AI replied.
On one of the screens, the footage began to play. It traced the children's movements through the hallway and none of the adults could prevent their smiles at the children's excited chatter.
Once they were in the living room, they paid closer attention.
“Where are we going to put it?” Willow asked.
“It should go above the couch,” Xander replied, his voice full of all the authority a just-turned-four year old could muster.
“You mean hang it there?” Buffy asked.
Before Xander could answer, Willow interrupted. “But you need a nail.”
All three looked disappointed at that realization until Buffy's face suddenly lit up.
“Oh! I remember! Last time Uncle Clint was here, he found a nail on the floor and put it in the junk drawer in the kitchen. I can go get it!” She raced out of the room and the screen split to show her actions. Buffy raced to the kitchen and pulled the junk drawer open, using the counter for balance, she stood on her tip toes and looked inside. A few minutes later, she pulled out a nail and raced back to the others. “See!”
“Now we just need a hammer,” Xander declared. “I have one, but mine's just plastic, it's only good for plastic nails. We need a real one made from metal.”
“Oh! I know!” Willow said, racing out of the room.
The screen split again and showed Willow racing toward Thor's room. She entered in and walked up to Mjolnir.
“Mr. Mjolnir, sir. Mom says you're sentient so you can understand. We have a really nice surprise for everyone, but need your help. We have a nail that needs to go into the wall so we can hang our picture. I understand if you don't want to and that's OK because Buffy knows where her dad keeps his hammer, but it's up on the high shelf so I'm not sure how we'd reach it, but maybe we could stack up some boxes or something. But never mind that, will you help us?”
She waited another minute or two before reaching out and picking up the hammer as if it weighed nothing.
Arriving back in the living room, she handed it to Buffy who passed it off to Xander.
“Here Xan, I'll hold the nail for you. Dad says I'm the best nail holder ever.”
“OK,” he agreed. “Hold it right there.”
Jane asked Friday to stop it there, figuring they didn't need to see the rest since she and Thor had already relayed it.
Silence reigned for a few minutes before Sam broke it. “Guess that ends the Mjolnir's sentience debate. The hammer looks out for our kids as much as we do.”
Everybody could only agree.
End
Author: Beriaearwen
Crossover: Buffy the Vampire Slayer / Avengers
Characters: Mini!Buffy, Mini!Xander, Mini!Willow, Avengers & associates
Rating: FRT
Word count: 2459
Disclaimer: The characters of Buffy the Vampire Slayer belong to Mutant Enemy, etc. The characters of the Avengers belong to Marvel, etc. All are used here without permission. No copyright infringement is intended.
Notes: Warning! Kidfic! Also, not proofed. No time, hoping to get it posted before midnight. It's a bit choppy and missing a lot.
Summary: When the Mini!Scoobies need a hammer, they only go for the best
Hammer Time
By Beriaearwen
The team was sitting in the common area relaxing after a long week. The kids were with them. Xander and Buffy were playing a rousing game of chutes and ladders with their Uncles Rhodey and Sam. Willow was watching from Wanda's lap. The remaining team had managed to restart their never ending argument about how Mjolnir chose who was worthy.
“It's a hammer. It's not like it's a sentient being,” Clint argued.
“How do you know? Would you argue that Vision is not sentient?” Thor asked.
“No,” Clint admitted.
“You accept him as an equal, the only difference is their creation. Vision was made of science and Mjolnir was made of Magic.”
The kids looked over at the raised voices, noticing, Cap quickly waved at everyone to quiet them down and the other adults drew their attention away.
“Mama, what does sent-an-ence mean?” Willow asked.
“Sentience,” Wanda corrected. She repeated it slowly a few more times before Willow could say it correctly. “It means alive and aware, able to think and make decisions.”
“Oh,” Willow said. “It must be hard for a hammer to think but not talk.”
“I'm sure it is,” Wanda agreed, smiling at her daughter.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
Buffy looked at herself in the mirror. Her head tilted to the side. It wasn't something she would normally chose, but, overall, she thought her dad did a good job for his first solo shopping expedition since she came.
A wide smile broke out on her face, followed by an equally brilliant smile on her father's face, which she saw in the mirror.
They were both dressed in “work” jeans, tee-shirts (his gray, hers pink), both were wearing “work” boots and both had their tool belts on. Buffy had to admit, the pink camouflage tool belt she wore was much prettier than her father's plain brown one.
“You ready to get things going?”
“Sure am,” Buffy agreed, turning around and running to her dad to give him a hug. “But I don't have tools in my belt.”
“Don't worry,” Steve said, reaching down to ruffle her hair, which she immediately patted back into place. “They're just waiting in your room.”
Buffy bounced in place. She was going to get her very own room right next to her dad's and they were going to decorate and put up pictures and everything. She'd even gotten to go with him to choose what she wanted to put in it. Of course, it might resemble some of what he'd chosen for his own room, but it only made sense to her for them to have rooms that go together, just like they did.
The work had been tiring for Buffy, but they finally got to the point where they would be able to start hanging the few pictures she'd chosen.
“OK, Buffy. I need you to stand on your desk and hold the nail right there for me. Don't move your fingers.”
“Roger, Dad.”
“Smart alec,” Steve grumbled with a small grin on his face which turned into a true smile when Buffy giggled.
“Just like you,” she sassed back.
Steve shook his head and lightly tapped the nail, avoiding little fingers and ensuring it went in to the correct depth.
“We did it!” Buffy exclaimed excitedly, throwing herself at her father, confident he'd catch her. Which he did.
“We sure did, you're the best nail holder ever.”
“And your the best nail hammer person ever,” she returned, kissing his cheek as she hugged him.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
“Mom! Look what I made!” Xander called, out running toward Natasha.
“Let me see,” she replied, reaching out. It only took her a moment to figure out what it was. “What a beautiful picture frame. Do you know what picture we should put in it?”
Looking shyly down at the floor he nodded.
“Why don't you get it and we'll see what we can do.”
“OK!”
Natasha shook her head and smiled. It hadn't taken her long to discover that, of all the toys he could have had, including ones developed just for him, he was fascinated by a child's workbench and the little toys that went with it. This wasn't the first picture frame he had made, but she enjoyed every one of them because he made them out of love, something she hadn't really understood at first. Slowly she was beginning to understand the interactions as more than just scenarios. She was beginning to feel as she hadn't before, not even for Clint's children.
The soft, slow shuffle of small feet drew her attention to Xander once more. “What picture did you choose?”
When Xander pulled it out from behind his back, she felt a small part of her heart warm. It was a disconcerting feeling for her, but she had to admit, he had chosen well. It was a picture of them cheek to cheek smiling at the camera. It was one of her favorites as well.
With a little maneuvering and a piece of construction paper, they soon had the picture mounted in Xander's frame.
“I know just where to put this,” Nat said, picking up the picture and heading across the room.
She removed a watercolor that was currently hanging over the couch and lifted Xander onto the couch.
“Think you can reach up to hang this?” she asked.
“You bet!” Xander replied, almost dancing in his excitement. His mom liked his gift, liked the picture, was putting it where everyone would see it, let him hang it and let him stand on the couch with shoes on! It was the best day ever!
Reaching up, he gently put it on the nail and let his mom pick him up so they could take a look at it.
“Looks small,” Xander observed, some of his joy leaking out.
“The picture may be small, but the love behind it is big,” Natasha assured, kissing his cheek. “And we can maybe start putting the others up as well as any new ones.”
“Really?” Xander squealed.
“Really,” Natasha assured.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
The young trio were in their classroom, having just been presented with their now completed art project. They had worked hard, but the last step had meant they would have to wait overnight to see the finished result.
Now they stood at their table, staring at it with wide eyes. Looks of awe and amazement on their faces.
Buffy reached out and traced a finger over one of the images. “It's really ready,” she whispered.
“We should hang it up in the living room,” Xander announced decisively.
“Yeah, right now,” Willow agreed.
“OK, but Xan's going to have to help me carry it. It's too big for just me,” Buffy warned.
“No problem. Willow will guide us through the hall.”
“But what about...?” Willow's question trailed off as their teacher got distracted by the phone in the room ringing.
Without hesitation, the three Scoobies took off, out of the classroom and through the halls and toward their living area, specifically their living room, blithely ignoring all of Friday's attempts to talk them into going back to class. They, after all, had a mission and they knew Friday would never keep them out of their home.
Unfortunately for Friday, the phone call that the teacher received was letting her know the team was on their way back to base and would be picking up the children early. Currently there were two adults on base - Thor (who had arrived after the team left on their latest mission) and Jane Foster. Unfortunately, they were on the opposite side of the base in the labs and would take several minutes to arrive. Still, she alerted them to the reason for concern and started recording the actions of the children just in case.
The two adults on-site tore across the compound. They knew exactly what sort of trouble the three children could cause without knowing or even trying. Every adult in their lives had nearly had their heart stop at least once because of their antics.
They reached the living room door and it opened automatically for them. As they took in the sight before them, both Jane and Thor stood in shock as they watched Xander and Buffy standing on the couch with Buffy holding a nail and Xander about to swing Mjolnir at it.
“No!” Jane cried, just as Thor lunged forward. They were too late as Mjolnir swung toward the nail, hitting only the nail and driving it to the perfect depth before stopping.
Startled by the shout, Xander dropped the hammer, Willow shrieked and Buffy turned quickly looking for the threat.
Mjolnir's handle dropped to the couch as the head of the hammer rested gently against the wall behind it, missing little toes completely.
“You scared us!” Buffy shouted, tears gathering in her eyes, now that she realized there wasn't anything wrong.
“Forgive me,” Thor soothed, gathering the small girl into his arms. “I am just not used to seeing Mjolnir used in such a way.”
“But he's a hammer,” Willow observed, tilting her head to the side in curiosity.
“Yes, but his purpose is war, not picture hanging.”
“But he agreed to help us,” Willow pointed out, feeling that if the hammer had offered his help, then surely he was able to hammer nails as well.
“Why don't you tell us why you needed to put a nail in the wall above the couch?” Jane asked, trying to keep Thor from getting into anther argument with Willow.
“We finished our art project and wanted to surprise everyone,” Xander replied, beginning to suspect they might be in trouble.
“Well, since it's come this far, why don't you show it to us and we'll get it on the wall.”
“OK,” Xander replied, cheering up. He jumped down off the couch and tipped the picture they had leaning against it away so they could see some of the front.
Reaching out his free hand, Thor lifted the picture and gently placed it on the nail before taking a step back.
Jane walked up to Thor and placed a hand on his arm as they both just stared at it. In the middle of a large canvas was the word “Family” and all around, overlapping each other were pictures of their family - each of the Avengers, Jane, Darcy, Tony, Pepper, Clint, his wife and kids and the three children. Every picture included a different mix of people, but in all of them you could see the love, laughter and joy they shared.
They had no idea how long they'd examined the picture when the door opened and they turned to see the rest of the team enter.
“Daddy!” Buffy cried, squirming in Thor's hold until the alien prince put her down. She immediately ran over to him, hugging him tightly as he picked her up.
“Mom!”
“Mommy!”
Came two more enthusiastic cries.
“What's going on here?” Steve asked. “You're supposed to be in school.”
“Uh-Oh,” Buffy said.
“Um...” Willow said.
“Look at our art project!” Xander distracted.
It was a good distraction because as the group moved to get a better view, they seemed to forget about the trio being where they shouldn't be. At least for the moment.
The adults stood staring at the picture, just taking it in.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
Later that night, the adults were relaxing in the living room, none of them sitting on the couch beneath the picture because they all wanted to look at it.
“So, what was Mjolnir doing out here?” Sam asked.
“That... Well, Friday, would you please show the footage with audio?” Jane asked from where she was relaxing in Thor's lap.
“Certainly Doctor Foster,” the AI replied.
On one of the screens, the footage began to play. It traced the children's movements through the hallway and none of the adults could prevent their smiles at the children's excited chatter.
Once they were in the living room, they paid closer attention.
“Where are we going to put it?” Willow asked.
“It should go above the couch,” Xander replied, his voice full of all the authority a just-turned-four year old could muster.
“You mean hang it there?” Buffy asked.
Before Xander could answer, Willow interrupted. “But you need a nail.”
All three looked disappointed at that realization until Buffy's face suddenly lit up.
“Oh! I remember! Last time Uncle Clint was here, he found a nail on the floor and put it in the junk drawer in the kitchen. I can go get it!” She raced out of the room and the screen split to show her actions. Buffy raced to the kitchen and pulled the junk drawer open, using the counter for balance, she stood on her tip toes and looked inside. A few minutes later, she pulled out a nail and raced back to the others. “See!”
“Now we just need a hammer,” Xander declared. “I have one, but mine's just plastic, it's only good for plastic nails. We need a real one made from metal.”
“Oh! I know!” Willow said, racing out of the room.
The screen split again and showed Willow racing toward Thor's room. She entered in and walked up to Mjolnir.
“Mr. Mjolnir, sir. Mom says you're sentient so you can understand. We have a really nice surprise for everyone, but need your help. We have a nail that needs to go into the wall so we can hang our picture. I understand if you don't want to and that's OK because Buffy knows where her dad keeps his hammer, but it's up on the high shelf so I'm not sure how we'd reach it, but maybe we could stack up some boxes or something. But never mind that, will you help us?”
She waited another minute or two before reaching out and picking up the hammer as if it weighed nothing.
Arriving back in the living room, she handed it to Buffy who passed it off to Xander.
“Here Xan, I'll hold the nail for you. Dad says I'm the best nail holder ever.”
“OK,” he agreed. “Hold it right there.”
Jane asked Friday to stop it there, figuring they didn't need to see the rest since she and Thor had already relayed it.
Silence reigned for a few minutes before Sam broke it. “Guess that ends the Mjolnir's sentience debate. The hammer looks out for our kids as much as we do.”
Everybody could only agree.
End