The Wordsmith's Forge

This 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, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11.  Skip to Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18.


"Birthday Girl" Part 12


So they cleared the furniture out of the way. Steve picked up Clint by wrist and ankle, swooping him carefully in loops. When Steve finally set him down again, Clint staggered in circles, unable to walk straight.

Snickering, Natka blindfolded Clint and gave her brother a heartless shove in the general direction of the wall. He didn't even manage to hit any of the targets. The red "BLAME" sticker wound up on the smooth cream paint of the wall itself.
Steve won the next round, though Tony came close.

They played limbo, not with anything so crude as a ruler balanced across two chairs, but with JARVIS displaying an intricate wire-maze of colored beams. Betty and Steve were hopeless. Tony and Clint gave each other a run for their money. Natka won, to no one's surprise, but Bruce almost managed to beat her.

Phil wondered how Bruce could be so clumsy and ill-at-ease with his own body in some ways, yet so deft in others. Perhaps he does yoga and such to make himself feel more at home in his skin, and that creates the grace where only awkwardness was before, Phil thought.

"Can I have some fruits from the kitchen?" Bruce asked. "And a plate?"

"All right," Phil said, baffled by the request but willing to grant any remotely reasonable request from Bruce, who almost never asked for anything. Phil went into the kitchen and brought back the fruit bowl.

Bruce stacked assorted fruits on the plate. "JARVIS, steelpan?" Bruce asked. The air shimmered with the sound of steel drums and tropical music. Bruce set the plate on his head. Then he folded himself in half backwards and danced under the low beam of light. Not an apple wobbled in its place.

Natka lost that round by three whole inches.

"So that's where you went the time we lost you out of São Luis -- to Trinidad and Tobago," Clint said. "You are one slippery guy, Bruce."

Bruce just smirked at him.

They played "Who Am I?" with cards carefully formulated by Phil and JARVIS. Everyone had three or more names taped to their back, obscure but public figures from some area of their own expertise. The more intellectual team members had longer lists. Betty won anyway, making it to the bottom of her list in impressively short order. Steve came in less than a minute behind her.

He's learning fast, Phil thought, watching as Steve peeled the card off his shirt to check his answers. All that search-engine assistance from JARVIS is teaching him how to figure out answers. Steve grinned at Phil and gave the card a triumphant flourish. Phil jotted down the time score under the names.

For Natka's amusement, they played The Cat and the Mice, a traditional game from Russia. As the birthday girl, Natka started out as the cat while the other "kids" played the mice. She offered to translate the silly little chant that went with the game, but everyone declined, preferring to play in the original language. So she taught the mice their lines in Russian.

Together they went through the call-and-response. Then the mice clapped their hands and scattered. The cat slunk through the room, silent as fog even in her ridiculous glitter sandals. She tracked them by sound, muffled giggles and scuff of feet.

* * *

Notes:

Limbo is a traditional Caribbean game often done to steelpan music.

São Luis is a city in South America.

Trinidad and Tobago is considered the birthplace of limbo.

The Cat and the Mice is a Russian children's game. Unfortunately I couldn't find the words for it in Russian.  thnidu has provided a Russian version:

I found a set. Between Google Translate and my high school Russian, I think I've made it useable. In the last part of the instructions, I've added "eyes shut" from the version you linked to, and "home free" because it makes sense that way.

––––––––

[The cat has a house (chair), and the mice have houses (stools) 15 - 20 feet away. Cat reads a poem, acting out the text.]

Я — красивый рыжий кот
У меня — пушистый хвост
Мышек очень я люблю,
Их ловлю, ловлю, ловлю.

Ya kraseevee rizhee kot
U meenya pusheestee khvost
Mishek ochin ya lyoobloo
Eekh loblyoo, loblyoo, loblyoo.

I am a beautiful cat
I have a bushy tail
I dearly love mice,
I catch them, catch them, catch them.

[The cat sits on the chair (falls asleep in the house).]

––––––––

[The mice, sitting in their houses, sing a lullaby to the cat:]

Спи, усни, спи, усни.
Кот пушистый, спи — усни.

Spee, oospee, spee, oospee.
Kot poosheestee, spee, oospee.

Sleep, go to sleep, sleep, go to sleep.
Fluffy cat, sleep - go to sleep.

––––––––

[Then the mice stand up, saying "Be quiet, mice, the cat will hear you", and move toward the cat to the rhythm of the music. Suddenly, a loud chord sounds (or hit the tambourine). The cat wakes up and starts to chase the mice with eyes shut. Mice try to get away to their houses; once they sit down they're "home free". The child who is caught becomes the next cat.]

[To be continued in Part 13 ...]