Title: Family Portrait
Author/Artist: wihluta
Fandom: The Avengers (Movieverse)
Pairing: gen (Steve/Tony, Clint/Natasha if you squint and wear the appropriate goggles)
Rating: PG
Words: 388 + 6 images
Spoilers/Warnings: None
Challenge: self-portrait
Summary: Steve often leaves his sketchbook lying around.



Steve often leaves his sketchbook lying around the common areas of the Tower. It’s a habit that started more by accident than by design. He’d been drawing when the Avengers were called out on a mission and later forgot to take the sketchbook back to his room. He picked it up a few days later to find that someone had doodled on one of the blank pages. After it happened for the third time, Steve decided that it was a good idea to leave it out as much as possible. That way, he got some surprising insights into his new friends. He kept the more interesting doodles and sketches and soon he had one from every teammate.

Tony’s he found one morning on the coffee table, complete with various liquid stains and Tony still sleeping on the couch next to it. Steve quietly removed the paper and took it back to his room without waking him.



Clint’s he found while he was cleaning the kitchen. It was wedged behind the toaster and folded into a paper aeroplane. He smoothed it out and put it with Tony’s doodle.



Thor’s was still attached to the sketchbook and Steve gently removed it and laughed when he added it to his growing collection.



Bruce’s was scrunched up and next to the waste paper basket in the corner of the living room.



Natasha’s was on the kitchen counter, clearly left there when they were called out once again and then forgotten. He had JARVIS scan the strange horse drawing and research it. JARVIS quickly informed him that it was from a Russian children’s movie called ‘The Hunchbacked Pony’. Steve asked JARVIS to add the movie to their collection. The look on Natasha’s face when she saw it, and the hug she gave him when no-one else was around to witness it, told Steve that he’d done the right thing.



Eventually, Steve decided on a little experiment. He drew a quick sketch of himself sitting on their sofa and left the page topmost in the book. The first one to add to it was Clint, quickly followed by Tony, Natasha and Thor. Bruce took a while, but eventually he put himself into the space that was left.



Steve pinned this drawing to their fridge and that’s where it still is today.

The End