Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize. Loki, the Avengers, etc belong to their owners. I make nothing on this.
Prologue
The little girl doesn't know what she has done.
Her mother is always sad. The Man who calls himself her father is always angry and hurting her.
But real fathers don't hurt their daughters, right? Real daddies give hugs, make Mickey Mouse shaped pancakes on Sundays, and read stories at bedtime. That's how she knows he's not her father or Daddy, no matter what he or Mommy says.
Mommy is nice. She cries often and doesn't play with her. She says she's too tired. The girl thinks that it's the candy that the man puts in her Mommy's drink that makes her so tired. If she didn't have to drink the candy, then maybe she would be happy to play with her.
The Man that calls himself Daddy is always in the basement, bringing up new tubes with stingers to hurt her. Mommy said it will make her healthy, make her live for a long time. Mommy said it will help a lot of people.
The little girl doesn't care about a lot of people. She just wants her Mommy to get better and the Man to keep the needles away. The bruises up and down her arm hurt and now she has them on her feet. The ink-jections, she thinks that's what the Man calls them, hurt more and more every time.
When the little girl goes to bed that night, she is worried. Mommy is crying more than usual and the Man has been yelling from the basement. When her Mommy puts her to bed, her body shakes and she's crying. She gives the girl a kiss on the forehead and tells her she loves her before shutting the door behind her. The lock slides into place.
A loud sound wakes her up, scaring her. The dark blankets everything and her nightlight is burnt out. She cries out for her mother but doesn't hear anything in return.
The girl tries to lay down but feels her sheets are wet. She's afraid to anger the Man so she grabs her blanket and moves over to the large window cushion. She curls up and goes back to sleep.
She awakes again with someone carrying her. Her eyes open and she is startled by what she sees.
A new man is carrying her. His skin is darker than her Mommy's or the Man's and he has a thing over one of his eyes. The girl wonders if it's because his eyes aren't the same, like hers are. She's never met anyone else with eyes like hers. Should she wear something over one of her eyes, too?
The man notices she's awake and gives her a small smile. He asks her if she knows her name, his voice much nicer than the Man's is. She hears other people but she ignores them.
She answers. Her name is Estelle. She tells him her Mommy said that it meant Star. She asks him if he knows her Mommy.
The man shook his head and told her no. He carries her to a black car and climbs in with her still in his arms. She asks if her Mommy is coming too.
He tells her no, that her Mommy is sleeping now and asked him to take care of her for awhile. He says his name is Nick.
Estelle smiles at him and curls up on him, still wrapped in her blanket. If her Mommy liked this man, than so did she.
A/N: Welcome to my newest foray into fanfiction, my first Avengers piece. I have no clue how big or long this is gonna be, I'm kind of making it up as I go along. Dal Niente is kind of on a stand still despite me knowing exactly how I want it to end up and I needed to kick this plot bunny out.
So here it is.
The prologue is extremely short but so far, the rest of the chapters are a decent length. I hope you like it!