The door was opening. Rose's heart beat faster. The door had never been open before. A shiver ran down her spine, an iced blade carving a jagged line down her back.

She reached a tentative hand out. It was so close. . . If only she was a little faster, and the fog wasn't becoming thicker, she'd make it. With a sudden burst of energy, Rose threw herself at the widening entrance.

The heavy door swung open, a gaping mouth of blackness.

Rose stepped in. He heart was beating a mile a minute and her body felt like ice. She peered forward, her eyes staring against the black.

Suddenly something lunged at her from the shadows.

Rose let out a scream as she fell.

Reality. It had become a funny thing lately. When one couldn't tell the difference between it and dreams, things became quite complicated.

Rose remembered what Tony had said to her when she brought this up; reality was something we created ourselves and in a world with superheroes, reality was becoming ever closer to what was once thought to be the stuff of dreams.

Rose sat against her bedroom wall, her arms wrapped around her legs and her chin resting on her knees.

Why couldn't she be normal? She would have given the world just to walk the streets of New York as a normal kid. Eat ice cream. Make friends. Even go to school. She'd retake Calculus at this point if that was what it took.

Rose wished she could talk to Pepper. She was the mother she never, or might have, had. But Pepper was gone. Rose was still not sure what happened between her and Tony. It seemed like they had had a falling out. But it had been a quiet one. No yelling. No fighting. One morning Rose went to get breakfast and Pepper was already sitting at the table, her bags packed and her plane ticket sitting next to her purse.

They needed a break she had said. Pepper had walked out, all business and forced smiles. Rose didn't even say goodbye.

Rose laughed at herself. Why was she such a drama queen? Hell, she needed someone to give her a good, hard slap in the face. Wake her up from her musings about reality and get her to move forward. She would've asked Natasha to do it, but that probably would leave her hospitalized for a week.

Here she was, reminiscing about Pepper and feeling sorry for her oh-so scary nightmares with an even scarier door when Tony was dealing with. . . well, everything.

Not for the first time in her short seventeen years, Rose wished she actually had something useful to do. Or contribute. She stared out the window, watching the sun slowly make its ascent into the sky.

Nope. Rose had the sass of Tony Stark and the agility and coordination of a freshly run over squirrel. So nothing in the superhero department. Instead of helping earth's mightiest heroes and kicking some serious butt, she was getting really good at solitaire and making banana smoothies.

Okay, fine. Her smoothies still sucked and her solitaire game was not strong. Boo.

It wasn't her fault she had a brain. And a knack for guessing Tony's passcode to the lab. And when she wasn't feeling lucky, a handy hammer or assorted explosive to break that pathetic excuse for glass next to the door.

She had tried every argument to work with Tony. She had this great idea that what if. . .(that one never worked), and the brilliant, "Tony I can't keep playing Chem Lab in my bedroom forever. . ."

Nothing convinced him. You'd think that graduating from college at sixteen would warrant you the right to make things blow up and physically use a fully functioning lab in the basement.

Instead Rose was on housewife duty. Clean the floor, dust the countertops, and "if you even think about using one of my cars you've got another thing coming, Rose."

Oh yeah. And she was Tony Stark's daughter. That biggie.

Rose wasn't really sure if Tony counted as her dad, per se. He was more like that glorified, billionaire uncle with too much time and far too many cool connections.

Her mom had dumped her unceremoniously at an orphanage as soon as she was born. "See ya, kid! Have a great life!" was the approximate narrative of a mother who didn't want a child and couldn't be bothered to tell her father. Somehow Tony had found out that her mother had had a daughter. With him. And she had just neglected to say squat. Thanks, Mom. Rose didn't care much for the mother she would never have. She had Tony. She had had Pepper. Now she had Natasha.

Tony being the loving and caring person he was, picked her up and sent her off to boarding school as soon as she had defied gravity and learned to walk on two legs. Those had been some fun years. Rose didn't think he did this because he didn't want her; she believed it was because he just wasn't ready for a child at the time. He kept in contact with her, calling once a month and sending the occasional email. She was happy he hadn't left her to grow up without parents; if she knew anything, it was that loneliness was something you couldn't erase from childhood.

Looking back, Rose owed it all to Tony. She may not call him Dad, but he had essentially saved her. He had taken her back in mid-way through High School, gave her a room in Stark Towers, and told her not to blow anything up and graduate asap. She succeeded at the second.

Life was pretty normal for a while. Rose grew close with Pepper and learned to love the sound of JARVIS's voice and his ability to run both equations and Tony's household. She became comfortable with her self-driven education and isolation from other people. She had been thirteen at the time.

Then the Avengers happened. Followed shortly after by Killian and the whole Ultron fiasco. Rose became incredibly distant from Tony, as he didn't want anyone but Pepper to know about her to ensure her safety. When it became impossible to keep her hidden any longer, Tony sent Rose away to Oxford. She completed her Ph.D. in medical sciences and engineering. She graduated with top marks, both loathed and adored at sixteen under the false name, Rosa Finch.

In England, it turned into a waiting game. A really long one. She couldn't leave the country for fear of being discovered as a Stark, and couldn't accept any serious jobs without being found by SHIELD. SHIELD did eventually find her, but Tony forbade them from hiring or immersing her into the mess of the world. The year dragged on, and she spent her seventeenth birthday with a few people she could barely call friends and a short video session with Pepper and Tony.

Rose's social life was pretty sub-standard. When everyone around her was ten or more years older she found her options limited. She was still very much a teenager; she wanted to go out and have fun like the rest of the people her age. She dated a few guys on and off, but found them too dull and was annoyed by the fact that they were intimidated by her intelligence. She wasn't a player like Tony. The thought of engaging in such activities so young made her, quite frankly, terrified. She became isolated and irksome. She was traditionally an extreme extrovert; her sarcasm and sass had gotten her in trouble more than once.

When Tony called and said Rose could come home, she began to realize maybe she could finally think of Tony as a semblance of a father. All it took was that one glorious word: Home.

Something that had seemed nonexistent for such a long time. When Rose heard him say that word she was already packing.

She was on a flight to New York the next day. Rose stopped at the Stark Tower to pick up her things she had left before moving to the UK three years prior. She hadn't grown much, so most of her clothes still fit her. Rose wished she would be staying there; although she would never admit it out loud, the prospect of staying with the Avengers terrified her. She would miss the comforting presence of JARVIS, who was somehow Vision now, and the soaring building with its sweeping views.

After a short drive out of the city, Rose ended up at the New Avengers Facility with a small room and orders from Tony not to make direct eye contact with anyone and to stay put. Nice.

So Rose ended up attempting to break into the lab and training room that same day, consequently meeting everyone after a beautiful introduction by Tony via firm talking to and "herby banning you from this establishment" speech. Had he honestly expected her to stay put after years of sitting around?

All of them, being Natasha, Clint, Steve, and Sam, seemed perfectly fine with Rose upon Tony introducing her to the Avengers: "Fellow heroes, spawn. Spawn, heroes."

"Thanks, Tony." Rose said, noting the chuckle from Sam and the friendly faces from the others. "And since when have I been referred to as spawn?"

"Since now. Thanks to you I have to fix this perfectly good door. Where did you get a hammer anyways?" Tony inquired, his face the perfect mix of confused at having to play 'Dad' and angry.

Rose shrugged. Someone had left it lying around. Not that she was going to say that.

"Wait, this is your daughter, Tony?" Natasha had asked. "Why have we never heard about her, let alone met her?"

Good point, thought Rose.

"Because I've got crazy protective fatherly instincts and decided studying abroad would be great for her," Tony sighed.

"But now, with the whole world blowing up and cities falling from the sky I thought it would be safer to bring her here." Tony glanced sideways at Rose and then at the shattered glass. "Apparently it wasn't."

Clint chose this opportune moment of sideways glaring to ask, "Is she like you?" He said the question jokingly, clearly not meaning offense.

Oh, whoop. The big question. Would there now be two Tonys instead of one?

Tony glanced at Rose for a second, considering how to drop the the bomb of his, albeit genius, uninteresting child. Rose was sure that was how he perceived her. All brains and no party.

He chose a surprisingly eloquent answer, one that Rose would find herself analyzing later for sarcasm.

"Rosalyn Elizabeth Stark is my daughter by blood and her brain, dare I say it, is bigger than mine at times. She has good aim with a gun, terrible aim with a punch, and enjoys knitting in her spare time."

It was a good shpeal except for the last part. Rose hated knitting. Her roommate had had an obsession with it and by the end of the year Rose had been one more "click click" of the knitting needles away from stabbing her own eyes out. She wondered how Tony knew about that. Unless the comment was random, which she doubted it was.

Still, the brain comment felt good. Rose shook all their hands, beginning to feel more welcome here than anywhere she had ever been before.

Rose closed her eyes and smiled remembering that day. It had been so simple. She got along great with Natasha and was one high five away from calling Clint her older brother. Wanda was aloof, Vision made her heart stop every other day with his habit of traveling through walls, and Steve was Mr. America and courteous as hell. Sam was hilarious and Rhodey had that leader spark. They all were amazing, and Rose felt dwarfed in their shadows and responsibility to protect the world.

It was heartbreaking to see them fall apart. Steve with Bucky and the government's need to control the Avengers became Tony's world.

He was fighting his own friend. It was taking its toll. After Wanda broke out with Clint, who Rose hadn't seen in three months, things went rapidly downhill. He was working tirelessly with the government, looking for a way out and a way to make everything right. He was unstable now; Pepper had left and friend was fighting friend.

Rose stopped trying to get into the lab to mess around. She tried to be helpful. Even if it meant playing maid and staying out of everyone's way.

She was dying for something to do. Although several things were worrying her. She had been having the reoccurring door dream. Waking up in a cold sweat had been bad enough, but this morning she had woken up screaming. She couldn't remember what she saw. No one came running in, confirming either that the walls were soundproof or no one was there to come check on her. She suspected the later was true.

The second was her headache. It had lasted for a week now, and she had tried everything to get rid of it. She had even purposely stubbed her toe to make the pain in her head seem less horrible. That had not been a wise move, as now both her head and toe hurt.

Rose had been keeping to herself and disturbing the Avenger scramble as little as possible. She couldn't bother anyone with her stupid problems. They were insignificant compared to the insanity going on with Cap and Tony. She had asked Tony if he needed any help with designing. She had been rejected.

So Rose was a bored and frustrated teenager, sitting in her room, counting sheep. Why couldn't she be normal? Have boy problems or something? Be worried about exams?

But that wasn't her. She knew it. She was a Stark and if a Stark does anything, it sure as hell isn't normal.

She was stuck indoors; Tony was going to insane lengths to keep SHIELD away from her and her genius quiet. Rose instead designed planes in her room, worked on material design and casual engineering, allowing her mind to wander and expand. She occasionally worked out on the side, still praying she would one day be of use and maybe get to fight.

Rose stood up, her back hurting from playing philosoph and sitting against a wall for an hour. She stretched and yawned, preparing for a day of slow designing and research.

She glanced out the window, the rising sun blinding her and illuminating her emerald eyes.

Rose felt like something was about to change, and she wasn't sure if she was ready for it.

A/n

Hello! I'm trying out something quite new here when it comes to fanfiction. I've never done an OC before but I figured I'd give it a shot. Please R/R and tell me what you think about this intro and the character I'm laying out. Any comments are welcome!

I am really excited about Rose and her character's potential - I feel like I can make her connect with other characters and create someone worth rooting for. I know this intro might have been tedious, but please stick with me and be ready for more lighthearted and fun chapters to come! There will be a lot more dialogue in the coming chapters - it won't be nonstop narration forever.

- Stella