Author's Note: This is just a scene from my OTHER fanfic. I probably won't post more than this, since the storyline is veeeery similar to the fic I AM posting, but this scene was fun to write and to read, so I figured, why not? If I think I can get away with two very similar stories, I'll post this one too. I actually have more written for this one- more than 10,000 words already and hardly anything's happened. Geez.
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Tony waltzed over to Al, who didn't notice him. He peered at her drawings, then rushed over to Natasha. "Come take a look," he whispered. They watched Al draw together. The drawings were creepy as hell. They were well done, much better than any six year old had a right to. You could tell what everything was- everything, including the Chitauri and the guts and Loki's gag. Al finished one drawing and started arranging them. They seemed to be in chronological order. The first one was a family of three, a man, woman, and a child recognizable as Al. The weirdest thing about that one was that the adults had no faces. In the next drawing, the adults with no faces were having an argument, with a crying Al in the corner of the page. Then the man held a knife in his upraised fist as little Al jumped in between him and the woman.
Al paused over the next one. The knife had come down, and there was a slice down Mini-Al's cheek. She touched the scar on her face. Mini-Al was still crying, but her eyes were wider. And red. Where had the kid gotten red from? Tony glanced around and noticed that one of the meat packets from the fridge was open nearby. That's weird, Tony thought, I didn't see her get up. The Mini-Al's eyes were red, and as Natasha and Tony watched, Al continued adding red to the other drawings. The one after the slash showed the man and woman lying on the ground with pools of red under them and on their clothing. There was red on Mini-Al, too, her hands, shirt, mouth, and as tears under her eyes as she knelt next to the woman's corpse.
Next there was a drawing of a cleaner Al running through the streets of New York, and one of her huddling behind a dumpster, eating something red and furry. Gross. One of Al being held down by a large faceless man, visibly trying to hold herself back as red clouded her eyes. In the next, Mini-Al was eating his intestines. There was a picture of an old man, again without a face, bringing Al red meat, showing her a book, sitting with her beside a fire… running away as Mini-Al, with bloody eyes and mouth, tore into a dead man holding a gun. Another of Al and the guy who must be Grandfather, this time of them hiding as a Chitauri cruiser passed them by. One of Al getting hit by a blast from the Chitauri when they found them… and of her with her teeth in Grandfather's throat. Then one of Mini-Al wandering around as people with no faces ran away from the Chitauri soldiers.
The next few were more hopeful. There was a picture of Iron Man crouching in front of Al's hiding spot. Then Natasha holding her close as she knelt in the street. One of Bruce and Natasha dressing her in the kitten T-shirt. Al had no sense of modesty whatsoever, Tony noticed. There was a picture of all the Avengers watching her eat the pounds of meat from last night. Tony slowly realized that all of the Avengers had faces in the pictures, unlike any of the other people. And they were very recognizable. The drawings looked like a middle schooler had done them, not a kindergartener. Finally there was a picture of Loki sitting in his cell, and Mini-Al watching him from outside it. There was blood on his armor. As Tony watched, Al added red to Loki's hands, and to Mini-Al's. Then she finally looked up at them with blank yellow eyes. She slowly turned her palms over to display the blood.