They're all children - between 8 and 12, maybe. They live out in the country, and while backgrounds would obviously have to be tweaked, they still have incredibly fucked up back stories. This would take place over a summer break.
Think fishing on the lake and climbing trees and sneaking Bruce in through a window because his dad's violent-drunk tonight, and putting ice on Clint's swollen lip, and Pepper always pressing food into hands, and Natasha fierce and cold and lonely, and the way they bend and give for each other, like kids are so often so eager to do.
Angstyness with dollops of sweet and a happy or hopeful ending?
This is just a one shot, not much dialogue and in present tense, but since I don't usually write like that it might not be super good. My OC is from my story Believing in Heroes.
When Kadin and Tony were sent away, 10 year old Kadin didn't realize why. But 11 year old Tony did, and wherever it was or whyever it was did not settle right with him. Kadin was content with it, didn't matter to her if she was moving, because she was used to it. Before getting adopted by the Starks she was in bad foster homes, having been found in a dumpster when she was only a newborn. Tony loved her, she was his little sister, and he'd do anything for her. So now the 2 children were leaving their house, leaving Howard and Maria, to go live with their lonely aunt and her daughter Pepper.
Turns out their aunt did not like Kadin, her black hair is too dark, her silver eyes are abnormal, she's way to pale, and being an acrobat was a terrible dream, even if Kadin has been doing it for 3 years. It's when Tony convinces 8 year old Pepper to take them somewhere fun that the summer looks up. They're going fishing, and while Kadin has done this so many times before, Tony needs both of the girls' help to even get the hook in the water. They meet 12 year old Steve first, the next day when they go to fish again, and he's there with bruises and cuts all over himself. "I got into a fight with some kids that were spray painting a wall." And that's all that was said on the matter, and they meet Steve every day after that, Steve whose mother is dying of sickness, Steve who doesn't like bullies. Steve who isn't a coward. It's Clint and Natasha they meet next, both of which had come out of hiding places when found out. They're runaways and very wary of the group, but Kadin takes an immediate liking to them. And though 11 year old Clint thinks she's great, Natasha, who's the same age as Clint, is too closed off to speak with her. Kadin doesn't mind, as long as she can touch Natasha's hair nearly every day.
A few days later they find 9 year old Bruce sitting beneath the docks on a wooden board he brought with his feet dangling into the water, looking as if he had been crying. Eager to get a new friend, Kadin manages to coax Bruce out from under there and onto the dock with the others. "Don't be afraid, we can give you a place to be that isn't home." Kadin says, and that's enough, and it really will always be enough, because he can't run away from the abuse like Clint and Natasha, because his poor mother loves him, and that's enough for him to stay. It's 12 year old Thor that comes next, loud and boisterous, and though Kadin thinks he's nice, he's too loud for her. He's too loud for Bruce and Pepper as well, and it's a thankful reprieve when he brings the last of the group, 10 year old Loki, his adoptive brother, who manages to calm Thor down whenever he gets too loud. Loki has shadows under his eyes and bruises under his shirt whenever it accidentally gets pulled up to high, but no one says a word because they're just children, they can't do anything about any of it.
And they just fill each other's company, playing cards, fishing, eating when Pepper forces food into all of their hands, until Kadin has had enough. "Alright, you guys are way too depressing, understand? I get that you've been through a lot but I have to and I'm not as depressing as you!" She breathes heavily after this, but she's gotten their attention, and it's all she had wanted. "You don't know what we've been through! You're just a little rich kid, nothing bad could have happened to you." Clint says back, but immediately regrets it when Kadin slumps and tears form at the corners of her eyes. "Kady, I-I'm sorry…" Clint tries, but Kadin gives an almost feral glare and lunges for him. Tony is at his feet in seconds, peeling the girl off him and trying to soothe her. Kadin rubs her eyes and nods to whatever Tony says, before wrenching herself out of Tony's grip and running to their aunt's house.
Tony keeps quiet on the matter when asked, only says, "Ask her tomorrow." By the time tomorrow comes, Kadin is cooled off but is unsmiling, in direct contrast to every day before. Suddenly Natasha is speaking. "My parents were terrible people." She starts, fidgeting slightly. "Emotional or bruises-on-the-skin?" Kadin asks softly and Natasha bites her lip before saying, "Try door number three." And Kadin understands, but Tony takes a second before his stomach clenches, and he's looking away in shock. Clint shows his scars underneath his shirt to the group and that's all Kadin needs to know. Steve tells about the dad that walked out on him and his terminally ill mother, about the bullies at school, and everyone understands. Pepper says she's never good enough for her mother and Tony agrees with the whole group that Pepper's mom is a bona fide witch. "Possibly with spells and all." Loki jokes, and it's his turn.
He says that he was adopted very young, only a few months old, so he doesn't know or care to know the parents who left him. He says that Thor is always better than him at everything, that their 'father', the ruler of a country near Norway called Asgard, always believes that he could never amount to what Thor could. Loki says he's punished, beaten and hit with a belt, whenever he does something that wasn't as good as Thor, or does something unfit for not only a prince, but also male warriors. Kadin doesn't say a word but their eyes meet and everything goes quiet because they are speaking to each other through their eyes, until Thor says, "I didn't know… brother, I'm sorry." And Loki says that no, Thor isn't his brother, and no, Thor can't be sorry for what someone else did. Kadin interjects that, yes, they are brothers. Tony is her brother and she's adopted. It helps alleviate the tension between them that started to fester.
Kadin decides to go next, since if she doesn't, Bruce won't, and neither will Tony. She falters a lot and barely holds back tears, but she speaks of being abandoned in a dumpster, of being handed from one foster house to another while being separated from her drug-addict adoptive brother, each one progressively worse until she's with the Starks. She talks about finding her first family murdered and that's why she was put into the system. She speaks of finding the papers and running when she was just 5 years old. The murderer had hurt her, raped her, then left her to die. She didn't, thankfully, and she spent 2 years in foster care before she was adopted by the Starks. She became an acrobat, and she even adds at the end that she's thankful her first family was murdered, because she had been sick of living in a Dollhouse. When they ask her what that meant, she explains haltingly slow. "You see… there are a few types of… home lives. There's Glass Houses, where the parent… poisons their children, mainly adopted or fostered. I lived in… well, a Dollhouse. The father figure brought sluts home, while the mother was a drunk who passed out on the couch all the time. The sibling, usually brother, smoked cannabis, snorted cocaine, any drug. My brother did weed. And no one knows because everyone thinks that the family… is perfect. And it's not. They just pretend, like dolls." She tried, and all they could do was nod.
Tony goes next, says that he never really gets to be a child. He always has to be building things, engineering, being like his father, and Kadin nuzzles her face into his chest, letting herself rest onto her brother. Tony is too closed off to say much else, like Clint and Natasha, so all that's left is Thor and Bruce, and Thor uneasily says that there really is nothing wrong with him. He's favored at home, he's a prince, he loves his and Loki's mother and father. The only thing is the pressure of having to be a king when he grows up, and not being ready. He says that it seems unfair that his life is so much better than all of theirs, and Bruce agreed rather vehemently. The 9 year old is standing now, tears rushing down his face. "It's not fair that I have to afraid every time I go home! It's not fair that I see my mom with bruises all over her and you get to have whatever the hell you want, whenever the hell you want! It's not fair that I fear for my mother's and my lives every single day, and you get everything you want on a silver platter! It's not fair!" And suddenly the boy is off, and Kadin sighs slightly, slumping down. There are no words exchanged until Bruce is back, rubbing his eyes. "I'm sorry…" He whispers, shuffling silently on his feet. Kadin shifts. "Is your dad home?" She asks quietly, and Bruce shrugs. "Almost. He was at the bar- he's going to be drunk and violent." Kadin nods and pulls Tony to his feet, beckoning the others. "Well? Let's sneak Bruce into his house!"
Clint's the one that finds the suitable tree to climb, and he's testing the branches by the time Pepper is almost done teaching Bruce how to pull himself up the first branch. Steve is on the duty of telling them when Bruce's dad is back, and Kadin has delegated herself to the job of stalling him, even though Tony has already told her not to. Loki goes with her to keep her safe. Bruce pretends not to be incredibly touched by their actions as Thor boosts him up the tree. When Bruce is safely in his room and Bruce's dad has successfully made Loki and Kadin scurry off, Bruce waves them goodbye and the group disperses to get to their homes. Steve goes to the little neighborhood he lives in with his ill mother, Thor and Loki go to their home in possibly the only posh street in the whole town. But when Kadin, Pepper, and Tony start to get to Pepper's home and Kadin notices Clint and Natasha head back to the docks, she makes a plan. The summer is nearing an end, in only 1 ½ months. She's not leaving Clint and Natasha without somewhere warm to live. The next day Kadin tells Tony her plan, and he agrees wholeheartedly. The 2 are calling the rest of the group before getting ready to go to the docks, and they make sure to keep Clint and Natasha out of the loop.
Clint and Natasha are sitting alone together, waiting for the group, with Clint worrying his lip. "We shouldn't have expected them to come every day. We trusted them…" Natasha sighs, and then a rattling comes from behind them. There's the group, all of them holding items to build, and Pepper is grinning from ear to ear at the 2 runaways. "We're making you a home!" She cries happily, and Kadin nods, before Tony is suddenly bum rushing them with information on how big and what to do to make it. Kadin picks the perfect spot near the lake, a small patch of land that isn't owned by anyone and hidden by the bushes and trees. Everyone helps, but with 'Only prepubescent little people', as Tony so affectionately put it, working, it takes a little over half a month. It's roughly the size of a fishing shack, but Clint and Natasha seem to like it either way. Kadin has gotten the go-ahead from Howard with her long term plan, but there's nothing to do until the end of the last month. She asks if they trust her.
"Why?" Loki asks, and she says that she can't say until the end of the month. "Yes. We trust you." Natasha says, motioning to her and Clint. Kadin can't help but smile. "I trust you." Bruce murmurs. "So do Loki and I!" Thor bellows, and Kadin winced lightly at the volume. Thor quietly apologizes. Pepper and Steve say they trust her, but all Tony says is he's her brother. She's frowns. "That doesn't mean you trust me." Tony says that yes, he trusts her, and no, he didn't realize that it didn't mean he trusted her. Almost immediately after, Kadin's phone is ringing. She answers the phone, halting the song Alfie by Lily Allen, squealing, "Kota!" Tony explains that Kota is the drug addict brother Kadin had been talking about before. Kota says that he can take care of her, he's off drugs, has a respectable job, and is now old enough to care for her. Kadin quietly rejects the idea because she has a family with the Starks, but upon learning that he lives in the same place Kadin is spending her summer, she suggests that she spend summers here at his house, every summer from now on. Kota agrees wholeheartedly, and Kadin is off, saying goodbye. "Wait!" Clint tries, and Kadin turns. "Why did you ask if we trust you?" Kadin grins at them. "It's a surprise, at the end of summer."
For a month, Kadin lives with the now clean Kota, and she invites the group to there every other day. It's always between her and Clint&Natasha's house. At the end of the month, Kadin doesn't show up at the dock, and she's not home. The rest of the group goes back to their houses, until Kadin is knocking on Pepper and Tony 's door. She hands her aunt 2 manila folders, and she reads a few papers before she's shoving Pepper and Tony at Kadin. They ask what's going on, but Kadin doesn't answer. Next is Thor and Loki's house. Kadin says something to Odin in another language and hands him 2 folders. He seems to understand, and answers back in the same language before Frigga, their mother, comes and hugs them goodbye. The 2 boys are shoved to Kadin. Kadin still says nothing to the others and heads to Bruce's house. She hands a paper and 1 folder to Bruce's father, and says the first words in English anyone has heard from her all day, "That folder is for Ms. Banner. If you don't give it to her, that threat will become reality." Rebecca Banner is at the door in seconds. She reads a little from the papers and suddenly bursts into tears, a wide smile on her face. "Oh my god, thank you, thank you so much!" Rebecca gives Kadin a hug and she hugs back before Rebecca is kissing Bruce goodbye and fleeing, saying something about packing. Bruce is asking Kadin what happened once the door closes, but Kadin has gone silent again.
It's not until they're at Steve's door that she speaks to the group following her. "Alright, Steve's mother is very sick. You either stay on the sidewalk or stay away from the door, we can't crowd Lucille." Immediately Tony is asking incredulously, "Lucille?" The door opens and there was a woman seated in a wheelchair, smiling firefly at Kadin. "Oh, Kady, your plan is working out?" Kadin nods hard enough to give herself whiplash. "Here you go, Lucille." Kadin says softly, handing her one of the manila folders. There's only 2 left in her arms, and suddenly Kadin shifts nervously. "Clint and Natasha…" She says worriedly, but Lucille just puts a hand on Kadin's cheek. "You can do it, Kady." Kadin smiles softly and suddenly Steve is out with the group and the door is closed behind him. Kadin rubs at silent tears that have started to stream down her cheeks, but then she's all businesses and trekking to the lake. Steve asks Loki what's happening, but all the other boy can do is shrug helplessly. Pepper hobbles behind them as quickly as she can, grabbing a hold of Bruce's wrist as they stop at the lake.
Kadin knocks on Clint and Natasha's door, shifting uneasily. Clint opens the door, holding a slingshot aimed at her, but upon seeing that it's Kadin, he puts the slingshot down. "Kady? Why weren't you at the lake earlier?" She doesn't answer, just hands him a folder with his name on it. When Natasha steps over, Kadin hands her the last folder. "Oh my god." Clint breaths, eyes widening at the contents of the folder. Natasha laughs, a small, tinkling laugh, the first time anyone hears a light laugh from her, and then Natasha is hugging Kadin. "Thank you so much." Natasha breaths, and Kadin nods. "You're very welcome."
When the school year starts, the whole group is in a small building, and there's 10 rooms waiting for them. The tenth is for Rebecca Banner, who turned out to be a teacher, and turned into the group's educator. Kadin explains that this had been her plan ever since they told her their pasts and that every summer they're going back to the little country town. Bruce's dad is gone from there, she explains, so Rebecca and Bruce get their house. Pepper and Tony are welcome to stay with her at Kota's, she says, in fact, all of them are, if they don't want to go home. She says she expects Steve to stay with Lucille, however, and if Thor loves his parents so much, to stay with them. Since Loki loves his mom, Kadin says that he should see her as well. Loki sidles up beside Kadin and suddenly their lips are pressed together. When Loki lets the blushing Kadin go, he's grinning mischievously. "Thank you, Kadin."
It's not until next summer that they meet Jane Foster, Darcy Lewis, Peter Parker, Maria Hill, Phil Coulson, Peggy Carter, and the group of children that are in the X-Group, but for now, life at Avengers Academy was just fine. And really, it would always be just fine. Because Kadin did something, even if she was just a child. Plus, dating Loki really wasn't bad at all.
Alright, favorite, review, tell me if I should make a sequel with next summer!