Chapter 2: Make a Wish
Eight year old Troy Stark sat at the table, sighing in boredom. His parent's friends were over and their children were over too. All of them had been forced to sit at a separate table from the adults for lunch. Currently, he was seated next to Charlie Banner and his sister Karou. Alexander Rogers, Natalie Barton, Anton Barton, and Will Foster also sat at the table with them. He knew their parents were all the original Avengers and they often got together like this.
Today, though, he wasn't very interested in eating lunch with everyone. Alex had scolded him for making a joke about Will earlier and it made him sour that everyone else agreed with the boy. All he wanted to do was go to his room and read a book or maybe sneak down to the lab with his dad and continue working on his Iron Man suit. His mother didn't approve which was why they did it secretly.
Charlie finished his lunch and sat quietly, not saying much to anyone. Maybe the two of them could go off and play while they waited for everyone else to finish.
"Charlie?" Troy asked, tapping him on the shoulder.
"What?" he responded quietly, looking up keenly from behind his glasses.
"Do you want to go to my room? I'm bored."
His eyebrows rung together in worry. "But what if we get in trouble?"
"We won't. Come on. I can show you my new science kit!"
The boy's eyes lit up and Troy smiled, tugging his sleeve and sliding off the chair. Before anyone could notice, the two of them darted down the hallway to his bedroom. Once inside, he shut the door and locked it, grinning and ducking under a blanket fort he made in the corner of the room.
Charlie followed suit and with the two of them inside, he turned on a lamp sitting on the floor by his feet and tugged the science kit from underneath one of the pillows. It had different flasks and beakers with their own formulas to be mixed in little packets.
"Isn't it cool? Can you ask your dad if you can stay over tonight so we can use it?" he asked, blowing at a strand of orange hair in his face.
"I don't know...my dad has a science talk tomorrow morning. I have to go," Charlie answered, frowning slightly and pushing his glasses up.
"Aw, dammit!"
"Troy Anthony Stark! Where did you even learn such language?"
His mother's voice interrupted their conversation and he froze, looking behind him to see his mother bent down and peering through the gap in the blanket.
"Daddy says it all the time," he huffed, putting the kit down and scooting out of the fort with his best friend on his heels.
"I figured. You know you're not supposed to repeat that. Now come on, your friends are getting ready to leave and Charlie your dad is looking for you."
"Okay Mrs. Stark," Charlie mumbled, getting to his feet.
Troy followed after his mom with an annoyed huff. Nothing was going his way today. Couldn't he just hang out with his dad or Charlie and not anyone else? He dragged his feet down the hallway into the living room where everyone was getting their things together. Natalie Barton caught his eye across the room and he flashed her a charming smile. She wasn't so bad either, really pretty too.
"I guess I'll see you later," Charlie said, startling him.
He turned and sighed, nodding his head. "Okay. Maybe your dad will say yes to next weekend."
"I hope so. Bye, Troy." He waved a little and then bounded over to his dad, who ruffled his hair and then gave a goodbye to each of them.
Will and his dad were the next to leave and he only gave a wave to the boy before slumping on the couch in boredom. Alex's dad was talking to the Bartons for far too long and he didn't want to stick around and say bye to Alex after he made him get into a bad mood. But his mother seemed to notice this and made him say goodbye once they were ready to leave.
Finally, the Bartons were going to be on their way. Anton merely gave him a wave, since being older he acted like he was cooler than the rest of them. Natalie waved at him next and he smiled at her. She wasn't so bad, pretty even. Kinda quiet but still really nice and he probably liked her as much as Charlie.
"See you later, Red!" he said with a giggle.
"What?" she asked, blinking her long eyelashes at him and making her green eyes pop.
"Your hair is red. So you're Red."
"Oh..."
Anton rolled his eyes at them. "Come on, Nat. Mom and dad are waiting."
Natalie huffed and then gave him a quick smile before bounding off toward her parents and brother. Troy sighed and plopped down on the couch next to Karou as their parents walked everyone else out.
"You think Dad will let us work on the suits today?" she asked suddenly, her voice somewhat quiet.
"I hope so. I'm so bored." He threw his hands up dramatically.
"Alright kiddos, let's help clean up the tables," their mom said, interrupting their conversation.
"Do we have toooo?" he groaned.
"Yes. You too, K. Come on, let's go."
Troy scooted off the couch with his twin sister in tow to the dining room. The table was scattered with dirty dishes and he sighed, reaching on the table to get some of the plates. Karou followed suit, huffing just as much as he was.
"Did you enjoy having your friends over?" his mom asked, gathering some dishes of her own.
"I just wanted to play with Charlie," he grumbled, grimacing as some of the cheese from the lasagna on the plate he was holding stuck to his palm.
"I had fun," Karou said matter-of-factly.
"Everyone was being annoying."
"Troy, that's not very nice," his mother reprimanded, leading them to the kitchen to put the plates in the sink.
"But it's true! Alex was being a meanie!"
"You were being mean to Will," Karou pointed out, a wicked grin on her lips.
"I was just joking!"
"It was a mean joke."
Troy gave her a shove. "Was not!"
"Was too!" She shoved him back, her eyes sparkling with mischief.
"Alright, alright!" his mother interrupted, pulling them apart. "Karou, why don't you go and play in your room while Troy and I finish up?"
Karou nodded and gave her mother puppy eyes before turning and heading to the door. Just before she left, she shot a look over her shoulder at him, grinning wickedly. She did that to get out of helping!
"She did that on purpose!" he whined, crossing his arms and pouting.
"Troy, stop and help me," she sighed, pulling up a stool so they could wash the dishes together.
With a long, dramatic sigh, he got his gloves and stepped up to the stool next to her. She started up the water and handed him a soapy sponge. Together, the two of them started to clean up the dishes while he sighed and groaned every few minutes. She ignored his huffing and remained silent for a few minutes.
"Troy, why did you make fun of Will? What did you say?" she asked gently, rinsing off a plate.
"I was just joking!" he defended quickly, almost dropping a bowl.
"What did you say?"
"I...told him he had no brains because all his brains were in his muscles."
It was a well known fact that Will was a muscular young kid, probably due to the incredible strength of his father.
"You know better than to say something like that, Troy Anthony," she scolded.
"It was a joke! And Alex said I was a bully and everyone else said so too!" he exclaimed.
"It doesn't matter if it was a joke, it wasn't very nice. I'm going to have you call Will on the phone later and apologize to him, alright?"
"Fine... I still don't like Alex."
His mother sighed and finished off the last of the dishes. "Go clean up and then come out on the balcony with me, alright?"
Troy sighed and nodded, pulling off the gloves and then bounding toward the bathroom. He washed his hands and straightened out his wrinkled t-shirt before heading to the balcony like his mother wanted. She was sitting on one of the stone benches across from the fountain that sat in the center of the balcony.
Once she saw him, she gestured for him to come over and patted the seat beside her. He scooted on the cool stone and let his legs dangle over the edge.
"Troy, how would you feel if someone told you that you had no brains, even if it was a joke?" she asked gently.
"I'd be mad," he mumbled, looking down at his lap. "Because I do have brains."
"Do you think maybe that's how Will felt? Maybe he was upset that you said something like that? Do you think that's why Alex said something?"
"Maybe..."
"It's okay to make jokes. But you have to make jokes that aren't mean to someone else. When you say something to someone else, sometimes you can hurt them. So you have to think about if what you say might hurt someone. We try to treat others the way we want to be treated. Does that make sense?"
"Yeah I guess." He wrung his hands together, frowning slightly. "I didn't mean to make him upset."
"I know. You just have to say that you're sorry and try to not do it anymore." She put a hand on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze.
"I will. But...I still don't like Alex."
"Troy," she warned.
"Sorry," he apologized, scooting from the bench when he saw a frog sitting on the edge of the fountain. "Look!"
Troy sat down next to the fountain, grinning as the little green frog closed its eyes. Pepper joined him and ran her fingers through the water.
"He's cute. Wonder how he even got up here. Guess it's a good place for him to live now," she mused, reaching a single finger to try and stroke his head.
Upon being touched, the little frog's eyes flew open and he hopped into the water, leaving a little splash behind that peppered Troy's face. He laughed, wiping off the water and peering into the water to try and find him, but all he saw was little coins reflecting at the bottom of the fountain.
"Why are there coins in there, mommy?" he asked, looking up at her with big brown eyes.
A smile split her lips. "Each coin is a wish. When I was younger, my mom would take me to the park a lot. And she would give me a coin to throw into the fountain and make a wish with. I still do it sometimes. If I'm feeling sad, I throw a coin in and it reminds me of my mom."
"Can I try?" he asked.
He never knew his grandparents, but his mom loved them a lot and he knew she missed them. Sometimes, she would sit him and Karou down and tell them about her parents and what they were like.
"Sure. Let me go and get some coins," she agreed, pushing off of the ground.
Smiling he watched her leave and then looked down into the fountain. What was he going to wish for? He already had everything he wanted. Friends and family. Things. There wasn't really anything he wanted that he didn't have. Besides an Iron Man suit like his dad, but that was in the works already.
Pepper returned a few minutes later with a small handful of pennies. "Here we go."
She split the pile between the two of them and he received a total of three pennies. Three wishes for today.
Thinking hard, he decided to go with something easy for the first one. Holding that penny in his hand, he thought the wish in his head. I wish that my suit will be done soon so I can be a hero like daddy.
With a small plunk, the penny fell into the water, slowly drifting to the bottom to join the others. His mother smiled and dropped her own penny after his. There was something that made him feel good and relaxed about the coins floating to the bottom.
Taking up the second one, he thought again. Then he remembered. The business meeting that his dad had to go to on Monday. His mom wouldn't be around so he and Karou would have to go with him and those meetings were so boring. No way he wanted to go to that! So he thought, I wish that I didn't have to go to my dad's meeting, and dropped the penny in after it.
With a small sigh, he took up the last penny and sat quietly for a moment. What else did he want? He thought about everything. His friends, family... Pressing his lips together, he fumbled with the penny and closed his eyes.
I wish that when I grow up, I can have a nice family.
And the final penny dropped into the water.
A/N: Karou belongs to my friend Clover, Alex belongs to my friend Win, Natalie and Anton belong to an old friend Bucky, and Will belongs to a friend Lily.