Darcy was so caught up in the world of cakes and cookies she had created in her mind she barely noticed the car stopping. She did however notice when Uncle Phil got out of the car, it was the closing of the door that startled her into reality. Uncle Phil walked around to where she was in the backseat, clutching Bunny to her chest, and opened her door.
'Welcome Home Darcy,' He said, smiling down at her before undoing her seatbelt and gently picking her up in his arms.
Uncle Phil set Darcy gently on the ground making sure she was standing on her injured leg and still supporting most of her weight himself as he reached in for her bag and then shut the door, and slinging the bag onto his back and picking her up again.
'This is our mailbox,' Uncle Phil said stopping at it. 'See the number 26 on it; that means that our house is number 26 on this road. If you get lost, or confused remember the number 26 okay. This is Number 26 Queen Street, now you live at number 26 Queen Street'. Uncle Phil repeated it a few times and got Darcy to say it as well. Darcy tried desperately to remember it, knowing it was important information.
Smiling at her Uncle Phil continued up the path to the front door. Darcy noticed the pile of shoes in front of it and suddenly it hit her that there were a lot of people on the other side of this door, a lot of people that she had to share a house with. Never before had she lived in a house this big, or with this many people, her old house was small and rundown, but this house was clean and nothing was broken. Noticing her distress Uncle Phil stopped just before putting his hand on the door.
'Remember,' he said. 'If you get scared just tell me. If it gets too much just let me know and we can separate off for a bit to let you get your head around it. But I bit of warning; everyone is very excited to meet you.' And with that he opened the door to Darcy's new life.
The first thing Darcy noticed was that it was big. The mansion of a house looked even bigger on the inside with the open plan area, light colours and fancy staircase. The second thing Darcy noticed was the faces. Every wall, coffee table and windowsill was covered in photographs. Darcy could see the same faces repeated over and over, growing from babies to young adults. She particularly like the whole family photo, the smiles on the faces of everyone seemed genuine and gave her a warm feeling inside.
Uncle Phil watched Darcy as her eyes grew wider in amazement, drinking in the wonderful sight in front of her. When Uncle Phil closed the door, making a noise that drew Darcy away from her fascination, Darcy heard several thumps from upstairs, before the pounding of feet began.
'That will be them,' Uncle Phil says smiling down at her. Darcy barely has time to try and figure out how many sets of footsteps she hears before 4 boys came piling down the stairs. They ranged in height from being tall to Extremely Tall. The shortest, who was still at least a head taller than Darcy, had short spiky blondish hair that stood out in all directions; he was the first to arrive at the foot of the stairs having jumped over the bannister from about half way. The next tallest was a dark haired boy. He seemed skinny compared to the other boys, but that may have been just because all of the others were so well built, and he had grease marks on his arms and face. Next was a boy with blonde hair cropped short around his head, he was smiling a genuine smile that made his eyes light up and made Darcy feel happy inside. Finally was the last boy, very tall with long Blonde hair that fell to his shoulders. Although he arrived at the bottom of the stairs last he somehow managed to pick up and move all the other boys out of the way to appear in front of Darcy and Uncle Phil first.
'Hello' his voice boomed loudly which instantly made Darcy shrink into Uncle Phil's side.
Noticing his obvious mistake the giant's face fell putting on such a sad expression. Feeling bad at herself for upsetting the boy, Darcy turned slightly away from Phil's chest and whispered a timid hello back. The grin that lit up the giants face made Darcy giggle slightly, which in turn made the giant grin wider.
'This is Thor', Uncle Phil said to Darcy. 'Do you remember what I told you about him?'
Darcy nodded recalling that Thor wasn't in school, but instead worked at the metal works, which probably explained the big muscles on his arms. Uncle Phil grinned at her before moving on the next boy.
'I'm Steve', the boy with the short blonde hair and happy face said holding out her hand to shake, which was impossible because one of her hands was still wrapped around Phil because of the way she was being held, and the other was clutched onto Bunny so tightly it would take a lot of force to pry her hand away. Instead she looked at the hand before looking at his face and smiling, making the same quiet hello to him.
Next came forward the shortest boy, who waved at her and announced,
'I am Clint the best of the boys!' before he was promptly tackled by the others. Scared and shocked could not cover what Darcy was feeling. Watching as the bigger boys tried to grab Clint Darcy began to shake, remembering the feelings of fear she had felt when her father had grabbed her. Noticing her distress Uncle Phil calmly put her on a couch, one of the comfiest couches Darcy had ever felt, before getting in and separating the boys. Ordering them into the other room for a 'stern talking to' in a voice that left no room for discussion, Uncle Phil then turned back to Darcy.
'They weren't hurting each other', Uncle Phil said, his tone conveying his worry that she believed they were. 'I will go talk to them and then we can see about that cake. Remember you have nothing to fear here.'
Darcy nodded, happy about the idea of cake. She was sure that none of the boys would hurt her, unless they had some Liquid, but she wasn't about to judge them on that, Liquid makes people do crazy things. And while she was worried about her ability to get away if they have Liquid because her leg was covered in plaster, she thought that at least Uncle Phil would be able to keep her safe.
Uncle Phil noticed her nodding and nodded himself, making her giggle slightly, before he turned around and went into the other room that the boys had just disappeared into. Darcy sighed, snuggling down further into the couch, marvelling at how comfortable it was. A few minutes passed and Darcy was still waiting for Uncle Phil to return with her cake when she started to get bored. Noticing a book on the coffee table in front of her, she shuffled forward on the couch to grab it, teetering on the edge of the couch for a second before regaining her balance. Moving back to her original position on the couch Darcy opened the book, and noticed it was filled with more photos.
Darcy wondered if the amount of photos in Uncle Phil's house was a normal amount. As she was flipping through the book, Darcy could see at the others as they grew up, starting as babies and growing older into the people she had met today. Darcy also noticed a red haired girl she assumed was Natasha plus an older dark haired boy she thought was Bruce based on the stories Uncle Phil had told her.
Darcy was so caught up in looking at the pictures that she didn't realise that another person had entered the room until they sat down next to her. The movement of the couch alerted her to the presence of another and she immediately dropped the book, bringing up her hands palms open facing front in apology.
'I'm sorry I didn't mean to look at it, but it was there and it looked interesting, so maybe I did mean to look at it but still it looked nice and I've never seen so many pictures and…' Darcy managed to stammer out before the new arrival stopped her.
'That's cool', the red haired girl said. 'You must be Darcy? I'm Natasha. You don't need to be worried about looking at those; everyone here is okay with it.'
Darcy looked at Natasha, not sure whether to believe her, or if it was just a trick, but she was quickly side tracked by the large slice of chocolate cake that she held. Natasha noticing where her eyes were drawn smiled.
'If you put the book then away you can have the cake, I just managed to sneak it out before the boys piled in. Steve and I made it for you, but I doubt they will remember that until after it's all gone.'
Darcy quickly followed her orders, closing the book and putting it back on the table in front of her, before holding out her hands for the cake.
In one word, it was Delicious. It had been a long while since Darcy had had food, let alone sweet, soft, moist cake. Stuck between wanting to savour it and wanting to devour it immediately Darcy; settled with taking frequent small bites. Once she had the cake halfway finished she carefully placed the cake in her hands wiping off the crumbs from her face before smiling up at Natasha.
Natasha smiled back at her, but it didn't quite reach her eyes, giving Darcy a bit of concern. Seeing her discomfort Natasha quickly jumped to her feet before muttering something under her breath about being needed in the kitchen and walking off. Part of Darcy wondered if she had somehow offended the girl, the other part wanted to know if her actions had hindered her ability to get more cake.
It was a few more minutes of waiting before Uncle Phil came back into the room.
'I am so sorry about all that Darcy. Don't worry they have been warned and won't do it again.' He reassured.
This confused Darcy, but she decided to let it slide once she saw that Uncle Phil had another piece of the chocolate cake on a plate in his hands. Noticing where her attention was Uncle Phil smiled.
'Finish the one in your hands and then you can have this one okay. Natasha told me she had already given you a piece but I saved this one for you anyway seeing as how you missed lunch. Once you have had enough then I will show you to your room and you can get comfortable and have a nap if you want before dinner. At dinner you will get to meet Bruce, he's my eldest remember, plus my little sister Jane. She is your Aunt and there is a bit of an age difference between us. After that you can decide if you want to stay up and hang around with us or if you just want to go to bed. Remember if at any time you feel uncomfortable or scared let me know and I will try and make it better.'
Darcy had tried to listen to what he said, but the second he mentioned that the piece of cake he held was for her she began scoffing down the cake in her hands in record time before holding out her hands for the one he had, hoping he would repeat himself later on as the information became more relevant. Uncle Phil looked down at her a smile on his face before handing over the plate that held the yummy cake.
Unable to stop herself this time, Darcy managed to eat the whole piece, not even noticing it was finished until she went for another bite and saw it would be her last. Looking up at Uncle Phil with a sad face he chuckled slightly, promising more after dinner, before gently lifting her into his arms and starting for the stairs. Walking up the stairs and along the corridor he pointed out the rooms. Thor's was first, his name on the door with a picture of a hammer, representing his job at the metal works factory. Next along was Clint's room, an arrow was shown underneath his name, showing his love for archery plus Robin Hood. Across from Clint's room was Bruce's and below his name was a test tube that was filled with bubbling green liquid.
Before Darcy could see any more of the doors and what fun pictures could be on them, Uncle Phil opened up a door that was next to Clint's.
Darcy's first impression of the inside of the room was that it was very bland. There was a bed along one wall, a bookshelf and table opposite it and a door leading to what Darcy assumed was a cupboard. The best thing about the room however was definitely the window. It was huge, covering at least half of the back wall, the curtains were a brown that Darcy neither liked nor disliked.
'I am sorry it's not the most interesting room. Normally my other sister uses it when she comes to stay, but she isn't hung up in what things look like so it has practically stayed the same since I bought the house. But tomorrow if you are feeling up to it we can talk about redesigning and adding a few nice things.' Uncle Phil said, trying to decipher Darcy's emotions about the room from her facial expression.
Darcy shrugged her shoulders. It was much better than her last room which was filled with dirt and dust and bad stains, not to mention the holes in the walls, door and few items she owned, often when her father had just a little Liquid he took it out on things rather than her.
Very carefully Uncle Phil carried Darcy over to the bed and laid her down on top of the covers. He then arranged a pillow behind her head that was amazingly soft before putting another under her leg to prop it up a bit. Next he disappeared into the cupboard for a few seconds before returning with a small patchwork quilt that he gently covered her in.
'Just relax okay. I am going to be downstairs but the other kids should come up to their rooms soon. If you need anything, just yell and someone will come and help you. After you have a little rest then you can come back downstairs and meet everyone else before dinner okay?' Phil questioned and when Darcy shrugged again he sighed and left the room, closing the door slightly behind him but making sure to leave it a little ajar.
Darcy watched him leave, and after a few moments of calm and quiet in her new room alone, she realised how tired she was and found herself slowly drifting off to sleep.