The rest of the week was mentally and physically strenuous.

Creating a cloaking device wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. By Friday, Peter and I weren't even halfway done with the calculations yet, and many of them I didn't even know how to do off the top of my head. Even with me working during gym class and staying after school on occasion with Peter, we weren't making progress. At least I knew which materials I'd have to snag from the storeroom, or order. The biggest problem was what could power it- I had the technology, the arc reactor, but I couldn't show Peter that I knew how to build one, or get access to the gem of Stark Tech.

I missed Clint and Natasha a lot. No one told me what their mission was- apparently, no one but Steve actually knew, since he was the team leader and all, but of course he wouldn't tell me. He couldn't tell me when they'd be back, either, although they told me that I wasn't allowed to get worked up about it unless they were gone longer than a month. A month was forever. However, Tony and Steve assured me that if necessary, we could contact them; but that'd blow their mission, since I guess it was super stealthy.

Since Natasha wasn't here, Steve took me to school. I enjoyed the time talking about whatever latest pop culture thing he'd discovered, but it wasn't the same as Natasha; we didn't really talk about anything deep, because he didn't press me, and I wasn't going to offer any information willingly. As for training, I didn't spar with Steve, just still worked out, so I was glad that I got the sparring with Deadpool so I wouldn't get out of practice.

Deadpool was… well, rude, obnoxious, and infuriating. But I was learning from him. Instead of just practicing moves, we fought brutal skirmishes that left me drained and aching. He was making me learn to think on my feet, to plan ahead, and to use my environment as a tool to help defeat my enemies. Like a puzzle. And to my relief, I was actually better at this than drilling with Natasha, because I was good at being innovative, and because the fight wasn't directly an outcome of skill or size.

We were beating the hell out of the warehouse though. Especially after I'd made a beam fall on him.

I did my absolute best against Deadpool, without holding back. It made me sick to my stomach to see his blood and to feel and hear the bones break. But I had to give it my all- I couldn't pull punches like Natasha and I did. He demanded my best effort, not in words but in the way he constantly put pressure on me. If I didn't want to get hurt, I had to hurt him first. It gave me the creeps, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was back in Tempe, getting abused- but this time actually fighting back against my opponent.

How could I defeat a monster without becoming one? I didn't want to kill anybody, but I had to stop Francis from hurting anybody else...

Although I gave my all against Deadpool, I knew he was holding back from really hurting me. He actually admitted it. But it was for a good reason, not just because I was a child; I couldn't go walking about with visible bruises everywhere, or break a bone; we'd get found out. Besides, he beat me up enough even when he held back.

After he told me his reason for not completely kicking my butt, I mentioned the hearing, and that I had to look okay for that. Deadpool was oddly angry on my and Tony's behalf about the trouble with Child Protective Services and he casually offered to kill them. I figured that coming from Deadpool, that was practically an 'I love you'.

But I couldn't count the Merc as a friend. Friends were nice to each other, and Deadpool was a jerk- always mocking me, belittling me, or insulting the Avengers. And even if he wasn't a jerk, I don't think I'd like him. He argued out loud with himself constantly and kept talking about how his 'favorite girl' was Death. He'd once proudly stated proudly,'As soon as I die we'll be together,' before starting to hysterically laugh. The weirdo literally thought he could date Death. Deadpool scared the wits out of me, as much as I didn't want to admit it.

Deadpool announced at the end of our Friday training session that he was sick of practicing fighting; it was time for me to actually go out and do it, warning me that he'd only step in if it looked like I was going to get killed. "I mean, there's plenty of thieves, pedophiles, and murderers lurking around Hell's Kitchen," he'd explained enthusiastically. "Let's get em!" Then he informed me that he'd expect me to sneak out of the tower Monday night and meet him here instead of right after school, then we'd go catch the bad guys. He suddenly didn't seem to care that the trial was Wednesday.

"What's the mission?" I asked cautiously. "I am not sneaking out of the Tower just to catch a burglar."

He tilted his head and then did the weird thing where he talked to himself. "No! I am not going to tell her. It's the surprise! Who cares if it scares her?" He paused a moment, shook his head, and then scoffed. "Fine." Finally turning to me, he told me casually, "We're busting a child trafficking ring. I saw a guy taking a kid, probably about fourteen, from her bus stop the other week. I followed him and located the warehouse that they're probably keeping them all in." He got close to my face. "Is that worth it to you, Princess?"

I took a step back, ice settling in my stomach, undisguised horror on my face. "Worth it? Yes! Should I be the one taking care of it? No! Why on earth wouldn't you report it to the police?" I exclaimed.

Deadpool shook his head and kicked a hole through a rotting crate. "The police are probably some of their biggest customers."

I rubbed the back of my neck. "Then I'll tell the Avengers, they'll_"

"I thought you didn't run off to daddy when things went wrong?" Deadpool mocked, putting his face about a foot from mine. "It's your 'mission'. You have to do it. Or are you going to chicken out and let those poor children continue to be exploited?"

I glared at him, not backing away from his masked face, and snapped, "Of course I'm not backing out. I'm in."

But when he'd caught my terrified expression after I turned away (mostly there because of the Avengers' fury if they found out I'd snuck out at night to Hell's Kitchen, during the day was bad enough), he assured me that I was ready. "And I don't just say that to be nice, Princess. You learn pretty fast." Weirdly, I felt pretty proud as I ran to meet Steve after that.

Although his training was helping me, Deadpool's training, emotionally and physically, hurt. My dreams took place in the warehouse now, fighting Deadpool, fighting Francis, fighting my stepfather, fighting myself… I couldn't remember the last time I hadn't had a nightmare. Tony, with Pepper's insisting, set it so that Friday would tell them if I woke up from a nightmare in the night, and either him or Pepper would take me through the relaxation exercises until I fell back asleep- or rather, pretended to sleep.

I'd overheard an argument they'd had about it- Tony wanted to just let me cope by doing what I needed to do- meaning read Fury's books, build something, or beat up a punching bag- but Pepper insisted that I should try to do what Etts said, and Tony relented when she brought up the CPS hearing.

I felt so bad that they had an argument because of me that I didn't even protest, just went along with it and pretended to fall back asleep.

But the lack of sleep was beginning to take a toll on me, more so than being too frightened of my stepfather to sleep in Tempe. I knew Deadpool's training made it worse, because he was actually hurting me. But the training style was nevertheless effective, so who cared if I couldn't sleep at night anymore and instead just slept through a majority of my classes?

Wanda was… well, I couldn't call Wanda a friend, even though she didn't end up ratting me out to Jane about me getting sick. We didn't do things that friends did; we didn't hang out or anything outside of training, but now we talked about all sorts of stuff during it. I'd accidentally admitted to her that I usually pretended to fall back asleep because I felt bad that Tony or Pepper- usually both- sacrificed sleep when I woke up in the middle of the night. When no one said anything to me about it, meaning that she hadn't told anyone, I knew that I could trust Wanda. So not a friend, not a parent figure, but maybe like an older sister?

I didn't know, and didn't care. It was just nice to know that someone else didn't mind me constantly being underfoot in the headquarters for the world's mightiest heroes, since I was almost positive that Vision didn't like me and Bruce was still bitter about Sokovia. Vision was probably still irritated that I'd disabled him when he was Jarvis. He wasn't around enough for me to ask.

Unfortunately, Wanda and I being friendly to each other was sort of a problem.

I could convince her to let me do things that the other Avengers would never agree to, and since they trusted Wanda to be responsible when training me, they usually weren't down in the gym watching us.

So Saturday night, when Pepper and Tony had gone on a date, Bruce was in his lab with Vision, Thor and Jane were in Asgard again, Steve was hanging out with Sam, and Wanda and I were in the gym. I was allowed to be in the gym training without one of the Avengers, since apparently Wanda counted as supervision for me. Odd, since she was only about five years older.

And before we'd even started warm up, I'd convinced Wanda to verse me in an all-out sparring match, not only using our powers, but also our physical fighting abilities. And the Avengers weren't there to tell us what a dumb idea it was. I'd never sparred with Wanda before. Natasha trained me; Steve trained her. For physical training, they switched. This added interest- our fighting styles were different. So I figured that although Wanda undoubtedly had tricks up her sleeve, I had Natasha's training, Deadpool's training, and Nova's input through my glasses (the cursor contacts were now fully functional, and I had added cameras so Nova could see behind me and mics so I could verbally give commands as well).

So when Wanda finally agreed to fight me, all out, I was worried about hurting her.

I should have been worried about protecting my own ass. I should have known that Steve and Natasha didn't have Wanda and I spar with each other for a reason.

The first time we went at each other, she completed kicked my butt. Her stupid mutation might not work perfectly against me, but it worked pretty well. We still shocked each other when we made physical contact, but this didn't hinder her mind-altering powers, and I had to fight her while holding back memories of Tempe and the Red Room.

"That's cheating," I cried out when I had finally had enough, when I was kneeling on the mats with my eyes shut tight and my hands over my ears to stop myself from seeing and hearing my stepfather. As soon I'd cried out, the vision dissipated.

"You think I'm cheating, Stark?" She asked with disgust, helping me to my feet. "The rest of the world isn't going to follow the rules when they come for you. You do whatever you can to defend yourself and beat your opponent. Or maybe just go ask your father or Natasha to defend you- hide behind them-"

I was so sick of Deadpool saying that stuff, that when Wanda said it I snapped. Blinded by rage, I went in again. But it wasn't exactly blinded- I was thinking logically, I could make good decisions, but my anger definitely increased my mutation abilities.

I could feel the particles better than ever before, even better than the Red Room and Sokovia, and then I understood (and felt pretty dumb about not realizing it before) that I wasn't creating new things; I was increasing or decreasing the speed of the particles, which caused the properties of whatever element or compound I was manipulating to change as well. Then I could move them- like telekinesis, but not really, because it was the particles, the energy, not the object. My epiphany immediately distracted me- I could slow chunks of particles down, make it solid, and then I bet that I could use them as a ladder to climb- but I was too pissed off to do that now.

Between my mutation being on overdrive and Deadpool's training, I was able to back Wanda into a corner, cause sharp ice pics to materialize and zing them at her, and then she was distracted, deflecting them at me, Nova was able to project where they'd hit me and I could dodge-

While she was distracted, I grabbed her throat with one hand and slammed her against the wall, then with my left hand channeled the anger I was feeling. Like my repulsor, it lit up.

"Fury_ smells_" she choked out. It was the Avengers' code word instead of uncle.

I immediately let go, came to my senses, and felt awful about what I had just done. The light from my hand instantly faded. I had hurt her. Then I realized- although I had tried to lift her up, I wasn't strong enough. Her feet had still been on the floor.

Wanda bent over, hands on her needs, panting, tired. "You really were holding back."

I didn't answer at first, watching for any sign that she might be faking this fatigue, that I would have to jump in and fight again. It was obvious she wasn't going to attack me again. "I'm sorry I hurt you," I told her sincerely, even as I watched for a trap.

"It didn't hurt that bad, don't be sorry." She was quiet as she straightened up and massaged her neck. "I'm sorry about showing you your past," she told me after a minute, putting her hand on my shoulder. Weirdly, it didn't shock me, even though my cuffs were still blinking green. Maybe because we weren't trying to hurt each other. "I wanted to know if it worked against you now, since it didn't during the Ultron Offensive." She was quiet, and I knew she was thinking about Pietro.

"I finally figured out my mutation, I think," I told Wanda, trying to distract her. "Watch this."

Almost easily, now that I understood, I focused on slowing down the air particles in front of me. I didn't have to use my hands; I could see faint white mist appear in the shape of a narrow, crude staircase. Tentatively I placed my foot onto the first step. It held my weight. Excited now, I scrambled up the rest of them until I was about ten feet off the ground. "No one can call me short now," I laughed at Wanda's astonished face.

"How did you_?"

"I change the particle speed, not the object," I explained. "The ice earlier, I just slowed down the water vapor in the air." I grinned smugly.

Wanda cautiously tried to step on the first stair. Her foot went through, and there was a zapping sound and a few sparks. She hastily pulled her foot back, grimacing. "Looks like you're the only one that can step on it, though," Wanda said. "At least when it comes to manipulating air particles."

I shrugged. "Good. Hey, check this out!" Concentrating again, I slowed the air particles around me down- not enough to make a solid, but enough to give it liquid properties- and jumped, praying I wasn't wrong.

My theory worked. I didn't float down, but I definitely wasn't falling as fast as gravitational laws would make me. The impact on my knees and ankles wasn't hard.

I crossed my arms and grinned smugly at her. "Between this and De- all of your guys' training, no one is ever going to hurt me again." I pumped my fist and leaned my head back. Send Francis after me again. Show me the metal armed man. I would take 'em.

She had a funny expression on her face as she crossed her arms. I wondered why until she asked, "You really had a rough time in Tempe, didn't you?"

My enthusiasm faded and I felt my expression darken. I didn't answer for a long moment, trying to decide what to say. Trying to decide if I did want Wanda as a friend, or if I'd rather keep her as an acquaintance. Finally, I decided on something like the truth. "Yeah, I did. They probably already told you, but my stepfather and mother abused and neglected me for years."

"They didn't tell me your story," Wanda contradicted. "They said they it was yours to tell the details of, and they only told me that you only met Tony in June and had been kidnapped before Ultron happened."

I was glad that they hadn't told Wanda the details. But not so I could hide- for some reason, I wanted to tell her myself. After all, she was family too… right?

"Okay, then. Well… so I was in pretty bad shape. In Tempe, I mean. The world is set up for adults with money, and my mom and stepfather didn't have much of it. What they did have, they spent it on themselves. The school provided resources for my education- a laptop, textbooks, notebooks, that sort of stuff, but like clothes and food- forget it. My mom fed me occasionally. Not enough. I…" I hesitated. I didn't want to admit that I'd stolen food, that I was a criminal. The other Avengers didn't know that yet, and although I didn't think Wanda would go and tell them, I didn't want to risk it.

"They beat up on me a lot. I probably deserved it," I told her, trying to make a joke."Besides being a genius, I wasn't a great kid. It… the abuse… got a lot worse when my mother died last December. I'm talking locked up in the dark for… I'm not exactly sure how long at a time." I paused, trying not to think of the memories that I'd spent so long ignoring. "My stepfather wouldn't sign the papers that would allow me into college. I'm too young to go without parental consent, since I'd have to live in the dorms. He didn't do it because he loved me and wanted me around, he did it to be an asshole." I gave a short, humorless laugh before adding, "It's rude being alive when no one wants you."

Wanda was quiet and sat down on the mats. I did the same, drawing my legs up to my chest and wrapping my arms around them. "Well, you're wanted here," Wanda said, gesturing at the gym. "So that's when you ran?"

I didn't want to tell her the other part, where he had tried to touch me. "Basically. I ran away, got from Tempe to Malibu and tried to blackmail Tony into paying for my tuition. I knew he was my father- my mother never spoke highly of him, and my stepfather always bitched about having to 'provide' for me." I snorted. "But obviously, the blackmail plan backfired. He told me that he would, no problem, but he wanted me to stay for the summer to make sure I was taken care of since the program didn't start 'till fall. And then I got close with him, and the Avengers, realized that they wanted me around, and I told Tony I wanted to wait or take online courses. Then the Red Room and Ultron happened," I scowled.

Wanda was looking at me funny again. "What?" I snapped.

"You made your way from Tempe to Malibu by yourself?" she asked, sounding impressed.

I shrugged. "Yeah. I had to."

She gave a short laugh. "I used to hate your dad, you know," she told me.

I grinned. "So did I. I hacked my laptop so it blocked any mention of him. He was the Merchant of Death. I didn't want to know how many people he'd killed. It was a shock when I got here and met the real guy."

"I thought, when I met you, that I'd hate you too, that you'd spent your life living in luxury in Stark's penthouse." She was quiet for a minute. I had to fight to stop myself from asking her if she still hated me. Finally, she said, "I wish I was right."

"That you hated me?" I asked, shocked that she'd been that blunt.

"No, that you did spend your life comfortably."

I felt awkward. Wanda didn't even really know me, and she obviously hadn't had a great childhood either. "Well, um, thanks."

"Are you nervous for the hearing on Wednesday?" She asked suddenly. I stiffened. No one had outright asked me that- probably because Natasha was gone, and she was the only one that asked me the hard questions- and to be honest, I thought it was a really dumb question. Of course I was nervous. I had answered all of Etts' questions honestly and completely at the sessions this week, and he acted like it was going to be enough to convince the judge, but I couldn't help but be skeptical. Especially when he started to dig deeper into what I had done before my stepfather and mother would hurt me.

What if the judge decided I was so terrible, that combined with my mutant powers I should be in prison? I could run if they tried to put me in a foster home, but breaking out of jail? I was no Sirius Black.

"Holly?" Wanda asked when I didn't answer. "You shouldn't be nervous," she said, putting her hand on my shoulder. It zapped me, and I flinched, but didn't cry out. "Friday, activate Holly's bangles," Wanda called casually. "I think that when you get upset or anxious, your mutation is more active and it reacts badly with mine."

When I wasn't in danger, any of the Avengers could activate or deactivate my bangles now. I'd insisted they be able to for training purposes. But I still wasn't able to. Or so they thought- Nova could, on my command, if I wasn't being 'unreasonable'. Aka, if I needed to use them against Deadpool.

"I wonder why?" I mused. "And I've definitely figured out a lot of the science behind why I can do what I do- but Wanda, why do I… explode? When I get upset?"

She shrugged. "I have no idea."

"You're the teacher," I said, half joking, half actually irritated.

"You're the scientist. You tell me."

I grinned at being called a scientist. "Well… whenever I get angry or upset is when I explode. And if my mutation is changing the speed of particles- maybe when I get mad, my own particles increase- the ones I'm actually made of. The electric ones. And if it increased too much, I would die, probably." I rubbed my temple, thinking back to the Red Room, when I'd exploded and killed a man. "It probably has to do with the electrical energy that everyone has- you know, how neurons fire. Maybe it's a natural defense mechanism for my mutation- my body throws out the extra energy, because if it didn't, I'd die. If you aren't in the 'blast zone' it probably just throws electric impulses out- which is why I was able to snap the Avengers out of your hallucination. And the bangles work… well, by putting the bangles on, it interrupts the field around me, right? Makes me normal." I nodded, satisfied by my explanation. It made sense. "And you know what? I bet we react badly because my mutation's working with kinetic energy at a molecular level and yours is electromagnetic. That's why you rock at telekinesis and I can make things go boom. When you do your thing, you charge particles around you, and when I do my thing, it interrupts that. So we get shocked."

Wanda stared at me. "Yeah. That makes sense, she finally said. "Wow. You're twelve, and I'm seventeen, and I don't understand half of what you just said." She shook her head and chuckled. "But back on topic."

I squirmed, not wanting to talk about the hearing, and she touched my shoulder again, but I pulled away. "You really don't have anything to worry about with the hearing, Holly. Stark is a different man with you around. Everyone says it. Pepper says it's even more so than after he became Iron Man." She gave a half smile. "And I think you've suffered enough. You deserve to at least have this worry off your plate."

"We all suffered to get where we are now," I snapped, suddenly angry. I wasn't sure why. Francis's words came back to me, and I shuddered as I used them. "Super powers aren't acquired painlessly. And besides that, no one's lives have been a picnic." I picked at my cuticles as I listed off, "Tony's dad ignored him and both his parents died in a car crash before their time, Steve is out of his time, Bruce, well, you can guess what happened, Pepper has to deal with Tony and me, Thor's had to fight his own brother, Clint and Nat… well, I don't know if you know their backstory, so they can tell you. but Nat's was probably the hardest of anyone's. Or maybe just hard in a different way. I don't know." I was quiet. A nail bed started bleeding before I finally asked, "So I told you my story. What's yours?" I looked up.

Wanda stared straight at the wall. I was suddenly very sorry that I'd asked, but she started to speak. "When I was ten, a mortar shell hit the apartment building that my family lived in," she said quietly. I remembered Wanda telling me, on our trip back from the market, that it was a Stark Industries weapon. "It killed everyone but Pietro and I. Another one landed nearby, but it didn't go off. At the time, I was wishing it had. We were trapped with my parents' dead bodies, for two days, with the unexploded shell that had 'Stark Industries' printed on it."

I looked down, not knowing if I should apologize or just shut up and let her keep talking. I decided on the latter, and she continued.

"Pietro and I, we hated America, and Stark, and then the Avengers, once they came into existence. We dedicated our childhood to finding out how to take them down. And then, we were approached by a Hydra scientist. He said that he could give us powers, abilities that would help end the war in Sokovia."

I looked back at her as she choked off the last word. A solitary tear was running down her cheek. "I didn't want to, but Pietro… he convinced me. I should have insisted that we didn't…" she trailed off.

"You can't change what's happened," I finally said, when it became clear that she wasn't going to say anything else. Her eyes bored into mine. I glared right back. "What? You can't. It's impossible. You and Pietro were experimented on and got your powers, you fought for Ultron, saw that the Avengers aren't all bad, even if my dad can be an idiot, and devoted yourself to saving the world." I was getting sick of her glaring at me, so I decided to wrap it up. "And that, Maximoff, is something honorable. You are defending people that cannot defend themselves. Ultimately? The Avengers' job is to protect the entire Earth. And they're not just letting you in, they want you in. And you can do good."

Wanda slowly nodded. "I still wish Pietro was here with me," she blurted out.

"And that's okay." I paused, trying to think of what else to say. I had too many problems to give advice to anyone else.

"I have a sort of family here," she mentioned, trying to smile. "So do you. But biological."

"Yeah. And hey, you have Vision now." I wasn't sure exactly what was going on with those two, but they spent a lot of time together. I wondered how you could be friends with an AI, then I remembered Nova and understood.

"Yeah, I do," she smiled. "Who would have known that someone so small would have such good advice?"

I rolled my eyes. "Genius, remember? Come on, Maximoff. Let's go order pizza and then watch Game of Thrones or whatever pop culture TV show you like."

"You're just saying that because you want to watch Game of Thrones, and they won't let you watch it because it's inappropriate for a twelve-year-old."

"The main characters last names are Stark, how bad could it be?" I argued as we climbed onto the elevator. The Avengers got together to watch it when I was at school or after I went to bed, apparently. I was pretty salty when I found out that they weren't going to invite me due to my age.

"Steve had to cover his eyes, the PDA was that inappropriate."

I shrugged. "Steve gets embarrassed when Tony and Pepper kiss in public."

"Thor screamed like a little girl once and threw popcorn everywhere. The God of Thunder was appalled."

I thought for a moment. "Oh."

So I didn't get to watch Game of Thrones, but we did end up watching She's The Man, which neither of us had ever seen before. It made me want to try out for the soccer team, but then I remembered that if I tried out for the soccer team at school then I'd have to talk to people. Besides, with my head injury, no one would let me. I didn't have time, anyway, with training and the science fair.

When Tony and Pepper came home, they found me demonstrating my glasses to Wanda. She was impressed, but found that the different types of perspective gave her motion sickness.

"But it's useful- to see behind you, I mean, not watch Netflix," I argued, not realizing that Tony and Pepper had come in.

She took them off, laughing, and handed them to me. I put them on. The back camera's view in the left lense showed me Tony creeping behind me a split second before he grabbed me.

"Argh!" I half- yelped, half-laughed as Tony held me upside down, carried me over to the couch, and then unceremoniously dropped me onto it as Pepper and Wanda chuckled.

"May need to recalibrate those, squirt, since I was able to sneak up on you," Tony joked as I sat up.

"They totally would have worked if Maximoff hadn't been hogging them," I kidded back. "Did you guys have fun on your date?" I asked seriously. I was worried- they'd given each other the cold shoulder since their fight about what to do for my nightmares.

"As always," Pepper said with a smile, and kissed Tony on the cheek. I relaxed. It was weird to see two adults respect and treat each other kindly like this. I was just too used to my mom and stepdad arguing. Thor and Jane weirded me out too, but I never really saw Bruce and Natasha showing PDA at least.

"What did you guys do?" Wanda chimed in.

"Dinner, walked around for a bit," Tony said easily.

"Not that we don't like being around you guys, but we needed some time for ourselves, for our relationship," Pepper added. I wondered how she knew what I was thinking.

"Yep. So, I see you guys didn't break my tower. How was your night?"

"We trained, ordered pizza, watched a movie, and then Holly showed me her glasses. Or as she named them, her 'Tricked-Out Specs'."

I grinned shamelessly. "We took pizza to Bruce and cleaned up the gym and kitchen," I added. I was glad Wanda didn't mention that we'd gotten one healthy pizza for Bruce, ordered dessert pizza for ourselves, and sparred during training.

"You ready for bed?" Tony asked me.

I glanced at the time. Almost midnight. I sighed. "I guess so."

"Get ready, we'll meet you there," Pepper told me.

"Okay," I surrendered. It'd been a good evening. But reliving my past to Wanda- I'd basically signed up for a killer nightmare. I was glad I had, though. Because now, there was no doubt in my mind- I had a friend.

The three watched as Holly got into the elevator. Wanda went to get a water bottle from the fridge. "She give you any trouble?" Tony asked, hoping she sounded casual.

"No, I told you guys not to worry. She was fine. She'd probably have been fine alone," Wanda said.

Tony nodded. Good. "Unfortunately, with us being active for missions again, it might be happening more and more. I'm glad you guys had a good time."

"Yeah, although your kid can talk the paint off the wall when she wants to," Wanda laughed.

"I told you she'd convince you to order the dessert pizza," Tony laughed, loosening his tie. "Be honored- she wouldn't have asked if she didn't like you. She'd be weirdly polite." Guess she can make friends that aren't adults, he thought to himself. He made a mental note to tell Coulson. It was a step, anyway