Hello everybody! My new years resolution is to focus more on me so I'm going to try to write more lol. This is a repost of the chapter, I think fanfiction posted the html (I think?) before rather than just the text.
Thank you all for your reviews and sticking with my story throughout the years! And welcome to those of you that have just discovered it!
This chapter was very much influenced by my lil cousin. We had a girls day recently and she gave me a lot of inspiration for Elli hanging with Deadpool and Bucky lol. She was four when I started posting on here and I can say a lot of Elli's personality comes from her.
Also, once again, I don't really plan these chapters, I kind of just pump them out in an evening, post them and hope for the best so sorry for any grammatical mistakes lol.
Anyways, enjoy!
~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~
"Grilled cheese is, by far, the superior meal. Mac & cheese is for the mediocre."
Wade empties his twelfth packet of applesauce before reaching up to catch a fruit rollup Barnes chucked at his head. The three sat together in the assassin's cell, snack wrappers surrounding them. After shoving the red clad mercenary into the Winter Soldier's cell, Elli decided a tea party was in order.
Both men nearly choked when the kid stuck her head through a glowing portal before depositing a pantry's worth of snacks, a plastic tea set, and a carton of apple juice onto the ground between them. She had also retrieved several cushions and blankets for them to sit on as a good hostess makes sure her guests are comfy.
"No, no, no," Elli sips at her 'tea', shaking her head at the man's foolish taste buds. "Grilled cheese is boring, there is too much bread."
"Then just put more cheese!" Wade unwraps his fruity treat, strawberry truly was the best flavor of fruit rollup. Barnes unrolled his own, watermelon. He had been quickly cut out of this debate after he stated that both were just carbs and dairy.
"But you can't just eat grilled cheese," the young Stark gestures at nothing, imitating her father when he is trying to make a point. "You have to eat it with tomato soup. And sometimes I don't want tomato soup."
"Who told you that? That isn't true." The mercenary moves onto the goldfish next, Barnes only just peeling the paper off of his rollup.
"It is the proper way to eat grilled cheese." Elli nods to herself using two hands to sip her tea once again. "JARVIS said so and JARVIS is British, so it is true."
"JARVIS is a liar." He tilts his head back, dumping the rest of the goldfish in his mouth as the other assassin carefully rerolls his fruit snack with one hand.
"He is not!" The six-year-old slams her tea down.
"Is so!" The grown adult man clad in red stuck out his tongue, dyed blue from the ring pop he had adorned his finger with.
"Is not!"
~~~~~oOo~~~~~
Bruce sat up, cracking his back as Dummy whirled into the lab—steaming Chamomile in claw. The bot crashes into the table, nearly spilling all over his blood samples, frantic chirps as Bruce tries to calm him down.
"Ah, thank you, Dummy."
He takes the tea and uses one of Tony's oil rags to dry the couple droplets. Bringing the cup to his nose, the scientist breathes deeply and relaxes into the scent. He'd been hunched over his microscope for nearly two hours now, comparing Elli's blood cells to his gamma infected ones. It was mostly curiosity, maybe a little hope also.
"Doctor Banner." Bruce looks up at the ceiling.
"Yes JARVIS?" He brings the tea to his lips.
"The young miss has asked me to inform you that she has stepped out."
Putting the cup down, Bruce rakes a hand over his face before pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Did she say where?"
"I do believe she is at SHIELD right now, sir."
"What about Peter?"
"He is asleep on the couch, sir. The young miss surrounded him with plush figurines resembling the Avengers as well as Deedee to keep him company."
"Of freaking course. All I wanted to do today was look at some blood but no." His muttering gets too low for JARVIS' sensors to pick up, mostly gently cursing the two Starks that he truly has come to care for.
Shoulders slumping as he counts back from ten, Bruce stands up to go check on Peter.
"JARVIS call Tony."
~~~~~oOo~~~~~
"He is a stone-cold LIAR!"
Both men fail to notice the young Stark starting to glow, a tantrum on the horizon. Wade is too busy with his nose in the air, reliving his glory days on the black top in kindergarten recess. Barnes was much too focused on preparing his fruit roll up to care.
"HE IS NOT!"
The Winter Soldier holds up the ball of fruticose corn syrup he has made. It really seemed like so much effort to eat, why didn't they just wrap the paper around the ball instead? Taking a bite, he decided he liked the artificial, sugary snack.
"Heavy metal!" Looking up, the one-armed man sees the mercenary and the no-longer-glowing child staring at him—her golden eyes wide while his gloved hands cover his mouth in a faux gasp. "What blasphemy are you committing right now?"
"That is NOT how you eat a fruit roll up, mister."
He raises an eyebrow and pops the rest of the rollup into his mouth.
~~~~~oOo~~~~~
"What're you gonna do?" Tony and Fury stand outside Ava's room, looking through the one-way mirror at the reunited couple.
"I don't know." Fury raises an eyebrow. "I don't know what the right answer is."
"You, Tony Stark, don't know what to do?"
"It's not exactly simple." He turns from the window, former playboy or not he didn't feel comfortable watching the couple ogle at each other. "If what she says is true, she is Elli's mother. But she is also an extremely powerful unknown. We don't even know how old she really is."
Fury hums in agreement before a soft blue glow catches his eye.
"You could start by asking her." The agent inclines his head toward the couple on the bed, Ava's eyes glowing softly as the energy is passed between them. "Learn more about where Elli's powers come from."
Tony watches the Skīr-r smile, a dimple forming on her left cheek—the same as Elli's.
"You don't have to let her see Elli. Not yet, at least. Talk to her and then decide."
Tony nods and runs a hand over his face.
"Why is everything so complicated?" Fury chuckles and leads Tony toward the bridge, Maria would be back with her report by now. "Why couldn't her powers have come from a simple mutation?"
"You and I both know Xavier's school wouldn't have survived a Stark." Oh, the chaos the father daughter duo could bring, it was a miracle the helicarier was still in the air at this point.
"Maybe, but he would have gotten such nice donations and toys."
Fury grunted a laugh; he couldn't disagree with that.
~~~~~oOo~~~~~
"How does it work?" His back is against the wall, his hands tracing through her hair as she leans against him. Her strength was rapidly returning but Steve had insisted she stay in bed. "Where does it come from?"
"It doesn't really come from anywhere," Ava picks up his hand in hers, pausing at the foreignness of them as they dwarf her own. "I am the energy and the energy is me."
Her hands start to glow. Steve can feel the warmth seeping into his body, traveling up his veins, healing his bruised shoulder, lessening the dark circles underneath his eyes. Even the darkness that always seemed to loom over him, the loneliness of being misplaced in time seemed to shy away from her warmth. He closes them as the energy embraces him, as Ava embraces him.
"Are there others?" He opens his eyes as the energy pulls back, a warm contentedness left over him. "Besides you and Elli?"
"Somewhere I'm sure." She smiles and shrugs as Steve frowns. "I guess humans would call us nomads?"
"You don't keep track of each other? Your family?" He had asked about her family before, but maybe she hadn't wanted back then to tell him about parents he'd never meet.
"Well, Aithne was on Xandar a century ago." The Novu Empire had been new then, she wondered if it had survived. "Each planet often has traces of us left behind, so we can tell who has been there."
"Traces?" He allows her to tuck her head into his shoulder as she yawns.
"According to Asgardian legend, Skīr-r bring light where there is darkness, life where there is none. They believe us to be creators, Gods of worlds they think we create. But that isn't quite right." Her eyes are half-closed as she lets her energy dance over her palms again. "We pour our energy into the world's we visit and help them grow. Life was always there; it just needed a little push."
"Wow." The energy is snuffed out as Ava looks up at Steve, his eyes wide.
"What?" A sly grin before he kisses her.
"Nothing, I'm just happy you're here."