A/N: This chapter was written by me and edited by anxious. soul.

Warnings: Mentions of murder towards the end.

It was the typical Thanksgiving night in the heart of New York. One could see crowds rushing to and fro as adults and children alike hurried to the comfort of their home.

In the middle of the busy crowd, if someone looked closely, they would've spotted something unusual. They would've seen the unusually pale, blue coloured girl sitting in front of one of the shops shivering in the cold.

It was when she wanted to move out of that place that she was suddenly knocked down by someone, who was clearly in a hurry to get home.

"Sorry!" exclaimed a strong feminine voice and the girl watched as the woman extended a hand towards her. She took it.

"It's no problem ma'am. Have a nice evening!" she replied as she proceeded to walk away.

"Wait!" the lady shouted again over the noise and the girl turned around, curious about what the woman wanted. "How old are you?" she asked when the child came over.

"Seven I guess?" the girl answered with a shrug of confusion.

By this time, a man had come over and joined the lady.

"Peggy! Tony is going to be waiting!" he stated and stopped short as he spotted the child. "And who is this?" he asked as he crouched down to her level, allowing him to look in her eye.

"I'm Nebula" she whispered shyly.

"Hello Nebula! Where are your parents?" he asked.

"I don't know. I don't know them. I was just left here by someone." Nebula admitted. The man seemed to think about something before looking at Nebula in a new light.

"How would you like to come home with us and stay with my family?" he asked and Nebula's eyes went wide at the offer, tearing up at what he was asking. "Really?" she asked, uncertain.

"Yes, really. My wife would love to meet you as will my son." he answered with a genuine smile. She started jumping up and down with joy, excited at the prospect of having a new family.

"My name is Howard and I'm going to take you to your new home. Welcome to the family Nebula." he murmured with a kind smile as he lead Peggy and Nebula home.

LINE BREAK

Meanwhile, it was chaos at the Stark Mansion. Jarvis and Ana were busy in the kitchen preparing for dinner while the four year old Tony was sitting by the piano with Maria, learning to play a new song to show his dad and Aunt Peggy, who were coming home a little late due to some delay in work.

It was the same every year. Thanksgiving was the only time other than Christmas that the whole family (including Peggy's) gathered together for a family dinner.

There was a lot of excited chatter in the household, all the familiar hustle and bustle in the kitchen, the setting up of tables. All this happened while Tony practiced the piano in the background.

Beautiful music echoed gently throughout the house, though there were the occasional slip-ups as the child pressed too harshly on a key or the wrong one. It was broken by the knock on the front door at which Tony immediately jumped up from his place at the piano and ran up to the door excitedly to meet his "Auntie and Uncle Peggy", the name had always amused the adults as they knew that he rarely saw "Uncle Peggy".

He was jumping in barely contained excitement when the opened the door and was about to throw himself on his father when he stopped short, mouth open in shock at the sight before of him. Peeping out from behind Howard was a blue skinned girl, who waved and smiled shyly at him.

"Mom! Come over here and see this!" he shouted in excitement.

"What happened Bambino?" Maria asked as she came to the door and took in the scene in front of her in silence. "Howard... Peggy... What is all this?" Maria asked, looking at the girl in front of her.

"Maria, Tony, meet the new addition in our family." Howard announced, beaming at his wife and son. "Tony, meet Nebula. Nebula, this is Tony, your new little brother." Howard introduced as he went to stand beside Maria.

"You took it seriously, didn't you?" Maria asked as she saw the new light in Tony's eyes at the prospect of having a sister, a new playmate.

"I have a sister!" He shouted in excitement before dragging Nebula to meet Jarvis and Ana as he wanted to introduce them.

"Yeah, we all could notice that he really needed someone near his own age to play with. All of us can agree that he was lonely" Howard said as they entered the kitchen to witness a hyperactive Tony telling something to Jarvis while Nebula sat there, watching the interaction.

"Hello my darling! Someone seems very happy today" Peggy said with a kind smile.

"Auntie Peggy!" Tony exclaimed rushing forward to hug the woman.

"Having fun with your new sister?" She asked looking at the joy and excitement that radiated off of Tony.

"She doesn't talk much" Tony said with a pout.

"It will take her some time Bambino. She is, after all, new to all of us and is probably shy." Maria cooed before turning to the child. "Hello Nebula. I am Maria. You can either call me Aunt Maria or Mom, whatever is comfortable with you." Maria said kindly and Nebula just nodded, unsure on what to do.

"No need to be shy on us now, Nebula. What is your favourite colour?" Howard asked.

"Blue and Purple and Black." Nebula whispered.

"Do you like robots?" Tony asked.

"What are they?" Nebula responded with curiosity.

"You don't know what are those? That is the first thing I am going to show you after we finish eating!" exclaimed Tony in mock offence and as promised he dragged her away as soon as they finished eating, much to all the adult's amusement.

"They are going to be a troublesome duo aren't they?" Ana said with a sigh.

"It is worth it Ana, that smile from Master Tony makes it all worth it." Jarvis replied clutching his wife's hand with a smile.

LINE BREAK

After all the excitement, Tony was exhausted and promptly tucked into bed by Maria and Howard. Nebula was given a bed near Tony's and also got tucked in with a goodnight kiss before the parents left the room, leaving Nebula to her thoughts. And most of them were not at all good.

She remembered the time when she was little about her parents and her own siblings playing with her, going out together, having petty quarrels and all. Then, it all changed with that one attack, the attack that destroyed her life. She could still remember that day clearly. She had been waiting for her parents and siblings to come out and play with her and at that time, her home world was attacked. She could hear the screams of the people getting killed, her father's shouts for her to just run and never look back and she just did that.

She didn't know who was behind this or why, but all she knew was that a huge massacre had happened and she didn't know how many people had survived. Had her parents survived? Her friends? She just ran to the outskirts of the planet until was found by some passing by space ship and they had taken her in for a year, probably planning on selling her off to someone, but they were not in luck as they crash landed somewhere near Earth and she fell through the sky and somehow survived as she landed on some beach in New York. Ever since, she had been roaming around, homeless and clueless about the place and what to do. That was until Howard, or as he requested her to call him, dad came by.

But now, she was clueless on how to behave with this family as she felt like she was betraying her own family and... she felt a little uncomfortable and didn't know what is going to happen.

A/N: Hope you all liked this chapter! I know that it is probably quite rushed but... I hope it is ok for you all! All comments and criticism accepted and appreciated greatly guys, seriously. And any suggestions will be accepted.

Thank you all for reading!

Rasi10 signing out

Published on 27 January 2019